The Demon King is an Idiot [BL]-Chapter 161: The demon isn’t among them.

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.

There were two possibilities: Either the demon knew what they were trying to do and decided to stay quiet for some time in order to not be caught, or the demon wasn’t with them.

Out of the two possibilities, the latter seemed to be much more possible than the former.

At this point, the villagers were extremely grateful to the two cultivators and had already warmed up to them. When night came around, everyone sat in a circle and shared their stories with the cultivators.

"It is a pity that Song Xiuying is no longer around," One of the villagers spoke with a sigh, feeling quite saddened by the disappearance of the village chief’s daughter.

"That’s right. How could that beast hurt such a kindhearted young woman like her?" Another chimed in.

Xue Lan’s ears perked up with interest as he heard this but he continued to let them talk and didn’t bother interrupting.

"I still remember how helpful she was. She would come by every night to check in on us and made sure that we had enough food and water at home to keep us comfortable," A woman in her forties sighed as she spoke, "She wasn’t afraid of the beast at all. She was so selfless and kind. When the village chief passed away, I was sure that she would be the one to become the new village chief. She had all the qualifications."

"It is really a pity."

Suddenly, there was a heavy knock on the door and everyone curled up in fear as they heard it.

The villagers immediately looked at the two cultivators for help.

Xue Lan stood up and walked over to the door but did not open it as he loudly asked, "Who is it?"

There was no response from the other side of the door.

Xue Lan spread his spiritual Qi around and tried to sense if the one standing on the other side of the door was a demon or not.

"Do not rely on that method," Quan Mu reminded him as he put his hand on the door handle, "You could not sense it the first time or the second time so what makes you think you can sense it now?"

"Are you going to open the door?" Xue Lan asked, glancing at Quan Mu’s hand that was holding onto the door handle.

Before Quan Mu could give a response, they heard the voice of a woman from the other side of the door, "I-It’s me... Please open the door..."

Xue Lan gulped as he immediately looked at Quan Mu who was looking back at him with the same shocked and worried expression.

"Isn’t that... Song Xiuying?" One of the villagers muttered out, feeling slightly relieved.

Quan Mu immediately pushed the door open and standing outside was the village chief’s daughter who mysteriously went missing a few days ago.

Her shivering figure didn’t look to be in a good condition at all. In fact, she had visibly lost weight and was covered in blood.

One of the villagers, a woman in her forties immediately took a blanket and covered Song Xiuying with it as she worriedly spoke, "Oh my dear lord, look at you. What happened? Let me get you some water."

Song Xiuying immediately started bawling out her eyes as she heard the woman’s worried tone.

"I-It wasn’t a demonic beast," Song Xiuying cried out pitifully, "It was a d-demon!"

Xue Lan and Quan Mu shared a look as they heard this and nodded their heads, both having the same thoughts and coming to the same conclusion.

Without wasting any time, Xue Lan took out his spiritual sword and threateningly pointed it at Song Xiuying as he spoke, "I wonder why I wasn’t able to sense it..."

Song Xiuying looked to be shocked at this reaction and immediately hid behind the woman that had covered her with a blanket. She sounded absolutely terrified as she stuttered out, "W-Why are you doing this to me? I almost died because of you. You promised that I would be safe but you lied!"

"I was very worried about you," Xue Lan spoke with a sigh as he looked at Song Xiuying who was innocently peeking out her head to look at the two cultivators, "I wondered why you had suddenly disappeared. No matter how talented a demon was, how could it snatch you away just like that?"

"But then we heard something very interesting about you," Quan Mu added with a smirk as he joined in and spoke, "You visited the villagers every night and made sure that they had food and water left with them."

"I’m the village chief’s daughter," Song Xiuying replied, justifying her actions, "Of course, I had to go and check up on them. It was my duty to do so."

"You are wrong," Xue Lan replied as he firmly spoke, "It wasn’t your duty, it was your father’s duty and yet, he never did it so why would you feel the need to do something like that?"

"My father was afraid of being killed by the beast. He was a coward but I’m not like him. I care about the people more than I care about my own life."

"In that case, what if I tell you to sacrifice yourself in order to save the people of this village?"

Song Xiuying frowned as she heard this, "What...? Was it not enough to try and kill me once? You want to do it again?"

"Your words are a bit misleading," Quan Mu sighed as he pointed out, "We never tried to kill you before this."

"You did! You used me as a bait and lied that I would be safe! I believed you but in the end, I was kidnapped and taken away by a demon!"

Quan Mu gave a nod and agreed as he heard this and calmly responded, "We did use you as bait and we did say that we’ll try our best to keep you safe. However, that doesn’t mean we tried to kill you. We had just underestimated the enemy. How were we supposed to know that you would disappear from under our nose?"

"He’s right," Xue Lan nodded his head as he chimed in, "We were confident that we would be able to keep you safe from the demon, but how were we supposed to know that you had tricked us?"

"What do you mean?! I never tricked you! You were the one who tricked me!" Song Xiuying shouted, still defending herself and pretending to be innocent.

"So you want to pretend as if you don’t know anything?" Quan Mu smirked as he questioned and spoke, "In that case, we’ll give you a chance to prove it."

"Huh?"

Quan Mu pointed at Xue Lan’s sword as he spoke, "A demon’s blood contains demonic Qi. If you are a human then you’ll have no problem showing us a little bit of your blood, would you?"

Song Xiuying scoffed in disbelief as she heard this and spoke, "I’m already covered in my blood. How much more do you need...?!"

"Are you sure that’s your blood?" Quan Mu asked, stepping a little closer to the woman.

Song Xiuying immediately took a few steps back and had a complicated expression on her face as she heard this question. For a second there, she even looked a bit stunned and worried.

"O-Of course it is my blood! I was almost killed by that demon! You don’t even know how I managed to survive!"

"And how exactly did you?" Quan Mu asked with an amused smirk, "So many villagers were killed by that demon but you are the only one who managed to survive. How did you do it?"

Song Xiuying gulped as she heard this question and suddenly started crying.

"I... I almost died because of you two... W-Why are you suspecting me like this? What did I ever do to you? Why are you suspecting me? Should I have just died like the rest?" Her voice sounded a bit choked up and her acting was certainly top notch.

When they saw her cry, the villagers immediately took her side and supported her.

Xue Lan and Quan Mu could only look on with a disappointed sigh.