One Swing, One Kill

Zhou Si watched him leave, then glanced in the direction where Lu Feng was.

Zhou Si withdrew her gaze, found a secluded crevice in the rocks, and sat down cross-legged. She took an antidote pill from her robes and swallowed it, then began circulating her Qi to expel the poison.

She had two reasons for sending Gan Ping away.

First, the heads of second-tier demonic beasts could be exchanged for merit points at the Demon-Slaying Bureau.

Although she had not slain those demonic beasts, giving them to Lu Feng would earn her a favor.

She knew Lu Feng had just joined the Demon-Slaying Bureau and was short on merit points. She had to repay him for saving her life.

Second, she did not trust Gan Ping.

He had survived alone in a demonic beast's lair for three years, without a fatal wound, and his mental state was not too poor either. There was something strange about that in itself.

If he had some questionable connection to the demonic beasts and stabbed her in the back while she was treating her injuries, that would be a truly unjust death.

Deep in the cave, Lu Feng's slaughter continued.

Saber light flashed through the swarm of rats, every strike cutting precisely into a rat demon's vulnerable throat.

He did not deliberately chase any particular one. Instead, he made a circuit of the cave, slaying every rat demon in his path.

The rat demons' claws and fangs struck him with nothing but metallic clangs, unable even to break through the surface of his Golden Bell Shield.

Lu Feng raised his saber and brought it down.

The Six Harmonies Saber carved silver arc after silver arc through the swarm, every strike cutting precisely into a rat demon's vulnerable throat.

His feet never stopped as he advanced from the cave entrance all the way into its depths, leaving the ground covered in layers of rat demon corpses.

[Ding! Successfully killed a first-tier rat demon. Demon Points obtained: 1000]

[Ding! Successfully killed a first-tier rat demon. Demon Points obtained: 1000]

[Ding! Successfully killed a first-tier rat demon. Demon Points obtained: 1000]

The system notifications came so thick and fast that they nearly ran together.

In just a few moments, dozens of rat demons had died beneath his saber.

Just then,

Several steel needles, as fine as ox hairs, whistled out of the darkness at tricky angles, aimed straight at the back of Lu Feng's neck.

Without looking back, Lu Feng swung the Six Harmonies Saber behind him.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

With several sharp rings, every needle was deflected by the blade and embedded in the stone wall, their ends still quivering.

Their tips had an eerie purple-black sheen. They had clearly been coated in deadly poison.

Only then did Lu Feng raise his eyes toward the direction from which the concealed weapons had come.

A massive rat demon stood on a raised platform deep in the cave.

It had a human body and a rat's head and stood over a zhang tall. Its grayish-brown fur had a greasy sheen.

It stared at Lu Feng with a pair of small, scarlet eyes, a flicker of surprise passing through them.

It had been certain those steel needles would hit.

The female demon slayer from before had been unable to block them all and had been poisoned as a result.

It had not expected the man before it to deal with them so effortlessly without even turning his head.

Meanwhile, Lu Feng used Carefree Steps to continue hunting down the first-tier rat demons fleeing in all directions.

As his saber rose and fell, several more rat demon heads went rolling.

Seeing that he was not dealing with it first, the second-tier rat demon's face took on a sneer.

It was in no hurry to attack. It merely fired a few steel needles from the shadows now and then, but Lu Feng blocked them with ease every time.

It was waiting.

Waiting for the human to exhaust himself. Waiting for his Nei Jin to run dry. Then it would strike and kill him in one blow.

If it could eat the flesh and blood of a Nei Jin martial artist, it might be able to touch the threshold of the third tier.

As for these first-tier rat demons, what if they all died?

Given a few years, it could breed another large swarm.

There were fewer and fewer rat demons in the cave.

From over a hundred, to dozens, and finally to the last few.

When the last first-tier rat demon's head rolled to the ground, Lu Feng turned and looked toward that dark corner.

"Your turn."

In the darkness, the pair of small, scarlet eyes flickered.

Then it did something Lu Feng had not expected at all.

There was no hesitation, not even a probing attack.

Its body shrank, and it became a gray shadow, darting toward a passage deeper in the cave.

Lu Feng was stunned for a moment.

This was the first second-tier demon king he had seen flee for its life outright.

Without hesitation, Lu Feng used Carefree Steps at full speed and pursued it into the passage.

In a narrow, winding underground cave like this, Treading on Snow Without a Trace could not be used to dash in a straight line. But Carefree Steps was better suited to close-quarters maneuvering in the first place, and in this environment it was like a fish in water.

A few breaths later, the gray shadow ahead was already close at hand.

"How is that possible?!" The second-tier rat demon looked back, its pupils contracting sharply. "How can you be so fast?!"

Lu Feng did not answer.

He gripped the Six Harmonies Saber in both hands and poured his Nei Jin madly into the blade.

"Gale Slash."

Man and saber became a streak of light, moving so fast that the torch flames on both sides of the passage were drawn into lines.

"Ah!"

A shrill scream echoed through the passage.

The saber light pierced the second-tier rat demon's body. Its massive frame swayed twice, then crashed to the ground.

[Ding! Successfully killed a second-tier rat demon. Demon Points obtained: 10000]

Lu Feng sheathed his saber and looked at the huge rat head on the ground, gently exhaling a breath of turbid air.

He had used Gale Slash outright to ensure a kill in one strike.

This rat demon was more cunning than the other demon kings. Its attacks were poisonous, and it knew how to launch sneak attacks. Even Zhou Si had suffered a crushing setback at its hands.

If it escaped into the more complicated branching passages, it would be difficult to find again.

He opened the panel and glanced at it.

[Demon Points: 174000]

The corners of Lu Feng's mouth lifted slightly.

This trip to the Fire Saber Sect had been worth it.

He turned and walked toward the cave's exit.

He had not gone far when hurried footsteps came from the passage ahead, and a figure in dark clothing came running toward him.

"Senior Sister Zhou?" Lu Feng recognized her and frowned slightly.

"Your injuries haven't healed yet. Why are you running so fast? I've already slain that second-tier rat demon."

Zhou Si's face was still somewhat pale. The purple on her lips had faded a little, but one look was enough to tell that the poison had not been fully expelled.

Hearing this, she stopped and first glanced at Lu Feng's hands. They were empty.

"Slain it? Where's the rat demon's head?"

"I didn't pick it up." Lu Feng was a little puzzled. "Is the head useful?"

Zhou Si gave him a look as if he were an idiot, then walked past him toward the depths of the cave.

"Of course it's useful. Bring a second-tier demonic beast's head back to the Demon-Slaying Bureau, and you can exchange it for a thousand merit points even without a bounty assignment. If there is an assignment, that doubles. When you turned in that second-tier wolf demon to the steward last time, where did you think those two thousand merit points came from?"

Lu Feng followed behind her without arguing.

It was just that, compared with his Demon Points, the merit points from that rat head really were not as important.

Still, it was no bad thing to get some extra merit points.

The two arrived deep within the rat demons' cave. Zhou Si stopped.

The sight before her left her silent.

Rat demon corpses lay piled haphazardly everywhere, covering almost the entire cave floor.