The valley was in ruins, the sharp smell of blood everywhere.
Elder Qingjing crouched at the edge of the jade spring, watching the demon-blood-stained water, rinsing dirt from his hands in a cursory way.
That old Chunyang — burial was one thing, but he’d insisted on doing it by hand. The man had been half a second away from running his sword through Yan Xingkong earlier and was now standing there with a heavy expression. Honestly.
He looked toward the freshly-made graves in the distance, and something moved in his eyes.
Having seen what had been done to Yan Xingkong’s wife, he found himself understanding the man more than he’d expected. If the person closest to him had been treated with that kind of cruelty, blood running to the head — he might have lost his judgment too.
Understanding and approving were different things, of course. The Division’s strict regulations existed precisely to prevent situations like this from multiplying. Yan Xingkong wasn’t the only man in Qingzhou with someone he cared about.
Still — at least the man had lived to see his enemy die in front of him. That was something many jianghu practitioners gave their lives chasing and never found.
And dying buried alongside his wife. No wonder he’d been smiling like that at the end.
“Should be about done.”
Elder Chunyang carved the name into the stone marker with careful attention. He’d made a promise to a dead man who had nearly gotten him killed, and he wasn’t going to do it halfway.
He drove the stone deep into the mound and brushed his hands off.
“Alright. Let’s go back. When we get there I’m going straight into closed cultivation — try to push the Twin-Harmony True Intent to Major Mastery before the lifespan runs out. At least that much I’d like to see through.”
Elder Qingjing nodded with genuine feeling.
Too long in the mountains, surrounded by disciples looking up at you with reverence — you relaxed without noticing. You told yourself you had grasped something profound, that your name meant something across Qingzhou, and you settled into that.
And then a nameless demon hiding in a concealment array in some deep valley made you completely helpless.
Commander Shen seemed quiet and understated from the outside, but the efficiency when he dealt with demons was something that sat uncomfortably in the chest afterward.
And yet Baiyu Monastery had never heard of him.
Could it be the General has been nurturing a secret weapon?
With that thought, Elder Qingjing’s wariness toward the Division deepened considerably. If Baiyu Monastery had talent like this in the younger generation, they’d want every person in Qingzhou to know. The Division keeping it quiet said something.
“Although — suddenly showing a secret weapon like this — does it mean Qingzhou is heading into something serious?”
He shook his head, dried his hands, and walked back.
Xiao Qiangwei had processed all the valuable demon materials. She stood holding four long feathers — two azure, two crimson — turning them in her hand.
Feeling what was in them, her expression shifted. Even after all these years as a demon-hunter, she rarely came across something this precious. A pity they were an innate ability of the demon — forcing your own qi through them couldn’t draw out even a tenth of their real effect.
“Senior Xiao, we should get back to Qingzhou soon.” Both priests made themselves look somewhere other than the feathers.
“Agreed.” Xiao Qiangwei pushed qi into the silver bell. A response came quickly.
She laughed quietly at herself. If she’d been less rattled earlier, this would have been obvious — inside a qi-concealing array like this, there was no way Shen Yi could have reached her even if he’d tried.
Shortly after, the dark-robed young man came walking from the distance.
Xiao Qiangwei didn’t notice anything unusual, but both Daoist priests’ eyes showed a flicker of surprise.
Natural and unforced — Elder Chunyang’s motion art terminology — that unhurried pace carried something of the world folded into it, as if the man had stopped being separate from the surrounding environment.
Then they caught the edge of his glance toward them, and both read the faint, mild displeasure in it.
“…”
Elder Chunyang blinked and became noticeably more careful. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, but careful was better — Commander Shen had dropped Kong Jing’s head with one palm, and his old bones weren’t equipped for that kind of attention.
Shen Yi settled the mood quickly and nodded to the group.
“If it’s all sorted, let’s move.”
In an empty space in his field of vision, the panel had updated.
【Condensate Realm · Twin-Harmony True Intent: Perfection】
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 1,429 years】
A palm-sized gold tablet. Less than two hundred characters engraved on it.
These Daoist priests, apparently afraid that writing more clearly might make the technique seem less profound — all that elaborate obscurity.
Over twelve hundred years of demon lifespan. He’d genuinely like to know whether these priests were living that long.
He’d been planning to condense a thousand years into a Demon Crystal and try deriving another demonic technique. That was now slightly out of reach.
“Take these feathers first.” Xiao Qiangwei carefully explained what she was doing, worried he might think she’d kept the full haul for herself. “Everything else I’ll turn in and have it credited toward War Temple allocation.”
She watched Shen Yi glance at the azure and crimson feathers with what appeared to be mild indifference.
Then his next words stopped everyone where they stood.
“Split it by demon-hunter custom. I’ll take one share.”
“I know you do body refinement—” Xiao Qiangwei moved quickly to explain, “—but something like the crimson feather, even just carried on you, it nourishes the body and supports healing.”
“I know.” He gave a small nod. He didn’t change his position.
This time, both Daoist priests’ eyes finally went visibly warm. They looked toward the feathers they’d been restraining themselves from looking at — four long quills moving gently in the air, emitting a soft glow.
Getting the technique back had already been more than they’d hoped for. They hadn’t imagined there’d be demon spoils with their name on them as well.
“Commander Shen.” Elder Chunyang bit down, closed his eyes, and waved his sleeve with an air of noble resignation. “It wouldn’t be right to receive something we haven’t earned. People would laugh.”
Elder Qingjing couldn’t stop him in time and sighed.
The Baiyu Monastery was known for two things: the Twin-Harmony True Intent, and crafting treasured implements. Demon materials this fine were to them what rare timber was to a carpenter, what a magnificent bird was to a cook — you simply had to work with them. Not doing so sat wrong in the chest.
“Commander Shen is giving it. You don’t get to refuse.” Xiao Qiangwei raised an eyebrow and simply handed all four feathers across.
“Don’t waste good material. Make something with them. Keep a share for yourselves, send the rest to the Division compound in Qingzhou city — addressed to Commander Shen under General Chen’s command.”
Elder Chunyang’s sleeve, which had just settled, had his hand reaching out again before he could stop it.
“Many thanks for Commander Shen’s generosity.”
The white-haired, young-looking face broke into a full smile.
“…”
Shen Yi genuinely couldn’t follow the logic. They could have taken it outright, and somehow becoming an unpaid craftsman about it had made them happier.
If the people he’d worked alongside in his previous life were built this way, the boss would probably have been cycling in a younger trophy spouse before long.
He rubbed his brow and turned toward the valley exit.
Body-refinement cultivation had one distinct advantage: the derivation process didn’t generate much emotional residue.
These martial technique derivations, on the other hand — the thick fog of confusion, the exhaustion, the despair, the sudden clarity at the end, all of it surging up at once — that wasn’t something that cleared in an hour or two.
(End of Chapter)