"They caught a lot of people some time ago to offer them as sacrifices to the evil spirit. You should be here to rescue those people, right?"
"Although I can't tell what's so special about you, the evil spirit was willing to let you out and tried to lure you into dealing with me. That's an indirect recognition of your abilities."
"She must have no way to deal with you, so she let you out to fight me to the death. She hopes that you can kill me, and then she can gain her freedom."
"I'm telling you these things with my own agenda. If you're willing to help me deal with the evil spirit and avenge me, I can tell you where she's hiding the people and also tell you her weaknesses."
The man spoke very straightforwardly, with a very strong purpose, and showed great sincerity.
Niannian looked at him with a smile but didn't reply immediately.
She slowly digested the information the man had said in her mind.
Another batch of living people had been captured and were going to be sacrificed to the evil spirit.
Niannian roughly understood why there were so many skeletons in this underground place that looked like a tomb.
It was probably the Holy Cult that did this kind of thing of feeding the evil spirit. They loved doing such things.
Since they had encountered this, they had to do something about it. So many innocent lives were at stake. They couldn't just pretend not to know and watch them die.
Moreover, they still hadn't found an exit or a way to leave here.
She pretended to hesitate for a long time before slowly saying, "I'm a Taoist priest, a Taoist priest who upholds justice on behalf of heaven."
"The strange thing living in the temple in your story is not a good one. It's even fair to say it's extremely evil. But you're not a good person either."
"There's a smell of blood on you. This body was snatched by you, not given to you as you said. You've also killed people, a great many people."
"I can help you take revenge, but I have another condition."
Niannian stared closely at the man's expression, making sure she wouldn't miss any details.
"What condition? As long as I can get my revenge, I'll agree to anything."
"After the evil spirit is dead, you must also die, and you have to be willing to do so."
"Okay, I agree."
The man answered without hesitation. Niannian nodded with a smile, accepting the deal.
"Tell me where the captured people are first, and then tell me her weaknesses."
"I know where she's hiding the people. It's not in the city. It's useless for you to waste your time in the city. But I can't fully trust you either. If you rescue the people and just leave, it'll be a loss for me."
"I can tell you their hiding place now, but I'll guard there and wait for good news from you. As long as the evil spirit is not dead, I won't let them out."
"As for her weakness, it's inside her body. The statue being worshipped is hollow, and there's an eternal lamp inside. She was born from the eternal lamp. As long as the lamp doesn't go out, she won't die. A great deal of her divine power is stored in it. If the eternal lamp goes out, she'll surely die."
It wasn't really a friendly cooperation to begin with.
The threat from the snake demon didn't arouse the slightest emotional reaction from Niannian.
Whether it was him or the evil spirit, they were both disasters if left in this place.
If they had the ability, she wanted to get rid of both of them.
Now it was just a bit more troublesome. They had to kill the evil spirit first and then deal with the snake demon.
"Take us to that city."
She guessed that the evil spirit had already merged with the ancient city. They had walked around in this mountain so much that their calves were about to break. The snake demon still had the ability to take them there. It was a free ride. Why not take it?
The snake demon agreed readily. He nodded slightly and, in the blink of an eye, took the two of them back to the city gate.
"Okay, we're going into the city."
Niannian waved her hand and stepped into the ancient city without hesitation.
Weihe didn't say a word the whole time. It wasn't until there was no sign of the snake demon behind them that she leaned close to Niannian and whispered, "That demon can't be trusted either. These old monsters who have lived for who knows how many years are the dirtiest. There's not a single truthful word in their mouths. Moreover, there are too many plot holes in the story he told."
The snake demon had told the story with great emotion, easily drawing people into the mood.
He had emphasized the evil deeds of the evil spirit in the city. Except for the part where he had to admit his own evil deeds during the long - term confrontation with the evil spirit, he completely ignored his own role in the first half of the story.
There were too many doubts.
For example, how could a young girl who had grown up in such a city of desires, been brainwashed severely, and whose values were completely warped, suddenly wake up because of his few words?
Because of his great charisma?
Come on. He himself had said that he was just a young demon who had just transformed into a human form and was inexperienced.
If he had such good eloquence, he couldn't have claimed to be inexperienced.
Another example was why there was a strict rule in the city that people could enter but not leave.
They said it was to hide a secret.
A god who could gain without working as long as people offered sacrifices, a god who needed the power of faith and human greed to survive, should hope that more and more people would live in the city, right?
The more widely this news spread and the more people came, the more beneficial it would be for the evil spirit.
In this way, she could absorb more power of faith and become stronger.
The rule of only allowing entry but not exit sounded like a joke.
And he, a demon with a strong demonic aura, had lived under the nose of the evil spirit for half a month without being discovered.
But he was stopped and killed by the evil spirit just when he was about to leave the city.
It made the evil spirit seem both weak and stupid, which was inconsistent with her power described in the story.
Anyway, when you thought about this story carefully, there were full of plot holes.
And then there was the last condition.
The city was the territory of the evil spirit, while outside the city was the territory of the snake demon.
The evil spirit wanted to absorb people's lives to restore her strength. It was just a joke to keep the captured people outside the city.
She also didn't miss the flash of killing intent in the snake demon's eyes when she said that he must also die.
Well, neither of them was a good thing.
"Why don't we just follow the snake demon, find the people, and then just leave?"
Weihe thought this was the most reliable way.
Their ultimate goal here wasn't to pick a fight.
"Hey, they'll be a disaster sooner or later. Master said that if we have the ability to deal with a disaster when we encounter it, we must kill it."
"What should we do next?"
Weihe was a bit speechless, but she couldn't get out on her own now, so she could only let Niannian do as she pleased.
Although she didn't understand where Niannian got this kind of selfless and compassionate spirit.
"My suggestion is to let them fight each other. When listening to a story, we surely can't just listen to one version. Even in a trial, we have to listen to the statements of both the plaintiff and the defendant. Let's go find that evil spirit and tell her the story."
Weihe's eyes curved into a smile, looking like a little fox.