Dim, gloomy lights, a room in disarray.
The sound of chewing flesh pierced the eardrums.
"Mm..."
The upside-down gravity muddled Mei Ye's thoughts. He opened his eyes, his memories still stuck in the previous world, and stared at the horrific scene of cannibalism before him in bewilderment and shock.
"Oh? You're awake?"
In the hall, a massive dog monster with sleek, glossy black fur and bulging muscles lowered the human thighbone from its mouth.
Mei Ye looked over. A bloodstained napkin hung from the dog-headed monster's neck. Two bloody heads stared unblinking at the ceiling, their gazes meeting Mei Ye's, resentment and unwillingness filling their eyes.
An uncontrollable mix of glee and the sorrow of the fox mourning the dead hare welled up inside Mei Ye.
"What? Feeling sorry for them?"
The dog-headed monster grinned. It was a Dog Demon, and it loved eating people.
The Dog Demon bit down hard on the meat, its mouth filled with greasy fat. Oil dribbled from the corner of its mouth.
"Didn't you hate those two?"
The Dog Demon mockingly spun one of the heads on the table. Its nails dug into the skull, scooped out the brain, and ate it.
Mei Ye exhaled a breath of stale air, forcing himself not to give in to his anger.
"Dog!"
Mei Ye's tone was calm, not a trace of emotion in it.
"Hmph."
The Dog Demon clicked its tongue, then shoved its long snout into the head and licked it clean.
The Dog Demon had made up its mind. Once it finished eating this head, it would eat the kid too.
Unable to bear the inhuman scene, Mei Ye closed his eyes and calmed himself down.
A moment ago, he had been a student who'd failed the postgraduate entrance exam. Now he was a dying man in a parallel world.
Judging by his predecessor's memories, the person the Dog Demon was eating had been his predecessor's colleague.
His predecessor had worked for the Demon Suppression Bureau as a trainee Demon-Suppressing Guard—that was, a trainee criminal investigator. In this high-martial world, they fought demons and monsters and maintained social stability.
Today should have been nothing more than an ordinary patrol, but they'd run into trouble and encountered a Dog Demon.
They hadn't been able to defeat it, and had ended up being eaten.
His predecessor had also died in the fight from losing too much blood.
As for this world,
it was much like the Earth Mei Ye had come from.
Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming.
The biggest difference lay in the history of a hundred years ago.
A century earlier, spiritual energy had revived, and demons and monsters had plunged the world into chaos.
An upheaval unlike anything in history had arrived.
Humanity had regarded itself as the foremost of all living things, arrogant and conceited, each nation acting on its own. They hadn't united to fight the invaders in time.
Meanwhile, demons and monsters had appeared in endless waves and were incredibly difficult to deal with.
As a result, humanity had lost control of most of its territory.
Now, only the Asia-Pacific nations still maintained their governments.
Mei Ye's predecessor had grown up in a rural family. His father had died of illness, and his mother, unable to endure their hardship, had hanged herself.
After becoming an orphan, he'd worked tirelessly, graduated from Jiangnan Martial Arts University, and been assigned to the Demon Suppression Bureau as a trainee law-enforcement officer of the lowest rank.
Though he had little talent and came from a poor family, earning the disdain of the men at the Demon Suppression Bureau,
for an orphan like him, he'd at least managed to land a secure job.
But before he'd had a chance to enjoy the good life, he'd died.
"All right! You're a tough little bastard. You've lost so much blood and still haven't died."
The Dog Demon tossed aside the head, now nothing but bones, wiped its mouth, and looked at Mei Ye, still craving more.
"But I love hearing humans wail. The louder you scream, the more excited I get!"
Saliva hung in strands between the Dog Demon's sharp teeth. Its thick, rancid stench made Mei Ye's face twist with disgust.
The Dog Demon strode toward Mei Ye, its heavy steps making the floor tremble faintly. Mei Ye's utterly despairing face was reflected in its greedy eyes.
"Beep beep beep—!"
Suddenly, a strange phone ringtone echoed through the silent night, breaking the dangerous tension.
The Dog Demon irritably pulled out its phone. After checking the caller information, it glanced at Mei Ye, then hurried off to the side and answered in a low voice.
"Hello...?"
Mei Ye was dumbfounded. Even monsters used technology in modern society.
A strong enemy wasn't the problem. It was a strong enemy who liked to learn!
No wonder humanity hadn't managed to reclaim its territory after all these years. It turned out the monsters were making progress too.
Watching the Dog Demon cheerfully talk on the phone, then looking at the bodies of his two colleagues on the ground, Mei Ye shut his eyes in utter despair.
Might as well wait to die.
[ Ding! ]
[ Current Host Status:
Martial Arts:
Basic Qi Nourishing Art (Body Tempering Realm, Second Level)
Grappling Hand (Minor Achievement)
Wind-Treading Step (Minor Achievement)
Righteous Qi Saber Art (Minor Achievement) ]
[ Defeat enemies to gain Merit Points, fuse martial arts, and improve cultivation and proficiency! ]
Mei Ye was stunned. Joy spread across his face, as if he'd found an oasis in the desert.
Heaven never seals off every exit!
But in the next instant, his eyes dimmed again.
Merit Points could only be earned by killing enemies, but if he could take on that Dog Demon, would he really be worrying?
[ Initial Merit Points: 500! ]
Another line of cold text appeared on the transparent blue panel, but to Mei Ye, that number looked so dear.
Heaven hadn't forsaken him!
Mei Ye's brows relaxed, and the tension in his body eased.
He glanced at the Dog Demon talking on the phone, then poured all his Merit Points into the only martial art he knew—Grappling Hand!
A stream of warmth appeared out of nowhere, flowing from his heart through his limbs and bones. Mei Ye's muscles swelled, his wounds from the fight with the Dog Demon healed, and his complexion began to recover.
At the same time, an animated sequence of little figures practicing appeared in Mei Ye's mind. Their movements were fluid and forceful, filling him with longing.
[Basic Qi-Nourishing Art: Body Tempering Realm, Fifth Level!]
Mei Ye rolled his wrists and gave a slight tug. The ropes snapped apart.
The corner of his mouth curled up. He looked at the Dog Demon, chatting away as if it were some big shot, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
He silently rose to his feet, picked up the bloodstained standard-issue long saber lying on the ground, and slowly approached the Dog Demon from behind.
"That's right, that's right... Leave it to me, you can count on me! I'll definitely take care of that kid..."
The Dog Demon's voice was coarse, like that of a vengeful ghost.
But before it could finish speaking, its pointed ears suddenly twitched. It sniffed, then abruptly turned around.
"Woof!"
The Dog Demon dropped its phone. Its green eyes blazed like flames as it lunged straight at Mei Ye.
Seeing how alert the Dog Demon was, Mei Ye acted at once, flipping his wrist and bringing his saber down.
This strike was faster than any saber technique he'd managed before.
A flash of silver cut through the air, chilling and sharp.
The saber's glow illuminated the Dog Demon's startled face. It couldn't believe Mei Ye had grown stronger despite his injuries.
It let out a piercing shriek, leapt into the air, and pounced on Mei Ye.
Mei Ye retreated until his back met the wall, then swung his saber horizontally and blocked the Dog Demon's claws.
He shifted his stance, circled around the Dog Demon, raised his saber high, and brought it down with crushing force.
The Dog Demon's eyes narrowed. The kid had gotten so fast that it couldn't even catch up!
It twisted its body and lunged in for a bite. A row of man-eating fangs clamped onto the saber. It jerked its head, trying to wrench the weapon from Mei Ye's grasp!
A glint flashed in Mei Ye's eyes. He stepped forward, gripped the saber hilt with his left hand, his arm's veins bulging, and brought it down in one fluid motion!
Rip!
Flesh burst apart, and filthy blood sprayed through the air!
The Dog Demon's mouth was slashed open, the cut reaching all the way to its ear.
"Awooo!"
The Dog Demon howled and staggered backward, leaping and bounding in pain.
"You bastard!"
The Dog Demon's fur stood on end. Blood streamed from its mouth, making it look like a vengeful ghost from hell. Its eyes brimmed with hatred!
Mei Ye shot forward, his form ghostlike. His blade bore down on the Dog Demon, cutting through the air and slicing through its tough flesh.
Squelch!
A tuft of stinking dog fur fell to the ground and scattered in the wind.
A huge gash suddenly appeared across the Dog Demon's chest. Blood sprayed from it in a torrent, splattering all over Mei Ye.
It fell to the ground, twitching, and stared at Mei Ye with unwilling eyes, as if looking at some kind of demon.
Even as it died, it couldn't understand why the little clerk who should have been eaten had suddenly become so skilled.
Wicked!
Mei Ye sheathed his saber. Blood stained half his face, lending his delicate features an eerie beauty.
He searched the area and found a smartphone on the Dog Demon.
His long, clearly defined fingers slid across the screen. He saw that the call was still connected.
"..."
So,
had whoever was on the other end heard everything when he'd just killed the Dog Demon?
Mei Ye gripped the phone, not knowing what to do for a moment.
"Big Dog?"
After waiting a long while without hearing anything, the person on the other end tentatively spoke. Their voice was very sharp, clearly altered with a voice changer.
"Sorry, it's dead."
After a brief silence, Mei Ye decided to tell the truth.
He was an honest, good kid.
Silence fell over the other end of the call. Mei Ye waited for a long time, but there was no response.
"Kid, you've got guts, daring to mess with my dog!"
After a long while, the person sneered, then hung up.
Mei Ye called back, but the line wouldn't connect. The other party had severed contact, preventing him from tracking them down as a public official.
Mei Ye searched through the phone again, but apart from finding some eye-searing pictures of female dogs in the Dog Demon's browser, he found nothing.
Mei Ye stuffed the phone into his pocket, went over to the Dog Demon, and crouched down. He began cutting at its neck with his long saber, then severed its head.
A merit was a merit, no matter how small, right?
Mei Ye picked up the Dog Demon's head, wrapped it in a piece of cloth, and left the remote, dilapidated building.
He walked leisurely past the bodies of his two colleagues who'd died in the line of duty, without even looking at them.
He hadn't known his predecessor's colleagues, and in his predecessor's memories, they'd looked down on him. So he felt rather cold about their deaths.
The night wind swept through this desolate place. The moon overhead could only shed a faint light on its vague outlines. Darkness surrounded it on all sides, with only a few scattered lights.
Mei Ye looked toward the city's distant lights, feeling as if he'd crossed into another life.
Compared to the higher-ranking Demon Suppression Bureau officers, he was a low-ranking member and could only patrol this relatively poor district. There weren't many rich people here, and security wasn't very tight.
Still, this city was in the heart of the Divine Land, and public safety was far better than on the frontier.
The demons and monsters ordinary people feared were mostly insignificant little fiends that couldn't stir up much trouble.
As for the Dog Demon he'd encountered today, he could only say he'd been unlucky—and genuinely too weak, too.
"Mm—"
As his thoughts drifted, a row of powerful searchlights swept over him, and sirens rang out across the outskirts.
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