Dusk was falling.
The wind carried a heavy reek of blood.
The two stood on the village road in Blackwater Village.
Their surroundings were strangely quiet. Scattered carrying poles and shattered earthenware jars lay soaking in dark red mud.
Bloody drag marks stretched all the way to the ancestral hall at the far end of the village.
"Something's wrong."
Tang Shan gripped his saber tightly.
Low-tier demons like Corpse Dogs only knew to devour their prey on the spot. They would never go to the trouble of dragging it all to one place.
Su Yu said nothing.
His gaze settled beside a half-collapsed earthen wall, where a cellar hatch was trembling ever so slightly.
His saber slid half an inch out of its sheath.
His killing intent slammed into that corner without restraint.
The next instant, the cellar hatch was shoved open.
An old man covered in soot scrambled out on all fours, dropped to his knees, and frantically kowtowed.
"Officers! Save us! The whole village is ruined!"
The old man shouted. He was Blackwater Village's village chief.
Su Yu looked down at him.
"What did this?"
"Big black dogs that charged in last night!" The village chief shook as though wracked with ague. "They didn't bite people to death. They dragged everyone alive into the ancestral hall!"
"How would dim-witted demons know to stockpile living captives?"
"There must be a higher-tier demon controlling them."
Tang Shan voiced his analysis.
But Su Yu was already heading toward the ancestral hall, saber in hand.
He had no interest in the truth behind this. In his eyes, the living bodies filling the ancestral hall were all walking Slaughter Points.
"Lead on."
The two cold, hard words came crashing down.
The village chief scrambled ahead to lead the way, not daring to look this young Demon Suppression Guard in the eye.
Too cold.
He was even more terrifying than those man-eating demons.
They were still less than a hundred zhang from the ancestral hall, yet the stench of decay was already overpowering.
Meanwhile, outside the village.
Three black-clad figures trod over dead branches, rapidly converging on the ancestral hall.
At the Mortal Realm Fifth Layer, Middle Stage, Ying San led the squad of deathsworn.
Two assassins, both also at the Mortal Realm Fifth Layer, followed behind him.
They stopped in the clearing where Su Yu had killed the Corpse Dog leader earlier.
Ying San stared at the huge corpse on the ground, its head smashed apart.
Its broken neck bones were glaringly white, and the surrounding bluestone slabs had been ground to powder underfoot by tremendous force.
What formidable external martial arts.
Ying San's brows knitted tightly. According to the Liu Family's intelligence, Su Yu was just trash who had reached the fourth layer through a lucky shortcut.
This had to be the work of Tang Shan, that genius from Tiannan Commandery.
"The mark's a tough one."
Ying San reached back, took out a blood-red pill, and tipped his head back to swallow it.
Veins bulged across his exposed skin, and his presence forcibly surged a great deal higher.
"Second, Third, leave Tang Shan to me."
He held two poisoned short spikes in reverse grips.
"You two cut down that Su Yu. Make it quick!"
Crushing the dead leaves underfoot, the three swept toward the ancestral hall in a flanking formation.
At the same time.
Su Yu stopped outside the ancestral hall's high threshold.
The heavy wooden doors stood ajar. Inside was pitch-black, but dozens of harsh breaths mingled together.
And that was not all.
The hairs on his back stood on end.
His senses, transformed by Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons, were extraordinarily keen. He could sense three intensely aggressive sources of killing intent rapidly approaching.
Mortal Realm Fifth Layer.
Three of them, too.
Su Yu gripped the hilt of his black-and-gold saber. The Liu Family had acted even faster than he had expected.
But they've come at just the right time.
The more high-grade experience packs, the better.
"Tang Shan."
Su Yu spoke.
"Guard this door. Whatever comes from outside, hold it off for ten breaths."
Before Tang Shan could grasp what those words meant.
Su Yu's foot had already stomped down hard enough to shatter the stone steps.
He smashed through the half-open wooden doors, crashing into the ancestral hall amid a shower of splinters.
"Have you lost your mind?"
A flash of astonishment crossed Tang Shan's face. He was diving into a demon's nest without even probing it first?
Inside the ancestral hall, the light was extremely dim.
Dozens of pairs of ghastly green eyes lit up at once.
They were all villagers from Blackwater Village.
But now, stiff black hair covered their bodies, and their fingers had become half-foot-long bone claws. They crouched on the floor, savagely tearing into mutilated corpses.
Living people transformed into demons.
Catching the scent of a living human's flesh and blood, dozens of demonized humans erupted in piercing shrieks.
They lunged at Su Yu from every direction.
Su Yu did not pause for an instant. His black-and-gold saber struck with ferocious force.
In that cramped space, the Gale Saber Technique swept out a swath of pure, chilling saber light.
There was not a single wasted movement.
The first three demonized humans to approach were sliced open across their chests, spilling entrails and black blood across the floor.
[Slain a Mortal Realm Third Layer demonized human. Gained 30 Slaughter Points.] [Slain a Mortal Realm Third Layer demonized human. Gained 30 Slaughter Points.]
The panel's data began scrolling wildly.
Su Yu cut straight into the densest concentration of demonized humans.
His perfected saber technique, paired with the terrifying strength of Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons, turned this into a one-sided meat grinder.
Just as he was reaping them furiously.
The sharp clang of violently clashing weapons rang out beyond the doors.
Tang Shan's muffled grunt sounded amid the noise.
Immediately afterward, half the ancestral hall's wooden wall was cleaved open by brute force.
A dark-faced assassin charged straight inside with a saber in hand.
He ignored the surrounding demonized humans entirely, his gaze locked on the blood-drenched Su Yu.
"Die!"
The assassin roared.
Mortal Realm Fifth Layer True Qi flooded his blade, drawing out a piercing shriek as it tore through the air straight toward Su Yu's neck.
Su Yu had just split a demon's head apart. Detecting the attack, he immediately twisted aside to dodge, then gripped his saber with both hands and launched a fierce assault.
The black-and-gold saber in Su Yu's right hand surged upward in a lethal rising slash.
White saber force sliced through the darkness, and a head flew skyward.
A jet of blood more than two meters high erupted from the severed neck, staining the broken rafters crimson.
[Slain a Mortal Realm Fifth Layer martial artist. Gained 50 Slaughter Points.]
Su Yu casually flicked the gore off his blade.
Fifty points.
Killing these fat sheep really is the most profitable.
Outside the ancestral hall.
Wielding both spikes, Ying San was forcing Tang Shan back step by step.
"Second, hurry up! What's taking so long to kill some fourth-layer trash?"
Ying San urged impatiently.
His words had barely fallen.
A head, its eyes still wide in death, was thrown out through the gap in the shattered wooden wall.
It rolled twice across the ground and stopped right before Ying San's toes.
It was Second's head!
Ying San's movements abruptly halted.
He stared fixedly at the head, his mind briefly going blank.
This had been a capable Mortal Realm Fifth Layer fighter.
Fewer than three breaths had passed since he had broken through the wall.
How was this possible?
Heavy, sticky footsteps sounded from behind the doors.
Dragging his black-and-gold saber behind him with one hand, Su Yu stepped over the ancestral hall's high threshold.
His black Demon Suppression Guard uniform was completely soaked in blood, with scraps of flesh dripping from its hem.
The saber's tip scraped across the bluestone slabs, trailing sparks with an ear-piercing screech.
His indifferent gaze swept straight toward Ying San and the remaining assassin.
Su Yu turned his wrist, pointing the bloodstained saber tip level ahead.
"Two left."