Truth

Zhou Yi reacted quickly.

With a long sword in hand, he thrust out in a flash. His Wind-Riding Swordplay was swift beyond measure; as his blood and qi surged, the monkey-like crimson-blue head was already severed by the blade.

Bzzz!

A bone-clinging chill burrowed into Zhou Yi's body along the sword, making his movements stall.

It was the sinister energy transmitted after slaying a demon!

What a waste!

Lin Nan cried out inwardly. Zhou Yi's sword had been too fast—before he could make a move, the Corpse Wraith had already been beheaded.

"Move."

Zhou Yi could no longer worry about the consequences of hunting demons. He only wanted to leave Withered Locust Village as quickly as possible.

Hiss!

Yet before he could step out of the village entrance, waves of hissing suddenly came from the gray mist ahead. More than a dozen monstrous shadows seemed to be crawling silently within it.

Everyone's hearts tightened at the sound.

"Corpse Wraiths? Why are there so many Corpse Wraiths here?!"

Peng Huo's shocked voice rang out. Even this constable known as the "Iron-Faced Owl Patrol" had changed expression.

"Quick, everyone, take out your blood talismans!"

They hurriedly reached into their clothes and pulled out several blood talismans. Crimson firelight radiated from them, temporarily intimidating the Corpse Wraiths.

"Ahhh! Help me!"

Xu Qingqing's terrified cry for help suddenly came from behind them. The five of them turned around in unison and saw that, within the hazy mist, three Corpse Wraiths appeared to be clutching Xu Qingqing's body and dragging her swiftly toward the depths of the village.

"We can only kill our way out. Once the fog gets any thicker, who knows what other demons and evils it'll draw here!"

Zhou Yi snorted coldly.

But before he could act, Lin Nan had already charged forward without hesitation. His body moved like a swimming serpent as he wielded his steel saber and slashed at a Corpse Wraith before him.

"Has he always been this brave?"

Even Zhou Yi was a little dumbfounded. Ordinary martial artists wished they could stay as far away from these demonic creatures as possible, yet this fellow acted as though he wasn't afraid of death.

"That shouldn't be..."

Yu Qianqian was equally bewildered. She had heard of Lin Nan's reputation from the day she entered the martial school.

An older youth who frequented pleasure houses and had only advanced by luck, he normally practiced martial arts quietly and had never shown such ferocity as he did today.

"Hmph. You don't have a Creation Furnace, so it would be hard for me to explain it clearly."

Lin Nan naturally noticed their strange looks, but he did not care. With a flick of blood and qi from his left fingertips, the blood talisman instantly flared with crimson firelight.

Washed over by the firelight of the blood talisman, the Corpse Wraith's entire body seemed to be scorched by blazing flames.

Lin Nan immediately raised his saber and brought it down. The blade, wrapped in the searing blood and qi of his flesh, cleaved the Corpse Wraith apart.

With a buzz, threads of sinister energy drilled into Lin Nan's body. The furnace in his mind roared to life, instantly refining all of that sinister energy into yin energy points.

Another yin energy point in hand!

"What are you standing around for? Kill them together!"

Peng Huo's low, icy voice sounded from behind them.

Only then did the others awaken as if from a dream, quickly charging forward with blood talismans and weapons in hand.

An hour later.

The five stood at the village entrance, panting heavily. Before them lay Corpse Wraith bodies strewn every which way, with pools of black blood across the ground.

"Finally..."

Xiong Hui, drenched in sweat, leaned against the locust tree at the village entrance. His body was covered in wounds. Even Zhou Yi and Peng Huo were sweating heavily now and seemed to have suffered considerable injuries.

Only Lin Nan swept his gaze over the information on the [Creation Furnace] with barely concealed delight:

[Usable yin energy points: 6.]

[Convert into proficiency?]

From then until now, he had killed a full six Corpse Wraiths, nearly exhausting the blood talismans he had accumulated over some time. Fortunately, the final gains had not disappointed him.

Worth it!

[Convert!]

The yin energy points transformed into a full 600 points of proficiency, all of which Lin Nan poured into the White Snake Fist.

The words "Serpent Flow Force" on the furnace blurred, changing into "Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent," then twisted again and became "Serpent-Transforming Force"!

[Fist Art: White Snake Fist-Transforming Force (Perfected)]

In an instant, countless insights and experiences of the White Snake Fist were branded into his mind line by line.

"My... my White Snake Fist has reached perfection?!"

Understanding dawned on Lin Nan in an instant.

To practice martial arts without cultivating internal skill was ultimately an empty endeavor.

If stance training was the foundation of blood and qi in martial cultivation, then the White Snake Fist was the channel through which one wielded the blood and qi within one's body. Training only the stance would turn someone into a sandbag with nothing but blood and qi.

But training only the fist art would prematurely drain one's blood and qi, damage the internal organs, and impair one's martial cultivation, leaving one unable to advance a single step.

Martial arts and internal skill—only when martial technique and cultivation became one could all of one's blood and qi truly be used as one's own!

Though he dearly wished to add all his proficiency to his stance training and raise his martial cultivation, the White Snake Stance only had three levels, corresponding to the three realms of blood and qi.

To advance further, he needed to obtain a higher-level stance art from the martial school.

On the other side, Yu Qianqian, who was examining the Corpse Wraith bodies, suddenly let out a cry.

"Look at the clothes on these Corpse Wraiths—they seem to belong to those villagers!"

Hearing this, Zhou Yi immediately bent down and used his sword to lift a Corpse Wraith's body. He discovered that it was wearing coarse hemp clothes, which bore more than a passing resemblance to the villagers' clothing!

"Villagers? How could villagers become Corpse Wraiths? What exactly happened in this village?"

Just then.

"Watch out!"

Lin Nan's voice suddenly rang out behind him.

Zhou Yi froze, then instinctively turned around.

Splurt!

A flash of cold light suddenly streaked through him, piercing from behind through Zhou Yi's chest and running him clean through.

"Senior Brother!"

Xiong Hui, who had been resting, saw this scene and his eyes instantly split with fury.

"You..."

Zhou Yi turned around with difficulty. He saw a familiar face standing behind him, staring at him with a cold, sinister expression.

"Peng... Peng Huo, what... what are you doing?"

He spoke in disbelief as blood gushed from his chest like a fountain.

"Zhou Yi, your martial realm is too high. It wasn't in vain that I had to use so many Corpse Wraiths to wear you down."

Peng Huo abruptly pulled out his steel saber and savagely kicked Zhou Yi in the abdomen. Zhou Yi's entire body flew several yards like a kite with its string cut, crashing into a tree trunk before quickly falling silent.

After dealing with Zhou Yi, Peng Huo turned back toward the remaining three with a relaxed expression.

"Corpse Wraiths... wear him down... Constable Peng, what are you talking about?"

Yu Qianqian nervously drew her sword as well. The situation had changed in an instant. The dependable leader who had stood beside them moments ago had become an enemy raising his blade against them.

"If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who killed the villagers of Withered Locust Village, weren't you?"

Lin Nan's face was cold as he clenched the hilt of his saber and approached from the other side, forming an encirclement with Xiong Hui and Yu Qianqian.

Yet Peng Huo did not care in the slightest. Instead, he burst into laughter, as though that stern face from before had been nothing more than a mask all along.

"Correct. How did you figure it out?"

"From the yellow paper you snatched away after it was found in the village chief's room, I felt that you were overly nervous..."

"...Besides, this mission was strange in every way. It was clearly a simple task of gathering flower dew, so why did it offer as much as fifteen taels of silver and require six martial artists? It didn't make sense."

Lin Nan spoke slowly.

"So I made a guess just now. Suppose the lord mentioned on that yellow paper written by the village chief was you. Half a month ago, you came here and discovered a bronze cup of considerable value."

"To obtain that bronze cup, you murdered more than twenty people in the entire village and concealed the news of Withered Locust Village's destruction. Then, in order to cast bait and draw martial artists here, you deliberately posted a collection mission with an exceptionally high reward-to-effort ratio. Am I right?"

"Very clever. You guessed eight or nine parts out of ten correctly. If that fool Zhou Yi at the third realm of blood and qi hadn't also accepted a collection mission, I would have acted the moment we entered the village."

As Peng Huo spoke, he sighed again.

"To keep all of you here, I truly racked my brains. I even had to sacrifice the Corpse Wraiths I painstakingly refined over this period..."

"Corpse... Corpse Wraiths? You mean these Corpse Wraiths were all refined by you?"

Xiong Hui's face was full of shock. "How is that possible? How can people refine demonic creatures?"