Killing Pigs

Zhou Yan pulled open the door, saber in hand, and slipped into the night.

Even while inside, he had already heard that only one demon had entered the village.

The moonlight was deathly pale, stretching the shadows of earthen walls and doorways long across the ground.

At the eastern end of the village, that thing was still searching house by house, the dull thuds of doors being torn open sounding one after another.

The children's cries had already grown faint, as if someone had covered their mouths.

Zhou Yan crept north along the base of the walls, slowing his steps until he gave away nothing.

The courtyard wall of a house in the north had collapsed halfway. He crouched to the foot of the wall and peered inside.

In the courtyard, a towering shadow was squatting beside the cellar entrance.

A straw mat had been flung aside. Muffled sobbing came from the cellar as the creature sniffed repeatedly, a hoarse laugh rumbling from its throat.

"I smell you." The beast spoke human words. "You hid yourselves well. I love eating little children most."

A huge, hairy hand reached into the cellar and snatched a child from a woman's arms.

The child was seven or eight years old, so terrified he could not even cry. His legs kicked wildly in the air as the woman's scream tore through the village's silence.

The Pig Demon lifted the child to its nose and sniffed him, baring two gleaming white tusks in a grin.

Zhou Yan vaulted over the low wall, saber leading the way as he struck straight for the Pig Demon's neck.

Clang!

The saber struck the back of the Pig Demon's neck as though it had hit oil-soaked cowhide, bouncing back.

Only a pale mark remained on the Pig Demon's neck.

The Pig Demon slowly turned its head, threw the child to the ground, and narrowed its tiny mung-bean eyes as it sized Zhou Yan up.

"A Martial Adept?" It spat. "You're only at the early Meridian-Opening Realm, yet you dare meddle in your Grandpa Pig's affairs?"

"Your saber isn't even enough to scratch Grandpa's itch." The Pig Demon hefted its thick wooden club in one hand. "Looks like I get an extra meal today. Martial Adept meat is a great tonic."

"You little piglet, you want to eat me? Aren't you afraid of breaking your teeth?" Zhou Yan sneered.

The Pig Demon stopped wasting words and smashed its club down at his head.

Zhou Yan sidestepped. The club struck the ground, splitting a bluestone slab cleanly in two.

Using the momentum of its strike, the Pig Demon lunged forward, its body crashing toward him like a small mountain.

Mountain-Settling Stance!

Inner qi flowed through Zhou Yan's legs and into the earth, rooting him firmly in place. The inner qi of his Limit-Breaking Mountain-Suppressing Fist surged through his arm and struck the Pig Demon's chest from half a foot away.

Bang!

The Pig Demon flew as if struck by a charging bull. Its back smashed through half the courtyard wall, and cascading bricks buried half its body.

It crawled out of the rubble, all contempt gone from its eyes, replaced by terror. "You... you're only at the early Meridian-Opening Realm. How can you be this strong?!"

"You'll know once I kill you." Zhou Yan rolled his wrist, his eyes brimming with killing intent.

"Bullshit!" The Pig Demon roared, hot breath blasting from its tusks. "I'll tear you into strips!"

The wooden club whistled through the air as it swung down in a full arc.

Zhou Yan did not retreat in the slightest. He stomped his left foot, and inner qi surged from his dantian through his meridians into his right fist.

His fist was still a foot away from the Pig Demon's chest, but the force of his punch had already arrived.

With a crack, the wooden club snapped in half. The punch did not stop and smashed into the Pig Demon's chest.

Mountain-Breaking Fist, Limit-Breaking!

Three bursts of force erupted from that single punch. The Pig Demon sprayed blood, along with fragments of something else.

Its eyes bulged as it stared at Zhou Yan, air leaking from its throat. "Impossible... How can a Meridian-Opening Realm..."

"At the same realm, demons are stronger than humans." Zhou Yan walked up to it. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not an ordinary Meridian-Opening Realm martial adept."

The Pig Demon crashed to the ground, hissing through its throat. "Spare me! My big brother is nearby. If I don't return tomorrow, he'll slaughter this village!"

As it spoke, its tiny green eyes glanced toward the trembling mother and child nearby. "You can't save them all. Every human will die!"

"Simple. I'll just kill every last one of you." Zhou Yan snorted and drove a fist into the Pig Demon's head.

The Pig Demon twitched a few times, then stopped moving.

Zhou Yan shook the blood from his fist. His breathing had not even changed. From the first slash to the Pig Demon's final breath, only a few dozen breaths had passed.

It had taken only two punches to kill one Pig Demon.

Words suddenly appeared in his vision.

[Spirit-Awakening Pig Demon Slain]

[Edge-Breaking Saber Technique: Beginner 57/300 → 87/300]

Zhou Yan froze.

Killing demons could increase his saber technique?

He stared at the lines of text. Previously, practicing saber strikes for an entire night had only earned him two or three points. Now, killing one Pig Demon had given him thirty points outright.

Killing demons was the path this system was meant to follow.

He had never encountered demons before, so he had thought the system was merely for practicing martial arts and breaking limits.

But now it seemed that the system's original purpose was to slay demons!

Kill demons, save people, and break the limits of Martial Dao!

"Killing demons can raise proficiency." Zhou Yan looked toward the northern ridge. "Then I have even more reason to go."

He crouched down, broke off the Pig Demon's two tusks, wiped them on the hem of his clothes, and tucked them into his bundle.

One Pig Demon was worth a month of his hard training.

Several heads emerged from the cellar entrance.

First came a white-haired old man. His legs gave out as he crawled out, and he fell.

Then came a woman holding a child, followed by three or four children squeezing out behind her, each of them filthy and glassy-eyed.

"D-Dead?" The old man stared at the Pig Demon's corpse, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

"Dead." Zhou Yan nodded.

The old man dropped to his knees with a thud, his forehead striking the ground again and again. "Thank you, Lord Martial Adept!"

The others knelt in a mass behind him, their kowtows ringing together.

The woman pressed the child to the ground. "Kowtow to our benefactor. Hurry, kowtow."

The child kowtowed woodenly a few times. One arm hung limply at his side; he was too frightened even to cry.

Zhou Yan helped the old man up. "Get up and talk."

"Benefactor..." The old man wiped away tears, though his hand still shook. "We hid in the cellar for two days and two nights. I never thought that beast would still find us!"

"Where are the others?"

"Dead. They're all dead." The old man's voice trembled.

He could not continue and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

The woman also shuffled forward on her knees. "My husband too... He went out at night to look for food, and that beast dragged him away. It's just my child and me now..."

The children behind her burrowed into the adults' arms in terror, and someone began to cry softly.

Zhou Yan looked at the people kneeling all over the ground and thought of the refugees on the official road during the day. They had been the same—some fleeing, some dead.

"Do you know where the remaining Pig Demons are?"

The old man's face went pale. "Benefactor, why do you ask...?"

"Just asking." Zhou Yan said.

"In the north... in the mountains to the north." The old man's voice began to shake. "Beyond the ridge behind the village, there's a cave. There are six more Pig Demons there. They've captured people from villages within dozens of miles and penned them up in the cave. They drag them out to eat every night. I saw it with my own eyes. Corpses hang at the cave entrance, and when the wind blows, they sway like cured meat..."

Zhou Yan emptied all the dried provisions from his bundle, divided them into several portions, and handed them to the group.

They stood stunned and did not dare take them. Only the old man accepted one, then turned and distributed it among the children. The children clutched the food and wolfed it down, choking and coughing.

"Head south. There are refugees on the official road too. Follow them and go as far as you can."

They looked at one another but did not move.

"Benefactor, let us go north with you. We can look after one another on the road..." a young man said quietly.

"Look after one another?" Zhou Yan glanced at him. "I'm going to kill demons. What can you possibly do for me?"

The young man fell silent.

"Go south. Don't look back." Zhou Yan led over his horse, wrapped up his saber again, and tied it behind the saddle.

The sky began to pale. The morning wind carried the stench of blood from the far end of the village.

The woman holding the child chased after him for two steps, then stopped. The child curled up in her arms, one arm hanging limp, his bright dark eyes fixed on Zhou Yan.

"Benefactor, take care..." the woman said in a trembling voice.

Zhou Yan waved a hand, mounted his horse, and squeezed its flanks. The blue-gray horse broke into a light trot, its hooves echoing through the empty village.

The sound of kowtowing rose behind him, one after another, gradually fading into the distance.

When the wind blew, it could no longer be heard.

Hoofprints led out of the village, clear beneath the gray dawn light, a trail heading toward the northern ridge.

The old man's words lingered in his ears.

Six Pig Demons. He was alone. Charging in head-on would not work.

The Pig Demons most likely stayed in the cave during the day and came out at night to hunt for food. If he wanted to fight, he would wait until they had scattered, then take them down one at a time.

There were still living people penned inside the cave. Once fighting broke out, they would be another complication.

"First, I'll scout the place out." Zhou Yan patted the horse's neck. "Then I'll send them off one by one."

Around noon, he crossed the ridge. Beyond it lay a forest of black pines. Deep within the forest, a fishy stench drifted through the air, mixed with an indescribable odor.