Chapter 64: The Offering
After dealing with the Bear Demon, Li Hao noticed movement in a nearby cave.
When he extended his spirit to investigate, he saw seven survivors in ragged clothes, a mix of men and women, all around twenty to thirty years old, with no children or elderly among them.
The seven were shackled hand and foot, the other end of their chains threaded through a crevice in a massive rock. Without moving that rock, they couldn’t free themselves.
It seemed they’d been through something horrifying; their expressions were vacant, filled with fear, some faces even numb and dazed.
With a sigh, Li Hao used his control over objects to break the iron chains and released them.
However, even though the chains on their limbs were gone, it felt as if some other invisible chains still bound them.
After a moment of confusion, the seven looked around blankly, remaining where they were, making no move to escape.
One of them seemed to recall something and began to tremble, crouching down in terror. Hastily, he picked up the broken chains and wound them around his limbs himself, murmuring pleas under his breath:
“Please, don’t eat me…don’t eat me…”
He was utterly terrified.
Li Hao fell silent, slightly at a loss for how to comfort people. He thought it best to give them some time to recover on their own. Meanwhile, he decided to tidy up matters outside.
With a wave of his hand, he gathered the corpses of the demons nearby, stacking them neatly into a tall platform.
“Uncle Lin, your apprentice was powerless to protect you. All I can do is honor your heroic spirit with these demon carcasses.”
With a turn of his hand, Li Hao took out a wine gourd from his back.
He uncorked it and poured the wine before the altar of corpses.
Though his gaze took in the sea of blood before him, his mind was filled with images of a courtyard bathed in resplendent sunset hues.
He remembered the night when that man drank and recited warrior poetry.
He remembered that man, on a sorrowful afternoon, bowing his head sadly when he saw that Li Hao couldn’t absorb the Foundation-Building Medicinal Liquid.
And he remembered that autumn, as falling leaves settled on a chessboard, when the two of them laughed and bantered in their game.
Li Hao shook the wine gourd, finding only one mouthful left. He lifted his head, drank it down, and murmured softly, “Uncle Lin, here’s to you.”
Then, he put the wine gourd away, picked up his Demon-Slaying Blade, and turned to head into the forest.
The Blackwind Mountains spanned over a hundred li, filled with tens of thousands of demons. Just within the vicinity, demons had gathered in the thousands...
Li Hao's figure stood atop a tree branch, his spirit rushing out from his forehead, wielding the Demon-Slaying Blade as he swept through the forest, clearing every direction.
All kinds of demons lay lurking or sleeping, hunting or playing; every last one was sliced by a streak of dark light, life cut short.
The dark light darted like a needle through the mountains, piercing demon bodies one by one. Though they sensed the danger and tried to flee in panic, the dark light was faster.
For an ordinary cultivator of the Fifteen Li Realm, such a massacre would not be so easy. But Li Hao’s range and speed in manipulating objects were several times that of a typical Fifteen Li cultivator, and he hadn’t even resorted to his special abilities.
The tens of thousands of demons gathered at the foot of the mountain were terrified, not knowing what was happening. Some instinctively bolted in all directions, while others raced toward the mountain summit to consult their “king” about what was going on, only to lose their heads before they got very far.
The entire mountain quaked violently, like an earthquake.
The fleeing demons barely made it ten li before they were all slaughtered.
Blood dyed the bushes and stained the earth, flowing along the grooves of the land, collecting into pools of blood-tears that drenched this mountain range...
Li Hao’s spirit returned to his body, and the dark blade fell into his hand.
He glanced down.
After slaying tens of thousands of demons, the blade’s edge was chipped.
Without the protection of his spirit, this blade would have shattered long ago and wouldn’t have pierced through the tough bodies of some of these demons.
But he didn’t stop. Holding the chipped dark blade, he sped toward a spot several dozen li away, where more demons lurked, unaware of what was happening nearby, wandering around their nests.
Since he was here...
He would cleanse them all.
...
...
“Indeed, demons are gathering here!”
High above the Blackwind Mountains, a faint golden light darted through the clouds. It was Song Yueyao’s spirit.
Her physical form moved stealthily along the outskirts of the mountains, her spirit soaring into the sky to survey the entire area.
Along the way, she had already spotted traces of many demons.
In the section of the mountain near the city, demon sightings were occasional, and their demonic aura was weak; these were minor demons barely considered threats, enough that even hunters with crossbows could likely scare them off.
However, as she ventured deeper, the dense demonic aura shrouded the forest in thick miasma, and their numbers grew increasingly abundant.
“Yue City’s Defender wasn’t wrong. Demons are indeed gathering here, and it’s very clear!”
Song Yueyao frowned deeply. “But why, when the threat is obvious, hasn’t Yue City’s Defender reported it accurately and requested help from the Xia family?”
The thought puzzled her. Didn’t Yue City’s Defender fear a demon horde attacking the city?
Or could it be that the Xia family was unwilling to come, that there was some conflict between them?
But if Cangyu City fell, the casualties among the citizens would be staggering, and both Yue City’s Defender and the Xia family would face serious blame.
The situation was perplexing and felt strangely complicated to her.
Before long, she had ventured deep into the heart of the Blackwind Mountains.
The demons she’d encountered along the way were merely scouts at the Spirit Fusion Realm, and she had slipped past them effortlessly without revealing her presence.
Suddenly, a sickening wind blew from the forest up ahead.
Song Yueyao’s face paled, and she halted, cautiously extending her spirit to investigate.
Soon, she beheld a shocking scene.
Blood ran like rivers through the woods. Every stream and pond was stained red, and nearby, countless demon corpses littered the ground.
Stunned, she had initially assumed the stench came from demons preying upon humans. But it was their own blood!
Bewildered, she wondered what had happened here.
After a brief hesitation, she cautiously moved forward with her spirit, inspecting several demon corpses nearby. They bore fresh wounds, no more than an hour old.
Someone had slaughtered these demons!
The thought startled her. Could it be another inspector from the Demon Subduing Division?
In Cangyu City, the Demon Subduing Division had only one inspector, a cultivator at the Spiritual Wandering Realm, who safeguarded the city alongside Yue City’s Defender.
As for herself, she was a temporary, appointed official, not permanently stationed in Cangyu City.
Anxious, Song Yueyao sent her spirit ahead as a scout, hoping to encounter this unknown slayer and perhaps join forces to assess the situation.
However, as she continued forward, her shock only grew.
Everywhere she went, the ground was littered with demon corpses.
They covered the forest floor, densely packed. Through her spirit’s vision, she estimated at least ten thousand!
The density of demons in this area was on par with a small-scale demon horde, yet every last one was dead!
A horde of this scale required a leader, a Great Demon, to control them!
Where was that Great Demon?
Song Yueyao had never crossed paths with the city’s inspector, but the scene before her was beyond anything she could imagine. Even if she were in that position, she doubted she could achieve such a feat, let alone find the courage to try.
As her spirit moved forward, she saw even larger demon corpses than before, including some who had begun to transform, showing signs of near-human form, close to the Spiritual Wandering Realm. All of them lay slain, their wounds suspiciously identical, each killed with a single blow to a vital spot.
At last, Song Yueyao arrived before a towering mountain.
From afar, she could see thick demonic clouds brewing at the peak!
The ominous cloud of demonic energy was unmistakably from a Great Demon, and from the coloration, it suggested there was more than one!
She was gripped by fear and felt an overwhelming urge to retreat. But the mountain base, covered in demon corpses, and the unnerving silence atop the peak, left her with a wild and unsettling suspicion.
Steeling herself, she held her fear in check, directing her spirit to cautiously float up, concealing its aura as she peered down from beneath the demonic cloud.
What she saw left her frozen in shock.
Atop the peak, a platform of flesh formed by over twenty Great Demon corpses stood, arranged in neat and orderly rows...
...
A gentle breeze stirred, revealing the lifeless eyes of several Great Demons, still bearing a final glimmer of fear and shock.
Song Yueyao stood paralyzed, speechless with terror.
The number of Great Demons was even higher than she had imagined, and yet, they were all dead!
These were Great Demons at the Spiritual Wandering Realm; who could possibly kill them all?!
The city’s inspector? Impossible! He was only at the Spiritual Wandering Realm.
Such a feat would be difficult even for a top-tier cultivator at that level; only a Fifteen Li cultivator could hope to accomplish this!
Was it a general sent by the Xia family?
Or perhaps a passing master from a powerful sect?
Song Yueyao’s mind raced as she noticed several figures emerging slowly from a cave at the mountain’s summit. Upon closer inspection, she realized they were humans, survivors judging by their bedraggled appearance.
She quickly dashed to the mountaintop and approached the survivors.
“Were you all captured by the demons?” she asked, looking at them intently.
Expecting her Demon Subduing attire would bring them reassurance, she was taken aback when the survivors merely trembled at the sight of her, terror flashing in their eyes as if they were facing a demon themselves.
“Please…please don’t take us!”
“Have mercy, let us go!”
The survivors fell to their knees, crying and kowtowing in desperation.
Song Yueyao looked on, stunned, unable to comprehend for a moment. After a pause, she frowned and said in frustration, "What nonsense are you saying? I am an inspector from the Demon Subduing Division, here to rescue you!"
“Please spare us, My Lord! Have mercy!”
The survivors continued to kowtow, begging pitifully.
Song Yueyao was left speechless, thinking that perhaps these people had been so terrorized by the demons that they’d lost their sanity.
Seeing that she wouldn’t get much useful information from them, she guessed that the mysterious demon slayer had likely left after discerning the survivors’ fragile state.
Still, it was clear the Great Demons here had perished only recently.
Considering this, Song Yueyao put aside her questions about the survivors and swiftly directed her spirit to scout the surroundings.
Before long, she discovered a trail of blood, lined with demon corpses along the way.
She immediately followed the path.
Not long after, Song Yueyao leapt onto a tree branch, coming to a halt.
Ahead, in a clearing amidst the forest, lay a field of demon corpses—an entire group of ape-like demons, evidently members of the same tribe.
Yet now, every last one was slain.
Blood pooled across the ground, and in the center of the bodies stood a young man.
Clad in the simplest uniform of the Demon Subduing Division, he held a damaged, battered Demon-Slaying Blade in his hand.