The front door of a house on the edge of town suddenly opened.
A tall, middle-aged man with blue light flickering in his eyes frowned slightly. He reached up with his right hand, felt the Eerie Seal mark on the back of his head, then brushed the silver scroll on his back.
The silver scroll was as thick as a thigh and taller than he was. He carried it diagonally across his back, its end jutting above his left shoulder.
At the top of the scroll, a cloud of devilish energy slowly revolved.
The man frowned at the Edict in the sky. After a long silence, he took a portrait from his Luck Silver-Fish Pouch. The person depicted wore the purple Fortune official robes of the Subordinate Third Rank, yet looked unusually young.
He slowly put the portrait away, recalling the sect elder's instructions before his departure.
Kill... Ye Han, and I can cultivate in the Ten Thousand Devil Grotto for three years, brand a devil god onto my Spirit Platform, and obtain the Great Heavenly Devil Descent Art, one of the Devil Sect's four great cultivation arts.
He gazed silently at the Edict as scenes from his past flashed through his mind.
If I kill Ye Han, I can advance smoothly to the Upper Rank, then return to my Lineage and slaughter every last one of them...
I must finish him before the other four do!
He smiled. His blood-gaping maw split open, upper and lower, and countless insects swarmed through the air.
He stepped through the doorway and walked forward.
People followed him out, one after another. Some wore Night Guard uniforms, some plain cloth, and some brocade robes.
Every face was expressionless, every movement stiff, as though their bones had been replaced with straight wooden rods.
Yet