Crack!
A boot sole crushed a dry branch.
The newcomer stopped thirty feet away, a black trench coat rustling in the night wind, a pure-white fox mask concealing her entire face.
The pressure of a divine sense far beyond the Spirit Realm third level spread silently, sealing off the entire blood-reeking hollow.
Su Yu stood motionless, his fingers tightening in a death grip around the black-and-gold saber hilt.
His thumb pushed upward.
Clang!
The blade was forcibly pushed half an inch out of its sheath.
Prison-Suppressing Spiritual Qi surged wildly through his meridians, ready for him to slash the moment the other party entered his attack range.
The masked Shadow Guard stopped. She did not look at Su Yu, her gaze falling directly on the mud pit ahead.
The massive mutated blood wolf's spine had folded completely in half, and shattered bones filled the mud.
A hundred feet away, the blood wolf leader's corpse was even more horrifying.
A terrifying fist imprint caved in the center of its enormous skull, which could withstand direct strikes from spirit weapons.
Brain matter mixed with filthy blood covered the ground. This was physical destructive power taken to its purest extreme.
Then the Shadow Guard's gaze swept over the three headless corpses in Daoist robes nearby. The Mystic Sword Sect insignias on their collars were particularly glaring.
The cuts across their necks were smooth and even.
There were no signs of struggle, no traces left by secret treasures, not even any stray marks from retaliatory Sword Qi on the surrounding vegetation.
The corners of White Fox's eyes twitched repeatedly behind her mask.
She had rushed over immediately after sensing the immense fluctuations of Yao Qi here, thinking some fool had blundered into a demon leader's territory.
Yet the one standing here was a youth wearing the uniform of a low-ranking Demon Suppression Guard from Nanhe County.
He had Spirit Refining Spirit Realm third level cultivation, yet had smashed the blood wolf leader's skull apart through sheer bodily strength.
Not only that, he had also slaughtered the youngest son of the Mystic Sword Sect's grand elder.
"Since when did Nanhe County have a Demon Suppression Guard this bold?"
An extremely cold, clear voice came from behind the mask.
She spread her divine sense, far beyond the Spirit Realm third level, attempting to probe Su Yu's capabilities.
Their divine senses brushed against each other in midair.
Su Yu's saber hand remained steady as a rock.
"He tried to murder me first."
Su Yu stated a fact, his tone devoid of the slightest trepidation at explaining himself to a higher-ranked martial artist.
White Fox fell briefly silent.
She looked at the youth before her and finally lowered her raised arm.
"Get down the mountain as soon as possible."
"The seal deep within Cloud Wolf Mountain has broken. The Mystic Realm puppet left by the Demon God Cult is about to awaken."
Without another unnecessary word, White Fox pushed off with her toes and shot into the air.
Her toes touched the crown of a pine, and after several swift leaps, she vanished into the pitch-black night.
Deathly silence returned to the hollow.
Su Yu slid his saber into its sheath.
The threat of a Mystic Realm puppet was certainly formidable, but he had no intention of leaving immediately. Su Yu opened the storage pouch in his hand.
Dozens of low-grade spirit stones glowing faint blue clattered onto a bluestone slab, alongside two scrolls of Mortal Realm sword techniques from the Mystic Sword Sect.
Su Yu put away all the spirit stones, then tore the sword manuals into scraps and kicked them into the blood wolf's pool of blood to soak through.
Sect possessions were homing bees if he kept them on him.
[Host: Su Yu] [Cultivation: Qi Refining Mortal Realm ninth layer, Spirit Refining Spirit Realm third level] [Cultivation arts: Suppressing Prison and Subduing Demons (Mortal), meticulous; Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent (Spirit), middle-grade, minor accomplishment; Spirit-Seizing Art (Spirit), low-grade, major accomplishment] [Martial arts: Vajra Fist (Mortal), meticulous; Gale Saber Technique (Mortal), meticulous; Wandering Dragon Steps (Mortal), meticulous; Spirit Sense Piercing (Spirit), beginner] [Slaughter Points: 1,200]
Looking at his soaring Slaughter Points, Su Yu closed the panel.
Several territories halfway up the western slope still emanated Yao Qi. Those belonged to packs of dog demons.
Since he was already here, Su Yu naturally would not let them continue ruling over Cloud Wolf Mountain.
Su Yu crossed his steps and shot forward, skimming the weed-covered ground.
Without making the slightest sound, he melted straight into the night.
A quarter of an hour later.
The Chaotic Stone Forest.
A pungent stench of rot permeated the expanse of jagged rocks, where three enormous dog demons covered in black fur prowled along a scent trail.
Three Spirit Realm first level dog demons.
Su Yu pressed himself behind a weathered boulder.
He closed his eyes and brought his index and middle fingers together. The Spirit-Seizing Art erupted at full power, forcibly extracting and compressing the divine sense within his sea of consciousness.
"Spirit Sense Piercing!"
Three transparent needles invisible to the naked eye pierced through space, crossed nearly a hundred feet, ignored all physical defenses, and stabbed straight into the three dog demons' brows.
The three demons did not even have time to bark. Their massive bodies instantly stiffened as the transparent needles completely shredded their seas of consciousness.
[Killed a Spirit Realm first level dog demon. Gained 100 Slaughter Points.]
Su Yu emerged from the shadows, stepped over the still-warm corpses, and headed straight for the deepest part of the Chaotic Stone Forest.
At the center of a clearing.
Just then, a gigantic dog demon thirty feet tall turned around.
The dark-red steel bristles around its neck stood on end, and its savage Spirit Realm third level middle stage Yao Qi tore through the surrounding miasma.
"Human!"
The dog demon leader abruptly bent all four limbs, crushing the slabs of rock beneath its feet.
Its massive body lunged straight at him with wind pressure that tore through everything, four foul-black claw streaks sealing off Su Yu's escape routes on either side.
Su Yu stood his ground. Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent thundered, and a dark blue-green metallic sheen instantly covered the skin of both arms.
He did not dodge. His right foot stamped heavily on the ground, and the air within three feet of his body distorted.
Prohibition Blood Formation.
A tenfold gravity field rose from the ground.
The instant the dog demon leader charged into the gravity field, an immense force dragged at its thirty-foot body, its bones cracking explosively under the unbearable burden.
A fatal pause appeared in its ferocious lunge.
At the same time, all his divine sense gathered together, becoming transparent spikes that plunged into the dog demon leader's body in an instant.
Su Yu's right hand gripped his saber hilt.
Gale Saber Technique, Wind Falls Silent, Leaving No Trace.
He drew his saber.
There was no sound of wind.
In the utter silence, an exceedingly thin streak of pale-blue saber light sliced through the air.
It swept diagonally upward from the dog demon leader's lower jaw, through dark-red steel bristles, tough skin and fat, and thick neck vertebrae.
Before that streak of saber light, they fell apart.
Click.
Su Yu returned his saber to its sheath.
The enormous dog demon's head slid off along the cut and crashed into a pile of rocks twenty feet away.
A pillar of blood several meters high erupted from the headless corpse's neck before it collapsed with a crash.
[Killed a Spirit Realm third level dog demon leader. Gained 500 Slaughter Points.] [Remaining Slaughter Points: 2,000] [Congratulations, host. Accumulated Slaughter Points have reached 2,000. System updating. Countdown: 24 hours.]
The system's updating!
Looks like a stronger cheat is coming!
With that thought, Su Yu stepped forward, broke open the skull with his saber tip, and flicked an emerald-green demon core into his hand.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet heaved violently. Dozens of surrounding stone pillars snapped one after another, and shattered rocks rained down wildly.
The whole of Cloud Wolf Mountain was shaking.
Su Yu looked up toward the main peak above, where an intensely dark-red pillar of blood burst through the clouds.
The night sky over the summit was completely illuminated.
An utterly rotten, tyrannical pressure poured down from the mountaintop as though it had physical substance.
It was the absolute oppression of a Mystic Realm powerhouse. Deep within the bloody light, a faceless phantom vaguely took shape, occupying half the mountainside.
That Mystic Realm puppet had awakened!
Feeling the bone-chilling, sinister wind whipping toward him, Su Yu turned without the slightest hesitation and sprinted down the mountain.