Like Lin Rou — demon-hunters who spent too long in the jianghu tended to pick up certain habits.

Things like the convention of peer fighting peer, junior meeting junior.

Liu Bin had come up through the Division with blood on both hands. He cared about one thing: removing an opponent as quickly as possible. No opportunity went unused.

That spear was full strength.

Xiao Qiangwei had been planning to read the momentum and avoid the worst of it — and then she saw the situation change, and something pulled tight in her chest.

Moving qi again to try to hold Liu Bin back was going to be too late. She called out quickly, hoping to split his focus:

“I’m going for his right shoulder — get clear first!”

The words were really meant for Liu Bin. Disturb the mind, create an opening.

But an old fighter who had carved his way up from Commander to this post — he wasn’t going to be moved by that. The spear didn’t slow at all.

Cold light like a scattering of stars. Straight for the throat.

The overwhelming pressure hit. Shen Yi’s robes and hair moved with it. He looked at the old personal attendant, took in something in his expression, and a faint strangeness crossed those clear dark eyes.

In the instant the tip arrived — he turned slightly, and his fingers closed around the cold shaft.

Under that hand, the enormous force simply stopped. The strength that could tear through demons in an instant vanished as if absorbed by deep water.

Liu Bin’s expression shifted sharply. He pulled to withdraw and stab again — and found the spear was no longer in his hands. Shen Yi had reversed his grip and was holding it horizontally.

You fought to the death, and someone simply took your weapon?

Not just Liu Bin — even Xiao Qiangwei, mid-motion, went still for a moment.

“…”

Fury erupted across the old fighter’s face.

“Boy. You dare insult me.“

He let out a shout and mobilized the inner core without reservation, presence surging, coming back barehanded to kill—

“She’s only wounded. You’ve already started rotting, haven’t you.”

Shen Yi raised an eyebrow, didn’t give him the chance, and tossed the spear back.

Under the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations, what left his hand carried considerably more force than the original strike. It erupted forward.

At the words, something like panic crossed Liu Bin’s face. Before he could respond, the butt of the spear hit him in the abdomen and drove him into the ground.

The metal hummed and vibrated where it stood.

“…”

Xiao Qiangwei still had her palm extended from the motion she hadn’t completed. Liu Bin was on the ground. Shen Yi was the only person standing in front of her.

The shock underneath was beyond easy description — followed quickly by confusion. She stared at the ground. A full-core stage practitioner — how had he lost that easily.

Shen Yi walked over, pushed her palm aside, and crouched in front of Liu Bin, reaching to pull the man’s robes open.

“Get away from me!” Liu Bin stopped trying to press the freely bleeding wound and grabbed frantically to stop the young man.

Slap.

Shen Yi’s expression didn’t change. The palm connected solidly across the old face.

Liu Bin’s head went sideways. Blood and several broken teeth came out together, staining the white beard dark red. His head was ringing — but he still managed a slurred roar.

“You dare disrupt the public duty of Tingyang Prefecture — you think the General won’t have your head for this—”

“You should worry about your own head first.”

Shen Yi’s eyes showed nothing unusual. He pulled the dark robe open without ceremony.

Even Xiao Qiangwei couldn’t help her eyes going wide.

Compared to the spear wound — the entire side of Liu Bin’s ribcage had no flesh left. Bone, eaten through into uneven pits, visible directly. The internal organs could be seen faintly rising and falling beneath it all. Even those were covered in a creeping green fluid.

Severe poison. Well advanced.

Shen Yi had noticed something wrong when the man launched the attack.

With the mountain lord’s form contained within his body, the eyes could distinguish gods from demons, could sense departing souls.

In the moment Liu Bin mobilized his qi — his soul had shown the signs of beginning to separate from the body.

Looking at this wound now — even without Shen Yi’s intervention today, Liu Bin had already been more than halfway to a corpse.

No wonder he’d come in swinging. He’d wanted to establish dominance over a weaker opponent, use that to intimidate Xiao Qiangwei into leaving—

He settled his mind and stood.

He looked down at the old man, voice quiet.

“I’m curious — in your current condition, how exactly have you been keeping watch over the demon at this post?”

The whole thing had moved fast enough that many of the Commanders hadn’t processed it yet.

When the words landed, their expressions went uncertain. They stood where they were.

Xiao Qiangwei’s chest was heaving, anger sharpening into something furious.

“No wonder you kept refusing to go back for your report — you were afraid General You would replace you. Why not tell him? Let him find someone to treat the wound?”

“I don’t need treatment. I need the War Temple refinement.“

Liu Bin bared his teeth like a cornered old lion, blood on his lips.

“I’ve fought my whole life. I want to become a Demon Suppression General. Not get stood down to recover — survive at half-strength—”

Xiao Qiangwei shook with fury, unable to speak for a moment.

Fifty years of holding a post without incident — that earned one War Temple refinement. Not only would it preserve current strength, it would allow some further advancement.

But Liu Bin was still at least three to five years away from the next one.

And in that time — Qingzhou had no functional watch on whatever demon was being kept in check at Black Stone Deep. Completely undefended.

He could have talked to General You. He’d chosen to hide it instead.

“I understand. You think General You is too young to outlast — you don’t want to owe him the favor when you need to move on. Planning to find another arrangement after the refinement. Someone like Old General Chen, perhaps.”

Xiao Qiangwei’s jaw was locked, wanting to hit him again.

“This is Division business. What does it have to do with you? What does any of this have to do with you demon-hunters?!“

“If I’m to be handled, bring General You Longtao! Bring the General herself! What standing do demon-hunters have to touch me?!”

Liu Bin didn’t lower his head. He’d stopped pretending the visitor’s identity was uncertain.

Xiao Qiangwei turned away, already calculating the fastest route back to Tingyang Prefecture.

“Wait for me. I won’t disappoint you.”

He was right that Division affairs needed Division resolution.

Liu Bin closed his eyes, breathing with effort. The Commanders around him stepped aside with complicated expressions, and quiet hands reached for the cold demon-suppression chains at their belts.

The previous unified front had dissolved. This was internal Division business now.

General You’s authority clearly outranked Liu Bin’s.

Then Shen Yi extended a hand toward her.

“The letter. Give it to me.”

“Ah?” Xiao Qiangwei turned back, momentarily thrown. Seeing or not seeing the letter at this point seemed largely irrelevant — but something about the young man’s earlier action had settled a thread of trust in her she hadn’t expected.

She reached into the bell and produced an envelope.

Shen Yi took it, held it between two fingers, and turned it toward Liu Bin.

“Open your eyes. Is this General You’s handwriting?”

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

Liu Bin opened his eyes, cold. Xiao Qiangwei had spent years caring for General You’s mother and been acknowledged as an adopted younger sister. A letter brought by the general’s honorary sister — how could it be false.

“Confirming you recognize it is enough.”

Under the collective puzzled attention, Shen Yi pocketed the envelope. His hand passed over his belt. The Division badge landed on Liu Bin’s chest.

“…”

Liu Bin gripped the badge and stared at the young man.

Who then turned slowly. In his hands — the wolf-devouring-the-moon cloak — which he settled across his shoulders without ceremony.

In that instant, the weight that came across the young face made every Commander go instinctively quiet.

Shen Yi adjusted the collar with one hand. His voice was even.

“Liu Bin permitted demonic harm and withheld knowledge of it.”

“Shen Yi, of General Chen Qiankun’s command, acting on General You’s authorization, takes temporary charge of this post.”

He glanced down at the old man on the ground, turned, and walked toward the nearest building.

“Bind him.”

When the words settled, Liu Bin finally looked at the badge in his fist.

His pupils contracted. His breathing came faster.

A personal attendant Deputy Commander’s badge alone couldn’t shake his standing here. General You’s own handwriting alone couldn’t do it either.

But both together—

“I want to see that letter.” He turned sharply. No response came from anywhere.

He didn’t believe it. He refused to believe You Longtao had actually sent Division people to investigate him.

The Commanders exchanged looks, avoided their deputy commander’s eyes, and quietly brought out the chains.

Compared to the unified front they’d held a short while ago, this was now house business.

General You’s authority was clearly above Liu Bin’s.

“Bind him?”

Xiao Qiangwei was still working out when General You had issued any such authorization — and found that the Deputy Commanders and Commanders who had been standing against her with drawn blades were now changing direction entirely.

Still hesitant — but moving, one step at a time, toward Liu Bin.

“Deputy Commander Liu — forgive us—”

They crouched, and together pulled the spear from the ground.

They knew Liu Bin’s years of hard service. As long as they hadn’t seen General You’s orders directly, they wouldn’t — couldn’t — disobey him. They’d been willing to pretend nothing was happening.

But now it had been found by the Division. That ended the question.

The personal attendant was much younger, but he didn’t look weaker than Liu Bin at his peak. He had both the name and the strength to hold it.

When the chains settled around Liu Bin, the light in the old eyes finally went out.

Even held upright by his own people, he hung his head without seeing anything.

“Deputy Commander Liu — Commander Shen’s badge—”

Two Commanders bound him securely and carefully prised the badge from his grip.

Barring something unexpected — when this old fighter was brought back to Tingyang Prefecture, he would become the first personal attendant that General You Longtao executed personally.

And the ones who had known and said nothing — whether they kept their lives was yet to be determined.

“What is all of this.”

Xiao Qiangwei felt the injury flare, pressed a hand to her abdomen through a furrowed brow, and walked quickly toward the building.

She pushed the door open and found the young man seated behind the desk, carefully going through the case files.

With the wolf cloak across his shoulders, he looked nothing like the person who had been trailing behind her on the road.

“You have the Division badge on top of the silver bell? From Old General Chen directly?”

She stood in the doorway, face full of astonishment.

Either one of those required decades — sometimes a century — of grinding. He looked this young, and he had both?

“Is that a problem?”

Shen Yi glanced up briefly.

Xiao Qiangwei bit her lip. She’d noticed something strange about him before — in Yongan City too, he’d come back from killing the tiger demons and said nothing, as if these earth-shaking things simply didn’t register as meaningful to him.

“No problem!”

Shen Yi nodded. “Then could you do me a favor and send two Deputy Commanders in. I’d like to know about the demon at Black Stone Deep.”

(End of Chapter)