Strengthening Her Power

Jiang Yuechu had never liked pork.

But as piece after piece of roasted meat went down her throat, the warmth rising in her stomach grew increasingly intense.

Her hunger rapidly faded.

She broke off another piece and was about to put it into her mouth.

Then her movement suddenly stopped.

Hmm?

She paused, closed her eyes, and carefully sensed the changes within her body.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

The hunger in her belly had long since vanished. By all rights, her blood and vitality should have been more or less replenished.

Yet not only did that warm current not subside, it grew fiercer and fiercer.

Like gentle little snakes, it coursed through her meridians, endlessly scouring and widening their original channels.

This...

Jiang Yuechu abruptly opened her eyes and looked down at the still-greasy roast meat in her hand, her gaze filled with shock and disbelief.

This demon flesh could not only restore blood and vitality.

It could also... raise the limit of her cultivation?!

A bold thought, so wild it made her heart pound, exploded in her mind.

Slay demons and gain cultivation, which could be used to improve the Hundred Demons Register.

Consume demons and increase blood and vitality, which could be used to strengthen her foundation.

Holy shit!

She no longer cared about the nauseating stench of raw meat. She grabbed the remaining half of the pig leg and began wolfing it down.

Eat!

As long as it made her stronger, forget pig demon meat—even... never mind, that was out of the question.

One hind leg was quickly stripped bare.

Still wanting more, Jiang Yuechu licked her grease-covered fingers and turned her gaze toward the two enormous corpses outside the ruined temple.

She rose to her feet, picked up her saber, and strode over.

Tonight, no one was getting any sleep!

The last pig bone was tossed into the fire and turned to charcoal.

Jiang Yuechu let out a long breath of stale air, white mist dispersing in the chilly morning wind.

A full three days.

The two String Hearing Realm pig demons had been devoured skin and bones alike, save for a few pieces she truly could not chew through.

At that moment, she felt the blood and vitality within her surging like vast rivers, washing through her meridians.

She could even feel that her realm was about to touch the threshold of the next stage.

The corner of Jiang Yuechu's lips curved upward.

Not bad.

Any improvement was a good thing.

She could not help thinking again of the corpses of the Tiger Mountain God and the Azure-Faced Lord. Such huge piles of meat, simply left out in the wilderness—it was an utter waste.

"What a pity, all that good meat..."

She shook her head and cast the small regret from her mind.

Forget it.

What she gained was her fortune; what she lost was her fate.

It did not matter that she had not known before. She only needed to keep it in mind from now on.

For now, the most important thing was still the demon in Jincheng County.

She had delayed here for three days. She had no idea whether that thing was still there.

But there was nothing she could do.

If she traveled while dragging the remaining corpses along, they would be too burdensome and too conspicuous.

Shaking away her stray thoughts, Jiang Yuechu stood up and patted the dirt from her rear.

"Let's go, buddy. Time for work."

Hearing her, the horse raised its head and stopped chewing on the grass roots.

It shot Jiang Yuechu a glance.

"Heh, you beast, you dare give me that attitude?"

Jiang Yuechu laughed, walked over, and patted its face. "You've eaten and drunk your fill. Time to get moving, or you'll really turn into a pig."

The horse snorted unwillingly, tacitly accepting its miserable fate.

Woman and horse once again set out along the official road toward Jincheng.

The gates of Jincheng County stood wide open, like the gaping mouth of a corpse.

More than ten jet-black Scarlet-eyed Steeds rode into the city.

At their head were two men.

One was somewhat older, around forty, with a steady expression.

The other was much younger, with a sharp edge between his brows.

"This smell..."

The younger man frowned, pulled on the reins, and waved a hand before his nose.

The wind carried an indescribable stench. Though he had seen his share of horrifying sights, this odor was still truly hard to bear.

Xu Nian's expression did not change. He merely said, "You'll get used to it."

Most of the doors and windows of the buildings along the street were badly damaged.

Congealed, blackened bloodstains could be seen everywhere—at the corners of walls and by the roadside.

The young man gripped his saber hilt tightly as well and said in a low voice, "Stay alert. They say this demon calls itself the Black-clad Sword Immortal. Its Sword Qi runs rampant, and it has already entered the Bone-Resonance Realm."

Bone-Resonance.

Those two words made the breathing of the dozen or so mounted agents behind them hitch slightly.

"Split up."

Xu Nian gave the order. "Groups of three. If you find anything unusual, signal immediately. Remember, don't try to be a hero."

"Yes!"

Everyone acknowledged the order. Before long, they split into several teams and rode off in different directions.

Xu Nian and the young man, meanwhile, led one other person slowly forward along the main street.

"Brother Xu, what do you think this demon wants?"

The young man lowered his voice, baffled. "Slaughtering villages, occupying cities—it doesn't even eat them. Does it want to claim a mountain and make itself king?"

"Who knows?"

Xu Nian shook his head. "Don't try to guess what demons are thinking. Guess all you want, and it ultimately comes down to two words."

"What two words?"

"Seeking death."

The young man fell silent.

That was right. This was the very purpose of the Demon Suppression Office.

No matter how great a demon you were or how mighty your powers, if you dared run wild like this on human territory, there was only one path ahead of you: death.

They turned a street corner and found a private school before them.

Its gate had collapsed. Inside lay more than a dozen small corpses scattered in disarray, all children of seven or eight.

An elderly teacher with a head full of white hair had been nailed through the eye socket to the wall with a writing brush.

On the wall beneath him, two crooked lines of large characters had been written in dripping blood.

The young man's eye twitched as he prepared to see what those two lines said.

But at that moment.

A teeth-grating dragging sound came from the far end of the long street.

The three men abruptly looked up.

A huge black figure slowly emerged from the billowing dust.

It had a pig's head and a human body.

Blood covered its enormous pig face, and its eyes brimmed with savage scarlet light.

It was carrying a thick wooden stake on its shoulder. From the top of the stake, a raggedly dressed woman hung upside down by iron chains.

The woman was still struggling, muffled sounds coming from her mouth. Something had clearly been cut out.

"Beast!"

Liu Chen roared and immediately moved to draw his saber.

But a hand heavily pressed down on his saber hilt.

Xu Nian shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the figure at the end of the street.

He sat high atop his horse, his voice calm.

"Black-clad Sword Immortal?"

The pig demon did not deny it. It grinned, revealing a mouthful of fangs.

"I came to look for traces of my son. I happened to catch a scent and came in to take a look."

Its scarlet eyes swept over the three men before finally settling on Xu Nian.

"I didn't expect... it really was the Demon Suppression Office."

The young man's expression turned strange.

Son?

This demon had a son?

Xu Nian's face remained expressionless as he said flatly, "I don't know what son you mean, and I don't care about your son."

He paused, his tone turning icy.

"Now, let her go, and I'll let you die a little more comfortably."

The pig demon's gaze turned completely cold as well.

It said nothing more.

There was no need to say anything more.

People from the Demon Suppression Office had appeared nearby.

Its two worthless sons had most likely already met with disaster.

Overwhelming killing intent burst forth from its body.