What could he exchange for all this?

Jiang Chengyun exhaled several times in quick succession, then looked down at the small girl.

"Grandmother — maybe you should get up and let him sit."

Aqian raised a palm and made a gesture toward him.

"…"

She picked up the brush again, loaded it with ink, and stared at the record book — with no idea whatsoever where to begin.

She genuinely wanted to ask Shen Yi how he'd managed this. But answer to summons, not to commands — all matters require no upward reporting was one of the few iron rules of demon-hunters. It wasn't hers to inquire into.

It was equally obvious that Shen Yi had no interest in discussing it further.

The other demon-hunters stared at the floating blood qi in the air, with something like the feeling of being in a dream.

Shock, at least, was still within the range of comprehension.

What they were looking at now was something they had no framework for.

The death of a core-nurturing demon lord — that was comparable to what had happened when the Yushan Prefecture General had fallen. Something that sent tremors through all of Qingzhou. The impact was roughly equivalent to waking up one morning to hear that the Li family of Qingzhou had ceased to exist.

Aqian was counting on her fingers, not quite following her own math.

"Three times — six times — ten times—"

Jiang Chengyun cleared his throat quietly. "Qingzhou demon-hunters don't have that many allocations to begin with."

"…"

Aqian looked up at the young man and exhaled.

"Are you planning to cultivate the divine spirit path?"

"No." He shook his head.

Compared to the divine spirit leaving the body to control a sword from thousands of li away — he preferred a powerful physical frame. It worked better with the Nine Transformations.

"Then ten times should be enough. The remaining credits — how about I have them exchanged for a treasured implement? The kind that can hold a prefecture steady."

She remembered the bold claim she'd made at the beginning: as long…