When Zhou Yi opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a cold, hard bed board.
The night was pitch-black; he could not see his own hand in front of his face.
Thunderous snores sounded beside him, more than one, rising and falling in succession.
Faint shrieks drifted in from outside, seemingly from some kind of wild beast.
Where am I?
Didn't I die in a hospital bed?
Zhou Yi instinctively touched his chest. His heart thumped vigorously, stronger than at any time he could remember. This probably was not the underworld.
Fragments of scattered memories abruptly surfaced in Zhou Yi's mind.
A mountain village near Hengyang... drought, war... begging his way to the capital...
Half a year ago, a captain from the Punishment Office had come to the refugee camp to recruit strong young men, promising that the Demon-Slaying Bureau would provide food and lodging. The body's former owner had thus become an executioner.
During the day, Zhou Yi had executed a vicious spirit. Afterward, he had grown dazed and muddled, until his soul had scattered at some unknown moment.
After reviewing his predecessor's memories, Zhou Yi could more or less guess that he had transmigrated.
This was the Demon-Slaying Bureau headquarters in Luocheng, the imperial capital of Great Qian. This body's original owner had also been named Zhou Yi and was exactly twenty years old.
This world was certainly not any dynasty he remembered, nor was it the Blue Star of his memories anymore. Quite apart from there never having been a dynasty called "Qian," there certainly should not have been demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends.
"The Demon-Slaying Bureau, Fierce Wraiths, monsters and evil fiends..."
"This world is far too dangerous!"
Zhou Yi tried to calm himself, feeling his powerful heartbeat. "Still, it's good to be alive..."
He drifted off into a hazy sleep.
In his dreams, countless terrifying figures seemed to flash past, howling incessantly as they tried to crawl out of an abyss.
Zhou Yi stood above that abyss.
He woke again.
When Zhou Yi opened his eyes, he saw an ugly face covered in coarse black hair. A grin revealed blackened yellow teeth.
"Brother Zhou, hurry up for roll call. If we're late, the captain will whip us again."
"Roll call?"
Zhou Yi gradually came to his senses. Last night truly had not been a dream. He had transmigrated.
Resolving to speak less, watch more, and learn more, Zhou Yi followed the hairy-faced man to collect his dry rations, then went to the Punishment Office in the Demon-Slaying Bureau's prison.
Their quarters were inside the prison itself, a row of executioners' sleeping rooms built right beside the Punishment Office.
For the half year since Zhou Yi had joined the Demon-Slaying Bureau, his days had consisted solely of going between his sleeping quarters and the Punishment Office. Great Qian had no labor laws: he worked from the moment he woke until it was time to sleep.
The Punishment Office.
Built over a dozen zhang underground, it lay forever in darkness.
There was no telling whether daylight shone outside. According to the water clock, it was roughly the hour of the Rabbit.
More than fifty executioners stood in three rows. Zhou Yi stood in the second beside the hairy-faced man, Shi Liu.
Before long, Lu Gang, a Demon-Slaying Bureau captain clad entirely in black armor, arrived. The men began counting off from right to left in the first row.
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
"..."
"Fifty-seven."
Lu Gang slowly swept his gaze over everyone, his voice low and sinister. "Who's missing?"
"Reporting to the captain, Li Jiu in Room A7... couldn't get up."
Zhou Yi's heart tightened at those words. "Couldn't get up" meant dead. Such things were common; every few days, an executioner failed to rise.
The executioners' daily work was to kill the demons, monsters, and ghosts captured by the Demon-Slaying Bureau on the demon-slaying platform, then deliver them to the Demon Refining Cavern or the Fiend Refining Cavern.
The Demon Refining Cavern refined monsters, ghosts, and spirits, while the Fiend Refining Cavern refined evil fiends and practitioners of the outer dao.
For reasons unknown-unknown to Zhou Yi, at least-the executioners responsible for slaying demons and monsters all had short lives. After just half a year, Zhou Yi was already a veteran among them. Of those who had arrived with him, only Shi Liu remained.
"Understood."
Without any change in his voice, Lu Gang began assigning the day's tasks.
"Ma San'er, Cell C5."
"Zhao Dazhuang, Cell B14."
"Sun Cai, Cell C7."
The Demon-Slaying Bureau divided its prison into three grades: A, B, and C. Assignments to A-grade cells virtually never appeared; they were usually to B- or C-grade cells.
Judging from Zhou Yi's half year of experience, the demons and monsters in B-grade cells were considerably stronger than those in C-grade cells.
Just yesterday, his predecessor had been assigned to Cell B1. All he had needed to do was execute a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost, yet his soul had scattered that very night.
"Zhou Yi, Cell C25."
"Shi Liu, Cell B13."
"..."
Zhou Yi secretly watched Lu Gang's expression and found that it did not change at all when he read his name.
He could not help breathing a quiet sigh of relief. The Demon-Slaying Commandant had complete control over assignments. If he wanted to secretly kill an executioner, he only needed to assign him to the Earth-Class Prison every day.
Even if I die a normal death, how long can I last?
Zhou Yi felt no fear. He had already died once, but he would never abandon any hope of survival.
Given a second life in a healthy, nimble body, how could he bear to die for no clear reason?
He tried hard to recall the indenture his predecessor had signed with the Demon-Slaying Bureau. Although he did not recognize most of the characters, Great Qian's script closely resembled ancient Chinese characters from his homeland. Through a mixture of recognition and guesswork, he could make out most of its contents.
Ten years of indentured service...
Zhou Yi frowned slightly. The contract offered no way out. After ten years in this sunless prison of demons and monsters, even if they did not kill him, his mind would break.
While Zhou Yi pondered how to escape his predicament, Lu Gang finished assigning the day's tasks.
"Go. Fail to finish your duties, and you'll taste the whip tonight!"
As soon as Lu Gang finished speaking, the executioners bowed and scattered.
The three prison sections occupied different locations. Broadly speaking, the A-grade cells lay deepest underground, the Earth-Class Prison was in the middle, and the Heaven-Class Prison was closer to the surface than the Punishment Office.
Following the route in his memories, Zhou Yi made his way to Cell C25.
The cell was constructed from solid slabs of bluestone, with a keyhole beneath its number.
He inserted his executioner's bronze token into the keyhole and turned it to the right. The bluestone wall rotated with a rumble, gradually opening the cell door.
Once inside, Zhou Yi closed the door in the same way. He now stood in the space between the outer and inner doors.
The double doors prevented demons and monsters from breaking free with secret arts and escaping when an executioner entered their cells.
Opening the inner door, Zhou Yi saw the monster he was to execute that day.
Under the dim lamplight, a creature with a fish's head, a human body, and a fish's tail was fastened to an execution frame. Refined steel chains pierced its limbs, chest, and abdomen.
Large patches of scales had fallen off the fish monster, and its wounds were charred black. It had probably been burned by flames.
"Roar-"
At the sight of Zhou Yi, the fish monster lunged forward with its hideous fish face. The refined steel chains automatically tightened, making it scream without cease.
"So this is a monster? Much uglier than I imagined. Is that fish head and human body a genetic mutation, or a deformity caused by radiation?"
Zhou Yi looked toward the execution table inside the cell. All manner of implements lay upon it: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, poleaxes, hooks, and forks-everything was there.
Before the fish monster died, its otherwise wasted remains had to be put to the fullest use: its eyes, scales, liver, and so forth.
Every part of a monster had its uses. Ordinary fish eyes could improve eyesight; a fish monster's eyes were even more effective.
Its scales could be forged into armor, and its liver could prolong life.
Covering his mouth and nose, Zhou Yi deftly gouged out the fish's eyes, stripped off the scales still suitable for forging armor one by one, then sliced open its belly and removed its liver...
Amid agonized howls, the fish monster gradually died. Its hatred before death was so intense that Zhou Yi felt the temperature in the cell drop by at least a dozen degrees.
Suddenly.
A wave of dizziness and confusion swept over Zhou Yi.
A volume of bright yellow silk appeared before his eyes, bearing four strange characters. The instant he saw them, he understood their meaning.
The Demon and Monster Compendium.
The compendium flipped through an unknown number of pages before arriving at one bearing a fish monster.
It had a fish's head, a human body, and a fish's tail. It seemed to be the very fish monster that had just died.
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