“Damn, what a jinx!”
Whatever respect the Deputy Commanders and Commanders had retained for Liu Bin had mostly been spent already.
Seeing the toad lord surface, they finally said it out loud.
He was finished regardless. They’d just been following orders — there might still be a chance to redeem themselves by doing the right thing now.
As things stood — none of them were getting out of this.
Xiao Qiangwei’s expression shifted briefly, but in almost the same moment her eyes filled with something uncertain.
The toad lord’s bearing — it didn’t look like it was coming back to settle a score. The more she looked—
It looked like it was fleeing.
But near Qingzhou, where was there anywhere safer for it than Black Stone Deep?
And if it was fleeing — who exactly was it fleeing from?
Her gaze snapped to the toad demon’s head. The knife handle protruding from it — familiar enough that she found it difficult to believe what she was seeing.
As if confirming the thought—
A wave crested. A dark-robed figure launched upward and drove a fist down onto the knife handle.
The force was vast. The blade punched straight through the toad lord’s wide skull and shot out the other side.
The toad lord’s one remaining eye had gone vacant.
Shen Yi came down with a sweeping kick that sent the enormous body tumbling — it hit the slope and slid, leaving deep gouges in the hillside as the mass of it came to rest.
Xiao Qiangwei stared at the sky, and found the young man glancing sideways at her, as if he had something to say.
She felt something tighten and let go of the demon-suppression chain.
“Could you get the blade for me? Don’t lose it.”
The words were barely out before he’d already turned and thrown himself back at the toad lord, both fists falling like a rainstorm.
The toad lord lay across the slope, its massive body shaking with each impact, head lolled sideways — no strength left to even crawl, but still extending those splintered branch-like forelimbs, scraping feebly at the hillside. It had never looked more pitiful.
When Shen Yi’s fingers drove into the toad’s abdomen, demonic force erupted again. The enormous stomach exploded.
Dust and flesh filled the air in every direction.
When things settled, Shen Yi had already placed the inner core into the silver bell. A thread of the toad lord’s heart blood qi followed it inside.
【Condensate Realm Toad Demon slain — Total Lifespan: 4,900 years. Remaining: 872 years. Absorbed.】
Xiao Qiangwei had followed the instruction without thinking. She walked to the dark blade in a daze and pulled it free.
The cold of it reached her palm and she finally came back to herself. She spun and stared at the black robe in the distance.
Not drowned in the cold pool. His clothes weren’t even wet.
She watched Shen Yi walk back toward the tents. The assembled Commanders and Deputy Commanders instinctively stepped two or three paces backward, exposing Liu Bin in the space between them.
“NNGHHH! NNH!“
Liu Bin had his mouth open wide like a cornered old lion — bloody, dirt-filled. He was slamming his forehead into the ground, as if the impact could drive away what he was seeing.
How could anyone come out of Black Stone Deep alive? How could anyone kill the toad lord so easily?
If what was in front of him was real — then what had all these years of his life meant?
Xiao Qiangwei hurried back, extended the dark blade. She looked up at the sharp-featured face, and though she’d been looking at it for days, it felt more unfamiliar now than when they’d met.
Many questions. In the end, what came out was a hollow: “Are you alright?”
Shen Yi slid the blade home and glanced at her wrist. “Is that wound manageable?”
He’d only wanted her to cover from the outside. He hadn’t expected her to push that hard.
“It’s fine.”
Xiao Qiangwei moved the bone-bare wrist slightly behind her. “Back in Tingyang Prefecture — General You has physicians and medicines in abundance.”
“The demon’s mine. He’s yours. I’ll help with the escort.”
Shen Yi wasn’t miserly about it. She’d contributed significantly, and the credits should reflect that.
There was no demon here now. These Division people had no reason to stay. Bringing them all back to Tingyang Prefecture made sense — and by merit alone, a full-core stage demon and a full-core stage personal attendant Deputy Commander came out roughly equal.
In the space of a few sentences, Liu Bin found that he had been casually allocated alongside the demon as a piece of credit — dealt out without particular thought.
Xiao Qiangwei said quietly: “General You would very much like to know someone like you.”
Without quite noticing it, her assessment of Shen Yi had shifted — from prodigy to something simpler and more solid: expert. The former still needed time. The latter was already capable of standing on his own.
Shen Yi was nodding, and already turning to leave. Xiao Qiangwei hesitated, and couldn’t stop herself:
“How did you manage to beat the toad lord inside Black Stone Deep?”
“…”
He considered for a moment, then said mildly: “Body refinement is like that. If you haven’t trained it, you wouldn’t understand.”
She pulled the corner of her mouth. She didn’t push further — they hadn’t known each other long, and the question was already presumptuous. Every demon-hunter had methods they kept close. Letting something like that out could cost a life someday. She wouldn’t have asked at all if it hadn’t been so completely overwhelming.
At least he’d been willing to say something. That meant their relationship had improved somewhat from where it started.
“Rest tonight. We leave tomorrow.”
Shen Yi walked back the way they’d come.
Deputy Commanders and Commanders followed in orderly silence, pulling Liu Bin along. The old fighter came without resistance, drained of everything — he didn’t even let his resentful gaze find the figure ahead of him anymore.
Xiao Qiangwei followed quietly.
Even a warning about leaving things until morning felt redundant in front of this person.
The premise of a cornered animal turning on you was that the animal had to be at least somewhat dangerous.
Whether Liu Bin, the assembled Division personnel, or herself — none of them would amount to much against the young man if it came to that.
Everyone went back to the wooden buildings.
Even knowing tomorrow would mean being escorted back to Tingyang Prefecture, all three Deputy Commanders still prepared hot water and tea for Commander Shen with careful attention, then stepped quietly out.
Once alone—
Shen Yi took out the toad demon’s inner core. He felt something.
The toad core was noticeably larger than the flood dragon lord’s from Qingfeng Mountain had been. It would replenish roughly seventy-five percent of the Heavenly Demon external pill.
Just what was contained in this single core matched the value of three of the Condensate Realm tiger demon cores combined.
He let his mind touch the panel.
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 2,465 years】
【Condensate Realm · Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations (Rare): Novice】
If his estimate was right, the third transformation would bring Minor Mastery. When that happened — without relying on the external pill, without Xiao Qiangwei covering from outside — he would genuinely be able to dominate full-core stage demons on physical ability alone.
Shen Yi swallowed the toad core, mobilized the demon lifespan, and fed it into the technique.
【Year one — you prepare for the third transformation. First, as you’ve done before, you activate the death-essence with practiced ease and begin extinguishing the residual mountain lord consciousness within your body.】
Just as he’d cut away the flood dragon lord’s consciousness before — it had to be fully erased before the power and the innate divine ability could truly belong to him.
Confining a demon within the body — another way to understand it was: nurturing a demon inside yourself.
A demon with no physical form, condensed purely from accumulated cultivation — but with consciousness intact.
If that consciousness wasn’t extinguished, it remained a risk.
(End of Chapter)