You Province City, the Luo Household.
Corpses lay face down on the cold bluestone slabs.
Men, women, the elderly, and children—without exception, all died in extremely gruesome manners, their hands still in a crawling posture.
Blood seeped from beneath the corpses, running down the cracks in the rocks in thin, dark red streaks.
A small pool of blood formed in the center of the courtyard.
The courtyard reeked of a nauseating stench of blood.
In broad daylight, under the clear sky, the lives of over a hundred family members were wiped out, not a single one left.
This was a horrific case of family annihilation.
At this moment, the entire Luo Household was surrounded by three layers of Demon Suppression Captains.
People in flying fish robes thronged like a tide, and officers with swords stood guard every five steps, completely surrounding the courtyard.
Further away, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered, craning their necks to peer inside, only to be blocked by the yamen runners with water and fire sticks.
There was pushing and shoving, and much discussion.
Chen Jingchou's face was ashen as he scanned the courtyard. With each corpse his gaze fell upon, his jaw tightened.
By the end, I could no longer contain my anger:
"Rampant! The demons are rampant!"
"Right under our noses! Right in front of us, more than a hundred people, just killed like that?"
"Grass!"
"When did the defenses of You Province City become a hollow shell, allowing demons to come and go as they please?!"
A thick Blood Qi mixed with a trace of residual demonic Yao Qi pierced straight into Chen Jingchou's nasal cavity.
This added even more brutality to his eyes.
"Alright, now is not the time for you to complain, nor is it the time to assign blame."
The next second, an aged voice rang out.
The speaker was an elderly man with white hair, dressed in a flying fish robe, his back slightly hunched, and his gaze extremely solemn.
Based on the various decorative details on the flying fish robe, it is clear that the frail old man before them is none other than the Governor of You Province City.
A veteran practitioner of the Inner Landscape Realm.
At this moment, the Governor of You Province was not in the city; he was the highest-ranking official of the Demon Suppression Bureau.
It was this old man who summoned everyone with his Divine Thought.
"It must be that this demon used a secret treasure to conceal its energy, which is why it blocked our Divine Thought."
The old man squatted down and dipped his fingertip into the edge of the pool of blood.
Seeing that it was this elder who was speaking, Chen Jingchou's violent look subsided somewhat, and he remained silent.
"Investigate! Eliminate!"
The old man stood up and spoke softly as before, but his tone was filled with murderous intent.
Lu Guan, standing to the side, remained silent, his gaze fixed on the female corpse on the ground.
The woman's body lay inside the courtyard gate, face up, eyes still open, with a dried bloodstain at the corner of her mouth.
Her once beautiful and radiant face had turned ashen, her lips were black, and her eyes were sunken, making her look extremely pitiful.
Involuntarily, the memory of his first encounter with the female corpse flashed through his mind.
Just a few days ago, she jumped out of the water, soaking wet and pale.
'I barely escaped death... how could I have died so soon?'
Lu Guan touched the jade pendant engraved with the character "Luo" in his pocket, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the surging anger in his heart.
Just then, another person spoke up.
It was a middle-aged man, dressed in a gray robe, with an equally pale face.
Lu Guan knew this person, or rather, was familiar with his aura.
It was one of the Divine Thought watching the play in the courtyard of the Prince of Yan's Residence.
"It's a tiger demon from Ailao Mountain."
The man in the gray robe pointed to the corpses scattered on the ground and said in a deep voice:
"Judging from the way these people died, their faces were bluish-black, their foreheads were dark, and their temples were sunken. It was clearly a sign that their three souls and seven spirits had been taken away even after death."
"Such methods could only come from the tiger demons of Ailao Mountain who have awakened the Mystery Inner Landscape Realm of [ Act as a Ghost Servant for a Tiger ]."
Some powerful demons, after entering the Inner Landscape Realm, will also awaken the Mystery of their own bloodline.
The benchmark is the inherent Mystery of the Inner Landscape Domain.
Perhaps one, perhaps two, depending on the grade of the bloodline.
This act of " Act as a Ghost Servant for a Tiger " is precisely the Mystery bloodline awakened by the tiger demon of Ailao Mountain, and it is notorious throughout You Province, making it deeply hated by all.
After killing an opponent, one can extract the opponent's soul and transform it into a vengeful spirit, which can be commanded at will.
Imagine your loved one dying, only to have their soul captured and transformed into a tiger demon's henchman, turning against you in the process. How would you feel?
That's absolutely inhuman.
That makes sense. After all, they're demons; they don't have any humanity. As long as they're useful, that's enough.
"I remember now, the Luo Household has a Bronze-Token Demon-Slaying Envoys Luo Tianshui, who killed a tiger demon from Ailao Mountain a few months ago."
"So, this was deliberate retaliation."
Chen Jingchou said in a deep voice.
He had also paid attention to this little girl who was somewhat famous in the Demon Slayer channel and was known as Abbess Miejue.
He's a promising talent and has the potential to be promoted to Inner Landscape in the future.
But now... he's dead.
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Luo Tianshui's corpse.
She was still gripping the knife hilt with one hand, clearly trying to resist, but the difference in strength was too great, and her neck was snapped in an instant.
On its slender neck was a striking lock mark from the Ailao Mountain.
In fact, marks of pursuit from demons are not uncommon, especially for Demon-Slaying Envoys.
Moreover, obtaining the mark of Ailao Mountain is itself a significant achievement in the Demon-Slaying Envoys's resume.
But now, this young Demon-Slaying Envoys finally succumbed to the vengeful mark.
"Found them! They haven't gone far!"
Suddenly, a surprised voice rang out.
However, he was another Inner Landscape Realm within the Prince of Yan's Residence.
He was a practitioner of the Blessed Land Method, the Mystery Blessed Land was called [ Aura-Tracing Seal Script ].
This is a Mystery mechanism that can pinpoint the location of the person you are looking for based on their qi, blood, hair, and other substances.
No matter where you are in the country.
As a genius once considered capable of advancing to the Inner Landscape Realm, he ended up practicing a Mystery Cultivation Method that offered no enhancement to his strength.
This clearly demonstrates the importance of this Mystery method.
In other words, these are non-combat-oriented talents specially trained by the Great Li, and are usually treated like treasures.
Therefore, even though the tiger demon possessed a secret treasure that concealed its aura, it was still firmly locked down by this Mystery.
"Where?!" Chen Jingchou asked hurriedly.
"Three hundred li to the south of the city."
The man closed his eyes for a moment to sense the movement, then opened them and said, "I've shared its location with the Demon-Slaying Envoys channel."
Chen Jingchou laughed in anger.
A distance of three hundred li can be covered in less than the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, when cultivators are using the energy of heaven and earth to travel.
What's the difference between this and being right under someone's nose?
"Listen to this, gentlemen! How can they possibly take You Province seriously?"
He gripped the knife handle tightly, his knuckles cracking.
"Times have changed! Let's start by taking down this tiger demon!"
Even if this might prematurely provoke a major war with demons, Chen Jingchou couldn't care less.
" Lu Guan, come with me..."
The next second, Chen Jingchou was stunned.
There was no one beside him.
Where are they?