Under the invisible barrage of astral force, the copper bell began to shudder violently.
In the span of a few breaths, hairline fractures spread across its surface in a dense web.
The fox demon’s eyes flooded with terror, but there was nothing to be done — she could only watch as the thing she’d staked everything on quietly shattered apart.
She tried to turn and run. She couldn’t move a finger.
Four Harmonies True Astral Force — the signature technique of the Qingzhou General of the Demon Suppression Division.
This wretched woman had taught him even that.
Whatever thoughts raced through her mind meant nothing. The astral force swept through her body like a helpless torn banner riddled by a volley of arrows — through and through.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Horrific wounds opened across the demon’s entire form, and as the force continued to pour in, they connected and spread, until what remained could no longer be called a body by any useful definition.
The only thing still intact was the beast core — left so deliberately.
The fox demon never saw it.
The shock on Lin Baixi’s face was no less than Shen Yi’s own had been in a different context. Her mouth hung slightly open, as if she’d witnessed something that couldn’t be real.
Shen Yi walked over, picked up the beast core, and looked back at the bed.
The peculiar expression in his eyes became more pronounced.
“Would you consider covering up?”
The Demon Suppression Division worked in close quarters with demons, so a certain lack of ceremony was understandable. But there was such a thing as considering other people’s circumstances.
He was at an age where such sights had an effect on a person’s equilibrium.
“Oh—”
Lin Baixi registered her situation and pulled the blanket around herself. The embarrassment was genuine, but she didn’t make a show of it.
Given what had just happened in this room, she had very little capacity for any other response.
Six days. If her memory was right, the Four Harmonies True Astral Force had been handed over exactly six days ago.
The astral force she’d just witnessed wasn’t complete — Shen Yi’s cultivation base had its limits, and the output showed it. But the fact that he’d used it at all, after six days, was already something that shouldn’t be possible.
“…”
Shen Yi registered her expression and said nothing further. He’d done this deliberately.
With the fox demon dead, Lin Baixi would return to the Lin estate. Their paths would likely not cross again after that.
After what Zhang Tuhu had explained about how cultivation talent determined everything — the ten-year Jade Liquid Perfection demon hunter on one end, and Shen Yi’s own twenty-something Threshold Realm twelve apertures on the other — it was plain that his panel-stacked “false talent” wouldn’t count for much in the eyes of the Demon Suppression Division without something concrete to show for it.
This wasn’t the moment to hide ability.
Better to display it in front of someone who knew him, even slightly, than to unveil it cold to strangers. And if Lin Baixi’s connections could help him start from a better position—
He checked whether it had worked.
He wasn’t sure. There was no way of knowing whether she’d mention any of this after she returned.
He’d leave it to chance.
Shen Yi rummaged in the cabinet and found the black robe she’d borrowed before, tossing it onto the bed. “No medicines here. Your family should have plenty — do you need me to walk you back?”
“…”
Just like that, the topic was closed?
Lin Baixi gripped the robe, the corner of her mouth twitching.
An initial-stage practitioner comprehending a Jade Liquid Realm technique — among the most demanding in that tier — in six days and producing usable output. The kind of thing that should be impossible. And he was treating it as if nothing had happened, if slightly paler than usual.
The pallor, at least, was reassuring. If not for that visible drain, she might have questioned whether he was actually at the Threshold Realm at all.
Just as well he’s only at the Threshold.
Otherwise the self-proclaimed prodigies of Qingzhou would have nowhere to put their faces.
“I can walk back on my own.” Lin Baixi assembled this consolation carefully.
“Tell your father to send over what he owes me.”
Shen Yi turned his back to give her privacy to change.
“How much? What for?”
“Seven hundred and ninety taels in demon-slaying silver. Ten of that is your food and lodging.”
He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. With the demons cleared out, this money could be accepted without any shadow on it.
Lin Baixi changed quickly and looked at his back, caught between irritation and laughter.
Down to the last tael. Everything accounted for.
She dabbed at the wound on her throat. “I hold a post in the Demon Suppression Division. Equivalent rank to a Deputy Commander.”
At that, she noticed Shen Yi turn around slowly.
She thought he was going to ask more. Instead he rolled his eyes mildly and said, with the tone of someone doing mental arithmetic they find slightly inconvenient—
“Round it down. Seven hundred even.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
She stamped her foot. She’d been trying to give him her actual identity — to thank him properly, as herself, for however many days of whatever this had been. Was a little silver worth more than what she owed him?
“Then there’s nothing else.”
Shen Yi didn’t feel she owed him anything in particular. The accounting was clean, and he’d come away with a Jade Liquid Realm technique on top of it.
She’d also serve as a convenient scapegoat for the demon killings.
The fox demon would almost certainly lay this whole affair at the feet of Lin Baixi’s teacher.
The one genuine regret was—
Shen Yi looked at the lamb ribs on the floor across the room. He genuinely couldn’t cook. He’d been able to pretend he didn’t know that before. Making his future superior officer do the work was another matter.
“Could I — possibly — eat dinner before I go?” Lin Baixi followed his gaze. She swallowed.
“Lie down and rest for a bit. Watch and learn.”
Without waiting for a response, she picked up the ribs and went into the kitchen.
Shen Yi blinked. Slightly unexpected.
After a moment, he turned to look outside, and pulled up the panel quickly.
【Fox Demon slain — Threshold Perfection. Total Lifespan: 602 years. Remaining: 472 years. Absorbed.】
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 657 years】
The most naturally gifted demon he’d encountered, and the highest remaining lifespan of any he’d killed. But he had no attention to spare for that right now.
Compared to the deliberately-exposed Four Harmonies True Astral Force, his real secret — the panel replenishing the twelve apertures with demon lifespan — was far more important to keep hidden.
While Lin Baixi was occupied, five years of lifespan went into the Thunder-Wind Demon-Subduing True Interpretation.
In the next instant, his pallor remained, but the hollow apertures flooded full.
If he chose to, the astral force he’d just released could be unleashed another hundred and thirty-one times.
Shen Yi’s hand settled slowly around the hilt.
Night was settling over the county.
Baiyun County’s main street had thinned to a few scattered pedestrians.
As the man in ink-black brocade stepped onto the street, more than ten figures in various disguises drifted in from different directions, quiet voices finding his ears.
The beggar’s face was tight. “I went to the Lin estate. That isn’t Deputy Commander Lin — it’s a demon using her appearance. I can’t confirm whether I was noticed.”
The young man with the candy pole continued. “According to local accounts, Deputy Commander Lin rode out to fight demons once and came back gravely injured. Constable Shen returned her to the Lin estate.”
Several others closed in. “Shen Yi. Born in the Baiyun County outskirts. Worked odd jobs in an inn kitchen. Started running with street gangs at fourteen. Recruited by Criminal Division Chief Song Changfeng. Extensive criminal record — habitual gambler, suspected collaborator with demon factions.”
Li Xinhan glanced sideways. “A corrupt constable?”
Someone else shook their head. “Not necessarily. Village accounts from Liuli Temple report him going out alone and slaying thirteen demons. And according to the county magistrate’s confession, on the day of our arrival, a Jingang School practitioner and the Eastern Mountain ape clan coordinated an ambush against Shen Yi in the wasteland. By the next morning, both the ape demons and the Clerk were dead.”
“I made some discreet inquiries. Several local families had daughters seized by constables — returned by his hand afterward, along with rice and flour in apology. The timing lines up with his demon killings.”
Li Xinhan took in the assembled picture. His gaze drifted toward the door of the modest house not far away, a faint sardonic note entering his voice.
“Years of hidden patience. Accumulated power in secret. Waiting to clear his name in one stroke?”
The beggar knew he was half-joking, but still hesitated. “There’s a case for pure opportunism — cleaning up just before the inspection. But what you said isn’t impossible either. He was operating against the entire yamen. If it was all performance, it goes rather far.”
(End of Chapter)