madnovel Chapter 9: The Ancestral Demon-Slaying Diagram
Chapter 9: The Ancestral Demon-Slaying Diagram
The clamor of the search outside had gradually moved towards the front yard, but sporadic footsteps and shouts still spread like a spider web in the night. The light of torches seeped in through the cracks in the rotten door of the woodshed, casting flickering shadows on the two men's faces, like shattered moonlight on water.
Su Qingyao put the black veil back on her face, leaving only her bright eyes gleaming warily in the dim light. "I must leave quickly. Chen Fuhai won't just search the mansion; within half an hour, the entire town will probably be locked up."
Lin Yan nodded: "Come with me."
He gently pushed open the woodshed door, the wooden hinges creaking softly, the sound particularly jarring in the silence. The two men held their breath, peering through the crack in the door—as expected, most of the guards in the backyard had been moved to the front, leaving only two guards carrying lanterns, pacing idly along the distant corridor, their lantern lights casting swaying, lazy shadows.
"This way." Lin Yan lowered his voice and led Su Qingyao quickly along the shadows of the wall. Their footsteps fell silently on the damp mud, only occasionally crushing a few withered leaves with a very soft "crunch".
Passing through a moon gate, I arrived at a small courtyard filled with miscellaneous items. The courtyard wall was not high, with some withered vines climbing on top, and outside the wall was a dark alleyway.
Just as Lin Yan was about to gather his strength and climb the wall, Su Qingyao gently tugged at his sleeve.
"Wait." She crouched down and took out a yellow talisman from her bosom. The paper was of a special quality, gleaming faintly in the dim light. She bit the tip of her right index finger, and a drop of crimson blood seeped out, gently dripping onto the talisman. The moment the blood touched the paper, it seemed to come alive, quickly spreading and outlining intricate patterns. The talisman spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into a wisp of extremely thin blue smoke that drifted towards the outside of the wall, like a serpent probing its way.
"This is a 'Spirit Detection Talisman,' which can detect movements outside the wall to prevent ambushes," Su Qingyao explained in a low voice, her gaze following the wisp of green smoke.
A hint of surprise flashed across Lin Yan's eyes. Such methods were beyond the capabilities of ordinary martial artists, and were closer to the legendary talismanic arts of cultivators.
The wisps of smoke swirled outside the wall for a few breaths before drifting back, their color unchanged and their form stable.
"Nothing's wrong outside." Su Qingyao stood up, her expression slightly relaxed.
The two climbed over the courtyard wall one after the other and landed in the cold alleyway outside.
Night was deep, and low-hanging leaden clouds completely obscured the moonlight. All around was pitch black, save for a few scattered lights in the distance, echoing the drawn-out beat of the night watchman's clapper. Occasionally, a dog's bark drifted from the deep alleyways, empty and unsettling.
"Where to?" Su Qingyao asked, her voice so low it was almost carried away by the night wind.
Lin Yan thought for a moment: "North Street. I know that place best."
The two exchanged no more words and hurried through the maze-like alleyways. Lin Yan led the way, deliberately choosing secluded, narrow paths with high walls, sometimes squeezing sideways between two mottled walls, sometimes crouching low to slip under bamboo poles drying clothes. His familiarity with these nooks and crannies of Blackstone Town seemed ingrained in his very bones. Su Qingyao followed closely behind, her movements as light as a swallow, never falling behind in the slightest.
About fifteen minutes later, the familiar courtyard on North Street came into view. Lin Yan pushed open the half-closed gate, and the two slipped inside. He gently bolted the gate shut, leaned against the door, and finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"We're safe for now." He walked to the peeling paint on the square table inside the house and fumbled to light the oil lamp. The tiny flame popped open with a "whoosh," struggling to dispel the darkness in the room and casting the two blood-stained figures onto the earthen wall, swaying precariously.
Su Qingyao removed her veil, revealing a beautiful but pale face. Her gaze swept across the room—an earthen bed, a broken cabinet, a wooden table with peeling paint, and some miscellaneous items piled in the corner, all exuding a sense of coldness. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly: "This place is too conspicuous. As a squad leader in the Demon Suppression Division, your residence must have been among the first places Chen Fuhai and Zhao Mang searched."
"I know," Lin Yan said calmly, "but I still need a place to stay temporarily and treat my injuries."
Upon hearing this, Su Qingyao's gaze fell on his left arm. A tear about an inch long had been slashed open on the sleeve by a sharp weapon, the edge stained with dark red blood, the fabric clinging tightly to his skin. Only then did she realize that she also felt a dull pain in her left shoulder blade. Looking down, she saw that her dark blue night clothes had been pierced, the wound not deep, but a small patch of blood had soaked through.
"Are you injured?" Lin Yan also noticed the unusual injury on her shoulder.
"It's just a minor cut, nothing serious." Su Qingyao said calmly, taking out a small, about an inch tall celadon bottle from her bosom. She uncorked it, poured out a little bit of fine, translucent white powder, and applied it to the wound. The powder made a very slight "sizzling" sound upon contact with the skin, and a faint light seemed to flash. The bleeding immediately stopped, leaving only a shallow red mark.
Lin Yan also tore open the sleeve of his left arm, revealing a sword wound about an inch long. The wound was not deep, the flesh was rolled back, and the blood had already congealed somewhat.
Su Qingyao caught a glimpse of it, a hint of apology flashing quickly in her bright eyes, before silently handing over the porcelain bottle.
Lin Yan took it and applied the medicinal powder accordingly. The medicine was cool and refreshing, instantly reducing the burning pain by more than half, and a tingling, healing sensation came from the wound.
"This medicine is excellent. What is it called?" he asked.
"The Su family's secret 'Jade Marrow Muscle Regeneration Powder' is remarkably effective for wounds caused by metal objects and swords." Su Qingyao put away the porcelain bottle, her tone still calm, but she couldn't hide the weight of the words "Su family."
With the wounds treated, the room fell silent for a moment. The flame of the oil lamp flickered uneasily, casting long, distorted shadows of the two people sitting opposite each other onto the mottled earthen wall. Occasionally, the wick would crackle or pop, a sound all the more distinct in the stillness.
"Now," Lin Yan broke the silence, looking calmly at Su Qingyao, "could you elaborate? About the Su family, about the method to exorcise demons, about why you appeared in the murky waters of Blackstone Town."
Su Qingyao met his gaze, her eyes, as clear as autumn water, swirling with complex and indescribable emotions.
She didn't speak immediately, but reached into her bosom again and carefully took out a small bag wrapped in layers of plain white cotton cloth. The bag wasn't large, and she held it in her hands with the gentleness of someone handling a fragile treasure. Unwrapping the cotton cloth layer by layer, what was finally revealed was a thin, thread-bound book with a yellowed and curled cover.
On the cover, four characters are written in ancient and vigorous seal script:
**【Demon-Slaying Manual】**
Lin Yan's pupils contracted slightly, and his breathing faltered.
The Demon-Slaying Manual—this is the legendary treasure that the Su family passed down through generations, which also led to their annihilation.
Su Qingyao's slender fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly as she gently turned the pages of the book.
Inside were not ordinary words from a book, but rather a series of meticulously drawn patterns. Some depicted the forms of various demons, with every hair, scales, and claws rendered in exquisite detail, their vital points marked in tiny characters beside them; others were complex array diagrams, with star positions, array eyes, and the flow of spiritual energy clearly discernible; still others were strange runes resembling insects and birds, or clouds and thunder, ancient and profound, which Lin Yan could not recognize at all.
The atlas clearly shows signs of age; many pages are incomplete, torn at the corner, or have charred and damaged edges, as if they had been through a fire. Those that survived have varying shades of paper and smudged ink.
Su Qingyao turned the pages of the book, finally stopping at one page, and turned the booklet towards Lin Yan.
On that page, a detailed anatomical diagram of a demon wolf was drawn with exquisite brushstrokes. Bones, tendons, and internal organs were all clearly discernible, with particular markings in vermilion ink around areas such as three inches below the throat, the heart, and the eyes. Beside the diagram, in the margins, were densely written in neat, small regular script:
[Azure Wolf Demons are common monsters in the Body Tempering Realm. They are mostly gregarious, cunning, and ferocious. Weakness: Three inches below the throat, where the reverse scales grow, the scales are thinnest and can be pierced by a straight stab. They fear Yang Fire and the sound of thunder. If attacked in groups, they can be trapped in the 'Three Yang Trapping Wolf Formation,' which will reduce the pack's strength by 30% when the formation is complete...]
A simplified battle formation diagram is drawn on the side of the image, indicating the materials, directions, and even the steps required for setting up the formation.
Lin Yan was deeply shocked, as if he had seen a vast ocean.
This is no ordinary chart; it is clearly a secret manual for hunting demons, pointing directly to their very essence! If we have this to help us, wouldn't dealing with demons be as easy as reading the lines on our palms?
"This is a heirloom of the Su family." Su Qingyao's voice rang out, pulling Lin Yan back from his shock. Her voice was filled with an overwhelming bitterness, "And also... the root cause of the Su family's downfall."
She closed the booklet, carefully wrapped it again, and tucked it into her bosom, as if those few thin pages weighed a ton. Then, she raised her eyes, her gaze fixed on a point in the void, and began to speak. Her voice was soft, yet every word was clear, carrying the pain and hardship of three years gone by.
"The Su family has lived in Qingzhou Prefecture for generations. One of their ancestors was a 'Demon Slayer' in the Great Yin Demon Suppression Division, specializing in researching methods to subdue demons. At its peak, one of the family's ancestors was exceptionally talented, reaching the Core Formation Realm. Feeling that the demon scourge was growing in the world and that ordinary martial artists knew very little about demons and often lost their lives, he devoted half his life to traveling around, fighting demons, observing and recording, and finally completed the first draft of this 'Demon Slayer Atlas'. Subsequent generations of descendants added to and revised it, resulting in its present form."
"However, three hundred years ago, the spiritual veins of heaven and earth gradually dried up, cultivation became more and more difficult, and people's hearts gradually became corrupt. The Demon Suppression Bureau was no longer as enlightened as it once was, and there were many who formed cliques, engaged in corruption, and deceived their superiors. Because the Su family adhered to their ancestral teachings and refused to compromise with demons and refused to associate with corruption, they were gradually ostracized and marginalized, and from a prominent family in Qingyang, they were reduced to a poor family that only had a few old books and an empty reputation."
"Three years ago..." Su Qingyao's voice suddenly lowered, and her eyes instantly became misty, shimmering with broken light under the lamp. "My father, Su Mingyuan, the last head of the Su family, accidentally uncovered a secret while investigating a bloody case in which a border village was slaughtered by demon wolves."
She paused for a long time, her long eyelashes drooping, casting a faint shadow on her pale cheeks. When she spoke again, her voice was choked with suppressed sobs.
"He discovered that some high-ranking officials in the Demon Suppression Division were secretly colluding with certain high-level demons who had gained sentience. They used living people as 'sacrifices' in exchange for rare minerals, spiritual herbs, and even... evil magic techniques to aid the demons' cultivation. And those sacrificed were mostly uncared-for vagrants, prisoners, and even... colleagues who dared to speak out and offend them."
Lin Yan listened in silence, his fists clenching quietly under the table, his knuckles turning slightly white.
As expected, it was not far from what he had anticipated. The darkness of this world was deeper and colder than he had imagined.
"Father secretly collected evidence, and the evidence was irrefutable." Su Qingyao raised her face, tears silently streaming down her face, but she stubbornly refused to let the sobs escape her throat. "He originally intended to secretly report to the court and clear the fog. But... the news leaked out."
That night, without warning, the Su family mansion was suddenly attacked by a large number of "wandering demons." Those demons... moved with a certain order, as if driven by someone, breaking into the mansion, not to steal valuables, but specifically to kill people with the surname Su. Guards and servants were killed or wounded in droves... My father stuffed me, still asleep, into a secret compartment in the study, and fought his way out to draw away the pursuers... The last thing I heard was his hoarse cry: "Yao'er, escape! Never come back!"
She finally broke down in tears, her thin shoulders trembling violently, yet she still bit her lower lip tightly, refusing to utter a sound. Large tears rolled down her cheeks, splashing onto the rough tabletop and spreading into dark dots.