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Out of trust in Gu An, Hong Tiandi didn't struggle after hearing his words.
Of course, he wanted to run, but Gu An wouldn't let him. Rather than flail about, it was better to obey.
Just then, the eerie slashing appeared again. A blade of sickle energy struck the chicken coop in Hong Tiandi's courtyard. An old rooster inside died on the spot, split into upper and lower halves, visibly withered.
Old Man Hong's body trembled.
This trembling was partly from heartache over the rooster's death—he'd raised that rooster for several years and couldn't bear to eat it.
It was also trembling fear of the demon's deadly supernatural ability.
"Quick—quickly, let's get inside!" Hong Tiandi suggested in a trembling voice.
Gu An shook his head.
Hiding inside was useless.
The next moment, he walked to the stone mill.
Hiss—
The millstone broke eerily into two sections. Moss grew unnaturally along the cut, as if it had been abandoned for decades, weathered by wind and frost.
This scene made Hong Tiandi even more terrified. It could slice through a stone mill so easily?
"The house isn't harder than that millstone. If even the millstone ends up like this, what use is going inside?"
Gu An's calm voice came to his ears. Hong Tiandi couldn't understand why Gu An could remain so composed when a demon was trying to kill them.
"Ah An, aren't you afraid of the demon?"
He had been afraid during the first few deaths, but later grew accustomed to it.
Gu An shook his head.
Then he had Old Man Hong take the gourd ladle while he himself went to the woodshed on the left side of the courtyard.
He came to Hong Tiandi's home not to hide from the demon, but to obtain the sharp short-handled curved blade used for chopping firewood. That woodcutter's knife was Hong's family heirloom spanning three generations. Though not a magical artifact, it had absorbed the baleful energy of several generations. This blade could pierce through the thick hide of demonic evil.
The first dozen or so cycles of death and life had taught him to skillfully handle the ox-headed farmer's slashing attacks. After reviving each time since, he'd been thinking of ways to kill the demon.
He'd tried many methods.
Last time he came back to life, that attempt was the closest he'd come to killing the demon—just one step away.
This time, he felt he could kill the demon.
If he couldn't...
Then he'd said nothing.
Next time he came back, he'd kill it then.
Gu An dodged the slashing strike again, meanwhile having Old Man Hong scoop water and splash it backward.
The eerie phenomenon from earlier appeared once more.
The water twisted.
Drag marks appeared on the ground.
Seeing this, Hong Tiandi's alarm turned to joy. "This demon fears water?!"
"Good, good, good... Ah An, you actually know what the demon fears. This is advantageous for us. We two can use water to stall it until help arrives... Ah An, what are you doing with the woodcutter's knife?!"
Hong Tiandi saw Gu An pick up the knife and immediately understood what he intended.
Encountering a demon and picking up a knife—wasn't this planning to kill the demon?!
However, Hong Tiandi's face showed no joy at Gu An's courage to kill demons. Instead, his eyes widened in fury.
"Ah An, surely you don't mean to use this blade to kill the demon?"
Before Gu An could answer, he urgently spoke again: "We ordinary mortals have no immortal fate. We cannot kill demons, nor should we try to kill demons."
"Don't entertain such thoughts. It will bring ruin upon you."
Gu An had heard this many times already.
What did it mean they couldn't kill demons?
What did it mean they shouldn't try to kill demons?
And what was "immortal fate"?
He'd asked Hong Tiandi, but the old man couldn't explain.
He only said they couldn't kill demons, couldn't actually kill them, and shouldn't try.
Because this was what the elders had passed down.
Daoist priests Hong Tiandi encountered in his youth had told him this repeatedly.
It was also that Daoist priest who saved his life; otherwise, he would have died in that demon's persecution.
Having experienced it himself, he held demons in awe.
The demon now targeting Gu An, its pursuit generated even more terrifying pressure than the demon he'd encountered in his youth. This demon could shatter gold and sever jade, easily split stone, and even steal people's life force and vitality. This was a demon with great supernatural powers.
That they could survive until now already made Hong Tiandi feel like he was dreaming.
"Don't worry, Old Man Hong. I can save you."
Gu An didn't agree with Hong Tiandi's words, instead saying this.
Not kill the demon?
That was impossible.
The demon had killed him seventy-two times.
He wasn't someone who liked to hold grudges—he didn't plan to kill the demon seventy-two times. Killing it once would suffice.
Just once.
Seeing this, how could Hong Tiandi not know what Gu An was thinking?
He watched as Gu An remained calm from beginning to end, even leisurely walking with ease.
Between his words, he once again avoided the demon's destruction.
Watching until now, he already understood—Gu An somehow had a method to make the demon miss like it was blind, unable to hit him. But this still wasn't a reason to kill the demon.
"If you can make the demon miss you, then we have a chance to go to town and find people from the Demon Suppression Bureau. We can survive."
He looked back fearfully at the quiet road behind them. He couldn't see the demon's shadow, but he knew the demon killing them was somewhere far back there.
"Ah An, listen to my advice."
"You've never experienced demon calamity, so you have misconceptions about demons. 'Demons have no form' doesn't just mean they're invisible..."
"I know."
Gu An interrupted Hong Tiandi.
He carried Hong Tiandi while still skillfully avoiding the slashing strikes.
From time to time, he had Hong Tiandi scoop water from other people's vats to splash.
During this time, the path he walked encountered no one and could avoid the demon's persecution.
After some time, the two of them appeared on the hillside leading to the fields.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Hong Tiandi looked at Gu An, feeling uneasy.
Somehow he felt Gu An had everything under control, but it was precisely this attitude that made him even more anxious.
People should have confident bearing, but sometimes such bearing could be what gets you killed.
"Going to the riverside."
Hearing this, Old Man Hong was stunned.
The next moment, delight appeared on his face.
The demon feared water.
If they went to the riverside, it would be very advantageous for them. They could use the river water to avoid the demon.
"Ah An, you've come to your senses! We'll just..."
"Old Man Hong, watch from afar. I'm about to kill the demon."
Gu An interrupted Hong Tiandi with this statement.
In an instant, he performed a fairly practiced movement—the motion of efficiently tossing an elderly farmer in his sixties down a small hillside.
This was the method he'd found after experiencing many cycles of life and death to save Hong Tiandi.
Rolling down from the hillside would briefly disorient the demon, causing it to ignore Hong Tiandi for a short time. Below the slope was a small stream with water that the demon wouldn't approach.
These two conditions could ensure Hong Tiandi's safety for a short time.
From beginning to end, the demon had only been targeting him. Hong Tiandi would be killed only because he was too close to himself.
And now that he was distancing himself from Hong Tiandi, Hong Tiandi would be saved.
The path to life amid nine deaths lay here.
As for whether Hong Tiandi would be harmed by being thrown down the hillside—yes, he would. Previously when he'd thrown him down, once Hong Tiandi had been impaled to death by a tree branch on the slope. So this time, his throwing location was carefully chosen—soft soil, lots of grass, few rocks.
Hong Tiandi would be in pain from the fall, but pain was pain—it was still better than being dead.
Having done this, Gu An ran toward the fields.
He traveled all the way, repeatedly dodging sickle slashes during the journey.
All the way to a small river.
Gu An observed the riverbank, finding a spot where the soil was soft.
Walking there, he took a deep breath, puffed out his cheeks, and plunged headfirst into the small river.
Splash!
Water sprayed in all directions.
Gu An dove underwater, his eyes bright and cold.
He swam in the water, assuming the posture of bending to look at the demon through his legs.
Through the cold river surface, he could see the dark shore, the blood-red moon like the netherworld, cold howling wind—he could even see traces of the wind. The gaunt figure of the ox-headed farmer walked from far to near, stopping at the shore.
Gu An was all too familiar with this scene.
His hand passed through his crotch, his body rotating agilely like a fish in the water as his hand suddenly grabbed toward the ox-headed farmer's ankle at the river's edge.
Hong Tiandi was right.
Demons have no form.
This didn't just mean demons were invisible.
It meant if you couldn't see them, you couldn't touch them. Only by seeing them could you touch them.
He touched it!
He grabbed it!!
The instant his fingertips touched the demon's ankle, it was like grasping cold iron. A bone-chilling yin energy rushed up his arm, nearly freezing his blood vessels.
Gu An gritted his teeth fiercely, kicked off the river bottom's silt for leverage, and forcibly dragged that demonic creature into the water.
At the same time, an eerie sensation welled up in his heart—the feeling of violently pulling the demon from an endlessly distant place and dragging it into the river water.
Splash!
At this moment, the demon materialized before his eyes.
The fierce ox head's two mouths where the eyes should be opened wide, letting out an eerie roar even underwater.
After pulling it into the water, Gu An tilted his head left, then nimbly retreated underwater, avoiding two fatal slashes.
This demon feared water. Entering the water forced it to manifest and made it flounder, but couldn't stop its ferocity. Though the sickle's swinging momentum slowed by thirty percent, it could still sever a throat.
In a moment, Gu An stepped forward, grabbed the ox-headed farmer's bull head, and pressed down forcefully, not letting it surface.
Glug glug glug—!!
The calm river surface boiled, continuously bubbling. Water sprayed and churned on the surface—at first glance, it looked like a large tiger had fallen into the water.