A World Overrun by Demons

Mottled earthen walls, a dim oil lamp.

An old little bed covered with faded red cloth, carrying the smell of rotting wood.

Shen Yi stared at everything before him, stunned for a long time, unable to accept the fact that he had transmigrated into a low-ranking constable in Baiyun County.

But everything around him felt so real.

The scattered memories in his mind were growing clearer, too.

Demons ran rampant, and evil spirits were everywhere.

His predecessor had been a street thug, clawing his way up from the bottom until he finally managed to get himself a uniform as a government officer. From then on, he had food and clothes without worry. It sounded like a truly inspiring story.

But why had the man suddenly died?

At the thought, Shen Yi inexplicably felt a pain in the back of his head.

He reached up to touch it, then pulled back a hand covered in blood.

The glaring crimson between his fingers seemed to flip some kind of switch. In an instant, Shen Yi finally shook off the grogginess of a hangover, and violent pain surged through him.

"Hah! Hah!"

His eyes flew wide as he panted rapidly, gasping again and again.

He looked down.

At the foot of the bed stood a skinny girl, clutching her underclothes with a face full of terror.

Right beside her was an old man dressed in ragged, patched clothes. His hunched body trembled nonstop as he shakily gripped a wooden club, blood dripping from its tip.

The two stared at him as if he were some ferocious beast, their eyes filled with despair and fear.

"I say..."

Shen Yi clenched his teeth. Under the sting of the pain, fury pounded uncontrollably against his chest.

He stared at the old man, about to tell him to put down the club first.

Just then, the girl suddenly yanked at the little clothing she had left, wrapping herself around Shen Yi's leg like a crazed little beast. With a sob in her voice, she wailed, "Master! Take me! I'll give you anything! Please, let my dad go back to the countryside!"

The old man's hand loosened, and the wooden club clattered to the ground.

His face was numb, his gaze vacant. It seemed that the blow just now had used up every last bit of his strength.

Given Master Shen's fearsome reputation in Baiyun County, the moment he opened his eyes again, the father and daughter were already doomed.

"Could you please shut up first?"

Shen Yi's eyelid twitched from the pain.

He was already in pain and in a foul mood. How could he stand this girl wailing her head off?

His predecessor had planned to force Liu Girl into marriage tonight. The old man had done a good deed for the people with that blow, and deserved a commendation.

But Shen Yi was innocent. Why should he take a cheap shot like that?

He was fuming, but couldn't bring himself to curse them out. After all, in the eyes of others, Constable Shen had merely woken up after a brief bout of dizziness. They had no idea that someone else had taken his place.

He grabbed the clothes on the bed and tossed them over Liu Girl, then waved his hand as if shooing away flies. "Get out, get out, get out," he said weakly.

The old man had hit him hard enough to give him hallucinations. In his previous life, he would've shaken the two of them down for at least half the price of a house.

He rubbed his temples, but the hallucination before his eyes only grew clearer.

[Current Martial Arts]

Bone-Piercing Grappling Hand (Great Accomplishment)

Demon-Subduing Blade Technique (Beginner)

[You may infuse martial arts with your lifespan to gain corresponding progress]

[You cannot infuse any more when your remaining lifespan is less than one year]

[Your current remaining lifespan: thirty-four years]

Shen Yi read the words on the screen and wondered what to make of them.

Come to think of it, according to the memories that remained, his predecessor really did know these two techniques.

The Bone-Piercing Grappling Hand was taught by the government office, and every constable had to train in it. It was considered a basic skill.

It was precisely because he had mastered the technique so well that his predecessor had been promoted and become a minor leader.

As for the Demon-Subduing Blade Technique, after demons had run rampant in Baiyun County, a lieutenant from the Demon Suppression Division had personally come to teach it to the constables. It was a genuine martial art for exterminating demons.

But by then, his predecessor had already gained a little status and had been worn down by drink and women. Instead of learning martial arts to protect himself, he had another way to stay alive under the demons' claws.

In other words, this panel was real, not a hallucination?

But wasn't this utterly useless?

Infuse it with lifespan to gain progress in martial arts? That was no different from his previous life's idea of trading away years of his life for a paycheck.

The problem was that in his previous life, he had already lived like a complete wreck. He had neither hope nor anyone to care about. He was practically a walking corpse. If he got a paycheck and could enjoy himself for a few years, it wouldn't have been a bad deal.

But the whole point of learning martial arts was to stay alive. If he was dead, what was the use of learning them?

Couldn't he just practice slowly on his own?

"Ugh."

Shen Yi turned his head, hoping to make the panel disappear.

As luck would have it, he saw the father and daughter again.

They stood there like wooden posts, looking as if their souls had left their bodies.

"I told you two to hurry up and leave..."

Grimacing, Shen Yi pressed a hand to the back of his head and was about to speak when he suddenly remembered something.

His predecessor had come to force Liu Girl into marriage in the middle of the night. So this was the Liu Family household, which meant the one who should leave was...

Embarrassment welled up in Shen Yi's eyes.

Fine, he'd leave.

He rolled his eyes, stood up, reached for his saber, and walked toward the courtyard gate with his clothes in disarray.

Transmigration was bad enough, but after taking a club to the head, he still had to walk home by himself. What kind of sin had he committed in a past life to deserve this? Pathetic!

"..."

Liu Girl clutched her father's hand, her skinny body trembling beneath her clothes.

She didn't understand why Master Shen's temperament had changed so much. He hadn't tormented her or beaten her father. He had simply left, looking rather glum.

But there was no relief in her eyes at having escaped death.

On the contrary, as Shen Yi drew closer to the courtyard gate, Liu Girl's pupils gradually shrank. She was clearly terrified to the extreme.

Creak.

The ramshackle courtyard gate was shoved open.

Shen Yi walked out of the yard and took a deep breath of the dry night air.

He had hoped it would help him clear his head a little, but the stench that drifted into his nose made him frown instinctively.

Had he forgotten something?

"All done? Then it's my turn."

A rough voice spoke by his ear, and the stench instantly grew several times stronger.

Shen Yi's whole body went rigid. He glanced sideways.

A humanoid figure as bulky as a small mountain was crouched at the entrance to the courtyard.

Its muscles were packed tight, its shoulders towering. Its black fur gleamed with oil, and its neck jutted forward beneath a dog's head.

It turned to look at him slowly, then reached into the waistband of its pants and scratched.

Then it stood up, towering a full head above Shen Yi, its shoulders more than twice as broad. Its enormous shadow spilled across the ground.

"Next time, move faster. An empty stomach makes me angry."

At that, Shen Yi lowered his head, his expression complicated. He had finally remembered how his predecessor had stayed alive.

He had colluded with evil spirits, running a little provisions business.

With people like him pulling strings at the government office, bustling about to frame the innocent, they could keep the demons fed without attracting the attention of the Demon Suppression Division.

Like tonight, for example. He had already paved the way for the Liu father and daughter. Once the Dog Demon had eaten its fill, Baiyun County would be sure not to make even a ripple the next day.

Once he had figured it all out,

Shen Yi forced a smile. He bumped the other man's arm with his shoulder and said with a grin, "You know what your little brother's capable of. How could I possibly be quick?"

As he spoke, he nudged the other man and tried to move forward. "Come on, let's go. Drinks are on me tonight. Call it an apology to my big brother."

But the hulking figure didn't budge an inch.

The Dog Demon's eyes lowered as it looked Shen Yi over impassively. "Do you take me for a fool?"

With that, it turned and tore off the roof of the shed before striding into the courtyard.

With his intentions exposed, Shen Yi reached out to stop it without thinking. Even he hadn't realized what gave him the nerve to stretch out that hand.

Damn it! What did this have to do with me?

He reacted quickly and tried to pull his arm back, but a broad, furry dog paw had already seized it.

The Dog Demon whipped around and leaned close to Shen Yi's face. Its gaping maw bristled with icy fangs, and sticky saliva dangled from its long snout in silvery strands.

"Shen, you really seem to think you're somebody."

"Have you forgotten what kind of demon I am? I heard everything going on in there. You bastard, are you really going to betray me?!"

The two of them had come together to commit murder, but one of them had quit halfway through. The meaning was obvious.

As it spoke, the Dog Demon's thick leg slammed forward!

"Hey, aren't you a dog? Why are you turning on me at the drop of a hat?"

An unimaginable force crashed into Shen Yi's abdomen, instantly making his head spin. The veins in his neck bulged as he flew backward like a broken sack, smashing through the door on his way into the courtyard.

He swore this was absolutely the closest he had ever come to death.

"Ungrateful bastard. You might as well be the offering that fills my guts."

Hearing the cold voice outside the courtyard, Shen Yi slumped to the ground, clutching his lower abdomen. He looked up at the father and daughter beside him, who were trembling like sieves.

He looked away and gasped, "Could you two... have warned me... to use the back door?"

The old man and the girl swallowed hard again and again, as if that were the only way to hold back the screams in their throats.

Their faces were full of confusion. They couldn't understand why the man before them, a villain who should have been buddying up to demons, had been kicked inside too.

"Forget it, the saber..."

Shen Yi weakly lifted a hand. Seeing the two of them staring blankly, he could only remind them again. "Pick up the saber and bring it over."

Liu Girl hurriedly picked up the saber and handed it to him. She just couldn't figure out who he meant to cut. Surely not the demon outside the door?

Shen Yi swallowed the coppery blood in his mouth and gripped the hilt. Under the father and daughter's gaze, he suddenly spat out, seemingly apropos of nothing, "Disgusting."

Whether it was this chaotic world in his memories, his predecessor's way of staying alive, or the fact that he now had to imitate him and do the same to barely scrape by—

It was all disgusting, and so damn pointless.

"..."

The Dog Demon toppled the courtyard wall and stooped to enter the yard. It stuck out its thick tongue and gently licked its paw, ready to eat.

Thinking of his head being taken into that filthy dog mouth, chewed to bits bit by bit, then swallowed with a mouthful of sticky saliva,

Shen Yi's breathing grew quicker and quicker, and a trace of madness quietly crept into his eyes.

Fine, fine. So that's how you want to play.

His life had been picked up for free; the demon's life belonged to the demon. If it wanted to gamble its life against him, what made it think he wouldn't?

The panel unfurled before his eyes.

Infuse martial arts with lifespan to gain corresponding progress.

"Right, the Demon-Subduing Blade Technique. Please max it out for me."

"Thank you."