Xu Jin: What a Good Plan

Xu Jin lightly tapped the courtyard wall with the tip of his foot and landed without a sound.

The Li family boy at the front gate still held the pose of crashing into the door. His bluish-white, swollen face slowly turned toward him, hollow eyes fixing on Xu Jin.

Before the other could let out a shriek, Xu Jin raised a finger, and a streak of sword aura shot straight into his brow.

Hiss—

Golden light pierced through its body.

The water puppet did not even have time to struggle before instantly collapsing into a puddle of foul-smelling black water.

[Water Puppet slain ×1]

[Demonic Fragment obtained ×1]

Xu Jin glanced at the notifications, utterly unmoved.

Trash was trash. It could not even squeeze out a decent divine ability fragment—nothing but a low-tier experience pack.

He looked toward the tightly shut door, his tone calm. "The evil thing has already been driven off."

"Stay inside and do not go out. For the next few days, do not touch anything that drifts in from the river. Wait for the village head to send someone for you."

Wang Xiaoyi heard his voice from inside, and his taut nerves instantly gave way.

"Th-thank you, sir!"

Xu Jin said no more. Turning, he stepped out of the courtyard and flew in the direction where the yin baleful aura was strongest.

The morning mist had yet to disperse. The reeds by the shore rustled, and a thick, rotten stench mixed with watery vapor rushed at his face.

Not long after flying into the reeds, he heard voices ahead.

Two gray-clad disciples crouched behind an earthen slope. A stack of yellow talisman paper lay at their feet as they counted it with their heads lowered, cursing under their breath.

Xu Jin paused in midair, reined in the battle aura around his body, and watched from afar through the reeds.

The two were too busy complaining about their assignment to notice that someone had appeared above them.

"The altar master really is something else. Wouldn't it be fine to block the Demon Suppression Bureau head-on? He had to make us dig a side passage and release the Baleful Intent ashore."

"This job is exhausting and dangerous. If people from the Demon Suppression Bureau find their way here, the two of us will be the first to take the hit."

The other snorted and picked up a Baleful Intent-Attracting Talisman.

"What the hell do you know? The frontal attack is a feint, meant to draw all the Demon Suppression Bureau's attention over there while we secretly refine souls from the side."

"Once the new moon arrives three days from now and the yin souls from the three villages along the shore have been fully refined, the altar master can use the Yin Method of the Dan Ding to break through into the peak of the Grandmaster realm. By then, forget some petty patrol officer—even if Hundred-Household Li comes, it will be useless."

"Besides, the Demon Suppression Bureau must be watching the main tomb chamber entrance right now. How could they imagine we'd be causing trouble through the side passage?"

The two laughed as they spoke, completely unaware of the killing intent above their heads.

Xu Jin stood over them and heard every word clearly.

So it was the classic villain play again: feint at the front, raid from the side. They had really mastered the art of war.

And they were timing their soul refining for the new moon to break through. They even knew the online-game trick of timing a boss spawn.

"What a good plan."

"What's so good about it? The altar master just opens his mouth, and his subordinates run—"

Mid-sentence, the two gray-clad disciples abruptly realized something. They jerked their heads up, saw the Demon Suppression Bureau uniform on Xu Jin, and their faces instantly changed.

"Someone from the Demon Suppression Bureau?!"

"How did you find this place?!"

Xu Jin did not waste words. Golden light flashed.

Two streaks of sword aura tore through the air, shooting straight for their hearts.

The two hastily summoned yin-baleful barriers, but Molten Gold Battle Aura was innately the bane of yin.

Pfft! Pfft!

The two outer disciples did not even have time to scream before dropping stiffly to the ground.

Xu Jin swept a glance over the talisman papers on the ground, then lifted his foot and continued onward.

After another hundred-odd steps, his view suddenly opened up.

A simple ritual altar had been erected in an open space by the shore. Black banners stood in a circle, while pottery bowls, bone needles, and several ghostly green eternal lamps sat atop the altar.

Four or five yin cultivators surrounded it, forming hand seals and chanting incantations. Yin Baleful Qi from beneath the water continuously surged upward through the formation eye under the altar, while a layer of black, oil-like Sha Qi floated on the water's surface.

At their head stood a middle-aged man in black robes, his face sinister. He held a black pill seal between his fingers, eyes closed as he guided the Sha Qi.

Xu Jin raised his hand and swept out several Molten-Gold Sword Auras.

Golden light tore through the morning mist, streaking straight toward the black banner formation at the perimeter.

Crack—

Several formation banners snapped in response. The formation's footing fell into disarray, and the yin Sha Qi atop the altar instantly churned like a hornet's nest that had been poked.

"Who dares trespass upon the ritual altar of my Profound Yin Hall?!"

The black-robed deacon abruptly opened his eyes and shouted furiously. Turning toward Xu Jin, his gaze was so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

Xu Jin stepped into the formation, a faint golden glow spreading around him and blocking all the surging yin Sha Qi outside.

"Xu Jin, patrol officer of Green-Mud Ferry, Demon Suppression Bureau."

"You secretly excavated an ancient tomb and released Baleful Intent to harm the people. By law, you are to be executed."

Upon hearing this, the deacon was so enraged that he laughed instead, raising the black pill seal in his hand.

"A court hound of the Demon Suppression Bureau dares meddle in the affairs of my Dan Ding lineage?"

"The Dan Ding inheritance has always been the true orthodox lineage of my Profound Yin Hall! You butchers who burn the Way and destroy the Dharma—what do you know of cultivation?!"

Pointing at Xu Jin, his voice shrill, he said, "Today, I shall act on Heaven's behalf and slay you, you dog official who aids tyranny! It will also comfort the spirits of yin cultivator forebears throughout the ages!"

Xu Jin could not help but sneer at that.

An evil cultivator was still an evil cultivator, yet he insisted on crowning himself with the lofty hat of an orthodox inheritance.

So killing people and releasing Baleful Intent was acting on Heaven's behalf, while my enforcement of the law and elimination of evil made me a butcher. He was quite smooth with that double standard.

"You sure talk a lot."

Xu Jin could not be bothered to listen any longer. Rainbow Transformation stirred beneath his feet, and he charged straight forward.

Sword aura poured down like a torrential rain.

The yin cultivator disciples at the perimeter had no room to fight back. Golden light swept past them, and they screamed as they fell.

In but a moment, only the black-robed deacon remained beside the ritual altar.

Both shocked and enraged, he desperately drove the Sha Qi with the pill seal. Black Sha Qi surged toward Xu Jin like crashing waves.

The black Sha Qi struck the Molten Gold Battle Aura and was instantly burned into rising white mist, unable to so much as touch the corner of Xu Jin's robes.

"Impossible! You're only at the eighth level of the Insight Realm. How can you be this strong?!"

The deacon roared, but was forced back again and again until his back soon pressed against the ritual altar.

Behind him, a boy of fifteen or sixteen huddled there, his face deathly pale. He had clearly been frightened out of his wits.

This was his biological nephew, as well as the last disciple he had taken—the Dan Ding's sole inheritor.

With one sweep of his eyes, Xu Jin saw through his weakness.

His sword aura shifted. Golden light bypassed the deacon and rested directly against the boy's throat.

The sharp sword aura made the boy's skin ache. He trembled all over, not even daring to cry aloud.

"Don't touch him!"

The deacon's eyes nearly split open as he moved to pounce.

"Don't move."

Xu Jin pressed down slightly with his finger. The sword aura drew a fraction closer, and a line of blood instantly seeped from the boy's neck.

"Take one more step, and I guarantee his body and soul will be obliterated."

The deacon's steps abruptly halted. His face turned green, then white. He stared fixedly at Xu Jin, his eyes brimming with venom, yet he did not dare move in the slightest.

He had only this one nephew, his sole hope for the Dan Ding inheritance. Nothing could happen to him.

Xu Jin looked at him. "I ask. You answer."

"How many men are stationed in the lower levels of Sunk Tomb, and how are the defenses arranged?"

"Where exactly is the Dan Ding inheritance?"

"Where is your altar master now?"

The deacon gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples.

He stared at the sword aura held to his nephew's neck, at the boy trembling like a leaf. The ruthlessness and stubbornness in his eyes were slowly crushed away.

He could die, but the Dan Ding inheritance could not be severed.

His throat bobbed again and again as his clenched fists slowly loosened.

Under his ashen expression, he finally opened his mouth.

"Fine... I'll talk..."

"The defenses in the lower levels of Sunk Tomb are..."