Everything Was Over

"Whew, whew..."

This time, he truly had no strength left.

Lin Jun dropped onto the ground on his backside, feeling the weakness coursing through his body, then threw back his head and laughed loudly.

Was this a Demon at the Origin Transformation Realm?

Lin Jun had never expected this battle to be so grueling. If he had not activated his cheat halfway through, the outcome might not have been certain.

No, that Rat Demon was clearly extraordinarily agile but weak in strength. If he had not launched wide-range attacks, neither of them would likely have been able to do anything to the other in the end.

His movement technique was still far too lacking.

Unfortunately, in a place like Green Forest County, even obtaining a decent cultivation technique was difficult.

Still, in another month or so, he would be able to return to the Demon Exorcism Bureau and report in.

With his Origin Transformation cultivation, the Demon Exorcism Bureau would not refuse him.

"You..."

It was not dead yet?

Lin Jun gripped his blade and slowly walked over to the Rat Demon.

At this point, only half of the Rat Demon's body remained intact. It posed virtually no threat anymore.

"Zhang He... wants you dead... Let me go, and I'll tell you everything..."

At those words, Lin Jun raised his blade and brought it down.

[Slain an Origin Transformation Demon, gained 3000 experience]

Lin Jun frowned. He had thought he would get ten thousand.

It seemed this Demon was not particularly powerful. It merely happened to counter Lin Jun, making the fight difficult for him.

Whatever. Three thousand was still better than nothing.

At that moment, Lin Jun's experience had reached an astonishing ten thousand, no more and no less.

Lin Jun searched the Rat Demon's body and, sure enough, found a Demon Core.

Once a Demon entered the Transcendent Realm, it would inevitably possess a Demon Core.

"My lord? You killed him?"

Chen Feng came running over, covered in dust and grime.

Lin Jun's indiscriminate attack earlier had forced him to hide in a most miserable state. He now looked as though he had just crawled out of a coal mine.

"My lord, you shouldn't have. You should have asked about Zhang He before killing him."

"Mm, I know."

Lin Jun nodded.

"But I only wanted him to die sooner."

Lin Jun's words left Chen Feng speechless for a moment.

It seemed the Demons' act of raising humans like pigs had truly enraged Lin Jun.

Otherwise, a calm person like Lin Jun would not have done something so thoughtless.

"Clean this up. Let's go."

"Yes, my lord."

The remaining fourteen Rat Demons had not entered the Transcendent Realm, so naturally, none of them had Demon Cores.

Each of the fourteen Rat Demons was as large as an adult. Together with Spiritual Insight's half corpse, the pile was truly shocking.

By now, night had fully fallen. Lin Jun and Chen Feng sorted through the corpses beneath the moonlight.

"My lord, look."

It was that villager who had been tied up and brought here. At some point, he had wandered behind the temple and was now lying on the ground, eating grass.

Chen Feng shook his head. They had been thoroughly tamed into livestock.

"Pitiful..."

In ancient dynasties, common people who went hungry one meal and ate their fill the next were already pitiful enough. In this world of Demons, they also had to worry at any moment about being eaten or even domesticated by Demons.

That was the consequence of weakness. Even one's thoughts could be manipulated.

He had to grow stronger. Stronger without end.

"What should we do, my lord?"

"Leave him alone. He'll recover on his own."

To be honest, Lin Jun had wanted to end that villager with a single stroke.

Rather than live like livestock, Lin Jun would rather die.

But he could not force his own thoughts onto someone else.

He would let him fend for himself.

"Oh, right. Wait here for me."

Lin Jun remembered something. He drew his blade and, under Chen Feng's puzzled gaze, walked into the temple ruins, which had long since become a heap of rubble.

Lin Jun plunged headfirst into the ruins and rummaged around. In just a few breaths, a large number of dead rats were tossed out from the rubble.

There were at least a hundred of them.

Lin Jun patted the dust from his body and slowly walked out of the ruins.

"Alright. Nothing to worry about now."

Chen Feng swallowed.

Lin Jun did not spare even these animals that showed no signs whatsoever of becoming Demons.

Thinking of the scene in the snake cave last time, where even the earthworms had been chopped into paste, Chen Feng was glad Lin Jun did not hold a grudge against him.

Just then, several sturdy men appeared on the mountain. On closer inspection, they were actually the very people who had urged them not to enter the village during the day.

"Master Lin? You, you..."

Looking at the corpses scattered all over the ground, they were completely dumbfounded.

The Buddha Lord was dead?

They had originally come up to beg the Buddha Lord for mercy. How had the Buddha Lord become two halves in the blink of an eye?

"You came at the right time. The Demons have been eliminated. I'll leave the villagers below the mountain to you."

"Ah? Oh, yes, yes..."

The difference between this and what they had expected was too vast. For a moment, they were all stunned.

Lin Jun looked directly at them and continued, "I don't care what dealings you had with this rat. In any case, he's dead. You are humans, and I hope that the next time I come here, I won't see you colluding with any Demons again. Understood?"

"Demon Exorcists do not kill people, but that does not mean we cannot."

The group nodded stiffly.

Seeing this, Lin Jun skillfully chopped down trees and, with practiced ease, made a cart.

Then he loaded the Rat Demon corpses onto it one by one and left.

Only those people remained where they were, at a complete loss.

On the road, Lin Jun continuously pondered Zhang He's affairs.

From the words of those Demons, he could roughly infer the shape of things.

Zhang He and Zhang Ju were either Demons themselves or had very deep ties to Demons.

Clearly, they had long indulged the Demons in eating people.

But they had covered it up extremely well—so well that the Demons could even cooperate with the government. They had fooled even the Demon Exorcism Bureau into believing this was an exceptionally safe place with very few Demons.

Then Lin Jun's uncle had sent him here to guard the area. So long as he stayed for three years, he could be registered with the Demon Exorcism Bureau and live off the imperial court.

Clearly, Lin Jun's arrival had made Zhang Ju extremely nervous. He had even ordered the surrounding Demons not to eat people during Lin Jun's three-year term.

Because the original Lin Jun had been nothing but a useless wine sack and rice bag, his presence posed no threat to the Demons and naturally would not disrupt the relationship between the government and the Demons. That was why Lin Jun had not been targeted and survived for three years.

But Demons were Demons. They agreed openly, yet secretly could not resist snacking on people, until Lin Jun was captured.

Later, Lin Jun had transmigrated here and begun exterminating Demons in order to grow stronger, becoming increasingly excessive in his actions.

That must have crossed Zhang He's bottom line, making him decide to strangle Lin Jun completely, then shift the blame away.

Lin Jun was so weak that, if Chen Feng failed in his duty as guard, any random beast from the mountains and wilderness could take his life. Added to that, Chen Feng had always hated Lin Jun...

With that whole scheme, the Demon Exorcism Bureau might not even suspect the Demons.

And even if they did suspect them, so what? Lin Jun was merely an unofficial member. The Demon Exorcism Bureau would not expend much effort over him.

"This is getting interesting."

Lin Jun muttered.

If possible, Lin Jun truly hoped Zhang He would keep targeting him.

That way, Zhang He would continuously provide him with information about Demons, and Lin Jun would naturally gain an endless stream of experience.

"My lord, what did you say?"

"I said Lord Zhang's plans were flawless."

Chen Feng did not understand at all and was utterly baffled.

Even while pulling a cart full of Demon corpses, White Deer moved at astonishing speed. Seeing that they were only about half an hour from entering the city, Lin Jun had White Deer stop.

"My lord, what is it?"

"We'll enter the city during the day."

Chen Feng was puzzled.

"Didn't Lord Zhang ask us to eliminate Demons? Naturally, we should find a time with good lighting to show him."

Lin Jun was not a bodhisattva. Zhang He had targeted him so blatantly; how could he not return the favor?

If Zhang He were not an imperial official, and if Lin Jun did not lack concrete evidence, Lin Jun would have loved to chop him down directly.

Come to think of it, ever since he began practicing martial arts, he seemed to keep thinking about how to chop people and chop Demons.

He did not know whether that was a good thing.

Lin Jun and Chen Feng waited outside for the entire night, only entering the city early the next morning.

"Master Lin, this many again?"

Even though the city guards had seen Lin Jun haul back Demons many times, they were still shocked by this number.

Fifteen rats as large as adults.