The peach grove.
The Demon Suppression Bureau officers silently packed up their tents and luggage. Some rolled up bedding, some put away pots and stoves, and others led the horses to the stream to drink.
Naturally, they could guess what Lu Guan had gone to do.
As they saw it, since Lu Guan had taken action himself, the White Bone Demon King had no chance of surviving.
After all, it was universally acknowledged as the weakest of the four great demons.
Even the strongest, the Yellow Flower Ridge Tiger Demon, had fallen at that young officer's hands. What chance did a skeleton have?
Wu Yong rested his silver-sheathed saber across his knees and carefully wiped it with a piece of chamois leather.
Sunlight gleamed on the blade, casting its reflection across his face. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly spoke:
"The heroes of this world are as numerous as carp crossing a river. Who knows how many monstrous talents like Lu Guan are still lying hidden, yet to reveal themselves?"
Tang Jun was tying up a sleeping bag. His hands paused at those words, and he looked up at Wu Yong.
The company commander's expression was neither ugly nor particularly pleasant.
There was a touch of ruefulness, a touch of melancholy, as though he had suddenly discovered that something he took pride in was worthless before someone else.
"He's destroyed two great demons of the True Qi Realm. Perhaps it won't be long before I have to address him as Lord Lu."
With both strength and achievements, why worry about his prospects?
Just then, an overlapping silhouette stepped into the peach grove.
Wu Yong looked up, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. "That's Brother Lu... and a woman?"
He focused his gaze. Indeed, Lu Guan was carrying someone on his back, and one glance at those curves made it clear she was a woman.
Her long hair hung loose, her clothes were tattered, and her slender legs dangled at Lu Guan's sides, her toes covered in mud.
Wait, where had a woman come from?!
He had gone to White Bone Mountain to purge demons and come back with a woman?
Seven or eight absurd notions flashed through Wu Yong's mind. Before he could sort them out, Lu Guan had already reached him.
"Stop staring. Catch."
Wu Yong instinctively reached out and caught the woman Lu Guan tossed over.
"She passed out from hunger. Feed her something."
Then Lu Guan turned back toward White Bone Mountain without looking back.
Although the White Bone Demon King was dead, there were still demons inside.
They were all gleaming piles of cultivation!
As for this woman, whose identity was clearly anything but ordinary, he would leave her in Wu Yong's care for now.
Lu Guan trusted these aristocratic clan scions from Langya Commandery City.
For no other reason than that they thought nothing of Qianqiu County's tiny patch of land, so how could they possibly wallow in the mire with Zhou Kaishan?
Most likely, the moment Zhou Kaishan opened his mouth, these aristocratic clan scions would report him to claim the credit.
Wu Yong stood frozen, holding an unconscious woman in his arms. He opened his mouth, but ultimately did not call out.
He looked down at the woman's face and brushed aside her tangled hair, revealing a dusty countenance.
Her features were delicate and her brows and eyes refined, but she was so thin that her face had lost its shape.
"Tang Jun! Bring a few flatbreads and a kettle of hot water!"
The woman was fed a few mouthfuls of hot water, then pieces of flatbread were broken off, soaked until soft, and placed in her mouth.
Only after something filled her stomach did she regain a little strength and slowly wake.
An unfamiliar place. Unfamiliar people.
Looking at these Demon Suppression Bureau officers in their flying-fish robes, the woman instinctively grew wary.
Where was the officer who had saved her?
Unable to find him, she lowered her gaze and silently huddled in a corner.
The experiences of the past few days kept replaying in her mind, and tears of remorse spilled from her eyes.
If time could turn back, she would never have chosen to run away from home that day.
In her daze, she thought again of the young officer who had rescued her from the demons.
His broad arms had given her a profound sense of safety.
It was like riding on her princely father's neck as a child.
Back then, her father's shoulders had been taller than mountains. She would tug his ears and giggle, feeling that with him there, she had nothing to fear even if the sky collapsed.
The young man's shoulders were broad too.
Lying on his back, she could feel how steadily he walked.
Two hours later, Lu Guan returned to the peach grove.
He carried something extra in his hand: the White Bone Demon King's remains.
These counted toward his achievements. They could not go to waste.
Besides that, he had slaughtered every last demon on White Bone Mountain.
His gains were also tremendous!
[Remaining cultivation: 513 years]
The scattered dozens of white bone demons had provided him with a full three hundred years of cultivation.
Added to his previous surplus, his cultivation had now reached a terrifying total of over five hundred years.
In his previous life, five hundred years would have encompassed the rise and fall of an ancient dynasty.
From Hongwu's founding of the dynasty to Chongzhen hanging himself, only some two hundred and seventy years had passed.
This was what it meant to strike it rich overnight.
Seeing Lu Guan carrying the White Bone Demon King, Wu Yong wore an expression that said he had expected nothing less.
He hurried forward and cupped his hands. "This subordinate offers his congratulations in advance on your promotion, Lord Lu!"
Lu Guan chuckled at his words:
"You're joking, Company Commander. I've killed every demon on White Bone Mountain. I'll have to ask the brothers to help clean up."
At those words, the eyes of every First Squad officer, Wu Yong included, lit up.
Slaying a great demon of the True Qi Realm was Lu Guan's achievement alone. No one could take that from him.
But if all the demons on White Bone Mountain were wiped out, they could call it the First Squad's destruction of a demonic force under Lord Lu's leadership.
Destroying a force was something that could be written into a battle report.
Once the report reached the commandery city, everyone would have a share. That meant... they would receive credit too.
What? Why had the First Squad purged demons under an ordinary officer's leadership?
Where had their company commander gone?
Wu Yong had absolutely no objection to that.
He gave Lu Guan a long look, his heart full of emotion.
Truly, a hidden dragon had emerged from the depths, its momentum unstoppable.
In the future, this young man would surely have a place in You Province!
While he pondered, the members of the First Squad happily headed up White Bone Mountain together to clean up the battlefield.
As though remembering something, Lu Guan suddenly stopped Tang Jun and instructed him to retrieve something from the White Bone Demon King's cave.
Meanwhile, the woman also came to Lu Guan's side.
She had already wiped her face with hot water, removing all the dirt and revealing the refined features beneath.
Her brows were like distant mountains, her eyes like autumn waters, but she was terribly thin.
"You... you really shouldn't act rashly." She lowered her voice, a measure of urgency in her tone.
"For an officer to kill a commandant, defying his superior, is a grave taboo in the Demon Suppression Bureau."
"Even if he is a traitor to humanity, you should report him to the Langya Commandery Demon Suppression Bureau and let the suppression commissioner personally decide. If you act on your own, even if you kill him, you won't escape implication yourself."
The woman had no doubt that the young man possessed the strength to kill a commandant.
But such an act...
Would undoubtedly damage his prospects.
No superior would favor a subordinate who defied those above him.
Having grown up in a princely household, she naturally understood this principle all too well despite her youth.
Lu Guan shook his head. "There's no need to say more."
He smiled, his voice calm, as though speaking of something long since decided.
"Some things should have been done by someone long ago."
The woman froze. Her lips parted as she tried to say something, but in the end, no words came.
Looking at the young man's profile, she suddenly felt that saying those things again would only sound trite.
Her eyes shifted slightly. She lowered her head and tucked her loose hair behind her ear.
When she raised it again, something indefinable had appeared in those eyes.
"My surname is Yu. Yu Qianqian."
Her voice had grown much quieter, carrying a trace of barely perceptible softness.