Damn, I turned into a monster

Chapter 231 Chapter 229 Evil Heretics
"What was that rumor about the Sihanoukville area that you mentioned yesterday?"

The next day, Wang Wu originally intended to ask Xiaoqian about it, because the female demon had become excited immediately after learning that he was also a demon, and then...

Wang Wu didn't know why she made this choice, but since it was her choice, he could only respect it.

After learning about Xiaoqian's situation, the owner of Tianxianglou looked at Wang Wu very strangely for the next few days.

Well, I felt seven parts displeasure and three parts hostility.

However, this hostility was not because the owner of Tianxianglou also liked Xiaoqian, but because of the relationship between him and Xiaoqian.

To put it simply, Xiaoqian, as a demon he watched grow up—no, he watched him grow up—shares a very deep bond with him. Although Xiaoqian is much older than the boss, he has always treated her like an older sister…

No, I treat her like a younger sister.

The psychological age of monsters grows very slowly, so slowly that even if their physical age is over a hundred years old, their psychological age is still only a teenager.

Xiaoqian is like that. Although she is much older than her boss Li Xiang, her mental age is no different from Li Xiang's when she was fifteen or sixteen.

The standard for adulthood here is the same as in Wang Wu's hometown. Unlike the ancient society where people could get married at thirteen or fourteen, the standard for adulthood here is also quite late. Basically, women are expected to get married around fourteen or fifteen years old.

Here, women generally get married after the age of eighteen, some as young as twenty, but the age of adulthood is eighteen, which is the standard in modern society back home.

Of course, because the social atmosphere is relatively open and there are not so many rules and regulations regarding relationships between men and women, the term 'puppy love' does not exist here.

Women no longer need to stay hidden away in their boudoirs until adulthood; this is not the case for women from rural families or daughters from large clans.

Those who should study should study, those who should help with farm work should help with farm work, and those who should go out and have fun should go out and have fun.

And the age of fifteen or sixteen is precisely the time when boys and girls are in puberty, that period of budding feelings, so...

However, Li Xiang didn't actually harbor that much hostility towards Wang Wu, after all, it was only three-tenths. Because compared to Xiaoqian doing that kind of thing with a human, she was more accepting of Xiaoqian doing that kind of thing with her own kind.

Although Li Xiang's family owns a restaurant, she doesn't seem to be any more open-minded about such matters than most people.

Of course, this doesn't mean Li Xiang is conservative, but rather that people from the State of Chu are very open-minded, so this matter isn't really a big deal.

But no matter what, it's true that your own cabbage has been eaten by a pig, so when it's time to be unhappy, you'll definitely be very unhappy.

Well, calling a monster a pig might be a bit of an exaggeration, because if monsters are considered pigs, then over 90% of humans wouldn't even be considered pigs.

But it doesn't matter, it's not important.

There are female demons in Tianxiang Tower, and of course, there are also male demons, but only three in number. Moreover, Xiaoqian's relationship with those three male demons is not very good.

In Xiaoqian's words, she hated them. They were not like monsters at all. They grew up in the demon society, but they always looked down on their fellow demons.

This kind of monster is the kind that Wang Wu dislikes the most. Because it has been in human society for a while, it thinks it is sitting at the same table as humans and has forgotten where its own backside is.

Wang Wu disliked these monsters intensely and was very unhappy with them.

In the following days, Wang Wu tried to ask Xiaoqian about the "rumors" in Xigang District again, but this kind of female monster was basically completely irrational during the period when she had just unlocked the new mode.

Therefore, Wang Wu never got an answer until five days later, when he was having dinner at the Tianxianglou restaurant on the first floor, and the owner, Li Xiang, was sitting across from him. Only then did he ask her about it.

Although Li Xiang looked at him with obvious displeasure, Wang Wu knew that she wasn't really against him; she just... well, never mind.

"Young Master Li, I still have a question. Xiaoqian told me about a rumor in your Xigang District. I wonder what she was referring to?"

"What, are you so busy that you don't even have time to ask about something like this?" Li Xiang glanced at the monster in front of her and said coldly.

"Well, there really isn't much of a chance. After all, as you know, our demon race is at its most frenzied in the period when we first get our hands on the marrow, and we have absolutely no rationality to speak of."

“Yeah, yeah.” Li Xiang rolled his eyes. Of course he knew about this, after all, the restaurant kept several monsters.

Because of the Celestial Palace, the status of the demon race in human society has risen significantly, so much so that the cost of hiring them has also increased dramatically.

However, this has little impact on Tianxiang Tower, because the monsters there already earn high wages and receive commissions.

It wasn't just Tianxiang Tower; most shops in the Chu Kingdom that hired demons were similar. As a country that had maintained very good relations with the demon race even before the establishment of the Jitian Divine Palace, the demons in this country were naturally treated much better than those in other countries.

However, despite being quite annoyed with the customer, Li Xiang still answered his question: "There are many rumors in Sihanoukville, but if it's the one Xiaoqian mentioned, then it should be a case in our Sihanoukville area recently."

"A case?" Wang Wu showed interest, then presented a gold ingot to the other party. "Please tell me more, Young Master Li."

"You monster are quite wealthy."

Li Xiang's face remained expressionless, but his hands moved with practiced ease as he took the money. With a flick of his sleeve, the gold ingot was swept into his pocket. He then nodded, "Then let me explain it to Young Hero Wang in detail."

Xigang District is the area with the worst public security in Yingdu. There are murders and missing persons almost every year.

Although this is the capital of the Great Chu, this is the social atmosphere of the Chu Kingdom. People are not only open-minded, but also generally brave and fierce. The most common folk organizations in the city are various gangs.

"Although Du Yin has sent a large number of officers to investigate in our Xigang District during this period, he has not been able to find out anything, so this has become a cold case in our Xigang District."

"However, Yingdu has at least 15 to 20 unsolved cases every year, so it's not a big deal. But this case is different."

At this point, Li Xiang paused, took a sip of wine to moisten her throat, and then continued slowly:

"Some people say this case is related to evil practices."

"evil ways?"

This wasn't the first time Wang Wu had heard of such a thing, nor was it the first time he had seen it. He remembered encountering such people the first time he went to Hedong County, when he led the Wang family to the monster's corpse-dumping pit in the Forest of the Dead to find silver.

Unlike the demonic path, the evil path is basically hated by everyone in all countries of this world, except for some small safe zones that are not fully connected with the mainstream culture and are surrounded by the demonic realm.

There, in those small human kingdoms, perhaps the entire nation practices heretical arts.

The vast majority of heretical cultivators and sects also hide in the wilderness beyond various countries, or even in another world. Of course, this other world is still on this planet, only it uses a technology similar to a hidden cave.

The space technology here is also very advanced, and there are quite a few evil organizations hiding in hyperspace.

However, what Wang Wu did not expect was that Yingdu, as the capital of the Chu people, actually had evil sects.
Logically speaking, even if the capital city has poor public security, it shouldn't allow evil forces to stay openly in this place, right?
“Yes,” Li Xiang nodded. “This story goes back to the king before last, and it goes like this…”

After Li Xiang's explanation, Wang Wu finally understood the cause and effect of the matter.

Several hundred years ago, about six hundred years ago, during the reign of the king he just mentioned, the King of Chu was a tyrannical and incompetent ruler. During his reign, evil sects flourished in Chu, and a certain heretical sect was even established as the state religion of Chu.

Despite the fact that the royal family of Great Chu was constantly engaged in father-son killings, son-father killings, daughter-mother killings, and mother-daughter killings, and was either usurping the throne or on the way to usurping it.

However, this chaotic royal family also has one advantage: if a monarch becomes excessively incompetent and tyrannical, they will soon be killed by their own brothers and sisters and then take the throne themselves.

Moreover, the political system of Chu had a unique characteristic: the new king of Chu would not kill his brothers and sisters after he ascended to the throne. He would generally only kill his predecessor and his current rivals.

As for the others, there will be no problem.

It's not that they don't want to, but that they can't.

The State of Chu was not a state ruled by the Chu royal family alone. No matter how much internal strife there was within the royal family, there had to be a bottom line.

If any member of the royal family were to act irrationally and attempt to cross this line, they would face a united effort to eliminate him from the ranks of the various noble families within the Chu Kingdom.

The King of Chu was like that; he went too far, using the power of the evil sect to massacre members of the royal family.

Therefore, with the combined efforts of the nine noble families of Chu and the remaining members of the royal family, the 'mad king' was killed on the spot, and the entire royal city was also slaughtered by the noble alliance.

This also includes that heretical sect that was established as the state religion.

Pure Land Buddhism

It has to be said that the name of this sect immediately tells you it's an old evil sect, a professional evil sect. The name itself is a huge stereotype.

The "rumors" Xiaoqian mentioned about the Sihanoukville area were actually what people were discussing in private: the real culprit behind that case.

Remnants of the Pure Land School.

"So what exactly is the Evil Sect? I am a demon, and I don't know much about your human race. I come from Tianmang City," Wang Wu said sincerely.

"You didn't need to specifically mention that you're from that Tianmang City, did you?" Li Xiang glanced at Wang Wu. "Are you going to tell me next that your Tianmang City is located on Tianmang Peak, isolated from the world, and although it's very developed, it doesn't actually know much about the outside world?"

"Uh..." Wang Wu's face showed embarrassment.

"That's not what I meant. Please continue."

"Heh." Li Xiang chuckled coldly, not dwelling on the matter any longer. After a pause, she continued:

"According to a very widespread rumor in the city, after more than 600 years of silence, the Pure Land School is showing signs of making a comeback in our Great Chu."

"As for what the evil sects are, it's actually quite simple. They are a group of cultivators who worship evil gods from other realms or practice evil paths. Their methods are extremely cruel, bizarre, and twisted."

"Heretical gods?"

“You could say that,” Li Xiang said without correcting Wang Wu’s mistake. “You could also call them heretical gods. I don’t know exactly what they are, but they are definitely not products of any grudges or conflicts in our world.”

“You should know about those March people, right?” he asked again.

Wang Wu nodded.

"That's it. My personal guess is that these heretical gods are similar to those March people, but stronger and more bizarre."

"And the True Path, you should also know that the True Path of the Zhou people is not actually something that belongs to our Tianyuan Realm, right?"

"I know this."

“That’s it.” Li Xiang poured herself another glass of wine. “If you ask me, what those heretical cultivators practice is actually the same as the true path.”

"They all have harms, but their benefits are not as great as the true way, but their harms are far greater than the true way."

"The true path brings nothing but true calamity, but what these evil and heretical paths bring..."

Li Xiang shuddered. "I once hosted a heretical cultivator. I didn't realize it at the time until the Demon Suppression Division's Demon Suppression General stormed into my restaurant to arrest him. It was only after his sharp rebuke that I was pulled out of that miasma."

"That was...that was simply..."

"What about the Sihanoukville area? Could you tell me more about that case there?"

"What, you're interested in this kind of thing?" Li Xiang's face showed a very strange expression when he heard Wang Wu's words. He looked Wang Wu up and down for a while. "Guest, you must be quite capable, right?"

"It's alright, pretty good," Wang Wu said with a smile. "Don't worry about my safety."

"Then you can go to the Jingzhao Prefecture and see. They have issued a reward for this case, recruiting capable and righteous people from all over the world to investigate the evil sect behind this case."

“But personally, I don’t think this involves any evil sects,” Li Xiang shrugged. “After all, if that were the case, our place would have been…”

“There is a problem,” Wang Wu interrupted him. “Although the aura is very faint, when I arrived here, I did sense a very faint and deeply hidden stench.”

"That must be the evil heretics you mentioned."

Instantly, when Wang Wu said those words, Li Xiang's expression froze.

Wang Wu initially didn't pay much attention to the aura he sensed when he arrived here, but after hearing about it from Li Xiang today, he took a closer look at the place.

There is indeed a problem here.

(End of this chapter)