146: interrogation
Black mist churned, crossing over a mountain peak and descending into an inconspicuous small cave; then, the mist contracted, transforming into two figures.
One of them was that three-headed Fierce Demon.
The other figure was actually also a Fierce Demon, but it only had one head. Its body was as thin as a lath, and its Aura was a notch weaker than the three-headed Fierce Demon. Although it had green skin and fangs, its eyes were clear.
“Damn it! They must have recognized it, the villagers are in trouble now...” The three-headed Fierce Demon roared in annoyance, then let out a muffled groan. When it spoke again, its tone had changed, letting out a 'jie jie' laugh, “Die, everyone die, all of you die, you die too!”
Bang!
The single-headed Fierce Demon was sent flying by a punch from the three-headed Fierce Demon, embedding into the wall. When it fell from the wall, it wasn't angry, only opening its mouth to roar a few times.
“Don't preach to me, I'm a human! I don't need you to teach... No, how can I be a human? I am the powerful three-headed Fierce Demon. Once I become nine-headed, who else can stand against me?”
The three-headed Fierce Demon talked to itself, sometimes annoyed, sometimes furious.
“Roar, roar.”
Looking at its companion's state, the single-headed Fierce Demon couldn't help but step forward again, letting out a soft roar toward it, its eyes filled with worry.
“Mind your own business! Or I'll eat you!” With a swipe of its sharp claws, the three-headed Fierce Demon tore a piece of flesh from the single-headed Fierce Demon, chewing it along with the scales in its middle mouth. All three heads had expressions of ecstasy: “Mmm~ the taste of flesh and blood, so beautiful... Ugh~ Heavens! What have I done? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Xiao Meng!”
“Roar, roar.” The single-headed Fierce Demon shook its head, not blaming it, and responded.
“Xiao Meng... I feel like I'm losing control more and more! The medicine's effect is weakening, I... kill me, quick, otherwise the village will... Ugh, ah!!!”
The three-headed Fierce Demon pleaded, but before it could finish, black-red light erupted from its body. Its volume gradually expanded, and its three heads became increasingly hideous. Its Aura rose continuously, and its crimson eyes were left with nothing but violence and slaughter, without any other expression.
Watching the three-headed Fierce Demon lose control and completely lose its sanity, the single-headed Fierce Demon finally turned into black mist and flew out of the cave... Xie Ning, of course, would not know what happened after the three-headed Fierce Demon left.
At this time, holding Le Le in his arms, he returned to the village. After handing over the two sleeping people, one large and one small, to other villagers for care, he strode directly toward the Village Chief's house.
Bang!
Xie Ning kicked open the wooden gate of the courtyard, took a few quick steps forward, and under the suspicious and startled gazes of the Village Chief's family, grabbed the Village Chief by the neck, lifted him up, and shouted: “How much more are you hiding from us about Xiao Ru's matter? How exactly did the evil ghost come to be?!”
“Cough, cough cough... I... I don't know...” the Village Chief said intermittently.
“Is that so?” After Xie Ning finished speaking, he pulled out a longsword, wreathed in blazing flames, and pointed it at the Village Chief's family. “Then do they know?”
Fei Shanqiu was frightened by this scene and hurriedly grabbed Xie Ning's hand that was holding the sword, asking: “Hey hey, Xie Ning, don't be impulsive first. What—what exactly is going on?”
Didn't we come to help me catch back the Fierce Demon? Why are you suddenly going to kill the old man?
Hearing his words, Xie Ning's hand holding the sword tightened, his expression darkening further as he said coldly: “That three-headed Fierce Demon is simply an experimental subject!”
“What?!” Fei Shanqiu was greatly shocked.
Xie Ning ignored his reaction, the flames on the longsword flaring up as his eyes stared fixedly at the Village Chief: “Will you talk, or not?”
The Village Chief struggled desperately: “Stop, stop... I'll talk, I'll cough... tell everything.”
Only then did Xie Ning release the hand choking him, and the flames on the longsword subsequently extinguished.
The Village Chief fell to the ground, taking large gulps of hard-won oxygen. After a good while, he recovered and shakily walked toward a chair on the side.
Su Qin looked at Xie Ning, hesitated repeatedly, but still chose to step forward and support the Village Chief to sit in the chair. On the other hand, Fei Shanqiu, though still full of confusion, also realized something was wrong and sensibly shut his mouth, waiting for the Village Chief to speak.
Sitting in the chair, the Village Chief gripped the armrests with both hands. After staring blankly for a while, he said: “You all saw that evil ghost; he is Xiao Ru's childhood friend, Yang Kai.”
“Then why did he become like this? Who would dare use a living person for experiments?”
This question from Xie Ning seemed to strike the Village Chief. He trembled all over, his expression filled with remorse. Suddenly, old tears streamed down his face as he cried and shouted, beating his chest, and said brokenly:
“It's me, I'm the one who harmed him... ah... I was the one who introduced him to that place. I watched with my own eyes as he walked in and became this ghostly shape... woo woo...”
The Village Chief's family cautiously stepped forward to comfort him. Among them, the Village Chief's eldest son, a middle-aged burly man who looked honest and simple, walked over. He looked at Xie Ning with a complicated expression and said: “My dad's emotions are quite agitated, so let me tell it. Since things have come to this, we don't dare hide anything anymore.”
Xie Ning looked at him and said: “Speak.”
“Xiao Yang and Xiao Ru, the two of them indeed grew up together. The village thought quite highly of them. Unfortunately, Xiao Ru's father was a drunkard and sold her to the local bully here.”
As soon as the burly man finished speaking, Su Qin exclaimed in surprise: “Uncle, did you just say sold? Sold his own daughter? Just to buy alcohol?!”
“Don't you know?” Seeing the surprised faces of Xie Ning and the others, the burly man immediately understood. He couldn't help but look at his father and then continued: “That guy was a wine-lover; he'd do anything for wine. His wife was lost that way too.”
Xie Ning and the others remained silent.
As the burly man continued his story, the group learned the cause and effect.
It turned out that back then, Xiao Ru wasn't being married off but was sold to a family of bullies. On the day she was sold, in her despair, she ended her own life with a pair of scissors. Her drunkard father saw the money he was about to get go down the drain. In their fury, the bully's gang made the village suffer as well—bullying, destruction, and torturing the villagers for a period of time.
Su Qin asked: “Then why didn't you report it?”
“This... sigh~” The burly man sighed and didn't explain, continuing his narration:
“Later, Yang Kai returned and discovered the news of Xiao Ru's death. He wanted to seek revenge against the bully's family, but how could he possibly win? After several attempts at revenge, he was beaten black and blue. If they hadn't wanted to abuse him a few more times, they might have killed Yang Kai the first time he caused trouble.”
Xie Ning and the others nodded.
Indeed, even the weakest Demon Tamer, relying on their Demon Tamers Beast, was much stronger than an ordinary person.
“After the village had suffered bullying for a long time, my dad had actually reached the end of his patience. Seeing that Yang Kai was willing to give up his life for revenge, he took Yang Kai to a laboratory that existed at that time.”
Saying this, the burly man glanced at his father again and couldn't help but lower his voice: “We don't know what happened in between. In any case, when Yang Kai came out of the laboratory, his appearance had changed, and he had become much stronger. He killed the entire bully family.”
Hearing this, Xie Ning said: “But seeing that he still had his reason, you let him protect your village. Now that he's lost control, you're hoping some Demon Tamers will come and kill him, right?”
“No way, right?” Fei Shanqiu was stunned.
After all that, that's not my Fierce Demon?
The burly man's expression was somewhat unnatural, and he said with a mix of shame and helplessness: “This, we didn't want this either. But later, the number of times he lost control became more and more frequent, and he even injured villagers several times. Although the villagers didn't blame him, we were afraid. He's so powerful; if he ever made a mistake... who knows who would be the next one to suffer...”
“Rather than waiting for him to kill us, it's better to let other Demon Tamers kill him.”