So it turns out I'm the demon!

After seeing the old man off, Jiang Mu walked around the village again, asking more than ten people, young and old, men and women.

The answers I got were all exactly the same.

There have never been any monsters or children missing in the village.

I've never even seen anyone from the Demon Slayer Division.

Jiang Mu frowned deeply, then turned to Ming Cuicui and asked, "Is it certain that the person who went to the Demon Slayer Division to report the case was a villager from Guanjia Village?" Ming Cuicui also looked blank and shook her head.

"I don't know either. It was Zhu Chang who went to report to the Water Chief, saying that someone had reported a case and needed help. The Chief immediately sent them to investigate. I've never even seen the person who reported the case."

The trail seems to have ended here.

The two followed the village road to Wenlin Pond at the back of the village.

This body of water isn't very large; you can see its end at a glance. It's roughly oval-shaped and nestled quietly among the mountains and forests, like a mirror. A gentle breeze stirs the surface, creating tiny, silvery ripples.

Jiang Mu walked to the edge of the pool, squatted down, and put one hand into the water to spread his divine sense and conduct a wide-ranging search.

A moment later, Jiang Mu withdrew her hand, flicked the water droplets from her fingertips, and said:

"I didn't sense any demonic energy. But if a powerful demon is deliberately lurking deep within, concealing its presence, it would indeed be difficult to detect it using only this method." "Why is that?"

Ming Cuicui looked worried and confused.

"Could it be that after Zhu Chang and the others arrived here, they found that the demon was no longer in Wenlintan, and then followed some clues to investigate other places?"

Jiang Mu decisively shook her head, denying this guess:

"That doesn't make sense. Since Zhu Chang and his team were ordered to investigate Guanjia Village, even if the demon wasn't there, they would have asked the local villagers about the situation first. But the villagers had never seen them before, and judging from their expressions, they didn't seem to be collectively lying or covering up anything. So, there's only one possibility left."

"What's possible?"

Ming Cuicui quickly pressed for more information.

Jiang Mu's gaze was deep: "Zhu Chang and the others had already encountered trouble on the way into the village."

He instructed Ming Cuicui:

"You stay here and continue to inquire among the villagers in other nearby villages or passing merchants to see if anyone has witnessed any clues. I will retrace our steps and search the area thoroughly again."

"Alright, Lord Jiang, please be very careful."

Ming Cuicui nodded emphatically.

Jiang Mu stopped wasting words and began a thorough scan of the official road and the surrounding forests with his divine sense.

Before long, he detected several remnants of demonic energy.

But they were just a few small, scattered demons.

However, after a friendly interrogation by Jiang Mu, a clue was finally obtained from a weasel spirit.

Yesterday, it witnessed a group of people dressed in Demon Slayer uniforms passing by on the main road and entering Guanjia Village.

This confused even Jiang Mu.

To save its own life, the little demon dared not lie; it said it had seen Zhu Chang and the others enter the village with its own eyes.

But the villagers of Guanjia Village were not lying either; they had indeed never seen it.

The two sides said completely opposite things, but both were telling the truth.

Filled with surprise and doubt, Jiang Mufei returned to Guanjia Village.

As soon as she landed, Ming Cuicui came running over, panting:

"Lord Jiang! I just asked a few people in the neighboring village, and they indeed haven't seen Zhu Chang, nor have they heard of any children being abducted by monsters. However, I found a simpleton near a haystack on the outskirts of the village, and he keeps muttering to himself that he saw a monster!"

"Fool?"

Jiang Mu looked in the direction Ming Cuicui was pointing.

Not far away, a filthy, disheveled man was waving a broken wooden stick, shouting incoherently and occasionally letting out a silly chuckle.

Ming Cuicui explained in a low voice:

"This fool used to be from Guanjia Village. I asked the old people in the village, and his name is Qidan. He said that when he was a child, he went to the mountain to herd sheep, but he was unlucky and ran into bandits."

The bandits not only robbed him of all his sheep, but also, finding him noisy, struck him on the back of the head with a stick, rendering him mentally impaired.

Jiang Mu nodded and walked over.

The fool ignored anyone who approached and kept waving his stick around in the grass, trying to shoo something away.

"I heard you saw a demon?" Jiang Mu tried to soften her tone.

The fool tilted his head, staring intently at him for a while, then suddenly grinned and muttered, "A demon...hehe, a monster...a really big monster..."

Jiang Mu patiently asked again:

"Have you seen a group of people enter the village? Dressed in black, carrying knives."

"A monster...it's a monster...it eats children...it's dark..."

The fool kept repeating those same few sentences, muttering to himself.

Jiang Mu frowned; the communication efficiency was too low.

He turned to Ming Cuicui and asked, "Is there any way to get him to reply?"

Ming Cuicui thought for a moment, walked up to the mentally challenged man, and coaxed him gently:

"Seven Eggs, if you just tell us if you saw a lot of people entering this village yesterday, I'll go up the mountain and find all your sheep for you, okay?"

Upon hearing the words "find the sheep," the simpleton's eyes lit up. He waved the branch and spun around in circles, repeatedly chanting, "Sheep...find the sheep...find the sheep..."

Jiang Mu rubbed her temples.

You're Li Qiye, aren't you? Always looking for sheep.

But the next moment, the fool suddenly pointed towards the entrance of Guanjia Village and mumbled, "A monster, I've seen it... They don't know... They've been deceived... He's a monster too..."

Scammed?

Jiang Mu's heart skipped a beat, and a guess flashed through her mind like lightning.

Could it be that Zhu Chang and his group had someone leading the way when they arrived?

If the guide was a demon in disguise, deliberately leading them in the wrong direction, then everything makes sense.

But the problem has come full circle.

Since we've entered the village, why didn't the villagers see us?

"Where were they tricked into going?" Ming Cuicui pressed.

The fool gestured wildly, breaking his speech as he said, "...two doors...went to the wrong door...was tricked..."

Two doors?

Jiang Mu's heart stirred, and she quickly walked to the village entrance to examine it carefully.

The village entrance is quite ordinary.

Two old trees stand on the left and right, and a dirt road runs through them, leading to the village.

Soon, he discovered a clue in a patch of grass.

There are a few broken stones there.

Jiang Mu picked up one of them, infused it with a wisp of spiritual energy, sensed it for a moment, and said calmly, "It's an array stone."

A magic array was once set up at the entrance of this village.

That makes sense.

There used to be a hidden "array gate" at the entrance of the village.

As Zhu Chang and the others followed the demon disguised as a guide into the village entrance, they unknowingly stepped into another layered space activated by the formation. Or perhaps it was an illusionary realm with terrain similar to Guanjia Village.

Therefore, the monsters from the outside world saw them enter the village, but the real villagers were completely unaware.

Ming Cuicui wanted to ask the mentally challenged man a few more questions about the details, but he suddenly started howling loudly as if he had gone mad:

"Sheep! My sheep!"

Then, he pushed Ming Cuicui aside and ran wildly into the deep mountains in the distance.

"Hey, don't run away!"

Ming Cuicui wanted to chase after her.

"Let him go, you won't get any more information out of him." Jiang Mu raised her hand to stop her.

Ming Cuicui asked anxiously, "Lord Jiang, what should we do now?"

A glint of light flashed in Jiang Mu's eyes:

"This fool just said that 'monsters eat children,' which means that part of the missing child reported by the person who filed the report is true. If there really is a water monster, it's probably hiding at the bottom of Wenlin Pool. Most of the clues to Zhu Chang and the others' disappearance will also have to be found here."

He instructed Ming Cuicui:

"You wait here, I'll be right back."

After saying that, Jiang Mu spread his wings and soared into the sky, turning into a streak of light and disappearing from sight.

In just half an incense stick's time, Jiang Mu landed in his own backyard.

The sunlight was just right in the courtyard.

Chu Lingzhu and Lan Rou'er were carrying several bamboo baskets, chatting and selecting medicinal herbs to dry.

Next to them, in a large basket of medicinal herbs, the mermaid princess Chan Xiaoyu was lying sprawled out, her little hands holding a large sausage, which she was happily munching on, her little belly round and full.

Jiang Mu descended from the sky.

A strong gust of wind sent the medicinal herbs flying everywhere, startling the two maids so much that they turned pale and screamed.

Chu Lingzhu clutched her chest with one hand and patted her heart with the other. Upon recognizing Jiang Mu, her eyebrows furrowed, and she said angrily:

"Boss, couldn't you have given me a heads-up? You scared me to death, I was terrified!"

"I have something urgent to attend to, we'll talk when I get back."

Jiang Mu had no time to argue with her. He walked to the basket of medicinal herbs, grabbed the little mermaid princess who was still gnawing on ham, and shot her into the air.

In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the horizon.

Chu Lingzhu stared blankly at the empty sky and the scattered medicinal herbs on the ground, a sense of resentment welling up within her.

She pouted angrily:

"That damn boss, he's treating us less and less. He didn't come home last night, and he came back today without saying a word. He doesn't care about us at all."

While squatting on the ground picking up medicinal herbs, Lan Rou'er weakly defended Jiang Mu:

"Lingzhu, don't be angry. Brother Jiang is the deputy director; he's busy with official duties, there's nothing he can do about it..."

"You're such a fangirl."

Chu Lingzhu rolled her eyes in annoyance and stretched out her small hand, "I'm so angry, give me a date to eat first to calm my nerves."

"oh oh."

Lan Rou'er's face flushed slightly, and she shyly reached into her ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). After a short while, she pulled out two spirit dates that were still warm from her body and had a faint fragrance, and handed them over.

Chu Lingzhu was about to reach out to take it.

"Whoosh!"

A sudden gust of wind swept into the courtyard again.

Jiang Mu, who had returned, appeared like a ghost and snatched the two dates from Lan Rou'er's palm.

Then it disappeared again.

The two girls were left staring at each other in bewilderment.

They rushed back to Guanjia Village.

Jiang Mu carried Chan Xiaoyu to the edge of Wenlin Pool.

He first instructed Ming Cuicui to stay on the shore, then pointed to the pool and said seriously to the little princess:

"Little foodie, listen up. You're a mermaid, and your ability to sense demonic energy and formations in the water is better than mine."

"Go into the water in a bit. If you find anything, bring me there immediately, understand? Good job, you'll get a whole roasted lamb as a treat when we get back." "Woo!"

When Chan Xiaoyu heard "roast whole lamb," her big eyes lit up, and she nodded her little head like she was pounding garlic.

Jiang Mu took out the water-repelling pearl that the demon sister had given him before from his bosom, put it in his mouth, and jumped into the pool one after the other with Chan Xiaoyu.

The water-repelling bead glowed slightly the moment it entered the water.

A transparent bubble immediately appeared around Jiang Mu, enveloping him.

Chan Xiaoyu transformed into a small fish, nimbly flicked her tail, and swam quickly toward the deeper water.

Jiang Mu followed closely behind her.

The water in the pool gets darker the deeper you go.

The sunlight here is reduced to just a few faint beams.

After swimming for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Chan Xiaoyu suddenly changed direction and swam towards a huge rock wall on the left side of the pool.

A discovery!

Jiang Mu perked up and followed closely behind.

A moment later, a purple halo appeared deep underwater.

The aperture hovered on the sandy bottom of the pool, rotating slightly, its edges radiating light.

Chan Xiaoyu flicked her little tail and darted inside.

Jiang Mu also plunged in.

As he passed through the light circle, Jiang Mu felt a slight dizziness. Then, he found himself in another body of water.

There was no light overhead, and the surrounding water appeared even darker and more oppressive.

In this dark underwater world, there stand out a series of human-shaped stone sculptures, some standing and some kneeling, each with a different posture.

He cautiously swam a few points closer to examine it carefully.

Jiang Mu was surprised to find that the facial features of these stone statues were vaguely similar to those of the villagers in Guanjia Village.

Just as he was in shock, he suddenly saw Chan Xiaoyu looking behind him with fear in her eyes.

Jiang Mu suddenly turned around.

In the dark, rippling water, the corpse of a woman dressed in coarse linen clothes floated silently less than three zhang away from him. The body was bound tightly with hemp rope, and a stone was attached to each of her feet.

The woman's long hair spread out like seaweed, swaying gently with the undercurrent. Her belly was high and protruding, clearly indicating that she was several months pregnant.

Two lives lost, one unborn and the other, their bodies sunk to the bottom of the water.

next second.

The corpse opened its eyes and stared coldly at him.

"A water ghost?"

Jiang Mu felt a chill run down his spine as the true essence of the Blood Mad Blade condensed in his palm.

But before he could make a move, Chan Xiaoyu beside him suddenly began to convulse. Her small fish body thrashed violently, and she kept spitting out strings of bubbles, as if she had been electrocuted.

"What's wrong with this foodie? Did she eat something bad?"

Jiang Mu was completely confused.

Then, Chan Xiaoyu returned to human form, and her body continued to grow larger and longer…

One foot, one meter, two meters...

In the blink of an eye, the tiny little girl grew into a female giant nearly three meters tall.

As her size increased dramatically, Chan Xiaoyu's appearance also underwent a significant change.

Her previously youthful and adorable features had now fully blossomed into a stunningly beautiful face, exuding both allure and divine charm. Her over two-meter-long jet-black hair flowed freely in the water, creating a breathtakingly beautiful scene.

But the most crucial thing is...

This enlarged body was completely naked at the moment.

The water rippled like gauze, lingering and undulating on her skin, breathtakingly beautiful, yet so beautiful that one dared not defile it.

Spring scenery is everywhere, with every detail clearly visible.

"Holy crap..."

Jiang Mu's brain went blank on the spot.

After a long silence, he swallowed hard and murmured:

"This hardware is simply impossible to implement."