This skirmish turned out to be far less arduous than Cui Hao had anticipated.
It wasn’t that the demon was weak—at least, that wasn’t Cui Hao’s impression. This little lizard could still be considered a formidable opponent.
Small as it was, its strength was no joke.
Though Cui Hao had cultivated the potent mental technique taught by his master, its effects were primarily geared toward enhancing spellcasting.
When it came to close-quarters combat, he was still at a slight disadvantage.
So… this battle essentially became Lin Luoyu’s solo performance.
With a single strike, she obliterated the ferocious boar demon.
The sheer brutality of it sent the remaining foes scrambling to flee.
The little lizard, hearing the commotion, didn’t hesitate—it turned tail and bolted!
This was nothing like the dim-witted, bloodthirsty minor demons described in legends.
Facing them in reality, they were nothing like the books portrayed.
Truly, blind faith in texts was worse than having no books at all.
Lin Luoyu first glanced sideways at Cui Hao, confirming he was unharmed, then prepared to give chase.
But a volley of crossbow bolts forced her to halt.
She could probably tank the hits… but then she remembered her master’s half-smiling, half-mocking expression.
Lin Luoyu decided it was wiser to play it safe.
No need to risk triggering the protective artifact her master had given her and inviting unnecessary calamity.
She raised her sword to deflect the incoming bolts. Though she never stopped moving, the brief delay was enough for the physically adept demons to put considerable distance between them.
Watching the fleeing figures vanish into the distance, Lin Luoyu gradually slowed to a stop. She could still catch up if she pushed herself.
But this was demon territory, and their intel on the area was sparse. Charging recklessly after them was hardly a sound strategy.
Cui Hao walked up beside her, sword in hand:
"Told you this wouldn’t work. But no need to rush—Senior Sister Li is definitely watching us from nearby!"
Lin Luoyu eyed him skeptically. "If Senior Sister is here, why bother having us fight? If she acted, how many breaths would these demons even last?"
"Follow me. You’ll understand soon enough."
Cui Hao chuckled and immediately set off in pursuit of the fleeing demons.
After a brief hesitation, Lin Luoyu followed, drawn by his confidence.
The demons were fast.
They were running for their lives, after all.
Fortunately, the terrain was a small plain, allowing the two to keep a faint glimpse of distant shadows as they gave chase.
But once they left the plains and entered a rocky ridge… the demons vanished without a trace.
Lin Luoyu stopped, scanning the surroundings.
As a Qi Refining cultivator, she could conjure fireballs and manipulate water with ease.
But tracking and wide-area detection weren’t her strong suits—if she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t chase it.
Truthfully, she’d never learned those skills.
Still, by now, Lin Luoyu was starting to piece things together.
She turned to Cui Hao. "You’re saying… Senior Sister deliberately had us set up that ambush?"
Cui Hao shrugged. "Probably. Since we’re here, might as well let us get some hands-on experience, right?"
Lin Luoyu nodded. "Then we should wait here for now."
Cui Hao glanced at his fourth senior sister. No wonder she’d aced her initiation trials—she was far from foolish.
If they were the bait…
Then their purpose wasn’t to catch the patrol demons—those were just small fry.
Their real target was the demons’ base of operations!
Only there would they find the kind of intel a cultivator of Senior Sister Li’s caliber would value.
Senior Sister Li could easily rely on her own power to scout alone, though it’d be more tedious.
But then, bringing Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu along would’ve been pointless.
Their master had delegated authority to Senior Sister Li precisely to test whether she could assign roles to them appropriately.
Viewed this way, her reasoning was obvious.
Sure enough, after about fifteen minutes…
A violent surge of spiritual energy erupted in the distance to the west.
The thunderous boom followed moments later.
Lin Luoyu looked up to see a brilliant azure light slice through the midsection of a mountain peak.
Then—
The peak was severed, and the colossal mountain began to collapse.
Cui Hao stared, eyes blazing with excitement.
Now that was a true immortal’s power!
Senior Sister Li was awe-inspiring!
Lin Luoyu silently watched the sword strike.
One day, she too would reach that level.
Cui Hao, brimming with enthusiasm, sprinted westward, shouting, "Come on! Let’s go see the show!"
Lin Luoyu followed.
By the time they arrived, panting…
Senior Sister Li stood solemnly amid the ruins of the demon camp.
A few dismembered demon corpses littered the ground nearby.
Before Li Yingling yawned a massive chasm—the aftermath of the bisected mountain.
Only when they drew closer did they understand why their senior sister stood there in silence.
Near the camp’s entrance sat a massive iron cauldron.
Inside, a dark red broth bubbled, stewing several thoroughly cooked human arms.
A nauseating stench of blood hung thick in the air.
Lin Luoyu took one glance and immediately averted her eyes, forcing deep breaths to steady herself.
Cui Hao glanced at her, sighed, then stepped forward to address Li Yingling.
Before her lay three barely alive demons, their bodies mangled beyond recognition.
Only the faint rise and fall of their chests confirmed they still clung to life.
Cui Hao clasped his hands and asked, "Senior Sister… are you alright?"
Li Yingling turned slightly, meeting his gaze, then shook her head.
Truthfully, Li Yingling and the others hadn’t come straight to the front lines.
Chu Xingchen had first taken them to several villages massacred by demons.
Those villages had long been reduced to ash and rubble by fire.
Few corpses remained.
Only a handful of charred bodies, trapped beneath collapsed buildings, had been left behind.
Yet no amount of scorched earth could mask the reek of blood.
That day, their master had solemnly told them:
"What you’re about to do isn’t training. It isn’t child’s play."
"If you hadn’t come, none of this would concern you."
"But having witnessed it, as humans, you cannot turn a blind eye."
"When demons slaughter humans, they show no mercy. So… what about you?"
After posing this final question, their master sent them to the front lines.
Li Yingling had felt outrage, of course.
But it was a shallow, fleeting anger.
Like the kind stirred by a tragic tale in a storybook.
Enough to kindle fury.
But not enough to lose sleep over.
Now, however, after tracking the demons to this camp, she realized the corpses hadn’t been retrieved by their own people.
Most had been taken as food for the demons.
They had taken infants…
They had taken humans…
Only now, standing here as a human, did Li Yingling truly understand.
Some truths had to be seen to be believed.
This was why humans treated demons the way they did.
Because this was how demons deserved to be treated.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
