An unremarkable carriage rolled out of Qingzhou city.

Inside, the two sat across from each other.

Jiang Chengyun watched the sharp-featured young man, then slowly drew a tangled mass of qi from his silver bell.

“Keep this safe.”

Shen Yi took it and studied it. “What is it?”

“One hundred and twenty-three Condensate Realm demon lords’ qi traces. Seventeen core-nurturing demon lords. Everything the demon-hunters have gathered since arriving in Qingzhou — everyone gets a portion.”

“This covers most of the major demons in and around the twelve prefectures.”

Jiang Chengyun exhaled slowly, looking at the mass without expression. For this object, countless demon-hunters had died — among them people he’d been close to.

With this, they could sense immediately if any of these demons set foot in the twelve prefectures.

“This one is from me.”

He withdrew another thread — so faint it was barely visible. Pale purple.

“The Howling Moon Demon King. The instant you sense anything off — run. Whether you make it is luck.”

“A demon king?” Shen Yi looked up.

“The fourth realm for practitioners is called Mixed Origin, or Martial Immortal. The fourth realm for demons earns the title of king.” He paused. “Let me put it plainly — if it could get within three feet of the General, no freak outcome would change what happened next. The General would die.”

“Only within Qingzhou’s borders does a Martial Immortal have any ground to stand on against it.”

At the Howling Moon’s name, something briefly entered Jiang Chengyun’s eyes and left again.

“This many demons — what does Qingzhou’s side look like?”

Shen Yi tucked the purple thread away with the mass, everything going into the bell. These traces had been out for some time and divided into many portions, so the connection was far less immediate than what he’d felt after consuming the flood dragon’s core — but they were worth having.

“Twelve Generals. Three gold-bell demon-hunters. All of them core-nurturing practitioners.”

“The four families and five sects probably have two or three hidden away as well — the Qingfeng Mountain Founding Sword, for instance. It happened to be countered by the divine spirit, but against a core-nurturing demon lord it could fight.”

“Beyond that — the more senior silver-bell demon-hunters and the personal attendants of the Generals. Condensate Realm practitioners, altogether, probably forty to fifty.”

As Jiang Chengyun laid it out, Shen Yi found Qingzhou looked considerably less stable than he’d assumed.

The numbers were that far apart?

Forty to fifty sounded like a lot, until you spread them across a province with tens of millions of people. That was fewer than five Condensate Realm practitioners to hold an entire prefecture.

And in this situation they were still this strict about Condensate methods—

Jiang Chengyun caught the change in expression.

He smiled slightly. “Demons aren’t as unified as you might think. They divide by clan, and there’s no love lost between them. Playing them against each other is one of the few pleasures our work offers. If you include the great families’ strength, it’s roughly balanced — except those people have their own calculations, and the Division has to spend part of its attention just keeping an eye on them.”

“Which is why every force that calls itself first-tier has something like the Founding Sword. Blood covenants, pools, binding mechanisms. The Division only needs to watch the heads, and it keeps the whole membership under control.”

The secondary message in the observation was clear: there was no such thing in Qingzhou as a practitioner who reached the Condensate Realm and remained unaccountable to anyone.

“I think well of you.”

The plain face turned serious.

“The General will be back soon. Personal attendant rank, silver bell — both are enough to make him look at you with more attention. But you know better than I do what’s behind those titles. How the flood dragon died. How the bell came to you.”

The credits were real, but relative to the rank, there was still some gap.

“When he returns — make him believe you’ve earned these things. With your own ability. Don’t rely on the gifts of others’ goodwill. Win back what belongs to you.”

His posture straightened. Despite the private acknowledgment of this young man as something close to an equal, the difference in age and cultivation couldn’t help but surface in the tone — something that edged toward instructive.

“This includes me.”

He held up a hand and tilted it gently. “I’m taking you to Yongan City to show you how things work. As for whether I’ll share credits—” a deliberate pause, “—put that thought away entirely. I hope you understand.”

“But if you find something to do independently, as long as you’re not afraid of dying, I won’t hold you back.”

Demon-hunters weren’t the Division. Shared credit wasn’t a concept that existed. Once outside the city walls, they were colleagues who could cooperate and competitors who could work against each other.

He had expected at least some disappointment on the young man’s face.

Instead — nothing.

“I don’t have a problem with that. Tell me about the actual situation.”

Shen Yi closed his eyes in the posture of someone resting, keeping himself at full readiness.

He’d been summoned through the bell. They weren’t going on a walk.

As for the credits — he’d deal with that as it came. Even if there was genuinely no room to get involved, helping finish something off at the end was never nothing.

“You actually were already thinking that.”

Something in Jiang Chengyun almost broke into a smile.

Was my concern just now too earnest?

This young man was exceptional among the younger generation, without question — but Jiang Chengyun had condensed a core. Whatever demon event warranted him going personally, this young man actually thought he could get a piece of it.

He set the thought aside and gave the briefer version.

“Demon-hunters received word. The mountain lord has begun another trial for its children.”

“A tiger’s three cubs — one will be a striped king.”

“These demons use a major city as their boundary and begin hunting within it. The purpose is to find which one among them becomes the crowned heir.”

“Last time, they caught us off guard. They fed well and left cleanly. It took the demon-hunters considerable effort to obtain advance word of this second round. Unlike last time, they’ve almost certainly set their sights on Yongan City.”

Something deadly surfaced in Jiang Chengyun’s eyes.

“Yongan City has a Condensate Realm practitioner in residence.”

This meant only one thing: over the years of consuming human practitioners as living medicine, and through a great deal of testing and growth, both the appetite and the strength of these demon cubs had increased considerably.

Enough that they were willing to aim at a Condensate Realm practitioner.

Shen Yi felt the carriage sway and said quietly: “If this is a trial the mountain lord arranged for its children, how did the demon-hunters obtain the information?”

“I don’t know that part.”

Jiang Chengyun closed his eyes too, but his voice carried heat.

“Even if the tip turns out to be false, it’s worth going. You’re new to this — you don’t know how rare it is for a demon of this standing to actually come inside the twelve prefectures’ cities.”

The demon lords of Qingzhou either had remarkable qi-concealment methods, exceptional means of escape, or a natural barrier like the Yangchun River protecting them. Something bold enough to walk into a major city — and caught in advance — was not an opportunity to let go.

“…”

Shen Yi was quiet.

He’d been misunderstood.

He hadn’t been questioning whether the information was accurate.

He was wondering about the source.

(End of Chapter)