Roadmap to the Boundless Sky-Chapter 162: Demon Killing

Chen Chuan brought out a machete as he traversed the hill. On his back was the Frost King Saber and a backpack stuffed full to the brim.

It was almost July at this point. During this season, the hill was full of all sorts of venomous creatures and pests, but Chen Chuan was ready for them. Before he came, he brought a lot of insect repellent and put it on himself. He even wore a scratch-proof shirt. With these measures, pretty much his whole body was protected.

He had his second self to absorb damage for him, but if he could protect himself, then he would. After all, he needed to use his second self at the most suitable and crucial moments.

Since no one had taken the hill trail for years, Chen Chuan could barely see it.

Fortunately, after walking for a little over half an hour, crumbling stone steps appeared. Judging by the style, they were from the old era. They were probably from the same time period as the hill god’s temple and led straight to it. Chen Chuan cut away the bushes in his path and opened up a clear path that would allow him to go back easily.

This hill wasn’t tall and stood only at around six hundred meters, but some of the slopes were quite steep. They were not a problem to Chen Chuan, however. Once he found the way up, he headed straight to the peak. His breathing never changed, even for a bit.

Even though it was almost July, the forest remained cool. Yet when Chen Chuan arrived at the peak, the temperature took a sharp dip, as if winter had come.

But he didn’t find it cold. It was a comfortable temperature for him.

Finally, he saw the hill god’s temple. Two stone lanterns carved in the shape of demon heads with bulging eyes and sharp, angular jaws stood in front of the temple. The lines of the lanterns had been whittled down by years of exposure to the weather. Chen Chuan could barely tell that they were supposed to look ferocious.

There was a gate before the temple. The walls around it had already collapsed, and only part of the gate itself remained standing. The scattered tiles on the ground were covered in moss and weeds.

After passing through the gate, he saw an empty plot of land ahead of it, along with a winding trail. From this spot, he could already see the eaves of the temple.

Once he stepped through the gate, the buzzing of the insects and the chirping of the birds faded away. Everything became silent. The only occasional sound was the howling of the wind.

Chen Chuan took a sip of water before walking up the trail. Soon, he arrived in front of the temple. The double-sided door had long since collapsed. After walking through the threshold, he saw that the temple wasn’t actually big. It was only around one hundred square meters. Every part of the place was covered in dust and debris. There were broken pillars on the floor and large pieces of the collapsed ceiling. The offering table was the only place that provided the slightest cover.

Chen Chuan walked closer. The pedestal for the god’s statue was empty.

No surprise showed on Chen Chuan’s face.

Based on the information he obtained, the supernatural being had expanded its hunting area to the hills around the temple. If Chen Chuan wanted to see it in the temple, he had to make an offering.

He put down the backpack and took out a bamboo basket from within. Inside it was an unconscious swan he had prepared beforehand. He then took out an incense burner, a thick cushion, and an old can of tea leaves.

He had gotten some of it from Cheng Zitong, while Ren Shu had gotten the rest based on what Chen Chuan asked according to information he had gleaned from the files.

Chen Chuan had put in a lot of work to kill the Hill Demon. He had never done so much preparation for any other supernatural being before.

He took out some tea leaves from the can and poured them into a transparent glass. Then, he poured hot water into it from his thermos. He didn’t drink it and just set it aside.

After that, he lit up the incense burner. When the fragrance filled the hall, he picked up the bamboo basket and killed the swan, then placed it on the offering table.

Once done, Chen Chuan came back, placed the saber on his knees, and sat down cross-legged on the cushion.

Based on the previous cases, Chen Chuan believed that the Hill Demon needed frequent offerings, which meant that its level of activity was directly linked to the presence of offerings. This was how the Flying Heads operated, so he hoped that he could use the same method to kill the Hill Demon.

But that was just his assumption. The story of the Hill Demon was quite complicated, and it was hard to do any proper investigation beforehand. So, Chen Chuan could not say what it really was and how he should eliminate it. That was why he had decided that: If it worked, he would do it, while if it did not work, he’d leave and go back to discuss another plan with Cheng Zitong. He wasn’t going to push himself.

Chen Chuan waited, but nothing happened. He didn’t waste his time and began regulating his breathing to quietly guide the growth of his mutated tissue. Occasionally, he added some new incense sticks to the incense burner.

The sky started turning dark outside, so Chen Chuan lit up a few torches and stuck them around him before he returned to the cushion.

After a long time passed, he heard chewing, and his heart stirred. When he looked up, the swan had already disappeared.

The sound wasn’t coming from in front of him.

It was from behind him.

A flicker of shock flashed in Chen Chuan’s eyes. He put some strength into his legs and stood up slowly without moving his upper body. Then, he turned around. Right away, the chewing sound vanished.

But he saw a black ball of something outside the temple.

Chen Chuan grabbed a flashlight and picked up the Frost King Saber before heading out. When he was at the door, he used the flashlight to illuminate the area, and he saw an idol of a god with a hunched back outside. It had appeared at some point in time with its back turned to him.

No, instead of saying that it was an idol of a god, it would be more accurate to say that it was an idol of a demon. Its fingers almost touched the ground, and it had a large upper body but a thin, long lower body. Judging by its posture, it seemed to be squatting.

Slowly, Chen Chuan went before it, and his expression froze.

It was a headless idol!

His mind raced. He had never heard about this, which meant that his plan to kill the Hill Demon could not be used. He had to scrap it and come up with another one.

When it came to getting rid of incomplete supernatural beings, one had to first find all of their missing parts.

The Hill Demon didn’t need any offerings. What it wanted was its missing head, and Chen Chuan had to find it, or he wouldn’t be able to take it out.

He wouldn’t be able to find it within a short amount of time, so he decided to leave the place. He didn’t even take the things in the temple and just left without hesitation.

Yet after taking just a few steps, he heard rustling sounds behind him. At the same time, his second self started blurring out, with the effects looking like rippling waves. Chen Chuan stopped moving.

When he looked over, he saw that the Hill Demon had begun moving. Paint and lime plaster fell off of it.

A thought appeared in Chen Chuan’s head, and he went still.

He could easily make a break for it, but if the Hill Demon was dissatisfied with the offering, it might go and hunt the hamlet’s residents or villagers. While they were experienced at avoiding it, letting the Hill Demon do whatever it wanted was not the way to go.

Chen Chuan stared at the Hill Demon’s statue as he tightened his grip over the Frost King Saber. Since he could not leave, then he would not.

The Hill Demon had straightened up at this point, and it was three meters tall. It faced Chen Chuan and lunged at him.

Chen Chuan shifted his feet and dodged to the side. The Hill Demon crashed into the ground, and a lot of dust fell from its body, creating a large dust cloud.

The Hill Demon paused for a moment before lunging at Chen Chuan a second time, then a third time.

Chen Chuan just kept dodging it. At that moment, he had already calmed down. The Hill Demon wasn’t fast, so he could easily lead it around in circles.

But he was only able to do this because he had his second self. The main harm from supernatural beings didn’t come from their direct attacks, but from the invisible damage they dealt.

Chen Chuan’s second self was blurring out badly, and his mutated tissue had also received a stimulation so powerful that it was on par with the stimulation he received from the source of the Flying Heads on the third and final day. With no other choice, he had to use the brief respites after dodging to guide his mutated tissues’ growth through his breathing.

While dodging, he noticed that the damage his second self sustained was getting worse, and the speed at which he was getting hurt just kept increasing at an astonishingly fast pace. Chen Chuan had wanted to keep the Hill Demon entertained throughout the night, since it usually didn’t appear in the morning, but if this continued, his second self would disappear long before the sun rose.

He had to look for another solution.

After dodging yet again, he retreated into the temple and went straight to the incense burner. The speed and intensity of the blurring out of his second self weakened somewhat.

Chen Chuan picked up the machete. After just a little while, he saw the Hill Demon jumping down from above him. Chen Chuan dodged to the side and slammed the machete into the Hill Demon’s body. A large part of it shattered in an instant.

It only served to make Chen Chuan’s second self blur out even worse than before. The shattered place also glued together after just a few breaths, as if it had never been hit.

From this, Chen Chuan deduced that the moment he came into contact with the supernatural being, the onslaught worsened, even if he touched it using an object. He couldn’t use force to break it or hold it back.

Just where the heck is its head?! Chen Chuan screamed in his mind.

He was beginning to suspect that the Flying Head Cult was behind the Hill Demon’s missing head. In the past, the Flying Head Cult had destroyed the heads of all idols in various regions. If that was true, then the head was long gone and couldn’t be retrieved, making this an impossible mission.

Just then, he remembered a tiny detail from the Legend of the Three Mountains. It said that the Hill Demon ate through its stomach and chewed its food as if it were sweet candy.

That’s right! It eats through its stomach!

He thought of a possibility and whipped his head around to look at the Hill Demon’s stomach. Could this be the solution?

As his mind raced, he decided to take the risk.

After dodging the Hill Demon one more time, he grabbed the thermos and drank all of the water inside before taking a sharp breath and mobilizing his mutated tissue.

At the same time, he picked up the glass of tea. The tea leaves inside had turned into squirming, black worms. Chen Chuan waited for the Hill Demon to lunge at him again, then threw the contents of the glass at it.

The moment the worms came into contact with it, they crawled inside and corroded small holes all over its body. The Hill Demon immediately slowed down.

Chen Chuan seized that moment to kick off the floor and plunge a hand into the Hill Demon’s stomach. The sensation was like breaking through a tough cow’s hide.

The moment he touched the Hill Demon, his second self blurred out even more and started fading in and out, as if it was about to scatter into nothingness.

The sight didn’t make Chen Chuan waver. He fumbled around inside until he grabbed something. His gaze hardened, and he yanked out a terrifying-looking head. The head wasn’t what one would find on an idol statue, but a normal withered head.

“It really was here!”

No one had destroyed the Hill Demon’s head. It was always in its stomach!

Chen Chuan no longer hesitated. When the Hill Demon was about to start moving again, he slammed the head on its neck and fixed it there without letting go of it. The idol statue started trembling and fighting back, but after a while, it stopped.

Blood oozed out from the severed neck and dripped down onto the floor. Something shattered, and cracks appeared all over the Hill Demon’s body before it crumbled into powdered lime that scattered all over the floor.