Special Attention
The full moon shone red as blood.
The streets and alleys, which should have been bustling for the arrival of the Blood Moon Festival, had now been drained of many demons.
A night had passed, yet a group of exceptionally persistent demons still lingered outside the restrictions of the rat hole.
"No good, those guys are still guarding the entrance."
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All silently withdrew his eye from peeking out the small hole, turned his head, and said with a straight face, "These nosy demons, seeing that it's getting late, still aren't going to join the Blood Moon Festival's parade celebrations. They've even thrown the Demon Energy Tide to the back of their minds. Could it be they are solely focused on watching the spectacle!"
"Even if there are people guarding, we can't just never go out." Yingshi frowned, "At worst, we'll just be stared at. We definitely have to go find the Tree of Blessing!"
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All narrowed his eyes, looking with unclear meaning at Shuangjian, who was resting with his eyes closed, and suddenly let out a cold snort.
"Who told him to be born with those physical traits, making the people of my Demon Realm suspect he is the descendant of the former Demon King! If his own biological father found out, wouldn't it be a disaster?"
Yingshi was stunned upon hearing this. She also narrowed her eyes and asked tentatively, "Senior Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All, how much do you know about the former Divine Maiden, the former Demon King, and the Demon Lord?"
"..."
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All kept silent, turned around pretending not to hear, and started peeking through the small hole again.
Seeing his attitude, Yingshi didn't press further. Instead, she rubbed and squished Xiangxiang in her arms, silently sighing, "Alas, what a pity. We are about to go to the Holy Spirit Mountain soon, and I don't know if there will be a chance to play cards with everyone again in the future..."
"..."
"I still have so many new tricks that I haven't had time to spread. The roles for Werewolf are very rich..."
"..."
"If possible, I really want to teach everyone Avalon, Who is the Undercover, and Turtle Soup. A group of demons happily playing these games together would definitely be very interesting. Otherwise, in this long and boring demon life, who knows how every day would feel like a year!"
"...Stop trying to tempt this old man!" Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All finally couldn't help but reply, adding, "It's getting late. If you aren't anxious and still want to fish for information from this old man, aren't you afraid of missing the descent of the Demon Essence?"
Yingshi blinked her eyes: "Then does Senior Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All have any way to help us shake off the crowd of onlookers outside?"
"..." Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All fell silent again.
But this time, the silence was a bit different from before. While he didn't speak, he also cast a sidelong glance at Yingshi.
Yingshi had a flash of inspiration and immediately pulled out a stack of cards from her storage bag: "I have already made the Avalon identity cards and rulebook, just in time to present them to you, Senior!"
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All finally smiled.
"Then get ready to set off," he said. "Bring the person, hold the pig, and follow this old man closely."
...
Avoiding the crowd of demons gathered at the main entrance was no easy task.
But Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All was a rat demon after all. Since he was good at digging holes, he naturally had the special skill of digging out a new exit.
In a short time, a hidden narrow passage had quietly opened up to another corner of the Demon Realm.
When they stepped out of the passage, the blood moon was already hanging high in the sky. The eerie red light enveloped the earth, thicker than last night, even possessing a sense of solidity. It was as if pinkish-purple cotton wadding was floating in the air; this was the manifestation of the Demon Energy Tide reaching its peak.
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All saw things through to the end, leading them all the way back to the ferry crossing. Right before he left, Yingshi called out to him again: "Senior Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All..."
"What else do you need this old man for?"
"Actually..." Yingshi confessed, "Actually, when you only have one card left in Uno, the slogan you need to shout is 'Uno', not 'Jing Fengliu is a pig'."
Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All didn't turn his head. After a long while, he threw out a sentence: "This old man will shout whatever this old man wants to shout."
It was a pity that Yingshi didn't hear this domineering response of his—incredibly bizarrely, in just the blink of an eye, Shuangjian, Xiangxiang, and Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All beside her had all disappeared.
She was still standing at the ferry crossing where the Demon and Devil Realms intersected, having only spoken half of her sentence.
And in front of her, bizarrely, a tree had appeared out of nowhere.
A tree that didn't grow in the soil, but took root in the void.
Its canopy stretched out, covering a small patch of the riverbank, and its branches and leaves emitted a very lustrous light... Could this be the legendary Tree of Blessing???
Why would she see the Tree of Blessing?
Didn't Mr. Hundred-Thousand-Know-It-All say that the Tree of Blessing would only acknowledge the people of the Demon Realm?
Yingshi rubbed her eyes to confirm that the tree was still there and not her hallucination, inevitably feeling astonished.
She tentatively took a step towards the illusory tree, her whole body tense. She was worried about any unexpected changes, and also worried that the legendary ancient Demon Essence would really descend here, while she, a one hundred percent pure-blooded human, could only watch helplessly as that treasure slipped away, powerless to absorb or collect it.
Was it Jing Fengliu exerting his power again?
After modifying Xiangxiang's qualifications, did he feel that Xiangxiang couldn't compete with Shuangjian, so he simply designed the Tree of Blessing to actively choose her, allowing this opportunity to be wasted? That would be too sinister!
Just as Yingshi thought of this terrifying possibility, she felt some kind of energy body swimming on the tree. She hurriedly concentrated her gaze, afraid that it was the legendary Demon Essence.
Gradually, she saw a hazy phantom of light condense from the trunk.
The outline of the phantom was quite blurry, looking very much like a spirit entity captured by an infrared camera, barely possessing a human shape.
And on the head of the human shape, there seemed to be two ears standing up, and it also seemed to be dragging a tail behind it—this form was too familiar.
Yingshi was stunned for a moment, making a bold guess: "...Demon King?"
The Tree of Blessing was only related to the former Demon King, and the spirit entity in front of her was so similar to Shuangjian's half-demon form. Other than it being that Demon King who had also fallen, she couldn't think of a second possible candidate... It couldn't be that there were also spirits inside the Tree of Blessing, right?
She didn't know if she had called out the wrong name or if the spirit entity simply couldn't hear her voice. After she shouted, nothing happened.
The spirit entity floated and slowly drifted around her, neither getting closer nor moving further away, as if it was observing her.
"Who... are you?" Yingshi still had the desire to communicate and couldn't help but ask further, "Are you the former Demon King?"
The spirit entity paused slightly. Yingshi inexplicably felt that it was staring intently at the shape of her mouth when she spoke, even though the spirit entity didn't even have distinct eyes.
She pursed her lips, picked up a dry wooden branch from the ground, and drew a cartoon wolf on the riverbank.
The spirit entity indeed leaned closer to observe her movements, following her lead to gaze at the simple drawing on the ground.
Yingshi waited for its feedback, but unfortunately, it seemed to just stand there blankly, with no intention of providing any information in return.
She was so anxious that she wanted to erase the drawing and start a new one about the ancient Demon Essence, to try and see if it was possible to ask it for this opportunity. But the dry branch in her hand suddenly fell to the ground, and the spirit entity entirely covered the cartoon wolf pattern. It couldn't have facial expressions, but this trajectory of action inexplicably conveyed a sense of protection...
Yingshi was slightly stunned.
What did this mean? Did it like this drawing?
In her astonishment, she felt as if something lightly touched her calf. The sensation was peculiar, faint and ethereal—it was the spiritual entity gently curling its tail around her.
This brief touch unexpectedly made Yingshi fall into a trance.
It reminded her of that silent and brief meeting with Goddess Changyi in the Gate of Rest.
Both were spiritual entities, and both involved ambiguous exchanges, though Changyi possessed far more wisdom than the entity before her.
It was as if they merely wanted to see her. It felt like they had a special perception and paid special attention to her, a visitor from another world!
The moment this thought arose, a strong palpitation emanated from her chest—but it wasn't her own fear. It was a sense of terror transmitted from Shuangjian through their blood pact... Why?
The spiritual entity in front of her seemed to sense something as well. It looked toward a direction behind Yingshi, the halo around its body dimming significantly. Its silhouette fluctuated violently before dissolving into countless specks of light, vanishing into the night sky.
With its disappearance, the surrounding scenery blurred like a smudged ink painting.
"Yingshi!"
Shuangjian's voice carried a rare hint of tension, suddenly pulling her back from her trance.
Yingshi shuddered violently, realizing she was being held in Shuangjian's arms. Above them in the firmament, the blood moon seemed to be melting.
The moonlight no longer fell evenly upon the earth. Instead, like spilled red wine breaking through a dam, it poured down directly toward her location—or rather, toward the Divine Blessing Tree that was no longer visible to the naked eye—forcing her and the Shuangjian who caught her to be bathed in it.
"Oink!"
The little teacup pig, which initially hadn't been bathed in the light, burst forth with astonishing jumping power. Its clumsy body actually left an afterimage in midair as it almost greedily kept looking up with its mouth wide open, swallowing cluster after cluster of the flowing light.
"...Xiangxiang!" Yingshi didn't even have time to recount her bizarre experience of being briefly taken away by the Divine Blessing Tree, nor did she have time to ask why Shuangjian felt such fear. Just seeing Xiangxiang acting like a competitive eater made her truly anxious. She subconsciously tried to break free from Shuangjian's embrace to subdue the lawless little pig—the ancient demon essence was an opportunity meant for Shuangjian!
However, the arms embracing her tightened slightly. It was a very subtle movement, but it conveyed an attitude of letting it be, which Yingshi wouldn't misinterpret.
"..."
Yingshi looked up in astonishment at Shuangjian.
They had clearly planned everything well before coming: keep the pig with its unfathomable motives in check. Even though plans couldn't keep up with changes once they actually reached the crossing, the demon essence was obviously pouring toward Shuangjian. Why let the little pig benefit from it?
Wouldn't that be exactly what Jing Fengliu wanted?
Why did Shuangjian suddenly change his mind? Was it because of the unexpected turn of events just now? Because she was chosen and summoned by the Divine Blessing Tree?
It had to be said that Yingshi was becoming increasingly adept at guessing Shuangjian's train of thought.
Her speculation was completely correct.
Shuangjian had indeed changed his mind because of this.
In that moment, he had experienced a spine-chilling sense of danger.
Changyi, the Demon King, had all taken the initiative to see Yingshi.
Then, what about that person?
The extra attention from spiritual entities was nothing to fear, but what about the still-living demon?
If he no longer targeted him as in the original text, but targeted Yingshi instead... then the sword intent he had deployed in advance in the Gate of Opening would not be enough.
Perhaps regarding his own fate, he and Jing Fengliu had different stances.
But when it came to Yingshi, their goal was identical—her safety was far more important than anything else.
If Xiangxiang was truly the informant planted in advance by Jing Fengliu to save Yingshi and get her out, it might possess some level of power to protect her.
Shuangjian didn't believe he would ever let Yingshi be put in danger.
But he would be even less likely to act as a reckless gambler just because of this certainty—he couldn't afford to lose.
But how could he pour all these thoughts out to Yingshi?
"Han Shuangjian, why are you just standing there? Snatch it from it!"
Yingshi even reached up and grabbed the moonlight from the sky, scooping handfuls of it into her palms and offering it up to him.
"..."
Shuangjian felt a slight bitterness in his heart. Without a word, he quietly lowered his head and gently kissed her palm.
