33 Chapter 33

'Will you face him or forever let him become a ghost in your mind?' What Jun Xi said seemed to reverberate inside her mind. She clenched her fist as anger began to bubble up in her heart. What was she doing? The man had tried to kill her and instead of fighting back she had instead become such a useless person who cowered in fear. This wasn't the kind of person she wanted to be.

Ming Yue raised her head and steeled her heart as she looked into Jun Xi's eyes. "I will meet him."

"Good!" Jun Xi said and patted her head.

After breakfast they flew to the back of the ninth peak were the entrance to the sect's dungeons were.

Ming Yue saw two large stone doors that lead into a cave in the mountain. Two disciples working as guards stood on each side of the door and looked straight forward and stood perfectly still as if they were statues.

When Jun Xi and Ming Yue approached the large stone doors they automatically opened for them and they walked inside.

Inside was a long stairway carved out of the mountain that lead downwards. Several torches on the walls were burning and lighting up the narrow tunnel. But despite this, she still couldn't see the end of the stairway.

They walked down the stairs for several minutes before they reached a hallway were there was another stone door. A magical circle of orange energy and strange looking characters spun slowly in front of the door.

Jun Xi walked up to the door and pulled out his sect badge and placed it in the center of the magical circle and upon contact the magical circle proofed into magical dust that dissipated. Then the door opened slowly. A small draft entered the hallway were Ming Yue and Jun Xi stood, as if there had been a higher pressure behind the door.

The sounds of howls and wails sent a cold shiver up Ming Yue's back. She could only imagine how people were suffering in there.

Jun Xi grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze before they stepped inside.

Ming Yue was amazed at what she saw. Inside was an enormous underground prison that were several levels deep.

It was like she was standing inside an enormous barrel and everywhere she looked she saw prison cells along the walls.

She walked up to a ledge and looked down but she couldn't see the bottom as it was shrouded in darkness.

"This way." Jun Xi said and lead her down a narrow stairway to her left.

Jun Xi lead her down several stairways until they finally reached a prison cage made of what looked like steel bars, but when Jun Xi placed his badge on the cage a hole big enough to fit one person appeared in the steel bars.

Ming Yue was surprised when she saw this. Were the steel bars just an illusion and made of energy?

When they got inside the prisoner cage Ming Yue unconsciously hid behind Jun Xi and grabbed the back of his robe.

In front of them was the middle-aged merchant who attacked her yesterday, chained up to a cross. He seemed to be unconscious as he didn't react when they entered.

Jun Xi pulled Ming Yue out from behind him and looked into her eyes. Once he felt she had regained her wits, he walked over to a bucket and pulled out a ladle and splashed some water into the middle-aged merchant's face.

The middle-aged merchant woke up with a start and began coughing. He looked around confusedly before his eyes landed on the two of them. When he saw Ming Yue his eyes darkened and he began struggling against the chains as he tried to free himself. He seemed to want to say something but only grunts and growls escaped from his mouth.

"Don't worry. The chains are made of blue obsidian and it's impossible for him to break free and he can't speak because his acupuncture points for speech has been sealed." Jun Xi said as he saw Ming Yue's fearful look in her eyes.

Ming Yue pursed her lips and nodded.

She looked at the middle-aged merchant and saw his deranged face and his hateful look. It made her whole body shiver and her knees to grow weak. Never in her life had someone looked at her with so much hatred and it truly scared her to the point she could almost not make any rational thoughts. But the words Jun Xi had said kept repeating in the back of her mind. No! She had to be braver! She clenched her fist and then channeled demonic qi into her legs to support them. When she felt the warm demonic qi circulating in her body, she was filled with a sense of power and confidence. She looked up and faced the man's look straight on and felt the fear inside of her slowly being suppressed by her confidence. But then she noticed something. She realized she saw it yesterday too, but things happened too quickly she didn't really put it to mind.

"What's that black cloud between his eyes?" She asked.

"Black cloud?" Jun Xi furrowed his brows and then made a single-handed seal and moved two fingers across his eyes. A blue light flashed across his eyes, then he looked at the middle-aged merchant again. This time, he too could see the small black cloud between the middle-aged merchant's eyes. "A demonic spirit..."

'Demonic spirit?' Ming Yue's face paled as she hugged Jun Xi's arm. Why did her new life seem to turn into a horror story? She'd just regained her confidence to face this murderer only to now be facing a demonic possession. She almost wanted to laugh as she thought about it. Like what was the point of being afraid of this thing when there was something much scarier waiting for her around the next corner?

Jun Xi felt the warmth around his arm and looked at her. "Don't worry, it's just a low level demonic spirit without a mind of its own. It's no different than a parasite that lives on humans darkest feelings. It will keep its host in a state of anger and hate so that it can continue to feed. And once it has a host it can't leave until the host is dead, so it's no danger to us."

Ming Yue nodded but thought of something. "Didn't you say there was a formation around the sect that would attack if it noticed a demonic aura?"

"No. A demonic spirit is more like a ghost. It doesn't have a demonic core that produces the demonic aura the formation can detect. Normally, a demonic spirit of this low level shouldn't be able to affect a cultivator, but the merchant's cultivation lacks a stable foundation and is probably made up of a mix of cultivation methods which makes his natural defenses toward this type of demonic spirit very weak.

Also, we don't have a formation against this type of demonic spirit because if a higher level one were to attach itself to one of our disciples we would want to drive it away without killing the disciple." Jun Xi explained, then he thought about something and said, "Ming Yue. You should be able to drive out the demonic spirit with little effort and be able to refine it into demonic qi." Then he continued to explain what she had to do.

When she heard that her face paled. "Are you sure it will work?" Ming Yue asked with a worried expression.

"Of course. Don't worry, I won't let you do anything that will harm you." Jun Xi said.

Ming Yue nodded and then walked toward the middle-aged merchant. She felt her hands sweating but still walked up to him. Then she reached out a hand and placed it on top of the middle-aged merchant's forehead and began to cycle her demonic qi according to her cultivation method, and suddenly she felt the demonic spirit inside of the middle-aged merchant be pulled out and enter the palm of her hand and travel along the path of her meridians. It gave her a slightly constipated feeling in her meridians, but as she continued to cycle her demonic qi, the black fog began to thin out until eventually it was completely gone and no different from the rest of the demonic qi inside of her body. She felt her cultivation rise a little but not enough to break through to the next stage. She was currently in the Lower Stage of the Earth Realm. But she felt if she had absorbed and refined a few more of these demonic spirits she should've been able to easily enter the Middle Stage of the Earth Realm.

When the demonic spirit no longer was inside of the middle-aged merchant he slowly calmed down and soon fell asleep.

"Will he be alright?" Ming Yue asked. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about this man anymore. After all, everything he'd done was probably mostly due to the influence of the demonic spirit which was out of his control and moral responsibility.

Jun Xi understood what she was asking. "Yes. But he will still be punished for attacking a mortal and you. Though, with this new evidence it's likely his punishment will be lowered. He'll probably loose his cultivation and will then be exiled from the sect. "