Chapter 182 - Utterly Smitten (1)
Li Fei'er had to admit that she was impressed by how efficient and strong Qin Zhi was. When he used a concealment spell to make them invisible to human eyes, Li Fei'er was speechless and shocked at the same time. This only proved that she still had a lot of things to learn about demons like him and Shen Minyao.
"Wow. I never thought that this was possible." She looked down at her hand before checking her whole body. She then tested it out by going to a female passerby to ask her a question, but she was ignored as if she didn't exist in the first place.
"Not all demons can do this. A demon needs a high spiritual power to be able to sustain it," Qin Zhi explained.
"So you are not only a big shot by human standards, but also one in the demon world, huh?" Li Fei'er shot him a teasing smirk, amused that he was able to mingle among humans without alerting her fellow shamans over the years.
Qin Zhi said nothing, and a naginata then appeared on his right hand. In an instant, he wordlessly ran towards their first target.
Li Fei'er followed after him shortly, and she found herself on an almost deserted playground where small demons prey on the young children that have yet to leave the place.
"Don't forget about our agreement earlier." She heard Qin Zhi say.
Li Fei'er opened her mouth, her eyes widening upon seeing these demons feed on their unsuspecting prey. They were clinging to every child at the playground, ignoring one another as they sucked on the delicious life essence of the children.
In the corner of her eye, she saw Qin Zhi surging forward, killing a demon that was clinging to the back of a young boy. Li Fei'er surmised that the boy was at least six years old. A scream of pain then resounded in the area as his blade hit the demon.
The child turned around after sensing something behind him, but he found nothing of interest. His mother called out his name and asked if it was time for them to go home. At this, he ran towards her.
Li Fei'er smiled at the scene where Qin Zhi continued to kill the rest of the demons, making sure that the children wouldn't be harmed in the process. Her impression of him became better after witnessing such action from him.
He was obviously a demon, but he held onto such a trivial detail of not hurting the children from his attacks. She was oblivious that Qin Zhi was merely taking measures so that she wouldn't witness him kill a human with her own eyes.
In the past, Qin Zhi had been careful about killing in front of his wife. Feng Jiu was already accustomed to it, though, considering the amount of killing she had witnessed in the company of Su Daji. He was very careful about matters that would traumatize her, despite her telling him that she knew of his true nature and what he was capable of.
Li Fei'er might not be able to remember the past, but Qin Zhi remembered all of it. From the moment she hid the weakened him inside a temple to protect him from his pursuing enemies, to the time she finally accepted him as her lawful husband, up to the day she laid in his arms as nothing but a lifeless body…
How could he even begin to forget about her?
As he killed the remaining demons, his mind couldn't help but wonder why his wife's incarnation was with him and how he earned the fortune to meet her again. Like in the past, it was his sister who found Feng Jiu first; in this lifetime, Shen Minyao met Li Fei'er before he did again.
"Ah, you killed them all, Mr. Qin. You didn't even give me a chance to help you." Li Fei'er's words brought him back to reality.
"I have allowed you to accompany me so that we can purify this place. Although I have eliminated their presence, their stench is still here to attract the other demons nearby. Will you be able to do it?" He replied, swishing his blade a few times in midair in an attempt to lessen the blood that the demons left on it.
"I can do it! Leave this to me, Mr. Qin!" Li Fei'er stepped forward, pulling out the talismans from her side pocket. Qin Zhi was right. Although there were no more demons in sight, this place was still polluted by a thick demonic aura in the air, which would result in children falling sick if they were exposed to it.
"Please step aside, Mr. Qin. I wouldn't want you to be caught up in it."
Qin Zhi simply did what was told and stepped aside, allowing Li Fei'er to perform a purifying ritual on the playground. He watched intently, paying attention to the spiritual power Li Fei'er currently possessed. He didn't get to watch her the last time she had done something similar, but he had to admit that she wasn't the weakling other humans deemed her to be.
For other shamans, purifying and dispelling the demonic aura left in a place as huge as this playground would at least take them an hour to finish. On the contrary, Li Fei'er managed to cleanse the place in under half an hour, surprisingly faster than normal.
Shen Minyao told him that Li Fei'er was born into the Li family, a family of shamans. This made Li Yun, the shaman prodigy, Li Fei'er's ancestor. This discovery made Qin Zhi unsure whether this was a coincidence or not… because he could swear Li Fei'er's spiritual presence was almost the same as that of Li Yun.
If this was the case, was this to mean that Li Fei'er was born with a higher innate spiritual power than common humans and shamans? Qin Zhi had no doubt that with enough experience and proper guidance, Li Fei'er would be a formidable shaman in the future.
Perhaps she would be able to fight head-on against him and Shen Minyao in the future, which wouldn't be so bad at all. He and Shen Minyao wouldn't be worried about her safety had she become capable of protecting herself on her own.
In the past, while the fox woman had taught her how to defend herself from physical attacks from humans, Feng Jiu could only handle lower demons and fend off stronger ones. If Li Fei'er could manage to strengthen her body, she would be able to balance her defenses against both races.
"I don't understand. What caused them to suddenly appear here in the city? Do you think that Peng Weijin summoned them here to invade us?" She asked Qin Zhi now that they were certain that no more demons were lurking in the shadows within the area.
"We're still not sure what he's up to. Until then, we can only keep the demons at bay to lessen the damage they might cause to unsuspecting humans."
"Dad told me that when he was younger, the forbidden place used to have a malevolent spirit that no one can exorcize." Li Fei'er started. "Many exorcists and shamans went to that place, hoping they would be able to send it away as soon as possible… only for them to fail. It became such a challenge to anyone that whoever could defeat the spirit would be deemed as the strongest shaman in the world."
"How laughable," Qin Zhi said in a flat tone. It didn't surprise him one bit. He wasn't aware of the situation back then because of self-hibernation. If he knew that Xuan Yanrui's spirit remained after his passing, the fox demon would have killed and exterminated that person himself.
Alas, all of these could have been prevented if he hadn't succumbed to depression. Centuries after his wife's death and his sister's confinement, his resolve to continue living had weakened.
"Indeed. They could have just worked together to solve the problem rather than making it a competition. Look at what happened now." He heard Li Fei'er huffed as they continued to walk. Around them, humans hurriedly rushed towards the train station to get home before the rain would start to fall again.
"I assure you, some demons also make mistakes like that. You would have thought they knew better because of our longer lifespan, but some prove to be ignorant when it comes to important matters."
"So, Mr. Qin, do you also have regrets in your long life?" Li Fei'er grinned, liking how easy it was for her to speak to Qin Zhi now. The first time they met, she felt troubled and confused why she felt some connection to him. However, she supposed she might just be overthinking things again… like how she tended to do so.
"I do.. Mistakes that I could have prevented if I paid more attention," Qin Zhi admitted, remembering his wife's sudden death centuries ago.