Dozens of demon-hunters had been running through the city all night, chased in circles like headless flies.

Jiang Chengyun didn’t doubt his colleagues’ ability.

The only possible explanation was that the gap between them and the demons had been large enough that experience couldn’t compensate for it.

Which was why, the moment he’d learned Shen Yi had gone out alone to hunt, he’d briefly lost his composure.

Among the three tiger demons, at minimum one had been a demon lord.

And Yongan City right now — though it didn’t look tranquil — hadn’t actually suffered the kind of losses you’d expect from a demon lord’s rampage through a full night. It didn’t add up.

Connected to the mountain lord’s cry of grief as it left — all of it needed a reason.

“I thought I’d already been generous in how I assessed you.”

Jiang Chengyun couldn’t keep disbelieving it. He exhaled.

“And you still managed to surprise me.”

This young. Killing a Condensate Realm demon lord with his own hands.

It was something he wouldn’t even have let himself hope for.

“That expression doesn’t look much like someone pleasantly surprised.” Xiao Qiangwei raised an eyebrow.

“Of course not — all that preparation and I didn’t get a single bite.” Jiang Chengyun laughed at himself, and the tension went out of his voice. He stopped positioning himself as the senior.

At minimum, until he himself reached Condensate Perfection — Shen Yi had fully earned the right to be addressed as a peer.

He looked across at the young man.

“Look — can you not be so flat about it? If it were me right now, I wouldn’t be able to contain myself. I refuse to believe you’re actually this calm. Say something. Make me feel a little better about tonight.”

Shen Yi looked up.

The Heavenly Demon Yama external pill at full capacity had an odd cost to the mind. He was genuinely tired.

But if the other man wanted him to speak, he did have one thing he’d been meaning to ask.

“I want the mountain lord’s qi trace. What would I need to exchange for it?”

The luck tonight hadn’t extended to extracting bloodline power from the tiger cores — so he couldn’t track the mountain lord the way the flood dragon’s blood qi had let him track things before.

The faint smile that had just reached Jiang Chengyun’s face went away again.

He’d been surprised when Shen Yi cut down the Jingang School abbot. Then turned around and killed a freshly broken-through Condensate Realm tiger demon. He’d barely gotten the words of praise out — and now Shen Yi was asking him for the mountain lord’s qi?

“Are you confused? Do you know what Condensate Perfection means? That flood dragon at Qingfeng Mountain — the one at full core stage — wouldn’t last a hundred exchanges against this mountain lord.”

“And on top of that—”

The name White Deer sat in his throat. He couldn’t get it out.

Nightmare of countless demon-hunters. Moving undetected through all their carefully maintained intelligence, and quietly killing a Demon Suppression General. More astonishingly — escaping from Jiang Qiulan.

“You’re going to make me ask, and then not tell me.”

Shen Yi pressed his lips together and leaned back. He wasn’t planning to go now — but having made an enemy, if he couldn’t cut the root out, it would sit uneasily. That was all.

Jiang Chengyun looked embarrassed, gripped his fist, pressed the frustration down for a long moment. “I never got its qi in the first place. What exactly do you want me to say.”

Then Xiao Qiangwei cut in. “Who said no one got it.”

She opened her palm. From the silver bell, a thread of gold qi drifted out.

Jiang Chengyun’s eye twitched at the sight. He’d watched her destroy it himself.

“Nothing to be so surprised about. A small misdirection implement, nothing more.”

Xiao Qiangwei’s somewhat pale face showed the beginning of a smile. She looked at Shen Yi across the table. “I can give you this qi trace — and if you can obtain sufficiently precise information, I can even bring a Demon Suppression General to run point for you.”

Jiang Chengyun’s expression went complicated.

He generally had no patience for people who relied on their elders — every Demon Suppression General or gold-bell demon-hunter carried their own urgent responsibilities. Using them for private matters was how small things became large mistakes.

But Xiao Qiangwei was different. First, it wasn’t an elder but a junior she was invoking. Second, eliminating the White Deer was genuinely one of Qingzhou’s most pressing concerns.

And third — she was obviously taking advantage of Shen Yi’s inexperience. Sufficiently precise information? If anyone had that ability, why would they need General You at all.

“The condition?”

Shen Yi didn’t get excited. There was no free lunch in the world.

“Escort me to Black Stone Deep. I have a sealed order from General You to deliver to the personal attendant Deputy Commander stationed there.”

She covered her lips again as she spoke. A thread of red appeared between her fingers.

She’d only been passing through this area. Seeing a concentration of demon-hunters had made her think the letter wasn’t urgent enough to skip — and then things had gone sideways. Jiang Chengyun would return to Qingzhou to report to Grandmother Aqian and recover. She didn’t have that option.

Compared to the crowd of Jade Liquid Realm demon-hunters in the city, this young man called Shen Yi was clearly the stronger option by a significant margin.

“Personal attendant Deputy Commander?”

Something surfaced in Shen Yi’s mind. From what he understood, these were people stationed long-term in specific locations, keeping particular major demons under watch. A mutual deterrence arrangement.

Worth seeing, at a minimum.

He reached into his belt, took out the silver bell, and held it between his fingers. “Done.”

At the sight of the bell, Lin Rou — who had been standing off to the side quietly, picking at her fingers out of boredom — went wide-eyed and gripped her own sleeve tightly.

If she was remembering right, hadn’t Jiang Chengyun been teaching this person the most basic rules just a few days ago?

Even Xiao Qiangwei blinked. She stared at the silver bell, then looked sideways at Jiang Chengyun with something questioning.

“Why are you looking at me — do you think he doesn’t deserve it?”

He gave her an irritable glance.

With Shen Yi’s strength, as long as he didn’t get killed, the gold bell was inevitable somewhere down the road. The silver was hardly the point.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Xiao Qiangwei looked back, and pressed the gold thread of the mountain lord’s qi into Shen Yi’s silver bell.

“If nothing else is keeping you, it would be better to move soon.”

She stood and walked toward the hall entrance.

It wasn’t quite deception — though there had been some amusement in the offer. But the credit that single qi trace could be exchanged for was more than sufficient to cover the escort cost.

“…”

Shen Yi closed his eyes and let the mountain lord’s presence settle into his awareness.

Something stirred.

He had never tasted what a Condensate Perfection demon core might be like.

Still too weak. Not yet enough to cross into that territory.

He put the bell away and stood.

The battered old man stepped quietly into his path.

Deng Jianyuan looked at him with something that had moved past surprise into something quieter.

The demon-hunters cared about what cultivation level had been killed, what kind of strength had been demonstrated.

The old man and the Deng family behind him saw something else: Yongan City still standing. All these people inside — frightened, shaking — but alive, and in their homes, not in pieces in the street.

All of it because the young man had chosen to step through that door last night.

“This old man thanks you — for protecting my Deng family and Yongan City.”

Deng Jianyuan bowed low. Every person behind him followed.

“No need. It was within my responsibilities.”

Shen Yi waved a hand and walked out of the hall.

Beyond the demon-hunter commission, he was still carrying the Division’s badge.

If he was going to have it both ways — then doing twice the work was only right.

(End of Chapter)