The setting sun was like blood, reflecting the murky pool water into an eerie dark red.
Everyone held their breath, their knife hilts soaked slick with sweat.
Gurgle... gurgle...
The mud churned ever more violently, and a massive shadow slowly rose beneath the turbid surface.
The first thing to break the water was an enormous head.
It had no hair, only a layer of slick blue-black slime covering it.
Two lantern-sized eyeballs bulged from its head. They had no eyelids, only a cloudy white film as they coldly swept across the shore.
Then its colossal body emerged from the water.
It was a monster beyond description.
Part loach, part catfish, its entire body was covered in slimy scales. Dozens of pairs of tiny limbs lined its belly, wriggling through the muck.
Dense demonic aura exploded outward, and a rancid gale swept toward them.
"B-Bone-Chiming Realm..."
Zhao Hu's voice trembled.
Only a Bone-Chiming Great Demon could possess such terrifying might!
"Don't move!"
Liu Chen's voice came from nearby.
The demon seemed not to have noticed the people hiding in the shadows. It merely stared blankly at the deathly silent mudflat before it.
A meaningless whimper came from its throat.
The sound was mournful, like sobbing and pleading.
It slowly crawled ashore, its dozens of limbs gouging deep furrows through the mud.
Beneath its massive body lay a female corpse, long soaked beyond recognition.
The corpse's belly was grotesquely Gao Gao, while her limbs had wasted away until there was only skin over bone.
The demon carefully placed the corpse on the shore, then extended its slick head and gently rubbed against her icy face.
"Xing'er..."
"Xing'er, I brought you something to eat..."
It opened its blood-filled maw and spat out a heap of fish and shrimp, still smeared with slime and long since rotted foul.
"Why... aren't you awake yet..."
"Wake up... look at our child... he'll be born soon..."
The crowd's emotions became a tangled mess.
How absurd for a demon to be so devoted.
Yet this absurd scene was truly unfolding before their very eyes.
Liu Chen's heart tightened, and he hesitated no longer.
Even if it was a Bone-Chiming Great Demon...
They had no reason to retreat.
Besides, compared to the Pig Demon in Golden City, this demon's presence was clearly somewhat weaker.
There were eight Demon-Suppression Guards among them, including a warrior as formidable as Jiang Yuechu...
They had a chance!
"Attack!"
With a furious roar, eight figures charged out from different directions at once.
Blade light flashed through the dim twilight, descending upon the monster's head!
"Roar—"
The demon let out an earth-shaking roar. The rolling soundwaves shook the blood and qi of several weaker Demon-Suppression Guards, halting them in their tracks.
It violently swung its tail. The thick appendage swept outward with the force of ten thousand tons, carrying a rancid wind with it!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The three Demon-Suppression Guards at the front had no time to react before the massive tail struck them. They screamed as they flew backward, smashing hard into distant rocks, blood spraying from their mouths. Whether they lived or died was unknown.
"Damn it!"
Zhao Hu's eyes reddened. Rather than retreat, he pressed forward. A faint earthen-yellow aura ignited over his saber, and without dodging in the slightest, he brought it down upon the sweeping tail!
Clang—
Sparks flew in all directions.
An irresistible force surged through the blade. Zhao Hu was knocked back seven or eight steps before falling flat on his backside, his face deathly pale.
What tough hide!
Liu Chen and Old Wang attacked from either side, their sabers hacking viciously into the demon's spine. Yet they left only two shallow white marks, unable even to break its scales!
How were they supposed to fight this?!
Just as a trace of terror rose in everyone's hearts—
A blood-colored tiger phantom soared into the sky.
Roar—
The tiger's roar stirred wind and thunder, shaking the wilderness!
Jiang Yuechu did not attack its back. Instead, she targeted the relatively soft limbs beneath its belly!
A savage flash of blade light vanished in an instant!
Splat! Splat!
Blood mixed with blue-black slime erupted into the air!
Several limbs were severed at once!
"Roar—"
The excruciating pain drove the demon completely mad. It spun around violently, opened its blood-filled maw, and shot a water arrow straight at Jiang Yuechu's face!
Jiang Yuechu's pupils contracted. She pushed off the ground and dodged to the side at the very last instant.
Boom—
The water arrow missed and blasted into the rock behind her, directly shattering the half-man-Gao-tall boulder into pieces!
Shattered stone flew everywhere!
Jiang Yuechu spun in midair and landed steadily. Looking at the wreckage strewn across the ground, she felt a lingering chill of fear.
If that had hit her, her flesh alone would not have saved her from death or crippling injury.
"A mere String Hearing Realm dares to come and subdue me?!"
"How dare you?!!!"
Demons had their own customs, after all.
Many demons even treated the Demon Suppression Office experts pursuing them as material for bragging.
If two Great Demons happened to meet atop a mountain—
One demon might ask, "Brother, which road do you roam?"
The other could stroke his beard and sigh. "Ah, don't mention it. I am hardly worth speaking of. A few years ago, I merely devoured several cities' worth of people, yet it provoked a great Demon-Suppression General into personally hunting me down. I escaped with my life by the skin of my teeth and fled to this godforsaken place."
Upon hearing that, the other would surely Gao-regard him, filled with solemn respect.
But now, a mere String Hearing Realm dared to challenge a Bone-Chiming Great Demon?
It would be humiliating even to speak of it.
But what was even more humiliating?
More humiliating was that it—a dignified Bone-Chiming Great Demon—had truly been injured by a String Hearing Realm martial artist!
"Good! Very good!"
"It has been a hundred years since I last tasted such a sensation!"
The demon slowly exhaled.
The long years of repression made the stabbing pain of wounds splitting open beneath its slick skin bring it a sick, twisted pleasure.
It involuntarily opened its mouth and released a piercing, drawn-out cry.
"Roar—"
Its scarlet eyes locked tightly onto Jiang Yuechu as its immense body suddenly sank.
Boom!
The entire Returnwater Bend seemed to tremble.
Mud surged into the sky like black walls, sweeping in every direction!
"Watch out!" Liu Chen roared, raising his saber before him.
But he had ultimately underestimated the might of a Bone-Chiming Great Demon fighting at full strength.
Bang!
The wall of mud slammed into his saber. Liu Chen felt as though a mad bull had rammed him head-on, sending him flying backward. His throat sweetened, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
If even he was in such a state, the others fared still worse.
For a time, screams and the sounds of breaking bones rang without end.
Only one figure, like a lone boat amidst a raging gale, darted and weaved through the gaps in the overwhelming mud.
Jiang Yuechu gripped her saber tightly, her eyes as still as an ancient well. Every thought she had was fixed on the charging monster.
Clearly, this demon's methods had surpassed those creatures that relied solely on their physical bodies to wreak havoc.
Not only was it thick-skinned and immensely powerful, it could also control this marshy waterland, holding both the favorable time and terrain.
Meeting it head-on was courting death.
"Roar—"
Seeing that its strike had failed, the demon opened its huge mouth and spat out another water arrow!
The water arrow tore through the air with a shrill whistle.
Jiang Yuechu did not dare take it head-on. She pushed off again, her body Gao-rising as she narrowly avoided it.
But before she could catch her breath—
The demon's huge body suddenly whipped around. Its limbs frantically clawed at the mud, propelling its colossal frame forward at a speed utterly mismatched to its size as it charged straight at her!
The rancid wind struck her face. That momentum alone was enough to make an ordinary martial artist's liver and gallbladder split apart.
"Miss Jiang! Watch out!"
Not far away, Liu Chen struggled up from the ground and shouted in alarm.
But he himself was already badly wounded and had no time to come to her aid.
The blood-filled maw was about to swallow Jiang Yuechu whole.
At that very moment—
A flash of determination crossed Jiang Yuechu's eyes.
Rather than retreat, she advanced, charging straight toward the demon!
Black River Water Monster
Before you continue