Wolf Travels a Thousand Miles

Liangzhou Prefecture.

The windblown sand was always fierce.

The flag atop the city wall had curled at the edges and hung there listlessly.

This was not the seat of Longyou Circuit, yet in some ways it mattered more.

All because of the office that stood in the north of the city, where sunlight never reached and bells to ward off evil hung from the eaves.

The rear hall of the Military Commissioner's Office.

The hall was quiet.

A middle-aged man in dark robes sat behind a broad desk, engrossed in a scroll.

Steady footsteps sounded outside the door.

A young man in close-fitting black clothes patterned with red walked in. He stood straight as a spear, and fine leather cord was wound around the hilt of the saber at his waist.

He stopped three paces from the desk and bowed with clasped fists.

"Great General."

Wei He did not look up from the scroll. He merely gave a faint grunt of acknowledgment.

"What is it?"

"Urgent report from Lanzhou."

The young man spoke gravely. "Half a month ago, all six villages under Jincheng County in Lanzhou were slaughtered in a single night. Not one person survived."

"What did the examination of the demonic aura show?"

"The demonic aura surged into the sky and lingered for three days. According to a soldier who survived nearby, when the creature struck, Sword Qi crisscrossed the air. It fought unlike any ordinary demon. And the creature called itself..."

Wei He finally set down the scroll and looked up at Liu Chen.

"Called itself what?"

The young man's expression turned strange. "It called itself... the Black-clad Sword Immortal."

"..."

Wei He was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

"Sword Immortal?"

"These days, demons make grander claims with every passing year."

He tapped two fingers lightly on the desk.

"But... for its demonic aura to linger three days... this demon has entered the Bone-Chiming Realm."

The young man's heart tightened.

The Bone-Chiming Realm!

A Great Demon of that level had sinews and bones that rang as one, and Divine Abilities that arose of their own accord. Ordinary cavalrymen could no longer handle it.

"General, you mean..."

"Gather a squad. You and Xu Nian will lead them to Lanzhou yourselves."

"As you command!"

Wei He looked out the window. As though something had occurred to him, he asked casually:

"By the way, has that prisoner sent from the capital a while back left the pass yet?"

The young man froze for a moment before realizing whom he meant.

"You mean... the one Pei Changqing was escorting?"

"Yes."

After a moment's thought, the young man said, "Judging by their pace, they should have reached Guangwu County yesterday."

"Guangwu... isn't far from Jincheng County."

He paused.

"Let's hope that boy Pei Changqing is lucky enough not to run straight into it."

The young man frowned.

Pei Changqing held the rank of squad leader, and his skills were considered quite good within the office.

But against a Great Demon of the Bone-Chiming Realm...

He would be a mantis trying to stop a cart.

He hesitated for a while, but in the end could not hold back.

"Great General, there is something I don't understand."

"Speak."

"The Jiang Household case was settled long ago. Why did we have to send men from the Demon Suppression Office to escort the prisoner in person?"

The rear hall fell deathly silent once more.

A long time passed.

Only then did Wei He turn around, his face expressionless.

"Why do you think?"

"...I don't know, sir."

"Then don't ask."

"..."

Night had fallen deep.

The wind outside the window showed no sign of stopping.

Jiang Yuechu lay in bed, eyes open, staring at the rafters overhead.

Her saber lay beside her. Its sheath sometimes pressed uncomfortably against her.

But compared with her safety, that small discomfort was nothing.

Her thoughts were a mess, and she simply could not sleep.

After a long while,

she sat up sharply.

Smack.

The sound rang out crisp and clear.

She had slapped herself.

Jiang Yuechu, Jiang Yuechu, when did you become such a worrywart?

Will thinking this way and that make flowers bloom?

At a thought, the ancient scroll unfurled in her mind.

[Dao Cultivation: two hundred years]

Her gaze fell on the two demon scrolls already recorded there.

With so many years of Dao Cultivation at her disposal, she found she had no idea how to use them.

Should she keep pouring it into Tiger Mountain God, or try the Azure-Faced Lord?

Tiger Mountain God had already reached Vermilion Staining. She had no idea what lay beyond it, or how much Dao Cultivation it would cost.

If she poured in all two hundred years and still fell short, getting stuck halfway would be unbearable.

As for that azure-faced Wolf Demon...

Jiang Yuechu focused on the Shadow Tracing of the creature with the azure face and bared fangs.

Both had been recorded, yet the Tiger Demon had cost seventy-five years, while the Wolf Demon had cost only fifty.

Clearly, this Wolf Demon's foundation was much shallower than the Tiger Demon's.

But a shallow foundation had its advantages.

It meant improving the Wolf Demon would cost less Dao Cultivation.

Then she could gain another innate Divine Ability.

Should she pursue depth or breadth?

Forget it.

Better to play it safe.

Jiang Yuechu made up her mind.

Her Dao Cultivation poured forth like a river bursting its banks, flooding into the Shadow Tracing of the azure-faced, fanged creature.

Boom—

Everything around her fell away.

[In your first year, you were born on Blackwind Mountain to a Wolf Demon. On the day you opened your eyes, another demon ate your mother.]

[In your fifth year, you cultivated more slowly than any of your brothers. They mocked and bullied you. Even your father, a Demon King, loathed you. In your heart, you swore an oath...]

[In your tenth year, you learned by chance why your brothers cultivated so quickly: they ate humans. Eating humans could speed up cultivation. You tried it, and it was true.]

[In your fifteenth year, you killed more and more people. You began to believe demons were born to kill humans. Humans were the spirits of all things, beloved by heaven and earth. Killing them meant seizing the fortune heaven and earth had bestowed on them.]

[In your twentieth year, you killed your father and became the leader of the Wolf Demons on Blackwind Mountain. You gave yourself a name: the Azure-Faced Lord.]

[In your thirty-fifth year, you felt you had reached a bottleneck and began searching for a way to break through.]

Her consciousness tore free of the boundless blood-red haze.

Jiang Yuechu's eyes flew open.

The same waning moon hung outside the window. The room was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat.

[Consumed eighty years of Dao Cultivation. Azure-Faced Lord has reached Vermilion Staining.]

On the scroll, a spark of vermilion kindled in the eyes of the azure-faced, fanged Wolf Demon.

[Successfully brought Azure-Faced Lord to Vermilion Staining. Demon's gift obtained.]

[Azure Cliff Returning Shadow (Supreme Realm)]

[Talent: Wolf Travels a Thousand Miles (The Azure-Faced Lord is cunning by nature. Its movement is ghostlike. Speed is increased.)]

Jiang Yuechu slowly let out a breath of stale air.

She raised a hand and spread her five fingers in the darkness, then clenched them sharply.

The faint shadow of sharp claws flickered at her fingertips and vanished.

Her fist technique felt more natural than ever.

The new talent also made her body feel much lighter.

Unfortunately, she had gained no Divine Ability.

Jiang Yuechu's brow creased slightly, then smoothed.

So be it.

There was no point dwelling on it.

Any improvement was a good thing.

She turned her attention back to the scroll. Only one hundred and twenty years of Dao Cultivation remained.

It definitely would not be enough for the next step.

Hm?

Wait.

Jiang Yuechu frowned again.

[Realm: Late String-Hearing Realm]

"What's going on? Could my guess have been wrong?"

She had thought recording a demon or improving its scroll would advance her own realm as well.

But now, it had not changed in the slightest.

Tch.

She rubbed her head in frustration.

"What a pain... This girl's head doesn't hold a single useful memory about the martial path. What is all that stuff in there...?"

Forget it, forget it.

She would ask Chen Qingyuan tomorrow.

The Flying Eagle Sect was a martial arts sect, after all. Surely he would know something about cultivation.

With that thought, she lay down again and placed the saber beside her pillow.

Things being what they were, she might as well sleep first.

The night breeze drifted through the window, sometimes lifting the girl's hair to brush against the corner of her mouth.

Whenever it did, she shifted to a more comfortable position and went on sleeping.