Please, Young Master, Slay the Demon!
Chapter 888 - 97: Boys and Girls [Vote for Monthly Tickets!]

Chapter 888: Chapter 97: Boys and Girls [Vote for Monthly Tickets!]

Ling Guan Town, Dongshan Village.

"Daddy, Mommy, you’re back." A skinny little girl ran out from inside the house and smiled as she greeted Xiao Ershan and his wife.

"Lingling, didn’t I tell you not to go outside?" Xiao Ershan quickly hugged the little girl, as if he was afraid of her being seen by someone else.

"Didn’t you say that after the ritual ends, I can go out and play normally?" The little girl named Lingling asked with some confusion.

"The ritual isn’t over yet..." Xiao Ershan closed the door behind him, returned to the house, and then he sighed with a troubled heart, "Someone stopped the ceremony."

"Why?" Lingling looked at her father with innocent eyes.

Xiao Ershan was silent for a long while, then hugged his daughter tightly and said, "No matter what, Daddy won’t let anyone take my dear girl away! No one is allowed!"

After thinking, he gritted his teeth and said, "Child’s mother, shall we run away?"

"Run away to where?" His wife also had a face full of worry, "If we go elsewhere, will we have any livelihood?"

"It’s better than staying here and letting Lingling be sent off for the sacrifice," Xiao Ershan declared resolutely.

A while later, the family of three had packed their bags, large and small, and pushed the back door of the yard open, taking advantage of the cover of night.

But just as Xiao Ershan’s head peeked out, a strong hand held it down, and through the gaps between the fingers, he could see in front of him stood the Protector of the Clan Leader’s household from the town.

"The Clan Leader ordered us to help Brother Ershan take good care of the house to avoid any mishaps in tomorrow’s sacrifice," the burly man holding down Xiao Ershan said in a muffled voice.

Everyone understood in their hearts that helping to look after the house really meant they were afraid he would run away.

Xiao Ershan stepped back dejectedly, and the three family members sat in the room, frowning at each other in utter helplessness.

"Daddy, why won’t you let me participate in the ritual?" Lingling asked curiously, "Isn’t it said that after rushing down the mountain, one becomes smarter? And that nothing will happen."

"What do you know?" Xiao Ershan seemed to want to say something, but he stopped himself.

After a brief silence, a third person’s voice suddenly sounded in the room, "Well, what do you know then, you might as well tell us?"

"Ah!" The family of three was startled.

They then saw the figures of three young men appear out of thin air, seemingly having come through the walls—it was the same three who had stopped the sacrifice earlier.

"You... where did you come from?" Xiao Ershan stood in front of his wife and daughter, ushering them into a corner for hiding, while he raised his hand and said, "We in Ling Guan Town have Cultivators too, so don’t you make trouble."

"Xiao Ershan." Chu Liang stared at him sharply and demanded, "Do you recognize him?"

Whoosh, Chu Liang released the resentful spirit of the Scholar, and upon seeing the culprit, that resentful spirit immediately erupted into the form appropriate for a ghost—deep resentment and terrifying features, along with its chilling aura, ready to pounce and tear its enemy apart!

"Ah—"

The entire Xiao family collapsed to the ground in fear, and the couple begged for mercy in unison, "Immortal Master, spare our lives, Immortal Master, spare our lives! We are only trying to save our daughter’s life, we truly didn’t want to hurt anyone. But, but we really had no other choice!"

"Saving your daughter’s life?" Chu Liang retracted the resentful spirit of the Scholar, glanced at the little girl, and asked, "Isn’t it said that the ritual of Ling Guan Town doesn’t actually kill anyone, that they just drift downstream?"

"This..." Xiao Ershan stammered, seeming to still want to hide something, but when Chu Liang made a move as if to release the resentful spirit again, he became utterly terrified and repeatedly said, "It’s all fake, all of it is fake!"

...

Under Chu Liang’s gentle and skillful persuasion, Xiao Ershan cooperated and recounted what he knew about the sacrificial rituals in Ling Guan Town.

In Yu Capital City, Yao Dengxian presided over Siyun Avenue. Perhaps he could not monitor some remote areas of the Nine States Land as closely, but the region of Central State had always enjoyed favorable weather. Within this region, Ling Guan Town, although part of Central State, was considered particularly blessed.

The climate here was always pleasant, the crops always thrived, and the villagers were forever free of illness and disaster, making it a famously long-lived locale. And all of this was attributed to the Ling Guan sacrifice.

Legend has it that during the Ancient Years, two Spirit Officials descended from the Immortal Realm to battle the Evil Demon and were gravely injured, unable to return to the Upper Realm. The residents here took them in, and the villagers sent food floating downstream to the Spirit Officials until they recovered from their injuries and returned to the Upper Realm, bestowing a blessing upon this region.

Since then, the area enjoyed annual favorable weather and its people long and healthy lives; thus, the town was renamed Ling Guan Town.

The villagers of Ling Guan Town, to express gratitude for the benevolence of the two Spirit Officials, conducted an annual sacrificial ceremony. They would send two Spirit Children downstream to receive the blessings of the Spirit Officials.

"It’s all fake," said Xiao Ershan, then added, "I’ve found out that although the Spirit Children do not die during the sacrifice, they always die within three months after it ends, for various reasons, without exception! That talk of ’no living sacrifices’ is just a ruse spread by the Clan Leader to deceive us and the people from the Imperial Court!"

"Is that so?" Chu Liang’s pupils constricted.

If the children did not die on the spot, the Imperial Court’s officials might not have paid much attention. But if the Spirit Children would perish within three months, how was that any different from a live sacrifice?

"Haven’t the villagers of Ling Guan Town noticed this?" Lin Bei asked, "Why don’t they just stop the sacrifices?"

"There were a few years when the sacrifices were stopped, and Ling Guan Town immediately suffered from droughts and floods, from disease, and many villagers died. Even those who moved away couldn’t escape it. Unable to endure, they returned and resumed the sacrifices, and then peace was restored," Xiao Ershan replied. "Since then, everyone has resigned themselves to it, even if it means sacrificing two children every year in exchange for the health and longevity of the entire town."

So these children were seen as disposable sacrifices.

If the initial ceremonies were deceptive, then the subsequent sacrifices could be viewed as a trade.

"If it were another family’s turn, it would be one thing, but this year it falls on mine. My wife and I have only our daughter Lingling, how could we bear to lose her?" Xiao Ershan continued. "Just as we were planning to flee with our family, a family from Yu City came to stay. That’s when I felt the malice rise in my heart..."

"You don’t want to sacrifice your own daughter, yet you readily kill someone else’s family," Chu Liang shook his head. "In any event, you cannot escape your crimes."

"Ah—" Xiao Ershan’s wife knelt to the ground, wailing, "As long as our daughter can be saved, even if my husband and I are chopped into pieces, it’s fine by us!"

"You can rest assured about that," Chu Liang’s gaze turned towards the window. "Now that we are aware of this matter, we will not let any more innocent children die."

"What do you plan to do?" Ye Yongxing asked.

"Those two ’Spirit Officials’ must have some abilities to have kept people making sacrifices for so many years. We won’t likely catch them unless we participate in the ritual," Chu Liang said leisurely. "The sacrifice must continue."

"Continue?" Lin Bei asked, puzzled. "Wouldn’t that still put the children in danger? What if we can’t find those two ’Spirit Officials’?"

"We naturally won’t let the children participate," Chu Liang said thoughtfully. "Strictly speaking, I could pass for a virgin boy."

"..." Lin Bei looked at Chu Liang hesitantly, and after a long pause, said, "If you can be a virgin boy, I feel like I could also be a virgin girl."

"Isn’t that pushing it a bit too far?" Ye Yongxing looked at them incredulously.

Using a transformation technique could easily expose their True Qi fluctuations. But if they didn’t transform and just went ahead... the demonic beings weren’t blind.

"Forget it," Chu Liang said with a smile, shaking his head. "It’s just a couple of powerful virgin boys and girls, I can borrow a pair."