Su Yu pushed open the heavy wooden door of the government office.
Inside, Lin Xiao was bent over a stack of yellowed case files.
Hearing footsteps, Lin Xiao asked without looking up, "You've really decided to leave?"
"Yes!"
Su Yu pulled out a chair and sat down, legs spread with bold confidence.
Lin Xiao put down his brush and rested his elbows on the desk, his gaze deep. "You didn't come here just to say goodbye, did you?"
"Are there any natural treasures containing Sha Qi in Nanhe County?"
Su Yu's tone was even.
At this, Lin Xiao rubbed the stubble on his chin and fell silent for a moment.
"Liu Tianjue did collect quite a few sinister things to cultivate his Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent."
He turned and took a register from the rosewood cabinet behind him.
Rustle! Rustle!
The pages flipped rapidly.
"Black Baleful Intent Vine, a hundred years old."
Lin Xiao closed the register and looked Su Yu in the eye.
"It grows in underground caves of extreme Yin. Its Sha Qi is so heavy it can freeze people's bones until they crack. We were going to send it to the commandery seat."
Su Yu held out his hand. "I need it now."
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao summoned a personal guard.
"Go to storeroom C and bring me that cold jade box."
A moment later, a jade box, cold throughout and giving off white frost, was placed on the desk.
With the box's arrival, the room's temperature abruptly dropped several degrees.
Lin Xiao pushed the box toward Su Yu.
"Word of the three-thousand-spirit-stone bounty has spread like wildfire. Once you leave Nanhe County, you'll be a fat piece of meat in the black market's eyes."
Su Yu rested his hand on the jade box, feeling the bone-piercing chill through his fingertips.
"As long as they aren't afraid of shattering their teeth, they're welcome to try."
Taking the Black Baleful Intent Vine, Su Yu vanished into the moonlight beyond the door.
Lin Xiao looked at the empty doorway and muttered to himself, "In the future, Nanhe County will definitely become the most famous county in the Great Qin Dynasty."
Lin Xiao felt deeply fortunate-fortunate for the choice he had made not long ago.
Su Yu returned to his courtyard and locked his door from inside.
He sat cross-legged on the cold, hard bed boards and flicked open the jade box.
A length of vine, black as ink and shaped like a venomous snake, lay quietly inside.
Without hesitation, Su Yu clenched his five fingers fiercely.
Crack!
The vine was crushed to pieces. Dark red Sha Qi, so dense it was almost liquid, burrowed madly into the pores of his palm.
Without hesitation, he circulated the Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent cultivation technique like mad within his body.
The dark red Sha Qi was overbearing and insidiously vicious. Wherever it passed, his meridians felt as though they were being scraped inch by inch with a red-hot blade.
Su Yu's facial muscles twitched slightly, but he did not let out even a muffled groan.
Amid the intense pain, his Qi and blood continually condensed, and a layer of fine black-and-gold patterns covered the surfaces of his bones.
An hour later, his body completely devoured the last wisp of Sha Qi.
Hum!
Su Yu's spine sprang up like a dragon, and a rapid series of explosive cracks erupted from every bone in his body.
A layer of pitch-black, foul-smelling, viscous impurities was expelled from his body.
Body refining, Spirit Realm First Level!
He stretched out his arm. With a slight stir of his will, faint dark-gold demonic patterns instantly covered his entire forearm.
Su Yu drew his black-and-gold saber with a reverse grip and slashed hard across his left arm.
Screech!
As the blade scraped his skin, a dense shower of tiny sparks actually flew out. Only a white mark remained on the surface of his skin, and it vanished in an instant.
"Even if I stood still now and let Mortal Realm martial artists hack at me all day, they probably couldn't even break my skin."
Su Yu sheathed his saber and glanced at the pale blue panel.
Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent had now reached major accomplishment as well. At last, he had made up for his weakness in body refining.
If he encountered Liu Tianjue as he had been before, Su Yu was confident he could pound him to death with his physique and the Prohibition Blood Formation, even without using his divine sense.
Tap! Tap!
Suddenly, faint, hesitant footsteps outside the door broke the night's deathly silence.
"Brother Su, it's me."
It was Tang Shan's voice.
Su Yu waved a hand, shaking the grime off his body, and opened the door.
Tang Shan stood below the steps, clutching his goose-feather saber tightly against his chest. His right hand gripped two exquisite jade slips, and his expression was complicated.
"Come in."
Su Yu turned and poured a cup of cold tea.
Tang Shan stepped into the room, turned to close the door, then gently placed the two jade slips on the table.
"Brother Su!"
Tang Shan's voice was hoarse, carrying a reckless ruthlessness.
"These contain a supreme-grade Spirit Realm saber technique and a high-grade Mystic Realm spirit-refining cultivation technique."
Su Yu's hand paused with the teacup in it, and he looked at the two jade slips with interest.
In Tiannan Commandery, resources of this caliber were enough to spark a bloody war between aristocratic families.
This made it clear that Tang Shan's identity was anything but simple.
Although everyone in the Nanhe County Demon Suppression Bureau had long had their suspicions, none had ever imagined he could casually produce these two things.
After all, in a place like Nanhe County, even low-grade Spirit Realm martial techniques and cultivation techniques were exceedingly rare.
"Your condition?"
Su Yu's tone was indifferent.
There was no such thing as a free lunch. He did not believe Tang Shan would give him these two things for no reason.
Tang Shan's eyes were now bloodshot and red.
"Help me kill someone."
"Who?"
"The master of the Blood Demon Hall, Zhou Tong."
Tang Shan gritted his teeth, every word steeped in blood.
"Two years ago, he slaughtered my entire Tang Family. This life of mine was built on the piled bodies of all my blood kin."
"Zhou Tong's strength is above the Mystic Realm."
After speaking, Tang Shan stared fixedly at Su Yu.
He knew how insane this request was.
For the vast majority of martial artists, it was tantamount to going to their deaths.
Never mind that he had only offered a Spirit Realm saber technique and a Mystic Realm cultivation technique-even resources above the Mystic Realm would not be valuable enough to buy the life of an Earth Realm expert.
Su Yu did not even ask about Zhou Tong's specific background.
And Su Yu had only one thing to say to this.
"I'll remember that name."
Su Yu reached out and put the jade slips into his storage pouch.
To him, an Earth Realm mighty figure was like a towering mountain difficult to cross-but only for now.
With the Slaughter System, given time, he would slaughter Earth Realm mighty figures like dogs.
Tang Shan's breathing abruptly stopped.
He had imagined Su Yu refusing, imagined Su Yu opening his lion's maw to demand an exorbitant price, but never imagined he would agree so readily.
It was like accepting an insignificant weeding task.
"Aren't you afraid?"
Su Yu set down his teacup, his gaze so calm it chilled the heart.
"I can't kill an Earth Realm cultivator now, but one day, he will die."
Tang Shan opened his mouth, but in the end, he merely cupped his fists solemnly toward Su Yu, then turned and walked into the darkness.
He knew he did not need to say anything more.
Zhou Tong was an Earth Realm mighty figure. With Tang Shan's own talent, after losing the support of his family's influence, it was almost impossible for him to grow to that level.
So he could only place all his hopes in Su Yu.
After Tang Shan left, Su Yu sat alone in the room, and the pale blue screen in his vision began flashing wildly.
[System update countdown: 00:00:03] [00:00:02] [00:00:01] [System update complete...]
At last, the corners of Su Yu's mouth curved upward ever so slightly.
Those assassins and monstrous geniuses in Tiannan Commandery probably had yet to realize who the real hunter was.