Sui Anlan’s eyes were tightly shut as fine beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. Her brows were knit into a tight knot, as though she were enduring some intense internal struggle.
Half-asleep and half-awake, she heard someone calling out to her:
“Wake up… wake up…”
“Save me…”
Who is it?
Sui Anlan found herself standing in a pitch-black world, looking around in confusion.
Where is this place?
“Who’s there? Come out now! Stop playing ghost tricks!” Sui Anlan frowned.
Firefly butterflies fed on dreams. Although she had only recently achieved human form, she could still tell that she was trapped inside a dreamscape.
“I am right here…”
A ghostly light voice drifted from behind her. Following the sound, Sui Anlan turned her head, only to see a woman in white floating out from the darkness. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes dull and lifeless, and her feet hovered completely off the ground as she walked!
Sui Anlan’s heart skipped a beat… Is it really a ghost?!
Although she was a demon herself, she was still terrified of dealing with ghosts, especially ones that clearly looked abnormal like this one.
She immediately turned around, chanting in her heart: You can’t see me, you can’t see me…
Unexpectedly, as soon as she turned away, a sudden chill struck the back of her neck.
“Miss…”
Sui Anlan subconsciously turned her head back around. The woman in white had pressed herself directly up to her face their nose tips nearly touching.
Sui Anlan’s legs went weak, almost falling to her knees.
Goosebumps broke out all over her body, yet she plucked up her courage to put on a show of bravado, asking: “Who are you?”
Hearing this, the woman suddenly snapped her head up and grabbed Sui Anlan’s arms tightly!
“Save me… It wasn’t me… It was him!” the woman shrieked. Her grip was so strong that Sui Anlan’s arms throbbed with pain.
“Who are you talking about?” Sui Anlan could only go along with her words and ask.
“It’s him!” The woman raised her brows, staring intently at Sui Anlan with fierce intensity.
“Who?”
“Him!” The woman emphasized her tone.
“What did he do?” Sui Anlan simply changed her question.
“He did terrible things!”
The woman opened her mouth, but no further words came out. She merely stared at her blankly.
Looking at her like this, a surge of nameless anger flared up inside Sui Anlan.
Is she out of her mind? What kind of person asks for help while speaking in riddles?
She let out a sigh, trying to pull her wrist back, but the woman gripped her even tighter.
“Come find me in the bamboo forest behind the mountain,” the woman’s expression suddenly shifted into one of sheer horror. “There are demon hunters here. If you want to know the truth behind all this, come to the bamboo forest to find me.”
Sui Anlan’s eyes lit up. Judging by her tone, could she be the demon that kidnapped those children? Or rather, a ghost?
“However, you must come alone. Everything you wish to know, I will tell you…” Saying this, the woman loosened her grip as her silhouette dissolved into the darkness.
Sui Anlan snapped awake with a start.
She sat up, turning her head to call for her Benefactor, but remembered the woman’s warning in the dream: “Come alone.”
Sui Anlan kept her mouth shut.
Gently lifting the blanket, she transformed into a butterfly the size of a palm and flew out through the window.
The moment she flew into the bamboo forest behind the mountain, Sui Anlan regretted her decision.
The bamboo forest was shrouded in a heavy fog, eerily quiet, with bamboo leaves rustling sinisterly as the wind blew through them.
She transformed back into human form and tiptoed inward.
Didn’t she say we’d meet in the bamboo forest? Where is she?
“You’ve come.”
A lingering voice suddenly sounded out of nowhere. Sui Anlan’s hair stood on end as she jumped straight into the air in terror: “Who?! Who’s speaking?!”
In the center of the bamboo forest stood nothing but a single, hollow old well. The wellhead was covered in moss, with dense black qi continuously surging into it.
Within that black qi, Sui Anlan could hear the crying voices of children and the resentful wailing of women. It was the resentment of the townspeople!
A rotting stench filled the air, making Sui Anlan’s skin crawl. She grew even more certain that this ghost was definitely the culprit behind the child disappearances.
Just as she was thinking this, a slender hand suddenly reached out from inside the well, resting on the rim.
The hand was deathly pale with dark green, blackish nails. Immediately following it, a contorted figure crawled out from the well, her spine hunched over. Long, jet-black hair hung down, completely covering her face, with water still dripping from her locks.
Sui Anlan: “…”
Something is very wrong.
Seeing the woman’s entire body about to emerge, Sui Anlan turned on her heels and bolted.
“I’m finished, I’m finished…” She wailed internally as she ran.
How is this a demon? This is a ghost!
Shen Chang, you liar! What ‘gorgeous female demon’?! This is clearly a vengeful ghost!
From behind came the female ghost’s voice: “Miss, don’t leave… I haven’t told you yet…”
That’s right! Isn’t the whole purpose of my trip to uncover the truth behind the child disappearances?
At this thought, Sui Anlan came to a screeching halt.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to turn back around.
“Speak,” Sui Anlan didn’t dare look at her directly, so she simply kept her eyes shut tight.
A foul stench rushed straight to her nose as the female ghost stopped moving.
“All of this was done by Wang Chong!” As if recalling something, the female ghost’s eyes nearly tore open in rage as she covered her face and broke down into bitter weeping.
Wang Chong?
Sui Anlan opened her eyes subconsciously. Isn’t that Mayor Wang’s real name?
She studied the crying female ghost before her, her expression turning slightly grim.
Firefly butterflies were exceptionally sensitive to human aura and the same applied to demons.
Earlier by the well, because she was too terrified and the townspeople’s resentment had overwhelmed the smell on her, Sui Anlan hadn’t noticed. Now that she was standing close, she realized that the foul stench emanating from this female ghost was none other than her own demonic qi.
“You are a demon,” Sui Anlan noted.
“Yes,” the female ghost looked up, two streams of blood-red tears flowing down her deathly pale face.
Sui Anlan’s body shuddered. She asked cautiously: “How did you end up like this?”
She had assumed that a demon capable of recklessly kidnapping children, even if not extraordinarily powerful, wouldn’t end up in such a miserable state.
Hearing this, the Moon Soul Butterfly Demon let out a sigh, her voice raspy: “I am a Moon Soul Butterfly Demon. Ever since I achieved human form, I lived on Moonfluorescent Island. Our clan leader always instructed us never to venture into the mortal world, saying mortals possessed cruel hearts and treacherous means that if our identities were exposed, our end would be tragic… But I didn’t believe it.”
“Mortals are different from demon hunters. They possess no magical abilities, how could they possibly harm me? So…” The Moon Soul Butterfly Demon’s eyes grew desolate as she began telling a story long buried in the past.
She used to sneak down to the village at the foot of the mountain to play.
One day, seeing the girls in the village laughing and playing by a mountain spring, she was enticed. Taking advantage of the quiet night, she secretly slipped into the pool.
The butterfly demon was amazed to discover that after taking human form, she no longer feared water very much.
She was having a wonderful time when she suddenly heard an exclamation and the thud of a heavy object hitting the ground behind her.
Turning around, she saw a scholar carrying a travel pack covering his face, a lantern meant for traveling fallen at his feet.
“Miss, please do not take offense! I am traveling to the capital for the imperial exams, I did not intend to peek at you…” The scholar stumbled over his words. Just as he turned around, he caught sight of the butterfly demon behind him unexpectedly.
Panicked and terrified, the scholar fell to the ground. He looked up toward the pool, where no one was to be seen.
Just as he was wondering how this lady had appeared behind him without a sound, the maiden leaned down toward him.
The scholar’s heart beat wildly. Why would a maiden appear in these mountains? I often hear old men say there are lonely souls and wild ghosts in the mountains—could I have run into one?!
The scholar caught sight of the lantern beside him, its candlelight still flickering weakly.
Steeling his resolve, he picked up the lantern and hurled it right at the maiden’s face!
His wrist tightened. Opening his eyes, he found her grasping his hand, the candlelight illuminating her face: as beautiful as a flower, fragrant and enchanting.
The scholar was completely entranced.
“He said he was going to the capital for the imperial examinations and would definitely apologize to me upon his return,” the Moon Soul Butterfly Demon murmured softly. “A few years later, he returned. We married and gave birth to a daughter.”
Hearing this, Sui Anlan’s face filled with shock, and she stammered: “Wait! Your daughter… couldn’t be… Ah Yue, right?”
No wonder her face looked somewhat familiar.
“It is her,” the butterfly demon nodded. “However, during the year I gave birth, my body was too weak to maintain human form, and he discovered my true form…”
A look of agonizing pain surfaced on the butterfly demon’s face. She would never forget how her usually gentle husband didn’t hesitate for a single second to pick up a sword and sever both her legs.
He hired people to set up a containment formation, trapping her inside it.
The butterfly demon had initially thought he was acting out of remnant affection as husband and wife, preventing demon hunters from slaying her.
She never expected that he imprisoned her solely to force her to slaughter those who had once humiliated him. Not only that, but he also had her bewitch the townspeople and the wealthy merchants of Yunxi Town, forcing them to willingly hand over taxes that had been inflated several times over.
Yunxi Town had always chosen locals to serve as mayor. Wang Chong had no influential background; coming to an unfamiliar place all by himself, he was naturally shunned by others.
The townspeople viewed him as nothing more than a pretentious scholar who stole the opportunity for a local to become an official, while the wealthy merchants viewed him as a minor figure, refusing to take him seriously.
When they first arrived in Yunxi Town, children would often hurl stones into their courtyard. Whenever she indignantly wanted to confront the villagers, Wang Chong would stop her, saying there was no need to hold a grudge against children.
At this point, a gaze that Sui Anlan couldn’t quite fathom shone from the butterfly demon’s eyes.
In the beginning, Wang Chong had confidently told her that he would break people’s prejudices against him and strive to be a good official.
Seeing the young man’s ambitious spirit, the butterfly demon had nodded along. Until one day, his superiors pressed him hard for money and grain supplies, forcing him to visit a wealthy merchant’s home to demand taxes.
The wealthy merchant had a dog brought out, claiming it was his cherished pet if Wang Chong could compose a poem for the dog, he would agree to give him the money.
Though reluctant, Wang Chong gritted his teeth and composed a poem. Unexpectedly, the merchant went back on his word, mocked him ruthlessly, and threw him out.
The onlookers pointed at him and laughed uproariously. Overwhelmed with shame, Wang Chong ran home, only to have children chase behind him chanting a nursery rhyme:
“Outsider fool, outsider fool! Doesn’t know the crops, yet acts like a lord!
Heaven’s wheel turns round and round; who will the heavens spare in the end?”
From that day on, Wang Chong locked himself in his room until he discovered the butterfly demon’s true identity.
His dark side was completely exposed. He demanded that the butterfly demon kill everyone who had bullied him. But before marrying Wang Chong, she had promised her clan leader never to use magic in the mortal realm. Seeing her refuse, Wang Chong grabbed a dull blade and struck her legs over and over again.
Sui Anlan nodded slowly in realization, no wonder she had appeared floating in her dreamscape.
The butterfly demon had wanted to detonate her core to die, but he actually used Ah Yue to threaten her. Having no choice, the butterfly demon slaughtered the merchant’s entire family in a bath of blood.
“Then what about the children who disappeared over the past few months?” Sui Anlan knew nothing of romantic love and couldn’t empathize with the butterfly demon’s heartbreaking sorrow, focusing instead on the missing children.
Gathering her thoughts, the butterfly demon said: “Our Moon Soul Butterfly clan undergoes a Lunar Calamity on the night of the full moon. I didn’t want to target those children…”
A deep bitterness shone in her eyes. Those children were only a few years older than Ah Yue, and furthermore if it were in the past, Wang Chong would never have allowed her to harm innocent children either.
Yet things hadn’t turned out as wished; neither of them was the person they used to be anymore.
“I haven’t seen my Ah Yue in six years! She is of half-demon blood—without spiritual power to protect her body, her soul will surely scatter into nothingness!” The butterfly demon shook her head.
“As her mother, I haven’t cared for her since the day she was born. I am not a proper mother, but I simply do not want my child to die before I do.”
“Then why did you harm other people’s children?” Sui Anlan countered.
“I didn’t!” the butterfly demon said. “I only extracted their spiritual power; I didn’t harm them!”
“Is that true?” Those children had been missing for several months now. Sui Anlan remained skeptical of her words.
“Why would I lie to you?!” The butterfly demon was furious. Just as she was about to say more, her expression suddenly changed.
“You brought those two demon hunters here?!” The butterfly demon’s eyes glared wide in rage.
Sui Anlan was startled. They were discovered?