Slaying Demons

They said a golden nest or silver nest could never compare to one's own doghouse, and nowhere was that more vividly embodied than among demons.

Even if they could speak human language or even assume human form, they still retained their most primitive habits.

For instance, they loved living in caves.

"Brother Bear has excellent taste. This place has an open view, faces south with its back to the north—truly a rare treasure ground."

The cave was superbly located, with exceptional feng shui.

"Hahaha, so you think so too, little brother? I'm planning to raise my children here before moving."

"No, no, no."

Lin Jun shook his head repeatedly.

"How could Brother Bear move away? This place is perfect."

"If you died outside, wouldn't such a fine place go to waste?"

The Bear Demon sensed the shift in Lin Jun's tone. Just as he was about to curse, a gleaming blade stabbed into his back. The entire blade sank in, piercing straight through his heart.

"Brother Bear, you really knew how to pick a place for yourself."

Gripping the blade, Lin Jun twisted it hard, shredding the heart in the Bear Demon's chest.

"You... you..."

The Bear Demon stared at Lin Jun in utter disbelief, his gaze seeming to wish he could swallow Lin Jun alive.

Yet his increasingly powerless body told him that it was already too late.

The massive bear body toppled stiffly to the ground, its eyes filled with unwillingness.

Chen Feng stared wide-eyed.

Dead?

They had been chatting and laughing along the way, and then he was dead in the blink of an eye?

"My lord, was that blood qi power?"

The Bear Demon's fur was not something ordinary weapons could harm. Yet Lin Jun had stabbed him to death as easily as cutting tofu, and combined with the faint blood qi on his blade...

That was clearly the blood qi power attained only by cultivating the Demon-Subduing Blade Technique to perfection.

But how could that be? An ordinary person could not possibly cultivate it to perfection without decades of accumulated practice.

This time, Chen Feng truly believed that Lin Jun had killed the Snake Demon.

The little Bear Demon slowly walked up before the black bear, seemingly unable to understand why his all-powerful father had fallen.

Lin Jun ended the little Bear Demon with a single slash.

"Chen Feng."

"Here!"

Chen Feng instinctively straightened his back.

"Come with me and take a look inside the cave."

"My Brother Bear still has six children for me to look after."

Lin Jun's cold tone scared Chen Feng into breaking out in a cold sweat.

So Lin Jun's questioning of the household earlier had been for the sake of silencing them all.

Half an hour later, Lin Jun emerged from the cave.

His blade was covered in blood, and the cave gave off a foul stench.

Lin Jun dug a pit nearby with his blade and placed the mangled human corpses inside, piling up a mound of earth over them.

Then he cut out a wooden marker with his blade, carved several words into it, and planted it before the mound.

By the time he finished, dawn was close at hand.

"My lord, shall we return to the city?"

Chen Feng realized that he could no longer understand Lin Jun.

Since Lin Jun possessed such strength, why had he kept it hidden all this time?

And this habit of pulling up the weeds by the roots was truly... deeply pleasing.

"Not yet. Let's wait for Sister-in-law."

Sister-in-law?

Chen Feng's mind nearly stopped working.

Aside from seven cubs, this Bear Demon had a mother bear as well.

According to the Bear Demon, the mother bear should have returned today.

But looking at that blood-soaked cave, Chen Feng felt that no normal Bear Demon would come back.

Until Lin Jun carried out a bear cub that looked as though it had only just been born.

"Brother Bear wasn't honest. He clearly had eight children. Tsk, tsk, if I hadn't been careful, I almost would've missed one."

Although Chen Feng felt demons ought to be dealt with ruthlessly, for the first time he felt that compared to Lin Jun, he was still far too conservative.

Sure enough, the moment Lin Jun lifted the bear cub into the air, the distant woods began to shake, as though something were charging toward them at a mad sprint.

Seeing this, Lin Jun slammed the bear cub onto the ground, killing it.

That thing came even faster.

Holding the blade whose blood had yet to dry, Lin Jun charged straight toward the oncoming impact. A faint red glow surfaced along the blade's edge.

It truly was the Demon-Subduing Blade Technique!

Blood and qi so dense they were nearly visible to the naked eye enveloped the entire blade. How could anyone achieve that without decades of cultivation?

No matter what Chen Feng thought, Lin Jun had already collided with the charging mother bear.

With a thunderous crash, the entire mountain forest fell silent.

Chen Feng hurriedly ran toward Lin Jun.

Before Lin Jun lay a bear corpse split in two.

It was over?

Chen Feng's head buzzed.

A demon capable of causing such a tremendous commotion had died just like that?

Even a dog would yelp twice when being killed, wouldn't it?

Lin Jun pointed curiously at the Bear Demon that had been cleaved in half.

"What's that?"

Within the bisected Bear Demon was something he had never seen before. It did not look like an organ.

It was a round ball of flesh that gave off a strange fishy stench.

"A Demon Core? This Mortal demon actually cultivated a Demon Core?"

Without another word, Chen Feng picked out the Demon Core and handed it to Lin Jun.

"A Demon Core is the essence of demons. It can not only aid cultivation, but can also be refined into pills or medicine. It is an extremely rare treasure. Normally, only demons that have stepped into the Transcendent Realm form one. This demon was not Transcendent, yet it had a Demon Core. All I can say is that my lord has excellent luck."

The Demon Core looked ugly, like a stone.

"My lord might as well ask Lord Yang to refine it into pills after we return."

Lin Jun grew curious.

"Didn't you say it could aid cultivation?"

"Of course it can. However, the energy within a Demon Core is far too mixed and contains a demon's violent aura as well. If one absorbs its energy without powerful willpower, one may suffer a backlash."

Lin Jun nodded and put away the Demon Core.

"Go to the villagers of Liu Family Ravine and buy a donkey cart. Haul these corpses back to the city for me."

Chen Feng frowned.

"My lord, forgive my bluntness, but this demon beast's fur is of extremely poor quality. It is unsuitable for making weapons."

Lin Jun rolled his eyes at Chen Feng.

"Has it occurred to you that I simply want to eat bear paws?"

Chen Feng's eyes widened.

"My lord, this..."

"What? Demons can eat people, but people can't eat demons?"

"That is not what I meant... This subordinate will obey my lord."

Still full of doubt, Chen Feng headed down the mountain toward Liu Family Ravine.

"Remember to pay them."

"Only in this regard is my lord unqualified to instruct me."

Watching Chen Feng walk away, Lin Jun suddenly dropped to his knees, bracing himself with his blade as he faced the ground. His stomach churned violently.

Yet nothing came out. He could only dry heave.

After a long while, he finally felt somewhat better.

The demon split in half had not frightened him, but the mangled human bodies had made Lin Jun's mind tremble.

This was the first time he had seen dead people—not skeletons, but flesh and blood, and in such horrific states of death.

He was human too. He could kill demons without changing expression; to him, it was no different in essence from killing chickens.

But humans were different. The shock ran from physiology to psyche, shaking him completely.

"Heh, what a dangerous world..."

Lin Jun felt an unprecedented sense of tension.

He was too weak. Even killing a Bear Demon had taken effort.

What would he do if he encountered those Great Demons? Would he, like these people, be casually devoured by demons and die like food?

Lin Jun patted his face, cutting off his thoughts.

There was no use thinking so much now. He might as well seize the time to strengthen himself.

Naturally, for Lin Jun, the fastest way to cultivate was to kill demons—to keep killing demons, to kill stronger demons.

He needed more experience.

Lin Jun rested where he was for a while, then slowly stood up.

"What's this?"

Suddenly, Lin Jun noticed a wooden plaque beside the mother bear's corpse.

He picked it up and saw that a deer had been carved onto it.

"The Mountain Assembly Token?"

What was this thing?