Chapter 26 : Lin’an City Really Is Crawling with Demons

The moonlight dyed the ivy-covered walls outside the dormitory building silver.

It was already late when Bai Ling returned to the school, the moon hanging high in the sky, so large it seemed to occupy her entire field of vision.

“But it’s still a while until the Mid-Autumn Festival…”

Bai Ling muttered, looking at the moon rising from behind the dormitory building.
The leaves of the sycamore trees rustled in the evening wind.

The incandescent light from the streetlamps vied with the moonlight, and moths swirled around the light bulbs, trying to rush into the light.

The full moonlight caused the demonic energy in Bai Ling’s body to stir faintly.
A translucent, scale-like pattern appeared on the back of her neck, and the tailbone hidden in her denim shorts almost extended uncontrollably, threatening to tear through the fabric.

Even the air around her began to feel a little chilly.

Guan Qing had said that demonic energy would be affected by the moon, like the lunar tide.
The night of the full moon was when a demon’s demonic energy was most agitated.
A novice demon like her would often reveal her true form if she wasn’t careful.

This was also the reason why demons would involuntarily reveal their true forms in the demon market.
In that strange space of the demon market, a huge full moon was always hanging in the sky.

But today was clearly only the second day of the lunar calendar.
It wasn’t yet the fifteenth or sixteenth, when the moon should be full.

Bai Ling had obviously forgotten that Guan Qing had warned her in the beauty salon during the day that tonight was a full moon.
Of course, it was also because Guan Qing herself had asked her what she was thinking and had then forgotten to finish what she was saying.

Taking a deep breath, Bai Ling tried hard to suppress the restless demonic energy under her skin.

She was still not very skilled at controlling her demonic energy.
Using demonic energy to fight, on the other hand, was something she had mastered without being taught.

Bai Ling stepped into the dormitory under the moonlight and climbed the stairs with a “thump, thump, thump.”

As soon as she opened the dormitory door, Bai Ling was greeted by the warm and considerate inquiries of her roommates.

“Big beauty is back?!”

Chengzi jumped down from the iron-frame bed as soon as she saw her push the door open.

The girl opened her arms and blocked Bai Ling.
“What did you do today? You disappeared after the class meeting. Where did you go to find a new love?”

‘Alright, so it wasn’t a warm and considerate inquiry, but rather gossip-mongering.’

“Um… I went to work.”

Bai Ling said awkwardly.
She didn’t know why, even though she had indeed gone to work, she felt so unsure, as if she had gone to do something bad in secret.

“From your daily necessities and consumption habits, you are not the kind of person who needs to work and study at the same time.”

Su Jiu Li came out from behind Chengzi with a copy of “Criminal Psychology.”
She seemed to be reading, but Bai Ling always felt that she was staring at her.

“Did you go on a date with a handsome guy again!”

Lin Xiao Xia jumped out from behind Su Jiu Li and stood beside Chengzi, her arms outstretched.

The two girls, one tall and one short, completely blocked the narrow passage between the iron-frame beds.

“Are you guys some kind of Russian nesting dolls?”

Bai Ling covered her face and complained about their entrance.
“I really did go to work!”

However, her roommates didn’t give her a chance to argue.

Su Jiu Li “slapped” the switch, and the fluorescent light tube was instantly extinguished.

Moonlight shone into the dormitory from the balcony window, turning her three roommates into silhouettes.

Then, a beam of white light from a desk lamp shone on Bai Ling, making her unable to open her eyes.

Lin Xiao Xia held the desk lamp high in the back, acting as a lamp stand.
“What’s your relationship with that handsome guy named Xu Zhi!”

“You guys seem to know each other! Confess and you’ll be treated leniently!”

Chengzi took over the conversation, her tone as serious as a police officer interrogating a criminal.

Su Jiu Li opened a notebook on the side, a neutral pen in her hand, poised to record all of Bai Ling’s statements as evidence.

These three silly girls had turned the dormitory into an interrogation room.

“I don’t know him… okay?”

Bai Ling wanted to deny it, but her action of grinding a swirl on the ground with the tip of her toe betrayed her.

She wasn’t good at lying.
Every time she lied, she would be particularly nervous and would unconsciously grind the ground with the tip of her toe.

“Okay?”

A wise glint flashed in the eyes of the recorder, Su Jiu Li.
“So you know him?”

“We just met at the nightclub last night!”

Bai Ling hurriedly explained.
Anyway, they had indeed met at the nightclub last night.
Not only had they met, but they had also dealt with a Resentful Demon together.

‘This wasn’t a lie, right?’

She convinced herself in her heart.

“Really?”

The interrogator, Chengzi, suddenly moved closer, her tone rising a lot.
She used this way to show her suspicion.

Bai Ling was pushed against the wall by her.
She felt that if her three roommates continued to interrogate her like this, she would have to confess everything, even what age she had last wet the bed.

“It’s true, it’s true!”

Bai Ling closed her eyes and spouted nonsense.
She wasn’t good at lying and couldn’t lie with her eyes open.

“Officer Lin Xiao Xia, what do you think?”

Chengzi suddenly pinched her chin and turned to ask Officer Lin Xiao Xia for her opinion.

“Reporting, Chief Chengzi!”

Lin Xiao Xia put the desk lamp she was holding on the table and then turned to salute Chengzi with a crooked salute.
“I believe the suspect is lying!”

“Stop messing around!”

Bai Ling, who had been leaning against the wall, fumbled for the switch and turned on the light with a “slap.”

The incandescent light instantly turned the interrogation room back into a dormitory.

“Tsk! Boring!”

As the light illuminated the dormitory, the three silly girls instantly lost interest and scattered.

“Xiao Xia, let me have a taste of that bag of potato chips!”

“No! There’s only a little bit of crumbs left!”

“The last bit of crumbs is the best part!”

“So I’m going to eat it myself!”

Chengzi and Lin Xiao Xia were clamoring to grab the little bit of potato chip crumbs.
Su Jiu Li glanced at them and then continued to look at the page of the book in her hand, which she had just turned to the chapter on “The Psychological Mechanism of Group Pressure.”

Bai Ling let out a long breath.
‘These three roommates were too gossipy. Were all girls like this?’

‘It seemed that she still had a long way to go to become a normal girl…’

She sat down at her desk.
The fan of her laptop was still humming.
Bai Ling suddenly didn’t know what she should do now.

She rested her chin on her hand and let her thoughts wander.
The Demon Suppression Division, demons, humans…

All kinds of chaotic thoughts flooded into her mind.
Even Xu Zhi’s face suddenly appeared in Bai Ling’s mind.

‘No, the more I think about it, the weirder it gets!’

Bai Ling quickly shook her head, trying to shake that face out of her mind.

Chengzi suddenly jumped off the bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked towards the door.
“I’m going to pick up a package. Do you guys want me to bring anything back?”

“Get me a cup of milk tea! Half sugar!”
Lin Xiao Xia raised her hand.

“Okay!”

Chengzi walked away, her slippers slapping on the floor.

Outside the half-closed dormitory door, the evening wind, accompanied by the rustling sound of the leaves of the camphor tree downstairs, drilled into the room.
Along with the faint sounds of clamor that could be heard in the building, it created a youthful atmosphere unique to a university dormitory.

But a familiar scent was suddenly mixed in with this evening wind.

‘Demonic energy?’

This smell drilled into Bai ling’s nasal cavity without any warning, giving her a shock.

‘Are there so many demons in Lin’an?’

‘The number of demons she had seen in the past few days was almost more than the number of people!’

Bai Ling yanked open the drawer.
The pitch-black hilt of a sword swayed among a pile of miscellaneous items in the drawer.
The Demon Suppression Division’s standard demon-slaying long saber, which Xu Zhi had given her and could extend a blade over a meter long, had been placed in the drawer by her last night.

This smell was exactly the same as the Resentful Demon she had encountered at the nightclub last night!

“I have something to do, I’m going out!”

Bai Ling hid the hilt in her sleeve, dropped a sentence, and ran out of the dormitory, even closing the door that Chengzi hadn’t closed.