He is the Fairy's companion, yet you dare to kill him

The pale cyan palace dress swayed in the moonlight as the Ink-Washing Maid looked down at Lu Yuan with a condescending composure.

"I am the Ink-Washing Maid under the command of the Scroll Fairy. If you dare to act recklessly again, you will surely die today!"

Lu Yuan's expression turned fierce, murderous intent erupting from the depths of his eyes.

"You dare to save someone from my hands? Then you must die as well!"

Before his words had even faded, a three-foot Crystal Spike condensed in his hand.

The tip of the blade gleamed with a biting cold light as it shot toward the maid amidst the ink.

The crystal radiance tore through the air.

Anger flared in the maid's eyes, and the ink surrounding her surged, countless Ink Spirits manifesting out of thin air, rushing toward the Crystal Spike one after another.

The first Ink Spirit was pierced by the Crystal Spike and exploded instantly.

The second, exploded.

The third, exploded.

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth...

All of them exploded!

Unstoppable and unbreakable!

The Crystal Spike pierced through dozens of Ink Spirits in succession, finally striking the maid's shoulder blade and shattering half of her shoulder into pieces.

Lu Yuan's gaze was icy, and with a flick of his hand, another Crystal Spike shot out.

A flash of cold light appeared, and before Shen Yulou could even react, a bloody hole had appeared right in the center of his forehead.

The relief of having been saved by the maid still lingered on his face, but the vitality in his eyes had already dissipated.

The Sword Hall fell into dead silence.

The maid stood frozen in place, staring at Shen Yulou's corpse, her beautiful eyes filled with disbelief.

"How dare you—"

A shrill, piercing shriek erupted from her throat.

The arrogant and composed demeanor she had displayed earlier was gone, replaced by a hatred that seeped into her very bones.

"How dare you kill Young Master Shen!"

Her figure began to distort, and ink-colored patterns emerged on her pale cyan palace dress, spreading across her entire body like ink bleeding into water.

"Young Master Shen is the past-life lover of the Fairy, the reincarnation I have spent three hundred years searching for."

"I severed his mortal ties so that he could rekindle his fate with the Fairy."

"But you killed him! You actually dared to kill him?!"

She snapped her head up, two trails of ink-colored tears sliding down her fair cheeks.

Those eyes, once clear and distinct, had now turned into two pools of pitch-black ink, filled with bone-chilling hatred.

Su Ding'an turned deathly pale, drawing his blade to shield himself.

Xu Fengqing gripped her sleeves tightly, looking no better.

Only Lu Yuan remained cold and stern, shouting in a deep voice:

"To hell with your past-life lover!"

"Just to rekindle some fate with that Fairy, you caused the entire Shen Family of forty-seven people to be wiped out!"

"Let me tell you, if you dare to stir up trouble under the nose of the Demon Suppression Bureau, not only does he die today, but you will die too!"

Reincarnation, predestined fate, past-life lovers?

What a pleasant-sounding excuse.

But what about those forty-seven lives?

Could they really be forgiven just by invoking past lives and present incarnations?

What kind of bullshit logic is that.

Lu Yuan did not care about predestined fate, nor did he care about the Fairy's lover.

Those who deserve to die shall die; those who deserve to be killed shall be killed.

As long as there are demons killing and harming lives, his actions are justified by heaven and earth.

Inside the Sword Hall, an Ink Tide surged.

The maid's form had completely twisted, and she now resembled a hideous, malevolent ghost.

Her pale cyan palace dress transformed into a churning ink skirt, and countless ink threads spread from her body, shrouding the entire Sword Hall like a spiderweb.

The floor, the walls, the ceiling...

Wherever the ink landed, it turned into pools of thick sludge, from which Ink Spirits continuously crawled out—some resembling humans, some beasts, and others mere blurred shadows.

They were dense and countless.

Su Ding'an's face was deathly pale. He had already retreated outside the Sword Hall, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the situation unfolding in the center.

Xu Fengqing watched the hall full of Ink Spirits, her heart a tangled mess of complex emotions.

The scene before her had completely exceeded her expectations.

When she heard in the evening that a new Demon Suppression Captain had arrived in Linchuan County, she had made up her mind to meet him.

Who would have thought that by the time she prepared generous gifts and rushed to the Garrison Station, Lu Yuan had already headed to the Shen Family.

She simply steeled her heart and brought the Hidden Ink Jade Token to see Lu Yuan.

Rumor had it that this Lord Lu had been appointed as a Demon Suppression Captain the moment he entered the service, and he bore the terrifying moniker of Blood-Clad Yama; she assumed he would not be an easy man to talk to.

She had calculated that she could use the Hidden Ink Jade Token as a favor to see if she could secure a glimmer of hope for Shen Yulou.

Yet, she had not expected Lu Yuan's ruthlessness to far exceed her imagination.

With a mere wave of his hand, he killed with Crystal Spikes—clean, efficient, and without a shred of hesitation—making even her, someone accustomed to the bloodshed of the martial world, feel a twitch in her eyelids.

She did not care much about the death of Shen Yulou.

After all, she had only come to repay a favor Shen Huaishan had done for her years ago; it was just a pity that the favor ultimately remained unreturned.

However, the Ink-Falling Maid before her possessed such terrifying demonic power that even from a dozen paces away, it made it hard for her to breathe.

She had assumed Lu Yuan would be wary and would back down, but she had not expected his stance to be so unyielding.

He left no room for maneuver, showed no regard for social graces, and did not offer any chance for compromise.

They say that fame is often greater than reality, but she had not expected this Blood-Clad Yama to be far more ferocious than the rumors suggested.

She subconsciously tightened her grip on her sleeves; it seemed a fierce battle was unavoidable in the Sword Hall tonight.

At this moment, the Ink-Falling Maid's eyes were filled with venomous resentment as she let out a sharp shriek, and countless Ink Spirits rushed toward Lu Yuan like a tidal wave.

From the front, back, left, right—from all directions.

They were dense and swarming, baring their fangs and claws as if to tear Lu Yuan into shreds.

"Who do you think you are? Is what you're doing justice?"

"The reincarnation the Fairy waited three hundred years for has died just like that. How am I supposed to answer to the Fairy? What am I supposed to tell her?!"

"You have no idea what the Fairy sacrificed for him!"

"You deserve to die!!!"

"I deserve to die?"

A cold sneer curled the corners of Lu Yuan's mouth. "Do you even know how to write the word 'death'?"

Lu Yuan raised his hand, and five Crystal Spikes condensed at his fingertips before shooting out through the air.

With a sharp, explosive crack, the front row of Ink Spirits instantly burst apart, turning into dots of ink filling the sky.

The Crystal Spikes did not lose momentum, piercing through a dozen more Ink Spirits before finally dissipating.

But the Ink Spirits behind immediately filled the gaps; their numbers did not decrease, but rather grew even greater.

The Ink-Falling Maid let out a frantic laugh. "My Ink Spirits are endless. You can kill five, ten—but can you kill a hundred, a thousand?"

Lu Yuan did not speak. Spiritual power surged within his meridians, and countless densely packed Spirit Crystals bloomed with brilliant radiance.

He spread his hands and raised them upward.

The crystal light around his body flickered like starlight, dimming and brightening.

Ten, fifty, one hundred...

Dense Crystal Spikes poured out from around him like a rainstorm, covering the sky and earth, countless in number, as they shot toward the surrounding Ink Spirits.

Bang, bang, bang...

A continuous series of muffled thuds exploded in the Sword Hall like popping beans.

The Ink Spirits turned into black debris, kicking up large clouds of ink dots in the air.

The Ink-Falling Maid's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

She widened her eyes, watching the Crystal Spikes continuously firing from around Lu Yuan like a torrential downpour.

Slaughtered and shattered, batches of Ink Spirits turned into black ink dots and fell to the ground.

"No... this is impossible!"

Her voice trembled as she urged the Ink Spirits to launch attacks from every angle.

However, Lu Yuan's Crystal Spikes were too dense; no matter which direction the Ink Spirits came from, they could not escape the fate of being shot down.

At this moment, she finally realized a terrifying fact:

This young man's spiritual power seemed to be endless!

In a daze, a striking beam of crystal light shot toward her.

"Is spawning minions all you can do?"

The Ink-Falling Maid's face turned to shock; before she could dodge, she was pierced through the body and pinned to the ground.

Ink splashed and flew, scattering across the ground.

The sound of wind rose in his ears.

"You have plenty of soldiers, but it's a pity they shatter at a single touch."

"Now it's your turn."

"Shatter for me!"