Black Mountain.
The lone moon hung high overhead.
At the foot of the mountain, the dense forest lay silent in the darkness.
Deep in the woods, a tall young man leaned against an ancient tree, his body stained with blood.
On closer inspection, his pupils had already gone unfocused, and he had no breath left.
Even in death, he still gripped a long saber tightly in his hand.
The saber was stained with blood. Beneath the moonlight filtering through the trees, it gave off an eerie aura.
Not far away, a three-foot-long "Big Gray Rat" lay sprawled on the ground, its body scored with seven or eight savage saber wounds.
Two of them were fatal.
One had severed half of the "Big Gray Rat's" fleshy wing.
The other had pierced its eye socket.
Around the "Big Gray Rat's" corpse, three mangled bodies lay in pools of blood, torn apart by bites.
They wore the same black constable uniforms. Their sabers lay scattered nearby, and their deaths had been horrific, their faces frozen in terror.
From the woods in the distance came faint sounds of fighting.
Beneath the tree, the tall young man's finger suddenly twitched!
The next moment, his unfocused pupils snapped tight!
"Ah!"
A flood of information surged into his mind. Clutching his head, Lu Yang groaned in agony.
It took a long while before he came back to himself.
"Did I... transmigrate?"
After sorting through the original owner's memories, Lu Yang learned that he was in Black Mountain County, under Wanlin Prefecture in Qing Province of the Great Jun Dynasty.
And this world was a chaotic age, overrun by demons!
The original owner shared his name, Lu Yang, and came from an extremely poor farming household.
His parents had died when he was young, and the few acres of thin farmland they left behind had drawn covetous eyes.
But the original owner, like Lu Yang in his previous life, had a streak of grit. He gritted his teeth, sold the land and old house for a pittance, and managed to join the Martial Arts School run by the Black Mountain County Yamen.
With his family's wealth gone and his status as a martial arts student, the orphan had at least been able to grow up in this chaotic age.
More fortunately, he had some talent for martial arts. A year ago, after reaching Body Tempering Fourth Level, he was admitted to the Black Mountain County Yamen and became a constable.
Now, his cultivation had reached Body Tempering Sixth Level.
With one more step, he would reach Body Tempering Seventh Level and be able to compete for the position of captain.
That would bring a considerable rise in both status and pay.
"Ah, a man really shouldn't tempt fate..."
Lu Yang sighed. The memories in his mind told him that before setting out, the original owner had been full of confidence. He'd planned to use the reward money from dealing with the Demonic Calamity to break through to Body Tempering Seventh Level. Instead, he'd fallen to what had seemed like an ordinary demonic incident.
As far as Lu Yang knew, the first three realms of martial arts were the Body Tempering Realm, the Houtian Realm, and the Xiantian Realm.
Each realm was divided into nine minor levels.
Above the Xiantian Realm, there were said to be powerful masters, even Great Grandmasters.
But those experts guarded Prefecture Cities and even provincial capitals. They were far beyond the reach of a small place like Black Mountain County.
The strongest martial artist the original owner had ever seen was the County Lieutenant of Black Mountain County. He commanded the soldiers, runners, and constables of the county, and could freely conscript its martial artists.
It was said that his strength had already reached the Xiantian Realm!
Demons had their own system of ranks, which did not fully correspond to those of humans. Given his cultivation and status, the original owner knew little about them.
In the year he'd served as a constable, he'd only encountered a few First-tier lesser demons.
He'd only heard of Second-tier and Third Realm demons from old people.
First-tier demons were on par with humans in the Body Tempering Realm. Such creatures were also known as lesser demons.
Second-tier demons had already transformed and gained spiritual awareness. They could be called demon spirits.
Third Realm demons had grown powerful enough to dominate a territory. They could be called monsters.
It was rumored that a monster had taken up residence deep in Black Mountain.
He'd heard the story from a traveling merchant while resting at a teahouse, but had no idea whether it was true.
Thinking of this, Lu Yang looked at the "Big Gray Rat" sprawled nearby.
It wasn't a rat at all, but a First-tier lesser bat demon.
It might not sound particularly powerful, but for martial artists in the Body Tempering Realm, First-tier demons were already extremely dangerous.
Every year, hundreds of martial artists in Black Mountain County were killed by demons.
As for ordinary people, there was no need to mention them.
Earlier, Lu Yang and three other constables had been ordered to follow Captain Yan, a martial artist at Body Tempering Eighth Level, to Niushi Town at the foot of Black Mountain and investigate a Demonic Calamity.
According to the county yamen, the trouble in Niushi Town had been caused by no more than a First-tier lesser demon. Their strength as constables should have been enough to handle it.
What's more, Captain Yan, an expert at Body Tempering Eighth Level, had been there to back them up.
But the five of them had been ambushed by two bat demons as soon as they entered the forest at the mountain's foot, before they'd even reached Niushi Town!
And each of the two bat demons was no weaker than Captain Yan, who was at Body Tempering Eighth Level!
On top of that, the bat demons could already speak like humans. They were probably only one step away from becoming demon spirits.
Caught off guard, one of the constables had been killed on the spot.
One dangerous moment after another flashed through Lu Yang's mind.
Looking at the "Big Gray Rat's" corpse nearby, Lu Yang's thoughts returned to the present, and he felt a quiet surge of gratitude.
"Thank goodness Captain Yan reacted quickly. He took a hit and struck first, badly wounding this bat demon."
"Otherwise, even with the original owner's mastery of the Mountain Splitting Saber Art, it would've been hard to catch this beast off guard and kill it!"
"Even so, the original owner and the other two constables paid with their lives."
The demons' savagery was plain to see.
Faint sounds of fighting still came from the woods in the distance.
Judging by how the sounds were growing fainter, Captain Yan was still doing his best to draw the other bat demon away, trying to win them a slim chance of survival.
He had no idea that if Lu Yang hadn't taken over this body, all of his companions would already have been slaughtered.
"Captain Yan!"
The forest was deep and dark, the lone moon hung high overhead.
Lu Yang tightened his grip on the saber. The blood on its blade was beginning to congeal.
Only between his palm and fingers was it still sticky. He couldn't tell whether it was the "Big Gray Rat's" blood or his own.
"Hiss!"
The slightest exertion sent a wave of searing pain through his entire body.
The agony nearly made Lu Yang pass out.
He'd paid a terrible price to take down that bat demon.
Now, even moving his little finger was difficult.
"Damn it!"
He looked toward the distant woods where the sounds had come from. The dense trees blocked the already dim moonlight, leaving the way ahead pitch-black.
At full strength, Captain Yan might have had a chance against that "Big Gray Rat."
But now that he was wounded, defeat was only a matter of time unless someone helped him.
Once Captain Yan fell, the bat demon would surely return. Then Lu Yang would be in grave danger.
"Shit!"
"Did I transmigrate just to die all over again?"
Lu Yang cursed helplessly to himself.
He didn't even have the strength to swear aloud.
Severe wounds covered his body, and relentless pain swept through him. Blood mixed with sweat and slid down his forehead.
A drop of blood fell into his eye. Lu Yang's vision blurred, and his consciousness began to sink.
Just then, the bat demon that had already "died" seemed to twitch faintly.
In its head, the one eye that hadn't been gouged out flashed with a crimson glow.
One enormous, grotesque fleshy wing strained, and then it slowly rose from the pool of blood!
It slowly turned its head.
From the eye socket Lu Yang had crushed, a viscous substance mixed with blood gushed out.
Its single remaining eye was filled with cruel, venomous hatred, and it fixed Lu Yang with a dangerously intense gaze.
Lu Yang jolted. His blurred consciousness suddenly cleared a little.
He was utterly incredulous.
The three-foot-three-inch saber hadn't just blinded the creature. It had crushed its eye socket and pierced into its brain, yet the "Big Gray Rat" still wasn't dead. What kind of monstrous vitality was that?!
"It's over!"
"I'm completely done for this time."
Just as Lu Yang was waiting to die, the red glow in the bat demon's eye abruptly froze.
Its body, more than three feet long, crumpled to the ground like a torn sack. A few drops of blood splattered, and then it lay silent.
"Whew!"
"So it was just the last flicker of life."
Lu Yang let out a long breath.
Now the "Big Gray Rat" was well and truly dead.
Just then, a ball of red light, visible only to Lu Yang, suddenly peeled away from the bat demon's corpse. In the blink of an eye, it entered his body.
At the same time, a voice sounded in Lu Yang's mind.
"Ding! First demon slain detected. The Demon Extermination System has been activated."
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