Song Lin was still trembling when he spoke. “I found a murky river to the west,” he said. “There wasn’t anything to see at first, but one of the martial artists was watching when the river erupted. All types of fish and sea creatures came out onto the land, but they were already dead.”

  “Did this happen only once?”

  “No, it erupted a few times. One of the martial artists tried to eat one of the fishes for food. But he grew sick and almost died, were it not for our attempts to save him,” An Xin said.

  Lu Qingshan’s eyes turned to look into the distance. It seemed that only the mountain might bring them a possibility.

  “Anything else to add?” Lu Qingshan asked.

  “Something tore open two of our martial artists. I wasn’t sure what it was.”

  “And you didn’t investigate?”

  “Uh,” An Xin said nervously, “we were about to. But then we heard about Song Lin needing help and so we rushed there to see what was going on.”

  “I did not need help to deal with fish,” Song Lin said. “You’re all just trying to get out of any responsibility.”

  “Watch what you say,” An Xin deflected. “We were there to help you in case something happened. Your group is smaller than ours, after all.”

  Lu Qingshan sighed. “We’ll go figure out what happened in both of the places,” he said. The fish was one thing — perhaps something was hiding beneath the river soil — but losing two martial artists was completely abnormal. The An siblings were probably scared. He could understand why.

  The river was indeed as he expected. After sending everyone away, Lu Qingshan tested the waters’ safety with a few of his flies. Even at the Marrow Tempering stage, they died if they remained too long in the water. It would likely be unsafe to drink, so there was no choice but to leave it alone for now.

  But what he found surprising was that the Viscera Tempering fly, a spiritual insect, expressed the desire to eat the poisoned creatures emerging from the river. Lu Qingshan didn’t think this was wise, but he let it go in case it could surpass his expectations. Fortunately, the spiritual Bloodseeker Fly had no problems with digesting the food. Though it didn’t look very satisfied, at least it wouldn’t continue eating away at their meager supplies.

  Lu Qingshan packed up as much of the dead fish and stored them in his jade boxes. This would alleviate most of their problems — the flies needed nearly as much of the food as the rest.

  The other groups didn’t question his motives in driving them away from the area. Instead, they stayed silent as they approached the place where the two martial artists had died. But by the time they got there, the bodies had long disappeared.

  “Are you sure you don’t remember anything about the corpses?” Lu Qingshan asked, his eyes boring into the An siblings' own. “You’re not lying, are you?”

  Qin Ye was unable to read the spirituality of another immortal cultivator in order to determine truth or lie. Even when he was at Heart Clarity and Li Fanghua was at Mind Purification. Unfortunately, Lu Qingshan didn’t manage to force anything out from the two siblings. He’d make sure they paid for it later — for now, they needed to figure out what had killed the martial artists.

  His Bloodseeker Flies were able to uncover chunks of fallen meat. The Bloodsense Bug also found stray droplets of blood in multiple places. Whatever had killed them had done so violently.

  Lu Qingshan followed the trail and found the uneaten ribs of both the martial artists, sitting in a recessed patch of earth. The rest of their bodies had disappeared. It was here that Lu Qingshan discovered the first weakness of the Bloodsense Bug. It couldn’t find all the pieces of a corpse — only the majority.

  “Time to stop lying.” Lu Qingshan quietly said and turned to face the two frightened An family siblings standing in the back, even further than Song Lin. “You know how they died.”

  There was a silence as everybody paused for something to happen. Then the silence was broken by An Zichen’s voice.

  “I know what it is.” His sister tried to stop him, but he ignored her tugs. “It’s a demon beast,” he said. “I've heard about them, but didn't expect to see one appear here."

  Lu Qingshan slowly nodded. “What’s your understanding of a demon beast?” he asked. “I’ve dealt with some myself, but I wanted to know if your sources match mine.”

  “A demon beast is a spiritual beast turned mad. It often recklessly attacks humans in order to gain power. They're much like demonic cultivators," An Zichen recited like he was reading off of a book. “Trading power for sanity.”

  “But that’s not all they do, is it? If eating human flesh was their only virtue, they would’ve long been killed by now.”

  “Yes,” An Zichen nervously said. “Well, I’m not too sure, but I learned that a demon beast gains special abilities not commonly found in those types of spiritual beasts. It’s different from normal spiritual beasts who draw power from their bloodline.”

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  “I’ve killed one who had the ability to turn invisible, and another with the power to burn its blood to escape. How does it happen?” They were both from the same beast, but Lu Qingshan lied to make up for his lack of experience. After all, two was better than one.

  “Word has it that demonic cultivators are the driving force behind their change,” An Zichen whispered.

  “Demonic cultivators…” Lu Qingshan’s voice trailed off. He could tell they were becoming tense. If they were that much of a taboo, he decided to change the subject.

  So that was how immortal cultivators viewed demon beasts. In that case, it was time to plumb their minds for all the information they knew.

  “Before we continue,” Lu Qingshan said, drinking in their nervousness. “Let’s consolidate our information of demons, ghosts, and spirit beasts. I have my own records but I’m not sure if I have all the information.”

  The other three immortal cultivators nodded. “That was all the information we had on demon beasts,” An Xin said. “We don’t really have anymore, and all the other records were incredibly vague.”

  “I know about ghosts,” Song Lin said. “They sometimes show up in places with deep resentment or yin qi. There are many ways to extract power from them for a cultivator’s own use.”

  Lu Qingshan looked at him with a questioning look.

  “It’s not something to flaunt.” Song Lin looked away. “Anyway, a ghost is often as powerful as an immortal cultivator in the same realm, if not more so. They have special and strange abilities like demon beasts but more exotic. Some of them are incredibly difficult to kill unless you bring in someone of a higher realm.”

  Quite descriptive, Song Lin was being. Lu Qingshan liked that. He gave him an approving nod and turned to the last topic.

  “I’ve seen spiritual beasts,” he said. “They can have special abilities that make winning a battle much more difficult. Do you think there are any here?”

  “No,” An Xin said with surprising force. “We’ve also seen spiritual beasts with our own eyes. The madness of a demon beast is not simple. They become completely different creatures driven only by hate and bloodlust. This enemy is not a spiritual beast — we’d have the chance to negotiate them. It has to be a demon beast.”

  Lu Qingshan accepted that explanation. “Are there any special methods to defeat them?”

  “We have talismans of exorcism,” An Xin muttered. “But they’re very rare. We don’t want to use them unless it’s essential.”

  “You know,” Lu Qingshan remarked, “few are shameless enough to expect someone else to do all the work. Like it or not, the demon beast has marked you as its prey. Those martial artists were just the appetizer.”

  She still shook her head. “I can’t,” she whispered.

  “Don’t you have anything else to offer? It will be dangerous if you want me to go on ahead.”

  An Xin unclasped her bag while taking out some of her items inside. “I have a few pills remaining. We can trade some if you’d like.”

  Lu Qingshan simply smiled. His hand clasped onto the middle of the three bottles, which read Fasting Pills as a label. Mission complete, but it had been a little too easy.

  The three of them were being too subservient for someone he initially considered threats. There were also holes that had finally appeared in their story. He glanced towards Qin Ye, who took up his next role with glee.

  “This is going to be dangerous,” Qin Ye said, "I haven't been working very hard, only reaching the Heart Clarity stage at most. Can you seniors help guard the front?"

  The An siblings’ smiles froze. So did Song Lin’s expression. Lu Qingshan watched their nervousness and let a smile creep onto his face. “Why are you so tense?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” they said, taking a few steps back. Meanwhile, Song Lin’s feet remained glued to the floor. The martial artists on both sides were glancing back and forth in fear.

  “Stop,” Lu Qingshan said. “You owe me an explanation.”

  Instead of listening, the two siblings simply ran for it. They vanished into the air without even trying to turn around to see his next action.

  Lu Qingshan sighed. “Stay here,” he said to the others. Then he disappeared, replaced by a loud noise.

  His fist crashed into An Zichen’s back and sent the fragile man flying into a tree. Blood sputtered from his mouth, and he fell to the floor, writhing.

  Lu Qingshan then grabbed the sister of the duo by the throat. Her legs and arms slapped the air, trying to escape, but it was futile. As his grip tightened, she started to choke.

  “Are you demonic cultivators?” he growled. “Do not ever lie in front of me again. You’re not the first cultivators I’ve killed.”

  “We’re not!” An Zichen cried out. “We’re not from a big family either. We’re just lone cultivators here to try and get some treasures to reach the next stage safely. Please don’t hurt my sister!”

  Lu Qingshan grabbed the man by his neck as well and started dragging the two siblings back. He threw the two down beside the still-frozen Song Lin. They crashed onto the floor, gasping for breath.

  Then their eyes turned wide with horror as they looked behind him. But a whisper in his Insect Harmony Mantra gave him an early warning.

  Lu Qingshan shifted his feet. His fist crumpled the massive spider behind him in half. He leapt into the air, and crashed down onto its back.

  A horrific wailing broke through the air. Strands of blood-colored energy ran through Lu Qingshan’s entire body. He grasped the monster’s head and pulled.

  It came out without a shred of resistance. Lu Qingshan crushed the many-eyed head between his hands and began dismembering the monstrous spider. Its legs clad in bladed spikes still writhed in an instinctive attempt to fight back. But as Lu Qingshan pulled them out one by one, chanting the Insect Harmony Mantra to soothe its instincts, the spider rapidly fell still.

  At the moment it stopped moving, Song Lin saw a chance. He dropped to the earth in a kowtow. “Spare me, please, lord. I have information you’d like. Especially about ghosts.”

  “Us too!” An Zichen said. “We know quite a lot. About demon beasts, spirit beasts, and other things!”

  Lu Qingshan ripped the last piece of leg out from its abdomen. He turned to the three cultivators. “Tell me all you know about the world of immortal cultivation. Where you got those pills, as a start.”