Revenge

By the end, he was weeping bitterly, tears streaming down his aged face until he could no longer speak.

The men from the Demon Suppression Office looked at one another, none of them able to say a word.

Zhao Hu opened his mouth, wanting to curse a few times, but seeing the old man sobbing with snot and tears running down his face, he could not force out a single insult.

After a long while.

Jiang Yuechu was the first to speak. "So that demon came to avenge her?"

"Avenge her?"

The old man froze, then suddenly began to laugh. "Yes! Revenge!"

"It ruined my daughter, ruined the Zhang family's reputation, and now it has cut off the livelihood of our entire village!"

"The water cannot be drunk! The land cannot be farmed! The old and young of our whole village can only wait to die!"

"Honored officers!" With a thud, he dropped to his knees and repeatedly kowtowed before Liu Chen and the others. "Please, kill that beast! I beg you!"

Liu Chen dismounted and helped him up, his expression grave.

"Old sir, get up first."

"That demon is hiding beneath the water. None of us are skilled swimmers, so how could we..."

The old man wiped the tears from his face and suddenly said, "Rest assured, honored officers. Though that beast is a demon, it is also a lovesick fool. My poor daughter was sunk in Returnwater Bend at the western end of the village. That demon... that demon often wanders around that bend late at night."

"As long as you set an ambush at Returnwater Bend, you will surely be able to wait for that beast to show itself!"

Liu Chen and Old Wang exchanged a glance. Both saw temptation in the other's eyes.

This truly was a way.

Waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit was better than running around the riverbank like headless flies.

Moreover, the Yellow Division had come here before them. They had surely learned about Xing'er being sunk in the pond as well.

Given their way of doing things, they would certainly have followed the clues to investigate Returnwater Bend.

Yet now they had vanished without a trace—neither alive nor dead.

That demon was, nine times out of ten, at Returnwater Bend!

Liu Chen looked at the old man kneeling before him, trembling all over, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

"I understand."

He turned to the others behind him. "We depart at once for Returnwater Bend."

Seeing this, the village chief's face flashed with joy. He hurriedly climbed to his feet and repeatedly cupped his hands in salute.

"Many thanks, honored officers! Many thanks to all of you for ridding Blackwater Village of this great scourge!"

"This old man will go prepare some wine and meat to send you off!"

Liu Chen waved a hand, cutting him off.

"There is no need for wine or meat."

"We are men of the Demon Suppression Office. Slaying demons and eliminating evil is our duty. You need not thank us."

The village chief's smile widened further. "Yes, yes, the honored officer is right."

But Liu Chen's next words made the smile on his face freeze instantly.

"However..."

Liu Chen's tone abruptly turned cold.

"Though your daughter Xing'er's case began because of a demon, you used private punishment and drowned her. This is something Great Tang law will not tolerate."

"Once we have dealt with that demon, we will truthfully report this matter to the county yamen."

"When the time comes, whatever crimes you should answer for will be judged by the court."

"You had best take care of yourselves."

The village chief opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but faced with Liu Chen's cold eyes, he could not utter a single word.

"Hyah!"

Liu Chen said no more. With a flick of the reins, his Scarlet-eyed Steed let out a neigh and galloped toward the western end of the village.

Jiang Yuechu and the others silently followed.

Only the villagers of Blackwater Village remained standing there blankly, watching the eight receding figures with complicated expressions in their eyes.

Returnwater Bend was only seven or eight li from Blackwater Village.

Though it was called a bend, it was really just a place where the Black River curved, its current slowing to form a deep pool.

The group dismounted, tethered their Scarlet-eyed Steeds some distance away, drew their horizontal sabers, and cautiously approached the pool's edge.

The mud along the bank was slick and boggy. It gave beneath their feet, leaving a string of footprints of varying depths.

"Be careful. See if you can find any clues."

The others acknowledged the order. Working in pairs, they spread out to search.

After only a few steps, Zhao Hu suddenly stopped.

"Chief, look at this."

The others gathered around at his call.

In the mud, a section of something black protruded. It looked like the sole of some sort of leather boot.

Liu Chen frowned and signaled to a man beside him.

The man stepped forward, used his scabbard to scrape aside the rotten mud, then reached down and pulled.

With a wet squelch.

What emerged was not merely a regulation black boot of the Demon Suppression Office.

There was also a leg still attached to it—soaked white and swollen, cleanly severed at the knee.

"..."

An indescribable chill crawled up every man's spine.

"It's one of ours..."

Zhao Hu drew a deep breath, rushed to the pool's edge in several strides, and began digging through the silt by the water with his bare hands, heedless of the filth.

Before long, he unearthed another severed arm.

The hand on it still clutched half a broken saber hilt in a death grip.

"Damn it!"

Zhao Hu punched the ground, splattering mud everywhere.

The Demon Suppression Office's standard horizontal sabers were forged from black iron. Even when clashing head-on with demons, they rarely broke.

Yet this blade had been forcibly snapped in two.

What kind of terrifying demon had the Yellow Division encountered?

"Chief, there's something here too!"

Not far away, Old Wang pointed at a withered tree.

A faded scrap of black-red cloth hung from one of its branches, an unmistakable corner of a Demon Suppression Office uniform.

Liu Chen walked to the severed arm, crouched down, and carefully examined the half of the saber hilt.

"It belonged to Wang Xian, the Yellow Division's squad leader."

He recognized the distinctive pattern wound onto the hilt with thin cord.

"Wang Xian was also an expert in the Late String-Hearing Realm. With his Wind-Chasing Saber, even demons in the late String-Hearing stage could do nothing against him... Yet now..."

A martial artist of the Late String-Hearing Realm, together with an entire squad beneath him, had died soundlessly in this filthy mud pool.

However.

At least one thing was certain now.

That demon definitely appeared here!

"Then... what do we do now?" one man could not help asking.

"Wait."

Liu Chen narrowed his eyes and looked toward the foul-smelling river water.

"Since the Yellow Division brothers met with disaster here, that demon will naturally appear here."

"Everyone, fall back thirty zhang and find a position to conceal yourselves!"

"Draw your sabers. Keep the pills in your mouths. The moment there is any movement, attack at once!"

At the command, everyone moved immediately.

The eight Demon-Suppression Guards swiftly dispersed, each finding a withered tree or boulder for cover and hiding their bodies in the shadows.

Clang—

Crisp saber cries rang out along the deathly silent pool, then quickly faded away.

Time trickled by, drop by drop.

The sun gradually sank westward, setting the clouds at the horizon ablaze in magnificent blood-red hues.

The light by the pool dimmed with it.

Just when everyone had nearly lost their patience waiting.

Gurgle...

Gurgle...

A faint sound came from the shallows at the pool's edge.

A series of fist-sized bubbles rose through the murky muddy water.

A foul stench mixed with the reek of rotting waterweed spread through the air.

It was here!