The sun sank toward the west over Qianqiu County.
With curfew approaching, the street vendors hurried to pack up their stalls, stuffing unsold fruit and pastries into their carrying baskets.
Children clutched copper coins, racing to buy their favorite snacks before time ran out.
A sudden clamor rang out.
Everyone on the street looked curiously toward its source... the city gates.
"What happened?"
Someone asked, craning his neck to look.
But the next instant, when he saw what had appeared at the gates, he was struck dumb with shock.
A heap of white skeletons steeped in sinister Yin Qi came into view, bound into bundles with rope and stacked neatly on the backs of several blood-sweating steeds.
Some skeletons were intact, some were missing arms or legs, and some had only half their bodies left, as though someone had violently dismantled them.
Those who recognized what they were had already formed a guess.
Only the demons of White Bone Mountain could have bones this sinister.
It seemed the Demon Suppression Bureau had gone out to purge demons!
How many years had it been? How many years since they had last seen such a sight?
Ever since Zhou Kaishan had taken office, Qianqiu County had remained the same.
People in the county vanished from time to time, demons ran rampant in the shadows, and the Demon Suppression Bureau's officers occasionally caught a few minor demons to fulfill their duties. All sides understood without saying a word.
The elders often said that peace was peace, but things lay buried beneath it.
Those missing people-someone's husband, someone's child, someone's elderly parent-had all rotted underneath.
At the sight, many elders' eyes filled with hot tears. Those whose family members had died tragically at demons' hands even wept with joy, crying aloud in the street.
A white-haired old woman knelt beside the road and kowtowed toward the skeletons, mumbling words no one could make out.
Someone nearby tried to help her up, but she shoved them away.
She lifted her head, her face covered in murky tears, and smiled dazedly.
"My child... my child..."
Yet this was not the most shocking sight. As their gazes moved farther back, they reached two flatbed carts drawn by blood-sweating steeds.
A towering headless skeleton stood imposingly on one.
On the other lay a ferocious, gigantic beast steeped in chilling Sha Qi. Its four sharp claws hung over the sides, their tips still gleaming coldly.
Even in death, its tiger's might remained. The mingled stench of blood and rank animal musk could be smelled from half a street away.
The two officers leading the horses held the reins with smug expressions, glancing back at the tiger carcass from time to time, unable to keep the corners of their mouths from curling upward.
The guards stationed at the city gates felt chills crawl down their backs as they stared at the two dead greater demons.
If they were this terrifying dead, how frightening must they have been alive?
A guard swallowed, his spear-gripping palms slick with sweat.
How had such terrifying greater demons died?
"Could it be... the Demon Suppression Bureau's commandant took action himself?"
Some entertained that guess, but soon shook their heads.
After all, this peacekeeping commandant had not taken action in a very long time. He spent all day in his office.
In the crowd, a man dressed in fitted black clothes watched the scene, his brows lifting slightly.
He was around forty, of average height and build, with an unremarkable face.
Yet the way he stood, his feet shoulder-width apart and his center of gravity steady, made him look exactly like a tree with deep roots.
He clearly practiced martial arts, and his skill was far from ordinary.
"That tiger demon should be the one from Yellow Flower Ridge. Even if Zhou Kaishan took action, he would be absolutely no match for it."
"Unless... Zhou Kaishan has broken through to the Late True Qi Realm."
"But even if he has, killing this demon would be extremely difficult... besides, why would a traitor to humanity like him attack these demons?"
The man murmured to himself, his voice growing colder.
Beside him stood a handsome young man in blue robes, a longsword hanging at his waist. His fair, clean-cut face made him look like a young scion of an aristocratic clan fresh out of an academy.
Hearing the man's words, he leaned closer and asked quietly:
"Lord Wang, wasn't the evidence conclusive? Zhou Kaishan's collusion with demons has been confirmed, and we've come to arrest him, haven't we?"
"But why would a traitor to humanity like him go out killing demons?"
"Could it be... the intelligence was wrong?"
Faced with the young man's confusion, the middle-aged man's thoughts were equally tangled.
He was Wang Quan, deputy pacification commissioner of the Demon Suppression Bureau in Langya Commandery City.
According to their investigation, Qianqiu County's commandant had secretly colluded with demons for years, painting a false picture of peace.
The evidence was already all but conclusive. Only a final on-site verification remained.
He had come to arrest the man and bring him to justice, with authorization to kill him on the spot if necessary.
But this sudden turn of events had left him bewildered as well.
Could it be... Zhou Kaishan was a good man who had been falsely accused?
Wang Quan suppressed his turbulent thoughts and motioned for the young man beside him to keep watching.
He wanted to see just what was going on.
Soon, crowds gathered around. Word spread without cease, voices rising one after another through streets and alleys, drawing more people over.
Zhao Tielin was nearby and hurried over as soon as he heard.
As an officer of the Demon Suppression Bureau, he knew far more than these street vendors.
That was precisely why he was so baffled.
He had not heard anything about a demon-slaying operation at the office.
But since the news involved White Bone Mountain, he had rushed over at once.
Young Lu had gone with the First Squad to keep watch on White Bone Mountain!
Had something happened to them?
They had only been stationed there for two short days!
Yet the moment he arrived, the middle-aged officer was utterly dumbfounded.
Corpses, so many corpses-all demons from White Bone Mountain!
The bundled skeletons were stacked on the packhorses' backs. At a glance, he counted at least thirty or forty.
Looking farther back, Zhao Tielin nearly fainted when he saw the tiger demon with its eyes tightly shut.
The tiger demon of Yellow Flower Ridge!
The strongest of the four great demons near Qianqiu County was lying on a battered flatbed cart just like that?!
He steadied himself, grabbed a nearby vendor, and asked urgently, "What's going on?"
Feeling someone tug at him, the vendor's face had just begun to show irritation, but the moment he turned and saw the black flying-fish uniform, he immediately broke into a smile.
"Sir, you're from the Demon Suppression Bureau. Why are you asking a lowly fellow like me?"
"Hmm?" Zhao Tiezhu narrowed his eyes.
Seeing Zhao Tiezhu's displeased expression, the vendor dared not keep him guessing and hurriedly recounted everything he had heard.
"These lords from the Demon Suppression Bureau wiped out the two great demonic forces of White Bone Mountain and Yellow Flower Ridge."
"Now they're displaying the demons' corpses here to proclaim the Demon Suppression Bureau's divine might."
Zhao Tielin blinked.
He understood every word, so why could he not understand them put together?
He had spent so many years in the Demon Suppression Bureau. How had he never known they were this powerful?
They could even wipe out White Bone Mountain and Yellow Flower Ridge at the same time?
If they truly had such strength, how could they have let those four great demonic forces remain entrenched for so many years?
Yet the mountain of corpses and sea of bones before him were no illusion.
Just then, another commotion rose from the crowd.
"The lords who slew the demons are back!"
Zhao Tielin whipped his head around and followed the crowd's gaze.