Ji Yuan finished speaking, then looked at the massive wolf corpse on the ground. Leaving it here would likely cause it to release malicious Qi, breeding evil spirits or toxic miasma over time. Moreover, if some passersby saw it, they very well be scared to death. “This corpse can’t be left here. Oh, right, are you going to devour it? “ Ji Yuan naturally asked the Old Bull. He knew that some monsters chose to devour their prey after killing them. His question once again left the Old Bull dumbfounded, and the latter looked down at the wolf demon’s horrific corpse. ‘Did Mr. Ji just ask me if I wanted to eat this thing? ‘ “Uh, Mr. Ji, this Old Bull doesn’t have that kind of habit. Besides, this guy’s Demonic Qi is impure, and it doesn’t carry many benefits. Plus, it looks quite disgusting, too. Why would I want to eat it?” Ji Yuan nodded in understanding. “I just thought of an old friend who liked to devour demons when exterminating them, so I thought you might like to do the same.” “Who was it? Are they also a demon?” Niu Batian asked curiously. Ji Yuan didn’t conceal anything. Niu Batian subconsciously shuddered. The words he had intended to say died in his throat. A True Dragon of that level was too mysterious, bizarre and even uncanny. Even if Mr. Ji dared to speak so casually of him, Niu Batian would never dare to make an irreverent comment. “Since you won’t eat it, then I’ll destroy this demon’s corpse. “ This kind of task was trivial with the True Fire of Samadhi. As soon as Ji Yuan finished speaking, Niu Batian recalled the scene outside Nandao County when the man had incinerated a corpse with a single breath of fire. “Wait! Mr. Ji, wait!” Niu Batian hurriedly called out. Under Ji Yuan’s slightly puzzled gaze, he hurriedly searched around the wolf demon’s corpse. He picked up a piece of torn cloth here, a length of twine there, searching for a long time. Finally, he found a few fragments of jade from pendants, and a purse embroidered with the image of a wolf, and chuckled to himself. Niu Batian weighed the money pouch in his hand. Hearing the clink of coins, he opened it to take a look: it was filled with the bright gleam of gold. “Hehehe, that’s enough, that’s enough. Mr. Ji, please proceed!” Ji Yuan didn’t comment on Niu Batian’s actions, nor did he speak out to remind him of anything. He approached the wolf demon’s corpse and flicked his sleeve, flipping the wolf demon’s corpse at an angle, exposing its neck and abdomen. Ignoring the bloodstains on the ground, he took a few steps closer, reached a hand beneath the wolf demon’s neck, and plucked out a handful of wolf hairs. These wolf hairs were a very light gray, about a finger in length, firm yet extremely pliable, with a faint, flickering luminescence circulating within them. Niu Batian looked at the handful of wolf hairs and chuckled. “It seems this Old Bull was mistaken; this little stray dog did indeed cultivate some good benefits. If it weren’t for Mr. Ji’s discerning eye, we would have missed out…” As he spoke, although Niu Batian was looking at Ji Yuan and the wolf hairs in his hand, he was observing the ground at Ji Yuan’s feet. The man was clearly stepping in the wolf demon’s filthy blood, but the blood was automatically sliding away from Mr. Ji’s feet, and not even a speck of the blood’s foul essence touched him at all. As for whether Ji Yuan had used any spiritual abilities or spells, Niu Batian admitted to himself that the disparity in their cultivation level was too great for him to necessarily discern anything conclusive. However, he instinctively felt that Mr. Ji had not used any techniques at all. Niu Batian was still pondering this when he suddenly saw Ji Yuan open his mouth and exhale a breath of reddish-gray smoke. The Qi engulfed the entire wolf corpse. Instead of flames rising towards the sky, the entire corpse glowed a charred red, like burning charcoal. Once a demon died, its residual Qi and the spiritual energy within its corpse would become untethered like rootless duckweed;1 it would be unable to resist the True Fire of Samadhi, and instead become its perfect fuel. In a matter of moments, the entire wolf demon’s corpse had been completely reduced to ash. Aside from the damage still visible on the ground from the previous fight, no other evidence remained. Ji Yuan left immediately after he had finished speaking, controlling the wind to soar up into the sky and fly back towards Luoping City. Niu Batian stretched his arms, took one last glance at the black ash on the ground, and followed closely behind him. “Mr. Ji, what about the Lang Manor? “ Niu Batian asked as they approached Luoping City from the sky. Ji Yuan shook his head. “The rest of them are just ordinary people. With the wolf demon dead, although they might search for him for a while, other interested parties will eventually come to exploit their misfortune and vie for power and profit, which will cause chaos for some time. I will leave a letter, and then there is no need for us to concern ourselves with them.” From the common people to the lofty elite, the workings of the mortal world were never simple. Even without a Sixth Master Lang, and without any demons preying on people in similar ways, there would still be countless powerful individuals vying to “devour” other people. At the Lang Mansion, the servants, alarmed by the loud noise from the master’s quarters in the back courtyard, rushed over to investigate. The household servants all knew that the master of the Lang Mansion had a particular rule: no servants were allowed into the back courtyard when he was resting. But tonight, something was clearly wrong. The servants disregarded all rules and rushed into the back courtyard. Upon arriving, they saw that the front wall of the master’s quarters had been utterly shattered, with nearly all the debris scattered inside the room. It seemed as if some colossal object had suddenly crashed into the house. Inside, the room was even more of a mess; furniture was overturned, the bed had shattered, the floor was covered in cracks, and there was even a large hole torn open in the roof above. “This. . . where’s the master? “ “I don’t know. Did some gangster come by?” “I think I just heard an ox bellowing just now…” “Yeah, I heard it too. “ “Should we report it to the authorities? “ “But didn’t the master say we’re not allowed to alert the authorities about anything happening at our estate, no matter what? “ Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵 “What if the master is missing? “ The servants were somewhat at a loss. It was the steward, having just arrived, who, after assessing the situation, directly decided to notify the owners of several gambling dens who had a close relationship with their master, hoping to find out if any enemies had come looking for him. Meanwhile, in one of the courtyards, a side room was filled with the sound of weeping. The room had been locked from the outside and was guarded by two people, but these two guards had already collapsed to the ground, unconscious. A small paper crane landed on the door lock, pecking at it with its paper beak. “Clink-clink-clink… click…” The lock sprang open, sliding down together the iron chain, and landed on the ground with a “clang.” The door swung open by itself. The weeping women and children inside all fell silent, nervously gazing outside, but didn’t see anyone enter. One of the women summoned her courage, walked to the doorway, and peered out. She found that the door lock had fallen to the ground, and the guards outside lay unconscious on the ground. Looking further out into the courtyard, she other servants of the mansion collapsed on the ground as well, their fates unknown. The paper crane, now perched on a tree in the courtyard, very seriously observed the group of people inside the room. It watched as they timidly gathered at the doorway, looking out, and even watched the unconscious servants it had pecked at while they had been passed out,2 but strangely, no one dared to step out of this unguarded door. The paper crane was unsure of why this was, so it just kept staring. A moment later, the women and children at the doorway all heard a gentle, calm voice. “We, the chivalrous heroes of the martial world, have slain Sixth Master Lang, a ruthless and murderous man. Hurry and take this opportunity to flee! The people of the Lang Mansion will soon have no time to care about you.” As this voice rang out, the paper crane lifted its head and gazed skyward. It knew its master was up above, but it didn’t take flight. Instead, it continued to watch the people inside the room, seeing them tentatively step out and then cautiously make their escape. High above the main gate of the Lang Mansion, a piece of white paper flew out from Ji Yuan’s sleeve, alongside a brush. The brush still had fresh ink on it. Ji Yuan extended his hand and tapped the paper, which unfolded and stayed fixed in mid-air. He then took the brush and began writing on the paper. Niu Batian observed closely from the side, muttering softly to himself as he read. “Sixth Master Lang3 of Luoping City oppressed men and women and committed countless evil deeds. He delighted in hunting and killing people in the wilderness, and exploiting gambling tricks to harm others. I, seeing this, considered him a blight upon the mortal world. Since I witnessed this injustice, I took action to eliminate it… and ground his bones to dust! “ Ji Yuan’s handwriting this time was not his usual style. Instead, it resembled the printed standard script from his previous life: it was neat and orderly, each character like a square block. After writing one sheet of paper, most of the content was a detailed enumeration of Sixth Master Lang’s crimes, and stating that a righteous hero had eliminated him. Once the last stroke of his brush had fallen, Ji Yuan picked up the paper and held it on his hand. He blew on it gently, and the paper drifted down from the sky, floating towards the Lang Mansion’s front gate. Then, Ji Yuan beckoned with a gesture, plucking a dry branch from the ground and making it fly into his hand, casually flicking it away. The dry branch instantly pierced through the paper, nailing it onto the Lang Mansion’s plaque, cracking it from top to bottom. “Let’s go, time to go back and rest.” Niu Batian observed the situation outside the Lang Mansion, then looked at the women and children who had previously been held captive, cautiously slipping out of the opened gate. He didn’t ask anything, and followed Ji Yuan to the ground, walking back towards the inn. About a dozen breaths later, a paper crane flapped its wings and flew in from behind them. It landed on Ji Yuan’s shoulder, pecked him twice, then burrowed its way into Ji Yuan’s arms. However, it didn’t fully return to the brocade pouch, instead poking its little bird head out, staring at Niu Batian. “Uh, Mr. Ji, is this paper bird some kind of strange technique? It’s even observing me?” Niu Batian found the bird’s gaze quite amusing. “It’s not really some unusual technique. I originally devised it as a minor method for transmitting messages, but didn’t think it would be very practical. But now, it often has some convenient and wonderful uses. Hmm, plus it’s quite well-behaved.” Ji Yuan gave a knowing smile as he spoke. He felt like a pet owner from his previous life. Of course, he had only kept pets when he was a child back then. Perhaps, because he was young, he didn’t know how to take care of them, so results were never very good.4 The two walked and chatted, gradually moving away from the Lang Mansion in the north of the city. In Ji Yuan’s ears, the panicked sounds of commotion from the Lang Mansion grew increasingly loud. Clearly, someone had already discovered the letter left outside the estate’s main gate, as well as the many unconscious servants within the mansion. In the Tianlang Inn, Yan Fei hadn’t actually fallen asleep. His mind kept replaying the events of these past few days: the battle outside Nandao County, the events within the Endless Ghost City, the ridiculous skirmish with Niu Batian this evening. ‘I’ve treasured these clothes for a long time, if you had cut them, I wouldn’t have been able to get a second set to wear!’ Niu Batian’s voice echoed in Yan Fei’s mind, making him subconsciously grip his quilt. After tossing and turning for a long while, Yan Fei finally sat up from the bed. His gaze landed on the sword lying beside his bed. He picked it up and drew it partway from its sheath. Even in the middle of the night, its cold light still shone brightly. “Are mortals truly so powerless? Is the martial path truly so weak?” T/n: Stay tuned for Yan Fei having an identity crisis that is incredibly valid and understandable!