Upper Pan Village

A dozen or so sturdy men knelt straight-backed on one knee upon the official road.

Jiang Yuechu stood where she was, silent.

Go?

Or not?

Did she even need to think about this?

Only a madwoman would go!

She could barely look after herself.

The people of Upper Pan Village were suffering terribly.

But in this world, who wasn't suffering?

If she died just like that, who would pity her?

Besides, she was completely in the dark about the strength of those Wolf Demons.

Even with a cheat at her side, the best plan was to start by squeezing the soft persimmons.

Find some deserted place, secretly grind monsters and level up, grow stronger step by step—this was the true survival doctrine of a transmigrator!

Rushing in recklessly carried too much risk for too little reward—the risk was too Gao, while the reward was too low.

Only an idiot would do it.

With her current intimidating appearance, she only needed to toss out an excuse like "official business" or "another urgent case" to fob them off.

Even if the people before her were unwilling, they would never dare let out another fart in front of the Demon Suppression Office.

But the words reached her lips.

Then she saw the look in Chen Qingyuan's eyes gradually dim.

The men behind him were the same.

To them, Jiang Yuechu's silence was already a wordless refusal.

Of course.

What kind of existence was the Demon Suppression Office?

A few wild demons slaughtering a village was probably such an ordinary matter to these great figures that it would not even make it into the case files.

In the end, he had hoped for too much.

Chen Qingyuan slowly lowered his head, his voice full of bitterness.

"It was... I who had been presumptuous."

Behind him came a wave of stifled sighs.

The night wind swept past, curling up sand and dust from the ground.

Fuck.

What a rotten world.

A nameless flame suddenly leaped up from the depths of Jiang Yuechu's heart.

Annoying.

Fucking annoying.

She was no saint, and she had no desire to be a hero.

Yet seeing these people like this filled her with an inexplicable irritation.

She slowly exhaled a foul breath and lowered her voice. "Tell me the situation."

Those four short words made the already despairing Chen Qingyuan freeze.

"My lord... my lord, you... you agreed?!"

Jiang Yuechu turned her head away, refusing to look at him.

"Why so much nonsense?"

"Yes! Yes!"

Chen Qingyuan was so excited that his words came out in a jumble. He hurriedly climbed to his feet and gave Jiang Yuechu another deep bow.

"Thank you, my lord! Thank you for saving the hundred or so people of Upper Pan Village!"

The dozen or so men behind him also rose to their feet.

"Thank you, my lord!"

It was not that they were truly so chivalrous-hearted that they insisted on risking their lives for unrelated villagers.

Guangwu County governed four townships: Upper Pan, Middle Pan, Lower Pan, and Great Pan Village.

In these villages scattered across the surrounding countryside, people saw one another every day, their ties intertwined like roots and branches. Who did not have some relative or connection somewhere?

In the end, they were saving their own people.

A youthful-looking young man reacted first. He quickly led over a magnificent Gao-headed horse and respectfully offered its reins to Jiang Yuechu.

"My lord, please."

Jiang Yuechu did not stand on ceremony and swung herself onto the horse.

She had occasionally ridden horses in her previous life. Though she was hardly adept, she could manage well enough and would not make a fool of herself.

The group delayed no longer, turned their horses around, and galloped back along the official road.

The night wind howled past their ears.

Chen Qingyuan rode beside her, explaining the situation in detail as they traveled.

"There are roughly seven or eight Wolf Demons. Their leader is a giant wolf covered in blue fur. It has already opened its mouth and can speak human language."

"It calls itself the Azure-Faced Lord. It is swift and nimble, its strength enduring, and its claws and fangs incomparably sharp. Ordinary blades cannot harm it at all. Two skilled swordsmen from my sect were torn apart in a single exchange."

"I fought it before. Even after exhausting all my strength, I only left a cut beneath its ribs... That beast has likely entered the String Hearing Realm."

Chen Qingyuan's tone was full of dread.

String-Hearing?

String-Hearing again?

Jiang Yuechu's hand tightened slightly around the reins.

She knew nothing at all about this world's cultivation realms.

But she now had a comparison.

That Tiger Demon had been a demon of the String Hearing Realm.

If they were in the same realm...

She now possessed twenty-five years of Dao Cultivation, along with the perfected Fierce Tiger Swift Blade.

She might not be unable to fight it.

Having thought it through, her heart settled considerably.

Chen Qingyuan continued, "As for the other wolves, they are merely minor demons that gained intelligence not long ago. Though fierce, they are nowhere near as troublesome as that blue-faced Wolf Demon. If the people of our Flying Eagle Sect join forces, we can barely handle them."

Jiang Yuechu said nothing, merely nodding silently as she committed every piece of information to memory.

The horses raced onward. The night passed without further incident.

The eastern sky began to pale like a fish's belly.

Upper Pan Village lay against the mountainside, its houses arranged in an orderly scatter.

A small river wound past the front of the village. It should have been a peaceful place where chickens and dogs could be heard from one home to another, blessed with pleasant scenery.

The group pulled their reins and slowly came to a stop at the village entrance.

The stone monument engraved with the words Upper Pan Village lay toppled to one side, broken into two pieces.

The village road where children once chased and played was now utterly deserted, leaving only congealed black bloodstains and scattered scraps of torn clothing.

Most scalp-numbing of all were the rows upon rows of wooden racks erected outside every household in the village.

They had originally been used by the villagers to dry clothes and cured meat.

But now, the racks were covered with mangled human remains.

Severed arms, thighs, torsos split open from belly to chest.

Even Chen Qingyuan, who had already seen this once before,

turned deathly pale at the sight, his lips trembling and his eyes bloodshot.

"My lord... this... is Upper Pan Village."

Jiang Yuechu watched it all without expression.

Her stomach churned like rivers and seas, but she forcibly suppressed it.

Not far from the village entrance, two Wolf Demons leaned against an earthen wall.

They were bare-chested, with only ragged shorts wrapped around their waists. They had clearly noticed this group of uninvited guests.

One of them threw back its head.

"Awoo—"

Chen Qingyuan and his men looked grave as they gripped their weapons tightly.

Very soon.

Several figures swayed out from the depths of the village road.

The Wolf Demon at the front was different from the others.

It was actually wearing a blue long robe, stolen from who knew where. With both claws behind its back, it paced about in imitation of a scholar.

But it was Gao and imposing, and the robe stretched tightly over its body, looking utterly mismatched and especially ridiculous.

The blue-robed Wolf Demon narrowed its pair of oily green eyes, yawned, and wore an impatient expression.

"I thought some remarkable figure had arrived. So it is still you lot."

"Letting you escape yesterday was already heaven-sent luck. What, you dare return today to deliver yourselves to death?"

Behind Chen Qingyuan, a young man could no longer endure it. His face flushed red.

"Beast!"

He cursed angrily, "You slaughtered our fellow villagers and seized our village! Today, we will fight you to the death!"

"..."

Chen Qingyuan grabbed hold of the young man who wanted to dismount, but his gaze fell upon Jiang Yuechu.

Hearing this, the blue-robed Wolf Demon bared its teeth in a grin. "What? You are allowed to eat, but we are not?"

"Humans eat pigs and sheep; wolves eat humans. It is the natural order of heaven and earth. Those so-called fellow villagers of yours are no different from livestock in a pen, as far as I am concerned."

"They are merely blood food."

The moment those words fell, everyone from the Flying Eagle Sect present had their eyes split with fury and could barely contain themselves.

Just then.

A soft sound rang out.

Jiang Yuechu swung down from her horse, her boots landing on the dust-covered village road.

She did not speak. One hand simply rested upon the hilt of the blade at her waist.

One step.

Then another.

She walked toward the blue-robed Wolf Demon.

The blue-robed Wolf Demon, which had been holding forth so Gao-arrogantly, also fell silent.

Its gaze finally shifted from Chen Qingyuan and landed upon the frail figure approaching it.

When it saw the black uniform marked with crimson patterns, it straightened up, and the claws behind its back slowly lowered.

The footsteps stopped.

Jiang Yuechu stood there, at the boundary between the morning light and the village's shadows.

The blue-robed Wolf Demon stared fixedly at her with its green eyes and asked tentatively, "Demon Suppression Office?"

Jiang Yuechu slowly raised her head.

Her long hair was bound behind her head, revealing a cold, pale face.

"Azure-Faced Lord?"

Not only did she fail to answer, she questioned it in return.

The Wolf Demon's Adam's apple bobbed, and it answered instinctively, "Yes."

The instant it answered, it realized something was wrong.

Fuck.

In terms of momentum, it had actually come up short.

Before it could think further, Jiang Yuechu sneered.

"Very good."

"Killing a beast that can speak human words will at least be worth something."

The blue-robed Wolf Demon flew into a rage. "If you were not wearing that skin, I would not even bother wasting words on you!"

After roaring those words, it felt something was off.

The words were vicious enough, yet they somehow sounded like it was imitating the tone of the girl before it.

Thinking of this made the blue-robed Wolf Demon even more irritated.

It spoke no further, merely slowly raising one claw as five blade-like nails sprang forth.

"Kill her!"

Azure-Faced Lord