"I Want to Slay Demons"

As usual, Chen Xuan sorted the abilities into storage. Earlier, he'd traded Can Eat a Lot for Gilles de Rais's Horse Riding and Black Magic, bringing the number of stored abilities up to eight. Including the four he currently had equipped, he possessed a full twelve abilities.

Though the stored abilities were generally low-grade and of rather questionable usefulness, that was still far better than when he'd started with only his own four abilities available for trade.

In addition, his performance points had accumulated to twelve after this transaction. Naturally, he sent another email requesting a promotion, though he had no idea when he'd get a response.

With October only two days away, he was already looking forward to seeing how much his salary would be.

Of course, Chen Xuan hadn't forgotten to inspect the two newly stored abilities one by one.

Horse Riding needed no explanation. Once equipped, it gave him the courage to mount any wild horse. Unfortunately, it seemed to work only on horses, without any derivative functions like riding wolves, dragons, or giant roc birds.

Once he took it off, all the relevant experience vanished. Yet his memories still retained the impression that I was a master horseman one second ago. That fractured awareness was one of the side effects of switching abilities.

Black Magic, on the other hand, was rather sinister.

Its only function was sacrifice—using the sacrificed person's heart to extend one's lifespan. No wonder Gilles de Rais had done something as absurd as kidnapping children for live sacrifices after Joan of Arc died. He'd probably wanted to give Joan another breath of life.

But the problem was that it came with a whole host of penalties. For example, the lifespan gained was reduced a hundredfold, and the user would be cursed by the sacrificed soul. It was completely not worth the cost. If he sacrificed a rat, for instance, whose average lifespan was three years, he would gain only a little over a hundred days of life, while also suffering a rat-transformation curse that turned him into a creature close to half-human, half-rat.

Chen Xuan hadn't made that up. The experience embedded within the Black Magic ability told him so. Gilles de Rais clearly knew this, which was why he could only choose his own kind—and children with limited ability to act independently.

Now that he'd lost this ability, he probably wouldn't have another chance to study Black Magic in the future.

Considering the potential harm it could cause, Chen Xuan had no intention of trading it to anyone else.

Still, what caught his attention was the shop transaction app's evaluation of Black Magic.

--"Taboo +1."

That was all it said.

It actually hadn't mocked it as worthless gray-grade trash?

It had never held back when brutally reviewing other white-grade abilities.

"Sir."

A familiar voice rang out.

Chen Xuan hurriedly closed the inventory interface, then turned around as though nothing had happened. "You're here. Sit down, I'll pour you a coffee."

Then he paused slightly.

Liu Shuyue wasn't wearing her usual loose, comfortable casual clothes. She now wore a leather jacket, cloth trousers, and long boots, all covered in dust, as if she'd just completed a grueling trek through the wilderness.

And she had the ability to keep herself clean with spells whenever she wanted.

"What's with you... playing in the mud?"

Liu Shuyue smiled and shook her head. "How long has it been since you last saw me, sir?"

"Don't call me sir. It sounds kind of strange. You can call me by my name, or shopkeeper works too."

"Then... Chen Xuan."

"Mm." Chen Xuan handed her a cup of milky coffee with satisfaction. "We met yesterday afternoon, and it's afternoon now too, so at most it's been one day."

"For me, it's been twelve days." She accepted the cup.

"That long? Do you still have enough instant noodles? No... the disaster relief funds and grain should've reached Zhangwei City by now, right?"

Chen Xuan couldn't help finding it strange. She had previously come every day to discuss the food distribution with him.

"No. In truth, they never intended to provide disaster relief. All the refugees fleeing from Qingzhou have been abandoned."

Liu Shuyue spoke slowly, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

But Chen Xuan was shocked!

"What did you say? There's no relief?"

He'd considered the possibility of embezzlement or inferior supplies, but no relief at all was truly outrageous. This wasn't some dynasty in its final days, where the government had completely ceased functioning.

"Let's not talk about that yet. I came to ask you to accompany me to see something today."

"This thing... is related to the refugees?"

Liu Shuyue nodded. "Yes."

"All right... wait for me to close the shop." After hanging up the closed sign, Chen Xuan followed Liu Shuyue through the back door of the second-floor VIP room and entered her world.

The moment he passed through the door, he couldn't help letting out a soft "Wow."

Before him lay a majestic and magnificent natural landscape.

Hundreds, even thousands, of pillar-like stone peaks rose from the horizon, each one lush with greenery. Though they looked like stone pillars, every one of them was dozens of kilometers wide at the base. In essence, they were strangely shaped small mountains. They had everything mountains should have—visible from afar were caves, waterfalls, dense forests, and flying birds.

Below the mountains were lakes formed by stretches of shallow water. They were crystal clear, reflecting the sky and white clouds. Many animal tracks lingered along the shores, making it clear this was a paradise for drinking and foraging.

Chen Xuan couldn't help thinking of a nature reserve.

The two of them stood atop a small hill, less than ten kilometers away from the "nature reserve" before them.

"Where are we?"

He looked around and found not only no sign of Zhangwei City, but not even a small village or town. He did spot a refugee camp below the hill, with no fewer than twenty thousand people.

The only remotely decent structure within a hundred li was the thatched hut behind them.

Clearly, Liu Shuyue had led those refugees out of Zhang Wei.

"The southernmost edge of Qingzhou, where it borders the Myriad Mountain Great Wilderness."

"I see." Chen Xuan immediately understood. No wonder she hadn't come to see him these past few days. "There was no way to survive in Zhang Wei, so you carved out a path for yourselves. That's a very correct choice."

"Really?" Liu Shuyue smiled, though traces of exhaustion showed in the corners of her eyes.

"I think this place is pretty good. It has water and mountains, and the natural resources are abundant." Chen Xuan assessed the area. "At first, you can organize people to hunt. Later, they can fish and reclaim farmland, so food won't be a problem. Those caves in the mountains are natural housing too. Once someone clears them out, they should be enough to accommodate these refugees."

At most, they lacked tools for opening up the land.

But were tools a problem for him? Whether machetes, axes, fishing nets, or seeds, he could easily buy them. Liu Shuyue had already done this much for the refugees, so naturally he had to help a little more.

"Honestly, the environment here is really nice... it could support tens of thousands of settlers. Why hasn't the Qingzhou government developed this place?"

"A great demon lives here."

"I see... huh?" Chen Xuan didn't react at first.

"Its name is Xuan. It's an Azure Dragon," Liu Shuyue said flatly. "Xuan is a hundred zhang long, adept with water and capable of flight. Its body is as tough as diamond and iron, difficult to harm with blades or swords. It also enjoys eating raw meat, and humans are naturally among its prey. Since it appeared, it has likely eaten thousands of people. So long as this demon remains, the Myriad Mountain Great Wilderness is an absolute forbidden zone."

At that, she let out a breath. "Of course... the sect's records on the Great Wilderness are vague. No one knows whether other great demons exist deeper in the mountains and forests. But at least near Qingzhou's southern border, Xuan is the strongest demon. There are also nearly a hundred kinds of vicious demonic beasts here, making this one of the regions where demon-related disasters occur most frequently."

"If that's the case... is it really okay to bring the refugees here?"

Chen Xuan didn't understand.

"Ordinary people can't survive here. Forget great demons that can invoke the power of heaven and earth—even an inconspicuous Shadow Demon can take more than a dozen lives in the blink of an eye." Liu Shuyue didn't conceal anything and continued candidly, "If these refugees are to live, they can no longer remain ordinary people."

"If someone wants to cross the threshold of sensing qi through cultivation, they need either talent or external aids. Most of the time, sects only select those with talent, because cultivators raised solely through external aids have limited potential and find it difficult to ascend the Great Dao. But there is no denying that even the lowest-level cultivator is far stronger than an ordinary person unable to sense qi."

"According to the sect's secret records, Dragon's Blood is one of the finest external remedies. Even someone completely without talent can undergo a complete transformation and defy fate after drinking fresh, warm dragon blood. And that's not all. Every part of a dragon is precious—its scales can be made into armor, its bones into weapons. With this dragon's corpse as their foundation, they will have a chance to survive in this wilderness of death."

She looked at Chen Xuan, and the old radiance returned to her eyes.

"Therefore, I want to slay a demon."