Equipment Enhancement Limit! Emptying the County's Martial Arts!

Curious, Mu Yang took out the +1 Air-Dried Pork, then brought over four strips of ordinary-quality Air-Dried Pork.

Before long, another +1 Air-Dried Pork was born.

The result was the same: the quality of the Muscle Growth attribute rose from white to blue.

Mu Yang repeated the process and soon produced four strips of +1 Air-Dried Pork.

It was worth mentioning that the enhancement material did not necessarily have to be Air-Dried Pork. When enhancing the third strip, Mu Yang had a sudden whim and used the roast chicken he had bought for a late-night snack as the enhancement material. It worked just the same.

Unfortunately, all was ready save for the east wind.

[ Ding! The quality of the current enhancement target has reached its limit and cannot be enhanced further! ]

"Reached its limit?"

Mu Yang thought to himself, Was the Air-Dried Pork's own potential limited, or was it restricted by my martial cultivation?

Considering that every time he raised his martial cultivation by one rank, he gained another Equipment Slot, Mu Yang believed the latter was more likely.

Unfortunately, he had no particularly good equipment on hand. Otherwise, he could have tested whether the former was the case.

Since it could not be enhanced any further, Mu Yang did not continue fiddling with it.

After casually equipping one strip of +1 Air-Dried Pork, he returned to his room and fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile.

Inside the study of the Wang Family estate.

The candlelight swayed, stretching Wang Rudong's shadow into something like a demon or monster, baring fangs and brandishing claws.

For some reason, ever since Hui Er had left, a faint unease had begun to stir in his heart. Yet he did not know what he was uneasy about, and so he remained seated in the study without leaving.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Before long, Wang Fu pushed the door open and rushed in, panic written across his face.

"Master, something happened! Master Hui Er is dead! He died in that constable Mu Yang's courtyard!"

The moment those words fell, Wang Rudong's expression changed slightly.

Hui Er had been a mid-Third Rank demon, his strength second only to Yellow Wind King and his elder brother, Hui Da.

Moreover, he possessed a rare Demon Blood Spell capable of controlling shadows. Even Wang Rudong, whose Blood-Marrow Realm had reached Perfection and who was on the verge of breaking through to the Fourth-Stage Condensing Qi Realm, did not dare claim he could keep Hui Er behind with absolute certainty.

And now, Hui Er had actually died?

Died at the hands of a newcomer who had only become a constable three months ago?

This was far too bizarre. It simply defied all reason!

"Could it be that someone in the county deliberately laid a trap..." Wang Rudong tapped his fingers lightly against the table.

The county magistrate was a useless fool, having served peacefully for years and never provoking trouble.

County Commandant Zhou Heng had always been rather hostile toward the Wang Family, but his strength was insufficient. It should not have been him.

If there truly was someone with such strength, then it could only be the elusive chief constable, or the Liu Family and Hu Family, fellow members of the Three Great Families.

That was right. Though the Three Great Families were allies, they were not a solid block of iron. If any one family showed signs of decline or an obvious weakness, the other two would be the quickest—and cruelest—to strike.

"No matter what, we must first drag out whoever is lying in ambush in the shadows!"

That was right. Wang Rudong simply did not believe Mu Yang had killed Hui Er.

A newly promoted constable whose record for the past twenty years had been spotless—how could he possibly possess such strength?

Someone had merely noticed his decent talent and wanted to use him as bait to fish for a catch.

And because of Yellow Wind Mountain, the Wang Family had happened to come near the bait.

"Ah Fu, write a letter at once. Send it by fast horse through the night to Yellow Wind Mountain. Tell Yellow Wind Old Monster about Hui Er's death, as well as the fact that Hui Wu and Hui Jiu also died at Mu Yang's hands." A cold gleam flashed through Wang Rudong's eyes.

Though Yellow Wind Old Monster was only at Third Rank Perfection, once he unleashed his Demon Fiend Fishy Wind, even Fourth Rank martial artists had to treat him with grave caution.

Since the other side wanted to use Mu Yang as bait, then Wang Rudong would call over a great fish and see just how capable the one holding the rod was.

"Yes, Master!"

The next morning.

Having slept a full four hours, Mu Yang did as usual, carrying a Rat Demon head wrapped in a burlap sack to the County Office Constabulary for roll call.

The moment he entered, Old Ye and the others were drawn to the burlap sack in Mu Yang's hand.

The dark red bloodstains soaking into the sack, along with the faint fishy stench, made it abundantly clear that what was inside was definitely not roast chicken.

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching the author instead! It may simply have been renamed!

"Chief Constable, you... killed another demon?"

Old Fang rubbed his nose and cried out in surprise.

What had been going on these past few days? Why was the chief constable killing demons every day?

How many was this already?

Were demons cabbages growing in the fields, sprouting crop after crop?

Most importantly, the few of them had patrolled the streets with Mu Yang all day yesterday and had not seen a trace of any demon. How had another demon head appeared after a single night's sleep?

"I ran into it after getting off duty yesterday and killed it along the way." Mu Yang still wore that calm, unruffled expression.

To him, killing demons was no difficult matter.

It was nothing more than finding one, drawing his blade, chopping it down, and packing it up.

But to Old Fang, Old Ye, Li Chuang, Lin Xiaoqi, and the others, this news was far too shocking.

After all, let alone fighting demons, when they encountered one, simply surviving by luck was already a tremendous blessing.

"If only I could be half as formidable as the chief constable!" Li Chuang muttered to himself as he watched Mu Yang's departing back after roll call.

"I've decided. Extra training today!!"

On the other side, after finishing roll call, Mu Yang expertly carried the burlap sack to Clerk Liu's office.

Perhaps because he had grown accustomed to seeing Mu Yang arrive each morning carrying a burlap sack, Clerk Liu was not overly surprised. He merely smiled and took the sack, opening it.

Then he discovered that he had smiled too soon.

"This size..."

Clerk Liu fetched a soft measuring tape from the side and measured the Rat Demon's head. Looking at its circumference, which far exceeded that of the previous Second Rank Rat Demon, he froze on the spot.

No, why did this size look so much like the head circumference of a Third Rank Rat Demon?

Could I be remembering wrong?

Clerk Liu opened the Common Demon Dimension Measurement Manual beside him and carefully flipped through it from beginning to end.

Then...

Gulp!!

Clerk Liu swallowed, looked up at Mu Yang, and spoke in a faintly trembling voice. "Chief Constable Mu, th-this Rat Demon... was really a Third Rank demon?"

"Mm."

Mu Yang nodded.

Clerk Liu fell silent.

He remembered that the first time Mu Yang had come to exchange Merit Points, he had brought a First Rank Rat Demon. After that came a Second Rank Fox Demon, then a Second Rank Rat Demon, and now he had brought a Third Rank Rat Demon.

Was this even right?

Most importantly, a newcomer could kill a Third Rank demon?

Clerk Liu sized Mu Yang up and down. His clothes were clean, the exposed skin on his body fair and smooth as jade, without the slightest injury.

In other words, Mu Yang had not even been hurt!

Clerk Liu was somewhat dazed, suddenly feeling that the world he knew so well had become unfamiliar.

Looking across all of Qingxi County, there were probably fewer than two handfuls of people who could confront a Third Rank demon, and perhaps only enough who could kill one to count on a single hand.

As for doing so without a scratch...

Forgive Clerk Liu's ignorance, but he truly did not know of anyone capable of that.

What kind of unpolished jade was this? This was clearly gold washed clean of all its leaden dust!

Lord Zhou, did we really need the Demon Slayer Bureau?

"Take care, Chief Constable Mu!"

Before long, Mu Yang left Clerk Liu's office with the martial arts manuals he had exchanged tucked into his clothes.

A Third Rank demon could be exchanged for a great many Merit Points, but the County Office's stock of martial arts manuals was limited.

Only two high-grade martial arts manuals that he had yet to exchange remained.

With no other choice, he exchanged the remaining mid-grade martial arts manuals as well, which would serve nicely as enhancement materials.

Thus, every mid- and high-grade martial arts manual in the Qingxi County Office had been exchanged away by him.