Attaining Immortality, Starting From Slaying Demons

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"Finally found you! These dark-skinned… these Colonels really don't treat us martial artists of the jianghu as human."

Zhang the Butcher hooked Shen Yi's shoulder with one arm and sighed with relief, "It's alright, it's alright, as long as nothing happened."

Watching the brute's disheveled appearance covered in dust and mud, with every pat on the back leaving a palm print on his own clean long robe…

Shen Yi truly wondered whether the other had gone off somewhere to get cozy with an old flame.

Was he that carefree?

"Yo! You got promoted so quickly?"

Zhang the Butcher glanced out of the corner of his eye and was genuinely shocked when he noticed the cloud pattern on the young man's cuffs.

Shen Yi glanced disapprovingly at his big belly and said indifferently, "I think you look like you're about to give birth."

"Heh heh, refining the body is like this, you wouldn't understand unless you've done it."

The brute scratched the back of his head and hesitated, "I know you're powerful, but it's best to keep a low profile lately."

Finally getting to the point.

Shen Yi led him into the house and poured two cups of water that had been boiled and left to cool, handing one over, "What's up?"

Zhang the Butcher took the cup and drank without ceremony, gulping down the water, "You don't know? There's been a big incident in Linjiang Prefecture!"

Shen Yi leaned against the bed, took a sip of the cool water, and looked over.

If he remembered correctly, he had just returned from Linjiang Prefecture.

Fortunately, the next words from the butcher dispelled his doubts, "Do you remember the Qingfeng Mountain Swordsman I mentioned to you last time?"

"The one with over two dozen family members who is tender and full of knightly virtues to each of his concubines?" Shen Yi's eyes flashed with complexity.

"That's the one."

Zhang the Butcher wiped his mouth with his sleeve, "You should be aware of what a force Qingfeng Mountain is…"

"I don't know," Shen Yi honestly shook his head.

Hearing this, Butcher Zhang tugged at the corner of his mouth, feeling rather speechless, as if he was gossiping with a neighbor only to find out they didn't even know what a 'spouse' was.

"You're a Colonel of the Demon-suppression Bureau, and you don't even know what territory you're overseeing... In Qingzhou, they're first-rate powers: the Six Great Sects, the Four Great Families, each with a Condensation Elixir Expert at the helm—Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Li. The swordsmen of Qingfeng Mountain, the thieves of Flat Sand Valley, the Daoists of Baiyun Temple."

With not enough fingers to count on, Zhang the Butcher used his other hand, "Also, there's Xiafeng Mountain Villa where their Blade Technique is akin to divine… Anyway, just know that in Qingzhou, they are the ones just below the Demon-suppression Bureau in standing."

"What about Vajra Gate?" Shen Yi inquired casually.

Zhang the Butcher smacked his lips, "Without the Condensation Elixir internal skills, they should be considered third-rate, but they have half of the Refinement Method. With it, the head can transcend the Jade Liquid with his physical body—even though it's weaker than a true Condensation Elixir Expert, he can still easily handle those at the Jade Liquid Perfection, barely making it into second-rate."

Interested by this, Shen Yi asked, "What Refinement Method?"

"How would I know?" Butcher Zhang sighed, "Requires not only extraordinary talent but also fifty years of chanting Buddhist scriptures and another fifty years preaching before one gets the chance to learn this method."

He was already in his forties and still hadn't reached Jade Liquid.

His expression couldn't hide a trace of melancholy.

"Let's not talk about this. Let's talk about you."

Zhang the Butcher took a deep breath and said, "That swordsman from Qingfeng Mountain is the most talented disciple on the mountain. Even though he's young, not even one hundred fifty years old, he's already showing signs of nearly reaching Solidifying Pill."

Shen Yi listened silently, yet he couldn't see what this had to do with him.

"A few months ago, he had to leave Linjiang Prefecture, and one of his concubines, pregnant, sneakily climbed to the yamen and, before everyone's eyes, gave birth to…"

The whole body of Zhang the Butcher tensed up, his gaze intense, "A Jiao Dragon."

Shen Yi's cup suddenly shook in his hand.

"The malevolent Jiao was born prematurely and turned on its mother, devouring her so thoroughly that not even bones were left."

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"What is even more chilling is that this sword hero has been in Qingfeng Mountain for over a hundred years, and his wives and concubines are often kidnapped by demons, never to be seen again. Who knows how many he has fathered!"

"When the sword hero returned, the Demon-Suppression General from Linjiang Prefecture immediately led people to surround Qingfeng Mountain, and on the spot, they killed many disciples, all of whom were his offspring."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Zhang the Butcher speculated, "After all, Qingfeng Mountain is a reputable large sect, and the Demon-Suppression Bureau is only laying siege, not exterminating. It's probably because they're waiting for your General to come back and make decisions. Recently, there's talk on the streets that the people on the mountain are actually planning to sneak the sword hero away."

He sighed, "Tsk, aside from those guarding Qingzhou, all the other Incamp Colonels have been called away to garrison a hundred miles around the base of the mountain. This time they mean serious business. I heard from the city guards that many of the Embroidered Gold Wolves have also been transferred there. If you can avoid it, just avoid it. After all, you just arrived in Qingzhou, and these matters have nothing to do with you. You haven't even gotten any benefits yet, don't get yourself into trouble first."

Shen Yi put down his cup, his face calm.

He finally understood what those two people had been talking about before.

"It looks like there's going to be chaos here for a while longer..." Zhang the Butcher, troubled, pulled out his pig-slaughtering knife and repeatedly stroked the blade, seeking some reassurance from it.

"What hero of justice, a talented swordsman, probably just an old Jiao at the Condensation Elixir Realm who left his kin in Yangchun River to have some fun. He took on human form and gradually revealed his cultivation, nothing more."

"Although the Demon-Suppression General is formidable, if he faces several Condensation Elixir Realm experts at once, he could most likely only win at a great cost. Annihilating them all seems unlikely."

"Once that evil Jiao escapes, and his bunch of offspring whose identities are unknown, the first thing they'll probably do is take revenge on the Demon-Suppression Bureau... They know what the Bureau cares about most, which is merely us common folk."

After explaining his reasons, Butcher Zhang didn't stand on ceremony, "Come on, scoot over and let me stay a few days. Dammit, now even finding a good master for my son costs too much. I had to haul goods for ten days just to scrape together enough silver."

"You sleep, I'll go out for a walk."

Shen Yi gave up his bed and walked to the courtyard.

His thoughts were erratic.

His expression complex, it contained caution... and also a faint, barely detectable, murderous aura.

If the evil Jiao escapes, could one of its targets for revenge be him?

Given the current situation, where both time and place match, how could he not guess the origin of that young, severely wounded Jiao demon?

Even a River Demon could sense the smell of the Jiao elixir.

Now that the Jiao elixir is inside him, transformed into the innate Power of the Jiao Dragon, is there something similar to its scent?

Shen Yi was not clear about this, as he still knew too little about these matters. Unable to judge, he considered the worst-case scenario.

His eyes flickered, and the interface opened before him.

Before, he could use Wind and Thunder Demon Subduing True Solution as a supplement to restore strength, but now that he's reached Jade Liquid Perfection, the efficiency was too low.

"If I'm running on empty, without using elixirs, how many years of my lifespan would it take to instantly return to full strength?"

He slowly channeled the lifespan of demons into the Wind-Thunder Sun-Melting Manual.

Shen Yi had never thought he could deduce something new, merely trying to feel the changes in the qi sea within his body, so as usual, he poured it in year by year.

As the prompts swept past,

His complexion changed slightly.

"In the fifth year, your realm has not increased, but your physical strength is robust, and incredibly, your Sun Melting Furnace with originally two hundred and seventy apertures, has connected to an additional aperture."

There was an unexpected joy, although its use was still unknown, any improvement was good news.

With closed eyes, Shen Yi felt the faint aura of heaven and earth escaping from his body, and after a moment, he came to a conclusion.

Even though the Sun-Melting Scripture's breathing and refining efficiency far surpassed the Wind Thunder True Solution, the accumulation he now had was, after all, more than a hundred times that of before.

Limited by the thinness of the Qi of heaven and earth, if he were to let his qi sea dry up and use up the Jade Dew accumulated over a hundred years, despite his martial arts being perfect, his meridians being widened, and having been nourished by it for many years,

Without relying on elixirs, it would still take at least twenty years of his lifespan to fully recuperate.

Before obtaining enough martial arts that could cause a qualitative change, this was Shen Yi's greatest reliance.

No matter how precious the medicine, it takes time to absorb.

But with enough lifespan from demons, he could always maintain the most perfect condition.

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