The Demon-Slaying Envoy Arrived

An hour later, Lu Feng and Records Officer An arrived without incident at the foot of the eastern mountain.

"The eastern mountain is mainly occupied by rat demons and rabbit demons," Records Officer An explained.

"Each kind has a first-rank demon beast as its leader; the rest are all unranked lesser demons. They aren't particularly strong, so I can definitely help you this time!"

"No need." Lu Feng immediately waved a hand.

"I'll kill these demon beasts myself. Records Officer An, you only need to stop them from escaping. Don't let a single one get away."

"You really don't need my help?"

Records Officer An was puzzled. He couldn't understand what Lu Feng was thinking. With another person helping, they could deal with the demon beasts faster and more safely.

"I'm sure."

These were all Demon Points delivered right to his door. He could only wish there were more-how could he possibly think there were too many?

Seeing how firm Lu Feng was, Records Officer An stopped insisting and nodded.

"All right! I'll hold them back. I won't let a single demon beast escape!"

Once he was sure Records Officer An wouldn't intervene, Lu Feng hesitated no longer. He raised his saber and charged toward the nearest rabbit demon den.

The moment he entered the den, any lingering notion that rabbits were cute was swept clean from his mind.

Inside the den, several long-cold corpses were buried in the earth, with only their heads exposed. Their faces were congested with blood, and their eyes were wide open. They had died miserably.

"Damn it!"

Lu Feng's face darkened, and killing intent surged in his eyes. Without another word, he raised his saber and charged at the rabbit demons in the den.

"Human, what nerve you have, daring to barge into my rabbit demon den alone..."

An unranked rabbit demon had just begun to mock him when Lu Feng's saber came chopping down before it could finish. Its head rolled off in an instant.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, for slaying an unranked rabbit demon. Demon Points obtained: 100;]

"An Shi! What nerve you have, bringing someone into my den to kill my descendants!"

Hearing the commotion, the first-rank rabbit demon immediately rushed out from deep within the den. At the sight of the rabbit demon corpse on the ground, it turned its white-furred head toward Records Officer An and spoke viciously, without so much as a proper glance at Lu Feng beside him.

It simply took Lu Feng for one of Records Officer An's subordinates.

Records Officer An snorted and said mockingly,

"Heh! I'm afraid you won't have the chance to raze Lin'an County to the ground!"

"What do you mean?"

The first-rank rabbit demon looked utterly bewildered, and its gaze grew wary. Records Officer An seemed far more confident today than he had ever been before.

"Tell your man to stop at once!"

The first-rank rabbit demon put on a show of composure and shouted sternly at Records Officer An,

"Otherwise, I'll make blood flow like a river through Lin'an County!"

So focused was it on confronting Records Officer An that it failed to notice Lu Feng quietly attacking to the side. In just a few moments, he had killed several unranked rabbit demons.

System notifications rang out continuously in his mind.

Only when the subordinates around it began to dwindle did the first-rank rabbit demon suddenly realize something was wrong. It turned stiffly toward Lu Feng.

At the sight, its pupils instantly contracted!

"Good! Good! Die!"

Before the words had faded, its powerful hind leg lashed out with a fierce gust of wind, sweeping straight toward Lu Feng's waist and abdomen.

Lu Feng's gaze was calm. Without dodging or retreating, he circulated the force throughout his body and instantly activated his perfected Iron Cloth Shirt.

Clang!

With the sharp ring of metal striking metal, Lu Feng took the rabbit demon's immensely powerful kick head-on.

"What?!"

The first-rank rabbit demon's pupils contracted as it stared in disbelief at the unharmed Lu Feng.

In the instant it was stunned, a flash of saber light erupted, so fast that only a silver arc remained.

The enormous rabbit head rolled to the ground, and blood splattered everywhere.

[Ding! Successfully slew a first-rank rabbit demon. Demon Points obtained: 1000;]

Once the first-rank rabbit demon died, the remaining unranked rabbit demons in the den fell into instant disarray. They showed none of the wolf demons' fearlessness in the face of death, instead scrambling blindly toward the exit.

Fortunately, An Shi was already guarding the entrance, blocking every escape route. Lu Feng strode in with his saber and cut them down like melons and vegetables. With every rise and fall of the blade, rabbit demons fell one after another.

In mere moments, every rabbit demon had been slaughtered.

"The rat demons are next." Lu Feng put away his saber and walked calmly toward the rat demon den.

"Wait for me!" An Shi hurriedly called after him. He bent down, pulled over a vine, and strung the rabbit heads scattered across the ground onto it, unable to resist muttering, "Who would have thought that I, a dignified county records officer, would one day be cleaning up after a head constable?"

Despite his grumbling, he quickly finished tidying up and hurried after Lu Feng.

Meanwhile, Chen Hu and his men were slowly making their way toward Lin'an City, carrying the first-rank wolf demon corpses on their shoulders and dragging the heads of the unranked wolf demons.

They had just emerged from the North Mountain pass when they ran into Lin Shan, who was approaching with more than a dozen constables pushing two flatbed carts.

At the sight of the wolf demon corpses packed tightly onto the carts, especially the nine first-rank wolf demon corpses, Lin Shan's expression changed drastically, and he cried out, "So many first-rank wolf demons? You really killed every wolf demon on North Mountain? How is that possible?!"

He sounded surprised, but a trace of greed and malice flashed in his eyes.

Chen Hu didn't notice anything amiss. "Lin Shan, what are you doing here?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Why, we came to help you, of course. Where are Lu Feng and Records Officer An?" Lin Shan instantly put on a warm smile and spoke earnestly.

"They went to the eastern mountain to kill the other demon beasts."

"Come, come, put these demon beasts on the carts. It's too tiring dragging them like this." Lin Shan hurriedly waved his men forward to take over.

Suspecting nothing, Chen Hu nodded. "All right. Take these heads and the villagers back to the city. We'll go help Lu Feng!"

"I'm going too!" "Count me in!" Ergou and the other constables chimed in, all eager to follow Lu Feng and earn merit by slaying demons.

"Go on without worrying. I'll make sure these three villagers and the demon beast corpses get back to the city safely, and give the people an account." Looking every bit the loyal friend, Lin Shan thumped his chest in promise.

Chen Hu and the others suspected nothing. They immediately turned and raced toward the eastern mountain, unable to wait any longer.

Once Chen Hu's group had disappeared completely from sight, the smile vanished from Lin Shan's face. He coldly spat out a single word: "Fools!"

He glanced at the wolf demon corpses on the carts, a determined gleam in his eyes, and swept a hand through the air. "Let's go back to the city!"

At that moment, the atmosphere in the back hall of the Lin'an County yamen was decadent and strange.

County Deputy Lin Yuan stood below with his head bowed, not daring to breathe loudly. In the hall above him, a man in Demon-Slaying Bureau robes reclined lazily against the legs of a pretty young woman. A maid on either side fed him fresh fruit, and his face was full of enjoyment.

"My lord, are you satisfied with these arrangements?" Lin Yuan asked cautiously, his desire to curry favor plain to see.

Hearing this, a flicker of impatience crossed the man's face. He glanced at Lin Yuan indifferently. "You know how to conduct yourself, at least. By the way, what was your nephew's name again?"

As he spoke, his hand freely caressed the thigh of the woman beside him, making her whole body tremble. The man grew even more pleased with himself.

Lin Yuan hurriedly bowed and replied, "My lord, my nephew is named Lin Shan. He has already reached Early Ming Jin, and in recent years he has solved quite a few major cases in Lin'an County. He is extremely capable."

"His strength barely qualifies him to join the Demon-Slaying Bureau," the man said indifferently, smacking his lips. "But does he have any actual record of killing demon beasts? The Demon-Slaying Bureau doesn't take in trash who have never seen blood."

A troubled look immediately appeared on Lin Yuan's face, and he stammered, "Well..."

He had never actually let Lin Shan kill a demon. For one thing, he feared offending the demon beasts and bringing trouble down on himself; for another, such achievements were entered into the records, leaving no way to tamper with them.