【Year one hundred and twenty-six — with a final keening tiger’s cry, you quietly withdraw the death-essence. The force within you feels more complete than before. You begin the third transformation.】

The mountain lord’s consciousness had taken longer to extinguish than the flood dragon’s — the demonic force behind it was stronger.

Shen Yi didn’t begrudge a single year of it.

The fight with the toad demon had given him a real, firsthand sense of how formidable innate demonic abilities were. Powers that came with birth — no less effective than the strongest human martial techniques.

In that dark pool, he’d been more comfortable than standing outside it. Moving through the deep water as if he were strolling through a familiar room.

Ordinary practitioners couldn’t imagine something like that.

With these kinds of abilities, he could descend into the sea to take dragons, rise to the heights to hunt eagles — always more demon lifespan within reach. Whatever the cost of acquiring these powers, it was worth it.

【Year one hundred and twenty-seven — you swallow the toad core. Compared to the gentle taming of before, two experiences have made your methods considerably rougher. The toad lord’s demonic force, guided by your life-essence, responds to that roughness with something between submission and an involuntary pleasure. Efficiency improves.】

As the toad core was absorbed, the remaining demon lifespan began dropping at an alarming rate.

A core approaching Perfection — pouring into every part of the body in rapid succession.

【Year seven hundred and twenty—】

【Year thirteen hundred—】

【Year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-two — a peerless fierce demon wakes within your body. You suppress it coldly and confine it.】

You are the toad immortal. Born of heaven and earth. At home in extreme cold. A hundred lifetimes of poison gathered within your body. You move in all directions. There is nothing in this world you cannot devour. All living things fear your poison and dare not approach.

【Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations: Minor Mastery】

A long, deep toad’s call resonated through his mind.

Shen Yi raised his palm slowly. The long fingers were trembling in tiny contractions. He held the expression, lips pressed, face serious — until he closed the fist completely.

Then he let out a long breath.

Something like genuine pleasure appeared on the sharp features.

He’d assumed Minor Mastery of the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations would bring him to roughly the full-core stage equivalent. What he found instead — whether because the toad core was exceptionally powerful, or because the technique itself was beyond what he’d understood — was something that could flatly dominate full-core stage demons on physical strength alone.

“At this rate — Major Mastery would mean crushing Condensate Perfection practitioners, and all nine transformations together would hold a core-nurturing stage practitioner immobile under one palm?”

A single Condensate Realm body-refinement technique, actually capable of cross-tier suppression—

Only now did he fully understand the meaning of the Rare marking.

The image of Chen Qiankun surfaced in his mind. That unstoppable halberd strike, the first time — thinking about it now, it no longer seemed quite so unapproachable.

Nearly a month and a half had passed. He finally had the physical foundation to survive it.

And this was nothing but raw body strength. Add the Heavenly Demon external pill — even the mountain lord at Condensate Perfection would learn what a body-refinement practitioner felt like.

At the thought of the external pill—

He took it out. The fight with the toad lord had consumed roughly another fifteen percent.

He used the remaining tiger cores to bring it back to fifty percent, then put everything away.

He looked at the panel.

【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 484 years】

If a new demon could be confined, the Nine Transformations would continue to be the priority. In the absence of that — with any surplus lifespan — deriving more of the Thunder-Wind Solar-Fusion Scripture and connecting a few more major apertures to the Furnace wasn’t a bad use. Filling the external pill completely would mean an extra Condensate Perfection inner core’s worth of cultivation out of nowhere.

That would make capturing the mountain lord considerably more secure.

He’d only left Yongan City a few days ago, and the mountain lord was already on his list. He just didn’t know the particulars — whether it had support nearby, whether there were considerations about where it lived.

Escorting Xiao Qiangwei and the Division people back to Tingyang Prefecture was also a chance to ask her about it.

As for her offer of a Demon Suppression General running point — if she meant it, better. If it had been said in passing, Shen Yi wasn’t going to fret about it. He’d long since learned to operate alone.

“I could use one or two more techniques with a bit more killing power.”

He’d noticed that recent opponents kept being larger and more solidly built — from the three-zhang tiger demons to the twenty-zhang toad lord, taller than most buildings he’d seen. Blade and fists were becoming increasingly laborious.

The Heavenly Astral Blood-Corruption touched the Condensate Realm level only shallowly — new techniques were needed to fill the gap.

He shook his head and closed the panel.

He spread his palms and activated the toad’s divine ability. An insidious green light pooled immediately across both hands. He drew the blade and tested it — the poison moved through the steel the same way qi did, coating the edge without resistance.

He spent time getting familiar with the force inside the new body, working out the different ways to use the venom.

Light began coming in at the windows.

Xiao Qiangwei knocked softly. “Commander Shen — ready to move out?”

Shen Yi pushed the door open. The wolf cloak had been put away. Just the fitted dark robe.

The assembled Commanders and Deputy Commanders were managing Liu Bin, who had nothing left — nominally under guard, actually being held upright by the two people on either side of him.

No matter how much mental preparation, no matter how large the ambition, no matter how much blood had been on those hands over a lifetime—

When the moment of actually setting out arrived, Liu Bin hadn’t managed to hold himself together. Something had broken.

“…”

Xiao Qiangwei didn’t move.

Even from the moment they’d arrived, if Liu Bin had simply told the truth, there would have been room to work with.

Instead he’d chosen the most aggressive possible approach — trying to drive them away by force.

And beyond that — while Shen Yi was fighting the demon lord at full stretch, this old general had gone unhinged taunting a court colleague, practically willing him to die in the toad lord’s hands.

All of it would be reported to General You exactly as it happened.

Everyone knew General You carried himself without pretension, treating these older fighters with considerable respect — even as elders in some cases.

But once the subject was demons—

Everyone who had ever lived in the General’s courtyard, from General You Longtao down to Fang Heng, had exactly one quality in common. None of them were soft-handed about it.

“Move out.”

Shen Yi brushed his cuffs and led everyone onto the road back.

Xiao Qiangwei watched his back with her lips together.

Beyond Liu Bin’s matter, she would also describe this young man’s bearing when he fought — every detail — to General You without omission.

A rising young practitioner with genuine strength, already beginning to carry the faint shape of someone who could shelter Qingzhou.

Demon-hunter and personal attendant Deputy Commander simultaneously. Both at once, and somehow accomplishing something extraordinary in both.

If Qingzhou could weather what was coming — if it could stay stable for another few centuries—

Would the War Temple, centuries from now, hold one more three-zhang golden figure, shining across the Great Qian—

(End of Chapter)