They Were All Unranked Demon Beasts
After Zhu Ren left, Zhou Si gathered everyone in her room and closed the door.
"Tomorrow morning, we'll act according to plan." She looked at Lu Feng, her gaze growing a touch more serious.
"Zhu Lin, Luo Fang, Liu Yong and I will stay at the sect to investigate. Lu Feng, you'll scout for demon beasts on your own. If you find anything, send word immediately. If you run into danger, don't fight it head-on. Retreat first."
Lu Feng nodded. "Understood."
Zhou Si paused, then took a palm-sized jade talisman from her storage pouch and handed it to him.
"This is a communication jade talisman. Crush it in an emergency, and I'll be able to sense your location."
Lu Feng took the jade talisman. It was cool to the touch. He glanced at Zhou Si and tucked it away close to his body.
"Thank you."
Night deepened.
Lu Feng returned to his room, but he did not rest immediately.
He sat cross-legged on the wooden bed and took out the map Zhu Ren had given him, studying it carefully by the light of the oil lamp.
Nine demon beast lairs were marked on the map.
Six were marked as lairs of first-rank demon beasts, two as second-rank, and one bore only a question mark, with the words "situation unknown" written in small characters beside it.
Lu Feng's gaze fell on the question mark and lingered there for a moment.
Situation unknown?
He folded the map again and tucked it away close to his body, then blew out the oil lamp.
In the darkness, he opened his eyes, moonlight from the window reflected in them.
Investigating? Solving the case? That was Zhou Si and the others' business.
What he had to do was wipe every last red dot off the map.
They could take their time investigating the demon beasts eating people.
But as long as every demon beast in the area was dead, naturally no one else would be eaten.
Nine lairs.
Enough for him to reap a good harvest.
Afterward, Lu Feng and Zhou Si headed to South Rear Mountain outside Nanxi City, while Zhu Lin, Luo Fang and Liu Yong stayed at the Fire Saber Sect to continue their inquiries.
Meanwhile, in the Fire Saber Sect master's room.
Zhu Ren sat cross-legged on a cushion, his eyes half closed. A disciple hurriedly pushed the door open and entered, dropping to one knee.
"Sect master, the people from the Demon-Slaying Bureau have split up. Two went to South Rear Mountain, and the other three stayed at the sect."
Zhu Ren opened his eyes. His expression was calm, betraying neither pleasure nor anger.
"Have all the clues within the sect been arranged?"
"They're in place." The disciple lowered his voice, a hint of smugness appearing at the corners of his mouth. "With that group of ape demons on South Rear Mountain, they'll surely conclude the ape demons were responsible when they finish investigating. Your plan to kill two birds with one stone is truly brilliant, sect master-you'll get rid of those disobedient beasts and deal with the Demon-Slaying Bureau's people at the same time..."
Halfway through his speech, Zhu Ren's gaze swept toward him.
The disciple's whole body jolted. He swallowed the rest of his words, and a fine layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Tell the people below to keep their mouths shut tight for the time being."
"If I find out anyone has leaked a word..."
He said no more.
The disciple fell to his knees with a thud and kowtowed repeatedly. "I understand! I'll take my leave!"
With that, he scrambled out, carefully closing the door behind him.
Silence returned to the room.
Zhu Ren stared at the door for a long time, tapping his knee lightly twice.
"The person who sent word to the Demon-Slaying Bureau..." he murmured, a shadow flickering in his eyes. "Who was it?"
Elsewhere, on South Rear Mountain.
Lu Feng and Zhou Si stood at a fork in the path. Ancient trees towered overhead, vines hung down, and the damp smell of rotting leaves filled the forest.
Zhou Si unfolded the map and tapped it with a fingertip. "According to the map, if we continue ahead to the left, we'll reach the ape demon lair in about half a shichen."
But Lu Feng did not look at the map. His gaze swept slowly over the dense forest around them, as though searching for something.
"I think we could scout around first."
Zhou Si put the map away and looked at him. "Do you suspect the map is fake?"
"Not exactly." Lu Feng shook his head. "Our task here is to investigate demon beasts eating people, not to slay demon beasts. If we look around, we might find a clue."
He paused, then added, "Besides, the map might not show everything. What if there are other demon beast lairs that haven't been marked?"
Zhou Si pondered for a moment, then nodded. "That makes sense. Shall we split up?"
"Let's stay together."
Lu Feng answered so quickly that Zhou Si was slightly taken aback.
"We don't know what dangers are in these mountains. It's safer to stay together," Lu Feng explained, his expression frank.
There was nothing wrong with that reasoning. But he did not say what the real reason was-
If they split up, what if Zhou Si ran into all the demon beasts? They were all Demon Points.
Zhou Si asked no further questions, assuming he was being cautious.
After all, as she saw it, Lu Feng was only a Demon-Slaying Guard with Ming Jin cultivation. It really was not very safe for him to go alone.
The two changed direction and headed deeper into the dense forest to the right.
Less than an incense stick's time later, a rustling came from the bushes ahead.
Several gray-white figures poked their heads out from behind the trees. They had goat heads, human bodies and protruding fangs, and their scarlet eyes were fixed on the pair.
Goat demons. There were more than a dozen of them, all unranked.
Zhou Si put a hand on her saber hilt and was about to step forward, but Lu Feng stopped her.
"I'll do it." His tone was casual. "Just leave these little unranked demons to me."
Before his words had faded, he had already darted out.
The Six Harmonies Saber left its sheath, and a cold gleam flashed through the forest. Lu Feng moved through the group of goat demons, his saber rising and falling with clean, decisive strokes, without a single wasted movement.
[Ding! Successfully slew an unranked goat demon. Demon Points obtained: 100;] [Ding! Successfully slew an unranked goat demon. Demon Points obtained: 100;]
The system notifications rang out in his mind one after another, without pause.
Moments later, all the goat demons lay dead on the ground. Not one had survived.
Lu Feng sheathed his saber and walked back, looking as composed as ever, his breathing undisturbed.
"Let's go."
Zhou Si glanced at him, said nothing, and followed.
Over the next few hours, the two found another six demon beast lairs in succession.
Snake demons, deer demons, badger demons... Each lair was occupied by a dozen or twenty little unranked demons.
Every time, Lu Feng rushed ahead to strike, felling one with each stroke as neatly as if he were chopping melons and vegetables.
But Zhou Si's brow furrowed more and more deeply.
After the seventh lair, a snake demon nest, had been wiped clean, she finally could not hold back.
"Something's not right."
Lu Feng was sheathing his saber. At her words, he looked up at her.
"This is the seventh demon lair." Zhou Si's expression was somewhat grave. "But we haven't encountered a single first-rank demon beast. Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?"
Lu Feng seemed quite relaxed. "Maybe the ape demon lair is the only one with ranked beasts."
He spoke lightly, but he had already given the matter thought.
He had slain all the demons in seven lairs by himself, bringing in more than thirteen thousand Demon Points in total.
What they lacked in quality, they made up for in quantity. It was a profitable deal.
As for why there were no first-rank demon beasts,
he had noticed something was wrong as early as the second demon lair.
Even a small place like Lin'an City had quite a few first-rank demon beasts in residence. How could there be none at all in such a vast stretch of wild mountains behind Nanxi City?
The two had also interrogated a few demon beasts, and the answers had been surprisingly consistent: none. There had never been any first-rank demon beasts in this area.
Either those first-rank demon beasts had left for some reason,
or someone had cleared them out.