Chapter 12: Chapter 10: Demon
"A Demon Fiend!"
"There’s a Demon Fiend!!"
Zhang A’wu, who had been so arrogant just a moment ago, scrambled out of the kitchen on all fours. He was so frantic he’d lost a shoe, his face deathly pale.
The others stood frozen, unable to process what was happening.
Granny Yuan cried out:
"No, my son isn’t a Demon Fiend! He’s just sick, he’s just sick..."
The little girl sat stunned on the ground, her small face a mask of confusion and terror as she stared at the pitch-black kitchen doorway.
"ROAR—!"
A savage roar erupted from the kitchen.
Immediately after, a figure lunged out, dragging half of a snapped hemp rope behind it.
It was Elder Wu!
His face was savage and twisted, his skin a grotesque bluish-purple. Veins slithered like worms beneath his skin, and his eyes were blood-red.
Only then did the thugs snap out of their daze, scattering in terror as if their souls had flown from their bodies.
"Run! It’s a Demon Fiend!"
One of the thugs closest to the door didn’t make it two steps before the demonic Elder Wu tackled him to the ground.
"SQUELCH—"
Fresh blood splattered everywhere.
Before he could even scream, his throat was viciously torn out, a huge chunk of flesh and skin ripped away. His body convulsed a few times, then went still.
"My son!!"
Granny Yuan let out a mournful cry, wanting to rush forward.
"Granny, don’t go!"
The little girl, with a sudden burst of strength, ran over and clung to the old woman’s leg, crying, "That’s not Daddy anymore!"
The taste of blood made the Demon, Elder Wu, even more frenzied.
He tossed aside the corpse in his hands. His crimson gaze swept the area before finally landing on the little boy crying on the ground.
In the eyes of a Demon Fiend, this was the freshest, most tender meal.
"ROAR!"
Elder Wu gave a low roar, sprang forward on all fours like a wild beast, and lunged toward his own son with a surge of Evil Qi.
"Little brother!"
The little girl screamed, instinctively rushing forward to shield him with her own small body.
At the sight, Granny Yuan’s vision went black and she fainted.
Just then, a gray-clad figure shot forward.
SHING—!
A cold glint of light flashed out from the side.
A saber whistled through the air and struck heavily into Elder Wu’s shoulder.
The immense impact sent Elder Wu stumbling back several steps.
Jiang Mu used the momentum to roll forward, scoop up the little boy from the ground, and toss him back into his sister’s arms. He then held his saber defensively across his chest, shielding the two siblings.
He stared at the crazed monster before him, the arm holding his saber trembling slightly. The web of his thumb was numb.
’A Demon... To think there’d be a Demon here...’
Jiang Mu’s brow tightened.
This was the second time he had seen a Demon.
The first was Butcher Zhang.
Back then, Xu Fu had killed him so effortlessly, dispatching him with just a dagger, that it had given Jiang Mu the false impression that Demons were nothing special.
But that last strike... Jiang Mu felt as if he had just hacked into a piece of rotten wood wrapped in iron.
The force of the rebound was immense.
And his opponent merely had his flesh torn open, bleeding some black blood.
Only now did he truly understand the terror of a Demon Fiend.
And this was just the lowest level of Demon.
’If I were to encounter a true fiendish beast, what could an ordinary person do but wait for death?’
"ROAR!"
Wounded, the Demon Elder Wu grew even more savage. Staring with blood-red eyes, it roared and charged again.
Jiang Mu’s eyes hardened. He held nothing back.
The Qi and Blood of a First Realm martial artist exploded within him. He gripped the saber’s hilt with both hands, channeling all his strength into the blade, and swung head-on at the charging Demon!
This strike aimed straight for the vital point on its neck.
THUNK!
The long saber cut into Elder Wu’s neck, meeting sluggish resistance.
Foul-smelling black blood gushed out.
But the blade only sank in half an inch before getting stuck as if caught in a tough leather strap, unable to advance any further.
The Demon’s lunge barely slowed, and a foul wind washed over Jiang Mu’s face.
’Crap!’
Jiang Mu’s heart leaped. It was too late to pull his saber back. He made a split-second decision to let go of the weapon and dodged to the side.
However, a ruffian behind him, whose legs had turned to jelly from fear, hadn’t managed to crawl far enough away and paid the price.
Having missed its target, Elder Wu continued its forward momentum and pounced on the ruffian, pinning him to the ground.
"Help me—AHH!!"
The scream was cut short.
Half the ruffian’s neck was bitten clean off. Blood spurted like a fountain, staining the ground red.
"Daddy..."
The little girl hugged her brother, watching the familiar yet alien father before them, crying until she could barely breathe.
The Demon roared again and turned toward the two children.
Jiang Mu suddenly noticed the half-snapped rope still dangling from Elder Wu’s waist. He darted forward, grabbed the end of the rope, and with a powerful twist of his core, yanked it back with all his might!
Elder Wu, caught mid-lunge with no leverage, was brutally pulled off balance and slammed onto its back.
Jiang Mu gave it no chance to get up. He stepped forward and stomped on the Demon’s chest.
He grabbed the hilt of the saber still embedded in the Demon’s neck and ripped it out.
Black blood sprayed!
Before the Demon could struggle, Jiang Mu raised the saber with both hands, aimed for the wound, and brought it down again with all his strength!
One strike!
Two strikes!
Three strikes...
During this time, he had only practiced basic Body Forging and hadn’t learned any martial techniques. He was relying purely on ruthless aggression and instinct, hacking away wildly.
Finally, after five or six consecutive chops, there was a sharp CRACK. The blade had completely severed the neck bone!
The headless corpse twitched twice, then finally fell still.
"Hah..."
Jiang Mu staggered back two steps, leaning on his saber and gasping for breath.
’Damn it... these things are a real pain in the ass to kill.’
At that moment, a wisp of black gas that only Jiang Mu could see floated out of Elder Wu’s corpse and drilled into the birthmark on his arm.
The familiar groove in the shape of the character for "demon" appeared in his vision once again.
The newly injected Demonic Qi quickly transformed into dark red demon blood, pouring into the bottom of the groove and replenishing the nearly-dry basin with a new layer.
But strangely, Elder Wu’s Demon Shadow did not appear this time.
’Could it be because this Demon was too weak?’
Jiang Mu speculated silently.
"S-Sir..."
Shi Lang, who had long since been hiding in terror outside the courtyard gate, saw that the decapitated Demon corpse on the ground was no longer moving. Only then did he muster his courage and shuffle inside, his legs weak.
"Are... are you alright?"
The look he gave Jiang Mu was a mixture of terror and awe.
He knew Jiang Mu’s background.
A former hedonistic wastrel who had only squeezed into the Demon-slaying Bureau through connections.
Although he had been completely respectful on their journey here, he had privately looked down on him.
But what he had just witnessed completely shattered his perception.
’This person doesn’t look like some pampered young master at all.’
’He’s clearly a natural-born killer!’
Jiang Mu wiped the sweat from his face and said coldly, "Go report to the Demon-slaying Bureau immediately."
The sudden appearance of a Demon in this remote village was no accident.
Demons were formed from deep corruption by fiendish qi. This meant there was likely a fiend’s nest nearby, or that other infected individuals were hiding in the village.
He couldn’t handle this mess alone.
"Yes, yes! I’ll go at once!"
Shi Lang quickly agreed and ran out of the courtyard.
"Sir!"
Just then, the ruffian Zhang A’wu also approached, his face pale.
He first gave Elder Wu’s headless corpse a couple of vicious kicks, spat, and muttered a few curses.
Then, he pointed to the brother and sister huddled together in the corner of the house and shrieked:
"Sir, those two brats must be Demons too! Kill them! This whole family is full of Demons, I’m sure of it! We can’t let them live!"
The little girl held her coughing brother tighter, trembling uncontrollably.
Jiang Mu’s gaze, however, fell on Zhang A’wu’s right wrist. "You were bitten?"
Zhang A’wu froze and looked down.
On his right wrist was a clear circle of bite marks. The flesh was torn, and dark red beads of blood were seeping out.
Only then did he remember that when Elder Wu had lunged at him, he had instinctively blocked with his hand. He had been so focused on escaping that he hadn’t even felt the pain.
"Bitten by a Demon, the fiend’s poison has entered your body."
Jiang Mu slowly raised his long saber, his voice indifferent. "So... you might turn into a Demon, too."
"N-no..."
The color drained from Zhang A’wu’s face, his pupils contracting.
Looking at the blood-dripping saber in Jiang Mu’s hand, his instinct was to turn and run.
But his legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees with a THUD.
At the same time, a warm liquid immediately soaked his crotch, and the stench of urine filled the air.
"No, I won’t become a Demon!"
"Sir, I’m not a Demon! I won’t become a Demon Fiend! Spare me, sir! Spare my life!
Zhang A’wu begged pitifully, tears and snot streaming down his face.
SWISH!
The blade flashed like a bolt of white silk and was gone.
Zhang A’wu’s head, its face still frozen in terror, flew high into the air before rolling into the mud.
Jiang Mu stepped over the body and walked to the thug who had been bitten by Elder Wu earlier and was still twitching on the ground.
He raised his hand, and the saber fell.
Granting him a quick death.
After all that, Jiang Mu flicked the blood from his saber and turned to the three remaining ruffians, who were already scared out of their wits.
"Which of you was bitten?"
"N-no one! None of us were bitten!"
The three of them shook their heads frantically.
Jiang Mu walked over, using his Sword Scabbard to tap and check each of them. Then he had them show him their arms and legs for inspection.
He found one with bloody scratches on his arm. Ignoring the man’s pleas, he dispatched him with a single strike.
After confirming the other two had no obvious injuries, he tapped one of the ruffians who seemed slightly calmer with his Sword Scabbard and pointed to the unconscious Granny Yuan on the ground.
"Carry her into the house first."
"Yes, yes! I’ll do it right away!"
The thug, as if granted a pardon, scrambled to lift the old woman onto his back and carefully carried her inside.
The brother and sister were also sent back into the room.
Jiang Mu dragged a stool over, sat down next to Elder Wu’s corpse, and laid the saber across his lap.
He slowly regulated his breathing, calming the surging Qi and Blood within him.
An inexplicable, savage aura lingered in his heart.
It was oppressive and made him exceptionally irritable.
His gaze unintentionally swept over the old hen with its throat slit on the ground. He paused, then looked up coldly at the two thugs cowering under the eaves, not daring to breathe.
"The chicken. Who killed it?"
Both men trembled, their eyes flicking toward Zhang A’wu’s corpse on the ground.
"Pay for it."
Jiang Mu wasted no words.
The two were startled, then hastily pulled out all the money they had.
"Get the money off their bodies, too."
Jiang Mu gestured with his chin toward the bodies of Zhang A’wu and the others.
Not daring to disobey, the two ran over to search their companions’ corpses. They gathered a handful of money and presented it to Jiang Mu, trembling.
"S-Sir, this is all of it."
Jiang Mu was about to take it, but then he looked at the two men and suddenly remembered overhearing them whispering on the way here. They had been talking about how some family had a pretty daughter and how they should find an excuse to pay her a ’visit’.
His gaze dropped. He asked blandly, "Where did the blood on your hands come from?"
The two looked down at their hands and hurriedly said, "We got it on us by accident when we were searching the bodies."
"Too careless. Contact with demon blood can also cause you to transform."
"Huh?"
The two were stunned. They had never heard of such a thing.
Besides, they had searched their companions’ bodies, not the Demon’s.
But before they could react, they saw a flash of the blade, and then they fell stiffly to the ground, lifeless.
Jiang Mu collected the scattered money from the ground and went into the house.
The little girl, terrified, hugged her brother tightly. Her eyes were filled with fear, but she still stood protectively in front of the unconscious Granny on the bed.
Jiang Mu placed the money on the table without a word and turned to leave the house.
He closed the door and looked up at the sky.
The once scorching sun had been obscured by dark clouds at some point. The sky was gray and gloomy, making the village seem even darker, as if the sun would never shine on it again.
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