Wu Xin: The Monster Killer

Chapter 6 The Final Anomaly

Wuxin left his dagger and clothes at the well's edge, then, unarmed and carrying only a roll of blood-stained rope, jumped headfirst into the well without warning. He wasn't usually afraid of injury, but his senses were acute, and he felt pain keenly; the new cut on his palm caused him a dull ache. The well was a fine one, with a flat, sturdy platform and a long, straight, perfectly circular well wall. The surrounding air was eerie, the moss slippery. Wuxin plummeted like a fish, a chill running through him as he silently plunged into the well water.

After entering the water, Wuxin pushed off the well wall with one foot, using the momentum to flip himself into a head-down position. Because he was completely naked and his skin was smooth, Wuxin moved nimbly and without any hesitation in the water. Holding his knees, he continued to sink. He closed his eyes and calmed himself for a moment, then felt the water chilling to the bone, and the surrounding darkness made it seem like a completely different world from outside the well. The last bubble blew out of his ear, and he opened his eyes. Like a fish in a deep pool, he could see clearly without needing light. He felt a tingling, itchy sensation on his skin, and he saw countless long hairs like tiny water plants, drifting and swaying aimlessly in all directions.

Wuxin knew the female demon was hiding in her long hair. If it had been a mortal instead of him, the moment his yang energy was revealed, he would have been immediately entangled and controlled by her hair. However, Wuxin was neither human nor ghost, neither alive nor dead, as still as wood or stone, so he came without easily disturbing the female demon.

Suddenly, his feet touched solid ground. Wuxin, struggling to stay afloat in the water, glanced around discreetly and discovered that the well was a large, pot-shaped vessel. While it looked ordinary at the top, it expanded in all directions at the bottom, eventually becoming a spacious area, much like a small house. Looking up, he saw only dense, overcast clouds, blocking out all light. Grabbing a handful of hair without hesitation, Wuxin began to pull and tug wildly. The long hair in the water suddenly seemed to come alive, whipping wildly. While searching for the female demon through the hair, Wuxin wielded the rope as a whip, lashing out in all directions. The water became chaotic, and he actually managed to untangle the long hair. Just as the fight reached its peak, Wuxin suddenly felt a surge of yin energy behind him, coming with overwhelming force. He leaped up and lashed out with the rope. He heard a piercing scream as the rope struck the attacking female demon! Wuxin pointed at the endless, swirling hair in front of him and shouted sharply, "No matter how powerful you are, you're nothing more than a ghost demon. I showed mercy the night before to let you reflect and repent! I didn't expect you to be so ungrateful, instead intensifying your harming of people. Then don't blame me for being impolite!"

Upon hearing this, a faint reply came from within the hairy formation: "Quite the boast, and who are you anyway?"

Wuxin raised his hands and slowly straightened the rope: "Me? Unspeakable!"

He immediately lunged forward, intending to forcibly bind the female demon. It was broad daylight, and the female demon would be annihilated once she left the well; she couldn't simply wait to die. She bit down on Wuxin's throat. Although she could tell he wasn't an ordinary person, she still assumed he was a powerful sorcerer and used magic to hold her breath. The demon's body was formed from a large amount of resentment; every breath carried poison. Biting into flesh with blood, even just breaking the skin, was enough to kill. Wuxin endured the pain without flinching, and proceeded to tie the demon to himself with a rope. The demon wasn't afraid of being bound, but upon touching the rope, she cried out again, loosening her grip and retreating—not because the rope was inscribed with a powerful talisman or imbued with extreme yang energy; the rope carried a strange aura. How strange? It was hard to say.

The female demon hid in a corner, her body completely concealed behind her long, flowing hair, which resembled seaweed: "What exactly are you?"

Seeing her flinch, he realized she was a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong, and his resentment grew even stronger. Recalling the account in the county annals, he suddenly felt malicious and wanted to provoke her. So he lowered his head slightly and smiled, softly calling out, "Yue Qiluo, I am your Duan Sanlang! We promised to live and die together, so why did I keep my promise and drown myself, while you choose to continue living?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed the rope and charged at the female demon again. The female demon, as if greatly threatened by his words, suddenly went berserk and began to fight back. The bottom of the well, however large, was only larger than the top; it couldn't accommodate two people fighting to the death. The female demon unleashed various poisonous techniques, repeatedly striking Wuxin's shoulders and abdomen. Wuxin was naked, and she attacked him without leaving a single handprint. The female demon saw clearly, becoming even more enraged. She extended her sharp claws and struck, aiming for Wuxin's chest with a "thud." Wuxin neither dodged nor flinched, but instead formed a noose and looped it around the female demon's neck. Enduring the excruciating pain, he pulled the rope tighter and looked down, only to see that the female demon's fingernails had pierced his flesh—a move intended to rip out his heart.

Unconcerned about her digging, only the pain, he stretched out two fingers to poke two bloody holes in her face. Upon being poked, he cursed, "Damn it, your eyes are so far apart!"

He then poked again, palm up, his fingers hooking around the woman's eye socket bone. He pushed off the ground with his feet, intending to swim upwards with the female demon. The female demon knew that going up would mean certain death, so she struggled desperately. The rope around her neck tightened more and more, and she finally realized the enemy's strangeness—the enemy was dead!

This isn't the death of birth and death, but a death that existed before the creation of the world, a death without beginning or end, silent and colorless! The living die and are reincarnated, ghosts disperse and still have souls; but the opponent is like a shadow, merely existing, possessing nothing. If the most devastating defeat is death, then the opponent is forever invincible!

The bottom of the well was pitch black, and her long hair swirled and boiled. The female demon, gathering her strength, cried out, "You are a puppet!"

With one hand gripping the rope and the other hooking his eye socket, Wuxin continued swimming upwards with the female demon, unmoved. As the hair in the water gradually thinned and light began to appear above, he was about to speed up when the female demon in front of him suddenly trembled. He felt his hand go light, and looking down, he discovered that the female demon's neck was broken. Her head was still in his hand, but her body was sinking straight down.

Wuxin didn't understand what she meant, assuming she planned to become a headless demon, continuing to harm people despite her disability. He threw down his head and plunged into the well, passing through a thick layer of hair. There he saw the headless female demon charging forward, relentlessly ramming into him. Wuxin could see clearly that it was pitch black ahead, just the bottom and walls of the well. However, with each impact, the well water gradually became murky, mixed with the spreading mud. Wuxin closed his eyes, sensing a strong yang energy ahead, but it wasn't a living person.

The headless female demon continued her assault, and Wuxin, still sharp-eyed and alert in the water, could faintly hear the metallic sounds of her striking the water. Feeling the well water had cleared slightly, he opened his eyes and saw a stone wall ahead, inscribed with the Yin-Yang symbol and the Eight Trigrams. The female demon's posture was contorted and convulsing, as if each strike brought unbearable agony.

Wu Xin didn't understand, but he had a vague premonition that something was wrong—what was the point of a female demon who was about to be destroyed, enduring pain greater than that of being destroyed, crashing into a wall that had been enchanted?

After crashing into the water several times, the female demon floated motionless, her tattered clothes swaying with the current. Wuxin swam forward to grab her, but before he could even place his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly arched her back, her body arching backward, and with all her might, a loud "thud" echoed. It was as if she had shattered half her body in the crash. Bones and flesh scattered in the water, and the female demon lay still, motionless.

Wuxin was baffled; even though it was only half a body, he wanted it too. Grabbing the female demon's arm, he turned and swam back to the bottom of the well. The female demon was probably truly dead; her long hair in the water looked like it had been drenched in dog's blood, all tattered and disheveled. Bending down to pick up the female demon's head, Wuxin didn't need the rope anymore and leaped up to swim upwards.

However, in the instant he surfaced, a string of tiny bubbles suddenly flashed before his eyes. Since the bottom of the well had become the female demon's lair, there wouldn't be any ordinary living creatures there. Before Wuxin could figure out the source of the bubbles, the light above his head reappeared.

At the same time, Lord Gu and Yueya also rushed into the mansion in a chaotic manner.

Wuxin said she was going out to investigate, and then she never returned. Lord Gu, unfamiliar with the nature of ghosts and spirits, assumed the female demon would relentlessly pursue him like a concubine, so without Wuxin by his side, he felt uneasy, breaking out in a cold sweat even under the blazing sun. Meanwhile, Yueya, seeing that lunchtime was approaching and Wuxin hadn't returned, was also anxious, unable to enjoy the delicious food. Although Yueya also feared ghosts, she believed that at seventeen, she had only ever been wronged, never wronged, and thus possessed a unique, fatalistic acceptance of fate. The two stood in the blazing sun, discussing the matter, and finally decided to go to the house together to see what Wuxin was up to.

Lord Gu was very cautious. He went out dressed in armor, with a large rooster tied to his front and back, and three large black dogs following in front of and behind his car. Yueya felt sorry for her clothes and refused to carry the roosters, instead carrying a fluffy black puppy.

The car drove smoothly and arrived at the mansion gate in just a few minutes. Lord Gu, protected by a rooster, led the large black dog inside. Crescent Moon followed behind, and after only a few steps, she saw dried blood scattered on the ground. A guard jogged up and whispered, "Reporting to the commander, the old man's remains have been taken away by his family. The high priest used some kind of magic to burn the old man's body until it was about seven or eight tenths cooked."

Lord Gu stopped and thought for a moment, then waved his hands frantically, shouting, "Get out! I can't eat when I hear you!" Seeing the guard was about to leave, he grabbed him again: "Where's the mage?"

The guard bent over and whispered, "Reporting to the commander, I peeked through the crack in the door this morning and saw the Grand Mage go to the backyard and hasn't come out since."

Lord Gu pondered for a moment, touching the pistol on his left hip and the cleaver on his right. Then, turning around with the chicken, he loudly commanded, "Men, march in step and follow me to the backyard!"

Lord Gu, accompanied by his men and animals, drove menacingly into the backyard. However, upon entering, he found Wuxin sitting barefoot on the well platform, dressed in black cloth trousers and a jacket, his feet dripping wet. Beside Wuxin's feet lay a pile of objects: a large clump of hair wrapped around half a torso, hissing and writhing in the sunlight. It was as if beneath the hair, ice water and burning embers coexisted.

Lord Gu was taken aback: "You—"

Without intending to look at him, she suddenly smiled thoughtfully: "I—"

After saying "I," he stopped abruptly, smiled again, and refused to continue.

(End of this chapter)