For whatever reason, the group of demons that had already attained stable souls and were able to manifest human forms had fled in a blind panic, and as a result, the string of Demon Chiming Bells in Zhu He's hand had naturally fallen silent. 

However, Zhu He was rather spooked by the fact that these demons dared to show themselves in broad daylight, and he was concerned that they had conjured up some type of confounding illusion, so he convinced A'Liang not to continue in their journey for now. 

Instead, he ventured along the river in the downstream direction by himself, raising the string of bells up high as he crossed the river back and forth, wandering around to detect if the demons were lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on them.

Hence, after Chen Ping'an and the others had packed up their belongings, all of them remained on the spot, watching Zhu He dart back and forth across the river like a headless chicken. Li Huai found this to be absolutely hilarious, while Lin Shouyi was simply curious about what Zhu He was doing, and Zhu Lu was feeling thoroughly embarrassed. 

She was a very prideful young woman, and she wanted nothing more than to drag her father back and stop him from making a further fool of himself.

Chen Ping'an noticed that A'Liang's expression remained unchanged, and he didn't make fun of Zhu He like he normally did. Upon noticing Chen Ping'an's gaze, he removed the gourd from his waist, then smiled as he asked, "Are you sure you don't want a drink?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head in response, and A'Liang turned to Lin Shouyi as he said, "You just saw some demons, and it wasn't just one or two of them, either. That's a very rare experience. How about a drink to soothe your nerves?"

Perhaps it was because of the excitement from seeing some demons for the first time, but for whatever reason, Lin Shouyi was rather tempted by the offer, and for the first time, he nodded as he replied, "I'll have a sip."

A'Liang took a glance at Chen Ping'an out of the corner of his eye, and he reverted back to his joking demeanor as he remarked, "See what a smart boy he is? You're making a big mistake!"

Lin Shouyi accepted the silver gourd from A'Liang, then took a small sip of wine, and his face instantly became bright red. Having had a privileged upbringing, his skin was quite fair, so the red flush on his cheeks was particularly apparent, and he hurriedly clasped a hand over his own mouth so that he didn't reflexively...