Chen Hu saw the red-eyed refugee die and curled his lip. Trash, you couldn't even last that long...
He had been forcibly infused and stimulated with power, meaning he could not have lived long to begin with. The most crucial element for sustaining that power was blood, yet that idiot bled too much and ended up dropping dead on the spot.
"Is that monster dead? It couldn't have just died that easily, could it?"
He hesitated for a moment and decided to show himself.
"My grandson, my grandson!" Old Man Jiang cried out, crawling over as he saw the demon infant lying motionless.
The demon infant only had a faint breath, causing the old man to feel heartache to the extreme, yet he did not know how to save him and did not even dare to touch him.
These injuries looked terrifying. His entire body was stained with blood, a tear ran across his belly, and there were several internal injuries all over his body, with the pooled blood underneath visible right through the skin.
If it were an ordinary infant, he would have long since died thoroughly.
At the same time, the crying of the female infant still echoed across the field...
Old Man Jiang wore a sorrowful expression and crawled over to the female infant to check on her. Fortunately, she was in no danger, but leaving her on the snow for so long meant she was about to freeze.
He hurriedly gathered the female infant into his arms, turned his head, and jumped in fright.
He saw a sturdy man in a fur coat with a steel saber hanging at his waist who had approached unawares and was now standing twenty paces away with a solemn expression.
"Who are you again!"
"Ah! You did all this!"
Old Man Jiang was not stupid. Connecting this to the refugee shouting in a certain direction earlier, he realized that everything was the work of the person before him.
"This old man is Jining's Heavenly Tiger, a third-generation disciple of the Heaven Swallowing Sect... Monster! I know you're not dead! Why aren't you revealing your true form?" Ignoring the old man, Chen Hu stared at the rolling-eyed, motionless demon infant, his hand resting on the hilt of his saber as he earnestly introduced himself.
Yet the demon infant remained sprawled out, though his breathing had indeed returned to strong.
"Thief! The government officials won't let you off!" Old Man Jiang really didn't know what else to say, so he could only pull out a grand banner.
Chen Hu had originally intended to ignore him, but upon hearing this, he found it amusing. "Old man, Qingzhou is covered in heavy snow with over ten thousand corpses of the starved. Have you ever seen a single bailiff come out to provide disaster relief?"
Old Man Jiang was left speechless, tears in his eyes. "What do you want? Just what do you want?"
"Pfft! None of your business!" Chen Hu sneered, drawing his steel saber with lightning speed, intending to split the old man apart with a single stream of blade qi.
Yet at that very moment, the unconscious demon infant abruptly sat back up.
A pair of cute, large eyes looked towards him.
"Ah!" Chen Hu immediately held his saber horizontally before him, true qi clinging to it, drawn but not yet unleashed, making full defensive preparations.
The demon infant looked at him curiously while shrinking back from the corpse of the refugee.
"Abomination, this old man knows you have a spiritual sense, so stop hiding it and bring it out!" Chen Hu said with a haughty expression, though in his heart he was panicked to death.
He said this deliberately; if the demon infant truly possessed a spiritual sense, Chen Hu would turn head and run!
Yet after waiting for a long time, the demon infant did not display any spiritual sense. Instead, he lay flat on the snowy ground, grabbing both feet with his two hands and wobbling around.
He even stubbornly hoisted his feet up in front of his face, grabbing his toes with his hands and shoving them into his mouth.
"..." Chen Hu was stunned, thinking to himself: This old man is a supreme expert of the Three Essences Body Tempering who came to slay demons and eliminate devils. I even drew my saber, and you're just sitting here eating your little feet?
"You brute, he's just a child! If you want to kill someone, kill me!" Old Man Jiang cried out as he crawled, having already reached the refugee's corpse. Using the body as cover, his hand secretly felt around for the firewood chopper.
Chen Hu turned a deaf ear, his eyes like torches, his breath steady and long, pushing his state up to the absolute peak while placing his entire focus on the demon infant.
Although the demon infant looked ignorant, precisely because of that, Chen Hu dared not be careless.
From start to finish, he felt this abomination was exceptionally weird. If it had put up a proper formation like last year's dog demon and fought him with real blades and real guns, that would have been fine, but the demon infant hadn't displayed any spells capable of threatening him up to this point.
Damn it, there wasn't even any demonic aura!
"Abomination, speak! Don't you understand human speech?" Chen Hu put on a brave front, circling the demon infant from more than twenty paces away.
He felt somewhat unsure of the opponent's strength, so he looped around behind the demon infant.
The demon infant wore an innocent expression, his curious gaze following the movement as he also turned around to lie on his stomach.
Then... then he discovered that he knew how to crawl, using his little hands and feet to clumsily crawl towards Chen Hu.
Chen Hu's temples throbbed. His cultivation power had already been stimulated to its peak, and he finally lost his patience.
"Whoosh!" With lightning speed, he slashed horizontally. Majestic true qi vented outward, transforming into the blade qi of a startling rainbow flash that swept across the demon infant in an instant!
"Pfft!"
The demon infant rolled off to the side. His gaze instantly grew dull, his complexion turned pale, and blood flowed all over the ground.
Old Man Jiang's eyes were about to burst. "You brute!"
Yet Chen Hu did not retort, purely because he was stunned by his own strike... How could the destructive power be this low?
With this single slash, he had exhausted all his strength, consuming eighty percent of his true qi! And he had used his signature ultimate technique, Startling Rainbow Shattering Moon!
As the name implied, this move's rainbow-like blade qi carried a tearing effect. If it struck an enemy across the waist, the blade qi would be enough to tear apart the chest, abdomen, and even the upper thighs.
If it slashed into a boulder, it wouldn't just split it in half; the boulder would directly shatter apart!
Since it had just managed to sever the demon infant, it meant the demon infant's defense was nothing special. And if that was the case, he should have been directly chopped into minced meat and broken bones!
The demon infant was simply too small, just a little speck lying on the ground! Under the impact of such majestic blade qi, how could it only cut a single line without tearing him into shredded meat along with it?
Chen Hu hesitated for a moment before slowly stepping forward to inspect.
Strange, truly strange. The cross-section at the demon infant's waist was completely smooth, as if an executioner had carried out a beheading, leaving behind not the slightest trace of true qi tearing.
This... this was not the proper effect his technique should have had!
If he simply couldn't cut him at all, Chen Hu's heart would have felt somewhat better. But what was going on right now? He had cut him, yet he hadn't completely cut him?
It wasn't shredded... Huh? Chen Hu suddenly remembered that the refugee had also previously attempted to tear the demon infant apart with true qi, but failed to do so even after using all his strength.
Could it be that this was actually a demonic spell?
One that could reinforce skin and flesh so they wouldn't be torn apart by external force?
Yet it only resisted tearing and didn't resist blade qi slashes? What kind of useless chicken-rib demonic spell was this?
Chen Hu carefully inspected him and discovered that the demon infant had lost his breath, and his heartbeat had also stopped. Only his pupils still twitched slightly, causing him to finally beam with joy and cast aside his worries.
"Perhaps his Dao attainment is still too shallow, and his demonic power is insufficient? The point where Startling Rainbow Shattering Moon is most powerful still lies in that single concentrated line of blade qi, so it's normal that he couldn't block it."
Unable to suppress his excitement, Chen Hu hurriedly picked up the demon infant's torso and searched everywhere for demon bones.
With another continuous, flowing slash, he carved open both arms, but still found nothing.
"Could it be the rare... Heavenly Spirit Bone!" Chen Hu looked towards the demon infant's head, wild with joy.
Heavenly Spirit Jade bones were extremely rare, and all who possessed them were prodigies! Favored by the heavenly Dao, their cultivation speed was more than ten times faster than ordinary cultivators!
He hurriedly moved to dissect the demon infant's skull, only to discover that the severed demon infant began to wriggle on his own. Winding across the snowy ground, the cross-sections met and fused together, reconnecting the upper and lower halves of his body.
"What!" Chen Hu jumped in fright. The demon infant was still alive?
In an instant, his entire person blasted backward several zhang, executing a backflip to widen the distance.
"I grew careless! Good thing he didn't attack me..." A wave of lingering fear washed over Chen Hu, and he felt secretly terrified.
"Fine demon abomination! Truly extraordinary! Just what kind of demon are you?"
While speaking, Chen Hu channeled his cultivation power, causing his steel saber to emit a cold light.
Seeing the two halves of the demon infant's body dragging themselves across the snow and slowly drawing closer, he decided to strike first to gain the advantage, slashing out with a move called Life Hanging by a Thread!
The essence of this move lay precisely in that 'single line'! The blade qi was as thin as a thread, capable of vertically splitting even a single hair! It was a desperate move from his Heaven Swallowing Sect saber techniques—low consumption, fast killing.
The demon infant was not afraid of true qi tearing, but he couldn't block a slash where the power was concentrated into a single line. Therefore, in Chen Hu's view, this move was being used at the exact right moment!
"Open for me!"
The blade qi chopped onto the demon infant's head, yet Chen Hu's expression stiffened. He watched as the upper half of the body was cleaved flying a zhang away, yet remained completely undamaged!
Chen Hu looked closely. The demon infant's tender, flawless skin, which looked as though it would break at a puff, was pressed into a depression by the blade qi, and then... there was no then. Not even the skin broke!
Are you kidding me? The high-power blade qi's incidental cutting earlier had managed to sever the demon infant, yet now a technique specialized in single-line cutting was useless instead?
"Did he use a demonic spell? This time it's a demonic spell to block slashes?"
Chen Hu's expression turned ugly. The demon had reached this state and could still cast spells? How monstrously wicked!
Unless... it was a divine ability!
The difference between a divine ability and a spell lay in the fact that the former was essentially an instinct, usable without needing to cast any incantations.
The dog demon he had fought back then possessed the divine ability of Steel Teeth Iron Jaws, capable of chewing through steel raw. One of his treasured sabers in the past had been bitten to pieces by it. Such a divine ability required no spellcasting; like a natural talent, it could be used at any time.
Yet a problem arose. If this demon infant's ability was a divine ability, why hadn't he used it earlier?
"Hmph! Truly monstrously weird. Good thing Master taught me a saber technique that restrains demonic kinds!" Chen Hu fiercely bit the tip of his tongue, spitting a large mouthful of innate vital blood onto his steel saber!
This was not ordinary tongue blood. It was innate vital blood forced out through a secret technique—a type of primordial blood that a person was born with and practically never increased.
Every bit used was a bit less! If he lost too much of it, his body would never be able to produce fresh blood again, and he would fall ill and die!
There was no help for it. He was not a cultivator and lacked magical power; if he wanted to restrain demonic kinds, he could only reinforce himself with his own vital blood.
"Urgh-rah!"
Chen Hu leaped high, exhausting his true qi and channeling it into the blade edge via a special method to fuse with the vital blood. A flash of blood-red light swept across the steel saber as he slashed out a streak of blade qi!
This move had no difference in power from an ordinary Life Hanging by a Thread, but against cultivators and demonic entities, it carried extra damage!
"Bang!"
His downward-slashing blade qi smashed fiercely onto the demon infant's head, the residual force kicking up countless shards of ice and snow.
Yet when the dust settled, the demon infant's head remained completely undamaged!
"How can this be!"
Chen Hu's gaze grew dull. With the reinforcement of his vital blood, he hadn't even left a single trace?
Master had said that even Spiritual Sense Stage demons could not endure this move if it struck them solidly, and if it hit a vital point, they would undoubtedly die.
How had this demon infant blocked it? The most monstrous part was that there wasn't even any fluctuation of demonic aura!
"Damn it, could he be a turtle demon?" Chen Hu rushed forward and fiercely grabbed him up, seeing that he was still connected to his lower body.
He finally understood. Although this demon very weirdly possessed no ability to retaliate!
In all likelihood, he didn't understand offensive spells at all!
Since he was allowing himself to be beaten and killed, he could surely figure out a way to crack open this head and take the demon bone!
"Shatter for me!"
Chen Hu exhaled true qi, executing the Tablet Splitting Hand with a single palm.
Yet his force felt like mud flowing into the sea, vanishing without a trace!
"Ha? This old man's formidable palm force is enough to split stone tablets and knead gold into mud!"
"That idiot before only had five years of my cultivation, yet a single palm strike caused the demon infant's whole body to burst with blood. Am I actually worse than him?"
Chen Hu was completely stunned. What an embarrassing state of affairs! He began to suspect that he had practiced a fake Tablet Splitting Hand!
Little did he know that the red-eyed refugee had experienced the exact same thing earlier, but it was impossible to tell from a distance. Thus, Chen Hu had been unaware, causing him to fall into the same trap this time as his true qi was entirely absorbed by the demon infant.
"He forcefully endured my palm force, so why didn't this release any demonic aura?" Chen Hu was incomparably puzzled.
Suddenly, Chen Hu caught sight of the wound on the demon infant's arm where he had sliced him open with his saber earlier, and understanding dawned upon him!
"Blade qi doesn't work, but brute-force cutting does?"
It was cutting all the same. Earlier, in order to find the demon bone, he had used the blade edge to slice open the skin and flesh on the demon infant's arm with great ease, yet piercing body blade qi proved ineffective.
This clearly meant the demon infant was using some method to immunize himself against his true qi!
Although that should be the situation, Chen Hu still couldn't understand what kind of spell this was. The power of his true qi didn't look like it had been negated or weakened in the slightest, and the demon infant hadn't turned into steel and iron either, yet it simply couldn't hurt him!
"Damn it, then I'll just cut him directly with the saber!"
Chen Hu threw the demon infant—who had just absorbed his true qi—onto the ground, spun the steel saber in his hand, and slashed down. Abandoning true qi entirely, he hacked away with pure brute force!
Yet that delicate, tender flesh was pressed into a deep indentation by the blade edge, remaining completely undamaged.
Even the demon infant woke up, looking at him with naive cuteness before reaching out a hand to touch the blood-tempered blade edge.
Those tender fingers rubbed and played along the blade edge, emitting a sound like rubbing strings... squeaking away.
"What!" Chen Hu was dumbfounded. He had clearly sliced open the skin of the arm with the saber just moments ago, but now it didn't work anymore?
The demon even started playing with it! This was simply mocking him!
"This doesn't work, that doesn't work. I... I... I'll shoot you to death!" A chaotic mess in his heart, Chen Hu suddenly groped a copper coin from his chest and flung it fiercely.
This time he employed hidden weapon techniques, and the coin went pfft as it shot deeply into the demon infant, embedding itself.
The demon infant immediately stopped moving, blood plasma overflowing from the wound on his head.
"Huh? Hidden weapons work?" Chen Hu was startled, then overjoyed!
He hurriedly unleashed his golden coin dart technique once more, his hands crossing and waving as coin after coin wrapped in formidable force shot towards the demon infant's face like a string of cannonballs.
"Dududu!" The demon infant was battered until he twitched, but not a single other coin produced the effect of the first one.
"What kind of divine ability is this, motherfucker?" Chen Hu backed away in consecutive steps of terror.
He had seen it with his own eyes!
He had watched the copper coin shoot into the demon infant, and he had also watched the demon infant ignore every single subsequent copper coin!
Recalling all the previous anomalies, the blade qi had clearly been cut into two sections the first time, yet a second saber strike became completely useless.
The same went for the true qi infused into his palm strike! Because the refugee's true qi was identical to his own, even when he made a move personally, it had failed to take effect.
Could this demon ignore the infringement of any identical move?
Even true immortals might not possess such a divine ability! It was unheard of!
"Bizarre... bizarre... he can clearly cast spells, yet has no demonic aura, and doesn't even counterattack..."
"Huh? Could he... not be a demon?"
Until this very moment, Chen Hu abruptly woke up to the realization that he might have fallen into a misconception.
If this demon infant was not a demon, then the absence of demonic aura and failure to reveal a true form suddenly made sense.
Perhaps this infant was his true form! But if he wasn't a demon... what on earth was he?
Suddenly, Chen Hu thought of a possibility: an exotic item!
"Heavens above! Could he be an exotic item?"
Chen Hu's eyes bulged in disbelief, his mind a tangled mess of confusion!
The treasure of his sect was an exotic item, so precious that if anyone asked too many questions, his master would curse them.
Consequently, he only knew that exotic items were full of wonders, possessed miraculous abilities, weird characteristics, and originated from goodness-knows-where, born of heaven and earth! They were grotesque entities that even immortals feared and coveted!
Exotic items, exotic items—were humans not also things? So it turned out exotic items could also be living lifeforms. He had always imagined them as things like magical treasures or secret realms!
"My goodness, a living exotic item!"
"It all makes sense! It all makes sense now!"
Chen Hu was shaken to the extreme, trembling all over with excitement!
Possessing divine abilities as bizarre as a demon's, yet with a mind as ignorant as an infant's, he was in truth neither a demon nor a man...
"This is a humanoid... Innate Exotic Treasure!"
p.s: Sorry.