Ji Yuan was a little surprised by this bull demon’s reaction.

Even if he had been to the inn, and although the bull demon was by no means slow, he also hadn’t used any sophisticated escape techniques, so there were plenty of ways to catch up with him. However, it was possible that he believed Ji Yuan was waiting here specifically for him, and had some mistunderstandings.

“I have been to Yuanqi Inn in the city…”

Hearing Ji Yuan’s admission, the bull demon breathed a sigh of relief but still asked.

“Then where did you get this hair? Was it in the inn?”

At this, Ji Yuan was a little puzzled.

“You didn’t realize that some of your hair fell in the inn?”

Unexpectedly, after Ji Yuan finished his question, the bull demon immediately responded.

“Oh, that’s good, you got it from the inn, I thought… well, you really don’t know whose hair it is?”

The two looked at each other in silence for a while.

Seeing Ji Yuan’s calm face, with no ripples in his eyes, the bull demon was inexplicably relieved.

“Phew… A human cultivator with a peaceful composure like yourself would not lie so casually. It seems that you really didn’t meet her, let alone know her!”

Ji Yuan was somewhat confused. Although his heart was full of doubts, he only showed a frown on his face.

“Why do you say that? Who are you afraid of?”

At that, Ji Yuan suddenly had a realization. This bull demon did not ride on a demonic wind or perform any kind of swift escape. Instead, he used a techniques that were slightly beyond ordinary concealment techniques to hide and sprint along the ground. Ji Yuan looked at the hair in his hand and blurted out.

“You have traveled like this all this time. Are you hiding from her?”

“If I weren’t avoiding her, then who would I have been avoiding? You?”

The bull demon said sarcastically, looking Ji Yuan up and down.

“A piece of advice, sir, hurry up and throw away this unlucky hair immediately. That creature is not to be trifled with. That hair is like a living thing; the longer it grows, the closer she is. I’m leaving!”

The bull demon pointed to the back of his neck, and prepared to start moving again. As he passed by, Ji Yuan took a closer look at the back of his neck and saw a tuft of fine dark brown hair growing there. Its color was similar to the one in Ji Yuan’s hand.

It looked as though the dark brown hair in Ji Yuan’s hands had been ripped off directly from the bull demon’s neck.

“You don’t seem to be a violent and evil individual, but why are you carrying a woman on your shoulders? If you want to flee an enemy, wouldn’t carrying someone be burdensome?”

Ji Yuan stood up, and with just one step, he was swept away by the breeze and arrived in front of the bull demon, blocking his path.

The bull demon dodged and continued forward, but was blocked by Ji Yuan again. He tried to change direction several times to no avail.

“Are you done yet? Do you think you’re so great? As an immortal cultivator, can you even understand the insidious traps of mortals? They attacked me first. Since they had bad intentions, they deserve death. I will neither eat her nor kill her. I’ll let her go when the time comes.”

“Then why did you capture her?”

Ji Yuan asked in surprise.

“I… I’m taking her to teach her a lesson! I was the victim, caught in a scheme, so why I can’t teach her a lesson? It’s unreasonable! Don’t keep trying to stop me, or I’ll take action.”

Ji Yuan’s gaze grew increasingly suspicious. He couldn’t help but inspect the bull demon again. His gaze paused for a moment on the bull demon’s face, before it was drawn to the tuft of hair at the back of its neck. He noticed, strangely enough, that it was growing longer.

The hair was growing in a strange way: not only was it rapid, but it was also twisting and emerging from the collar of his robe on its own, creating a terrifying sight.

“No, I can’t hold back anymore, she must be here!”

The bull demon screamed in alarm. He stretched out a hand and ripped out the hair from the back of his neck, discarding it carelessly by the roadside. He breathed out a cloud of green gas into his palm and clasped it to the back of his neck. A faint flash of light suppressed the hair’s rapid growth.

Ji Yuan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly sensed something. Bewildered, he turned around and looked back in the direction he came from.

“Oh no! Yan Fei!”

Ji Yuan didn’t bother to waste any more words on the bull demon. The latter seemed to be preoccupied. In an instant, Ji Yuan had approached him.

The Green Vine Sword’s energy emerged from behind him. With a “buzz,” the sharp sound echoed, and with Ji Yuan’s determination to guide it, the bull demon’s supernatural concealment technique was instantly shattered. Taking advantage of having caught the bull demon off guard, Ji Yuan flicked his sleeve and snatched the woman from his shoulder.

Without stopping, Ji Yuan turned around, rushed past the bull demon, and sped back the way he had come. With the Soaring dragon technique, swept away by the gentle breeze, his speed was unbelievably fast.

“Bastard! You, a cultivator, dare to rob women!”1

The bull demon behind him was furious. Bursts of hot steam came out from his nostrils. Ji Yuan just glanced back at him as he departed, to lazy to bother with his nonsense. He didn’t even pause.

This bull demon was not a bad individual by nature, and he did not harbor much hostility in his body. Moreover, his cultivation was not shallow. If Ji Yuan wanted to fight him, it would take a lot of effort. Crucially, if he didn’t use his trump cards, he likely would not be able to subdue him. And if he used his trump card, Ji Yuan would most likely be killed. Now that Yan Fei might be in trouble, Ji Yuan would naturally rush back first.

“You… You… You…”

Seeing that Ji Yuan ignored completely and had run far away in an instant, the bull demon hurried to catch up, but hesitated and touched the back of his neck. After this hesitation, by the time he reacted, Ji Yuan was almost gone.

Some ten li northeast of Nandao County, Yan Fei was engaged din battle.

There were currently four strange men surrounding him, each with long nails and shriveled faces. Although they were sluggish, they were not slow in their movements, jumping up and down and swiping madly to attack Yan Fei.

Yan Fei spun around, and swung the longsword in his hand left and right, exuding a fierce murderous aura. He completed six or seven strikes in an instant.

“Clang-clang-clang…”

“Pfft-pfft…”

After parrying two of the beings’ claw attacks, Yan Fei opened several deep gashes on one of their bodies, but the other party didn’t seem to be afraid of pain at all. Even with such injuries, it still attacked Yan Fai as usual, even directly going to grapple him.

Yan Fei slid back four to five feet on the balls of his feet, swinging his sword in the process and scattering flashes of sword strikes.

“Clang-clang-clang…”

“Are you human or ghosts? Why are you attacking me?”

Yan Fei asked, but before he had time to catch his breath, his opponent attacked once more. He had no time to recover, and could only raise his sword to fight again.

The these monsters were incredibly fast, and oblivious to pain. Yan Fei was flustered at first, but had now adapted to their attack. Seeing their disorganized movements and sluggish reactions, he grew more adept at handling them.

After a powerful leap and somersault, Yan Fei turned around, swung his sword in mid-air, and decapitated two of the monsters.

The two headless bodies swayed briefly before collapsing to the ground.

‘Good, they’re dead!’ Newest update provided by NoveIＦire.net

Seeing the corpses lying on the ground, Yan Fei was relieved. Two were already dead, and the remaining two would be much easier to deal with.

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly smelled a strange fragrance wafting to his nose, and his vision immediately blurred. However, Yan Fei’s experience gained from years of fighting in the martial arts world had formed a conditioned reflex.

At this moment, his movements exploded, and he leapt to the side with dexterity skills. However, while he was still in the air, he felt a rope wrap around his waist, and his body was yanked in another direction.

In the moment his body changed directions, Yan Fei’s hand had already begun to swing the sword in front of him even before his sight returned. However, the feel of the blade was like cutting extremely tough leather, and he couldn’t slice through at all.

Only then did Yan Fei look down to see what was wrapped around his waist.

‘Hair!? ‘

Yan Fei was still confused when a pleasant female voice sounded.

“Before catching that old cow, I managed to catch a prickly pretty boy like you, hahahahaha…”

A little further away, a woman was unexpectedly sitting in a large locust tree at the edge of the woods. Her hair was incredibly long, and a strand had reached out and wrapped around Yan Fei, rapidly dragging him towards her.

As Yan Fei looked at her, the woman glanced back. Their eyes met and Yan Fei felt a wave of confusion return, the peculiar fragrance in his nose growing stronger.

A ghost? A demon?

Various thoughts flashed through Yan Fei’s mind. With his glimmer of clarity, he tapped several acupuncture points on his body, and even channeled Qi to seal his nostrils.

“It’s no use, it’s no use, hehehe…”

Yan Fei forced himself awake with his Qi, but he still felt a little groggy.

Clang—

The resounding clash of a sword echoed, and Yan Fei’s eyes were filled with silver light.

“Aaaaahh…”

Yan Fei suddenly heard the woman’s screams. At the same time, the tension around his body suddenly lifted, and he fell.

By the time Yan Fei landed on the ground, he had already been steadied by someone supporting him. He felt a cool, gentle breath flowing into his body from behind, instantly dispelling the drowsiness.

Yan Fei shook his head and looked behind him. Standing there was none other than Ji Yuan.

“Mr. Ji!”

“Well, you have been bewitched by an evil spirit, just surviving by luck.”2

As Ji Yuan spoke, he focused his attention on the woman who had fallen from the locust tree. Compared to the bull demon, this woman was truly brimming with demonic energy.

The Green Vine Sword lacked fine control, so Ji Yuan wielded it himself for far less powerful or more delicate moves.

The previous strike, out of concern for Yan Fei’s proximity, had restrained the sword’s energy. But the woman was still able to sit up and stare at him with resentment, a remarkable feat.

The sword had dispelled the woman’s demonic energy just now and she had fallen to the ground. But now, a fierce, murderous aura intermingled with the demonic energy, permeating the air. The surrounding light and shadows seemed to be affected by this evil energy, making the night sky appear darker and heavier. Only her narrow eyes shone with a faint light.

At this moment, Ji Yuan’s left hand held the sword behind his back, only a corner of the hilt of the immortal sword exposed. His right hand hung empty at his side, ready to draw the sword at any time. Although he seemed calm, he was on high alert.

He was only distracted for a moment to pay attention to Yan Fei, and a piece of yellow paper floated out of his sleeve.

With the words “I await my Warrior,” an extremely sturdy warrior in golden armor appeared at Ji Yuan’s side and bowed to him.

“My lord!”

Ji Yuan glanced at the warrior out of the corner of his eye and casually ordered.

“Take care of Warrior Yan for the time being.”

“I shall obey the order!”

The Golden-Armored Warrior slowly straightened up, took a step forward, and stood in front of Yan Fei, his red face expressionless.

Ji Yuan had already prepared for a fierce battle. If the situation did not look good, he would use all of his strength to kill this demonic woman.

But things developed in a different direction at this time. Seeing Ji Yuan summon out the Golden-Armored Warrior, the demonic woman’s anger and resentment slightly sobered.

After observing Ji Yuan carefully, she noticed the immortal sword with a faint green glow behind him. The woman was stunned for a moment, then her expression changed drastically.

“The Green Vine Immortal Sword! Are you Ji Yuan!?”

“Oh!? You actually recognize me?”

Ji Yuan narrowed his eyes, sizing up this woman whose demonic aura seemed to have been greatly disturbed by these words.

At this moment, a series of bull moos and wild laughter came from behind Ji Yuan.

“Hahahahahaha… Let me take advantage and strike her down while she is weak. Thank you, Mr. Ji, for helping me! Moo—”

A flash of yellow light cut through the sky and the illusion of a giant hoof stepped down towards the woman’s location.

Boom…

The ground shook, and the place where the woman stood was swirling with dust. Ji Yuan remained motionless in the wind. The Golden-Armored Warrior did not respond aside from blocking Yan Fei from some dust and rocks.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

The giant hoof slammed down continuously, and the bull demon’s voice continued to roar.

“Let’s see whether you can survive this!”3

1. T/n: dude. Why did you kidnap a woman and treat her like an object. And now you’re mad that JY “stole her from you.”

2. 2nd phrase translation unclear, 坐好运气

3. Lit. “let’s see whether you live or die,” but sounded clunky in context