The deaths of the Liu father and daughter were like a bucket of cold water, jolting Shen Yi awake.
No more wishful thinking!
These were not mindless monsters wandering the wilderness, content to stay in one place, waiting to be slaughtered by wandering heroes for experience points.
What he had done before—using the connections left by his predecessor to catch the demons off guard and strike them down—had been easy.
But it couldn’t go on like this forever.
Those violent creatures had emotions too.
They could communicate with each other, and their speed of spreading information was far faster than he had imagined.
They knew the black-skinned dog demon had gone to the Liu family.
Wouldn’t they also know who it had gone with?
Every time a demon died, the remaining beasts would grow more vicious and more cautious.
If news of the ape demon’s death spread, the next time they came to ambush him, it would likely be a truly powerful demon.
Shen Yi didn’t want to live in constant fear.
He needed more demon lifespans.
With this thought, Shen Yi stood up and slowly walked out of the courtyard.
At this moment, Willow Leaf Street was already crowded with onlookers, all staring from a distance.
A constable beating up another constable—such a spectacle of dogs biting dogs was a rare sight.
"Let them all go," Shen Yi nodded slightly.
"Understood," Chen Ji clasped his fists and signaled the others to untie the captives.
He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and pulled out an opened letter, its cover stained with blood.
"Do you want to take a look? This just fell out of their pockets."
Shen Yi frowned and took the letter, slowly unfolding it.
There was only one sentence written on it:
"Come to Liuli Temple Village. I have something to ask you."
No name, no context.
But based on Shen Yi’s understanding of those dog demons, they were more skilled at wielding weapons than holding a brush.
The only one who could afford such leisure was the old dog who never worried about food or drink.
And among the ordinary constables, the only one who could have any connection with the yellow-skinned demons was Shen Yi himself.
Chen Ji had clearly sensed something was off, which was why he hesitated to show the letter.
"What should we do? We definitely can’t go, but if we ignore it, they’ll come to the city to find you… Should we consult the magistrate?"
It was well-known that Magistrate Liu treated Shen Yi like a nephew.
With that relationship, if the magistrate was willing to speak up, he might even be able to get the powerful martial instructor from the county office to negotiate with the demons.
"We need to act quickly, otherwise Liuli Temple Village…" Chen Ji was growing anxious.
"Tch."
Zhang Pengtian, leaning against the wall and spitting blood, sneered.
"Magistrate Liu has already given the order. You can’t mobilize a single constable now. Just stay in the county and count yourself lucky that someone’s protecting your life. As for the other lowlifes… pah… you don’t have the ability to care about them."
Hearing this, Chen Ji’s heart skipped a beat.
He instinctively glanced at the young man before him, but was quickly overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.
Even though Shen Yi’s strength far exceeded his expectations, it was still within the realm of ordinary constables.
Facing the entire dog demon faction… even the martial instructors, who were all skilled demon slayers, could only stay put in the county.
At that moment, Chen Ji noticed Shen Yi’s furrowed brows suddenly relax.
"Constable Shen…"
Shen Yi patted his shoulder.
"Go back first."
He had been troubled by the fact that the demons were deep in the mountains, in treacherous terrain, making them hard to find.
Waiting for them to come to him was too passive.
Now that they wanted to talk, how could he miss such a good opportunity?
"..."
Shen Yi’s expression was calm, but Chen Ji grew more uneasy the longer he looked.
Watching Shen Yi walk away, he couldn’t help but blurt out, "You’re not planning to leave the city, are you?"
"Leave the city? I’ve watched him rise from a street thug. Even if his mother were kidnapped by demons, he wouldn’t bat an eye. Now he’s pretending to care? What a joke!"
Zhang Pengtian, supported by two subordinates, spat a thick glob of phlegm on the ground.
"Pah!"
...
Outside Baiyun County.
A figure shot past like an arrow, the treetops swaying slightly, birds scattering in alarm.
The ordinary martial technique, "Eight Steps of the Spirit Snake," when fueled by the power of the Five Apertures in the Initial Realm, allowed one’s speed to become almost invisible to the naked eye.
Before long, Shen Yi saw the dilapidated temple again.
He slowed his pace, his breathing steady, showing no signs of the intense sprint he had just completed.
On the fields of Liuli Temple Village, the villagers paused their work and turned to look at the figure with a sword at the village entrance.
Generally, the arrival of constables almost always meant disaster.
Either from the constables themselves, or from demons causing trouble.
When they recognized the face of the newcomer, the villagers’ numb expressions softened slightly.
They remembered this constable.
Last time, it was he who had personally slain the dog demon, and he hadn’t taken any silver when he left.
A little girl, just learning to walk, dressed in a comically oversized, patched-up cloth, stumbled over with a broken bowl in her hands.
In a childish voice, she said, "Constable, have some water."
Shen Yi patted her head, took the bowl, and drank it all in one go.
As he set the bowl down, his gaze shifted to the mountain path on the other side.
As the saying goes, it’s better to arrive at the right time than early… and this timing was perfect.
On the rugged mountain path, more than a dozen figures, each a head taller than an average person, appeared intermittently through the dense forest.
Their muscular bodies were covered in thick, matted fur, their faces ferocious.
They wore only loincloths and carried a massive palanquin, over twenty feet tall, as if walking on flat ground.
On the palanquin lay a body weighing at least eight hundred pounds.
Layers of fat, each about two fingers wide, piled up like a mountain of flesh, making it impossible to count how many layers there were.
The most striking feature was the glossy, deep yellow fur, a stark contrast to the other dog demons.
Moments later, they set the palanquin down at the village entrance.
The little girl, still holding the broken bowl, turned around and fell with a "thud," landing on her bottom.
Her dirty face froze, her breath held, her tiny teeth biting her lip hard, her small body trembling uncontrollably.
Compared to the young girl, the other villagers appeared calmer… or rather, resigned.
They instinctively looked toward the road.
There was only one constable, with a single sword at his waist.
Behind him, the winding path was eerily silent.
They waited, but no other figures appeared.
The villagers seemed to understand something, their eyes filled with despair.
They crouched down, hugging themselves tightly, neither crying nor running.
The little girl suddenly felt a tall shadow fall over her.
She looked up.
The constable had stepped past her, drawing the sword from his waist as he walked.
By the time the blade was fully unsheathed, Shen Yi stood before the massive palanquin, the sword held loosely at his side.
(End of Chapter)