Chapter 214: Do You Not Feel Pain?

“Aaaargh~~~!”

Heart-wrenching screams echoed from the fat Daoist, his entire body engulfed in flames.

His life’s work had been destroyed, his flesh was being consumed by fire—this hatred drove his resentment toward Gu Ning’an to an extreme.

Staggering forward a few steps, he glared at Gu Ning’an and shouted, “I never expected a remote backwater like this to have someone like you, a cultivator!”

“This fire—it burns too much!”

“But do you think this means I’m going to die?”

As he spoke, a red light burst from his body. His illusory soul separated from his burning flesh and stood beside his charred, flaming body.

A chilling wind swept through the air. Abandoning his physical form, the fat Daoist’s ghostly face twisted into a sinister grin as he locked eyes with Gu Ning’an.

“I will remember you!”

“The mountains may not move, but the rivers turn—I swear, the day I reach mastery, I will skin you alive, rip out your tendons, and drink your blood!”

“…Uh, fat Daoist, do you not feel pain?”

The capybara demon’s sudden question caught the fat Daoist off guard.

Seeing the confusion in the capybara’s big, round eyes, he instinctively followed its gaze downward.

And then—

The moment he looked, he realized something horrifying.

His soul was on fire too!

“Aaaargh~~~!”

Another blood-curdling scream tore from his lips. Only now did he truly grasp that this white-robed scholar before him was far stronger than he had imagined.

At first, he had charged into the burning field of flowers, assuming it was just ordinary fire—only to end up losing his physical body.

Then, he thought that no matter how powerful the flames were, they couldn’t possibly burn a ghost, right?

And yet… here he was.

Reality was that absurd!

“Aaaargh~~~!”

With one final shriek, the fat Daoist’s soul was completely devoured by the flames. Along with his flesh, his very existence turned to black smoke and scattered into the wind.

Watching the gruesome scene unfold, the capybara demon could hardly believe it.

This seemingly gentle and harmless scholar had, with terrifying precision, erased the fat Daoist from existence…

“Once the fire burns everything clean, you can stay here again.” Gu Ning’an’s voice was calm and reassuring.

The capybara demon, still shaken, quickly twitched its propeller-like ears and said, “Thank you, Great Sir! Thank you, Great Sir!”

“No need to be so formal.”

Up on the slope, the escorts were lined up in a row, peeking down toward the scene below.

The distance between the hilltop and the ground was a bit too far, so apart from seeing flashes of fire, all they heard were the agonized screams and furious roars of the fat Daoist.

Still, from his words, they had gathered quite a bit of information…

Now, as Gu Ning’an and the capybara demon made their way up the slope, Cao Cheng quickly got up, dusted himself off, and stepped forward.

“Mr. Gu, that thing down there… it was a demon, wasn’t it?”

The capybara demon’s ears twitched in annoyance. “Hey! Don’t go blaming everything on demons! I’m a demon too, and I saved you lot!”

“That guy down there—he was human! A human who practiced dark arts!”

“Ah, that’s not what I meant,” Cao Cheng said with an awkward laugh. Then, turning back to Gu Ning’an, he continued, “Mr. Gu, we’re escorting goods to Great Wu. Where are you headed?”

“If we’re going the same way, we’d like to treat you to a drink at an inn.”

Hearing this, Gu Ning’an smirked. “Oh? So now you’re willing to tell me where you’re headed?”

“Please, Mr. Gu, don’t make fun of us…”

Cao Cheng scratched his head sheepishly. “We escorts have caution ingrained in our bones. It really wasn’t intentional—doubting you, that is.”

“Eh?”

The capybara demon tilted its head toward the sky, letting out a puzzled squeak.

Sensing something, Gu Ning’an also glanced up.

Sure enough, that smoky incense power had drifted back toward him again.

And the moment it “noticed” him, it eagerly rushed over to envelop him.

With a casual wave of his hand, Gu Ning’an dispersed the incense power and chuckled. “I reckon I’m headed to Great Wu as well.”

So extravagant!

He just waved away incense power like it was nothing!

If he doesn’t want it, give it to me!

The capybara demon looked on with sheer distress, its ears twitching non-stop as it watched the precious incense dissipate.

“That’s great!” Cao Cheng clapped his hands and immediately called out to the guards, “Alright, brothers! Get ready to set off! Mr. Gu is traveling with us, so we’ll take turns treating him to drinks along the way!”

“Got it~~~!” the guards responded in unison, quickly gathering their belongings.

Gu Ning’an sighed at Cao Cheng’s presumptuousness. “I only said reckon, not that I’m definitely going…”

Thick-skinned as ever, Cao Cheng waved him off. “If there’s a chance, that’s good enough! The first part of the journey is the same route anyway… Plus, if you really are heading to Great Wu, traveling with our convoy saves you the trouble of getting a travel permit.”

“It’s a real hassle to enter Great Wu these days.”

Gu Ning’an frowned. “Travel permit? What travel permit?”

“You might not know this, sir, but ever since the old emperor of Great Wu got his head chopped off, the country has been under strict lockdown!”

Cao Cheng’s voice instinctively lowered as he continued, “Anyone entering or leaving Great Wu must carry an official travel permit.”

“This ‘permit’ has to be personally issued and stamped by a county office in another state. It must clearly state the reason for entering Great Wu.”

“At the border, they thoroughly inspect both the permits and the people in the convoy. Only after confirming everything checks out do they allow entry.”

Hearing this, Gu Ning’an realized that if he truly intended to go to Great Wu, traveling with the Tiger Head Escort Agency was by far the easiest option.

After all, obtaining a permit sounded like a tedious process, and from Cao Cheng’s tone, it wasn’t something just anyone could get.

He could sneak in using his power, of course—but that felt like cheating himself out of the experience.

In his past life, he had never traveled abroad. Now, in this life, if he was going to leave the country, it shouldn’t feel like a smuggler’s run.

Gu Ning’an smiled. “Alright, if I do end up going to Great Wu, I’ll hitch a ride on your convoy’s permit.”

“Mr. Gu, you’re being too polite!” Cao Cheng waved his hand and laughed. “If not for you saving us, we’d all be dead at the hands of that demon down there!”

Thud!

With a sudden jolt, Cao Cheng’s leg went numb, and he stumbled, nearly falling flat on his back.

Startled, he turned to glare at the culprit—only to see the plump, piglet-like capybara demon squinting at him.

“I told you,” the capybara huffed, “that fat Daoist was human, not a demon!”

“If you keep blaming everything on demons, I swear, I’ll ram you into the air!”

Knowing full well that this little creature had just saved his life, Cao Cheng decided not to argue. Instead, he rubbed his aching leg and said, “Fine, fine, I get it. I wasn’t talking about you specifically… Honestly, if you didn’t talk, I wouldn’t even think you were a demon.”

The capybara demon snorted, a puff of white mist escaping from its nostrils. “Oh? Like you’ve even seen any other demons before.”

“Actually,” Cao Cheng smirked, tapping the curved blade at his waist, “I have. Not just seen one—I killed a dog demon once!”