Chapter 155: Don't Be Obsessed With Me

In an unremarkable pavilion within the Zhen Mo Si government office.

It was already late at night.

Inside, the lamps still burned bright, and occasional bursts of laughter and chatter drifted out.

Behind a low table, Aunt Aqian wore an unusually solemn expression. Brush in hand, she wrote line after line onto a gilded register.

Jiang Chengyun stood silently behind her. Watching his grandmother's focused manner, then glancing at the handwriting that looked like earthworms scrambling about, he instinctively looked away.

He still recalled that in her youth, she had written a fine, graceful hand.

After spending so long with the Howling Moon Demon King, even holding chopsticks had grown unfamiliar to her.

Several dozen demon hunters, reeking of jianghu mannerisms, couldn't stay quiet even while lining up. A Miss giggled and taunted a colleague: "Did you go out on a picnic? Three demon auras, all Jade Liquid Realm — how do you have the nerve to come back?"

"None of your damn business."

The man rolled his eyes, picked up a copper bell from the table, and turned to walk out of the pavilion.

A stranger's face met him head-on.

He curiously stopped his steps and asked the young man: "Brother, you look unfamiliar. New here?"

The Miss who had spoken in mockery earlier waved vigorously — it was Lin Rou, whom he hadn't seen in ages: "Lord Shen, you're back too?"

Shen Yi gave the man a nod, then stepped into the pavilion.

"Lord?" The man was stunned, and simply stood at the doorway without moving. Then he noticed Aunt Aqian and Jiang Chengyun both look up at once.

"You're back and didn't even say hello." Jiang Chengyun forced out a faint smile, instantly dumbfounding the other demon hunters. So this proud-as-heaven Boss Jiang actually wasn't a stone-faced block.

"Just got back." Shen Yi walked to the end of the line.

Aunt Aqian pinched her brush and dipped it in ink. In front of so many people, she didn't bother acting young: "Come straight over. They're all caught up in their chatter anyway — they won't mind waiting a bit."

Truth be told, she hadn't expected Shen Yi to come join this little gathering at all. How long had he been out? Less than two months at most — he must be impatient.

According to Jiang Chengyun, the young man had slain three tiger demons in Yong'an City, including one at the Initial Elixir Realm.

That was more than enough to exchange for an ordinary Condensing Elixir method.

Once Aunt Aqian finished speaking, the other demon hunters very consciously parted to make a path, though a few traces of puzzlement crept into their eyes.

Cutting in line wasn't a big deal, but one had to have the skill to back it up — that was the only thing they recognized.

When Shen Yi reached the low table, Jiang Chengyun reminded him: "Take out the bell."

Immediately after, a silver bell shimmering with flowing light was placed on the table by the young man.

Under that dazzling silver glow, the demon hunters instinctively held their breath. Only Lin Rou wore a secret little smile, as if she'd expected this all along. She'd been shocked once herself, so naturally she had to let her colleagues taste the feeling too.

"But…"

Lin Rou's gaze fell on the table. She was curious too — after the young man had escorted Lord Xiao out of Yong'an City, had he picked up anything else along the way?

Aunt Aqian said nothing more and formed a hand seal with one hand.

The silver bell on the table trembled slightly.

Then it spun round and round a few times.

"…"

Lin Rou and the demon hunters all stared blankly.

There was a reaction, sure — but where was the aura?

Jiang Chengyun frowned and swept his gaze over them.

Under his stare, everyone else swallowed down the urge to discuss it, only daring to make faces at each other on the sly.

Only then did Jiang Chengyun slowly withdraw his gaze.

Shen Yi had only been a demon hunter for how long, and he'd already slain an Initial Elixir Realm demon. Was this bunch of slackers fit to question him?

He gave a slight nod of his chin and said reassuringly: "It's fine. You've only just joined for two months — you haven't even mastered the Qi-Drawing Method yet."

At these words, the demon hunters, who hadn't really intended to say anything either, quickly had several shades of oddity creep onto their faces.

Two months. Qi-Drawing Method not mastered. Silver bell.

When these three things appeared in the same person, it was easy for them to think of something unpleasant — something that could even shake the very foundation of the demon hunters' establishment.

"…"

Aunt Aqian smiled faintly, as if she'd read everyone's thoughts. Without further delay, she swiftly formed another hand seal.

She had to let these little ones see — the silver bell she'd given out wasn't something just anyone was worthy of holding.

The silver bell trembled slightly.

The next instant, the entire pavilion was bathed in red!

A thick stench of blood drilled into everyone's nostrils, and their expressions instantly turned blank.

Dense demon essence blood was lumped together in one mass — as if there were simply too many to bother counting, so they'd just been stuffed in haphazardly and that was that.

Aunt Aqian's calm smile froze on her little face.

The brush in her hand trembled slightly, dropping a few drops of ink onto the register.

Jiang Chengyun's eyelid twitched uncontrollably. He struggled to maintain composure, but the hasty motion of reaching out to separate the essence blood still betrayed the panic within.

First, three heart-blood essences from Awakened minor demons.

Then, four strands of heart-blood essence belonging to Initial Elixir Realm demons.

Next to be separated were five strands of heart-blood essence from Elixir Formation Realm demons.

"…" Jiang Chengyun had encountered this situation for the first time. As the demon realm grew higher, the amount of blood essence actually grew greater — how did it feel like it was the other way around?

He stared at the remaining dense mass of blood qi still hovering, his expression gradually turning as numb and blank as everyone else's.

Four full strands of blood qi from Condensed Elixir Perfection demons hung quietly in the air, each one representing some fearsome name that had once shaken a region.

And among them was one he knew all too well… the Mountain Lord of Xitai Mountain?!

Even at this point, things were far from over.

When all the qi and blood had been stripped away, what remained was the most robust thread of it.

Before the others could react, Jiang Chengyun staggered backward, staring fixedly at that thread of qi and blood: "Who is this?!"

Aunt Aqian set down her brush, closed her eyes, and was silent for a long while.

As if calming the shock in her heart.

But the two small hands resting on the table clenched tighter and tighter.

She finally uttered that name: "Bai Lu."

It was an existence that had been entangled for hundreds of years with the twelve Great Generals of Zhen Mo Si and the Jin Ling demon hunters.

And at this moment, it drifted soundlessly in the air, as if a slightly stronger wind could scatter it.

Aunt Aqian had once felt that demon hunters and Zhen Mo Si were entirely different beings — people Zhen Mo Si dared not employ, demon hunters would; sharp swords they feared might wound themselves, demon hunters did not flinch from.

But at this moment, that sword had grown so sharp it was beyond imagination!

It even made one feel that the next instant it would pierce through their own throats!

In the deathly silent pavilion, only the black-robed youth still wore his earlier calm expression, merely using his crimson blood qi to make the silver bell on the table pale in comparison.

Shen Yi lowered his gaze: "What can I trade for?"

That was all he cared about.

Hearing this, Jiang Chengyun suddenly recalled the expression on the other's face when he walked in from outside the great hall at Yong'an City — separated by two months, yet so eerily similar.

His eyes fixed dead on the youth, his jaw clenched tight.

Within those eyes, a trace of fervor quietly took shape.

(End of chapter)