Besotted and Intoxicated, the Demon Bear's True Nature!

Three days later, Lord Rat brought back definite news.

Seven Devil Cultivators had taken up residence in the Land God Temple: three at Foundation Establishment Early Stage and four at Qi Refining Late Stage.

Their leader was a female cultivator in a red dress who used a blood banner. Her Foundation Establishment Early Stage fluctuations were very stable; she did not look as though she had just broken through.

The Qi Refining Late Stage followers all carried black skin sacks on their backs. Inside were not Spirit Stones, but stacks of human skins.

"Those three Foundation Establishment Devil Cultivators go out every night at midnight and return between one and three. Whenever they come back, their skin sacks are rosy and full..."

"People have been disappearing every night recently from several villages thirty li away. The villagers thought it was a beast disaster, so not much news got out."

Shi Jian said nothing.

Rather than wiping everyone out, they were drawing a steady trickle.

That showed they were no fools. They knew slaughtering everyone at once would bring an investigation from White Cloud Temple, so they had chosen to boil the frog slowly instead.

Taking the Essence Blood of just a few mortals each night let them sustain their cultivation without causing too much of a stir.

But they had chosen the wrong place.

Within thirty li of Hongtian City, every rat was Shi Jian's eyes.

"What are the exact cultivation levels of the four Qi Refining cultivators?"

"Three-two at Qi Refining Eighth Layer, and one at Qi Refining Ninth Layer."

"Weapons?"

"One blood banner, used by that woman. I don't know about the other two at Foundation Establishment. Three bone sabers and a black shield, one for each of the four followers."

"Formations?"

Lord Rat shook his head. "They haven't set up a formation. They've just made a nest in the temple. There are some Storage Bags and bone jars piled in a corner, looks like loot plundered from all over."

Shi Jian rose, spreading his four limbs as the black fur along his back bristled.

No formation.

Good.

"Tonight at midnight, when those three Foundation Establishment cultivators go out to hunt for blood, I'll make my move."

Lord Rat froze. "Aren't you going to wait for them to come back and deal with them all together, Ancestor?"

"Idiot."

Shi Jian ground his claws. "If I kill all seven together and that female cultivator brings out her blood banner to tie me up, one of the other two Foundation Establishment cultivators might escape in the chaos. If word gets out, the trouble afterward will be endless."

"First kill those Qi Refining cultivators, then shut the door and beat the dogs."

Lord Rat shuddered all over and nodded repeatedly.

Midnight.

The moon was hidden, the stars had sunk, and the wilderness lay silent.

The Land God Temple stood in a grove of dead, scraggly trees. Its gate hung crooked, its walls were mottled, and the clay Land God on the incense altar was missing half his face.

Inside the temple, four Devil Cultivators sat cross-legged, each breathing black Qi in and out as they practiced their Cultivation Methods.

A blood formation had been drawn on the floor, with bone jars set at its four corners, giving off a sickly sweet smell. A middle-aged male cultivator at Qi Refining Ninth Layer leaned against the base of the wall, his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing.

He was no longer too far from Foundation Establishment, and a bone saber lay at his side.

The other three sat to either side. One cradled a shield and feigned sleep, while the other two played with several bloodstained Spirit Stones...

The three Foundation Establishment cultivators had already gone out. As usual, they would return in half an hour.

Everything was as usual.

Until an extremely faint, deep breath sounded outside the temple gate...

The middle-aged cultivator's eyes snapped open. The next instant, the gate was gone!

It had not been pushed open. The entire gate and its frame had vanished, replaced by a vast, pitch-black silhouette.

A black bear.

Nearly a zhang tall at the shoulder, its black fur swallowed every ray of light in the darkness. Its bear eyes glimmered with a cold, murky yellow light, and its Yao Qi surged to the heavens.

His Foundation Establishment Middle Stage presence poured out without the slightest restraint!

The middle-aged cultivator's pupils shrank. His hand had only just touched his bone saber...

Shi Jian's forepaw was already coming down!

One blow.

No surging spiritual power, no clash of Techniques, only pure physical strength.

The bear's paw bore the force of ten thousand jun. Without the slightest flourish, it slammed straight into the crown of the middle-aged cultivator's head!

His skull broke with a muffled crunch, like a ripe melon crushed underfoot.

Qi Refining Ninth Layer, killed with one blow.

The corpse still held the pose of drawing its saber as it toppled into the corner. Above the neck, it no longer looked human; bone and flesh had burst across the floor...

From the moment Shi Jian struck to the moment he withdrew his paw, not even a breath had passed.

The remaining two had yet to react.

The one holding the shield was the first to come to his senses. He let out a scream and brought out the black shield, pouring spiritual power into it madly. The shield swelled to three times its size, blocking his front.

Shi Jian's second blow came down.

The runes on the black shield flashed for an instant, then shattered inch by inch. Fragments drove into its wielder's chest, embedding man and shield together in the earthen wall.

Two breaths, two kills!

The last two Devil Cultivators finally reacted. They threw down the Spirit Stones, turned, and charged at the wall, intending to use the Earth Escape Technique to flee for their lives.

Shi Jian had been waiting for exactly that.

He opened his mouth, and a mass of turbid Spiritual Qi surged from deep in his throat, turning into a low bear roar.

It was not a roar in the physical sense, but a soul roar formed with Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Divine Sense as its guide and spiritual power as its blade!

Within three zhang, the air froze.

The two Devil Cultivators had only just merged into the wall when they were flung straight back out. Blood streamed from their seven orifices, their eyes lost focus, and the meridians throughout their bodies were thrown into chaos.

As though their bones had been sucked out, they crumpled stiffly to the floor...

Shi Jian walked over and pinned down one man's head.

"Speak. Who's behind your group?"

Blood and foam bubbled from the Devil Cultivator's mouth as he forced out a few broken words:

"Kill... kill me... and I still won't..."

"Fine."

Shi Jian withdrew his paw, then used a different sharp claw to pierce precisely into the Devil Cultivator's Dantian.

A stream of foul Spiritual Qi was drawn out along the tip of his claw. A blood-path cultivator's true essence reeked, but for a Demon Beast, it was more than ten or even a hundred times faster as nourishment than spirit rice!

The Devil Cultivator let out an inhuman shriek. His body shriveled, and in the blink of an eye he became a dried corpse.

Shi Jian smacked his lips, his pupils crimson, looking as though he had not had his fill.

Too thin.

The true essence of a Qi Refining Late Stage cultivator was not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth. He then did the same to the other Devil Cultivator, devouring him clean...

He turned to look at the pile of Storage Bags and bone jars in the corner.

He rummaged through them.

Six Storage Bags contained over five hundred low-grade Spirit Stones, several bottles of unknown pills, more than a dozen Jade Slips containing Devil Cultivation Methods, and some scattered fragments of Law Artifacts.

These had been plundered from the slaughtered members of various races.

The bone jars contained refined Essence Blood, their stench filling the air. Shi Jian pried them open with a claw and looked: twelve jars in all.

"Save it to feed the dogs."

He snorted and swept the bone jars into his own Storage Bag.

He then dragged the three corpses together and stripped them of their Law Artifacts and Storage Bags. Eating the rest raw would easily dirty his fur, so he could take them back and dry them instead.

In any case, Shi Jian wasn't soundproof. As he was tidying up, an extremely faint rush of wind came from outside the temple.

Shi Jian's ears twitched.

They were back!