Chapter Seventy-Three: The Little Demons' Sudden Change

The eagle demon escorted You Xiyue and Junyang back to the guesthouse. The Demon City Guesthouse was not far from the entrance to the Demon Realm, which made it convenient for You Xiyue and Junyang to keep an eye on any activity there.

The eagle demon led them to his own room, thoughtfully gave up the inner chamber for them, closed the door behind them, and then went out to the outer room without saying another word.

He lingered in the outer room for a long while, making not a sound. If the two had not occasionally sent out their divine sense to check, they might have thought the eagle demon had left entirely.

Junyang, curious, checked several times and discovered that the eagle demon was actually sleeping while standing, as quiet as if he weren’t even there.

“Little Ancestor, get some sleep. I’ll keep watch,” Junyang said. You Xiyue always became irritable and gloomy if she missed a night’s rest. Junyang, on the other hand, was not so attached to sleep.

You Xiyue acknowledged with a soft reply, took out her Dreamshade Mushroom, and lay down. Junyang returned to his true form, coiling up nearby, ever alert for any movement from the guesthouse or the entrance to the Demon Realm.

It was deep into the night when the previously calm eagle demon suddenly opened his eyes. As if gripped by anxiety, his standing posture abruptly shifted to a crouch, and he began rubbing his arms uneasily. In the end, he even hugged his head, cowering in the corner and trembling all over.

Junyang glanced at the still-sleeping You Xiyue, then quietly opened the door to the inner chamber and stepped out.

But the eagle demon did not notice Junyang’s presence at all. He remained huddled with his head in his hands, muttering something indistinctly under his breath.

“What are you doing?” Junyang asked, frowning in confusion.

The eagle demon slowly raised his head, his face already pale. “Something powerful is approaching. It’s terrifying—I can hardly breathe.”

“Something powerful?” Junyang’s divine sense had been extended the whole time, and he had felt nothing of the sort. How powerful could it be? More powerful than the Little Ancestor? This eagle demon had bargained with You Xiyue—what could possibly frighten him now?

The entrance to the Demon Realm was still quiet, as were all the other rooms in the guesthouse.

“Why can’t I sense anything?”

The eagle demon dropped his head again, shaking it desperately. “It’s closer now, closer.”

Junyang was even more bewildered, having no idea what the eagle demon was talking about.

But before long, Junyang realized that every demon in the guesthouse was experiencing the same condition. Even You Xiyue, asleep on her Dreamshade Mushroom, sensed that something was wrong and climbed down.

She came over to the two of them and asked Junyang, “What’s going on?”

Junyang, of course, didn’t know either. He replied, “This demon says something powerful is drawing close, suffocating him.”

“Could it be the Devourer Orb?” You Xiyue speculated.

“All the demons in the guesthouse are like this—it must be the work of that thing. So Hongchen really has come to Swallow Heaven City?” Junyang expanded his divine sense.

He found that nearly all the minor demons in Swallow Heaven City were in the same state as the eagle demon. Only the great demons outside the city walls were unaffected, though they too had awakened, looking somewhat stunned.

“There are no cultivators detected, and none of the roads leading to Swallow Heaven City show any traffic,” Junyang reported after searching.

The eagle demon kept muttering, “It’s coming, it’s coming.”

“Where is it coming?” You Xiyue grabbed the eagle demon and questioned him.

But the eagle demon seemed witless now, repeating the same phrase and nothing more.

It was clear nothing further could be learned from him. You Xiyue spread her divine sense, enveloping all of Swallow Heaven City, methodically searching.

Suddenly, in a cave dwelling northwest of the city, a wolf demon vanished.

Junyang sensed this anomaly as well.

The two exchanged a glance and instantly appeared at the cave dwelling’s entrance.

There was no sign of any cultivator, only a group of trembling minor demons. Some, whose cultivation matched the eagle demon’s, had already fainted.

Junyang questioned them for a long time but could glean nothing useful.

“The Devourer Orb must be close,” You Xiyue deduced, glancing over the demons. If not for the orb’s proximity, there would not be so many demons unconscious here. Otherwise, the eagle demon at the guesthouse would have fainted already.

Junyang and You Xiyue searched the area around the cave twice, but found nothing suspicious. There was no sign of movement at the entrance to the Demon Realm, either.

“How could this be?” Junyang mused, stroking his chin, convinced something was amiss.

The wolf demon had vanished just a moment before—Junyang and You Xiyue had rushed over immediately; how was it possible they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Hongchen?

The Celestial Wanderer Scroll had sealed Hongchen for fifty thousand years—her cultivation should have long since regressed below the Nascent Soul stage. How could she possibly escape their notice?

“Could the Celestial Wanderer Scroll be fake?” Junyang could not help but wonder.

“No,” You Xiyue answered, confident in Cang Yu’s skill at forging artifacts.

In Cang Yu’s memories, the Celestial Wanderer Scroll had been borrowed and used before.

Those who emerged from it fell directly from Golden Saint to Foundation Establishment. The loss of cultivation was far faster than anyone could recover through training.

Hongchen would be no exception.

After searching again to no avail, You Xiyue and Junyang had no choice but to return to the guesthouse.

The eagle demon seemed much better now, though he was still weak in the knees. He clung to the wall, made his way to a stool, and sat down, patting his chest.

“I don’t know what it was, but it was terrifying—it nearly scared this demon to death.”

Junyang simply could not understand the eagle demon’s distress. “Was it really so frightening?”

The eagle demon looked at Junyang in awe. “You really couldn’t feel it? Not even a little?”

Junyang pulled a wry face—he wasn’t a demon, how could he feel anything?

Without waiting for a reply, the eagle demon continued, “It was like a mass of darkness, clutching my demon core, ready to crush it at any moment. I didn’t dare move.”

“Can you sense roughly where it is?” You Xiyue asked seriously, gazing at the eagle demon.

Though the sensation was unpleasant, the eagle demon tried to focus, rubbing his arms again.

“Somewhere around the forest to the northwest.”

But when You Xiyue tried to sense in that direction, she found nothing.

Though she could not sense the Devourer Orb, both You Xiyue and Junyang became aware of another unexpected presence.

Clad in green, with three crown feathers atop his head, Lutan was leading a crowd of minor demons toward the wolf demon’s cave dwelling.

“He’s quick,” You Xiyue remarked approvingly. In such a short time, he had received the news and hurried from Primeval City to Swallow Heaven City—that was remarkably swift.

Lutan interrogated all the minor demons from the wolf cave, but learned nothing useful. In the end, he sent his subordinates to the various inns and guesthouses to inquire whether any suspicious individuals had appeared in Swallow Heaven City.

This investigation actually yielded something.

“Reporting to the Grand Commander, two suspicious individuals arrived in Swallow Heaven City three days ago. According to the demons at the tavern, they even know you.”

“They know me?” Lutan scoffed. There were many demons who knew him. “What do they look like? Are they still in Swallow Heaven City?”

“Yes, according to the report, both are still here—a man and a woman,” the demon replied respectfully.

Back at the Demon City Guesthouse, Junyang and You Xiyue exchanged a glance.

“Little Ancestor, could it be that we’re the ones they’re suspicious of?”