Shangpan Village

A dozen or so burly men, hard as iron, knelt ramrod-straight on one knee upon the official road.

Jiang Yuechu stood where she was, silent.

Still not going?

Did that even need thinking about?

Only a lunatic would go!

She could barely look after herself.

The people of Shangpan Village were suffering terribly.

But in times like these, who wasn't suffering?

If she died just like that, who would pity her?

Besides, she knew absolutely nothing about the strength of those Wolf Demons.

Even with a cheat at her side, the best plan was to start by squeezing the soft persimmons.

Find somewhere deserted, quietly grind monsters and level up, grow stronger step by step—that was the true way for a transmigrator to survive!

Rushing in rashly carried too much risk for too little gain.

Only idiots did that.

With her current intimidating appearance, she only needed to casually make up an excuse like "official business" or "another important case" to brush this matter aside.

Even if the people before her were unwilling, they would never dare let out another fart in front of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

But the words reached her lips.

Then she saw the light in Chen Qingyuan's eyes gradually dim.

The men behind him were the same.

To them, Jiang Yuechu's silence was already a wordless refusal.

Of course.

What kind of existence was the Demon Suppression Bureau?

A few wild demons slaughtering a village was probably nothing more than an ordinary matter that would not even make it into the files in the eyes of such great figures.

In the end, he had asked for too much.

Chen Qingyuan slowly lowered his head, his voice full of bitterness.

"It was... presumptuous of me."

Behind him came a chorus of suppressed sighs.

The night wind swept past, stirring up the dust on the ground.

What a broken world.

A nameless fire abruptly surged up from the depths of Jiang Yuechu's heart.

Fucking irritating.

She was no saint, nor did she want to be a hero.

But seeing them like this made her feel inexplicably agitated.

She slowly let out a breath of stale air and lowered her voice. "Tell me the situation."

Those four short words made the already despairing Chen Qingyuan freeze.

"My lord... my lord, you... you agreed?!"

Jiang Yuechu turned her head away, refusing to look at him.

"Why so much nonsense?"

"Yes! Yes!"

Chen Qingyuan was so excited that he could hardly speak coherently. He hurriedly climbed to his feet and gave Jiang Yuechu another deep bow.

"Thank you, my lord! Thank you for saving the hundred or so people of Shangpan Village!"

The dozen or so men behind him also rose one after another.

"Thank you, my lord!"

It was not as though they were truly so chivalrous that they would stake their lives for unrelated villagers.

Guangwu County governed four villages: Shangpan, Zhongpan, Xiapan, and Dapan.

In these villages spread across the surrounding countryside, people saw one another whether they looked up or lowered their heads. Their ties ran deep and tangled; every household had some relative or connection somewhere.

When all was said and done, they were saving their own people.

A young man with an immature face reacted the fastest. He hurriedly led over a magnificent tall horse and respectfully offered its reins to Jiang Yuechu.

"My lord, please."

Jiang Yuechu did not stand on ceremony and swung herself onto the horse.

She had ridden horses occasionally in her previous life. Though she was hardly adept, she could manage well enough and would not make a fool of herself.

The group delayed no longer. They turned their horses around and galloped back along the official road.

The night wind howled past their ears.

Chen Qingyuan rode alongside her, explaining the situation in detail as they hurried onward.

"That pack of Wolf Demons numbers around seven or eight. Their leader is a giant wolf covered in blue-green fur. It has already learned to speak human language."

"It calls itself the Green-Faced Gentleman. It is swift and nimble, its strength enduring, and its claws and fangs incomparably sharp. Ordinary blades cannot harm it at all. Two skilled swordsmen from my sect were torn apart in a single exchange."

"I fought it myself. Even after giving it everything I had, I only left a wound beneath its flank... That beast has likely entered the String-Hearing Realm."

Chen Qingyuan's tone was filled with wariness.

String-Hearing?

String-Hearing again?

Jiang Yuechu's grip on the reins tightened slightly.

She knew nothing at all about the realm divisions of this world.

But she had something to compare it against.

That Tiger Demon had been a demon of the String-Hearing Realm.

If they were in the same realm...

She now possessed twenty-five years of Dao Cultivation, along with the perfected Fierce Tiger Quickblade.

Perhaps she could fight it.

Having thought it through, she felt greatly reassured.

Chen Qingyuan continued, "As for the remaining wolves, they are merely minor demons that gained intelligence not long ago. They are fierce as well, but far less troublesome than that Green-Faced Wolf Demon. If our Flying Eagle Sect joins forces, we can barely handle them."

Jiang Yuechu said nothing, merely nodding as she committed every piece of information to memory.

The horses raced onward, and the night passed without incident.

The sky at the horizon began to pale.

Shangpan Village was built against the mountain, its houses scattered in orderly layers.

A small river wound past the front of the village. It should have been a peaceful place where chickens and dogs called to one another, with fine scenery and quiet days.

The group pulled on their reins and slowly stopped at the village entrance.

The stone monument engraved with the words Shangpan Village lay toppled to one side, broken into two pieces.

The village road where children once chased and played was now completely empty. Only dark, congealed bloodstains and scraps of torn clothing remained.

Most scalp-numbing of all were the rows of wooden racks standing outside every house in the village.

They had originally been used by the villagers to dry clothes and cured meat.

But now, the racks were covered with incomplete human bodies.

Severed arms, thighs, torsos ripped open from belly to chest.

Even Chen Qingyuan, who had seen this once before, went deathly pale. His lips trembled, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"My lord... this... is Shangpan Village."

Jiang Yuechu looked over everything without expression.

Her stomach churned violently, but she forcefully suppressed it.

Not far from the village entrance, two Wolf Demons leaned against an earthen wall.

They were bare-chested, with only ragged loincloths around their waists. They had clearly noticed this group of uninvited guests.

One of them threw back its head.

"Awooo—"

Chen Qingyuan and the others looked grave, each gripping their weapons tightly.

Very soon.

Several figures came swaying out from deep within the village road.

The Wolf Demon at the front was different from the others.

It was actually wearing a blue-green scholar's robe, though no one knew where it had stolen it from. Its two claws were clasped behind its back as it paced about, imitating a learned man.

But its body was huge, and the robe was stretched taut across it, looking neither fish nor fowl and utterly ridiculous.

The Green-Shirt Wolf Demon narrowed its pair of oily green eyes, yawned, and looked thoroughly impatient.

"I thought someone remarkable had arrived. So it is still you lot."

"Letting you escape yesterday was already a stroke of tremendous luck. What, you dare come back today to throw away your lives?"

Behind Chen Qingyuan, a young man could no longer endure it. His face flushed bright red.

"Beast!"

He cursed furiously, "You slaughtered our fellow villagers and occupied our village. Today, we will fight you to the death!"

"..."

Chen Qingyuan grabbed the young man who wanted to dismount, but his gaze fell upon Jiang Yuechu.

Hearing this, the Green-Shirt Wolf Demon bared its teeth in a grin. "What, you are allowed to eat, but we are not?"

"Humans eat pigs and sheep; wolves eat humans. It is the natural order of things. Those so-called fellow villagers of yours are no different from livestock in a pen in my eyes."

"They are nothing but food."

At those words, every member of the Flying Eagle Sect present was so enraged that their eyes nearly split open, unable to hold themselves back.

Just then.

A soft sound rang out.

Jiang Yuechu swung down from her horse, her boots stepping onto the dust-covered village road.

She said nothing, merely resting one hand upon the hilt of the saber at her waist.

One step.

Then another.

She walked toward the Green-Shirt Wolf Demon.

The Green-Shirt Wolf Demon, which had been speaking grandly moments ago, fell silent as well.

Its gaze finally shifted away from Chen Qingyuan and settled upon the slender figure approaching it.

When it clearly saw the black uniform marked with crimson patterns, it straightened up, and the claws clasped behind its back slowly lowered.

The sound of footsteps stopped.

Jiang Yuechu stood there, at the boundary between the morning light and the village's shadows.

The Green-Shirt Wolf Demon stared fixedly at her with its green eyes and asked probing, "Demon Suppression Bureau?"

Jiang Yuechu slowly raised her head.

Her long hair was tied behind her head, revealing a cold, pale face.

"Green-Faced Gentleman?"

Not only did she fail to answer, she questioned it in return.

The Wolf Demon's throat bobbed as it answered instinctively, "Yes."

The moment it answered, it realized something was wrong.

Fuck.

Its bearing had somehow fallen short by a notch.

Before it could think further, Jiang Yuechu sneered.

"Good."

"Killing a beast that can speak human words will make this trip worthwhile."

The Green-Shirt Wolf Demon flew into a rage. "If you were not wearing that skin, I would not even bother wasting words on you!"

It roared those words, yet somehow they felt off.

They sounded ruthless enough, but they also sounded like it was imitating the tone of the girl before it.

Thinking of this, the Green-Shirt Wolf Demon grew even more irritated.

It spoke no further, merely slowly raising one claw as five blade-like nails sprang forth.

"Kill her!"