Chapter 20: Slaying the Yellow Dog Demon

The Cloud-Pushing Palm, perfected to its ultimate realm!

With the enhancement of his Fifth Orifice Foundation Establishment cultivation base, Shen Yi’s palms were shrouded in the breath of heaven and earth; each punch seemed ready to shatter the yellow weasel’s flesh and organs completely.

“Come on! Let’s have it!”

The yellow weasel bared its fangs; as its body shrank, crimson demonic energy surged with the wind, spreading over a radius of more than thirty feet.

Nothing could escape being corroded.

That was also why it had not used this dark art earlier.

Under the crimson mist, all life perished.

Only cultivators who had transcended could resist it for a short while with the breath of heaven and earth.

In this situation, it was simply a matter of who had accumulated more.

When Shen Yi drew his blade, the yellow weasel had already sensed his realm—slightly surprised, but it did not believe his foundation could rival the century’s worth of flesh and blood it had amassed.

Until Shen Yi swung his fist for the fiftieth time, and his momentum showed no sign of weakening.

His breathing remained steady; the white mist clinging to his body appeared thin, as if it would be utterly corroded by the crimson demonic energy in the next second, yet it kept surging endlessly.

The yellow weasel’s pupils contracted slightly; for the first time, hesitation appeared on its face.

It seemed to have misjudged something.

“You…”

The fist pierced through the golden fur, as if piercing a hollow balloon.

Beneath the layered skin, the dog demon’s flesh and organs had been entirely consumed, leaving only an empty husk.

“Spare me!” The yellow weasel finally screamed in terror.

Shen Yi slowly withdrew his hand from the shattered organs, gripped the hilt again, pulled the blade free from the bone seams, and delivered a clean, decisive downward slash!

【Slain: Dog Demon of Foundation Establishment Early Stage. Total lifespan: 575 years. Remaining: 180 years. Absorption complete.】

The crimson mist above suddenly lost its core, becoming erratic and insubstantial.

Villagers crouched at a distance, their clouded eyes showing emotion for the first time—a barely perceptible anxiety.

Suddenly, the young man emerged from the mist, his long, strong fingers sheathing the long blade.

Beneath his disheveled hair, his expression bore new weariness; his breath, no longer as calm as when he arrived, grew slightly hurried, yet his posture remained upright.

Behind him, the tall body—now merely a skin draped over bones—collapsed like a flag torn from its pole!

…

On the path from Baiyun County to Liuli Temple Village.

Chen Ji gripped the old donkey’s neck, his mind restless and agitated.

Although Liu Dianli was not an official, a single word from him ensured that not a single constable in the Criminal Office dared defy his order.

After hastily settling his sister at home, Chen Ji still decided to come alone to see what had happened.

Watching the old donkey stroll leisurely, he clenched his teeth and slapped its side, then dismounted and sprinted forward with an awkward, half-practiced lightness technique.

Soon, the stench of blood filled his nostrils.

Chen Ji’s face froze; instinctively, he tightened his sword scabbard, as if sensing the truth, his legs trembling slightly beneath him.

His heart was cloaked in dread; his mind conjured a scene of corpses strewn everywhere.

He gritted his teeth and suddenly charged into the village.

“…”

Moments later, wisps of cooking smoke appeared in his vision.

Two villagers walked across the field ridge; noticing him nearby, they turned to look, then awkwardly forced out a grim smile.

Chen Ji instinctively tried to return the smile, but his lips stiffened—he could not smile at all.

He stared blankly at the object the two villagers carried: a thick, furry thigh, its fur matted with clotted blood—clearly dead for some time.

“The constable said we could eat it however we liked, and if we couldn’t finish, he’d load the rest onto his cart.”

The villager swallowed hard.

Hearing this, Chen Ji fell utterly silent.

The constable? Who else could it be? In all of Baiyun County, only Shen Yi would dare set foot here now.

But what exactly had happened?

Chen Ji felt his mind slipping; he nodded slightly in greeting, then passed the two men and pressed onward.

Soon, the familiar back appeared before him.

No brutal battle as he had imagined.

Shen Yi sat quietly on the field ridge, surrounded by seven or eight half-grown children, carefully touching his sword.

Dozens of villagers labored to haul the demon corpses from the muddy fields, as if digging for lotus roots; whenever they pulled up a limb, smiles broke across their faces.

Bloodshed and serenity—two utterly opposite scenes—wove together into a bizarre spectacle before him.

Chen Ji stood rigid, unsure how he had reached the man’s side.

He spoke dazedly: “Where are the demons?”

Shen Yi looked up, slightly surprised—as if he hadn’t expected him: “All dealt with.”

Hearing this, Chen Ji felt an odd sense of familiarity.

It was exactly how Shen Yi had answered him when he’d asked about the monkey demon before.

He extended a trembling finger toward the dark red-stained earth nearby, sniffing the overwhelming stench, fighting back nausea: “You call this… ‘dealt with’?”

This was the outskirts of Chengxi; beyond it lay the yellow weasel’s territory.

He stood here, having slaughtered the demons scattered across the land—there were only two possibilities: either the yellow weasel had fled, or it too lay dead here.

Even if the latter seemed improbable, compared to the absurdity of the former, Chen Ji could only keep convincing himself it was true.

Just two or three days ago, he had been a vile, wicked man.

Now, with one strike, he had wiped out the yellow weasel and all its underlings. As for patience and restraint, Chen Ji truly owed him the title of ancestor.

“Go gather the corpses. Time to return.”

A handy laborer had arrived—no point letting him go to waste.

Shen Yi extended his hand; the children obediently wiped the handprints off the scabbard onto their clothes, then returned the blade to his palm, grinning with missing teeth: “Constable, take care on your way.”

He slung the sword across his back, rose slowly, and dismissed the panel before him.

【Remaining demonic lifespan: 672 years】

Twelve robust dog demons, plus the yellow weasel’s contribution of over 180 years—Shen Yi’s reserves had now reached an astonishingly vast level.

In addition, there was an unexpected gain.

As he punched through the yellow weasel’s organs, Shen Yi suddenly noticed an egg-sized unknown organ inside its body.

The fleshy sphere was far tougher than any other internal organ; even under violent force, it continued to pulse like a living thing.

Most importantly, it contained the very energy Shen Yi had craved since ascending to the Foundation Establishment realm.

He simply pulled it out, wrapped it in a piece of coarse cloth.

This was Shen Yi’s first true encounter with a demon.

Those intelligent dog demons, though they lived a hundred or two hundred years, were essentially no different from ordinary humans beyond their hardened bodies.

The yellow weasel was entirely different—its overwhelming crimson demonic energy left soldiers and constables helpless; contact meant death, and even arrows fired from afar struggled to pierce its thick fat and skin.

To inflict real damage, one would need heavy crossbows at minimum.

But don’t forget: though the dog demons looked fat, they moved fast—ten feet was only two or three steps away.

And yet this creature, nearly invincible to mortals,

was merely a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator.

(End of Chapter)