Luoku Mountain

Chen Jianxing looked at these White Servants bowing and scraping for a single tael of silver.

There was no telling whether pity or contempt flickered in his eyes.

He merely waved a hand: "The Demon Suppressing Division's silver—one tael is one tael. We're not short on your blood money."

Chen Jianxing didn't spare them another glance. He turned and strode out, tossing a word over his shoulder without looking back: "Anyone who isn't afraid to die, grab your gear and follow."

At those words.

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, Official! Thank you, Official!"

The men hurried to the Storehouse to collect Coarse Hemp Ropes and Iron Rods. A dozen or so sturdy young fellows, led by Chen Jianxing, poured out of the County Office in a mighty procession, heading straight for South Mountain outside the city.

Lin Guanhuo shouldered an Iron Rod, hesitated for a moment, then finally fell in at the back of the crowd.

A tael of silver was free money for the taking. Besides, with his current strength, he could still handle self-preservation easily enough.

If anything fishy came up, he could always slip away.

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

By now the sky was fully bright, and more pedestrians were appearing on the street.

Strangely enough, common folk usually avoided uniformed Constables like the plague, but at the sight of Chen Jianxing leading the way, they stopped in their tracks and showed respectful faces.

"Good morning, Official Chen!"

"Hard at work, Official Chen—off to slay demons again?"

Some women even dared to stop by the roadside with their children, bowing to Chen Jianxing, their eyes full of reverence.

In the Great Yan Dynasty, corrupt officials might make people gnash their teeth.

But the men of the Demon Suppressing Division truly risked their lives to protect the peace of the land.

Without them, the city's populace would long have become blood-meat for demons and monsters.

Chen Jianxing gave a slight nod, acknowledging them.

Xu Dadao, carrying his carrying pole, watched the scene with envy practically spilling from his eyes.

He quickened his pace, sidled up behind Chen Jianxing, and dared to ask: "Official Chen, I heard that our Demon Suppressing Division men... have meat with every meal and warm wine to drink?"

Chen Jianxing kept walking, his tone flat: "Of course. The Demon Suppressing Division protects the realm and shoulders the heavy burden of state. We work with our lives on the line. Full bellies and warm clothes are the bare minimum."

He paused, then continued: "If you join the Demon Suppressing Division, even the lowest Division Servant gets at least ten Silver Ingots in monthly pay. That's imperial grain directly allocated by the Imperial Court—it doesn't pass through local officials' hands, so no one dares skim it."

"T-ten?!"

Xu Dadao stumbled, clearly shaken.

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

Everyone knew that those eating imperial grain weren't short of money, but they never imagined it was this ridiculous!

Ten taels of silver! That was a fortune they couldn't save in years of backbreaking labor! And it came every single month!

In a year, that added up to over a hundred taels??

In Blackwater City, One Hundred Taels could build several large houses.

"Only those who become Ranked Martial Artists are qualified to join the Demon Suppressing Division as Apprentices," Chen Jianxing added.

That sentence was like a bucket of cold water, instantly dousing the flames that had just kindled in the men's hearts.

Ranked Martial Artist...

That was a chasm standing before them.

Poverty for study, wealth for martial arts—no money meant no training, no training meant no entry into the Demon Suppressing Division, and no entry meant no money... It was a vicious cycle.

Only Lin Guanhuo, walking at the very back, kept a calm expression.

Staying cooped up in the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard all day wasn't a solution. He really did need to think about a new place to go.

Leaving the city gates, the group headed south.

After about an hour's walk, the scenery around them began to turn desolate.

Overgrown weeds sprang up everywhere, and dark clouds blotted out the sun. It was suffocating.

South Mountain, also called Luoku Mountain—they had arrived.

"This place... is really eerie."

Li Hu, beside Lin Guanhuo, shrank his neck.

Looking at the scattered, broken tombstones lying askew by the roadside, his heart crawled with dread: "I heard there used to be villages on this mountain, with plenty of hunters and herb gatherers. Now you can't even see a ghost of a person."

"There aren't any people left... they're all dead..."

Six-Fingered, the White Servant who had argued against coming earlier, said: "No one's been on this mountain for years. Now there's only man-eating demons up there."

This man was born with six fingers.

Everyone in the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard called him Six-Fingered; no one knew his real name. He'd been hanging around that courtyard for over a decade.

He pointed at the distant mountain forest shrouded in thick fog. "See those woods? Five years ago, there was a village there called Wangshan Village. A big place—hundreds of households, over a thousand people."

"What happened next?" someone couldn't help asking.

"Next?" Six-Fingered's eyes held a deep terror. "Next, some reckless young woodcutter accidentally killed a weasel cub up on the mountain."

"That very night, the whole village went to hell. The Great Yellow Immortal led hundreds of yellow-skinned weasels down the mountain and surrounded the village so tight not a drop of water could leak through."

"That night, screams carried for over ten li. Even the dogs in town were too scared to bark."

Six-Fingered seemed to recall some horrific memory. "The next day, the yamen sent people to collect the bodies... hey, I was among them. Over a thousand people, not a single intact corpse! Either their hearts and livers had been ripped out, or their necks had been bitten through. Old and young, men and women—not even a chicken or dog survived! The blood flowed so thick it dyed the river at the village entrance red!"

"Ah... even now, thinking about it gives me the creeps... What kind of world is this, what kind of world... it doesn't let people live!"

Hearing this.

A few of the young, timid White Servants turned pale as sheets.

"Later, that Great Yellow Immortal went on a killing spree and wanted to stir up trouble in the nearby towns. In the end, a martial arts school master from the city stepped in personally. He fought that beast for a full day and night, and on the street, wielding a Nine-Foot Long Blade, he beheaded the Great Yellow Immortal."

"Ah..." Six-Fingered sighed. "That martial arts school master was young and hot-blooded. A good man who rid the people of a scourge. But that battle drained his vitality, and he died before he even reached forty."

He pointed at the road beneath their feet. "The ground we're walking on right now? This is where they buried the villagers of Wangshan Village. Too many bodies—even the mass graves couldn't hold them all. They just wrapped them in straw mats and piled them layer upon layer."

A pit of corpses?

Hiss...

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

As if they were really stepping on the faces of countless dead, they hurriedly quickened their pace.

Beside Lin Guanhuo, Xu Dadao, Li Hu, and the others exchanged uneasy glances. Some were already having second thoughts.

And at that moment, Chen Jianxing, the Demon Suppressing Division agent who had been walking at the front of the group, spoke slowly: "This Luoku Mountain is indeed heavy with Yin energy and thick with demonic energy."

Clearly, Chen Jianxing was no stranger to the story Six-Fingered had just told.

Chen Jianxing looked around. Demonic energy coiled through the valley. "Back then, that beast fled to this place, clearly trying to use the Yin and Sha energy here to outmaneuver me. It almost succeeded."

"But a beast is, in the end, a beast."

He patted the longsword at his waist. "If it hadn't come here, it might have lived a couple more days. But walking into this dead end, it let me corner it in that ruined temple and cut off its head with one strike!"

"That beast's blood has been drained for three days now, and its demonic energy should be spent too. It's just a lump of rotten meat now. You don't need to worry."