Land: Here You Go

A demonic wind suddenly swept through the mountain forest, carrying a rolling stench that darkened the sky and left one unable to distinguish north from south.

Three demons manifested before Lu Bian. Upon seeing such a sturdy, robust man, their eyes lit up instantly and their breathing grew heavy.

A single instinct told these three demons that if they ate this man, Lu Bian, their cultivation would increase tremendously, and it was even possible for them to become regional demon kings in one fell swoop.

For immortals and demons, such instincts were necessary to trust, as they were likely the will of heaven—a hint from the heavens themselves.

Lu Bian observed the three demons silently, comparing them to the descriptions provided by the Water God and the Earth Deity.

The tiger demon, General Yin, looked extremely fierce and wore a suit of tattered armor. The bear monster, Lord Bear Mountain, was a tall, dark man, half-human and half-bear, with exceptionally thick fur. The ox spirit, Master Te, was a fat man with two horns on his head, hunched shoulders, and a hunched back; he wore a green robe, but his feet were still hooves.

Though they were called three demons, only three had arrived.

Lu Bian took the Green-skinned Old Gourd from his waist, twisted off the stopper, and took a deep gulp of Wild Fruit Wine.

He smacked his lips; the fruit wine was slightly sweet and a bit astringent.

He drank three more times, finishing the wine in the old gourd.

Lu Bian gradually began to feel the combat-enhancing effects the Earth Deity had mentioned; his face grew hot, and his body began to feel feverish.

Lord Bear Mountain reached out to grab Lu Bian, but Lu Bian countered by hooking the bear's claw.

Sensing that the strength of this mortal was not right, Lord Bear Mountain immediately used his other hand to squeeze Lu Bian's head.

"Hah!"

Lu Bian yanked the hooked bear claw downward, instantly causing Lord Bear Mountain to stumble and plant his hand on the ground. Lu Bian then lifted his knee and slammed it directly into the bear monster's face.

"Awoo!" Lord Bear Mountain let out a mournful cry. Lu Bian followed up with a punch to the back of the monster's head, smashing the creature's skull into the dirt with a single blow.

"What?" The tiger demon and the ox spirit only then reacted; their food had turned around and started beating the demons.

"How dare you!"

General Yin, the eldest of the three, drew the Ring-pommel Sword from his waist and lunged at Lu Bian.

The tiger demon was also proficient in swordsmanship, and not the style of a common wanderer, but the sword techniques of soldiers killing enemies on the battlefield.

The ancient sword was sharp, so Lu Bian grabbed the dazed bear monster and held him up as a shield and weapon to fight the tiger demon.

"Ah?!"

"What a despicable human!"

Lu Bian maneuvered Lord Bear Mountain into the path of the tiger demon's blade, and in a short time, Lord Bear Mountain's body was covered in bloody gashes.

"Put my brother down!"

Lu Bian obediently put down the bear monster he was using as a weapon, only to shove him head-first into the ground, like planting rice seedlings.

"My turn!"

The ox spirit had thick skin and flesh, astonishing defense, and terrifying strength, but he was not very agile. If one's movements were not agile, it was easy to become a punching bag.

The ox spirit attacked Lu Bian first, but Lu Bian always countered after the fact, dismantling his moves—fist against fist, palm against palm.

Master Te raised his ox hoof and stomped the ground, causing the earth to shake. Lu Bian leaped up, grabbed the pair of horns on Master Te's head, and snapped them off. Lu Bian then returned the broken horns to the ox spirit by jamming them into its nostrils, driving them straight into its brain.

"You brute, I cannot let you live!" the tiger demon shouted.

Having seen his two brothers reduced to this state, General Yin no longer cared about eating meat; he only wanted to use every means to kill Lu Bian.

It was a pathetic state of affairs.

Back in the day, General Yin had been the first tribulation Tang Xuanzang encountered on his journey to the West to obtain the scriptures. He had been addressed as a Demon King by the holy monk of the Tang Dynasty, and a single command from him could summon fifty or sixty minor demons to do his bidding. Now, only he, the bear monster, and the ox spirit remained, huddling together to survive.

Demonic energy surged from General Yin's body, and the stench became even more intense, making it almost impossible to breathe or see.

Amidst the black, foul-smelling demonic energy, the tiger demon General Yin unleashed every sword technique he knew against Lu Bian.

But within the demonic energy, a dazzling bolt of lightning suddenly flared.

It was Lu Bian himself glowing, with blue-white electric arcs flickering over his body.

"Ultimate Arhat Fist: Arhat Subdues Demons!"

Carefully dodging the tiger demon's blade, he hammered his fists and elbows into the tiger demon's body in rapid succession.

The tattered armor protected some parts of the tiger demon, but the magnetic field power of Lu Bian's Ultimate Arhat Fist penetrated right through it. Before long, the armor on the tiger demon fell apart.

"You, I, uh, woo..."

General Yin could no longer speak; blood was streaming from his seven orifices.

After whimpering for a moment, the tiger demon, the leader of the three, breathed his last and collapsed to the ground.

The sky-covering demonic energy gradually dissipated. The tiger demon, the bear monster, and the ox spirit had all been taken down by Lu Bian.

He panted.

He caught his breath.

He regulated his internal energy...

A puff of white smoke suddenly rose from the ground; the Earth Deity had appeared.

"Thank you, Hero Lu, for ridding us old folks of these three scourges!"

The Shepan Mountain Earth Deity bowed low to the ground in gratitude.

"..., what is it? That fight was actually pretty easy. They all went down before I even used my full strength," Lu Bian said.

Lu Bian's entire face was flushed red, and every time he opened his mouth, a wave of alcohol fumes drifted out.

The Shepan Mountain Earth Deity had claimed his homemade Wild Fruit Wine wasn't very intoxicating, yet it was the most potent kind of brew.

Having never touched alcohol before, Lu Bian was severely drunk from his first taste of the Earth Deity's fruit wine. He hadn't fought the three demons without using one hundred percent of his strength; he had used one hundred and twenty percent.

Who knew the power of Magnetic Rotation at ninety thousand horsepower? Only the three demons who had been beaten to death by Lu Bian's bare hands knew.

"Hero Lu, please accept this little trinket as a gift."

"What is it this time?"

The Earth Deity offered a square, cyan jade token to Lu Bian with both hands.

"This is the Green Earth-Shrinking Talisman. With it, Hero Lu, you can use the Earth-Shrinking Technique at any time to quickly arrive in front of any nearby Earth Deity temple."

"So it's an Earth-Shrinking Technique limited to Earth Deity temples," Lu Bian remarked, examining the Green Earth-Shrinking Talisman in his hand. It was a very small and delicate piece of cyan jade.

"This talisman uses our Earth Deity mana. Hero Lu, you only need to trigger it with your divine sense to activate the Earth-Shrinking Technique."

"I'll take it." Lu Bian stuffed the Green Earth-Shrinking Talisman into his inner pocket for safekeeping.

"Your donkey is over there. I shall take my leave now."

The Earth Deity leaped into the ground, disappearing into the earth as if diving into water.

Lu Bian went to find his donkey where the Earth Deity had pointed, then continued on his journey, heading further east.

As they traveled through these eastern lands, Lu Bian's donkey hesitated and refused to move forward. Lu Bian had to drag the stubborn beast along. The three demons were already dead, but their aura still lingered across their territory. The stubborn donkey could sense the demons' presence and could not understand why its master, Lu Bian, insisted on dragging it toward certain death.