Demoness's Art of Vengeance

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

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Jun Xiaomo personally patrolled around the courtyard outside but to no avail – she did not discover the movements of any assailants or enemies.

Nevertheless, she had a hunch that something big was going to happen tonight.

Thus, she retrieved approximately ten black-coloured paper cranes from her Interspatial Ring and waved her hand over them, imbuing each of them with a little bit of her demonic energy. Just like that, the paper cranes all “came to life”.

“Go forth. Scout on ahead and patrol the borders of this valley and see if there are any peculiar movements that I should be aware of.” After Jun Xiaomo disseminated her instructions to the paper cranes, they each pecked obsequiously on Jun Xiaomo’s palm before taking to the skies and melding into the dark of the night.

Then, after deliberating for a moment, Jun Xiaomo turned around and made her way towards Ye Xiuwen’s room.

Ye Xiuwen was in a light slumber because he was in a foreign place right now.

There was the massive burden of the safety of his martial brothers weighing heavily on his shoulders, and he was unable to set his heart at ease and sleep without a care in the world. After all, he couldn’t afford a single lapse in his vigilance at all.

Thus, he woke up as soon as Jun Xiaomo opened the door to his room.

“Who’s there?!” Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows and glanced at the door to his room as his hand instinctually tightened around the hilt of his spirit sword.

Yet, despite the door opening on its own, he saw nobody at the door.

“Martial Brother Ye, it’s me.” Jun Xiaomo tore off the Invisibility Talisman, revealing her physical appearance to Ye Xiuwen.

“Xiaomo? What are you doing looking for me this late at night?” Ye Xiuwen queried with some measure of perplexity in his voice.

“For some strange reason, I keep getting the feeling that danger is quickly approaching us tonight. I don’t know where this feeling comes from, but it’s plaguing me, so I’d thought to approach Martial Brother Ye to tell you about it.” Jun Xiaomo explained hastily. As she did so, she glanced anxiously at the door behind her.

Looking out, everything appeared to be still and silent as any other night should be. There were no telltale signs that anything was peculiar with this night.

That said, Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo knew better than to conclude that there were no dangers lurking in the dark just because they were unable to sense it. After all, both of them sincerely believed in what their instincts told them.

“Then, Xiaomo, what do you plan to do? Do you have any ideas?” Ye Xiuwen calmly asked Jun Xiaomo.

Jun Xiaomo bit down on her lower lips before looking back up to Ye Xiuwen, “I think it would be best if we awaken our other martial brothers and leave this place pronto. I’ve drawn up another bunch of Invisibility Talismans over the last few days, and they should be sufficient for all of our usage.”

“That’s fine. I was thinking of the same as well.” Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo’s head, gently calming her anxious spirits.

Ye Xiuwen’s unconditional trust and support in her sent a wave of soothing warmth washing through Jun Xiaomo’s heart.

This was enough for her. Even if her other martial brothers couldn’t understand her thoughts, she found security in the knowledge that Martial Brother Ye would always be standing by her side.

Then, just as they motioned to alert all of their other martial brothers to the impending dangers that she had sensed, one of the little paper cranes that Jun Xiaomo had earlier sent out returned to her and perched itself on the back of Jun Xiaomo’s hand.

Jun Xiaomo understood what this meant. She tapped on the little paper crane’s head, and its little eyes instantly came alive, glowing brightly. In the next moment, it began to project an image onto a nearby wall.

She could see from the projection that there were several black shadows rushing straight towards their present location right now.

“Seems like we’ve really got ourselves some uninvited guests.” Jun Xiaomo furrowed her brows, “I wonder who these people are. Their movements are far too quick for my paper cranes to keep up with.”

“It doesn’t matter who they are. The most pressing thing now is to awaken all of our martial brothers right now.” Ye Xiuwen made the call. Jun Xiaomo agreed immediately. After giving Ye Xiuwen an Invisibility Talisman, she left the room together with Ye Xiuwen.

However, after taking just two steps, Jun Xiaomo paused again. She retrieved a Humanoid Puppet Talisman and had Ye Xiuwen drip a drop of his blood onto it. Within moments, a Humanoid Puppet bearing Ye Xiuwen’s image appeared on Ye Xiuwen’s bed.

“This is just a precautionary measure. It might also serve to buy us some time.” Jun Xiaomo explained as Ye Xiuwen smiled in approval and tousled Jun Xiaomo’s hair. Then, the both of them finally left Ye Xiuwen’s room and made a beeline towards where their other martial brothers were resting.

In order to speed things up, Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo chose to divide and conquer and awaken all of their martial brothers in the quickest way possible.

Gradually, all of the Heavenly Peak martial brothers began to assemble in their agreed meeting point, wondering why Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo would summon them in the middle of the night.

“We’ve got uninvited guests in the valley tonight. It would be prudent to leave this place under the cover of night.” Jun Xiaomo explained succinctly.

Everyone instantly snapped out of their grogginess.

Uninvited guests? Who could it be at this time of the night?

The most agitated one of all the Heavenly Peak disciples was undoubtedly Zhou Zilong. He immediately exclaimed anxiously, “We’ve got to alert Miss Zhang about the uninvited guests! We can’t afford to let her perish to these assailants.” As he finished speaking, he immediately motioned to run towards Zhang Shuyue’s abode.

“Martial Brother Zhou, hang on a minute.” Jun Xiaomo sternly held Zhou Zilong back, “Zhang Shuyue might very well have been involved in or even caused this exigency to begin with. Going to her right now could very possibly alert her to our movements.”

Zhou Zilong’s eyes reddened with anxiety as he glared indignantly at Jun Xiaomo, “That’s not possible! Martial Sister Xiaomo, you can’t keep casting aspersions on Miss Zhang’s character. She’s not even a threat to you anymore right now!”

Jun Xiaomo released a paper crane from her hand and allowed it to fly to Zhou Zilong’s hand as she curtly explained, “Take a look for yourself who the person in the image is.”

Zhou Zilong looked at the projected image and saw a female cultivator with pristine, orderly appearances wearing a stern expression on her face. She was clothed in garments that looked somewhat similar to Zhang Shuyue’s clothing, yet it appeared slightly darker in colour than Zhang Shuyue’s.

“Who’s she? I don’t know her.” Zhou Zilong shook his head.

“Martial Brother Zhou, didn’t you notice the embroidery on her clothing? This lady none other than Zhang Shuyue’s master. She’s leading a team of men into the valley under the cover of night right now, and there’s no reason not to believe that their goal is to capture us. Don’t you know what this means?!” Jun Xiaomo barked coldly.

Zhou Zilong shook his head in denial, “Martial Sister Xiaomo hasn’t seen Miss Zhang’s master before. How can you possibly make such allegations just based on the similarity in their clothing?”

“Who says I’ve never seen her before?!” Jun Xiaomo gnashed her teeth and glared back at Zhou Zilong.

In her previous life, this woman had worked in tandem with Zhang Shuyue to lead wave after wave of men to surround and capture Martial Brother Ye and her. Even if Jun Xiaomo tried her best, she would never be able to forget her exact appearances.

Zhou Zilong continued to cast aspersions on Jun Xiaomo’s allegations, “Martial Sister has seen Miss Zhang’s master? Are you certain?”

Jun Xiaomo chuckled bitterly, “It’s your call whether you believe me or not.”

She had never deigned to strain her relationship with Martial Brother Zhou like that. Regrettably, it seems that Zhou Zilong had fallen head over heels in love with a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it was impossible to tear his impression of Zhang Shuyue away from his rigid mind.

Given Zhang Shuyue’s character, Jun Xiaomo knew full well that Zhang Shuyue would never reciprocate Zhou Zilong’s good intentions. After all, men were nothing more than bragging rights and expendable resources in Zhang Shuyue’s eyes, and it was only a matter of time before she turned around and bit the hand that fed her.

Unfortunately, Zhou Zilong had fallen inextricably for her charms, and he had already sunken deep into the mires of her trappings.

At this moment, Ye Xiuwen finally interjected, “Alright, stop arguing. This is Miss Zhang’s territory, and the leader of the quickly approaching assailants could very well be Miss Zhang’s master. No harm should come to her. It would be best if we acted prudently and left this place in the quickest time possible.”

“How are we going to leave this place?” Chen Feiyu furrowed his brows, “From the paper crane’s projected image, it seems that the entrance to the valley has already been blockaded by the uninvited guests. It seems that we’ll be forced to clash with them no matter what we do.”

The other Heavenly Peak disciples had also thought about these matters, and they began to reveal looks of anxiety on their faces.

“That’s fine. Don’t we have Teleportation Scrolls with us? We can use them to leave this place directly.” Jun Xiaomo explained.

“Teleportation Scrolls? I recall that the valley doesn’t allow us to use Teleportation Scrolls, right?” Chen Feiyu reminded Jun Xiaomo.

This was something that was common and natural, particularly within a Sect’s territory. After all, where was the security if anyone could just come and go from a Sect’s territory using Teleportation Scrolls? Everything would be a mess!

Thus, Sects would invariably engage array masters to set up formation arrays, negating the effects of a Teleportation Scroll within their territories.

However, Jun Xiaomo stretched out her finger and wagged it slightly, “It impossible to use the Teleportation Scrolls right here, right now. Thus, I intend to head into the depths of the valley to alter the master formation array slightly so that it would temporarily allow the use of Teleportation Scrolls. That way, we’ll be able to leave this place without a hitch.”

It was incredibly difficult to take ownership or alter the entire master formation array governing the valley. At the very least, Jun Xiaomo knew that it was an impossible thing with the few hours of time that they had available right now. Nevertheless, it was still highly possible to alter the master formation array slightly to allow them temporary access to their Teleportation Scrolls, giving them a way out of the valley immediately.

Everyone had witnessed the extent of Jun Xiaomo’s prowess with formation arrays before. After all, they were well aware that the plight of He Zhang and the other Dawn Sect members had been a result of Jun Xiaomo’s manipulation of the formation arrays.

Thus, none of them had any doubts to Jun Xiaomo’s words at this time. If she said it was possible, then it was most certainly possible.

Seeing that none of the other disciples had any objections to her suggestion, Jun Xiaomo knew that everyone had unanimously come on board with her plans.

Jun Xiaomo smiled, “I’d previously taken a walk around the heart of the valley’s master formation array with Martial Brother Ye. The offensive abilities of the master formation array aren’t too high. At the very least, they’re not as high as the ones within the Dawn Sect’s forbidden grounds. Therefore, I’ve decided that we’ll all head into the depths of the valley where the heart of the formation array is located. This way, as soon as I unlock and alter the relevant part of the master formation array, we’ll immediately be able to leave this place with our Teleportation Scrolls. We won’t have to waste time going back and forth this way.”

“I think this is a good idea.” Chen Feiyu immediately seconded Jun Xiaomo’s plans.

“I also agree.” Another Heavenly Peak disciple chimed in with agreement.

Thus, after all of the Heavenly Peak disciples had unanimously agreed with the plans, Jun Xiaomo, Ye Xiuwen and the rest began to make their way into the depths of the valley.

Unfortunately, Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen failed to notice Zhou Zilong’s suspicious disposition as he walked silently behind the rest of the disciples with his head hung low.

After some time, Zhou Zilong lifted his head and looked at Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen’s backs as he grappled with the clashing thoughts in his heart. The image of Zhang Shuyue’s dainty smile surfaced on his mind once more.

He wholeheartedly believed that Zhang Shuyue was not an evil person by any means.

Gritting his teeth, Zhou Zilong retrieved a Messenger Paper Crane from his Interspatial Ring and wrote a few words on it before releasing it.

Regardless of what anyone said, his heart told him that he simply had to remind Miss Zhang of the impending dangers. He could not afford to let her get hurt.

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