Nanhe County's walls were no more than a blurry black silhouette against the night.
Out in the wilderness, Su Yu drove forward with alternating strides. With every step, the blue-brick road beneath his cloth shoes cracked and sank.
As earth churned, his speed climbed to its limit, and the savage airflow shredded the withered grass around him.
The system panel flashed across his vision.
[Slaughter Points: 200]
The battle at the Liu Family had taken a considerable toll. Wary of the two Spirit Realm Third Level greater yao on Cloud Wolf Mountain, Lin Xiao had chosen to hold his position.
Su Yu did not want to wait.
Nanhe County's defenses were hollow. Once the yao and demons massed at its borders, what would the Demon Suppression Bureau use to stop them?
The most effective way to solve trouble was to tear its source out by the roots-and, along the way, turn this mountain full of yao and demons into nourishment for deducing martial arts.
Ahead appeared a black pine forest that blotted out the sky and sun, the first natural barrier into Cloud Wolf Mountain's territory.
Four Mortal Realm Fourth Layer dog yao squatted beside several blackened stumps, their heads lowered as they gnawed human leg bones with shreds of flesh still clinging to them.
Su Yu did not slow. His right thumb pressed against the guard of his black-gold saber.
Clang.
A crisp metallic scrape rang out-the ultimate-realm killing move of Wandering Dragon Steps, Dragon Concealment.
His body was almost parallel to the ground as he skimmed rapidly over the weed-choked wilderness.
He crossed ten zhang in an instant.
Hearing the movement, the four dog yao had only just raised their bloodstained mouths.
A dark gleam flashed.
Slash!
The blade cut through the air, drawing an absolutely straight black line-the ultimate-realm killing move of the Gale Saber Technique, Wind Falls Silent, Leaving No Trace.
Foul blood sprayed in fans over the rough pine trunks as four black-furred heads rolled to the ground in unison.
The four headless bodies still held their squatting, feeding postures.
[Killed four Mortal Realm Eighth Layer yao. Gained 160 Slaughter Points.]
The number at the edge of his vision flickered rapidly.
Su Yu stepped over the still-twitching remains and vanished deeper into the darkness.
At the summit of Cloud Wolf Mountain, inside an enormous black-stone cavern, beast bones crackled in the flames of a stone basin.
A gigantic blood wolf over a zhang long lay sprawled in the seat of honor, its sharp claws tearing at a piece of raw flesh.
Blood dripped along a stone trough.
Beside it, an exceptionally burly man with a dog's head lifted a wine jar in one hand and poured the dark red liquid furiously down his throat.
"That Lin Xiao from Nanhe County brought his men and wiped out the Liu Family today."
The dog yao chief casually smashed the wine jar, sending pottery shards flying against the stone walls.
"Liu Tianjue really was useless." The blood wolf chief swallowed a large chunk of raw meat threaded with sinew.
"He cut off the mountain's supply of blood food. The little brats down below have gotten so hungry these past two days that they've started biting each other."
The blood wolf chief straightened and shook bone fragments from his fur.
"Tomorrow night, we go down the mountain and slaughter the city."
A gray-furred wolf yao darted in from outside the cave and dropped onto all fours.
"Chief, several humans wearing sect robes have intruded halfway up the mountain."
The blood wolf chief did not turn around.
"Send three squads of blood wolves to deal with them. Keep it clean."
The gray-furred wolf yao withdrew with its orders.
The dog yao chief picked up a leg bone and tossed it into the brazier. The wavering firelight stretched the two enormous yao's shadows endlessly.
In the forest on Cloud Wolf Mountain's outskirts.
Five figures rose and fell among the tangled tree trunks.
Three men and two women.
They were dressed in fine clothes, their black robes embroidered with sharp little swords and crimson flame emblems.
"Senior Brother Chu, Cloud Wolf Mountain's reputation is undeserved. We've been walking for over half a shichen, and all we've found are worthless trash."
A young man wearing the Blazing Fire Sect's robes disdainfully kicked aside the brambles at his feet.
Chu Jie, who was leading the way, stopped on a thick vine.
He wore the robes of a Mystic Sword Sect true disciple, a heavy sword on his back, and released the fluctuations of his Spirit Realm Third Level spiritual power without restraint.
"It's a backwater, after all. What could the yao and demons here amount to?"
Chu Jie reached back and drew his heavy sword.
"But they're just right for giving our two junior sisters some practice and a feel for real combat."
The two female disciples behind him raised their heads.
"Senior Brother Chu is at the Spirit Realm Third Level. In a little place like Nanhe County, even the head of the Demon Suppression Bureau would have to treat him with courtesy."
"The greatest merit in this sect trial is yours for the taking, Senior Brother Chu."
Whoosh! Whoosh...
Just then, a rapid rustling suddenly came from the surrounding bushes. More than a dozen enormous blood wolves lunged from the darkness, cutting off their retreat.
The blood wolf in the lead bared its fangs, emanating Spirit Realm First Level fluctuations.
Chu Jie raised his chin arrogantly.
"Junior brothers, junior sisters, clear them out."
"Yes..."
They all drew their weapons.
In an instant, Sword Qi crisscrossed and flames surged.
The wolf yao on the outskirts crumbled before these supreme sect arts. In barely a dozen breaths, severed limbs littered the ground.
"Too weak. Not even a challenge." The short young man flicked the blood from his longsword.
"Come on. Let's go straight to the summit and find those two greater yao." Chu Jie sheathed his sword, his tone casual.
Half a shichen later, on another steep slope halfway up the mountain, Su Yu flicked the beads of blood from his blade.
By now, more than twenty low-ranking yao and demons had died at his hands.
The system's Slaughter Points had accumulated to 650.
Su Yu stopped on the sheltered side of a weathered boulder and sank his consciousness into his mind.
"Spend 200 Slaughter Points to deduce Spirit Sense Piercing."
The value on the panel instantly dropped.
An extremely sharp, tearing sensation erupted deep within his sea of consciousness.
Under the system's forced refinement, the mass of divine sense that had been at the peak of the Spirit Realm First Level compressed and collapsed inward furiously.
The formless divine sense was drawn into an exceedingly fine, resilient needle.
[Spirit Sense Piercing (Spirit), middle grade: beginner.]
Su Yu opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the crown of an ancient tree more than ten meters away.
A night owl yao beast serving as a lookout hung upside down there.
His divine sense stirred slightly.
A completely transparent needle pierced through the void in an instant.
Ignoring distance, it drove straight into the night owl's head.
Thud!
The night owl fell stiffly onto the dirt. There was not a single wound on its body, but the needle had stirred its sea of consciousness into mush.
Su Yu brushed the dead leaves from his hem. A move that killed without drawing blood-very useful.
In a hollow two li away, savage, foul-smelling Yao Qi surged into the sky.
Chu Jie and the other four had been forced back to the edge of a cliff. Their fine sect robes had been torn open in multiple bloody gashes.
Surrounding them was a mutated blood wolf the size of a small hill.
Rough, dark-gold scales covered the flesh beneath its crimson fur. Its Spirit Realm Second Level oppressive presence clamped down hard on the breathing of those Blazing Fire Sect disciples.
"Senior Brother Chu! There's something strange about this beast's scales. My Blazing Fire Art can't even burn through its hide!"
The young man from the Blazing Fire Sect clutched his left arm tightly, blood pouring through the gaps between his fingers.
Chu Jie gritted his teeth, gripping his heavy sword in both hands.
His earlier carelessness had cost him dearly.
The mutated blood wolf had taken his Sword Qi head-on with its dark-gold scales, then crippled one of his junior brothers with a single swipe of its paw.
"We can't drag this out any longer!"
Chu Jie frantically squeezed out the Spiritual Qi within him, pouring every bit of his Spirit Realm Third Level spiritual power into the blade.
The heavy sword let out a shrill ringing.
"Scatter! I'll cut it down!"
The mutated blood wolf's four claws tore up the earth. Its massive body suddenly leaped into the air, its enormous maw of jagged, jumbled fangs snapping straight for the airborne Chu Jie's throat.
Whoosh!
But just then.
A black afterimage burst savagely out from the trees to the side, moving so fast that it drew a straight black line through the night.