Are You the Mysterious Expert?

Sun Dan was slightly taken aback when he heard the voice. He instinctively turned his head and saw someone standing in the doorway.

The man was dressed plainly, with a long knife at his waist. He had poked his head in and was curiously surveying the situation inside the room.

He instantly understood. Yu Hang had deliberately baited him into talking, saying it for the person at the door to hear so that he would go report it.

Yu Hang was still shouting, "Old Zhou, fucking get out of here! I'll hold him back—don't worry about me!"

Zhou An: "..."

Why had he appeared at the door? That had to start with his knife skills practice.

Tonight, he had practiced for another two hours and had been preparing to sleep.

But before he had even finished washing up, the energy within his body suddenly stirred, and he felt something unusual.

That sense of danger rose from the depths of his heart, making him instinctively follow the energy's guidance to Yu Hang's room.

Then, he saw the scene before him and heard the exchange between the two.

He had not expected Yu Hang to be so unyielding, tangling up Sun Dan in hopes that Zhou An could go report to the yamen.

Could he leave?

No.

First, Yu Hang was his childhood friend. Though Zhou An had transmigrated here, through their interactions over this period, Yu Hang had proven not to be a bad person.

Second, Sun Dan had already seen his face. Leaving would only bring more trouble.

He could not leave for either reason, and besides, he could not get away. The other party would never let him go.

Since he could not leave, there was only one other way.

Take him down!

Zhou An drew the long knife from his waist.

"Old Zhou?"

A vicious expression appeared on Sun Dan's horrifying rat-like face.

"This is the good brother you always told me about, the one you grew up playing with? Fine, then the two of you can die together!"

Sun Dan gave his right arm a slight shake, and Yu Hang was instantly sent flying, smashing hard into the wall.

"Old Zhou, are you fucking stupid?! Get out of here!"

Yu Hang endured the pain shooting through his back and tried to keep Sun Dan occupied.

But Sun Dan was incredibly fast. He ignored Yu Hang entirely, bent his legs, and gave a light spring, shooting toward Zhou An like an arrow loosed from the bow.

In the blink of an eye, he was already before Zhou An.

Zhou An could even see the sparse black fur on Sun Dan's body and his sharp incisors.

"Whoosh!"

He let out a long breath, drew the long knife at his waist, and swept it before him, leaving afterimages.

More than a dozen brilliant Knife Lights Forms a Line arrived in an instant!

The room lit up as though bathed in moonlight.

Sun Dan's charge abruptly stopped. He lowered his head and looked at his chest.

Cracks appeared one after another, beginning from his chest and turning him into a pile of fragments on the floor.

The whole process took only a few breaths. Zhou An had already sheathed his knife.

Yu Hang sat on the ground, staring blankly at Zhou An, his face filled with utter shock.

"Th-this, this..."

He stammered for a long while without managing a complete sentence.

During their midday break today, Head Constable Xie had already taught them about this.

Knife Light Forms a Line was the standard for entering the ranks of a Third-Rate Expert through knife techniques.

In other words, Zhou An had long since become a Third-Rate Expert.

I'm such an idiot, Yu Hang thought.

He recalled how, not long ago, he had discussed such matters with Zhou An.

They had talked about the different ranks of experts and even mentioned mysterious experts.

Yu Hang was a clever man. Combining the current situation with that mysterious expert from not long ago, he had already drawn a conclusion.

"You're that mysterious expert?"

Zhou An said nothing.

Denying it at this point would be far too fake.

Yu Hang immediately scrambled to his feet, putting on a fierce expression. "You even hid it from your own brother. Are you still human?"

It was terribly uncomfortable and awkward.

The mysterious expert he had kept bragging about turned out to be his own brother. Anyone would be embarrassed in his place.

Zhou An said helplessly, "You never asked. You just kept babbling on and on, getting more and more into it. I couldn't exactly rain on your parade, could I?"

The fierce look Yu Hang had put on vanished from his face, and he sighed.

"Old Zhou, how did you suddenly become like this?"

Zhou An smiled. "Does it feel like you're afraid your brother won't do well, but also afraid he'll do better than you?"

Yu Hang shook his head. He could not quite describe that feeling.

Everyone had supposedly been slacking off together, yet you had been slacking off while somehow not being useless.

The rest of them were useless!

Zhou An patted Yu Hang's shoulder. "What are you thinking? Once you pass the exam, you'll have to look after me. What the hell is a Third-Rate Expert worth? When you become an Imperial Official, you'll rank far higher than me."

Hearing that, Yu Hang felt a little better.

"What do we do about this?"

There was still a heap of corpses on the ground. It was a heap because Zhou An had cut him into pieces.

"Make something up," Zhou An said with a smile.

The meaning was clear: make up whatever you wanted, just do not drag him into it.

Yu Hang looked at the pile of fragments and ran into the room to fetch a cloth sack.

The two worked together to gather the fragments into the sack.

Once every last piece had been cleaned up, Yu Hang dragged the sack behind him.

"Then I'll head to the yamen first?"

This matter could not wait. Since it had already happened, he needed to report it as soon as possible.

Zhou An nodded, waved his hand, then turned and headed toward his own home.

The two understood each other perfectly.

Yu Hang said nothing either. As usual, he dragged the sack toward the yamen.

Everything was as though nothing had ever happened.

After Zhou An returned home and shut the door, he lit the oil lamp on the table.

He poured himself a cup of water and took a small sip, his expression rather strange.

"There was more than one."

He had been listening from the side just now and had grasped the general meaning.

The Beast Cult was a force that borrowed the power of wild beasts, but it was completely different from the thing that had attacked him that day.

What had attacked him that day was a shadow, with nothing whatsoever to do with beasts.

In other words...

Besides the gray rat at the door that day, there had been something else.

That black shadow should have been the other party's ability.

At the time, he had confirmed that he had killed the shadow.

But whether there had been anything afterward, he had no idea.

"A tiny place like An Ding County is actually hiding so many unknown things. Good thing the Demon Suppression Division is standing in front to hold the line."

Zhou An looked at the proficiency before him.

"I need to hurry. Tomorrow, I'll go to the yamen and settle this matter."

With that thought, Zhou An made a decision in his heart and extinguished the oil lamp.

The yamen.

Head Constable Xie hurriedly got dressed in the middle of the night and rushed over.

Division Magistrate Zhang of the Demon Suppression Division arrived with him as well.

Yu Hang felt that tonight's wind was especially noisy.

Because he was standing in the courtyard, dragging a sack.

And the two big shots of An Ding County were surrounding him.

How am I supposed to make this up...

Yu Hang was speechless.

He felt that the task Zhou An had given him was especially arduous.

"Tell us what happened."

Division Magistrate Zhang, with his square face and solemn expression, spoke gravely.

Yu Hang lightly cleared his throat and recounted what had happened, then repeated one line.

"It was that mysterious expert. Bang, bang, bang—more than a dozen knife lights."