Inside the cave

Cold, trembling...

Lin Jun slowly woke and looked around at the dim surroundings.

Damp soil steeped in the stench of decay, great moss-covered rocks crawling with unknown worms, shattered human skulls with strands of bloody tissue still clinging to them.

And the lingering smell of blood.

This was a cave, apparently modified into a prison cell, its wooden gate covered in thorns.

Everything in this cave was so unfamiliar, yet so real.

Even the memories that had inexplicably appeared in his mind felt utterly real.

Lin Jun finally confirmed that he had transmigrated.

His predecessor might not have had connections reaching all the way to heaven, but he at least had someone in high places. To groom him as his successor, his maternal uncle had deliberately sent him to Green Forest County, a very safe place where he could build seniority and rack up merits.

He had only three months left before he could return. How had he suddenly died?

Lin Jun surveyed his surroundings and began searching those unfamiliar memories for an answer.

Soon, he found the reason.

"Demons."

Demons existed in this world, which resembled an ancient dynasty. A demon had captured him.

But that raised another question. Though his predecessor had been a scoundrel who spent his days bullying the weak and doing nothing decent, throwing his weight around like a complete bastard, he was not someone who had no sense of his limits.

How had someone with such a clear understanding of his own abilities been caught by a demon?

Lin Jun could not figure it out, mainly because his body hurt so badly that he could not concentrate on searching the unfamiliar memories for an answer.

Only then did he notice that he was not alone in the cave. There were also several people so thin they were nothing but skin and bones.

They wore coarse hemp clothes, their eyes cloudy and lifeless. Each looked like a walking corpse.

Lin Jun counted six people. Only a child of five or six could still stare at him curiously with wide eyes, their innocence utterly out of place in these dark surroundings.

"Master Lin, want something to eat?"

An old farmer shakily extended his hand. On it lay some bugs Lin Jun could not identify, along with a little moss.

This was among the few things they could eat here. Demons certainly would not feed them.

"Heh, heh. Starve to death. You won't get a single bite."

The old farmer suddenly withdrew his hand, and Lin Jun actually caught a trace of satisfaction in his eyes.

"Heaven must have eyes after all, letting you die here with the likes of us."

Lin Jun shook his head. His predecessor's reputation was so vile that these people still hated him even when they were all about to be eaten by a demon.

When Lin Jun did not react, the old farmer said nothing more. He simply crushed the bugs in his hand, slowly and silently, then forced them into the child's mouth.

Eating them would only mean a brief bout of nausea. Not eating them meant starving to death.

Even living a little longer was better than nothing.

Lin Jun forced himself to concentrate and finally seemed to remember something.

Someone seemed to have thrown him into this demon's cave. Had that person been one of his own subordinates?

As Lin Jun pondered this, something miraculous appeared before his eyes.

Lin Jun slapped his face, then rubbed his eyes.

A panel made up of text had appeared in front of him.

[Killing demons grants corresponding experience. The higher the demon's level, the more experience gained.]

[Spend experience to perform deduction simulations and strengthen yourself.]

[Current experience: 200]

Current martial arts:

[Mundane martial arts: Seven-Star Step (beginner)]

[Mundane martial arts: Flowing Swallow Saber Technique (major mastery)]

Was this a system?

Lin Jun understood at once, and much of the panic in his heart subsided.

Thank goodness. I still had a chance to survive.

Lin Jun had no intention of paying for his predecessor's sins. Dying immediately after transmigrating would be complete bullshit.

According to the memories in his mind, his predecessor had once been diligent and eager to learn. His major mastery of the Flowing Swallow Saber Technique was the best proof of that.

But losing both parents had dealt him such a heavy blow that he had never recovered, turning into a lazy glutton.

His uncle had tried countless times to get Lin Jun back on his feet, but none of his efforts had succeeded. Left with no choice, he had arranged a position for Lin Jun so he could eventually take over his job, then sent him here to build seniority and merits.

Unfortunately, his uncle had not known that his predecessor's diligence and eagerness to learn had all been an act. He had always been an ignorant layabout. Even those martial arts had only been learned at his parents' insistence. Once they died and no one remained to keep him in check, his true nature had surfaced.

He needed to spend experience to simulate and strengthen his martial arts, which was rather difficult for Lin Jun in his current situation.

After all, with his present physique, never mind killing demons-he could not even catch a farmwife.

And where had those two hundred experience points come from? Lin Jun remembered that his predecessor had never killed a single demon.

No, wait. I remembered now. He really had killed one.

His uncle had once specifically arranged for Lin Jun to kill a captive horse demon to earn him some merits. Unfortunately, the scheme had soon been discovered, and his uncle had been punished for it.

Thus, his uncle could only send Lin Jun to Green Forest County and find another way to keep farming merits.

Presumably, that was where the two hundred experience points had come from.

While Lin Jun was thinking, an azure-scaled serpent thirty feet long slowly slithered into the cave.

Before Lin Jun's eyes, she transformed into a human woman.

Except that, while her lower body was human, an enormous snake's head rose from her neck.

Her forked tongue kept flicking out.

Lin Jun's hair stood on end, and his scalp prickled.

This was his first time seeing a living demon. A terror like that of encountering a natural predator left his entire body rigid.

"To think a feast would arrive at my door just as I woke up. On behalf of my husband, thank you, young master."

The snake's head broke into a smile, making Lin Jun's heart skip a beat.

The snake demon's greedy gaze swept over Lin Jun again and again, as though she wanted to swallow him alive.

"What a handsome young master. You look far more delicious than these old bones. My husband will certainly love that skin and flesh of yours. Heh, heh. Thank heaven that such fine food would fall into my home all on its own."

"But as you humans say, the best should be saved for last. Little young master, your turn will come next time."

The snake demon's head nearly touched Lin Jun's chin. A stench of rotting corpses, fermented sludge, and an indescribable bloody odor blasted straight into his nose.

Lin Jun could not bear that layered stink. His stomach churned violently, and his face turned ashen.

The snake demon raised her hand and, ignoring Lin Jun's reaction, slowly walked toward the child.

Seeing the source of that foul smell move away, Lin Jun let out a long breath of relief. The overwhelming stench had nearly made him vomit.

"Little young master, do I stink?"

Lin Jun's face turned ashen again. At some point, the snake demon had appeared before him once more.

He could actually discern anger on that serpentine face.

An enormous force sent Lin Jun flying. A single kick hurled him into the cave wall.

"Pfft!"

His body had already been frail, and that kick made Lin Jun spit out a mouthful of blood.

Fuck, even a snake cared whether she stank!

"Since you're so eager to die, come inside!"

The snake demon dropped her pretense and laid her true nature bare.

She came up to Lin Jun, grabbed his body, and dragged him deeper into the cave.

The old farmers seemed accustomed to this sight and closed their eyes one after another.

Not one person dragged into the cave by that snake demon had ever returned alive.

Only the child stared blankly in the direction Lin Jun had been dragged.

The broken rocks in the cave battered Lin Jun painfully, and anger flared in his heart.

Since when did a snake get to bully a terrifying upright ape like me?

Allocate points!

Lin Jun immediately poured all two hundred experience points into a simulation of the Flowing Swallow Saber Technique.