Kapitel 363: Lock Down
"Shit!"
"What happened?"
"Not another one!"
Spiritual energy surged randomly as all of the cultivators tried to protect themselves. Weapons were drawn and fists were raised. Ru Hanyue had been at the peak of the Spirit Initiate Realm. Anything that could kill her could easily kill them as well.
"Calm down!" Su Xue shouted.
Her Winter's Snow Dance swept over the crowd at the doorway, pushing them back as well as their spiritual energies. Despite the complaints, the men recognized the immortal ice arts of Glacier Palace and obediently stepped back.
At the same time, Su Yue encased Ru Hanyue's body in ice and started searching the room in detail. She searched through piles of costumes, in drawers and closets, and even the ceiling and floorboards. She found no clues on how an attacker could have come in and sneaked away. The room was only connected to the hallway. There was no other way out, not even a window.
Su Yue knelt beside the elderly woman and shook her, "Madam, madam! Did you see anything?"
The woman had stopped screaming but she was now frozen in shock and unresponsive. While Su Yue continued to try and rouse the only possible witness, Su Xue had cleared the hallway. She sent several message talismans off, to her master and Glacier Palace. She wanted to search the theater but felt that it wasn't safe to leave her sister alone.
The twins stayed with the body until reinforcements arrived, including the town mayor and a plethora of guards. They searched the theater from top to bottom. All of the theater workers, as well as the visitors inside at the time of the attack, were questioned but they provided nothing useful. Even the matron saw only the dead body and nothing else.
"Lady Su, nobody will have seen anything. I can assure you, what did this would not have allowed anyone to see its attack." The mayor said solemnly.
"You know what did it?" Su Xue asked.
The mayor beckoned the twins into the dressing room and closed the door. He blocked off any sound from leaking out of the room with spiritual energy. He then walked to the frozen body encased in clear ice. He pointed to the torn-off face and sighed wearily.
"I can't know for sure but I am fairly certain that this is the work of a faceless demon, a bringer of chaos. It specializes in stealing human faces and often likes female targets. It had to be quite mature to defeat Lady Ru without a trace…" He trailed off.
"Why did it take her heart?" She asked.
"The heart is nourishment. Performing a sneak attack like this would take a great deal of power and demons love human hearts." He said.
"Wait." Su Yue said, "Some guy said that this has happened before. Do you know anything about that?"
"That… was the reason I closed the door. I was hoping this could somehow remain quiet…"
The mayor explained that there had been a total of six victims so far. Outside of Ru Hanyue, the others had all been at the lower levels of the Spirit Initiate Realm. They were all visitors from other provinces so it been relatively easy to suppress the news and avoid mass panic. Some of the outsiders knew about the attacks through word of mouth but it was a small number.
When probed about the reason for keeping such a matter secret, the mayor admitted that he didn't want it to affect the influx of business and visitors. The town was growing rapidly due to Chen Wentian's policies and the mayor directly benefitted as a result. He didn't want it to stop and was fearful that news of a demon would drive people away.
"Unbelievable!" Su Yue blurted, "I can't believe you endangered your people for this!"
"Lady Su… they were only outsiders until today. I didn't…"
Su Yue was about to shout at the useless mayor some more but Su Xue held her back.
"Who else knows about the faceless demon beside you?" She asked.
The mayor gulped and answered truthfully. With several deaths in recent weeks, he couldn't keep the secret alone. The town council and the guards also knew but everyone decided to keep it quiet.
"This is ridiculous, we should call master." Su Yue said. "We can't find a faceless demon. It could be anywhere."
Su Xue nodded, "It could also be anyone…"
She whirled around and in an instant, encased the mayor to up his neck in abyssal ice. He complained loudly but she ignored him. She inspected his face and head to make sure that he wasn't a demon disguise. Although his head was a bit large, his skull was hard and his fat face was real.
She quickly pulled back her ice, "I apologize for that."
The mayor shivered a little, "No problem. No problem. Ladies, is there anything else I can do?"
"I want you to lock down the town, nobody is allowed to leave." She said.
"But…"
"Do it!" Su Yue poked him with an icy finger.
"Yes! At once!"
---
Chen Wentian promptly headed for Glacier Province. Having received the message, he directly hopped through several provinces from the eastern border to the central region of the subcontinent. He didn't come alone as he brought Chen Mo and a whole host of void bee drones.
The faceless demon sounded like bad news and had to be caught. It was a malevolent being that stole faces from human victims and disguised itself as a human to blend into the population. The closer it was to the immortal realms, the better its disguise would be. If it reached the Spirit Lord Realm, there would be little he could do to find it. His soul art wasn't able to clearly distinguish between human and demon souls, not when a demon looked like a human.
The demon was also fearsome for another reason. It was related to the hundun, an archdemon that was similar in strength to a divine beast. A hundun was the faceless primordial being that could blend into human society at will and cause chaos and destruction.
Like the hundun, the faceless demon had two legs, four arms, and a pair of wings and yet no head or face. It had a powerful physique and yet it could already fly. This made it a formidable enemy to mortal realm cultivators.
Chen Wentian locked down the teleportation array after arriving. He took out several key runes to disable the intricate inscription arrays that allowed the laws of space to operate. He didn't care about the complaints of the people, especially travelers wishing to return to their homes. Nobody was going to leave this province until he found the demon.
Chen Mo set out immediately to lay down a network of shadow anchors. The bees were sent to Glacier Palace to form a protective perimeter. All disciples of the sect were ordered to return for their safety while ordinary citizens were ordered to stay indoors if possible and avoid going out at night.
With these preparations underway, Chen Wentian set off for Blue Cloud Town to meet up with the twins.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein