6 Chapter 6: Liquor City (4)  

Xuan Yi was angry.

Very angry.

She couldn't believe that someone plotted for her death last night and she was baffled by how this fat man took advantage of the Slayers, in order to complete his little 'promise' with the Vine Demon.

Most of all, how dare he touch the Slayers of the Lan Sect!

The door swung open and a familiar round face appeared at the entrance, taken aback by her appearance in the hall. His face was instantly drained of blood as he forced a welcoming smile to her.

"O-oh, oh my! Miss Slayer! I'm glad you're safe and sound!" Mayor Jiu said, his body trembling in fear.

Xuan Yi scoffed at his greeting. "Are you? The last I heard, you were feeding Slayers to the Vine Demon." She said, swinging her legs that were dangling over the armrest as she threw a piece of nut into her mouth.

He collapsed onto the ground, his eyes widened in shock. "V-vine demon? Isn't she the Wind Goddess? How can she be a demon?!"

"Honestly, what gave you the idea that a God would want fresh human blood to heal themselves?"

"Her... looks?"

Xuan Yi mentally facepalmed at his ridiculous words. This Mayor Jiu was gullible enough to be called stupid.

"Does your city have a Wind Temple? The demon based off her looks of the Wind Goddess."

Mayor Jiu gave a nod and then things suddenly made sense to him.

"The temple… The Wind Temple has a drawing of the goddess!" He exclaimed. "S-she tricked me?!"

Xuan Yi lets out a sigh. He's finally using his brain now.

Mayor Jiu began sobbing, wiping his non-existent tears away. "I assumed you were here because the demon's dead? Please, tell me she's dead!"

Mayor Jiu was concerned over the life and death of the demon and had no remorse about sending innocent Slayers to a powerful demon. Seeing how he was reacting, Xuan Yi's blood was boiling. She curled her hands into a fist and slammed them on the table.

"She's dead, yes. But guess who almost died as well? Me!" Xuan Yi snapped, flipping over the plate of nuts and drawing her sword out at him.

The mayor started wailing and begging for her to spare his life, admitting to his mistakes. "Please, tell me what to do to compensate you. I'll do everything!"

"I'm here to get the reward you promised yesterday. But since you put us in such a risky situation, I'm demanding both psychological and physical compensation as well." She stated bluntly, a smirk hanging on her lips.

Xuan Yi already has a whole plot of revenge against this disgusting man planned out in her head.

=

Lin He woke up to the sound of wailing and crying right outside his room. Or rather, he was rudely awakened by these sounds of ugly crying.

He walked down from his room to check out what's the whole commotion about and he noticed a familiar figure sprawled out on the ground.

So, she was the one making all these ruckus.

"Mayor Jiu was in cahoots with a demon! I saw it, no, I experienced it last night! He was kidnapping and feeding Slayers to the demon to make his liquor!" She wailed while swaying a piece of white cloth in her hands, dabbing away her invisible tears. "He has killed many Slayers who passed by this town, they who had the heart to save people from demons, yet they fall into the evil plot of Mayor Jiu!" She continued at the top of her lungs.

The crowd was divided in opinions, wondering if her words were credible especially when it's against their beloved mayor - the person who brought nothing but prosperity to Liquor City. The citizens here were very fond of Mayor Jiu and they didn't look like they were going to trust Xuan Yi that easily.

"How can we believe you? Do you have proof?"

"Yeah!"

"If that's the case, why are you alive? Aren't you a Slayer?"

"That's right! Is she a scammer?"

"Listen to me!" Xuan Yi sat up from the ground and threw her arms in the air, revealing her wounds from the vines' grip that cut into her skin last night. "Do you see this? The demon did this to me! And! If you head to the physician's place right now, there are some survivors from Lan Sect there as well! If you still don't believe me, head to the forest near Mayor Jiu's farm, east of Liquor City. You'll find a cave ridden with bones and human bodies lying around it!"

Her eyes met with Lin He's and she immediately pointed to him, who was just watching the whole show unfold amusingly.

"And this guy right here, he was also there last night. He can justify that whatever I've said is the truth!"

Lin He could feel the numerous pairs of eyes staring right at him instantly, giving him the urge to dig into a hole and hide away from the sudden attention. On top of that, he got a death glare from Xuan Yi, which was much more terrifying.

He nodded his head in agreement with her and the attention quickly shifted away. The crowd broke into a messy chatter and they were discussing whether the story was real or not.

"The scars on her hand are real!"

"Hey! It's easy to fake that kind of thing."

"Why would Mayor Jiu do that to the Slayers? They are good people, aren't they?"

A man suddenly ran into the crowd and hollered for their attention.

"Hey everyone! I work at the physician's store and it's true! There are injured Slayers there!"

"Isn't he the apprentice under the physician?"

"What?! Mayor Jiu is that kind of a person?"

"Does it mean… the bodies in the forest are real?"

"If he's such a person, he is not fit to be our mayor!"

"That's right!"

"I agree!"

"Let's go and check out the forest and the physician's place and confront him if it's true!"

The crowd slowly moved away and towards the entrance of the city, determined to find out the truth about the mayor.

Lin He reached his hand out to Xuan Yi and pulled her up from the ground. She patted the dust off her clothes and broke into a smile.

"Seems like someone's back in shape." He commented, sweeping a glance at the energetic girl.

"Seems like someone needs some extra training for his poor physique." She retorted, pointing at his ankle. "Doesn't seem to be healing nicely."

He looked down at his bandage that was soaked in red and let out a soft sigh. Hanging upside down from the ceiling and the cut from the vines did quite some damage to his body. But his mortal body should have healed quickly within hours to seal up the wounds like nothing has ever been there. However, it was taking some time and so Lin He thought it was because he had not been in a mortal body for a long time and he was still adjusting to it. He would time and time again forget that his current body was prone to injuries and illness, if not taken care of well. This wound on his ankle might not be healing as quickly as he would like, unlike when he was a god and it felt awkward to feel physically uncomfortable in his body again.

Regardless, it was no big deal. Even if he dies, he would just return back to Heaven and he could just make his way down again easily.

He kept his thoughts in the back of his mind and fixed his gaze on Xuan Yi again.

"What were you doing?" He questioned, diverting the topic away.

"Executing a revenge plot. Mayor Jiu tried to kill me, remember?"

"You mean, he tried to kill us."

"Right. But anyway, I got our reward from him this morning so I guess we can get out of this city." She chirped, pulling out a huge money pouch and throwing it to him. "That's your share."

Lin He smiled at her. At least she had the decency to share the money instead of gobbling them up for herself.

"Also, I think it's best we get out of town quickly." She added before letting out an awkward laughter. "Before he... comes for us."

"Who?" Lin He asked with a frown.