Yellow Court Dao Scripture

Zhou Yi slowly opened his eyes. Purplish-red mist obscured his vision, and he could just make out figures moving within it.

According to the Qi-Reading Technique, killing intent was initially colorless, then turned scarlet, then red, and finally purple when the red reached its utmost intensity.

Who knew how long the Demon-Slaying Bureau had existed or how many demons, monsters, and ghosts it had slain? The killing intent accumulated here could almost condense into solid substance.

"No wonder executioners don't live long. Killing intent this dense eats away at their bodies every moment. It would be strange if they didn't die young!"

Zhou Yi had previously wondered why he hardly ever saw anyone else in the Ministry of Justice's prison, and why the commandant only appeared briefly in the morning to assign duties.

Now most of his questions had been answered. They, too, were unwilling to linger amid killing intent that soared to the heavens.

The physician's voice reached his ears. "Malign energy entered your eyes. Fortunately, it didn't damage your pupils. A few days' rest should see them recover."

After losing his sight, Zhou Yi had rung the bronze bell in cell C-27, and a commandant had immediately come to investigate.

After confirming that the rat spirit's essence, qi, and soul had dissipated and that Zhou Yi had not been possessed, the commandant summoned other executioners to carry him back to his quarters.

All sorts of accidents occurred when executioners slew demons and monsters. Losing one's sight was nothing remarkable.

The physician left a few pills and hurried away from the Ministry of Justice, clearly unwilling to stay any longer.

The pills were far from inferior medicine. Outside, they might well have been treasured elixirs in some wealthy merchant's household, with excellent effects for clearing the mind and sharpening the eyes.

The ingredients used to refine them came from the Ministry of Works-the residue left after processing monster organs.

This, too, counted as one of the Demon-Slaying Bureau's benefits.

Since Zhou Yi's blindness prevented him from slaying monsters, Commandant Lu approved his leave.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

The backlash from the Qi-Reading Technique gradually faded, and Zhou Yi's eyes returned to normal. He could scarcely contain his eagerness to slay demons and monsters any longer.

This world was too dangerous, and great terrors lurked even within the Demon-Slaying Bureau. He needed the strength to protect himself as soon as possible.

At the routine morning roll call and assignment of duties, Commandant Lu, who was always punctual, was unexpectedly late.

The executioners were not soldiers. Before joining the Demon-Slaying Bureau, most had been refugees, along with a few prisoners put to use rather than wasted. With the commandant absent, they chatted in small groups.

Zhou Yi used the Qi-Reading Technique and looked at the executioners in Section A.

Shi Liu's aura was gray-black, heavy with the air of death. A fortune-teller could have pronounced a calamity of blood upon him.

Of those who had joined the Demon-Slaying Bureau's Punishment Office in the same batch six months ago, Shi Liu had survived the longest. Zhou Yi had already died once.

Li Dazhuang's aura was gray-white. He did not have long to live.

Deng Li's aura was gray-white. He would not survive much longer.

Li Yun's aura was gray-white. His allotted years were nearing their end...

Zhou Yi examined more than a dozen executioners in succession and discovered one thing they all shared: they were close to death.

"This really is... the Punishment Office's defining trait!"

Half an hour later.

Lu Gang finally arrived, an assignment booklet in his hand. His gaze swept over everyone with a trace of pity, pausing briefly on Zhou Yi.

After several days without seeing him, Lu Gang felt that Zhou Yi seemed to have developed an air unlike that of the other executioners.

"The Demon-Slaying Bureau destroyed a branch of the Black Lotus Demon Cult, so there are rather more assignments today. After executing them, deliver them to the Fiend Refining Cavern as quickly as possible."

"Ma San'er, cell C-9 and cell B-15."

"Sun Cai, cell C-17 and cell B-3."

Zhou Yi listened as Lu Gang assigned the duties. Most received one assignment each from Categories B and C, or four Heaven-Class Prison cells.

"Zhou Yi, cell A-7."

"Shi Liu, cell C-10 and cell B-23."

Zhou Yi's expression shifted slightly when he heard his Category A assignment. The other executioners could not help looking at him as though he were already a dead man.

A Category A cell—even across all nine sections of the Punishment Office, such an assignment did not come around once a year.

"Silence!"

Lu Gang's voice crashed like thunder, quelling the executioners' murmurs. Expressionless, he continued handing out assignments.

Once the day's duties had all been assigned, Lu Gang turned and left, making no special allowance for the Category A cell.

Zhou Yi silently walked deeper into the Punishment Office. The Category A cells stood right beside the Fiend Refining Cavern and the Demon Refining Cavern.

He was not frightened by the Category A cell. Instead, he kept wondering whether Lu Gang had singled him out deliberately or whether he had simply been unlucky.

The Category A cell's door was cast from Black Iron and carved with inscriptions he could not understand. Supposedly, these were spells bestowed by immortal masters to make the Black Iron even stronger.

Beyond two Black Iron doors, the interior was surprisingly clean and bright. An unknown light source on the ceiling shone down upon the prisoner.

Compared with the gloom of the Category B cells and Heaven-Class Prison cells, this Category A cell resembled a tidy studio apartment.

The prisoner was an amiable old man-or at least that was Zhou Yi's first impression-with crane-white hair, a youthful face, and plump features.

"Little lad, this old man's arms and legs are aching. Would you give them a rub?"

Zhou Yi instinctively used the Qi-Reading Technique. He saw the dense throng of wronged souls swirling around the old man, along with malign killing intent so black it shaded into purple.

"Oh? Innate spirit eyes! What a waste of a seedling suited to Dao cultivation. Loosen these bonds for this old man, and I'll teach you a Sacred Lotus Secret Art. You can cultivate netherworld spirit eyes, which can peer through the nine heavens above and, below..."

The old man's essence, qi, and spirit were sealed, yet through expression, cadence, and words alone, he stirred the desires in Zhou Yi's heart.

Learn the Sacred Lotus Secret Art, then kill him-what difference would that make?

Temptation appeared on Zhou Yi's face as he slowly approached. The old man's expression suggested that here was a promising pupil.

Pshh!

The execution implement pierced the old man's neck, forcing the rest of his words back into his belly.

Disbelief filled the old man's face. He possessed the Sacred Lotus Sect's Reincarnation Secret Art and could lodge a strand of divine consciousness within Zhou Yi before dying. But with his essence, qi, and spirit sealed, he needed physical contact to cast it.

"Hhh... hhh..."

Blood poured from his neck, yet the old man kept gasping, as though trying to ask why.

"Old sir, this junior is fainthearted. Your divine abilities are vast, so it's best that I send you on your way!"

Zhou Yi fetched five more execution daggers and pinned them into the positions of the five organs. Then he drove three steel execution spikes through the crown of the old man's skull, arranged according to the Three Powers.

This was the method for handling fiends of the demonic path. Special execution implements fixed the five qi within the body and the three flowers above the head in place, preventing them from dissipating for an hour after death.

If the body reached the Fiend Refining Cavern within that hour, not the slightest trace of essence or qi would be wasted.

After the old man died, the Demon and Monster Compendium flipped through hundreds of pages and manifested his image.

The image in the compendium was not a plump, kindly old man, but a great fiend with a blue face and protruding fangs, black clouds above his head and a demonic lotus beneath his feet. Venomous snakes coiled around his arms; one hand held a long white-bone banner, the other a string of skull prayer beads.

The Demon and Monster Compendium recorded not only the demon race, but also wicked fiends and practitioners of the Outer Dao.

Zhou Yi learned the fiend's origins: an elder of the Black Lotus Sect, the Black Baleful Demon Venerable, who had lived for more than three hundred years.

The Black Baleful Demon Venerable's original name was Zheng Hua. He had been born into the Black Lotus Sect. His father, a sect steward, had abducted a female cultivator from a small righteous sect and forced her to bear his offspring.

Having witnessed the cruelty of the demonic path since childhood, Zheng Hua was exceptionally vicious by nature. Even among demonic cultivators, he was a terrifying figure whose mention made faces pale.

He had killed without hesitation throughout his rise, slaughtering even his own parents, and ultimately became one of the Black Lotus Sect's twelve elders, wielding immense authority and overwhelming demonic might.

Several months earlier, Zheng Hua had led his subordinates into Lushan Commandery City, plotting to sacrifice its two hundred thousand inhabitants to refine a supreme treasure of the demonic path, the Netherworld White Bone Banner. In the end, his scheme failed on the brink of success, and the entire Black Lotus Sect branch was swept up along with him.

"Li Mu, a young man of twenty, actually broke the Black Baleful Demon Venerable's blood-sacrifice formation."

The Black Baleful Demon Venerable's memory fragments were filled with curses against Li Mu. It was fair to say that Li Mu had been the key to his defeat.

"Let the winds blow from east, south, west, or north; I remain steadfast and unmoving."

The Demon and Monster Compendium closed and vanished, leaving behind a Dao scripture.

The Yellow Court Dao Scripture.

It resembled a cultivation method, yet was not one, and required no deliberate seated practice.

By silently reciting the Yellow Court at all times, one could guide the spiritual energy within the body and deepen one's cultivation.