Picking Up a Trail

Lin Qingcheng had no recollection of this strange occurrence the next morning. She was always a heavy sleeper, a side-effect of pleasurable cultivation sessions before bed. She didn't think it was anything too unusual but she felt much more rested and energetic like she had taken too many spiritual pills.

She directed this energy towards her most important task in Black Rock City and Cloudy Mountain Province, rooting out demon infestations. Her master wanted to find evil demons in particular and promised all the disciples a prize for the first person to find one as well as another prize for the most demons slain.

She wasn't greedy enough to covet both prizes but she wanted at least one of them. She couldn't do it by herself but she had the House of Paradise which would be able to gather information from across the city as well as the province.

This was the first time her branch sect was being used in this way. However, it had always been one of its goals from the beginning. Her disciples were finally going to prove their mettle. With three directors, a hundred disciples, and soon-to-be thousands of employees and affiliates, the house had the numbers to perform the task and the potential to do it much better than Chen Mo's shadow anchors.

The shadow fox's spying abilities were naturally very powerful but still limited by the fact that the world was simply too large. There were too many people, too many towns and cities, and too many places for demons to hide.

Each shadow anchor came at a cost. Each required spiritual energy, effort, and attention. Chen Mo had to constantly spread his consciousness around to all the anchors and it was impossible to monitor all of them at once. Even an immortal soul could not perform so many multiple tasks. There were bound to be instances where things were missed, especially if something particularly exciting was happening at one anchor compared to the rest.

The House of Paradise didn't have this problem. Each disciple, each employee was an individual, capable of following instructions and overserving with their five senses. Their line of work and their training allowed them to see a man's true self in his most intimate moment with a woman. It allowed them to gauge a man's true worth.

In a sense, the House of Paradise was the perfect information network for Ten Thousand Flower Valley.

---

"Master!"

"Master!"

Lin Qingcheng awoke to see her two disciples. Without Chen Wentian or Zhou Ziyun around, she had succumbed to an afternoon nap. She was lying sprawled on a comfortable sofa and the sun was already dipping towards the western mountains.

"Ahh…" She stretched lazily and blinked to clear her eyes, "What happened?"

Qin Yan, the eldest, took the lead and bowed, "Reporting to master, we have finished the subjugation of Black Rock City. The city is quite small so it only took us a week. The other cities within the province will take more time but we are on schedule. For the city, all established brothels have been taken over by us. All low-level prostitution gangs have all been disbanded by force. Nobody dared to put up a fight and the process was smooth. I'm sure there are plenty of pimps and madams furious at us but nobody would dare to fight back so I expect no trouble."

"Uh huh." Lin Qingcheng muttered, more interested in the plate of sweets nearby.

Yuan Qiaochu bowed and went next, "Reporting to master, we have compiled the testimony from all the recruits and have picked up a trail. It fits all of your criteria for multiple deaths under strange circumstances."

"Oh?" Lin Qingcheng sat up straight, abandoning her snacks, "Tell me."

"Yes, this report comes from the mercenary district. For the last few months, there have been multiple incidents of brothels losing debutants on their first night. As you know, debutants are quite popular and men who can afford it will pay a small fortune. We've compiled at least twelve instances over the last four months where a debutant died right after or a few days after serving their first customer."

"There is such a thing?"

"Indeed," Qin Yan chimed in, "The story has been corroborated many times. The new girls seem fine at first, in perfect health. But soon after, their bodies would wither away as if their life energy had been sucked dry. A few die the next evening and none have lasted more than three days. Some think it's a spiritual illness that's spreading around. Only a few think that it is the work of a demon. But, it fits the criteria you gave us!"

Lin Qingcheng snapped her fingers and began rummaging in her spatial bag. After a short moment, she found what she was looking for, a booklet about demons that Zhou Ziyun had compiled for her.

"Let's see… virgin… demon… virgin… demon…" She muttered as she flipped through the pages, "Ah! Found it, blood-sucking vampire, jiangshi!"

She beckoned to her two disciples who abandoned their formality and crowded around her.

Together, they read about the jiangshi, a type of evil demon that fed on human blood. This demon had an unstoppable thirst for life energy. Virgin women were especially nutritious as they had not yet given birth to new life and were brimming with natural life energy.

A mortal jiangshi had few powers. They looked like normal humans unless they didn't get enough fresh blood and life energy. If not, they would revert to a decrepit, rotting state which would eventually disintegrate.

But if one managed to gather enough life force to break through to the immortal realm, it would become truly fearsome. All jiangshi at the immortal realms were truly immortal as they could live forever off the energy of others. They would also be able to raise their victims into an undead army and use living humans as an unending source of life.

Among all evil demons, jiangshi were particularly dangerous as they had the potential to wipe out all the humans in the world!

"I think it could be this. What do you think?" Lin Qingcheng asked.

"Mmm! I agree, master. But how do we find it?" Yuan Qiaochu wondered.

"Easy." Qin Yan replied, "It says that jiangshi needs to constantly feed. This one is greedy and is set on virgins as a quick path to improving its cultivation. It's smart enough to target prostitutes but that's where our power shines the most. Since we now control everything in this city, we only need to prevent the willy-nilly presentation of debutants. Starting from now, we will select the time and place for each debutant."

"Ah! I see!" Lin Qingcheng's eyes brightened, "That jiangshi would have no other choice than to fall right into our trap!"

"Exactly!" Qin Yan nodded, "It should only take me a few hours to spread the word and have everything set up. In time for tonight. If the jiangshi is already hungry, we'll catch it!"

"Alright! Make it happen, I will need a place to hide and observe the debutant's first night." Lin Qingcheng said, standing up, "I'll definitely be the first one to find and slay a demon!"

"Yes, master!"

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