“This king is telling you!”

“Now!”

“Get up — right now — and come with me to raze Qingzhou to the ground!”

The Howling Moon swayed slightly on its feet, digging its clawed hand into its own face to hold back the panic trying to break through.

The dog demon understood perfectly well what it was afraid of.

With the Junior Demon King dead, the moment Jiang Qiulan broke through would be the Howling Moon’s death sentence.

It wrenched free of the claws holding it and broke apart just as completely. “Don’t stand here giving orders — I have to go back. I have to go back and tell the Lady and the Master.”

The Junior Demon King was dead. Its own life was certainly forfeit.

But it could not let the Junior Demon King die here in silence, unmourned and unavenged.

“You—”

The dog demon stumbled forward a few steps, then remembered what the old wolf had done for it just moments before. It bit down hard, breathing ragged. “You don’t need to rush.”

The Master could not easily set foot in Great Qian — but the Lady would not let these people go unpunished.

It turned and sprinted west, looking every bit like a stray dog that had lost its home.

“…”

The Howling Moon watched the dog demon’s figure shrink into the distance and disappear.

“Hah.”

Only then did it slowly lower the clawed hand from its face.

It had very nearly lost its composure.

Who wanted to serve as a vanguard for some arrogant little upstart?

The plan had been: the Junior Demon King swallows Qingzhou, then graciously returns to the Howling Moon what had always been its own territory in the first place.

How generous.

Fortunately, it had learned early on that the Junior Demon King was an only child.

Only under those circumstances could it be certain that its family would come seeking revenge — and that, given the Junior Demon King’s status, they could not possibly stay in Great Qian.

The Howling Moon would have a full province of human cultivators to use as living medicine.

And it could use that connection with the Thousand Demon Den to finally leave this place and find an opportunity to break through to a higher realm.

Whether Jiang Qiulan or the Junior Demon King died here today, it had been a deal with no losing side.

“Five of them, though…”

The Howling Moon turned and strolled slowly back toward its cave.

Qingzhou seemed to have gained yet another presence it could not read. This was no longer a place to linger — best to eat well, drink well, and leave as soon as possible.

Damn Jiang Yuanhua. He had kept it hungry for far too long.

At the edge of Qingzhou’s border, Aqian and Wu Feng came stumbling through.

Shen Yi had already changed into a fresh set of dark clothes. He stood leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, every bit his usual composed self.

If you had not watched him kill the Junior Demon King with your own eyes, you might genuinely have taken him for a divine spirit cultivator.

“That was truly terrifying.”

Aqian bent over with her hands on her knees, rapidly steadying her breath.

“Hm?”

Shen Yi glanced back without much expression. He personally felt it had been fairly manageable — the Junior Demon King was certainly the strongest demon he had ever faced, and the treasure artifacts had complicated things, but terrifying seemed like an overstatement.

“She might not be talking about the Junior Demon King.”

Jiang Qiulan stood quietly beside him, watching his profile. She asked softly: “Why didn’t you let me do it?”

She genuinely wanted to know.

Nobody enjoyed acquiring problems, however strong they were.

“No particular reason.”

Shen Yi gave her a sideways look. Nine thousand eight hundred years of lifespan — and she wanted to take that from him.

It was an almost incomprehensible number. More than he had expected.

As for the problems that came with it — he was used to it by now. It just meant adding another name to the list he recited to himself at night.

He was not reckless with his life, that was true. But if he flinched from every demon that carried complications, he would have died in Baiyun County long ago.

Jiang Qiulan drew a slow breath at his answer.

She turned her gaze elsewhere.

The sharpness in her clear eyes softened, gradually, into something else.

Wu Feng stared fixedly at the silver bell at Shen Yi’s waist. He had made his name as one of Qingzhou’s most formidable demon-hunters, and yet he had had no idea there was someone out here who could pin the Junior Demon King to the ground with a casual slap. That kind of strength — if someone told him Shen Yi was actually the Howling Moon in disguise, he would have believed it.

And the Junior Demon King had been hiding that many killing moves all along.

If Shen Yi hadn’t been there today — without drawing the Howling Moon’s attention, maybe Jiang Qiulan would have made it out. The two demon-hunters almost certainly would not have.

All those high-grade treasure artifacts…

Wait.

Something clicked. “Hold on — does neither of you realize what this means? That kind of backing — its origins must be—”

He got no further. Jiang Qiulan and Shen Yi both glanced at him with identical mild expressions.

Aqian gave him a small punch from the side. “Don’t embarrass yourself.”

These two had almost certainly worked it all out the moment the bronze mirror appeared. And then they had gone ahead and made each other’s problems worse anyway.

“Right then. It’s done. I’ll send word to the War Temple when we’re back.” Aqian let out a long breath. “General Shen — the blood qi, if you would. Have the War Temple identify it properly. With that kind of backing, it almost certainly belongs to the Thousand Demon Den.”

She paused.

What came next was not nothing — it was simply nothing that Qingzhou could be part of anymore. Their fate was in heaven’s hands now.

Which meant they could stop worrying about it.

“No reward?”

Shen Yi took the blood qi from his silver bell.

“Well… they probably want to slap all of us dead right now.”

Aqian clicked her tongue. She didn’t particularly care.

To hell with the bigger picture. She was Qingzhou’s demon-hunter, and Qingzhou’s work was what she did. Jiang Yuanhua with his stubborn head, always using his own people as tools.

“Ha! I just want to see the General’s face right now. Let it kill him!” She broke into a slightly unhinged laugh.

“…”

Shen Yi looked quietly into the empty air beyond her.

With the Mountain Lord’s divine sight active, he could make out a divine spirit that bore a distinct resemblance to the General — standing directly behind Aqian, expression composed.

Then it inclined its head toward Shen Yi with a faint look of gratitude.

Shen Yi gave a small nod in return.

Then went back to watching Aqian rant with some interest. Every curse she threw out added another shade of helplessness to the General’s eyes.

He had no intention of telling Jiang Qiulan.

The General had come — but he had stayed on his side of the line Qingzhou drew. He had not taken the next step.

Jiang Yuanhua looked back at Shen Yi.

Through Aqian’s rambling, the details of how the Junior Demon King had died were becoming clearer and clearer.

So everything he had arranged over all these years had in the end been undone by a young man who appeared out of nowhere from Baiyun County.

The young man had joined the Division, declined to stay at the General’s residence, shaken off his junior disciple, gone to Shuiyun Village, made his way through Qingfeng Mountain — and climbed from one incomprehensible level to the next at a pace no one could account for.

And then, in the simplest and most direct way possible, he had shattered the nightmare.

Jiang Yuanhua’s gaze settled on the gold-patterned scabbard at Shen Yi’s waist.

In his ears, an old question surfaced again — the question many had asked him. Did he regret it?

If he had known in advance, he supposed he would have. But the world did not work that way. So in the end — no. He did not regret it.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.

“Old lady, let’s go!”

Wu Feng rolled his eyes and scooped Aqian up onto his shoulder.

The Junior Demon King’s death had clearly shifted something in everyone’s mood.

Everyone except Shen Yi.

He just wanted to get back quickly, try out his new treasure artifacts, and put the Junior Demon King to use as his newest source of reserves.

(End of Chapter)