Chapter Thirty-Five: A Monster

“Monster! A demon! Run for your lives!”

This time, everyone saw clearly: the servants of the Zhang family were wounded by several semi-transparent blades, and the culprit appeared to be a mosquito only slightly larger than usual. A mosquito capable of unleashing supernatural magic could only be a demon.

The plump young man and the others, not wishing to be drained dry by such a creature, had no time to concern themselves with Brother Zhang’s fate. With a shout of terror, they scattered and raced towards their horses.

“Hmph! Trying to escape? None of you are going anywhere.”

Having made his move, Xiao Wenzi had no intention of letting them escape to spread word of him. With a cold sneer, he invoked his Demon Speed Technique, and his form became a blur as he soared above the herd of horses with even greater speed.

The sound of air being sliced rang out in rapid succession as shimmering blades from his wings struck the rumps of the steeds. Though the wounds were not fatal, the searing pain sent the horses rearing and shrieking, breaking free from their reins and fleeing in all directions.

“No—!”

Though this mountain lay at the southern edge of the Tiannan range, the nearest town outside the mountains was still twenty or thirty miles away. Without horses, it would be impossible to make it back before nightfall. The plump youth and his companions howled in near despair.

Xiao Wenzi cared nothing for their plight. Their panic only made it easier to capture them all in one net. With a beat of his wings, he sent razor-sharp blades slicing into the calves of two fleeing servants, felling them with screams of agony.

“This demon is intelligent—he wants to keep us all here! Run! Split up!”

Unlike the likes of Zhou Liang, who cared only for pleasure, the young man surnamed Zhang was a master of martial arts and the bow. He could not fathom why the demon targeted him, but survival demanded cunning. If the demon was forced to chase someone else, he might seize a chance to escape.

Thus, while he loudly urged his companions to flee, he himself stayed rooted in place, knowing that as long as he did not flee first, the intelligent mosquito demon would likely not target him immediately.

As expected, when the plump youth, four other young men in brocade, and dozens of servants scattered in all directions, Xiao Wenzi did not turn back but instead pursued the swiftest of the servants.

Blades whistled through the air.

The young man surnamed Zhang was not wrong to use his companions as a distraction, but he did not know that Xiao Wenzi could understand their conversations—his attempt at sneaking away was hopelessly naïve.

Although the servants scattered, all of them fled towards the town outside the mountains. Who would be foolish enough to run deeper into the Tiannan range instead?

Blades of wind from the mosquito’s wings flew out, striking at the knees of those in the lead. The pain, combined with their forward momentum, caused some to collapse and lose consciousness.

Watching burly servants and guards fall and moan, the youth’s pupils contracted. Without further hesitation, he turned and fled in the opposite direction.

“Clever fellow,” thought Xiao Wenzi with a cold smile, feeling the youth’s movement toward the depths of the mountains. “But venturing deeper means a higher chance of dying to wild beasts. He’ll have to fend for himself.”

He made no move to intercept. For now, injuring the plump youth and the others to stop them from returning and spreading tales was most important.

The whistle of air continued as one exhausted fugitive after another was brought low. When all five young men were wounded, their cries for help caused the remaining servants to hesitate.

With the last of his demon energy, Xiao Wenzi unleashed another flurry of wing blades on the rest of the servants.

They collapsed with screams, though a few remained unscathed—clearly feigning death in hopes that the mosquito demon was not clever enough to see through their ruse.

But Xiao Wenzi saw through it all. Still, with his demonic energy depleted, he had no need to alarm them further.

He alighted on the body of an unconscious man and began to quickly drain blood from his wound.

Having already absorbed several ordinary system coins from the Zhang youth, Xiao Wenzi quickly amassed thirty more and exchanged them for a drop of low-grade demon spirit dew.

Until he broke through to the third level of demon energy, such dew could instantly replenish all his strength. The night in Nanshan City, he had been forced to use his precious second-level coins for a higher-grade spirit dew—a waste, as much of it had gone unabsorbed.

Thus, even when he saw the Zhang youth escaping, Xiao Wenzi had not been willing to waste another precious coin. Otherwise, how could those servants have found an opening?

After swallowing the spirit dew, his cultivation rapidly recovered. He immediately beat his wings and flew toward those servants who, having staggered to their feet, were trying to help their master escape.

With their knees already in agony, the plump youth and his companions could barely move. Now, with their servants felled by wing blades, they collapsed to the ground, howling in pain.

Next, Xiao Wenzi struck down any guards who tried to crawl away. At last, the remainder grew wise and simply lay on the ground, feigning death in hopes of deceiving the demon.

By now, the Zhang youth had vanished without a trace; even the scent of blood from his wounded right hand had somehow been concealed.

Retracting his infrared senses and finding nothing, Xiao Wenzi was a little surprised.

But what of one escapee? The scores of people on this mountainside were more than enough to provide him with blood and system coins.

After his previous struggles in Nanshan City, Xiao Wenzi knew that even ordinary coins were invaluable; otherwise, the hard-won second-level coins he’d taken from that wicked youth would have gone to waste.

Landing beside a young man’s bleeding wound, he began to drain blood and convert it into system coins—a far more pleasant experience than facing the mountain bandits.

Most of these people had trained in martial arts, and some had even secretly applied healing salves. As time passed, their knee wounds stopped bleeding, so Xiao Wenzi had to seek out veins to pierce and drain blood more efficiently.

With a sharp stab, he pierced the neck vein of a burly man who had been playing dead. The man instinctively tried to slap him away, but before his hand fell, a blade from Xiao Wenzi’s wings struck him, making him howl in pain and lie still.

There were dozens on the slope—Xiao Wenzi could not focus on just one. Once a man’s wrists, neck, and face were swollen with itchy welts, he would move to the next.

A young man in brocade, trembling in terror after witnessing the fate of the servant, dared not swat at him, allowing the mosquito demon to pierce his skin unhindered. Seeing such cooperation, Xiao Wenzi refrained from punishing him further, drank several hundred drops of blood, turned him into a swollen pig-face, and moved on.

Suddenly, from the distant mountains came the roar of a beast and the dying scream of a horse. One of the panicked steeds had run straight into a large wild predator.

The commotion came from the direction in which the Zhang youth had fled. It was too far for Xiao Wenzi to tell if he had met his end, nor did he care. For now, he would drain every last person here and gather as many system coins as possible.