What could he exchange for all this?
Jiang Chengyun exhaled several times in quick succession, then looked down at the small girl.
“Grandmother — maybe you should get up and let him sit.”
Aqian raised a palm and made a gesture toward him.
“…”
She picked up the brush again, loaded it with ink, and stared at the record book — with no idea whatsoever where to begin.
She genuinely wanted to ask Shen Yi how he’d managed this. But answer to summons, not to commands — all matters require no upward reporting was one of the few iron rules of demon-hunters. It wasn’t hers to inquire into.
It was equally obvious that Shen Yi had no interest in discussing it further.
The other demon-hunters stared at the floating blood qi in the air, with something like the feeling of being in a dream.
Shock, at least, was still within the range of comprehension.
What they were looking at now was something they had no framework for.
The death of a core-nurturing demon lord — that was comparable to what had happened when the Yushan Prefecture General had fallen. Something that sent tremors through all of Qingzhou. The impact was roughly equivalent to waking up one morning to hear that the Li family of Qingzhou had ceased to exist.
Aqian was counting on her fingers, not quite following her own math.
“Three times — six times — ten times—”
Jiang Chengyun cleared his throat quietly. “Qingzhou demon-hunters don’t have that many allocations to begin with.”
“…”
Aqian looked up at the young man and exhaled.
“Are you planning to cultivate the divine spirit path?”
“No.” He shook his head.
Compared to the divine spirit leaving the body to control a sword from thousands of li away — he preferred a powerful physical frame. It worked better with the Nine Transformations.
“Then ten times should be enough. The remaining credits — how about I have them exchanged for a treasured implement? The kind that can hold a prefecture steady.”
She remembered the bold claim she’d made at the beginning: as long as the credits were sufficient, the Great Qian dynasty had everything.
Looking at this now — it was actually barely enough.
The issue was the speed. The War Temple refinement was precious. Each province had a fixed allocation. Granting ten at once — any reasonably talented practitioner would be pushed to Condensate Perfection by that kind of accumulation alone. That wasn’t something you could hand out without limit.
“I also want a copy of the Heaven-Devouring Core-Consuming Art.” He nodded. He wasn’t entirely sure how the credit-to-reward calculation worked — the general principle was to take as much as possible.
“The Heaven-Devouring method?” Aqian blinked, then let out a breath of quiet relief.
At least — once Jiang Qiulan was factored in, the whole picture became considerably more reasonable than it had looked a moment ago.
“That’s one of the most domineering Condensate methods in the empire. Including that, it should come out about right.”
She nodded, writing everything down. “Good, go get some rest. Normally they’d wait for someone from the capital to bring it, but in your case — don’t make them go to the trouble. Give it about half a month, then head to the capital yourself. Chengyun will come find you when it’s time.” She paused. “And don’t go running off in the meantime.”
“At least let the General see what you look like first—”
She leaned back against Jiang Chengyun’s legs and pressed her fingers into her temples.
Even if the core-nurturing White Deer had something to do with Jiang Qiulan — those Condensate Perfection demon lords were Shen Yi’s. What exactly had happened out there after he left Qingzhou?
“…”
She was about to ask a few more questions when Shen Yi noticed Jiang Chengyun looking at him in a way that was distinctly unusual.
He let it go. He could ask on the road.
He understood what producing this much demon blood qi at once would do to everyone in the room.
He also understood, clearly, what Qingzhou’s situation actually was.
The demon king watching from outside. The junior demon king approaching a breakthrough. When both were present — the current precarious balance would collapse instantly.
When that time came, if he had enough strength—
If the sixth transformation could confine a core-nurturing White Deer — why couldn’t the ninth confine a genuine demon king?
The thought moved through his mind.
And even he felt that was somewhat excessive.
“Farewell.”
He bowed to the two of them, then turned and walked out of the loft.
Leaving a room full of demon-hunters who didn’t quite know what to do with themselves.
Division side courtyard.
Shen Yi came back to the room. Barely anyone passing nearby. It seemed most of the Commanders had been deployed elsewhere.
He took out the remaining flood dragon core from the bell. One that could replenish the external pill by fifty percent.
He brought the external pill back up to eighty-five percent.
Then placed the spent flood dragon core in his mouth and put one year of demon lifespan toward it.
【Year one — you swallow the depleted flood dragon core, converting the blood residue. The Flood Dragon’s Power improves.】
【Condensate Realm · Flood Dragon’s Power】
“Oh.”
He’d swallowed it on a whim, mostly to avoid waste.
Apparently there was something there after all.
Under the sixth transformation’s enhancement, even Condensate-level Flood Dragon’s Power only gave a marginal increase in force — but something was better than nothing.
He put the remaining flood dragon cores back into the bell.
He stood and boiled water. Then watched it go from boiling to warm.
He poured himself a cup and took a small sip.
Having greater cultivation wasn’t entirely without drawbacks. Before — he’d come back from killing demons, worn out, and simply fell asleep immediately.
Right now, the energy felt inexhaustible.
Zhang Tuhu, Fang Heng, the Li siblings — all apparently out of Qingzhou.
He finally had the rest he’d been wanting. And for the first time — he felt faintly bored.
“…”
Then from outside — a tentative voice.
“Excuse me, does the sir have any clothing that needs washing?”
A quiet young woman stood in the courtyard with some restraint, looking at the dimly lit door.
She’d been making a little money washing clothes for the Commanders, but lately they’d all been too busy and rarely stayed in their quarters. She’d finally found a light still on somewhere, and even though it was very late, she’d worked up the nerve to ask.
“…”
Shen Yi took the blood-stained wolf-devouring-moon cloak from the bell, opened the door, and handed it over.
“Where’s your brother? It’s late to have you wandering around on your own.”
Chen Jinyu looked up at the young man in front of her. The features were still as she remembered from her memory — the same sharp handsomeness — but the dark robe seemed to have made the whole person colder and more contained.
“S— Commander Shen?”
Both of them were being called sir — but clearly she meant the Baiyun County constable.
Remembering she’d been asked a question, she quickly answered. “My brother is still training. I had nothing to do, so I sneaked off to try something — wanted to make some broth for my brother and Big Brother Niu.”
“What are you making?” He walked at a slow pace toward the courtyard gate.
“I — I made a goji berry and chicken soup. It should be almost ready.”
Perhaps coming to Qingzhou from Baiyun County and encountering so many people she could never have imagined touching before — some of the alertness had gone out of Chen Jinyu’s eyes, replaced by more uncertainty.
“Come on then. I’ll have some too.” He gave a small nod.
The familiar phrasing dissolved some of the strangeness from a moment ago.
The young woman blinked, and then the smile came back into her expression. She nodded vigorously, voice bright.
“Yes! And my brother has really missed you!”
(End of Chapter)