On the hillside. A dark robe stirring in the morning air.

Shen Yi rose slowly and tucked the White Stallion Divine Stride manuscript into the silver bell.

This mid-grade Jade Liquid movement art — the best the Division’s External Affairs Hall had been able to offer — was built specifically for sustained long-distance travel.

【Jade Liquid · White Stallion Divine Stride: Perfection】

【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 1,362 years】

An awkward number. Enough to condense into a Demon Crystal — but the leftover three hundred-odd years might not be sufficient to stir the demonic resentments before the lifespan itself ran dry. Wasting the Crystal would be a poor outcome.

If he could acquire a few more demon cores, these remaining years could go toward the third transformation of the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations.

He settled his mind and started down the hillside.

He’d only gone a short distance when something felt wrong.

The surrounding area was completely silent. A dead zone — nothing but the sound of wind moving through the grass.

“Almost forgot.”

Shen Yi shook his head and withdrew his presence.

The hundreds of animals hiding across the hillside finally began to breathe again, trembling where they lay, unwilling to move. A few startled birds beat their wings and fled in the opposite direction.

The mountain lord’s form confined within his body — the mountains subdued, spirits and gods clearing the path.

In their perception, the dark-robed figure strolling away was a mountain lord in human shape, wandering through its own territory.

Fortunately, it left soon after.

The whole of Yongan City carried a chill.

Ordinary residents huddled behind closed doors, having no clear idea what had happened through the night — only knowing that many people had died, and that they were all prominent figures in the city.

The city gates stood empty. Not a single merchant or traveler had come through all morning.

The demonic qi that had torn through the sky — even people with no martial training at all had been driven inside by it.

A few constables stood watch on the main street with swords they were still clutching too tightly, heads down, muttering to each other. They appeared to be discussing something strange about a hillside outside the city.

Then one of them looked up and went rigid.

His colleagues followed the look.

A tall figure was approaching at an unhurried pace. Disordered hair above a pale face carrying a trace of tiredness. Dark robes soaked through with blood, radiating a cold, animal smell that made the body want to step back.

One hand carried the gold-inlaid black scabbard at a casual angle. The blade hadn’t been drawn — and it still didn’t invite approach.

Most importantly: the direction this young man was walking from was the exact hillside they’d just been talking about.

Anyone who dared to walk into Yongan City in the current situation, from that direction, was wrong in some way that couldn’t be placed.

He passed them without looking over. His back disappeared at the far end of the street.

The constables became aware of the discomfort in their lungs and realized with a start they’d forgotten to breathe.

“What blood is that on him?”

“What a pointless question — given last night, why would anyone go outside the city to kill a person—”

The tall constable swallowed. They’d been discussing precisely why the demons had vanished without explanation, and why the hillside outside the walls had released a qi pressure so enormous that people inside the city had felt it.

Deng family compound.

Lin Rou finally had the sense that the others were misunderstanding something.

She rolled her eyes, slapped a hand against Deng Mingxu’s face and pushed him back, picked up a teacup and held it against his throat.

“A tiger demon — at minimum Jade Liquid Perfection — came through the door. He went like this. And then—” she made a quick cutting motion. “Clear enough?”

“…”

Jiang Chengyun and Xiao Qiangwei looked at each other.

“Not clear? Good — I wasn’t clear either.” Lin Rou turned and dropped the teacup back on the table.

Deng Jianyuan also hadn’t followed much of this, but he looked sideways at his family members and found that the crowd who normally carried themselves with carefully maintained superiority all wore the same expression now. Something that was closer to awe.

Whatever the young woman had described was apparently more astonishing than he’d imagined.

The old man hadn’t had any particular expectations. He’d simply thought, instinctively, that without a Condensate Realm presence holding the compound, the young man was more reliable than the others — plus they’d happened to drink together, so he’d casually asked him to stay. Better than having him die young to some great demon.

He hadn’t imagined the young man would actually protect his family.

“You’re saying Shen Yi killed a tiger demon and then went outside?”

Jiang Chengyun finally caught up. The pallor that had come from overextension shifted into something else — his eyelid twitched, and his voice sharpened considerably.

“Reckless. Why didn’t you stop him?”

Lin Rou stared. She held two fingers up near her throat. “Big brother Jiang — a tiger that size went snap and was just gone. What exactly would I have stopped him with?”

“You—”

He made an irritated gesture and let it go. It wasn’t fair to blame Lin Rou. He knew Shen Yi’s ability.

But last night’s situation was nothing like what it had been before. A genuine Condensate Realm tiger demon wasn’t in any way comparable to the Jingang School abbot.

He’d said clearly — this trip was to get familiar with how things worked.

How had the one moment Jiang Chengyun looked away ended with this kind of recklessness?

He thought back to how casually Shen Yi had taken the silver bell, and felt a surge of genuine frustration at himself. He should have read the character from that moment. Better to have kept him close.

Xiao Qiangwei listened quietly to both of them and realized she’d been wrong about something.

The young man hadn’t run — he’d actively gone out to fight?

And Jiang Chengyun, who visibly held him in considerable regard — to the point of losing composure over it — that in itself was remarkable. This was someone who didn’t yield to his elders and didn’t acknowledge his juniors — permanently unimpressed with everyone.

“Maybe — go look for him.”

Xiao Qiangwei’s brow furrowed slightly. She pressed a hand to her abdomen and stood, moving toward the door.

Then a wave of cold, bloody air hit her.

She looked up. Her pupils contracted. Whether it was a trick of perception or not — no qi was detectable whatsoever, and yet her body had already registered the threat on its own.

When she recognized the figure, she stepped back twice. Her eyes moved across the demon blood soaking the other person’s clothes, and she understood where that instinctive alarm had come from.

The mountain lord’s pressure had been very real. Just the smell of its children’s blood was enough to make her react.

“…”

While the woman was reading him, Shen Yi was reading the two silver-bell demon-hunters.

Looking at the diminished qi around both of them, the expressions that weren’t quite right—

He exhaled quietly.

As expected. Whether the Division or the demon-hunters — when it came to being disappointing, both sides were admirably consistent.

He’d killed three of the mountain lord’s cubs. It was certainly going to hold a grudge.

Fortunately, his capability had made a qualitative leap.

Shen Yi wasn’t particularly worried. Once the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations reached Minor Mastery, combined with the Heavenly Demon external pill — if the mountain lord actually came for revenge, who would be killing whom was genuinely uncertain.

He stepped past the woman, picked a seat, and set Erhei softly on the table.

He was about to close his eyes and regulate his breathing when he noticed that everyone in the room was staring at him directly.

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

Jiang Chengyun let out a long breath. The shock that had been underneath the surface finally showed in his eyes.

The state Shen Yi was in — soaked through with demon blood like this — was nothing like Lin Rou’s description of something light and easy.

What in four hours had actually happened?

(End of Chapter)