[Remaining lifespan: seventy-two years]
On the panel, the numbers began to tick.
Seventy-two years, seventy-one years, seventy years...
His lifespan trickled away like grains of sand in an hourglass.
Meanwhile, the number in the cultivation years field climbed.
A moment later.
[Cultivation years: seventy-one years] [Remaining lifespan: one year]
Going all in was a kind of wisdom. Lu Guan did not even blink.
He knew full well that the greatest gap between him and this White Bone Demon was actually their cultivation realms.
As for martial arts, what did a wild demon know about martial arts?
Making good use of martial arts was the key to widening the gap between humans and demons, and what the Demon Suppression Bureau relied upon to slay demons and vanquish devils.
But right now, what he lacked was cultivation realm!
The next second, his cultivation years began to decrease, and the mastery level listed after the Demon Suppression Cultivation Method rose rapidly.
[In the first year, you began practicing the Demon Suppression Cultivation Method. However, you discovered that your aptitude was mediocre and had no choice but to train hard.] [In the tenth year, through diligent effort, you broke through to minor accomplishment and entered the middle Qi and Blood Realm. From then on, your Qi and Blood surged, a hundred illnesses could not touch you, and you could lift a thousand jin.] [In the twenty-fifth year, through diligent effort, you broke through to major accomplishment and entered the late Qi and Blood Realm. From then on, your Qi and Blood flowed like mercury, your sinews and bones were like iron, and your Qi and Blood circulated ceaselessly, granting astonishing recovery.] [In the time that followed, you encountered a bottleneck. You could not help reflecting: could someone as mediocre as you truly reach the other shore? Rather than cultivate, you might as well take a few concubines...] [You cast aside distracting thoughts and continued cultivating tirelessly.] [In the sixty-first year, never scorn an old man for being poor! You successfully cultivated the Demon Suppression Cultivation Method to perfection and entered the perfected Qi and Blood Realm. From then on, your Qi and Blood were like a furnace, your strength replenished itself upon exhaustion, and your flesh reached its ultimate limit!]
Lines of information flashed across the panel.
Sprawled on the ground, Lu Guan's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Though he had spent his lifespan in advance, his body did not age. Instead, as his cultivation realm rose, it grew stronger at a terrifying speed.
Thump! Thump, thump!
The sound of his heartbeat suddenly exploded through the ruined temple, like deafening war drums beating.
The White Bone Demon stopped in its tracks and abruptly doubled back.
Only after retreating some distance did it scrutinize the youth on the ground in shock and uncertainty.
Ghostly flames flickered in its hollow eye sockets, betraying its profound unease.
Because... it had heard a heartbeat like this before.
That person had also been a Demon Suppression Bureau captain, in the perfected Qi and Blood Realm.
Facing that person, it had not been able to muster even a shred of fighting spirit, only flee in panic. Even now, recalling it still filled it with terror.
The White Bone Demon could not believe it.
This person before it had only just entered the Qi and Blood Realm and could not withstand even one of its palm strikes. How could he possibly produce such a terrifying heartbeat?
"You're bluffing!" the White Bone Demon snapped angrily.
"It's one thing for me to fear that man, but would I fear a lowly officer like you in the early Qi and Blood Realm?"
At that moment, Lu Guan stood back up and picked up the long saber from the ground. Its silvery blade reflected his slightly excited face.
"Bluffing?" Lu Guan shook his head and grinned. "I'm killing you!"
"Killing me?"
The White Bone Demon's jaw parted slightly, as though in mockery. "Who do you think you are?"
"Die!"
It struck with its palm, the powerful, heavy blow whistling toward him.
The next second, a dazzling gleam of cold light suddenly lit up the dim, ruined temple!
Crack-
The sound of shattering bone rang out. A length of skeletal arm crashed heavily to the ground, and the ghostly flames in the White Bone Demon's eye sockets trembled.
What a ferocious saber strike!
"This is... the perfected Qi and Blood Realm!"
It cried out involuntarily, its voice filled with disbelief.
Its earlier impression had not been wrong. That heartbeat had indeed belonged to someone in the perfected Qi and Blood Realm.
But... why was it this person?
It could not understand. He had clearly been in the early Qi and Blood Realm a moment ago, so how had he reached the perfected Qi and Blood Realm the next?
Even a genius could not cultivate this quickly, could they?
Before it could think further, Lu Guan was already coming at it with his saber.
Hunter and prey had switched roles; offense and defense had traded places!
Demon Subduing Saber Technique!
The White Bone Demon had witnessed this saber move not long ago. It had been feeble and powerless—not because the technique was poor, but because its wielder had been far too weak, his newborn Qi and Blood like a candle flame in the wind.
Now, seeing the move again, it felt as though a furnace blazed before it.
The Qi and Blood bearing down on it pinned it in place, leaving it able only to watch the cold gleam descend.
"This strike holds sixty-one years of cultivation. What will you block it with?"
Shhk!
As his words fell, the skull rolled to the ground.
A demon in the late Qi and Blood Realm thus met its end in this ruined temple in the southern outskirts.
Saber in hand, Lu Guan looked at the stark white bones scattered across the ground and casually picked up a piece as proof to report back with.
After sixty-one years of diligent study and bitter training, how could a mere White Bone Demon withstand my blade?
"Sure enough, this is my true talent."
"My predecessor was incompetent. I ought to spur myself on."
He sheathed his saber, kicked the white bones aside, and strode toward the ruined temple's exit.
The Demon Suppression Bureau's assessment had candidates, so naturally, it also had supervising captains.
The supervisors did not interfere with the assessment. Even if Lu Guan died at a demon's hands, at most they would avenge him.
Such was the Demon Suppression Bureau: those who clung to life and feared death were not to enter its doors.
Just as Lu Guan was considering how to report the abnormality with the demon in this assessment, a notification suddenly popped up on the panel.
[Late Qi and Blood Realm White Bone Demon. Fifty years of cultivation. Poor aptitude. Effective cultivation years extracted: twenty years.] [Name: Lu Guan] [Age: eighteen] [Remaining lifespan: one year] [Cultivation realm: perfected Qi and Blood Realm] [Martial arts: Qi and Blood · Demon Subduing Saber Technique (beginner), Qi and Blood · Demon Suppression Cultivation Method (perfected)] [Cultivation years: thirty years]
Lu Guan stopped and fell silent as he stared at the information that had appeared.
"Good lord, why didn't you say so sooner!"
Slaying demons could extract cultivation years too?!
Then what had he nearly gambled away his entire lifespan for?
Lu Guan slapped himself hard, using physical pain to offset his heartache.
Still, comparing the two, there was a difference between the cultivation years converted from his lifespan and those extracted from slaying demons.
One year of his lifespan could be converted into one cultivation year at a one-hundred-percent rate.
Yet this White Bone Demon had cultivated for fifty years, and he could extract only twenty cultivation years.
Had all those years gone to the dogs?
Lu Guan was rather exasperated at its failure to do better. Those should all have been his cultivation years.
Who would make up the shortfall?
"So as long as I keep slaying demons and vanquishing devils, I can obtain an endless stream of cultivation years to practice martial arts?"
At that thought, Lu Guan's state of mind steadied again.
Fortunately, he still had one year of lifespan left. That was enough time for him to raise his cultivation realm and extend his lifespan.
First, set a small goal: become a Martial Dao grandmaster who could live for five hundred years.
However, to break through to a higher realm, he would need a higher-grade cultivation method.
His Demon Suppression Cultivation Method was merely common stock, a copy of which everyone in the Demon Suppression Bureau possessed. At most, it could take him to Qi and Blood Perfection, nowhere near enough to support his aspirations of becoming a Martial Dao grandmaster.
Cultivation methods and martial arts were controlled extremely strictly.
In the Demon Suppression Bureau, only those with the corresponding merits or rank could exchange for martial arts of a given grade.
"Damned Great Li Dynasty. It'll collapse sooner or later!"
Sure, martial heroes used their prowess to flout prohibitions, but he was a Demon Suppression Bureau captain, drawing an official salary-one of their own! Was there any need to guard against him like this?
Lu Guan cursed inwardly. Looking at the white bone in his hand, he could only find a way to climb the ranks of the Demon Suppression Bureau and obtain higher-grade martial arts.
Fortunately, he had gotten off to a good start. Once he returned this time, he would successfully become a full-fledged member.
Then, as a demon suppression captain, slaying demons would both earn him merit and grant him cultivation years. After accumulating enough merit to exchange for a cultivation method, he could use those cultivation years to practice it.
The higher his cultivation, the stronger the demons he could slay, repeating the cycle over and over.
Lu Guan realized that his future lay on a path of sustainable development.
The only ones sacrificed would be those damned demons.
Simply a great act of benevolence.
As he walked out of the ruined temple, a figure jumped down from an ancient tree nearby and approached Lu Guan.
"Kid Lu, has the demon been slain?"
Expressionless, Lu Guan raised the white bone. "Uncle Zhao, there's a problem with the intelligence."
"I suspect there's a traitor to humanity in the Demon Suppression Bureau!"