Late at night, Linshan County
In the dense forest outside Qinghe Town
Su Ye's eyes flew open. Where was he? What had happened?
He vaguely remembered heading to work. While waiting at a red light, he'd been sent flying by an out-of-control freight truck. After spinning three hundred and sixty degrees in the air, he'd blacked out. But when he woke, the world had changed completely.
Suddenly, a series of spasms shot through his mind. He had no time to react before a torrent of memories came rushing in.
Su Ye, a constable in Linshan County. His monthly salary was two taels. With no father or mother, he was a complete orphan, raised from childhood by an old beggar. When Su Ye was sixteen, the old beggar passed away. On his deathbed, he had given Su Ye a palm-sized wooden knife and told him that if he ever ran out of options, he could go to Mount Taihang.
As he struggled to digest the memories in his mind, an image of someone cultivating suddenly appeared.
Cultivation. Martial artists.
Su Ye seized on those few key words.
Reincarnation.
The stories from novels had really happened to him. And not only could he cultivate, he might actually get the chance to overturn rivers and seas, soar through the sky, and burrow underground.
As the memories continued to merge, he soon understood his current situation. During the day, the county office had received a report that people had been disappearing frequently in Qinghe Town over the past two days.
The county office had taken the matter seriously and immediately sent Su Ye, accompanied by another constable, a middle-aged man named Wang Jin, to investigate.
While following the clues, the two had entered this very forest. And, sure enough, disaster had struck. Though they had both remained on guard, they were too weak to fend off a Wolf Demon that suddenly attacked them from behind.
It had happened so suddenly that neither man had been prepared. The original owner had been run through by a single blow and died on the spot. Wang Jin had reacted in time, but it had made no difference. The Wolf Demon had killed him in just a few moves.
The "crunch, crunch" of flesh being chewed jolted Su Ye from his recollections. He followed the sound with his eyes.
A creature stood there, covered in blue-black fur and towering, powerfully built. Its face was ferocious, and an eerie red glow burned in its eyes. Shreds of flesh clung to the fur around its mouth.
A Wolf Demon.
Su Ye swallowed. It hadn't given him a moment to react. He'd often seen things like this in novels and movies, but now that one was right in front of him, it was only natural to be afraid.
Having only just crossed over, he'd sat himself upright without even realizing it. Now, he was staring straight into the Wolf Demon's eyes.
Damn it, he hadn't even gotten to experience what it was like to be a martial artist, and now he was going to die. He wondered if he'd get to cross over again.
Gripping the long saber at his side, Su Ye suddenly stood and said, "I've already died once. What's there to be afraid of? When a man dies, his bird points to the sky; if he doesn't die, he'll live for ten thousand years!"
Unexpectedly, a cold, mechanical voice sounded in his mind.
< DING! Demonic Beast aura detected. Martial Path Assistance System activated. > Detected an available martial skill: [Mountain Splitting Saber Technique · Unranked]. Automatically recorded. [Note: Slay Demonic Beasts to earn Assistance Points. They can be used to improve Martial Arts or deduce Martial Arts techniques and more...] [System activated for the first time. 10 Assistance Points awarded.]
Hahaha!
A cheat system—the must-have for anyone who'd crossed over—really did exist. System... max it out for me!
Su Ye looked at the only Martial Art on the panel. He wanted to experience supernatural power, but more importantly, it was the only way to escape the danger he was in.
The Mountain Splitting Saber Technique—just from the name, he knew it was nothing special. Though common as dirt, it wasn't easy to obtain. In his memories, his predecessor had spent twenty taels of silver to join the county office before being granted it. He'd also been issued a standard long saber and two sets of blue constable robes.
"Ding."
5 Assistance Points consumed. Mountain Splitting Saber Technique improved from Minor Achievement to Perfection.
At the same time, countless fragments of memory suddenly appeared in Su Ye's mind and began to merge. Millions of figures swayed before his eyes, repeating the same saber moves over and over. In an instant, his eyes snapped open.
When he came to, he felt his body changing. Not only had the hole the Wolf Demon had torn through him healed completely, but he was now growing stronger at an unbelievable rate. He was just one step away from becoming a true martial artist.
The long saber in his hand felt familiar, as if he had spent decades honing his craft. His grip, his draw, his slashes, and every technique for channeling force had become second nature.
"Roar!"
Sensing the sudden presence of a living human, the Wolf Demon sprang up and turned toward Su Ye, who stood not far away. An eerie green light gleamed in its eyes.
"Boom!"
Its voice rumbled like muffled thunder, and the earth around it flew into the air. Its massive body shot forward like an arrow, lunging at terrifying speed.
The stench of rotting flesh rushed straight at him, and the black shadow blotted out the moon. Yet Su Ye remained exceptionally calm. Every movement the Wolf Demon made seemed to unfold in slow motion before his eyes.
When the Wolf Demon was only inches away, Su Ye moved. His blade flashed, long and coldly sharp. It cut cleanly through everything in its path without the slightest hitch or sound.
Like a sharp blade slicing through tofu, an exceedingly fine line of blood appeared, stretching from the Wolf Demon's neck all the way to its abdomen. Then it slowly split open, widening as dark red blood sprayed violently from the enormous wound.
The Wolf Demon could no longer maintain its forward momentum. Its gaze remained cold and savage, but had lost focus. Its sharp foreclaws were barely an inch or two from Su Ye, yet that tiny gap was an uncrossable chasm.
"Thud!"
With a muffled crash, the Wolf Demon's huge body slammed to the ground. Brown liquid sprayed everywhere, and quite a bit splashed onto Su Ye. The foul stench hit his nostrils, making his brows furrow.
Looking at the Wolf Demon's corpse, he thought to himself, You really can't beat the system. Wang Jin had cultivated for more than ten years, and he still wasn't as good as me after a single breakthrough.
The system's notification rang out right on cue.
[Ding! Corpse Wolf slain.] 10 Assistance Points obtained.
Su Ye frowned slightly and looked down at the remains of the Wolf Demon. Brown liquid had stained the ground red, and the heavy stench of blood filled the air around him.
Wasn't it a Wolf Demon? Why had it become a Corpse Wolf?
Unable to make sense of it, Su Ye decided to stop worrying about it. He would head back to the county town and see.
After resting briefly, he learned from his memories that this world was much like the ancient world of his previous life. But here, Demonic Beasts ran rampant and evil spirits were everywhere, while the Martial Arts were flourishing. As a webnovel fan, he had always yearned for such a world. Now that he had crossed over, it suited him perfectly.
At last, he wouldn't have to be a wage slave anymore.
Clutching his long saber, he cut off the Wolf Demon's head in one clean stroke. Stepping carefully over the blood on the ground, he walked over to the middle-aged constable's corpse.
He gently closed Wang Jin's eyes. Then, holding the Wolf Demon's enormous head in one hand and supporting Wang Jin's body—which the Wolf Demon had already chewed to pieces—with the other, he slowly set off toward Linshan County.
His memories contained no instructions for handling a case like this, so Su Ye decided to bring back everything. After all, words alone proved nothing. If there was a reward and he missed out through carelessness, wouldn't that be a pity?
At daybreak, outside Linshan County's east gate, several gate guards stared in shock. They couldn't help but edge closer to Su Ye. More than one of them knew him.
"Su Ye, what... what happened to you?"
"What are you carrying?"
When they drew near and saw Wang Jin's corpse strapped to Su Ye's back and the enormous wolf's head in his hand, the guards cried out in alarm. "What happened? How did this come to pass?"
By now, quite a few people were passing through the city gate. Someone from a merchant caravan cried out, "The head that constable's carrying is a Wolf Demon's! I saw one just like it in Tianzhao Prefecture!"
"What Demonic Beast? Weren't they all wiped out around here?"
"Ridiculous. If they didn't say that, would you dare leave the city to work?"
The townspeople talked among themselves, but not one dared approach to speak. As the crowd flowed past, the news spread through Linshan County.
The gate guards herded the onlookers away while hastily taking Wang Jin's body from Su Ye. Then two of them went with him toward the county office.
Inside the county office, Zhou Tao had finished arranging the necessary matters and was about to leave when a young man in a short jacket hurried in to report, "Uncle, there's a constable at the east gate carrying a Wolf Demon's head. He's almost at the county office."
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