Chapter 13: The Princess from Another World

While Mo Qiu might have comfortably secured a place among the top three most beautiful girls Bai Chen had ever encountered, the young woman standing before him would, without a shadow of a doubt, seize the undisputed first position.

Her waist-length, deep-blue hair framed exquisite, delicate features, while her skin possessed a pristine, jade-like pallor. Yet, it was her eyes that truly captivated; their peculiar pupils shimmered like distant stars in the cosmic expanse, making Bai Chen feel as if he were staring directly into the boundless firmament itself each time their gazes intertwined.

The young woman was clad in an elaborate black gothic gown, its hem, cuffs, and shoulders intricately trimmed with crimson lace, culminating in a vivid scarlet bow tied gracefully at her chest.

As the evening breeze stirred her voluminous skirt, her slender legs, encased in peculiar black stockings, were revealed; the starry patterns adorning their surface seemed to pulse with an almost lifelike rhythm, like a beating heart.

She appeared, in every sense, to be a princess hailing from an otherworldly realm, a vision that momentarily rendered Bai Chen utterly speechless.

“Uh, help…”

His dazed awareness was abruptly shattered by the sight of a severely wounded passerby lying prone beside the young woman, who desperately stretched out a hand with only three fingers remaining towards Bai Chen.

Before Bai Chen could even register a step, the deep-blue haired young woman casually raised her small leather boot and, with chilling nonchalance, pressed it down onto the injured hand.

Witnessing this cruel act, Bai Chen’s face immediately fell, and he uttered in a low, seething tone:

“Who are you?”

‘Where is Mo Qiu? Why are only her clothes here?’

Upon hearing his question, the young woman momentarily froze, a fleeting surprise crossing her features, before she broke into a disarmingly innocent smile. Daintily, she pinched a corner of her elaborate skirt with both hands and curtsied with an exquisite grace towards Bai Chen.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Libelle.”

Despite her impeccable politeness, Bai Chen found himself unable to return the smile. “You are a demon, aren’t you? What have you done to Mo Qiu?”

“Mo Qiu?” Libelle’s eyes playfully darted about, her tone imbued with a mischievous lilt. “Are you perhaps referring to that girl who was clutching the clothes?”

With a dismissive flick, she kicked the dying passerby further away, then, directly before Bai Chen’s horrified gaze, deliberately stepped onto the blood-stained garment, grinding her boot against it with malicious force.

“She certainly ran fast, but after sustaining such injuries, I highly doubt she could have gotten very far at all.”

Libelle’s demeanor was utterly that of an innocent, oblivious child, her faintly flushed cheeks seemingly aglow with the lingering aftertaste of the preceding events.

“What’s your name?”

“Take it off…”

“Hmm?” The young woman tilted her head.

“Take your foot off, monster!”

As Bai Chen’s furious roar ripped through the air, vibrant arcs of electricity began to dance and crackle between his black-gloved hands.

Far from being intimidated by the familiar display of power, Libelle’s expression shifted, revealing a hint of eager anticipation.

The blue lightning, like threads of pure energy, coiled and wove itself rapidly between Bai Chen’s hands, quickly forming a sharply pointed spear. Gripping its base, he hurled it with formidable force towards the young woman.

The spear whistled past Libelle’s ear, narrowly missing her, yet it was enough to whip her deep-blue hair into a frenzy, leaving a faint, tingling numbness on her cheek.

Having flown past its intended target, the spear continued its trajectory, striking a tree in the distance with devastating force. It pierced the trunk clean through, sending the entire tree crashing to the ground, while pedestrians who had been approaching from that direction shrieked in terror and scattered in a panicked retreat.

‘Did his aim falter because of his intense fury?’

‘This is far worse than in his previous life; back then, he never missed…’

Having missed his initial strike, Bai Chen propelled himself towards her with blistering speed, even as blue lightning flared anew in his hand, coalescing into a gleaming longsword.

His aura was that of a ferocious, untamed beast; in her previous life, Libelle would undoubtedly have been drenched in a cold sweat. Back then, she had been nothing more than an ordinary human, utterly incapable of contending with a demon hunter.

Now, however, she wielded the formidable power of a demon, making her, in essence, half-demon herself.

The longsword forged of lightning, the ferocious, relentless attacks… in her perception, these were nothing short of a child’s tantrum.

Simply by observing his initial stance, she could effortlessly predict his every move; Libelle found she could evade his relentless assaults with nothing more than a casual step backward.

More significantly, she could distinctly perceive the surging tide of Bai Chen’s wrath, his ferocious eyes now veined crimson with bloodshot fury.

‘I never imagined I could provoke such intense anger in him; my standing in his heart must be quite significant. Or perhaps, it’s merely the hatred born from his parents’ demise at the hands of demons?’

Regardless of the reason, Libelle found herself utterly pleased with Bai Chen in his current, volatile state.

Brimming with fury, radiating aggression, he was nothing short of a delectable feast. She even entertained the thought of seizing his shoulder amidst her evasions of his longsword, to slowly and intimately savor this exquisite delicacy.

However, just as her fingers were on the verge of making contact with Bai Chen, she abruptly and swiftly pulled them back.

‘Wait, what am I thinking?’

Having widened the distance between them, Libelle pressed a hand to her forehead, utterly bewildered by the unsettling nature of her own thoughts.

Both her uncanny perception of Bai Chen’s emotions and the overwhelming craving to utterly consume him were profoundly unsettling and abnormal.

‘Am I being influenced by the demon’s power?’

Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, and she found herself involuntarily swallowing, her tongue darting out to moisten her parched, crimson lips.

‘I clearly cannot consume him, yet the desire is overwhelming… even just a single bite… no, that simply won’t do.’

A bewildering skein of complex emotions knotted within her heart, and her normally rosy cheeks had paled considerably from the strenuous battle against her own primal instincts, fine beads of sweat now glistening upon her brow.

As Libelle wrestled internally with her conflicting desires, electric-blue lightning had already snaked its way across her form. Libelle struggled to break free, but the lightning solidified, transforming into taut ropes that bound her relentlessly.

“Monster, die!”

Bai Chen, utterly devoid of mercy, allowed lightning to sheath his black-gloved hand, and his fist, massive as a sandbag, tore through the air with lethal intent.

Pity for a beauty? Such a notion was entirely absent from his mind; Bai Chen’s punch was aimed with unyielding precision directly at her face.

Bang!

The strangely disconcerting impact sent a jolt through Bai Chen’s heart, causing him to instinctively look towards Libelle.

His fist had undeniably connected with her face, yet the impact had produced not a bruise, but rather uncanny cracks that rapidly spiderwebbed outwards from her cheek, spreading across her entire form.

With a sudden, crystalline shatter, Libelle disintegrated into myriad fragments, like a broken mirror, scattering across the ground.

‘Fake?!’

Bai Chen had never before encountered such an uncanny ability, and a sudden, visceral chill instantly snaked down his spine.

A small, damp tongue flicked against his cheek, and Libelle, pursing her lips, exhaled a soft, teasing breath into his ear:

“Can’t even land a hit, truly just a minnow.”

It was only when the demon’s presence entirely dissipated that Bai Chen finally snapped out of his paralyzing fear, finding himself drenched in a clammy, cold sweat.

Surveying the scene of widespread wreckage, a fresh wave of incandescent rage surged anew within his heart.

“Libelle, was it?”

Bai Chen’s clenched fists audibly cracked, a testament to his simmering fury.

“I won’t let you off, all demons deserve to die!”

‘Right, where is Mo Qiu?’

After swiftly contacting the branch, he immediately began to search for any trace of the young woman. The copious amount of blood staining the ground was undeniably more than a single person could shed.

The realization that she was genuinely, gravely injured made Bai Chen’s vision swim, a sudden darkness threatening to engulf him.

‘Mo Qiu, where on earth have you gone?’

****

While Bai Chen frantically paced in a desperate search, a narrow alleyway not far from Wind Chime City harbored a different scene.

Mo Qiu, who had so recently introduced herself as Libelle, stumbled erratically, her face deathly pale, eventually collapsing into a puddle of foul water, thoroughly soiling her elegant gown.

She pushed herself back to her feet, using the grimy wall for support, then leaned against it, closing her eyes as she desperately gasped for breath.

A profound sense of relief washed over her the moment she was safely away from Bai Chen.

“It was truly terrifying.”

Reflecting on her actions towards Bai Chen just before her departure, Mo Qiu herself struggled to comprehend the root cause of such peculiar behavior.

In that fleeting moment, she had genuinely come perilously close to sinking her teeth into Bai Chen’s neck; it was only a persistent, residual flicker of her ideals, constantly reminding her of its divergence from the plan, that allowed her to rein in that primal urge.

‘Are demons truly all such creatures?’

Previously, she had never fully grasped why demons invariably caused such chaos when feeding on extreme emotions; only after experiencing it firsthand could she truly begin to comprehend the inherent necessity.

The sensation was utterly unbearable. For a vagrant who had endured days of starvation, how could one possibly resist a steaming, succulent roasted chicken placed directly before their eyes?

Recalling Bai Chen’s infuriated expression, Mo Qiu couldn’t suppress a soft giggle, her hands rising to cover her faintly flushed cheeks.

The lingering savor was exquisite; to think that the esteemed hero, the very savior of the world, was utterly helpless against a mere trickster like herself!

He surely harbored no suspicion, did he? That the very person he held in such high regard was, in truth, standing diametrically opposed to him.

‘Oh, how I yearn to see more of your impotent rage, Bai Chen.’

‘Hate me, hate all demons, for only then will you strike without mercy, proving yourself a truly worthy hero.’

Mo Qiu inhaled deeply, wiping away a tear of profound emotion that had welled in the corner of her eye.

Before leaving the alley, there was one more task to complete.

Every demon working for the Imperial Organization possessed the ability to contact a demon handler at any given moment, and this secluded spot ensured Mo Qiu would remain undisturbed.

–Here I come, Mo Qiu, I–

A black mist materialized out of thin air, and the demon handler froze upon seeing the one who had summoned them.

–You actually used this form?–

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Mo Qiu’s lips curved into an even wider smile as she adjusted her collar.

This was a disguised form she had conjured using demonic power, designed to maximize her control over demonic abilities. Its original purpose was to ignite Bai Chen’s hatred for demons.

Standing before a puddle, she gazed down at her current reflection, recognizing the ideal version of herself. Her eyes, in particular, were a vast improvement over her usually lifeless, ‘dead fish’ eyes.

–You smell awful, what have you been up to?– The demon handler pinched their nose.

“I had a skirmish with a demon hunter; there was a slight mishap, but I still had a great time.” Mo Qiu stretched languidly.

–You… you’ve become so cheerful.– The demon handler blinked.

‘It must be the influence of the power.’

Mo Qiu tried clenching her fist; when the power within her was fully unleashed, a certain inner restraint seemed to dissolve.

She felt much clearer-headed than usual, constantly finding herself unable to hold back her true thoughts.

–So, what did you need me for?– the demon handler asked.

“You know who’s behind the recent string of murders, don’t you?”

–You encountered him?–

“Yes, I did.”

And she had even been treated as prey. Mo Qiu understood exactly what had happened the moment she saw the passerby’s gruesome state. Fortunately, she had managed to drive him off by promptly revealing her identity, though not before he clawed her once.

Rolling up her sleeve, a ghastly wound, deep enough to expose bone, marred her fair arm. Had it not been for the demonic power coursing through her, she would have long since been incapacitated by the excruciating pain and severe blood loss.

–Oh, friendly fire is quite common, especially for a unique case like you, Mo Qiu.–

“I want to know his name, and why he’s doing this?”

–You’re not planning to get revenge, are you?– The black goat’s eyes narrowed.

At this question, the young woman’s smile shone like the brilliant night sky.

“How could I? I merely wish to exchange ideas with him; he’s truly brilliant, quite admirable.”

The demon handler sighed. –Alright, I can only provide you with limited information.–

“That’s enough.” A shrewd gleam flashed in Mo Qiu’s eyes.

After the demon handler finished speaking, Mo Qiu thanked them profusely, even waving goodbye.

As the black mist dissipated, her smile abruptly vanished, replaced by an expression as cold as iron.

Mo Qiu immediately hastened out of the alley, her small leather boots splashing through dirty puddles, yet she paid no mind to her soiled gown.

Within her star-like eyes, the flames of pure anger blazed.