"Heh, I never thought I'd die here today..."
"My sister always said I was too reckless, too confident. Looks like she was right..."
Ye Yinyue closed her beautiful eyes, a self-mocking smile touching her lips.
As she faced death, she thought, Not only am I going to die, I've dragged several of my brothers down with me... I'm the one who deserves to die, not them.
But...
After a while, Ye Yinyue suddenly realized that the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit before her had gone still.
What was going on?
She opened her eyes—and was met with a sight so shocking it left her reeling!
The enormous Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit stood frozen in place, its entire head severed. The cut was so smooth it looked like a mirror.
The expression on its humanlike, ape-faced head was still frozen in place. Even as it died, its face was full of confusion. Clearly, it hadn't even realized what had happened before it was dead.
"What?"
Ye Yinyue hurriedly looked ahead. A streak of Saber Qi had killed the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit, then drifted toward the edge of the forest. At last, it faded into a wisp of smoke, vanishing without a trace, as if it had never been there.
"D-dead?"
From the lingering Saber Qi, Ye Yinyue could sense a chilling aftershock of power!
Such might...
"Could that have been a superior Third-Rank saber art—or even a Fourth-Rank one?"
She stood there, stunned.
The person had arrived without a sound, and the saber had vanished without a trace.
She had never seen anyone like that.
But...
Third- and even Fourth-Rank martial arts were rare throughout the Demon Suppressing Division. Only a few Gold Medalists had the qualifications to study and practice them.
Yet none of those Gold Medalists specialized in saber techniques.
"Could it be... that person?"
Ye Yinyue suddenly thought of the mysterious protector who had once remained by the Commander's side in the Demon Suppressing Division.
That protector had devoted his life to training in saber techniques and had reached the pinnacle of the art. He usually kept a low profile, never showing off.
He only appeared when the Demon Suppressing Division faced a crisis or fell into danger.
She lowered her gaze.
"But... there were rumors that the protector had died in a great battle years ago. The Demon Suppressing Division had kept the news under wraps to make outsiders wary, letting the world believe it still had a trump card."
Feeling the lingering Blade Wind, Ye Yinyue could only shake her head helplessly. That person was too mysterious; she simply couldn't guess who it was.
In the end, she clasped her fists toward the distance. "Thank you, master, for saving us. I won't forget this kindness."
At that moment, besides Ye Yinyue, only Lin Guanhuo, Chen Jianxing, and two other Demon Suppressing Division members remained at the scene. The other two had long since been scared out of their wits.
Three more had died horribly at the hands of the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit.
It wasn't that they were cowards. They fought demons regularly and had seen plenty of bloodshed.
But they had just watched comrades who'd been full of life moments earlier get trampled into bloody meat patties.
The jarring contrast was enough to leave anyone shaken.
"You, all of you, come here."
Ye Yinyue beckoned Lin Guanhuo and the others over. The survivors gathered in front of her.
Ye Yinyue glanced at Chen Jianxing. He clutched his long sword, clearly still shaken, cold sweat covering his head.
Then she looked at Lin Guanhuo beside him. Her brows knitted slightly. He seemed perfectly calm, not even frightened. But Lin Guanhuo wasn't even a registered member. Dressed in black and wearing cloth shoes, he looked like an invisible nobody.
It was hard to imagine Lin Guanhuo as some hidden master.
Sigh.
Ye Yinyue smiled helplessly, thinking she must have been so dazed that she'd actually imagined, for a moment, that the person who had struck just now was one of the people here.
"Once the Demon Suppressing Division gets here, have them bring a carriage. Take this beast—and..."
Ye Yinyue glanced at the "corpses" trampled into meat patties, her expression turning sorrowful. "Take them back to the Demon Suppressing Division, too. They were good men, heroes of Blackwater City."
As she spoke, she slowly took out a sheet of paper and folded it into a Paper Crane.
Whoosh...
Ye Yinyue blew on it and imbued it with inner force. The Paper Crane flew off at an unhurried pace, heading straight for the Demon Suppressing Division in the distance.
While they waited for the carriage, silence settled over the scene.
Lin Guanhuo stood off to one side, a flicker of satisfaction crossing his face.
Okay, the head was mine for the taking. Nice!
And this saber art was even better!
Even Lin Guanhuo hadn't expected that after breaking through to become a Seventh-Rank Martial Artist and activating Golden Armor—
With the Evergreen Saber Commander Zhou had given him, along with the Killing move, Tiger Subduing Style—
With all those buffs stacked up,
he could kill an Eighth-Rank Great Demon in one strike!
I should be able to fight a Muscle-Tendon Realm Master head-on now, right? Lin Guanhuo thought, marveling at his own strength.
But...
Hmm?
As the seconds ticked by, Lin Guanhuo's expression began to change.
His brows furrowed.
Something wasn't right...
Where was his reward?
Before, when he'd killed those Third- and Fourth-Rank demons,
his Draw Sword count had shot up by tens of thousands!
This time, he'd killed an Eighth-Rank Great Demon and waited ages.
Why hadn't anything happened?
"System? Where's my reward?"
"What happened to my Draw Sword count?"
"Did you get a bug?"
Lin Guanhuo asked in his mind, but the Golden Finger couldn't speak.
Damn, don't tell me I did all that for nothing?
The more Lin Guanhuo thought about it, the more frustrated he got. He'd been counting on getting tens of thousands of Draw Sword counts this time, then using them to improve his Precept Breaking Saber Art and Mountain Piercing Art...
"No, wait."
Just then, Lin Guanhuo looked up and suddenly noticed a red orb of light floating above the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit's corpse.
The orb was glaringly obvious, yet Ye Yinyue and the others showed no sign of noticing it.
That meant only he could see it!
"Something fishy going on?"
Lin Guanhuo edged closer. As he approached, he could make out a phantom floating inside the orb. It was the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit's silhouette, no bigger than his palm, like a specimen.
[Detected Soul Capture: "Blood Flow Art"]
[Extract?]
[Tip: Touch the soul orb with a blade to extract "Blood Flow Art"]
As Lin Guanhuo stared closely, the system, which had been playing dead for ages, finally displayed a prompt.
Lin Guanhuo didn't hesitate. He drew his saber and lightly tapped the blood-red orb with its tip!
Bzzzt!
In an instant, the red orb flowed along the tip of Lin Guanhuo's saber and was absorbed into him!
["Blood Flow Art" extracted. Ready to comprehend at any time]
[Draw Sword count required for comprehension: 2,000]
"Blood Flow Art?"
Lin Guanhuo studied the system prompt, thinking it over.
This had to be the powerful movement technique the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit had used earlier!
Fast as the wind, swift as lightning!!
You could see the Blood Qi, but not the demon!
If they hadn't set up a Restriction in advance today, the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit would probably have escaped again!
He had already learned how to practice this movement technique, so there was no rush to comprehend it here.
Well, would you look at that...
So this is Soul Capture?
Lin Guanhuo's face lit up. Turns out killing demons didn't just earn him Draw Sword counts; there was also a chance to directly obtain the supernatural arts and techniques they'd cultivated.
Compared with plain old Draw Sword counts, this was a windfall!
"What are you doing over there?"
Just then, Ye Yinyue noticed Lin Guanhuo stabbing the Blood-Eyed Ape Spirit's corpse and called out to him.
Only then did Lin Guanhuo sheathe his saber. "That beast killed our brothers. I was stabbing it a few times to vent my anger!"
Hearing that, Ye Yinyue's impression of Lin Guanhuo improved. She hadn't expected the young man to be so loyal and devoted to his comrades.
That was rare in this Chaotic World.
"It's good of you to feel that way. But be careful—the beast might not be completely dead. Keep your distance." Without realizing it, Ye Yinyue's voice had softened a little.
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