You Longtao looked entirely sincere. Shen Yi fell quiet.
He might not be good at social situations, but he wasn’t actually dense.
A Demon Suppression General — running an errand to the Baiyu Monastery for him? That didn’t require compensating someone with a Condensate Realm demon’s heart blood qi. Any Deputy Commander could handle that, and the Monastery certainly wouldn’t dare show any displeasure toward the Division.
The real subject was almost certainly the second matter.
The Heaven-Piercing Solar-Splitting Bow. That sounded genuinely impressive.
As for wait until I’m back in Qingzhou and you happen to be there too — that was barely a condition at all. Anyone with enough interest could watch the General’s movements and simply stay out of the city whenever he returned. The bow would never need to come back.
Saying it that way.
What the General was actually doing was offering the treasure in a manner halfway between a loan and a gift, with enough courtesy that a refusal could be made gracefully.
Shen Yi hesitated a moment, then shook his head slightly.
“General You should find someone better suited—”
The bow genuinely interested him. The lost Sword Intent from the Monastery was also something he’d like to look through. But he was declining regardless.
Not for any complex reason. These two probably didn’t know that movement arts were one of his weaker points. The White Stallion Divine Stride was freshly at Perfection, but it was a Jade Liquid tier movement art. It wasn’t poor — but tracking down a thief across the entirety of Qingzhou, someone capable of robbing a Demon Suppression General’s residence and a major Daoist monastery, was genuinely impractical with what he currently had.
Before he could finish the sentence, You Longtao had begun what sounded almost like thinking aloud.
“When teacher gave me that bow, he said it had no arrows of its own — it drew on faith and prayer rather than cultivated qi, which meant you didn’t need to channel anything into it, but you did need exceptional physical strength to draw it. Half-moon and it could wound a Condensate Perfection demon. Full moon and even a core-nurturing demon lord would need to give way.”
A small sigh.
“The unfortunate part is that I’m cultivating a divine spirit, and even now I can only draw it to about seventy percent. Sitting in my hands, it’s really something of a waste.”
Shen Yi’s expression hadn’t changed. Under the table, his hand closed slightly.
“…”
Xiao Qiangwei gave the honorary nephew beside her a sideways look and shifted uncomfortably, nudging dead leaves with her toe. She’d already laid out the young man’s overwhelming body-refinement ability in considerable detail when she told the story earlier. This was transparently tailored to audience. Embarrassingly obvious.
You Longtao brought his gaze back to Shen Yi, concern gathering in the scholarly features.
“If it really was Yan Xingkong — he’s the Thief King of Pingsha Valley, full-core stage cultivation, not particularly high but not low either, and with that movement art of his that ranges freely through Qingzhou — with that bow in hand, I genuinely can’t guess what kind of disruption he’d cause across the twelve prefectures. I’m honestly not sure who to send.”
Xiao Qiangwei had heard enough. She cut in.
“Don’t listen to him. Yan Xingkong voluntarily came to the demon-hunters years ago and let them collect his qi trace. He comes back every twenty years to do it again. As long as he’s still in the twelve prefectures, he has nowhere to hide. Within a month at most, before the Division works up any real anger about it, he’ll return the Solar-Splitting Bow himself.”
Voluntarily submitted his qi trace?
Shen Yi was faintly surprised.
You Longtao let out a quiet sound.
Being called out without mercy by his elder — he didn’t look embarrassed exactly.
“The man married a demon. He brought his wife secretly to seek my teacher’s audience, explained the situation, had her offer her source blood, and knelt outside the General’s courtyard for a full night — took an oath in blood that neither would harm anyone. That’s the only reason the Division has ever looked the other way.” A pause. “But this time might not be the same as before. It would be better to find him directly and ask. If something genuinely has gone wrong, Yangyang Prefecture needs to know early so they can go to Pingsha Valley.”
Xiao Qiangwei started to respond — and noticed that the young man beside her had a faint light in his eyes.
She blinked. “You — do you actually want to go? It’s not quite as simple as I made it sound. He’s only ever been mischievous before. This time he actually offended the Baiyu Monastery with a borrowed treasure. That’s genuinely out of character.”
Shen Yi had shifted.
He wanted exactly that — out of character. Anomalies had causes worth looking into.
Hunting demons and rooting out the demonic happening to coincide: Qingfeng Mountain had only given him the first, and the Jingang School had partly filled that gap, and even a sect as poor as a third-tier force had contributed the foundational techniques for the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations.
Pingsha Valley was a first-tier force. The depth of resources was unknown.
And then there was the bow — apparently suited to his abilities almost by design. If it was as powerful as the General had described, having it when he went after the mountain lord would provide considerably more safety.
“Thank you, General You.”
Shen Yi rose slowly. An offer this substantial already made the goodwill plain.
“Don’t say that.” You Longtao shook his head. “You protected Auntie Xiao. That matters to me. And this genuinely does require your help — that wasn’t a courtesy.”
Shen Yi turned and looked at the woman, clasping his hands again.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Senior Xiao.”
At that address, You Longtao’s eyelid moved slightly.
Xiao Qiangwei was standing with a certain rigidity, doing her best to contain the corners of her mouth, voice coming out quiet.
“This is Tingyang Prefecture’s business. If anything, I should be thanking you—”
When Shen Yi had walked out of the courtyard—
You Longtao took another sip of tea, a helpless smile crossing his face.
“He called you Senior and you’re still pleased about it.”
“What’s wrong with that — look at you fussing. I don’t have what you’re imagining.” Xiao Qiangwei glanced at him sideways. Shen Yi’s manner toward her was at least considerably warmer than it had been in Yongan City.
“That’s good then.” You Longtao set the cup down unhurriedly.
Teacher would be back soon. Aqian would leave Qingzhou city then. Shen Yi, as a demon-hunter, would need to come back and report his credits. And teacher would almost certainly summon Martial Sister Jiang back to Qingzhou at that point.
The two of them would probably cross paths.
Thinking of the dark blade, You Longtao looked at his elder with something quietly pained in his expression.
“On this trip — did you happen to see Jiang Chengyun?”
“I did. Why?”
“Nothing.” He smiled without quite explaining it.
Jiang Chengyun’s self-contained, unimpressed quality had once been comparable to Shen Yi’s. After meeting Martial Sister Jiang — the man had changed entirely.
There was something quietly melancholy about the world when you had someone like that nearby: someone who moved through it without attachment or distraction, and whose offhand glance as she turned away could make anyone you might otherwise have admired forget you entirely and simply follow her without looking back.
With the great disruption coming, silver-bell demon-hunters like Xiao Qiangwei would be among the first to die. He hoped she might find some small, temporary warmth before it arrived.
But he’d already done what he could toward that. Such things couldn’t be forced.
He walked her to the courtyard gate.
“I’ll have a few physicians come by. Please rest properly and let the wound recover. No banquet tonight — I’m leaving Tingyang City shortly.”
As a Demon Suppression General, there were things considerably more important than hosting a meal.
(End of Chapter)