Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 153 - 73: Wicked Joke

Chapter 153: Chapter 73: Wicked Joke

"The Evil Spirit Elder warns you: Do not trust pretty women, they only want to lure you out of the Evil Spirit’s nest to kill you and exchange your deaths for money. If you’re tired of wandering outside, come back and sit in the nest, this place will always be your home."

Jiuyue felt she was being targeted.

As she followed the route through the sewer mentioned by the little mirror, she came to a passage and saw these words written on a wall full of cracks.

Before she could take a closer look, several sinister apprentices emerged from the shadows, brandishing blades fashioned from broken building materials, their eyes full of hostility.

The creatures from the Imperial Court differed markedly from those in Yunlong City; they were thin, frail, and short, barely reaching a height of 1.3 meters. They feared the light, and their bodies, constructed from shadows, swayed ceaselessly as if they might extinguish at any moment.

Although she was the one surrounded, the apprentices trembled, showing none of the confidence their numbers should have afforded them.

It was not hard to see that the lives of the Imperial Court sinister creatures were far from easy, not much different from rats in the sewers.

"I want to see your elder."

"Don’t even think about it!"

One of the apprentices shouted, his hands gripping the sharpened building material, but he stepped back first, "We won’t be deceived by your sweet talk, I advise you to leave quickly, or else, or else we won’t be polite!"

His actions were echoed by the other apprentices, another shadow chimed in, "You surely want to lure us out of our hole to kill us for the bounty, we won’t fall for it!"

Threatened, Jiuyue was not frightened but instead found it somewhat amusing.

In the Imperial Court, the roles of humans and the sinister creatures were reversed. Here, these creatures stayed obediently in the sewers, easily frightened into weak knees by humans who burst in suddenly.

"Do you think I would deceive you all to leave the sewers with me?"

"Isn’t that so?" replied the leading apprentice sharply. "You must have set up an ambush above, and as soon as we leave the sewer, we’re dead!"

"No, you’ve misunderstood."

Jiuyue, now playful, her pupils taking on a blood-like hue, and more tails appearing behind her, "I’m different from the pretty women spoken of by your elder. I won’t use a soft and gentle voice to deceive you. I’d rather chop your bodies in half, then twist off your heads and hang them on stakes, and wait for your elder to come and claim your corpses."

"Run!"

The leader among the apprentices shouted. However, as soon as he took a step forward, he lost his balance and fell hard, face-first into the dirt.

This made no sense!

They were sinister creatures, intangible, and should not be bound by physical laws. When he turned his head, the sight nearly scared his soul away— he wasn’t the only one who’d fallen. In front of this devil, they didn’t even have a chance to run.

"Did you know, sinister creatures can develop awareness too?"

The footsteps grew closer as the voice spoke languidly.

The diminutive figure kept crawling forward but was swiftly overtaken by the demon, "Have you ever experienced the sensation of being flayed and deboned? The vitality of sinister creatures is much more robust than that of humans. Your consciousness won’t dissipate immediately, you can last a long time, witnessing your body being torn asunder."

"I’m not going to take you to see the elder—ah!"

The apprentice screamed.

The elder was right; outside the nest were monsters that devoured sinister creatures, leaving no trace, not only capturing them for money but also knowing numerous tortures to make their existence worse than death.

The screams echoed in the sewers, as the other apprentices were terrified by the scene, none daring to turn back to witness the fate of their companions.

Just as Jiuyue approached the apprentice, a slight tremor came from the ground beneath her feet.

She looked toward the sound and saw entangled black roots spreading toward them.

"Don’t touch them and leave this place!"

A commanding voice came from the depths of the darkness, giving an undeniable command.

Jiuyue was unfazed, merely glancing disdainfully at the roots before continuing to look down at the apprentice who was still shrieking.

"Alright, get up, your elder is here to pick you up."

The softened voice didn’t help, as she lightly touched the apprentice’s body, which instantly let out a screech like a slaughtered chicken.

...

Ten minutes later, led by the tree roots, Jiuyue and several unsettled interns reached the deepest part of the lair, where they met the Elder from the Imperial Court.

It was Jiuyue’s first time seeing such an Evil Spirit. It appeared to be an ancient tree, ensconced in the deepest part of the sewer, with black vines providing a haven of protection for the evil spirits who had fled there.

This must be the Evil Spirit in the Nesting Phase that Mr. Mingyuan had mentioned.

As for the other interns who sneaked glances this way, most of them were of poor quality, hardly stronger in combat than humans, even Tang Qianqian could easily handle them.

Suddenly, a wrinkled human face emerged slowly on the stump, its eyes full of alert as it stared at her, still not letting down its guard.

"Don’t take it to heart, just now was merely an Evil Spirit prank, it’s the way evil spirits in Yunlong City tease each other."

This wasn’t really a lie.

After all, under the new policy set by Mr. Mingyuan, the evil spirits of Yunlong City had long since stopped doing bad deeds.

However, they were evil spirits by definition, meaning they were on the side of evil. Therefore, to not forget their original purpose and to remember their identity as part of the evil faction, aspiring evil spirits created evil spirit jokes.

They were like street urchins who spoke the most bloody and cruel words yet helped old grandmothers cross the street.

"These evil spirits are mostly children, you’ve gone too far."

The Elder criticized Jiuyue; heaven knows what kind of indelible psychological shadow these evil spirit jokes might leave on the children.

"Children? Why would children hide in the sewers?"

"Because most of their parents are too busy with work to take care of them, their lonely souls gather together after falling asleep."

And he, as an Elder trusted by the children, had done his best to build a sanctuary in the sewers for them.

"I see, then we should get along quite well."

Jiuyue didn’t expect this Evil Spirit Elder she was meeting for the first time to surprisingly be in agreement with the new industry regulations proposed by Mr. Mingyuan.

"Get along?"

"I was thinking, if you were a villain who devoured people without spitting out bones, I’d simply set you on fire."

"...Is this also an evil spirit joke?"

"It’s not."

The two simultaneously fell silent, the Elder also felt that Jiuyue’s remarks were filled with whimsical elements.

Evil spirits, weren’t they supposed to do bad things?

Why did this Fox Demon, who claimed to represent the evil spirits of Yunlong City, do the work of a hunter?

"What exactly are you here for?"

"A minister was murdered tonight. I’m here to gather some information."

"Then you’ve come to the wrong place. It’s been a long time since I left the sewers, and I can also assure you, these children are not the murderer."

At this point, the Elder suddenly fell silent, as if hesitating to speak further.

"Don’t worry, whatever you’re thinking, you can just tell me."

Jiuyue assured, patting her chest, "Don’t fear trouble. If they come, I’ll help you burn them all."

The Elder was angry but dared not speak out, having tried to expel her by force before, the only outcome was getting a thorough thrashing.

What the heck had gotten into this Fox Demon?

Is it that she can’t speak without burning someone alive?

Yet, the words that came out of his mouth were completely the opposite, "Half a month ago, a group of people came here wanting us to do something for them. It might have been them who did it."