You Really Know How to Pretend

You sacrificed thirty years of lifespan to enhance The Ox Demon Body Refinement Technique. Body Refinement Completion. Your vital blood was abundant, but your cultivation could advance no further due to lacking the proper method.

Realm: Body Refinement Completion

Lifespan: nineteen years and seven months

Chen Xian lay there with his eyes closed, scenes flashing endlessly through his mind. In only a moment, it felt as though he had weathered thirty years of storms and frost.

He could not see the changes in his own body.

Had he been able to see them, he would have found that his skin was like red-hot branding iron, streaked with shimmering patterns that seemed forged from flowing gold. His tendons, bones, skin, and flesh were as hard as steel.

With the slightest exertion, energy surged through his body like a raging tide, his strength fierce and powerful.

He could have punched a bull to death without any problem.

Yet when he looked at the nineteen years and seven months of lifespan remaining on the panel, bitterness filled his heart.

Just then, the wolf demon came before him, a trace of puzzlement appearing in its scarlet eyes.

It stared at Chen Xian for a moment. Seeing that his face was dark red from suffocation in death, it paid him no more attention.

Of course, even if Chen Xian had not died, he would not have been its match.

It grabbed Chen Xian by the ankle and began dragging him away. Chen Xian took the chance to seize the straight blade beside him, the blade scraping against the ground with a hissing sound.

The wolf demon stopped and turned around, intending to take the straight blade from Chen Xian's hand and toss it away.

After tugging twice, however, it realized it could not pull it free.

"Dead, yet still so stubborn?" the wolf demon rasped.

But in the next instant, its pupils shrank sharply, and a howl burst from its mouth.

Its sharp, fan-sized claw slapped toward Chen Xian's forehead.

Splat!

Chen Xian swung with all his strength, knocking the wolf claw aside with one slash as blood sprayed through the air.

While the wolf demon screamed in pain, he rolled to his feet and gripped the hilt with both hands, stabbing toward its neck.

The wolf demon had never expected Chen Xian to still have the strength to resist.

With a muffled pop, the straight blade plunged in beneath the wolf demon's neck, and blood spurted out again.

Chen Xian shouted, "Quick, help me!"

Hearing the cry, Ding Chen sprang up not far away. Yet to both Chen Xian's and the wolf demon's astonishment, four more people rose after Ding Chen, each gripping a blade as they charged over.

Fuck!

A whole pack of bastards!

Chen Xian had thought only Ding Chen, the leader of the cooks, was alive. It turned out there were another four playing dead!

He had wasted fifty-one years of lifespan for nothing.

This was not the time to dwell on that. Chen Xian clenched the hilt with both hands and shoved hard, trying to skewer the wolf demon to death.

The long blade sank inch by inch into the wolf demon's body, drawing howls of pain from its mouth.

At that moment, Ding Chen and the other five all rushed in. Some chopped, some stabbed, and their attacks rained down on the wolf demon, but their effect was far inferior to Chen Xian's.

The five of them could only wound its skin and flesh.

"Stab the wounds!" Chen Xian roared. These five idiots!

At his words, Ding Chen and the others immediately reacted. They fixed their eyes on the dried wounds on the wolf demon's body and attacked again.

But the wolf demon was not about to await death with tied hands.

Its thick, knee-high wolf claw sent three of them flying. When they hit the ground, they coughed up blood.

Ding Chen and another man drove their blades into the wolf demon's body, and blood immediately gushed out in streams.

The three pushed forward with all their strength. How could the wolf demon withstand it? Its burly body staggered backward again and again.

With a hiss, Chen Xian's long blade completely pierced through the wolf demon's body, blood spraying from its back.

In a final desperate counterattack, the wolf demon roared and swatted at Chen Xian and the other two.

Chen Xian held his blade in one hand and unleashed the Great Tablet Smashing Hand with the other. His formidable force collided head-on with the demon wolf's, and each was forced back a step.

Ding Chen and the other man, meanwhile, were sent flying by the wolf demon's strike. They too coughed up blood after landing.

The five men stared at Chen Xian in astonishment. Chen Xian had been considered the weakest person in the Cooks' Camp.

Yet he had displayed such ferocity now that it was hard to understand.

Chen Xian had no mind to care about their shocked expressions. Holding the straight blade, he unleashed the Demon-Slaying Blade Technique and hacked madly at the wolf demon.

The gravely wounded wolf demon knew it could not escape, so it simply decided to drag Chen Xian down with it and launched a frenzied counterattack.

Seeing this, Ding Chen and the others charged in again to help.

In the end, Chen Xian pierced the wolf demon's neck with a single strike. The wolf demon let out a furious howl, and its burly body toppled backward.

Sacrifice the soul of a lesser demon. Gain 157 experience points.

A flash of bloody light passed over the wolf demon's body, followed by a line of pale blue text appearing before his eyes.

He examined it closely, excitement rising in his heart. He had gained 157 experience points, so his fifty-one years of lifespan had not been wasted after all.

"Chen Xian, you're something else!"

At that moment, Ding Chen's rough voice sounded by his ear.

Chen Xian turned his head. All five men were injured. "You really know how to pretend!"

Ding Chen gave a bitter laugh. "In a situation like this, we had no choice but to pretend."

Another man chimed in, "Yeah. Who would have thought that wolf demon would stay after it had eaten its fill?"

Chen Xian curled his lip and said nothing.

The remaining three spoke up instead, saying that it was all thanks to Chen Xian this time and that they would report a merit for him when they returned.

At the mention of merit, Chen Xian's eyes brightened slightly as he looked toward Ding Chen.

Ding Chen smiled. "We have to report it. You'll be credited with a merit!"

Chen Xian nodded in satisfaction. He glanced at the sky; it had already grown dim.

Ding Chen and the others, however, looked at their dead companions, the smiles on their faces turning to grief.

Afterward, they arranged their companions' corpses neatly. They also searched out the incomplete remains and placed them on the carts meant for transporting the wolf demon's corpse before they began loading the wolf demon's body.

There had originally been six carts, but now only three could be loaded.

Two people pushed and pulled each cart back toward the camp.

"Why are you back so late?"

The soldiers of the Ninth Battalion were still waiting to eat. With more than ten people missing from cooking duty, the several hundred soldiers of the vanguard could only go hungry.

Ding Chen said a few words to the questioning officer. When the officer heard that a wolf demon had not been completely dead and had nearly killed more than ten men, his expression turned exceedingly grim.

He did not pursue the six men's responsibility. Instead, he gave Chen Xian a glance.

When they returned to the Cooks' Camp, hundreds of people were busy preparing food.

A man stood before one small tent. He was the head cook, Zhao Tong.

After asking Ding Chen about what had happened, his expression also darkened.

Just then, two cooks who had been preparing food rushed over.

"Brother Ding, what happened?" the two asked as they stepped forward.

Chen Xian glanced at them. From his memories, an army had one hundred thousand men, while one camp held ten thousand. The Cooks' Camp had three hundred people.

The three hundred people were divided into ten teams, each with thirty members.

The cook leader was Zhao Tong. Beneath him were two Minor Cook Leaders, each leading fifteen people and responsible for the meals of five hundred soldiers.

The two men before them were cooks from Ding Chen's team. Ding Chen had not taken them along earlier, instead leaving them in the Cooks' Camp to prepare the evening meal.

Thus, the two had been fortunate.

When they saw their dead companions, they understood at once, their hearts growing incomparably heavy.

Ding Chen said nothing. In front of Demon-Slaying Pass, people died every day. He had long since become numb to it.

"Unload them."

After making dinner for the vanguard,

Chen Xian and the other seven ate a quick meal, then gathered up the belongings left behind by their fallen companions.

After informing Zhao Tong, the Chief Medic, they brought their companions' bodies to the foot of Wumeng Mountain and buried them.

Chen Xian was not particularly saddened. He had not fully integrated into this life yet, and according to his memories, it was common for the Cooks' Camp to be wiped out when clearing battlefields if they had bad luck and encountered demons that had not completely died.

Afterward, the eight of them hauled back the parts of the wolf demon's corpse that had not been transported earlier.

Night fell.

Before the Cooks' Camp.

Cook leader Zhao Tong led the cooks from another team in training.

Chen Xian and the other seven joined them as well.

After training for a while, Chen Xian found an excuse to go to the latrine.

Naturally, he was actually going to study the Slay Demons and Eliminate Evil panel and improve those three martial arts.

After a month of blade training, your Demon-Slaying Blade Technique has reached minor mastery.

Chen Xian's eyes flickered. He had just added one experience point, and the panel said he had trained with the blade for a month.

That meant one experience point equaled one month of arduous training.

This was incredible!

Once he understood, Chen Xian did not hesitate any longer and began rapidly raising the realm of his blade technique.

After ten months of blade training, your Demon-Slaying Blade Technique has reached minor mastery.

After fifteen months of blade training, your Demon-Slaying Blade Technique has reached major mastery.