Pale blue numbers flickered in the darkness. Su Yu leaned his back against the earthen wall.
[System updating. Time remaining: 22 hours, 45 minutes]
He had already cleared out the Nanhe County map.
The Liu Family had been wiped out, and the Spirit Realm demons on Cloud Wolf Mountain were all but dead.
If he stayed in this remote little county, his acquisition of Slaughter Points would grind to a halt.
The cultivation method for the Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons Spirit Realm Chapter was also in Tiannan Commandery.
Su Yu rubbed his arm against the Shadow Guard Invitation Token the white cat had given him.
To Tiannan Commandery!
This was the only, the sole path to remedying his weakness in Qi refinement.
The night passed without incident, and morning light pierced the window lattice.
Bang, bang, bang!
Brutal pounding on the door shattered the morning silence. Tang Shan stood in the courtyard, drenched in sweat, his chest heaving.
He had replaced his weapon with a brand-new refined-iron goose-feather saber.
"Brother Su, something huge happened!"
Tang Shan swallowed hard.
"Cloud Wolf Mountain?" Su Yu asked.
A flicker of surprise crossed Tang Shan's face.
"Half the main peak of Cloud Wolf Mountain collapsed last night, and an enormous blood-colored monster crawled out."
"Even from more than a dozen li away, its pressure snuffed out every torch on the city walls."
Su Yu tightened the bindings at his cuffs without answering.
When the Mystic Realm puppet awakened, he had been at the center of the storm. He had felt it a hundred times more clearly than anyone else.
"And then?"
"It died!" Tang Shan clapped his hands sharply together.
"A commandant from Tiannan Commandery happened to arrive just in time."
"He struck down with his palm from a distance, and the monster exploded into a sky full of blood."
"Not even scraps remained!"
Tang Shan's voice trembled with excitement.
Su Yu hung his black-and-gold saber at his waist.
A Mystic Realm puppet.
Shattered with one palm strike.
So this was the top fighting strength of the Tiannan Commandery Demon Suppression Bureau.
"The commandant wants to see you at the training grounds," Tang Shan added.
Su Yu paused for half a second as he stepped through the courtyard gate.
Nanhe County was remote and impoverished. A commandant of such standing could not possibly have made a special trip for a single puppet.
He must have come for the Liu Family and the Demon God Cult!
The Demon Suppression Bureau's higher-ups had followed the vine to the melon and traced the matter here, only to happen upon the upheaval at Cloud Wolf Mountain.
If he had asked for Su Yu by name, it was probably not just because of his performance in wiping out the Liu Family.
Su Yu felt it might also have something to do with the Shadow Guard.
The Demon Suppression Bureau's training grounds.
The usual clamor of drills had vanished completely. Dozens of Nanhe County Demon Suppression Guards stood in orderly ranks, their heads lowered.
The center of the raised platform was empty. A grand armchair stood across the passage leading to the inner hall.
A young man in moon-white, cloud-patterned brocade reclined against its back with his legs crossed. A green jade pendant hung at his waist, and he rolled two crackling lightning spheres in his hand.
A man and a woman stood on either side of him, brazenly radiating the fluctuations of Spirit Realm experts.
Shen Yang was a young captain in the Tiannan Commandery Demon Suppression Bureau. Exceptionally talented, he was also highly valued within the bureau.
Nanhe County's captain, Lin Xiao, stood three zhang away with a complicated expression.
The young man stopped rotating the lightning spheres. The metal balls collided with a piercing hum, and his tone was hostile.
"The commandant summoned him, and a mere squad leader of the Demon Suppression Guard dares put on such airs?"
Lin Xiao explained.
"Captain Shen, Su Yu was badly injured while wiping out the Liu Family, and then he encountered a demon attack. Right now, he's also-"
"He's here!"
Before Lin Xiao could finish, Shen Yang turned his gaze and fixed it directly on Su Yu, who had just entered the training grounds.
The Demon Suppression Guards on either side cleared a path. Su Yu walked over the bluestone slabs and stopped two zhang away.
"You're Su Yu?"
The young man rose, and the pressure of the Spirit Realm Third Level descended upon Su Yu's head.
Su Yu stood firm. His blood Qi circulated on its own, channeling the pressure directly into the paving beneath him.
Crack!
Several fine cracks spread across the blue bricks.
"Mortal Realm Ninth Layer, yet you can withstand the pressure of my presence?" The young man raised one eyebrow.
Without using his divine sense, the presence Su Yu gave off was indeed only at the Mortal Realm Ninth Layer.
Beside him, the woman in red stepped past the young man.
"Brother Shen, people from places like this have most likely taken forbidden drugs that overdraw their blood Qi. What sort of ability is that?"
She stared at Su Yu's face and spoke with hostility.
"The Shadow Guard Invitation Token!"
"Hand it over."
"Trash from Nanhe County doesn't deserve to join the Shadow Guard!"
Lin Xiao stood to the side, his facial muscles twitching slightly. These people from Tiannan Commandery were far too arrogant.
Tang Shan tightened his grip on his saber and stepped forward. Before he could speak, a fierce gust swept across him.
Bang!
Tang Shan's knees buckled, and one knee slammed into the stone slabs. The tall man withdrew his right leg.
"You have no place speaking here."
Su Yu glanced down at Tang Shan on the ground and rested his left thumb against the guard of his black-and-gold saber.
"You're from the Demon Suppression Bureau?" Su Yu asked.
The young man laughed.
"Shen Yang of Tiannan Commandery's Shen Family. I serve as a captain in the Demon Suppression Bureau."
"What does a captain of the Tiannan Commandery Demon Suppression Bureau have to do with our Nanhe County?"
Su Yu muttered to himself.
The next instant, his thumb pushed. Half an inch of blade slid free.
The young man's face abruptly darkened. Su Yu's provocation had stripped him of all face.
He raised his right hand. Lightning burst in his palm, and a fist-sized ball of lightning shot straight at Su Yu's face.
A strong scorched stench instantly filled the air.
Su Yu did not draw his saber. He slid his right leg half a step back, and the air within three feet of his body distorted.
"Prohibition Blood Formation!"
Boom!
A field of tenfold gravity crashed down.
An invisible force dragged the airborne lightning sphere downward. It brushed past Su Yu's knee and smashed into the bluestone slabs.
Stone fragments flew.
At the same instant, Su Yu became a black afterimage.
Wandering Dragon Steps, Dragon Concealment!
He shot forward in a zigzag, crossing three zhang in an instant.
The woman in red saw only a black blur skimming toward her along the ground.
Before she could defend herself, a savage force clamped around her right arm.
Crack!
The sound of shattering bone echoed through the courtyard.
Her Spirit Realm Second Level protective Spiritual Qi was as fragile as thin paper before Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent. Her right arm was forcibly snapped and folded backward against her back.
Su Yu's free right hand clamped onto the tall man's cervical spine.
As he abruptly exerted force, dark red blood Qi surged from his body, brutally shattering the tall man's protective Spiritual Qi. He lifted the tall man with one hand and slammed him into the ground.
The back of the man's head shattered the bluestone slab, and blood instantly spread. From the lightning sphere being thrown to one person suffering a broken arm and the other a grievous injury-
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
The training grounds fell into deathly silence.
The Spirit Realm Second Level Demon Suppression Guards from Tiannan Commandery had been crushed and crippled outright by Su Yu.
The watching Demon Suppression Guards held their breath. Tang Shan's mouth hung open as he pushed himself up from the ground.
Lin Xiao retreated two steps, cold sweat seeping from his palms.
The remaining lightning sphere slipped from the young man's hand, a trace of astonishment appearing on his face.
After his brief shock, anger rose in Shen Yang's heart.
"You're courting death!"
Spiritual light surged around him. The sword at his waist instantly left its sheath, and Spirit Realm Third Level Sword Qi tore through the air, aimed straight at Su Yu's throat.
Su Yu released his saber hilt and slowly straightened, his right foot still planted on the tall man's back.
He clenched his left fist.
A dark cyan metallic sheen instantly coated his entire forearm, and he punched toward the oncoming sword light.
Extremely compressed dark gold Sha Qi erupted from his fist as his flesh met the spiritual weapon head-on.
The sword shook violently, gave a mournful cry, and flew from Shen Yang's hand. Its blade embedded itself at an angle in a wooden pillar on the raised platform ten zhang away.
The recoil drove the young man back five steps, and he fell into the grand armchair.
All four chair legs snapped at once, sending him sprawling backward into the broken wood.
The next instant, Shen Yang scrambled to his feet. His face was grim, and a dense killing aura poured from him.
But just then, from behind the bronze doors of the inner hall came a quiet, even voice that nevertheless made everyone's eardrums ache.
"Enough."