Return to Cangwu

At the Annan Demon Suppressing Guard headquarters, in a side room off the council hall.

An ink-wet battle report lay spread across a long, narrow wooden desk. A clerk held a fine brush, copying out the last report.

He rolled up the completed copy, sealed it with special beeswax, then wrote a few small lines on the wrapper.

After checking it once more, he handed the report to the messenger waiting beside him.

The information in this report was highly confidential, so the messenger was a Commandant of the Demon Suppressing Guard.

The Commandant took the report, nodded, and left.

There were few words in the report, but they recorded a great deal.

Most striking was an entry concerning a Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter "Stone," Four-Star Bronze Badge.

At the Battle of White Rock Slope, he single-handedly killed Blood Butcher, an Early Essence Gathering martial artist of the Heaven Overturning Cult, then joined forces with Huo Wangchuan, deputy leader of the Annan Martial Alliance, to kill Blood Yang, a Late Essence Gathering martial artist of the Heaven Overturning Cult.

Blood Yang was formerly Kong Yang, master of Blazing Fire Manor in Cangwu Prefecture.

It had been verified that Demon Hunter "Stone" had broken through the Qi Condensation Realm and reached Early Essence Gathering. His Demon Hunter rank needed to be reassessed.

The clerk watched the Commandant leave and let out a quiet breath.

Two Early Essence Gathering martial artists had joined forces to kill a Late Essence Gathering martial artist. In more than ten years as a clerk for the Demon Suppressing Guard, he had never seen anything like it.

There were plenty of cases of fighters killing enemies above their level, but he had never seen it happen among Gathered Origin Realm martial artists.

Outside the hall.

When He