Inside the spacious room, candlelight flickered, casting wavering shadows.
Gu Cheng stared at the flower-picking thief dressed in black, his expression grave.
He'd found the supper too greasy and unappetizing, so he'd left his room and gone to the kitchen to put together something lighter.
As he passed Madam Song's room,
Gu Cheng's spiritual sense suddenly sounded an alarm. Something felt wrong.
He approached the room and inspected it carefully, discovering that the entire building had been sealed inside an invisible barrier.
He hurriedly burst through the door, arriving just in time to save her.
"Mm! Mm..."
Madam Song gazed at the handsome, upright figure in the doorway, tears of excitement welling in her eyes.
The resentment and grievance she'd been harboring toward Gu Cheng vanished without a trace.
But then worry crept back in. Could he really defeat that strange, human-shaped demon?
"Who are you? How dare you ruin this young master's fun?"
The flower-picking thief demanded coldly, his demonic eyes gleaming with a scarlet, sinister light.
But when he noticed the newcomer's strikingly handsome features,
his pale face lit up with an excitement even greater than he'd shown at the sight of Madam Song.
"A demon?"
Gu Cheng studied the other man's eyes, his brows drawing together slightly.
They were both transformed into human shapes, but this flower-picking thief's Form Transformation was clearly much more accomplished than that of the Blood Claw wolf demon he'd encountered before.
Even from ten paces away, Gu Cheng's spiritual sense couldn't detect the slightest trace of demonic aura.
Clearly, the thief had used some kind of special demonic art to block spiritual senses from the outside.
"Interesting..."
"If I used his demon core to strengthen Wind Chasing Steps, I'd surely get an exceptional movement technique out of it."
At the thought, Gu Cheng's gaze turned just as eager as the flower-picking thief's.
The two stared at each other for a moment, each looking at the other like a hunter eyeing his prey.
Then the flower-picking thief struck first!
He raised a hand and formed a seal.
The ropes that had been wrapped around Madam Song instantly came loose, then shot toward Gu Cheng like snakes bursting from their holes!
Gu Cheng hadn't expected the demon to wield a magic artifact too. Before he could react, the ropes had bound him tight.
"Hmph. So you're nothing but a pretty face, useless as an embroidered pillow."
"Boy! Bad luck for you. This young master's claiming that pretty hide of yours!"
The flower-picking thief felt more at ease at the sight, his face brimming with confidence that he had his opponent firmly in hand.
The rope was a magic artifact his elder sister had specially prepared for him.
Even a martial artist in the Mortal Breaking Realm, once bound tight by it, couldn't possibly break free—
BAM—
The handsome young man's body shuddered, and an astonishing force burst from him.
Faced with that brutally overwhelming physical strength, the rope artifact couldn't withstand the strain. It snapped into several pieces in an instant.
"You're not the first demon to take an interest in this hide of mine."
Gu Cheng rolled his shoulders and looked at the flower-picking thief, who stood there dumbfounded.
"The last fellow who said that was split in two by my blade and burned to ashes!"
Before the words had even left his mouth,
the young man stamped hard against the ground. His figure vanished, and he charged at the flower-picking thief.
His right hand curled into a tiger's claw as he lunged for the other man's throat.
But he touched only a fading afterimage.
In the blink of an eye, the flower-picking thief's true body had dodged several yards away.
What incredible footwork!
Gu Cheng's brow furrowed slightly.
As his strength continued to grow, the Extreme Intent Realm Wind Chasing Steps that had once never failed him had gradually begun to fall behind.
"Then all the more reason not to let this demon core get away!"
Killing intent surged in Gu Cheng's eyes. He pressed his hands together like blades.
He silently invoked the intent of wind and thunder, and azure lightning instantly coiled around his palms.
Ever since cultivating the second volume of the Blood Blade Scripture and forging the Blood Demon Physique,
Gu Cheng's bare hands were now every bit as deadly as steel blades. Using them to unleash the Wind Thunder Blade Technique was effortless.
SWISH—SWISH—SWISH—
The young man swung both "blades" at once, unleashing seven or eight slashes of thunderous blade energy.
The slashes wove together like an impenetrable net, cutting off every escape route the flower-picking thief had.
"Not good—"
The flower-picking thief's eyes flew wide in alarm as his body once again broke into a succession of afterimages.
But however ghostly his speed, the room was too cramped, severely limiting his movements.
After a frantic series of dodges and leaps, he finally had nowhere left to go...
PFFT—
Lightning burst. Demonic blood sprayed.
A fearsomely sharp lightning strike slammed straight into the flower-picking thief's chest.
It sent him flying, crashing hard into the courtyard behind the house.
This unyielding, pure yang lightning naturally countered demons and evil spirits.
As lightning surged around him, the flower-picking thief let out a shrill, beastlike howl.
The human skin covering his body could no longer hold together. It split apart like ragged cloth and scattered across the ground.
His body swelled like a balloon being inflated, stretching his black clothes until they burst to shreds and revealing his demonic true form.
He was a gigantic white-furred fox, more than five meters from nose to tail, with a body even bulkier than a water buffalo.
Three enormous, furry tails hung behind him, accounting for more than half his length.
A savage blade wound marred his belly. The wound was charred black, and scarlet demonic blood poured from it without end.
As the fox demon shed its disguise,
billowing Baleful Intent spread from its body, flooding the courtyard.
Perhaps awakened by the sounds of the fight, Shopkeeper Song arrived at the rear courtyard in a flurry, leading a group of fully armed servants.
They raised their torches and looked closely in the light, coming face-to-face with the fox demon in its true form.
"A m-monster!"
"How could a demon be roaming the city?"
Shopkeeper Song and the others stared, their faces as pale as paper.
Under the assault of the Baleful Intent, a few of the more timid servants even fainted on the spot.
The fox demon paid no attention to this rabble.
Pain from his wounds made him bare his teeth. His scarlet fox eyes brimmed with anger and fear.
How could this be?
Hadn't his two sisters sworn that Changle County was nothing but a backwater?
How could a terrifying creature like this be here?
Just then, Gu Cheng emerged at an unhurried pace from the wreckage of the room.
Beneath the bright moonlight,
the young man looked more elegant and handsome than ever. His dark blue official robe was spotless, as if he'd stepped straight out of a painting.
But in the fox demon's eyes, this guy was a human-shaped fiend more terrifying than any evil spirit!
With a shriek, the fox demon tucked his tail between his legs and fled without hesitation.
The fox demon moved as fast as lightning. Even badly wounded, he had darted more than ten yards away in the blink of an eye.
Gu Cheng knew he wouldn't catch up.
So he reached out, lightning swirling in his palm.
A large iron spear that one of the servants had dropped on the ground flew straight into his hand.
Back when he'd first harnessed the intent of wind and thunder, Gu Cheng had already been able to use electricity to generate magnetism and do a simple impression of Magneto.
With his spiritual sense aiding him, controlling iron objects had become even easier.
Gu Cheng gripped the spear in his right hand. At a single thought, azure lightning coiled around its shaft like a nimble serpent.
The thirty-six major apertures in his body roared like azure dragons, releasing a surging tide of Qi and Blood Power.
His Blood Demon Physique, comparable to the pinnacle of Body Refinement, gathered all the strength in his body into his right hand.
Gu Cheng locked his spiritual sense onto the fleeing fox demon and assumed the standard stance for throwing a javelin.
Then, under the horrified gazes of Shopkeeper Song and the others,
he hurled it with all his might!
WHOOSH—
The spear's passage through the air cracked like thunder.
It became a streak of azure lightning, tearing through the darkness with thunderous force as it shot toward the fox demon like a sharp arrow.
Sensing the deadly danger behind him, the fox demon turned ashen and dodged in a panic.
But his wounds slowed him by half a beat...
PFFT—
Wrapped in lightning, the spear screamed toward him and pierced straight through the fox demon's body, spearing him through the heart.
It kept going, smashing a rear courtyard wall of the Song residence into rubble.
The fox demon let out a shrill scream and crashed to the ground. Inertia sent him sliding another dozen yards forward.
Scarlet demonic blood spilled across the ground, filling the air with a nauseating stench.
The fox demon struggled in the pool of blood a few times, then fell completely still.
At the same time,
a new prompt appeared on Gu Cheng's status panel:
Slain a fox demon at the initial stage of the Mortal Breaking Realm. Lifespan gained: 213 years, Soul Remnant (20 years) Remaining lifespan: 640 years
Before you continue