The next day, Su Yu pushed open his door.
A wave of heat mixed with the smell of dust struck him in the face.
He had only three days.
There was no chance of gaining initial mastery of Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons, a supreme-grade cultivation art, through seated meditation and breathing exercises.
His only way to break the deadlock lay in the Slaughter Panel.
Su Yu strode toward the drill grounds.
The Demon Suppression Guards he encountered along the way lowered their heads and stepped aside of their own accord. No one dared provoke this ruthless man who had just been promoted to squad leader.
Inside the drill grounds' main hall.
Lin Xiao leaned back behind a desk, rolling two iron balls in one hand.
Beside him stood a young man in a fitted blue-green outfit.
Mortal realm fourth layer.
He stood ramrod straight, thick calluses marking the webs of his hands, carrying a composure the rank-and-file Demon Suppression Guards lacked.
"You're here." Lin Xiao stopped rolling the iron balls. "This lad is Tang Shan, transferred from Tiannan Commandery. He's temporarily assigned to your squad."
Su Yu swept his gaze over Tang Shan.
Tang Shan cupped his hands slightly. His gesture was faultless, but he could not conceal the superiority of a scion from a prominent clan ingrained in his bones.
The standard of martial arts in Tiannan Commandery far surpassed that of Nanhe County. A genius who had fled from there naturally looked down on martial artists of the same realm in such a remote county town.
Su Yu gave a faint nod. He had no interest whatsoever in Tang Shan's identity or his purpose in approaching him.
With a calm expression, Su Yu turned and walked toward the mission board covered in wooden plaques.
His gaze passed over such trivial tasks as street patrols and clearing out rat infestations, and his fingers pulled down a dark red mission plaque.
[Demonic disturbance in Blackwater Village] [Required cultivation: mortal realm fifth layer] [Reward: 50 merit points]
The mission plaque slammed onto the desk.
"I'll take it."
Lin Xiao frowned.
"Blackwater Village has complicated terrain, and over twenty people have gone missing. Whatever's in there is very likely beyond the mortal realm fifth layer. You've only just become a squad leader..."
Su Yu picked up the mission plaque and headed for the door.
"Keep up."
Watching that unhesitating figure walk away, Tang Shan could only follow.
They left the city gates and raced north.
Two hours later.
The dilapidated entrance to Blackwater Village came into view.
The entire village was deathly still, the air filled with the heavy stench of rotting entrails and an extremely faint trace of blood.
The two entered the village road one behind the other. Huge claw marks covered the earthen walls on either side.
A faint scraping came from the damaged thatched roofs overhead.
Tang Shan watched their surroundings warily. Seemingly sensing something, he reached back and drew the long saber from his back.
Suddenly, a Corpse Dog oozing pus all over its body pounced down from a blind spot by an earthen wall.
Mortal realm fourth layer.
Tang Shan shifted his footing and swept his saber upward with precision, aiming straight for the Corpse Dog's soft lower jaw.
The blade scraped against its hide, throwing up a string of dazzling sparks.
"Such tough hide!"
Tang Shan was just about to change his move and press the attack.
A figure smashed through the air ahead and barged into the fight.
Without any windup, a long saber slashed down ferociously.
The perfected Gale Saber Technique-the saber tore through the air with a sonic boom.
Its edge sliced through the Corpse Dog's hard skull without resistance and cleaved through its entire spine.
The Corpse Dog split in two on the spot.
Scalding, filthy blood splashed over half the earthen wall beside them.
[Killed a mortal realm fourth-layer Corpse Dog. Gained 40 Slaughter Points]
Su Yu flicked the stringy blood off his blade.
Not enough.
A dense chorus of gnawing rose from the village's dark corners.
More than a dozen Corpse Dogs with scarlet eyes crawled out of the ruins, completely sealing off their retreat.
An enormous Corpse Dog on the outermost edge stepped out from the pack.
Hard black bone spurs covered its body, and eerie blue venom dripped from its sharp claws.
A mortal realm fifth-layer leader.
"This is bad-a fifth-layer Corpse Dog! Let's fall back and get reinfor-"
Before he could finish.
Bang!
An explosive crack of air sounded beside him.
Su Yu shattered the bluestone slab underfoot and charged single-handedly into the pack of Corpse Dogs.
He abandoned defense entirely.
A mortal realm third-layer Corpse Dog bit into Su Yu's arm.
His coarse clothing tore, but the sharp teeth could not pierce the flesh beneath.
Bronze skin and iron bones, forged by the perfected Vajra Fist.
Su Yu hooked his left hand around the back of the Corpse Dog's neck and abruptly tightened his fingers.
Crack!
Its cervical spine shattered.
His right hand swept the long saber horizontally, cutting three airborne Corpse Dogs in half at the waist.
Entrails mixed with blood splattered onto the ground. He was conducting a one-sided slaughter.
Tang Shan stood behind him, unable to move another half inch forward.
This extreme fighting style, trading life for life and injury for injury without reservation, defied every principle of martial arts.
More terrifying still.
Not only did the force and speed of this madman's saber strikes show no decline, they grew faster and faster.
[Gained 20 Slaughter Points] [Gained 10 Slaughter Points]
The panel's numbers jumped wildly, breaking through the hundred-point mark in an instant.
At that very moment, the fifth-layer Corpse Dog moved. All four limbs drove forward at once, turning its enormous body into a streak of black lightning, its venomous claws plunging straight for Su Yu's throat.
Its speed completely outclassed fourth-layer demons.
It was too close. Tang Shan could not even shout a warning.
Su Yu's gaze remained fixed on the panel before him as the gray plus sign lit up.
Add points.
One hundred Slaughter Points were consumed in an instant.
A hot current flooded his entire body.
He forcibly gained initial mastery of Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons.
The free-floating Spiritual Qi around him was plundered into his body with overwhelming force. Under the extreme compression of Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons, it became liquid Spiritual Qi as heavy as lead.
The concentration of Spiritual Qi tripled outright.
His bone density soared, and his muscle fibers rapidly swelled as they tore and reformed.
The urge to destroy filled his mind.
The fifth-layer leader's venomous claws were already closing on his carotid artery.
Su Yu did not raise his saber to block. His left hand shot out like lightning.
His five fingers spread, meeting the blue-glinting claws head-on.
The sharp claw tips pierced the skin of his palm, only to become firmly trapped in his dense, powerful muscles.
They could not advance another inch.
Su Yu closed his fingers, unleashing terrifying grip strength.
The fifth-layer demon's claw bones, comparable to refined steel, were crushed into fragments by brute force.
The Corpse Dog cried out in pain and retreated.
Su Yu threw away the long saber in his hand.
Violent spiritual power compressed a full threefold surged through his meridians into his right arm.
He clenched his fingers into a fist and punched.
The extreme speed drove a ring of white air from the face of his fist.
A dull impact resounded throughout the village.
The mortal realm fifth-layer leader's enormous head exploded on the spot.
Its headless body crashed to the ground, twitching violently.
[Killed a mortal realm fifth-layer Corpse Dog leader. Gained 50 Slaughter Points]
The battlefield abruptly fell deathly silent.
The few remaining Corpse Dogs whimpered, tucked their tails, and fled madly into the mountains.
Su Yu stood in the middle of a pool of blood.
White vapor rose from his skin, evaporated by the rapid circulation of his Qi and blood.
He shook the brains off his hand.
Although he had only just gained initial mastery, the might of a supreme-grade cultivation art had already revealed itself. A faint trace of spiritual power had been born within him, and his physique had also grown stronger.
Three paces away.
Tang Shan remained in his saber-wielding stance, his eyes filled with horror.
That fluctuation of Spiritual Qi that erupted just now.
It was definitely a supreme-grade cultivation art.
In a tiny frontier city like this, how could anyone dare practice such an overbearing cultivation art, one that could so easily make their body explode and kill them-and actually succeed?
Even those prodigies from Tiannan Commandery's prominent clans, built up with heaps of resources, could not withstand the force of that punch.
Su Yu bent down and picked up the black-gold saber from the ground.
"Clean up."
Su Yu stepped over the corpses on the ground and looked toward the distant, rolling Rotten Peach Mountain Range.
"Move faster. We need to reach Blackwater Village before dark."
Su Yu's figure disappeared into the withered grass.
Tang Shan looked at the severed limbs strewn across the ground and hurried after him.