Chapter 113: Eating While Digesting

Heaven, for its part, was remarkably obliging.

The sky, moments ago pitch-black and silent, now released a fine pattering drizzle.

Deng Mingxu gaped, clearly badly startled, then turned toward the young man in the seat of honor and asked shakily to the side, "Miss Rou, what realm is your elder brother in?"

"I don't know!" Lin Rou stamped her foot in irritation.

His colleagues refused to leave; if he himself left, the more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

Although there was no hard rule among demon-hunters, they all ran in the jianghu—at the very least, one ought to have some sense of loyalty.

"Peak Jade Liquid."

Shen Yi regarded the matter calmly. The Deng clan didn't have many experts—only a dozen or so at the Jade Liquid Realm—but if it really came to a fight, they could more or less be put to use.

Laying their cards on the table early would let everyone know where they stood when the time came.

Hearing this, Deng Mingxu's eyes went wide and his breathing quickened. Such a young Peak Jade Liquid cultivator—born of a second-rate clan?

You probably couldn't pick out a single one among the Zhao, Qian, Sun, or Li either.

He lowered his head in shame: "I… I'm at Initial Realm perfection."

Compared to this young lord's shock, the older generation of Deng clan experts wore expressions that were far from optimistic.

Even their Old Shenxu Laozu had been carried off—could tonight's business really be something a Jade Liquid Realm cultivator could meddle in?

"No wonder he told me not to provoke him."

Lin Rou, surprised, muttered inwardly: a genius of this realm, who treats the Core Condensation method as more important than his life—no wonder.

Crack—

A sudden bolt of lightning illuminated over a hundred faces, each wearing a different expression.

The women and children shrank toward the back; the Deng clan experts gripped their weapons tightly, sweat seeping uncontrollably into their palms.

Fortunately there was no one outside the courtyard—still, they looked rather like startled birds.

Just then, the young man in the seat of honor stood up, drew at random, and a three-foot ceremonial blade slipped silently from its sheath.

At almost the same instant, a massive tiger's head poked down from beyond the eaves!

Its rain-matted fur gleamed a resplendent gold; a pair of pale-yellow vertical pupils swept greedily into the hall.

A crimson, bristle-furred tongue licked roughly at its coarse paw; saliva streaked with blood mingled with the rain and dripped down.

"Plop."

The instant the saliva hit the ground, a thick stench of blood swept through the entire hall.

The tiger's roar from that bloody maw carried an innate power that made hearts cower and limbs go weak.

"Roar!"

No one knew whose weapon fell, but amid the tiger's roar the clattering ring rang out like a dirge.

The crowd went pale. Under the intimidation of Deng Jianyuan's fame, Yong'an City had not seen such an arrogant demon in many years—not only did it set foot inside the city, it even toyed with them before striking.

The tiger yao flipped down, muscles rippling across its body, hunched as it took a step into the hall: "Your turn—"

The words had barely left its mouth when the figure standing before the seat of honor shot out like a bolt of sharp lightning.

His long robe flared angrily!

Shen Yi came through the air, his long, slender five fingers clamping tight onto its skull, his tremendous force pressing the hill-like, massive body backward.

The Molten Sun Treasure Furnace swung wide, releasing its seal on the ferocious yao energy.

His right hand reversed its grip on the jet-black ceremonial blade, wrapped in an eerie crimson, and slashed viciously!

Ssslit!

Bolstered by Greedy Wolf's Bane of Evil, the blade easily parted the throat beneath the golden fur; foul-smelling blood gushed out.

The massive head was held in his palm; the tiger yao's towering body staggered back, slammed into a puddle with a thud, and sent up filthy sprays of water.

【Slain: Jade Liquid Realm Peak Tiger Yao. Total Lifespan: 2,310 years. Remaining Lifespan: 792 years. Absorption complete.】

【Remaining Yao Lifespan: 1,266 years】

Shen Yi tossed aside the tiger's head, slit open its belly to take out the beast core, then reached into the tiger yao's chest to draw out a wisp of blood qi, after which he returned to the hall and sat back down in his chair.

"…"

Seeing the black-robed young man return the long blade to its sheath and place it back on the table, then half-close his eyes as if regulating his breath—

The Deng clan expert whose weapon had just clattered to the ground picked up his sword with trembling hands, gripped the hilt tight, yet had no idea where to point it.

The tiger's roar moments ago had been like an iron hand clutching their throats, suffocating them to the extreme.

And Shen Yi's sudden slash had been more like violently sucking the air from their lungs, leaving everyone dazed.

"Peak Jade Liquid?"

Lin Rou stared as the yao qi she had just gathered at her fingertips slowly dissipated, a question mark rising in her mind.

Her performance was not as poor as the Deng clan's; the instant the tiger yao had shown its head, she had already made a basic judgment of its strength—formidable, not to be taken head-on, but with good coordination, taking it down shouldn't be a problem.

The reason she was stunned was not the tiger yao, but Shen Yi.

The countless stratagems that had surged up in her mind were all sliced clean away in an instant by that black blade.

She stared blankly at the massive corpse outside the hall, soaked by the rain, and suddenly fell very quiet.

What kind of newcomer was this? Clearly, it was a thick thigh to cling tightly to.

Looking again at the faint furrow between the young man's brows, it didn't seem to be the tension she had imagined—rather, it looked like… dissatisfaction, disappointment.

"…"

Shen Yi pretended to be regulating his breath with half-closed eyes, but had long since summoned the panel.

Looking at the remaining yao lifespan, he could tell it wouldn't be enough to deduce a complete Core Condensation Body Tempering method—filling even this half-volume of the Life-and-Death Zen Body would be a struggle.

He realized he had fallen into a misconception.

Viewed from a human perspective, the Deng clan's Old Shenxu Laozu was gone, the people's hearts were in turmoil—this was the perfect chance to wipe them out and take their place.

But the enemies were yao and mo, who cared nothing for jianghu standing, and this was a hunt with a competitive nature to it.

They only cared which human-body treasure elixir possessed higher cultivation and more abundant reserves.

This Nascent Core Realm ancestor of the Deng family had broken through by sheer chance encounter, and on top of that wasn't the diligent sort himself, so he probably wasn't all that strict with his family.

The remaining dozen-plus mid-stage of Jade Liquid Realm cultivators probably weren't considered top-tier existences within Yong'an City, which was why the tiger yao drawn over were so weak.

Outside the house the rain grew heavier, and the damp night wind, tinged with the smell of blood, whooshed its way into the hall.

The enemy is in the dark, we in the light — no room for carelessness.

After all, this involves Nascent Core Realm yao and mo; every little bit of improvement counts.

Shen Yi gradually formed a plan, but still held his thoughts in check, channeling the yao and mo lifespans into the Life-and-Death Chan Body.

Once it involves the Nascent Core Realm, even body-tempering methods start demanding comprehension, requiring Buddhist cultivation — truly leaving ordinary people no way out.

【First year, you flip through this Buddhist body-tempering method, pondering how to strip out the meaning of life and death from heaven and earth.】

【Third year, you discover your progress is faster than imagined; puzzled, you suddenly recall back when you were deducing the Wind-Thunder Yao-Subduing True Understanding, the countless repetitions of using the Yao-Subduing True Yang Blade to consume your own flesh and essence, forcing yourself into a state of exhaustion.】

【Fifth year, you had long since, back when you were still in your mortal shell, brazenly straddled back and forth across the threshold of life and death; for you, recapturing that former state was only a matter of time.】

【Twelfth year, black and white hues emerge at your fingertips, and you formally begin to temper your body with the meaning of life and death…】

Shen Yi opened his eyes, a barely perceptible flicker of surprise passing through his pitch-black pupils.

The initial-stage Wind-Thunder Yao-Subduing True Understanding, half a volume of a Nascent Core Realm body-tempering method.

Two martial arts with absolutely no connection to each other, yet able to achieve mutual fulfillment — that could be considered an unexpected joy.

Too bad there were no treasure elixirs or spiritual plants related to the meaning of life and death to assist; all he could do was brute-force it with yao and mo lifespans.

……

(End of chapter)