Night spread like a curtain.
The Wild Boar Demon tossed aside the leg bone, its eyes glowing red.
Three Pig Demons turned toward Qin An and growled low in their throats.
The demons' Killing Intent blanketed the street, carrying the rank stink of pigs.
The Wild Boar Demon raised a palm as broad as a fan to calm the Pig Demons. "You took so long that my little ones got hungry. They stopped for a bite. You don't mind, do you?"
Qin An stopped twenty feet away. He tore his gaze from the flowered clothes and fixed it on the Wild Boar Demon. "How did you find me?"
It had come looking for him. There had to be a reason.
The Wild Boar Demon sneered. "I demanded an explanation from the Yamen, and you're it. My elder brother was a fool, but he was still my brother. Behave, and I won't make you suffer."
Qin An understood. The Yamen had sold him out.
The Wild Boar Demon wanted whoever had killed the Pig Demon. Qin An happened to carry a Pig Demon's scent. Wasn't that exactly what the Yamen needed?
As for explaining why they had blamed him when a constable had killed the Pig Demon...
Explain?
Explain my ass.
I'm about to be eaten, and I'm supposed to explain myself? Spare me.
"Come on." Qin An slowly raised his pointed knife.
The Wild Boar Demon thrust its broad hand into its bloody maw and rummaged around.
It pulled out a black Wolf-tooth Club, scarlet scraps of flesh still clinging to its spikes.
"Boys, cover me. I'm slaughtering this man today."
The three Pig Demons threw up their arms and cheered. "Long live Grandpa!"
Schk!
A blade punched through flesh and jutted, gleaming, from a Pig Demon's mouth.
Qin An slowly drew out the bloodied knife and wiped it on the Pig Demon's back. "I'm not your grandpa."
The remaining two Pig Demons felt their bristles stand on end. They stared at Qin An in terror.
The Wild Boar Demon froze for an instant, every black bristle rising. "You wretch! You're dead!"
The Wolf-tooth Club whistled toward Qin An's head, trailing a fierce gust and a foul stench.
It would smash Qin An to pulp with one blow!
A mere butcher had dared kill its descendants. It would flay Qin An alive.
Clang!
Knife and club collided with a metallic crash, spraying sparks.
The Wild Boar Demon stared.
The butcher had caught its Wolf-tooth Club.
Its strength was monstrous. Even a cultivator of the Qi Concealment Realm would not dare take that blow head-on.
Yet Qin An had.
Cold seeped through the Wolf-tooth Club and spread across the Wild Boar Demon's body. Its movements began to slow.
"This cold... you've cultivated a method too?" The Wild Boar Demon's eyes bulged.
Qin An put his strength into his arm and knocked the Wolf-tooth Club aside. In the same motion, he drove his knife down into the Wild Boar Demon's chest.
Blood ran down the knife and dripped to the ground in a thin line.
Cold froze its heart. The Wild Boar Demon thought it saw Qin An's lips move.
"I know how to slaughter pigs."
Its heart fell to the ground.
Qin An kicked the heart away and approached the other two Pig Demons.
"Mercy, sir. Don't kill me..."
The two Pig Demons clung to each other, trembling like grain in a sieve.
"Have you eaten people?" Qin An asked.
One Pig Demon opened its mouth to answer. Qin An's knife pierced its chest, drawing a spray of blood.
"Doesn't matter anymore."
Calmly, Qin An drove his knife into the other Pig Demon.
With that done, Qin An looked at the four Pig Demon corpses, dragged them inside, and butchered them without a change in expression.
Half an hour later.
Qin An held a Blood Crystal and placed it in the wooden box he had prepared.
The three Pig Demons had yielded no Blood Crystals. Qin An guessed they had been too weak.
The Wild Boar Demon had yielded one, larger than the last.
After a moment's thought, Qin An activated the Cold Source Cultivation Method to refine the Blood Crystal.
The Blood Crystal vanished like water meeting fire.
His blood vitality surged, but remained stored within his body.
Qin An frowned. Without the next stage of the cultivation method, I can't absorb the Blood Crystal. I can only store its power for later.
The cultivation method remained a problem.
He suspected he would only be able to refine the power he had stored once he obtained the next stage of the method.
Qin An knew he was self-taught. He belonged to no sect and had no master. Obtaining a cultivation method would be harder than climbing to heaven.
Joining a sect would take years. Joining the Evil Extermination Division only takes a willingness to risk my life.
The thought flashed through his mind. Before he knew it, he was recalling what Chen Chun had said. He shook his head hard.
What matters now isn't the next stage of the cultivation method. It's the Yamen.
Tonight, the Yamen had tried to use his life to get itself out of a tight spot.
That being so, Qin An could not sit and wait for death.
He could not simply take his knife to the Yamen. Even the Evil Extermination Division needed evidence from an Undercover Agent to bring it down. What could he, an ordinary citizen, do?
In the end, it comes down to strength. If I were strong enough to stand my ground in Ding County, even the Yamen would have to watch my face for a cue, let alone the demons.
Strength rules. With enough of it, I need fear no demon or monster.
I have no cultivation method for now. The Golden Finger is all I can rely on. I can't keep running the butcher shop. I'll put everything into raising the Blacksmith Profession to level three.
Qin An made up his mind.
It was already late at night. Qin An hung up the bell and went to sleep in his clothes.
The next day.
Captain Zheng yawned and waved a few constables over. "You lot, come with me to collect the bodies."
Clerk Wang had ordered him to collect the bodies from the butcher's home last night. But Captain Zheng had gone to the pleasure house instead and only hurried over today.
Collecting bodies was hardly as important as a pleasure house.
Since absorbing the Pig Demon's Blood Crystal, he had become one of Clerk Wang's trusted men. His strength had grown too. Naturally, he had wanted to indulge himself.
It was a shame the widow had jumped into a well. He had not been able to enjoy her again.
"Boss, we collected this from the vendors yesterday." A constable handed him a pouch of silver.
Captain Zheng took the money, the scar on his face twitching. "You know how things work. Let's go."
With several constables in tow, Captain Zheng went out, belly thrust forward.
The townspeople avoided the patrolling constables as though they were vermin.
When they passed a food stall, Captain Zheng and his men stopped for a meal. At the end, they told the vendor to put it on their tab. The vendor swallowed his anger.
By the time they neared Qin An's home, the constables were carrying all sorts of goods. They had already made quite a haul.
As he walked, Captain Zheng reflected on how well Clerk Wang handled things.
He had once wanted to take all five hundred men under his command to fight the Pig Demons. Now he saw that his men should not die at the hands of demons.
For one thing, he could hardly squeeze the townspeople dry on his own.
"That Huang girl from the next street, the one whose family sells crisp cakes—she's not bad. Go speak to her tomorrow," Captain Zheng told a trusted constable.
"Don't worry, boss. I'll snatch her tomorrow."
Captain Zheng glared. "What do you mean, snatch? Leave her some silver. Then it's mutual."
The constable nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry, boss. We know how to handle this. We won't botch it."
Captain Zheng laughed. "I guard Ding County for these people. I've earned this."
As they spoke, they reached the door.
Captain Zheng stopped and frowned.
Something was wrong.
The place reeked of blood, with the rank stink of pigs beneath it.
That pig stink proved the Pig Demons had been here.
But... where were the bodies?
"Open the door." Captain Zheng drew the long blade at his waist.
Before you continue