The Demon Realm

"How long are you planning to stay?"

Watching her eat with such relish, Shen Yi inexplicably felt a little hungry. He reached for a baked flatbread, only for the other woman to lightly tap his hand with her fair, jade-like fingers.

Lin Baiwei picked up a clean flatbread and handed it to him. "I set up a little shed in the backyard. I'll try not to disturb you. As for how long I'll stay... another month?"

She wasn't very sure.

Shen Yi took the flatbread, his expression giving nothing away.

There wasn't a single honest word in this woman's mouth. Her background seemed spotless, but in truth, the Lin Family had sent her away many years ago. When she returned, no one knew what skills she had learned, but she'd dared to leave the city alone to subdue demons.

He'd originally thought she was a greenhorn, a reckless upstart.

But after spending time with her lately, Shen Yi had realized she was meticulous and seemed to have suffered through her share of hardships. She was nothing like some fool who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth.

Most importantly, she had provoked those mysterious Fox Demons and still made it back alive?

His predecessor had locked her up in the house, seemingly getting a bargain. But in Shen Yi's eyes, that had practically been asking for death.

Forget what would happen if word got out. How was an ordinary constable supposed to face the Lin Family's fury?

Why hadn't the Fox Demons killed her?!

Shen Yi couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped trying. Calmly, he said, "No."

At that, Lin Baiwei wasn't surprised. Instead, she chuckled. "What, weren't you always hoping to keep me as your wife? Changed your mind?"

When he'd dragged her over, the lustful look on his face had been no act.

She'd thought that hearing her give a little ground would make Shen Yi, no matter how composed he pretended to be, show at least a hint of a reaction.

Yet the young man only raised his eyes slightly.

A moment later, a trace of mockery flashed through his clear black-and-white eyes.

Lin Baiwei's eating gradually came to a halt. She brushed a crumb from the corner of her lips and met his gaze. Under Shen Yi's faintly derisive stare, the delicate, plaintive look on her pretty face slowly faded.

"Ah."

She smoothed her hair at the temple and sighed, rather helplessly. In an instant, her entire bearing quietly changed.

Lin Baiwei straightened up, a sharper edge in her long, narrow eyes. "Though I don't know why you, a mere constable, suddenly got mixed up with them—or whether you're the sort who works for demons."

She glanced sidelong at the bloodstained clothes on the young man. "It can't be easy pretending to stay calm, can it? You're desperate to learn how to transcend the Mortal Body?"

Lin Baiwei openly pointed out that he had reached the peak of the Mortal Body, crossed her legs, and unhurriedly straightened her clothes. A cool light surfaced in her eyes.

"Call me Master, and I'll help you cross the threshold into the Initial Realm. How about it?"

She'd been in too much of a hurry before, and the martial arts names she'd made up had been too crude. But today she'd come prepared. Surely she could fool this young man. What a joke.

Lin Baiwei was brimming with confidence.

She quietly looked at the young man.

Then she saw Shen Yi calmly raise a hand, unfasten the saber at his waist, and casually place it on the table.

"You left home to study your art."

Shen Yi's voice grew increasingly indifferent. "Was it the art of performing in an opera?"

He pressed five fingers against the scabbard. Lin Baiwei suddenly felt herself enveloped by a dense Killing Intent, and couldn't help swallowing. "You... what are you planning to do?"

"I'm not interested in you."

Shen Yi shook his head. "But I am very interested in your sect."

"I already told you, I don't have a sect."

Lin Baiwei tried to explain, but then she saw Shen Yi take a small cloth bundle from his clothes and casually unfold it beside the scabbard. Inside lay a quivering lump of flesh.

"Prove your worth."

Shen Yi stood with his arms at his sides, seemingly harmless. But the saber and the lump of flesh on the table had already made his attitude clear.

Pick one of the two. Please, less drama. He was running out of patience.

"..."

Lin Baiwei stared at the lump of flesh. The fingertips hidden in her wide sleeves trembled almost imperceptibly.

She froze for a moment before saying, "Beast Essence? Where did you get that...?"

Before her words were out, she looked again at the bloodstained clothes on the other man. The answer was obvious.

"Beast Essence from something about four hundred years old. Is this from a Yellow Weasel?"

Lin Baiwei clenched her five fingers slightly, concealing her surprise. The man had left at dawn with a mouthful of flatbread and returned at night with the Beast Essence of an Initial Realm demon.

Since when had constables in Baiyun County become this fearsome?

She glanced at the young man and answered briskly, "Beast Essence of this quality can be used directly as the main ingredient in a Qi Gathering Pill, or to assist in refining a higher-grade Liquid Condensation Pill... If conditions don't permit, you can swallow and refine it directly, and still get seventy or eighty percent of its effect. It just has more impurities and can slightly harm your cultivation, so it's best to take your time."

"Of course, whatever you use it for, no martial artist below the Initial Realm can make use of it... And that's the honest truth." Lin Baiwei spoke with a touch more seriousness.

Shen Yi nodded and casually covered the Beast Essence again.

That was more or less what he'd guessed.

If she'd kept spouting nonsense and called it some kind of poison, then Shen Yi would really have had to consider drawing his saber.

Still, Lin Baiwei's ability to recognize at a glance whose Beast Essence it was had truly exceeded his expectations. Could she know about every demon around Baiyun County?

"You can stay, but I won't get involved in your business with the Fox Demons, and I won't ask about your identity."

Shen Yi put the things away and continued, "In exchange, I want two genuine Initial Realm manuals."

"The Peach Blossom Mountain-Cleaving Axe, the Peerless Demon-Slaying Sword..." Lin Baiwei had just raised a finger when she felt the young man's cool gaze sweep over her. She pursed her lips and lowered it. "I don't have any manuals with me right now. I can only give them to you after I'm rescued."

"Fine."

Shen Yi didn't press her too hard.

He wasn't in the habit of putting all his eggs in one basket. The Demon Suppression Division was good, but if he could also build ties with a few martial-world sects and learn more about martial cultivation, that would naturally be better.

"You killed the Yellow Weasel in Baiyun County. Aren't you afraid the other demons will be enraged?"

Lin Baiwei picked up another baked flatbread and stuffed it full of salted meat. Only when it was bulging did she take a great big bite. Chewing as she spoke, she mumbled, "Demons may each have their own factions, but they're united in their attitude toward the imperial court. If you ask me, you shouldn't have gone after the Yellow Weasel first. You've startled the snake."

"What do you mean?" Shen Yi's interest was piqued.

"This Dog Demon only just entered the Initial Realm, while Yuan Tongtian has stayed on East Mountain for years without showing himself, preparing to break through to the peak of the Initial Realm. He should be the one most wary of something like this."

Lin Baiwei's little face flushed as she struggled to swallow the flatbread. Then she let out a long breath. "And there's Old Mother Green Scale. More than a hundred years ago, there were already rumors that she was a great demon of the Jade Liquid Realm. If I were you, I'd report this to the imperial court and ask them to send a few Vice Generals from the Demon Suppression Division. Take out the Snake Demon first, and Old Ape, Yellow Dog, and the rest will naturally scatter and flee."

Shen Yi listened quietly, then realized she wasn't going to say more. "What about the Fox Demons?"

The young woman rolled her eyes.

She'd already polished off all the food and lightly patted her ample chest. "Burp... I'm sleepy, sleepy."

Shen Yi sat back down on the edge of the bed and cupped his fists. "Thank you for the warning."

Lin Baiwei ambled toward the backyard and shot him a look. "At least you have a conscience."

In the quiet little courtyard,

the ease in the woman's eyes faded, and her expression gradually grew complicated.

She might have spoken dismissively about the Yellow Weasel, but it had been a genuine Initial Realm demon. The other man was just an ordinary constable with no master to teach him, and he still had to find a way to get manuals from a stranger like her. Even if he'd encountered some fortuitous opportunity, he'd only had part of the picture.

In those circumstances, he'd still managed to slay the Dog Demon.

If she could lay out a path of cultivation for him, his future achievements would surely be extraordinary.

With talent like his, if he died in the muddy waters of Baiyun County, that would be a terrible waste.

Unfortunately, she could barely protect herself right now, and truly had no strength to meddle in so many other affairs... She was so hungry.