"An enlightenment ritual?"
Lu Guan stepped forward and crouched down, finding some scrawled characters on a nearby wall.
They were crooked and uneven, as though scratched into it with fingernails.
They were not human writing.
He could understand them only because of his extraordinary comprehension.
[Enlightenment into a Spirit (not yet initiated)]
After a moment's thought, he tried investing some Cultivation into it.
[In the first year, you stared at these Demon Race characters with a blank mind, unable to make any sense of them.] [A language I've never encountered before-how am I supposed to learn this?] [In the second year, you discovered some of their mysteries. These characters followed certain patterns.] [In the third year, you seemed to understand the meanings of some characters.] [In the tenth year, you successfully deciphered the Demon Race writing carved into the stone wall.] Enlightenment into a Spirit (initiated) [Remaining Cultivation: 213 years]
The next second, Lu Guan felt that he had mastered a power entirely different from martial arts.
It was as though, with a wave of his hand, the skeletons before him could transform into demons and come back to life.
"This is an evil ritual."
A weak voice came from behind him.
Dragging her starving body along, the woman approached step by step, supporting herself against the cave wall. She trembled with every step, as though she might collapse at any moment.
She reached Lu Guan's side and pointed at the bones littering the ground before them, her eyes filled with disgust.
"This demon used the ritual as a medium to replicate a Law Technique called [Enlightenment into a Spirit], transforming bones into demons to serve as its minions."
"That was because its aptitude was insufficient to master the Law Technique."
"In my view, it was itself an inferior demon brought into being through enlightenment."
"So a ritual is merely a ritual. It cannot compare with a genuine Law Technique, and its success rate is far lower. These things on the ground are its failures."
Lu Guan raised his brows at her words, surprise showing on his face.
"You can read this writing?"
The woman lifted her small face slightly. Though she was as pale as paper, a trace of unconcealable pride still flashed through her eyes at that moment.
She straightened her back, trying to stand a little taller.
"Naturally."
Lu Guan pressed his lips together.
Careless.
Ten years of Cultivation wasted for nothing.
But on second thought, mastering what the woman called a Law Technique counted as a gain.
Though Enlightenment into a Spirit was useless now, it might come in handy in the future.
As the saying went, more skills were no burden to bear.
Besides, he had no need for the so-called ritual.
The woman did not notice his expression. Her gaze remained fixed on the crooked characters on the stone wall as she continued translating:
"The demon recorded that its aptitude was poor, leaving it forever unable to bear... Lord Mountain Monarch's legacy."
A trace of anger crossed her face as she spoke, but she quickly suppressed it and continued translating:
"Fortunately, the commandant of the Qianqiu County Demon Suppression Bureau helped it by supplying... food?!"
Her voice abruptly rose, filled with disbelief. "Flesh and blood to fill its belly, bones refined into ritual implements, until it finally established itself as a power on White Bone Mountain."
She abruptly turned to Lu Guan, her gaze falling on his flying-fish robe.
"True Qi Realm... you're Qianqiu County's commandant?!"
As the words left her mouth, a trace of despair appeared in her eyes.
Out of the tiger's den and into the wolf's lair!
Her weakened body could no longer hold out. Her knees buckled, and she slumped to the ground.
Seeing her like this, Lu Guan shook his head. "You've misunderstood. I'm not that beast."
Hm?
The woman looked up, confusion in her eyes.
At this point, he had no reason to deceive her anymore. He ought to cut the weeds out by their roots.
As she saw it, this was merely a dog-eat-dog fight between a traitor to humanity and a demon.
She was just an innocent passerby who happened to stumble upon this wretched affair.
At that thought, she forcibly stopped herself from revealing her identity.
Once she died, the Secret Method her family had sealed within her would automatically lock onto her killer.
Then this traitor would accompany her to the grave!
Lu Guan bent down and helped the limp woman up.
But he found that her body was as soft as mud, her Qi and Blood depleted to the extreme. She could not even stand steadily.
So he lifted her with both hands and took her onto his back.
Her chin rested on his shoulder, her breath faint and warm.
Treading through the mud covering the ground, Lu Guan carried the young woman toward the light at the cave entrance, one step at a time.
The white light at the entrance grew brighter and closer, shining upon them as though another world were welcoming them.
"Qianqiu County's commandant is called Zhou Kaishan. He's my superior."
"And I... am just an ordinary captain."
The woman froze slightly, then carefully examined Lu Guan's flying-fish robe again.
Although the Demon Suppression Bureau's uniforms were largely alike, the details still indicated the wearer's rank and status.
The flying-fish pattern was standard issue for captains, and there were no additional ornaments at his waist.
So... someone in the True Qi Realm was serving as an ordinary captain?
Never mind a tiny county town-even a prefectural seat couldn't afford such extravagance, could it?
A True Qi Realm cultivator would be an expert even in a commandery city, could serve as a centurion in the border army, and could become a head constable in a prefectural office.
Yet Qianqiu County was using one as a captain?
"Snakes and rats sharing a nest." The woman gritted her teeth, her voice turning cold.
If even the commandant, who headed a county's Demon Suppression Bureau, was rotten, what of the captains beneath him?
In her eyes, Lu Guan was merely another wolf in an official's robe, one who had yet to bare his fangs.
"That's not true. Even in the darkest places, there is always a ray of light."
The woman froze.
She had heard those words before. Her father, the prince, had said them.
When she was very young, on a snowy, windswept night, her father had stood atop the city gate tower, gazing at the sinister mountains and waters in the distance where Yao Qi surged into the sky, and said something similar.
She had been too young then to understand what he meant.
Later, she had understood.
The world was perilous, but someone always had to stand in the teeth of the wind and face its hardships head-on.
Then a calm voice sounded:
"I'm going to kill Zhou Kaishan."
The woman opened her mouth but said nothing.
Her cheek rested against the youth's back. Through the thin flying-fish robe, she could feel the contours of his spine.
Lu Guan did not actually have much of a sense of justice.
In his previous life, he had been an ordinary person, working nine to five and muddling through his days.
After transmigrating into this life, both his parents were dead, leaving behind a rundown house. No one had given him any mission to save the world, either.
But he thought back to Uncle Zhao, who had looked after him ever since his transmigration, and all those neighbors, merchants, and peddlers.
Why were these people nothing more than penned-up blood food in the eyes of Zhou Kaishan and the demons, to be slaughtered at will?
The world should not have been like this.
Lu Guan did not know whether this was limited to Qianqiu County alone, or whether the Demon Suppression Bureau's garrisons throughout Great Li were already riddled with holes.
But at least he could do something within his power.
Surely he had not gotten cheats only to wallow in the world's filth alongside everyone else?
The cave entrance drew ever closer, daylight pouring down.
With the woman on his back, Lu Guan strode out of the cave.
Wind swept in from the mountains, scattering the bloody stench that clung to them.