Luoku Mountain

Chen Jianxing looked at the White Servants, bowing and scraping for the sake of one or two Taels of Silver.

It was hard to tell whether his gaze held pity or contempt.

He merely waved a hand. "The Demon Suppressing Division pays what it promises. If we say one tael, you get one tael. We're not short that little bit of life-saving money."

Chen Jianxing didn't spare them another glance. He turned and strode away, tossing a sentence over his shoulder without looking back. "If you're not afraid to die, grab your weapons and follow."

At those words—

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, my lord! Thank you, my lord!"

The men hurried to the Storehouse to fetch coarse hemp ropes and iron rods. A dozen or so strapping young fellows followed Chen Jianxing out of the County Office in a mighty procession, heading straight for South Mountain outside the city.

Lin Guanhuo carried an iron rod over his shoulder. He hesitated, but in the end followed at the rear of the group.

There was no reason to turn down a tael of silver, and with his current strength, protecting himself was more than easy.

If anything seemed fishy, he could always make himself scarce.

After leaving the County Office, Lin Guanhuo and the others crossed Main Street.

The sky was already bright, and the streets were filling with pedestrians.

Strangely, though the common folk usually steered clear of Constables in their official uniforms, this time, when they saw Chen Jianxing leading the group, they all stopped and greeted him respectfully.

"Good morning, Official Chen!"

"Thank you for your hard work, Official Chen. Off to slay demons again?"

Some women and even children boldly stood at the roadside and bowed to Chen Jianxing, their eyes full of awe.

In the Great Yan Dynasty, corrupt officials might make people grit their teeth in hatred.

But the people of the Demon Suppressing Division truly risked their lives to keep the peace.

Without them, the whole city's population would have long since become blood-food for demons.

Chen Jianxing gave a slight nod in response.

Xu Dadao carried his shoulder pole and watched, envy practically spilling from his eyes.

He hurried a couple of steps to catch up behind Chen Jianxing, then worked up the courage to ask, "Official Chen, I heard that people in the Demon Suppressing Division get meat with every meal...and warm wine to drink?"

Chen Jianxing kept walking and replied calmly, "Of course. The Demon Suppressing Division protects the borders and keeps the people safe. We bear the weight of our country on our shoulders and work with our heads on the line. Having enough to eat and warm clothes is the bare minimum."

He paused, then continued, "If you join the Demon Suppressing Division, even as the lowest-ranked Division Servant, you'll receive at least ten Silver Ingots in salary each month. That's grain paid directly by the Imperial Court. It never passes through the hands of local officials, so no one would dare skim a single coin."

"Te...ten taels?!"

Xu Dadao stumbled, plainly stunned.

Li Hu and the other White Servants behind him burst into an uproar.

They knew that people on the Imperial Court's payroll weren't short of money, but they'd never imagined it was this much!

Ten taels of silver! That was a fortune they couldn't save even after years of working themselves to the bone! And they'd get it every month!

Wouldn't that add up to over a hundred taels a year?

In Blackwater City, a hundred taels of silver could buy enough to build several large houses.

"As long as you become a Ranked Martial Artist, you qualify to join the Demon Suppressing Division as an apprentice," Chen Jianxing added.

The words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly dousing the flames that had just begun to kindle in everyone's hearts.

A Ranked Martial Artist...

That was an impassable chasm before them.

The poor studied with their pens; the rich trained with their fists. Without money, you couldn't train in martial arts; without martial arts, you couldn't join the Demon Suppressing Division; without joining the Demon Suppressing Division, you had no money... It was a vicious circle.

Only Lin Guanhuo, at the back of the group, remained calm.

Spending every day cooped up in the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard wasn't going to work. He really did need to consider finding somewhere else to go.

After passing through the city gate, they headed south.

After about an hour, the scenery around them began to grow desolate.

Weeds grew wild nearby, and dark clouds blotted out the sun. The oppressive atmosphere weighed on them.

South Mountain, also known as Luoku Mountain, had arrived.

"This place...sure gives me the creeps."

Li Hu, beside Lin Guanhuo, hunched his shoulders.

He looked at the broken tombstones scattered along the roadside and felt a chill run down his spine. "I heard there used to be villages on this mountain, with plenty of hunters and herb gatherers. How come there isn't even a single ghost in sight now?"

"There's no one left...they're all dead..."

Six-Fingered, the White Servant who had earlier argued against coming, spoke up. "There hasn't been anyone on this mountain for years. Now, the only things here are demons that eat people."

He'd been born with six fingers on each hand.

The people in the Miscellaneous Room all called him Six-Fingered. No one knew his real name, and he'd been hanging around the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard for over a decade.

He pointed toward the mountain forest veiled in thick fog. "See that patch of woods? Five years ago, Wangshan Village was there. It was a big village, with several hundred households and over a thousand people."

"What happened after that?" someone asked.

"After that?" Six-Fingered's eyes filled with deep terror. "A foolish young woodcutter accidentally chopped a young weasel to death on the mountain."

"That very night, the whole village went up in flames. The Great Yellow Immortal led hundreds of Yellow-Skinned Weasels down the mountain and surrounded the village so thoroughly that not even a drop of water could get through."

"That night, their screams carried for more than ten miles. Even the dogs in the city were too scared to bark."

Six-Fingered seemed to recall some terrifying memory. "The next day, the County Office sent people to collect the bodies... Heh, I was one of them. Of those more than a thousand people, not one had a whole corpse! Their hearts and livers had been ripped out, or their throats bitten through. Not a soul in the whole village was spared, young or old—not even the chickens and dogs! There was so much blood, it turned the river by the village entrance red!"

"Ah...even thinking about it now gives me the chills... What kind of world is this? What kind of world? How are people supposed to live like this?"

At those words—

The younger, more timid White Servants turned deathly pale.

"Later, that Great Yellow Immortal went mad with bloodlust and even tried to wreak havoc in the nearby towns. In the end, a martial arts school's master from the city personally stepped in. He fought the beast for a whole day and night, then wielded a Nine-Foot Long Blade in the street and cut the Great Yellow Immortal down."

"Ah..." Six-Fingered sighed. "That martial arts school's master was young and full of vigor. He was a good man who protected the people, but he exhausted his life force in that battle and died before he even turned forty."

He pointed at the road beneath their feet. "The pit where we're walking was where they buried the people of Wangshan Village back then. There were too many of them for the Mass Grave, so they just wrapped them in straw mats and piled them up, one layer on top of another."

A pit full of corpses?!

Hiss...

Everyone present felt a chill shoot up from the soles of their feet.

It was as if they were truly walking on the faces of countless dead people. Terrified, they hurried to pick up the pace.

Xu Dadao, Li Hu, and the others walking beside Lin Guanhuo exchanged uneasy glances. Some of them were already thinking of backing out.

At that moment, Chen Jianxing, the Demon Suppressing Division's patrolman who had been walking at the front of the group, spoke slowly. "Luoku Mountain is indeed heavy with Yin energy and thick with Demonic energy."

Clearly, Chen Jianxing was familiar with the story Six-Fingered had just told.

Chen Jianxing surveyed the area. Demonic energy swirled around the mountain valley. "Back then, that beast fled here, hoping to use the Yin and Baleful Intent in this place to wear me down. I nearly fell for its trick."

"But a beast is still just a beast."

He patted the long sword at his waist. "If it hadn't come here, perhaps it could've lived two more days. But it entered this dead ground, and I trapped it in a Ruined temple and took its head with one stroke!"

"That beast's blood's been drained for three days, and its Demonic energy should've dissipated too. It's just a lump of stinking meat now. You have nothing to worry about."