At the start of the game, you have one equipment slot; the effects of unequipping the equipment rema

"Oh? Tell me more!"

Mu Yang gently held the teacup and said slowly.

Hu Deshui looked around and, seeing that no one on the second floor was paying attention to them, leaned closer and lowered his voice to say, "Master Mu, I overheard the diners talking about how every night around midnight, a woman in a red wedding dress wanders around the alley."

"It is said that the woman's feet never touch the ground, she floats around the whole time, and she specializes in killing men. Many people have already fallen victim to her."

"I heard that the bodies that were found were all pale-faced, emaciated, and looked like mummies that had been dead for a long time."

By the end, Hu Deshui couldn't help but shudder.

He hadn't thought much of it at first, but after Mu Yang asked him and he recalled it, he realized that Qinghe County might not be as peaceful as Qingxi County.

Fortunately, the problems all occurred in dilapidated alleys. He had some savings, and his residence was not far from the county government office, so he was relatively safe.

"Are there specific times and numbers of people involved in the discovery?" Mu Yang continued to ask.

Hu Deshui shook his head with a bitter face: "Sir, I really don't know about this. I only heard it from the members of the Cao Gang who came here to eat."

"You know those guys, they're all roughnecks. When they're drinking and bragging, they'll say anything, and no one can tell what's true and what's false."

Mu Yang nodded, not pressing further, and casually tossed a few taels of silver to Hu Deshui, signaling him to serve the dishes.

"Thank you, Master Xie!"

Hu Deshui beamed with joy, like a writer who had just received a reward, and thanked him repeatedly.

"A woman in a wedding dress, a dried corpse, absorbing life essence?"

After Hu Deshui went down, Mu Yang secretly analyzed the situation.

Suddenly, two alluring and beautiful figures appeared in his mind.

This situation sounds somewhat like the methods used by fox spirits like Hu Xin and Hu Mei.

As for wandering around at night without touching the ground, as long as the speed is fast enough, high-level demons can do it like ghosts in the eyes of ordinary people.

Of course, this is on the premise that what Hu Deshui heard is true.

It cannot be ruled out that someone is actually impersonating someone else, taking the opportunity to confuse the public and carry out some kind of revenge killing.

The body was discovered late, already shriveled, and the story spread through misinformation, becoming a widely believed rumor.

Rumors sometimes take shape in this way.

We'll only know the specifics once he sees it for himself.

Hu Deshui worked quickly, and soon roast chicken, roast goose, braised beef and other hearty dishes were served one by one.

As Mu Yang ate, he subconsciously circulated his true energy to examine his body.

Although he knew the restaurant wouldn't have any problems, he was still inevitably affected by what had happened before.

Fortunately, my worries were unnecessary.

This is a normally operating restaurant, and the food is pretty good.

After eating and drinking his fill, Mu Yang tossed down the money for the meal and got up to leave the restaurant.

..................

Guaizi Lane is located east of Qinghe County, and a few miles outside the city are a series of wharves.

Mu Yang walked through several bustling main streets, and the further east he went, the narrower the streets became and the more dilapidated the houses became.

When we arrived at the alley, the road surface was not only full of potholes, but also covered with moss in the cracks, making it wet and slippery to walk on.

The road was lined with densely packed low houses, which looked much more dilapidated than his house in Qingxi County.

The air was filled with the fishy smell of the river, the acrid smell of cooking smoke, and an unpleasant musty odor.

"This is the alleyway of the thieves, truly two sides of the same coin."

Previously, Mu Yang had only seen the prosperity of Qinghe County. He never expected that such a large county would also have such a poor place.

Mu Yang glanced at the alleyway.

Dirty, messy, crowded.

His impression of it was even worse than that of villages outside Qingxi County.

But surprisingly, there is order amidst the chaos. Every inch of land and every corner is fully utilized, and the area is crowded but not congested, which is quite astonishing.

As soon as Mu Yang stepped into the alley, several pairs of eyes swept over him.

Whether overt or covert, whether vigilant or numb.

Several shirtless men squatted at the entrance of the alley. They had dark skin and strong muscles, and were clearly used to manual labor.

When they saw Mu Yang's youthful and fair-skinned face, their eyes lit up as if they were sizing up a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

But when their gazes swept over the vermilion "斩" (slay) character on Mu Yang's chest, everyone's expression changed.

The sharp glint in his eyes was replaced by fear, unease, and lingering dread.

The Demon Slayer Division's reputation is so great that even the beggars in the alleyway can talk about it; it's definitely a gathering place for killing stars.

They don't even care about demons, let alone low-level thugs like them hiding in the alley.

Mu Yang paid no attention to the reactions of these people, and simply strolled through the alley, his eyes occasionally sweeping over his surroundings.

Most of the people here are dressed in tattered clothes and have sallow complexions.

Occasionally, you can see a few men with short knives at their waists, walking steadily, and carrying a faint smell of blood.

They're probably from the Grand Canal gang.

Upon seeing Mu Yang, the men all stopped and respectfully made way for him.

Guaizi Alley wasn't very big, and Mu Yang had walked around it in no time, but he didn't find anything unusual.

"Let's come back tonight."

Mu Yang looked up at the sky and thought to himself.

Hu Deshui said the woman in the wedding dress appeared at midnight, and it's still early before sunset.

As he was thinking, a piercing scream came from the courtyard not far away.

"ah--!!!"

The sound was sharp and piercing, as if the person had been frightened.

A faint demonic aura also entered Mu Yang's nasal cavity along with the sound.

Mu Yang's eyes narrowed, and he pushed off with his feet, soaring into the air amidst the envious or awe-inspiring gazes of those around him.

With a few leaps and bounds, they scaled several low courtyard walls and arrived at the courtyard from which the sound came.

There were three people standing in the courtyard.

One was a woman who looked to be in her thirties, dressed in simple but fairly clean coarse cloth clothes.

One was an elderly man with gray hair, holding a bell and carrying a medicine box on his back; he looked like a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

And a middle-aged man with an odd appearance.

The middle-aged man's eyes were as gray as riverbed pebbles, his skin was dark and bluish-black, and his exposed neck and arms were covered with patches of bluish-black scales.

In the afternoon sunlight, it gleamed with a cold, eerie light, like the scales of some kind of fish.

At that moment, the middle-aged man was clinging tightly to the woman's neck and biting her.

Sharp teeth embedded themselves in the woman's carotid artery, and blood gushed out like a fountain, dripping from the corner of her mouth.

The woman's eyes widened, and she opened and closed her mouth as if to shout, but could only make a "hoarse" sound.

As blood gushed out, her face turned pale at a visible speed, and her pupils began to dilate.

It was on the verge of extinction.

The dead woman seemed to have lost its appeal to the middle-aged man; he released her and lunged at the doctor not far away.

"A ladyboy?"

Mu Yang frowned slightly, then flashed to the old doctor's side and reached out to lock the neck of the middle-aged man who lunged at him.

The man's body was cold, like a watermelon that had been thrown into a well and chilled overnight in the summer—cold, hard, and slippery.

At the same time, he also exuded a strange smell in addition to demonic energy.

It smells a bit like the stench of a corpse that's been sitting for a long time, but not as strong.

If Mu Yang hadn't seen him move with his own eyes, he would have thought it was a corpse that had been dead for several days.

"What is this thing...?"

A hint of doubt flashed through Mu Yang's mind.

But now is not the time to think.

After Mu Yang pressed his neck down, the middle-aged man showed no fear whatsoever. His gray-white eyes, like those of a pebble, were fixed on Mu Yang's neck.

He waved his arms, attempting to attack Mu Yang.

Mu Yang suddenly exerted force with his palm.

With a snap, the middle-aged man's head lolled to the side.

The head rolled to the ground.

Although he didn't know what it was, Mu Yang was fully aware of its strength.

Judging from the strength of his struggle, he had at most two thousand jin of strength in one arm, roughly equivalent to a martial artist at the second-tier Bone and Tendon Realm level.

They are even inferior to martial artists in the Bone Forging stage of the Tendon and Bone Realm.

That amount of strength was no match for him.

However, just as Mu Yang released his grip, preparing to ask the old doctor,

A sudden change has occurred!