Turns Out I'm the Real Monster?!

Jiang Mu’s scalp tingled.

’This woman is completely insane.’

He grabbed her delicate wrist and pushed her away again.

"Madam, I have important business to attend to right now. If you have nothing else, please leave and let Miss Chu come in to keep watch."

"Heh heh, youth truly is a wonderful thing. The moment you find someone younger and fresher, you cast aside this old thing."

Madam Han’s eyes reddened, welling up with tears.

"Fine, I see it now. You’re just a heartless man. Go ahead and do what you want. I won’t disturb you. I’ll just watch you quietly from the side. Is that acceptable?"

Jiang Mu wanted to insist, but he was afraid that if he rejected her again, she would throw a complete tantrum and ruin his work.

’Women her age are the most troublesome.’

’Whatever. I’ll just finish this job and get out of here. From now on, I’ll stay as far away from her as possible.’

"Remember what I just said. The moment Lan Rou’er’s breathing stops, apply the Talisman immediately. Understand?"

Jiang Mu reminded her again, his tone serious.

Madam Han nodded lightly, her gaze still sultry and lingering. "I understand~"

Seeing that she had settled down for the moment, Jiang Mu wasted no more time. He took Lan Rou’er’s wrist, focused his mind, and channeled a wisp of Demonic Qi into her.

In that instant, the world spun around him!

The scene before him shattered and re-formed like a kaleidoscope in a mad spin.

An unknown amount of time passed before his consciousness gradually returned.

He was no longer in the guest room.

Instead, he stood in a deep, gloomy alley flanked by towering gray walls.

The sky was a dim, crimson red.

There was no sun, no moon, no stars.

Everything within his sight—the walls, the road, the distant silhouettes of rooftops—wavered and blurred as if seen through water.

"So this is the Nightmare’s domain?"

Jiang Mu rested a hand on the hilt of the saber at his waist, his gaze sweeping warily over his surroundings as he slowly advanced down the alley.

The farther he went, the more twisted and bizarre the scenery became.

Some houses even hung upside down in the air.

When Jiang Mu rounded a sharp bend, his view suddenly opened up.

There, suspended in mid-air before him,

several tentacles formed from black mist were wrapped around a young girl’s limbs, holding her suspended in a spread-eagled position. Her breathing was faint.

It was Lan Rou’er.

’Sigh.’

’This scene...’

Jiang Mu shook his head, pushing certain game scenes he had accidentally seen in the past from his mind.

He shot forward, his Blood Saber slashing down in a crimson arc.

SCHLICK!

Several of the black mist tentacles were instantly severed.

Lan Rou’er fell to the ground with a THUD and started coughing.

The black mist around her body dissipated.

The girl looked dazedly at the handsome, long-saber-wielding man before her. "You are..."

"I’m from the Demon-slaying Bureau. Where is the Nightmare?"

Jiang Mu asked directly.

"The Demon-slaying Bureau..."

Lan Rou’er blinked, a spark of light suddenly igniting in her eyes. She hastily grabbed Jiang Mu’s pant leg and said urgently, "Sir, quickly! You have to save those children!"

"Children?"

Jiang Mu froze.

’There are children trapped in this dreamscape too?’

"Where are they?"

Lan Rou’er struggled to her feet, tugging on his sleeve. "I’ll take you! They’re just ahead!"

Jiang Mu nodded and let her lead the way.

After a series of twists and turns, the two stopped in front of a gloomy courtyard.

The surrounding walls were high, their surfaces mottled and peeling badly.

The neat rows of roof tiles on top had been torn askew by overgrown weeds and vines, creating a dark, oppressive mass.

The girl pointed inside, her finger trembling.

"I saw the demon drag those children in here. They kept screaming, ’Sister, save us!’ I wanted to save them, but... I... I was scared..."

Tears streamed down the girl’s face, which was filled with guilt and terror.

Jiang Mu patted her on the shoulder, signaling for her to step back, then moved forward and pushed open the courtyard gate.

The sight behind the gate made his pupils contract.

A giant, black ball of flesh squatted within the courtyard.

Its surface was covered in twisted blood vessels and pustules, and countless tentacles of varying lengths extended from the ball of flesh, dancing in the air.

And at its very top grew a beautiful woman’s head.

At that moment, her eyes were closed as if she were savoring something.

’A fourth-rank Demon... ’ Jiang Mu relaxed slightly.

"Hm?"

Sensing the presence of a living person, the Nightmare demon opened its eyes, a trace of astonishment showing through.

’An outsider actually managed to break into my Nightmare?’

When it saw the Demon-slaying Bureau uniform on Jiang Mu, the look of pleasure on its face instantly froze, replaced by shock and rage.

"A Demon Slayer Envoy?!"

"You... How did you get in here!?"

"Like this,"

Jiang Mu pushed off, his figure flashing like lightning to appear before the demon. His Blood Saber thrust straight forward, without any flair.

"By stabbing my way in!"

SPLAT!

Black ichor exploded outward.

With a flick of his saber’s tip, Jiang Mu severed two of the flailing tentacles beside him.

The Nightmare let out a wretched shriek.

The next moment, its fleshy body swelled, and its face twisted with savagery. "Bastard! Go to hell!"

Countless tentacles lashed out madly like a flurry of whips.

Jiang Mu weaved left and right like a nimble serpent, finding openings in the dense barrage of attacks and instantly slicing off several more tentacles.

’This kid looks like he’s only in the Third Realm, so how is he this strong?!’

The Nightmare demon was secretly alarmed. It hurriedly opened its great maw and spewed out plumes of gray mist.

This gray mist formed into illusory bodies.

While it controlled a mass of illusory tentacles to keep Jiang Mu occupied, its true body quietly shrank back to secretly gather power.

At the same time, it spat a ball of gray qi toward a corner of the courtyard wall.

As the ball of gray qi hit the ground, a constantly fluctuating gray vortex, about three feet in diameter, slowly began to form.

It resembled an unformed door.

Jiang Mu caught a glimpse of the vortex from the corner of his eye and was surprised. ’What is that?’

He didn’t know its purpose, but his instincts told him something was wrong.

With a thought, he tossed a Demon Shadow anchor in front of the vortex.

The battle continued.

The Nightmare fought as it retreated.

It continuously used its illusory bodies to lure Jiang Mu away from the vortex.

During this time, Jiang Mu made several sharp advances, trying to flush out the hidden true body, but he was always blocked by the mass of illusory tentacles, leading to a temporary stalemate.

Meanwhile, the gray vortex in the corner spun faster and faster.

Its outline grew increasingly distinct.

Finally, it stabilized into an oval-shaped door.

’It’s about time...’

Seeing that Jiang Mu was at least thirty zhang away from the vortex door, the Nightmare demon breathed a secret sigh of relief.

"Stinky brat, I’m done playing with you!"

As the air rippled, the Nightmare finally revealed its true body and shot straight for the vortex door, tossing a threat over its shoulder.

"We’ll meet again someday! I, your mother, will be back—"

But before it could finish, Jiang Mu, who should have been thirty zhang away, appeared out of thin air before the vortex door like a phantom.

Directly blocking its path!

?

The Nightmare was dumbfounded.

"Since you’ll be back anyway, why not..."

"Just stay for good."

Jiang Mu drew his saber.

SHING!

The Blood Saber flashed, like a red sun at dawn.

"No—!"

The Nightmare Banshee’s face was filled with terror. It was too late to try and hide its true body now.

SQUELCH!

The long saber cleaved down from the top of the Nightmare’s head.

All the way down.

It split the woman’s head and the enormous body beneath it neatly in two!

CLANG!

Jiang Mu sheathed his saber.

A wisp of jet-black Demonic Qi was drawn into his palm, flowing along the birthmark on his arm and into the Demon Slot.

With the death of the Nightmare demon, the dreamscape began to destabilize.

Cracks appeared in the sky.

The walls shattered and peeled away like a broken mirror, revealing an endless void and chaos behind them.

Jiang Mu strode over to Lan Rou’er, who was huddled in a corner.

"The Nightmare is dead, but this is your dreamscape. You must wake up immediately. Otherwise, when the dream collapses completely, you will be lost forever, and no one from the outside will be able to wake you."

The girl’s face was pale as she watched the surrounding scene collapse, still shaken with fear.

She heard Jiang Mu’s words with a blank expression.

"Wake up?"

"I... I don’t know how..."

Lan Rou’er said weakly.

"You don’t know how?"

Jiang Mu sized her up.

’This girl is so fragile and weak, but she’s certainly cute.’

’If a girl this cute got punched, she’d probably cry for a long time, right?’

Of course, that’s exactly what Jiang Mu did.

He wound up his fist and punched her right in the face!

"Here you go!"