On June 17, Li Haitian strolled through Green Ridge City. Every passerby who saw him greeted him warmly.
Whether they were high-ranking officials and nobles, common folk, brothel prostitutes, or street peddlers.
"Hello, Constable Li!"
"Have you eaten, Constable?"
"Constable, thanks for all your hard work!"
It wasn't because he held power and authority that everyone fawned over him. In their hearts, he was a true constable: keeping the peace, catching criminals, and remaining just and incorruptible. He had earned everyone's respect.
He especially loved that feeling, because only he knew who he really was!
The Woodworm Devil, the 13th of the Month Devil!
On the third day of every month, he wiped out an entire household!
Over the years, he had destroyed fifty-six households and killed more than two hundred people.
How many exactly? Even he couldn't remember anymore!
At first, when he'd received the Mortal Dust Devil Sect's Woodworm Devil sacrificial method in a dream, he'd been furious. How could such a vile method be spread throughout the world?
What kind of wicked person would commit such a string of murders?
Back then, he'd still been a good constable, righteous to the core and devoted to keeping the peace.
But all he could do then was seethe with indignation. His superiors bullied him, his girlfriend left him, and he'd been frustrated and unfulfilled.
Then, later, what had happened?
He couldn't quite remember. Perhaps he didn't want to recall it, either.
He became the 13th of the Month Devil.
Everyone thought he killed on the third day of the month, but no one imagined he actually wiped out a household on the second.
The ritual took place on the second day, at the victims' home, with the whole family as its cast.
His method of killing: make them explode, leaving only blood behind. That kind of scene was the most terrifying, the kind that haunted people's memories.
The ritual's trait: deception!
No one could have guessed that his purpose in killing wasn't the killing itself, but deception.
He deceived everyone. No one suspected he was the killer, and no one imagined the whole family had died on the second day.
At the thought, Li Haitian felt as if flames were burning through his whole body.
The feeling was simply intoxicating!
He had already reached the pinnacle of Qi Refining and mastered three kinds of true qi traits, yet he had still delayed advancing to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Once he advanced to the Foundation Establishment Realm, he could no longer use the Woodworm Devil sacrificial method for Qi Refining. He couldn't obtain the Foundation Establishment version of the method, either. After advancing, he would be unable to perform household-wide sacrifices.
What had begun as Woodworm cultivation for the sake of improving his cultivation had now become nothing but a hobby.
He loved the feeling, loved cornering an entire family and making them feel terror.
Watching them howl, betray one another, flee, and bravely die for their loved ones...
That feeling had made him utterly unable to stop.
Just like this month. No one had expected that Bald Wang would draw his blade at him in a fury to protect his family, resisting to the death even after Li Haitian promised he wouldn't kill him.
And Liu Sanmei, that whore, had married Bald Wang only for his family heirloom.
Yet who would've thought she'd fallen in love with Bald Wang, and chose to live and die with him!
And that little girl—what was she hiding?
She was only eight, so terribly young. Even as she died, she'd cried and cried. She was hiding something, too...
At the thought of that family, Li Haitian found it even harder to control himself.
Next month, he'd have to choose another family like theirs. Killing them had felt so good!
Recently, that half-grown boy from the Wang Family, the one involved in a dispute with them, had kept secretly following him and watching him.
He thought Li Haitian hadn't noticed!
How naive!
The boy seemed to have some kind of divine sight. Li Haitian had known he was there from a glance, even from far away.
Should he kill him next month?
But the boy seemed to be an orphan, a household of one. That wouldn't be satisfying; it'd be no fun at all.
On the fifteenth of next month, he'd lure the Blood Parrot into eating the boy. That would count toward the Full Moon Devil's tally...
As he let his imagination run wild, a constable's assistant suddenly came to deliver a report.
"Constable Li, we've found what appears to be a crime scene belonging to the Head-Exploding Devil."
Li Haitian's eyes lit up. The Head-Exploding Devil was a new Woodworm cultivator, unlike the others in that he liked killing cultivators and taking on difficult challenges.
He'd wanted to meet him for a long time, catch him, and kill him!
It had been half a month since the Head-Exploding Devil last struck. Li Haitian had been waiting so anxiously.
"Quick, take me there!"
The assistant led the way, and soon they arrived at the bell tower by White Sand Lake, in the city.
It was in an awkward location, where the lakeside inlet and a bridge over the river met. The place was a mess.
The bell tower was also cramped. There was only enough room for one person to ring the bell upstairs.
Why had someone come here to kill?
And there weren't any Qi Refining cultivators known to be in the area.
A dozen or so curious passersby had already gathered nearby.
The coroner, Zhang Tao, had arrived early. When he saw Li Haitian, he came downstairs to greet him.
"Who's the victim this time?"
The city's Qi Refining cultivators were few and well known, so Li Haitian asked.
Zhang Tao frowned. "My lord, I don't know.
"This time, it's very strange. Why do I feel this wasn't the Head-Exploding Devil's work?
"There's something wrong with this corpse. I suspect the victim was already dead before their head exploded, and wasn't a Qi Refining cultivator, either.
"But the scene matches the Head-Exploding Devil's work exactly..."
That immediately caught Li Haitian's interest.
He had no wife or children, and apart from wiping out entire families, what he loved most was solving cases.
"What's going on?"
Seeing Zhang Tao hesitate, he said:
"It's fine. I'll take a look!"
Zhang Tao knew Li Haitian's habits. He loved solving cases more than anything.
"My lord, it's cramped up there. It'll be very uncomfortable, and only one person can investigate at a time. I'll have them carry the body downstairs, then you can examine it."
"Are you stupid? If we carry it down, won't we destroy the original crime scene?
"Is being uncomfortable worse than solving the case?"
With that, Li Haitian slowly climbed the bell tower.
It really was cramped up there. There was only room for one person.
At a glance, he spotted a corpse. Its right eye had been pierced, its skull had burst open at the back, and its brain matter was splattered across the floor.
Li Haitian's eyes shone. He immediately saw that something was wrong with the corpse.
The victim wasn't a Qi Refining cultivator at all. It was probably an unidentified body from the public mortuary, a homeless man. This was a staged crime scene.
The man had died long ago and been carried here.
But why had someone staged it so convincingly?
Li Haitian examined the scene closely. Countless clues came into view, and suddenly, his heart gave a jolt.
An innate warning!
If he'd been outside, Li Haitian would have turned and walked away at once. A wise man didn't stand beneath a crumbling wall!
But at that moment, all he could think about was solving the case.
The case lay before him. The thrill of solving it came second only to the pleasure he felt when killing an entire family on the second day.
He suppressed the innate warning completely and continued forward.
One step farther, and he entered the range of Luo Zhou's Dragon-Slaying Thrust!
Amid the many clues, Li Haitian suddenly looked up and shouted:
"I see you!"
Someone else was here!
A person concealed by an Invisibility Talisman hung motionless high above, at the very top of the bell tower!
In an instant, their eyes met!
"That half-grown boy..."
That was Li Haitian's final thought.
The half-grown boy was already in the middle of a throwing motion. A flash of cold light, a spark of spiritual energy—and in an instant, it was upon him.
Protective radiance rose from Li Haitian's body. It was the shield of a protective command token he'd bought for a fortune.
But beneath the radiance, it shattered.
Three-colored light rose around his body. He condensed a qi shield!
Icy Qi, Water Ripple Qi, and Ethereal Qi—three kinds of qi combined into a spiritual shield!
It broke through! Nothing could stop it!
The Dragon-Slaying Thrust pierced through his right eye and into his brain. Then the back of Li Haitian's skull exploded in a spray of blood, brain matter, and shattered bone!
The splatter reached a full zhang in every direction!
One strike: it shattered the treasure, pierced the shield, went through the eye, and blew his head apart!
"Li Haitian, the Woodworm Devil, the 13th of the Month Devil. He wiped out fifty-six households and killed two hundred thirty-five people. His crimes were monstrous, and he must be punished!"
"Those who do too much evil bring ruin upon themselves!"
"Xiao Ya, I've avenged you!"
Then came the sound of a Random Flight Talisman activating, teleporting him away.
Li Haitian lay on the ground. He knew he was already dead.
"So he was the Head-Exploding Devil. How did he know exactly how many people I'd killed? How could he know even more than I did..."
In a daze, Li Haitian saw the two hundred thirty-five people he had killed slowly walking toward him.
But Li Haitian wasn't afraid at all, because he knew this day would come when he became the Woodworm Devil!
As the Dead Spirit devoured him, he felt no pain at all. He only laughed out loud!
Even with destruction upon him, he feared nothing. That was the true nature of an evil hero, the very essence of a devil!
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