Demon!

After everyone had left, Fang Hanshan faced the empty room in silence for a long time.

Then he rose and passed through the deserted manor, as lonely and lifeless as a haunted house.

The corpses of servants still lay scattered across the rear courtyard, not yet cleared away. The blood they had spilled had already turned dark brown.

Fang Hanshan paid them no heed and headed straight for the secret chamber.

Candle flames flickered in the dim corridor.

In the rooms lining the corridor, several girls of thirteen or fourteen were imprisoned. Terror filled their faces as they huddled in the corners.

As he walked, some girls knelt and begged, some stared blankly in madness, and some trembled in panic. Most looked toward Fang Hanshan and pleaded.

"My lord, please let me go..."

Fang Hanshan swept past without expression, leaving behind only muffled sobs.

The farther he went down the corridor, the more open it became.

At the very end, there were no more girls—only empty cells and mottled, blackened bloodstains on the floor.

Suddenly.

A pair of blood-red eyes appeared in the darkness at the end of the corridor.

"Heh heh, old man, you still haven't broken through?"

"Let me out and let me drink those girls' blood. I have a way to help you break through to the Viscera Refinement Realm."

"Using that blood food on you is such a waste..."

An unruly voice abruptly rang out in the dark, frigid corridor.

It was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue against his neck, sending an icy, trembling chill shooting up his spine.

As Fang Hanshan drew closer, the speaker's face came into view.

It was a monster with a rat's head and a human body, scarlet eyes, ghastly white fangs, and a pair of wings covered in flesh membranes.

Four silver chains pierced through the demon's body, their ends embedded deep within the stone of the secret chamber.

The instant Fang Hanshan appeared, the monster flashed before him.

Its sharp fangs were less than a foot from Fang Hanshan's throat. The four silver chains around its body were pulled taut, yet it could advance no farther.

Drool dripped from its foul-smelling mouth onto the ground with a sputter, rising into wisps of white smoke.

Fang Hanshan seemed to have known all along that it could not hurt him, and his expression remained utterly calm.

A year ago, while traveling through Qingyan City in the northern lands, he had happened upon an Organ Tempering Realm expert battling a Fifth Realm Demon.

A human and a demon had fought until both were grievously wounded. The Human Race martial artist died of his injuries, while the demon clung to life by a thread.

Fang Hanshan had imprisoned it in this secret chamber, hoping to study from it a divine technique that combined demons with Human Race martial arts.

Fang Hanshan gave a sinister smile and thrust a Silver Short Sword into the Bat Demon.

This short sword and the chains binding the Bat Demon had both belonged to that martial artist. They possessed incomparably sharp, strange powers that could suppress demons.

The Bat Demon's body, impervious to blades and spears, was slowly cut open. Bright red blood dripped into a jade bottle that had long been prepared.

"What happened outside? I smell a rich scent of blood."

The Bat Demon did not care in the slightest. Instead, it questioned him, its piercing voice like metal grinding against metal, making one's hair stand on end.

Fang Hanshan had long grown accustomed to it and said coldly, "Do you have any means of tracking and locking onto someone?"

"Of course. Has one of your relatives been killed? Let me out, and I can let bygones be bygones. I can even help you become a Viscera Refining Grandmaster!" the Bat Demon tempted.

"That is none of your concern. I will handle it myself!"

After collecting the blood, Fang Hanshan left the secret chamber, leaving only the Bat Demon behind to howl unwillingly.

"Lowly members of the Human Race! Once I break free, I will slaughter your entire clan and turn this city into a river of blood, with wails that will not cease for seven days!"

Fang Hanshan turned a deaf ear. A Fifth Realm Demon possessed terrifying strength. Ever since he had brought it back, it had not taken a drop of water for a year and had been bled continuously, yet its condition improved day by day.

Anyone who believed a demon's words was a fool.

Given all he had done over the years, the first person the demon would kill upon escaping would be himself. It would never help him track down the person who had killed his son.

Fang Hanshan did not wish to borrow a demon's hand. He wanted to slice the flesh from his enemy bit by bit, offering it as sacrifice to his beloved son's spirit in heaven!

Fang Hanshan swallowed the demon's blood and circulated the cultivation technique he had found on that Organ Tempering Realm expert. A faint bloody glow rose from his body, his teeth suddenly lengthened, blood vessels filled his eyes, and his aura became like that of a demon.

His expression grew increasingly violent, but he remained unhurried. He went to where the girls were imprisoned, opened one of the cages, seized a girl by the neck, and bit down.

In less than a breath, the girl's fair, tender skin shriveled at a visible rate until she became a dried corpse.

Seeing this, the remaining girls screamed and trembled, yet they could do nothing. They could only hide in the corners like ostriches, shaking helplessly.

After draining one girl, Fang Hanshan seemed not to have had his fill. He drained every girl in the cells one after another before finally stopping.

The violent aura around him calmed. His aged, wrinkled face visibly grew younger, as though he had regained ten years of youth.

His body returned to its original state, and his aura strengthened somewhat as well.

This was the result of a year of research using demon essence blood!

Absorbing the girls' vital essence could resist aging and accelerate cultivation. Yet if he went too long without drinking human blood, the demon blood would erode his mind and turn him into a monster that knew only slaughter!

To Fang Hanshan, such a price was nothing. The streets were filled with countless lowly commoners.

Fang Hanshan stretched his newly youthful body.

"Just one step away from the Organ Tempering Realm! This strength is enough. No one in Yong'an City will be able to stop me. I will make all of you accompany my son in death!"

"Sadly, I am old and weak. I fear I cannot break through to the Organ Tempering Realm. If Xing'er were still alive, she certainly could have..."

Thinking of this, Fang Hanshan reached out with a trembling hand and stroked Fang Jian Xing, who was encased in ice. His face was incomparably grim, and his eyes brimmed with hatred.

Hongyun Restaurant's back kitchen.

[Slain one fat pig, Plundered 1 year of lifespan!]

[Slain nine roosters, Plundered nine months of lifespan!]

[Current lifespan: 23 years and 9 months!]

Chu Feng was starting to look down on such a small amount of lifespan, but he had nowhere better to go. He treated it as entertainment—every little bit added up, and it was better than nothing.

"Shi Tou, I'll leave the rest to you. Pay attention to the angle and force of your cuts..."

After finishing his work, Chu Feng routinely left the final cleanup to Chen Shi Tou.

"Okay, Master," Chen Shi Tou replied absentmindedly.

Without even looking at Chu Feng, he took the butcher knife and began carving up the meat.

After only two cuts, Chen Shi Tou's mind began to wander. Somehow, the knife in his hand swung toward his own hand.

Just as the saying went, it was slow in the telling but fast in the happening.

Just as the cleaver was about to cut into Chen Shi Tou's fingers, Chu Feng snatched it away like lightning.

Looking at the distracted Chen Shi Tou, he frowned. "What are you thinking about, brat? Don't want your hand anymore?"

"Huh?"

Only then did Chen Shi Tou snap back to his senses, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Master, I was wrong," Chen Shi Tou apologized.

After asking a few questions, Chu Feng learned that the Wang Family's old matriarch in the eastern part of the city was celebrating her eightieth birthday and had specially invited an opera troupe from out of town.

Among the troupe was an exquisite, ravishing woman who had left Chen Shi Tou, still green behind the ears, unable to eat or sleep.

"Is she really that beautiful?" Chu Feng teased.

"She's as beautiful as a fairy..." Chen Shi Tou nodded firmly.

Then, apparently feeling that was not convincing enough, he added, "Miss Xing'er's skin is whiter than an egg, and when she smiles, she's clearer than the waters of the Tianlan River..."