Hundred Demons Compendium

This book is for single readers.

A check-in spot for Yan Zu and Liu Yifei.

The wind carried a fishy stench.

A desolate wasteland stretched beneath a sky of withered grass, not a soul in sight.

Jiang Yuechu stared blankly at everything before her.

She still couldn't accept how she'd gone from a modern person in the twenty-first century to inhabiting the body of a strange woman.

Fragmented memories flooded her mind.

The Divine Land. The Great Tang Dynasty.

Demons ran rampant, devouring human flesh and throwing the world into chaos.

But why had a powerless woman like her ended up in this wilderness?

Jiang Yuechu rose and looked around.

Corpses littered the ground.

Most wore the same drab gray prison garb as she did.

The others were clad in black, with crimson cloud patterns embroidered on their collars and cuffs.

At the edge of her vision, a massive figure leaned crookedly against a boulder.

When the figure's outline came into focus, Jiang Yuechu's breath caught.

A human body, a tiger's head, and a frame as massive as a small hill.

Even though it had stopped breathing, its murderous aura still washed over her, making her heart tighten.

A huge hole gaped in its chest, and black demon blood had pooled across the ground.

A demon!

Thank goodness... thank goodness it was dead.

She let out half a breath, but her gaze was drawn to another figure not far from the Tiger Demon.

He, too, wore a black uniform with crimson patterns, his figure tall and straight.

But now, he was half-kneeling on the ground, propped up by a broken blade stuck in the dirt before him.

He was covered in wounds, his left arm twisted at an unnatural angle. His chest rose and fell faintly. He was clearly on his last legs.

The wind howled across the wasteland.

Apart from the man in black and her, there were no survivors.

Jiang Yuechu instinctively held her breath and quietly edged one step backward.

The half-kneeling man in black seemed to sense her movement. With difficulty, he turned his head toward her.

His face was young, perhaps just over twenty.

But now, his complexion was deathly pale and his lips were cracked. He was clearly in terrible shape.

He spotted Jiang Yuechu and rasped out two words, his voice so hoarse she could barely hear him.

"Come here."

"..."

Just because you said so, I'm supposed to come?

Jiang Yuechu grumbled inwardly.

She remembered now.

The woman whose body she now inhabited had been the only daughter of a high-ranking official in the Capital City.

But her father had been convicted overnight, and the whole family had been implicated. She'd been stripped of her status and sent to the frontier.

The half-dead man before her was the official escorting them.

The Demon Suppression Bureau.

Mention it anywhere in the Great Tang, and people turned pale.

They said that once the Imperial Guard of the Demon Suppression Bureau darkened your doorstep, Yama himself had come to claim you.

Children who heard its name wouldn't dare cry at night.

Besides, life on the frontier would be worse than death.

She might as well run now. Perhaps she could still find a way to survive.

Jiang Yuechu made up her mind.

She quietly backed away, turned, and was just about to take a step.

A sharp whistle tore through the air.

"Whoosh!"

Half of a broken blade buried itself in the ground just a step in front of her.

Jiang Yuechu froze, cold sweat instantly soaking her back.

What a formidable dying man!

In such a state, he could still throw a blade with that kind of force!

If he decided to kill her, her head wouldn't be much warmer than the corpses on the ground.

Jiang Yuechu drew a deep breath, bitterness swelling inside her.

Fine.

I'll come over!

When you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head.

She turned stiffly and shuffled toward him in tiny steps.

The man raised his head. Watching her move like a frightened chick, he seemed to twitch the corner of his mouth.

He really had used the last of his strength to throw that broken blade.

If she'd been set on running, he could only have watched her go.

Luckily, his little show had frightened the girl into staying.

"Help me up."

Perhaps worried she wouldn't comply, the man added, "I am Pei Changqing, Team Leader of the Longyou Demon Suppression Command."

He'd introduced himself to show his sincerity.

He took a breath, his gaze settling on her still-shaken face.

"I know you want to run... but could you get away? You're a criminal of low status with no household registration or Travel Permit. Even if you somehow make it to the next town, then what?"

"If you do as I say, I'll make sure you regain your freedom afterward."

As Jiang Yuechu listened, her eyes had already rolled.

Trying to sell me a pie in the sky?

How much chicken soup had my old boss fed me in my previous life? How many empty promises had he made?

And what came of it?

I hadn't earned enough blessings, so I'd met Yama early.

Still, he wasn't wrong.

Given her situation, running away really was the worst option.

A powerless woman in ancient times had next to no chance of surviving in the wild, where demons ran rampant.

Besides, even if the man was half-dead, who knew if he still had another trick up his sleeve?

If he lost his temper and cut her down, she'd really be out of luck.

After weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Yuechu gritted her teeth and nodded.

"...All right."

She carefully stepped forward and reached for Pei Changqing's arm.

His skin was scorching hot. Even through his clothes, she could feel his alarmingly high body temperature.

The smell of blood and sweat mingled together. It was anything but pleasant.

"This side."

Pei Changqing pointed with his chin to his uninjured right arm.

Jiang Yuechu had no choice but to circle around and laboriously drape his right arm over her thin shoulder.

So heavy!

Almost all his weight fell on her. Jiang Yuechu stumbled, nearly tumbling to the ground with him.

She gritted her teeth and strained with all her might before finally managing to haul him upright.

Pei Changqing was tall and broad. Now, most of his body leaned against her, his feet dragging along the ground. Every step was a struggle.

"W-which way..." Jiang Yuechu panted.

"South."

Jiang Yuechu said no more. Focusing on dragging the man along, she moved step by step in the direction he'd indicated.

But just as they'd taken a few steps,

Behind them came a strange sound.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

In that instant, both Jiang Yuechu and Pei Changqing froze.

Then came a long sigh.

"Haa..."

"Stop running."

"Where do you think you'll go in the middle of nowhere?"

Jiang Yuechu felt that Heaven had left her no way out at all.

They said the dead couldn't come back to life...

But nobody had told her demons couldn't!

Her hands suddenly slackened as she forgot to keep holding him up.

"Ugh!"

The gravely wounded Pei Changqing grunted as he fell flat on the ground.

But he had no mind to blame her.

All the color drained from Pei Changqing's face. He stared fixedly at the figure slowly rising in the distance.

The gaping, bloody hole in the Tiger Demon's chest was still horrifying.

Yet it moved as if nothing were wrong—or, rather, as if it were a demon with nothing wrong—rolling its thick neck with a series of crackling pops.

It looked at the two stunned humans and grinned.

"Surprised...?"

"Did you really think a few worthless Demon Suppression Guards and a mere Team Leader like you could kill me?"

Cold sweat seeped down Pei Changqing's back.

How was this possible?!

The blade he'd struck with had clearly pierced the Tiger Demon's heart.

He'd slain demons for years. There was no way he'd mistaken what he'd seen.

And yet, aside from the savage wound in its chest, the Tiger Demon showed no sign of weakening.

Unless...

A thought surfaced in Pei Changqing's mind.

This demon had already set one foot into the Bone Resonance Realm!

There were rumors that a demon's path of cultivation differed from that of human martial artists.

Once its bones and sinews began to resonate, it could awaken an innate supernatural ability!

It might regenerate from a drop of blood, or command illusions—its powers were strange and uncanny.

But why would such a Great Demon appear here?

What reason would it have to personally attack a mere group of prisoners being sent to the frontier?

To seize them?

It clearly didn't care whether the prisoners lived or died.

In the blink of an eye, Pei Changqing had no time to think further.

He forcibly drove the last wisp of blood and qi churning inside him. Ignoring whatever hidden injuries he might suffer afterward, he bent down and picked up a Horizontal Blade lying by his feet, its owner some unknown colleague.

"Die!"

With a furious roar, Pei Changqing lunged forward, bringing his Horizontal Blade down in a savage slash at the Tiger Demon's neck.

But—

The Tiger Demon neither dodged nor retreated. It lifted its right leg and struck first, faster than Pei Changqing could move.

A muffled thud.

Pei Changqing's body flew backward and slammed down beside Jiang Yuechu's feet. The Horizontal Blade fell beside him.

That sight snuffed out the last flicker of hope in Jiang Yuechu's heart.

She'd barely crossed over and become a helpless woman, and now she was about to die in a demon's jaws?

What kind of joke was this?

The Tiger Demon licked its enormous paw, barbs curled along its thick tongue.

It wasn't in a hurry. Instead, it even had the leisure to offer a word of advice:

"Human life is full of suffering. Wouldn't it be better to find release sooner? Stop resisting."

"Go in peace. I'll dig your graves and set up headstones for you all someday. That's a good deed, at least."

"..."

Go to hell!

She'd only been here for a few minutes!

If she died just like this, she'd absolutely rank at the very bottom of Tomato's list of the most pathetic transmigrators.

And she'd take the top spot.

Just as Jiang Yuechu fell into utter despair,

an ancient scroll slowly unfurled before her eyes.

Golden words appeared, line by line.

[Host: Jiang Yuechu]

[Realm: Mortal Realm]

[Martial Arts: None]

[Dao Cultivation: Zero (Slay living beings to obtain corresponding Dao Cultivation.

Spend Dao Cultivation to use the blood of demons as ink and the Hundred Demons Compendium as a scroll, sketching their forms and seizing their supernatural abilities.

It can also be used on your own techniques to unleash, in a single use, power corresponding to the number of years of Dao Cultivation spent.)]

This... this was...

A cheat?!

Having read countless online novels in her previous life, she was naturally familiar with them.

But what use was this cheat now?

Slay living beings? Obtain Dao Cultivation?

Where was she supposed to get Dao Cultivation?!

She was a helpless mortal who couldn't even truss a chicken. Was she supposed to slay that Tiger Demon?

Jiang Yuechu drew a deep breath and bent to pick up the Horizontal Blade lying on the ground.

The hilt was still warm.

"Cough..."

Pei Changqing, lying on the ground, had actually come to again. He opened his eyes and happened to see the girl standing with a blade in hand, her back to him.

His face was full of bitterness.

The woman did have some courage.

Too bad it was like an insect trying to stop a chariot.

How could a mortal possibly find a glimmer of hope in the hands of this demon?

The Tiger Demon watched with interest. "Even ants cling to life. Don't tell me you still want to..."

But Jiang Yuechu didn't look at the Tiger Demon.

She lowered her head, long hair covering most of her face.

Her arm trembled slightly.

In her mind, those words were crystal clear.

Slay living beings, obtain Dao Cultivation.

Out here in the wilderness, besides the unkillable Tiger Demon, the only other living creature...

was the dying man at her feet.

"Sorry..."

Her quiet words made Pei Changqing freeze.

"What...?"

But before he could figure out what she meant,

the next second—

Schlk.

The long blade sank into his chest.

Mortal Dust Three Realms: String-Hearing Realm—Bone Resonance Realm—Core Formation Realm