The forest fell silent.
The pig demon suddenly clutched its round belly, bared its teeth, and laughed wildly, its laughter rolling through the desolate hills.
"Ha! You think you can?"
Its smile vanished, and its pig eyes widened, its scarlet pupils looking as though they might drip blood.
"You think killing him qualifies you to test my strength?"
As its words fell, its body began to expand.
Its fat swelled inch by inch as though someone were pumping air into it, its skin stretched shiny and its bulging veins coiled like snakes.
It spread its legs and arched its back until it revealed its true form, as large as a small mountain.
Waves of Sha Qi instantly enveloped an area more than several dozen yards across.
The surrounding trees corroded in the Sha Qi, their vitality fading away.
Behind it, several Qi and Blood Realm pig demons grunted, "Flay his skin and eat his flesh!"
Lu Guan remained calm at the sight.
As a great demon of the true Qi realm, it was only natural that it possessed more supernatural abilities than Qi and Blood Realm demons.
After all, he had already experienced the White Bone Demon King's icy Sha Qi.
Compared to that demon's, the Sha Qi this pig demon emitted was more corrosive and much denser.
It was only a hair short of matching a demon of the late true Qi realm.
It was stronger than the White Bone Demon King by more than a little.
Lu Guan slowly raised his blade, pointed it at the pig demon, and said mildly, "I hope you're worth more money."
Of course, this "money" was not actual money, but cultivation.
The pig demon did not understand, but that hardly mattered. In its eyes, the young commandant before it was no different from a dead man.
It lightly stamped a hoof, and even more scarlet Sha Qi surged from its body, instantly engulfing Lu Guan.
The Sha Qi hissed as it met his True Qi.
The next second, a silvery-white light suddenly flared within the blood mist.
Lu Guan charged forward and abruptly leaped.
His figure burst through the blood mist like a bolt of lightning splitting a dark red sky, and the Primordial Saber in his hand hacked viciously down at the pig's head!
Shhk-!
The blade, wrapped in True Qi, instantly tore through its flesh and cut deep into its neck.
The blade sliced into the flesh and caught on bone. Lu Guan turned his wrist, worked the edge between the bones, and forcibly pried open a gap.
"The pain is killing me!"
The pig demon tilted its head in pain, trapping the blade tightly between its bones.
Then it opened its mouth and spat out a dense blast of Sha Qi, carrying a nauseating, bloody sweetness straight at his face.
Gripping the hilt tightly, Lu Guan used it as leverage to flip upward, his body rising into the air and barely skimming above that mouthful of Sha Qi.
Then he plunged down.
With the force of his descent, he dropped like a falling rock and kicked the hilt hard with his right foot.
Crack!
Driven by tremendous force, the blade successfully sank into the pig demon's flesh.
That kick drove the hilt half a foot deeper, and the edge finally severed its neck bones.
Boom!
An enormous head rolled to the ground, a final trace of disbelief lingering in its scarlet eyes.
Then its mountainlike body collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Amid the shower of blood, Lu Guan caught the falling saber, touched his toes to the ground, and bent his knees slightly to absorb the force of his descent, landing steadily.
[Mid true Qi realm pig demon, poor aptitude, cultivated for three hundred and twenty years. Effective cultivation available for extraction: one hundred and ten years] [Remaining cultivation: three hundred and twenty years]
The youth's clothes were stained with blood, lending his indifferent expression a more baleful cast. A few beads of blood dripped from the ends of his hair onto his shoulders.
Behind him lay the still-warm corpse of a great demon of the true Qi realm.
The headless mountain of flesh still twitched faintly, its limbs spasming. Blood gushed from its severed neck, gathering into a dark red pool in a hollow.
The surviving pig demons' pupils contracted sharply, their faces filled with terror.
Their father, whom they had believed capable of anything, had actually been killed by this scrawny monkey before them.
"Run!"
Without hesitation, they immediately revealed their true forms and bolted on their hooves.
If he could kill their father, he could certainly kill them.
Lu Guan remained expressionless. How could he let cultivation already within his grasp fly away?
He raised his hand, gathering True Qi along the blade before sending it sweeping outward as a blade ray.
The blade ray left the saber and traced an arc through the air like a crescent moon.
The pig demons charged two more steps in their running postures before all of them were severed at the waist.
The four Qi and Blood Realm pig demons provided a total of one hundred and twenty years of cultivation.
Added up, that already rivaled the tiger demon of the late true Qi realm.
[Remaining cultivation: four hundred and forty years]
"What they lack in quality, they make up for in quantity."
Looking at the corpses before him, Lu Guan shook his head regretfully.
Unfortunately, demon flesh was poisonous and could not be eaten directly.
He silently turned and left the mountain, calling the officers surrounding the area outside to come in and clean up the battlefield.
"Lord Lu is as fast as ever."
Wu Yong sighed with feeling.
Starting with the tiger demon, he had witnessed "Lu Guan speed" all along the way.
The youth always struck fast, precisely, and ruthlessly, striving to kill with a single blow.
"Work quickly. There's still Weasel Grave," Lu Guan instructed.
He was very interested in those weasels living in the mass graveyard.
There was no other reason: they were numerous.
Those weasels were said to have occupied the mass graveyard for several hundred years. The thick death Qi in the burial grounds made it an ideal place for weasels to cultivate.
After generations of breeding, there were at least a hundred of them.
Normally, large numbers meant a powerful force that should not be provoked lightly.
But to Lu Guan, it was a mysterious jungle farming spot waiting for him to discover.
More than a hundred demons-how much cultivation would that be?
"Lord Lu... there's no need to go to Weasel Grave anymore."
Beside him, Tang Jun stepped forward excitedly, still clutching a freshly delivered roll of letter paper.
"According to the latest news, those weasels got word from somewhere and have already fled."
"The old Weasel Grave is deserted now. There isn't even a single demon hair left."
At this, the officers listening all wore smiles of shared pride.
Without losing a single soldier, they had sent demons fleeing at the mere whisper of their approach.
When had Qianqiu County's Demon Suppression Bureau ever been able to hold its head this high?!
The new official had taken office, Wild Boar Ridge had been wiped out, and Weasel Grave had fled overnight.
Even the tiger demon and the demons of White Bone Mountain had already been swept away by him before that.
Once this news spread, what demon would dare nest within Qianqiu County's borders?
At the thought, everyone immediately cast reverent looks his way.
They knew it was all because of the young commandant before them.
Only... why did Lord Lu's smile seem a little strained?
Wasn't this good news?
Lu Guan's mouth twitched, his heart bleeding.
My cultivation!
More than a hundred weasels-even if each had only twenty or thirty years of cultivation, that would still have brought in over a thousand years.
They just ran off like that?
Damn weasels, why run? It's not like I'd kill every last one of you...
All right, he really would.
But you can't run! If you run, where am I supposed to find so many demons?
Lu Guan drew a deep breath, suppressed that bleeding heartache, and regained his composure before turning to leave.
"Finish cleaning up the battlefield, then return to the city."
Following behind, Wu Yong looked at the youth's bloodstained back and suddenly felt that his footsteps were a little heavier than when he had arrived.
Lord Lu seemed very disappointed to hear that the weasels had fled?
Why was that?
He pondered for a moment, and a gleam of wisdom appeared in his eyes.
Lord Lu must be worried that the fleeing weasels will continue to plague some other region. That's why he feels troubled after failing to kill them all.
At this thought, Wu Yong was filled with solemn respect.
My outlook is still far too shallow. I'm nowhere near Lord Lu, who holds the whole world in his heart!