The Demon King is an Idiot [BL]-Chapter 160: I can volunteer

Xue Lan carefully thought about something for a minute before he confidently spoke, "We can trace the demonic Qi back to the owner."

"Huh?"

"I know a way," Xue Lan spoke as he took out a small dagger, "Demons can pretend to be humans on the outside by consuming the life energy of a human being, but they cannot mask their demonic blood."

Quan Mu immediately understood the method that Xue Lan was talking about but didn’t seem to be all too enthusiastic about it as he questioned, "So you want to injure everyone in order to check whether they are a demon or not?"

Xue Lan nodded his head without any hesitance.

"..."

For a second, Quan Mu wondered whether he was supposed to be impressed or concerned.

This method was probably the fastest and the most efficient way to find the demon, however, it wasn’t exactly ethical, and not many righteous cultivators would dare to use such a cruel method.

"It’s just a few drops of blood," Xue Lan spoke, trying to justify himself, "It will heal in no time."

Unexpectedly enough, Quan Mu laughed as he heard this.

"You couldn’t even sense any demonic activity last night, how can you be sure that you would be able to sense the demonic Qi in the blood this time?"

"I don’t know what happened last night," Xue Lan spoke with a sigh, "But if a demon is the culprit then I can definitely find it with its blood."

"If you are so confident then you might as well try convincing the villagers to cooperate with your plan."

"..."

That was probably the hardest part.

The village chief’s daughter, who overheard their conversation, slowly raised her hand as she hesitantly spoke, "I can volunteer."

The two turned around to look at the woman in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Xue Lan asked.

The woman gulped as she stretched her right hand out forward and spoke, "You can take my blood and check.

Xue Lan and Quan Mu looked at each other, both having the same doubts in their mind.

They thought it was going to be hard to convince the villagers but even before they could ask, this woman had already volunteered to cooperate.

"But is it not a beast...?" The woman hesitantly asked, looking extremely worried.

Xue Lan felt a little stunned as he heard this question and didn’t know if it was a good idea to reveal the truth to the villagers. If he were to confirm that it was a demon and not a beast, he would risk alerting the culprit and the culprit would probably run away.

Thankfully, Quan Mu reacted faster than him and chuckled as he spoke, "It’s a beast. It’s a demonic beast."

"Oh..." The woman muttered out in understanding and thought about it for a minute before she asked, "Then why are you taking our blood? Is the demonic beast pretending to be a human?"

Quan Mu nodded his head as he shamelessly lied, "Demonic beasts sometimes do that. After killing a person, it pretends to be that person."

"That’s right," Xue Lan nodded his head as he confirmed it, "We think one of the villagers was killed and the demonic beast has taken his or her place."

Only the king of demonic beasts had the ability to shapeshift, however, the woman didn’t know that, and hence, she believed in the words of these two cultivators.

The woman shivered in fear as she heard this, "That’s so scary."

"By the way, I’m sorry for what happened to your father." Xue Lan sighed as he immediately changed the topic and spoke.

The woman looked to be a little taken aback as she heard this and glanced at the village chief’s corpse as she spoke, "I hope you catch the one who killed my father."

There was something off about her reaction and both Xue Lan and Quan Mu noticed it, however, since she had just lost her father, they didn’t bother to question her too much.

Xue Lan looked at the woman’s hand that was stretched out toward him and then glanced at the dagger that he was holding.

The woman had volunteered to cut her skin in order to find the real culprit, but Xue Lan felt as if her willingness was proof of her innocence.

In the end, Xue Lan sighed as he put the dagger back and spoke, "I think we should look for another way."

"Why?" Quan Mu asked with a small frown, not understanding Xue Lan’s sudden change of mind.

"It’s weird," Xue Lan muttered as he stepped out of the house and looked around.

"What’s weird?"

"She screamed but we were the only ones who came running over," Xue Lan’s eyebrows creased together as he spoke, pointing out, "Do the other villagers really keep themselves locked up in their homes the entire day?"

"Well, you are right." Quan Mu also looked around at the empty street as he spoke, "I have been staying here for a few days but haven’t seen them come out. This place is almost like a ghost town. If the village chief hadn’t told me, I would have never known that there were people living in all these houses."

"They are afraid," The villager chief’s daughter spoke as she followed after the two, "Almost every day, they wake up to the news of another person’s death. They have gotten used to it, but still, with every new victim, their fear grows. They dare not come out in fear that they might be next."

"Are you also afraid?" Xue Lan asked as he looked at the woman.

The woman gulped as she heard this question and nodded her head as she spoke, "Of course, I am afraid, but I do not believe staying locked up inside my house would do anything to help. After all, those who hid in their homes were still abducted and killed."

Xue Lan nodded his head, agreeing with her words.

"In that case, would you be ready to help us?" Quan Mu suddenly asked with a small smirk.

"Help?" The woman asked, feeling a little clueless, "What sort of help?"

"Can you be the bait?"

"..."

"All you need to do is walk alone on these streets tonight," Quan Mu casually spoke, "The beast might follow after you and when it attacks, we’ll catch it."

"Isn’t that... Extremely dangerous?"

"Didn’t you want us to quickly catch that demonic beast?" Quan Mu questioned innocently and spoke, "If you want us to catch the culprit, you’ll have to help us."

"He’s right," Xue Lan nodded as he joined in, "It’s probably the fastest way to catch that demonic beast."

"But if you fail to catch it?" The woman took a step back, showing her clear reluctance as she asked, "Would it not kill me?"

"In the worst-case scenario, you’ll get badly hurt but we’ll still make sure that you do not die," Quan Mu shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

Xue Lan nudged Quan Mu and spoke, "Do not take his words seriously. We’ll make sure to keep you safe."

The woman looked to be a bit doubtful as she heard this but in the end, she still ended up agreeing to help them.

When the sun went down, the woman listened to their instructions and walked all alone in the middle of the street. Quan Mu and Xue Lan monitored her movements from a distance and made sure to keep their guards up in order to catch the demon.

However, their plan miserably failed when the woman suddenly disappeared.

"Where did she go?" Xue Lan questioned as he rushed over to find her.

Quan Mu looked to be both shocked and amused by the situation as he commented, "That demon is quite impressive."

They searched the entire village but failed to find her. In the end, they even searched the nearby forest but still could not find any signs of her.

"She’s probably dead by now," Quan Mu sighed as he gave up looking for her.

"If she was dead, we should have at least been able to find a corpse," Xue Lan replied.

Two more days passed and the killings continued, but the two cultivators miserably failed to catch the culprit.

One day, Xue Lan came up with a new plan and went around knocking at everyone’s door as he gathered the villagers together and spoke, "Tonight, we’ll stay together and keep an eye out for each other. The beast only attacks when you are isolated so this should keep everyone safe."

The villagers agreed to listen to him and gathered together inside the deceased village chief’s house.

That night, there were no victims and everyone survived. There was finally some hope and everyone decided to spend the rest of their days like this, inside a single house.

Three more days passed peacefully and Xue Lan felt that something was truly odd.

"The demon isn’t among them," Xue Lan muttered, his eyebrows creasing together in confusion.

They had initially guessed that the demon was pretending to be a villager and hence they came up with this plan. If the villagers stayed together and the demon was also among them, there was a chance that the demon would attack again and this time, get caught. However, the demon did not attack anyone.