Chapter 351: Ruined City, Da Huang Ji, the Ghost Blade Luo Sen

Brother Qian Chen and Yan Shu and the others flew in the direction pointed to by You San, and within just a few hours, their spiritual sense detected a ruined city ahead.

Inside, huts surrounded by rags, sheds built from rotten logs and straw, these haphazard structures crowded together, densely and chaotically spread across the ruins of the great city.

Among them, crowds surged, the population was considerable.

This place was less a city than the ruins of a fortified stronghold.

The twenty-zhang-high city walls retained only fragments of their surfaces; the outer ramparts on both sides were piled with chaotic constructions. Beside the collapsed gate tower ruins, an inn had been patched together from the remaining half of the gate tower, hanging a large wine banner.

On the broken walls and shattered ramparts, bricks melted by powerful divine arts that had breached the walls, and fangs and claw marks of demonic beasts remained. Along the jagged edges of the claw gouges—each the size of a bowl and a palm deep—flecked traces of dark red could still be seen.

Brother Qian Chen lowered his flight aura and landed in a desolate forest dozens of li from the ruins of the great city ahead.

As Yan Shu landed, he immediately stepped away, kicking out from the withered grass beneath his foot a skull half-rotted away.

Looking around, a skeletonized corpse hung from a tree branch not far off.

"What kind of hellhole is this?" Yan Shu muttered. "Even the wildest places overseas weren't this bad—at least when you killed someone, you buried the body!"

You San was unfazed; he led the group toward the city ruins, detouring around several incomplete corpses clearly slain by sharp blades, soon reaching the official road beside the desolate forest.

"This is the Da Huang Ji…" You San said. "The effort to bury a corpse costs half a steamed bun!"

"Gu Zhu State lies between great mountains, with limited arable land, utterly incapable of supporting a large population. After the cities built by humanity across the lands fell one by one, the world came under demonic control, leaving only Gu Zhu State as a sanctuary."

"Though the demons were cruel, even to sustain their food supply—or merely to keep humans alive as a steady source of meat—they enslaved some of humanity. But life under such rule was worse than death. Some, unwilling to accept this fate, chose to flee to Gu Zhu State."

"Yet to prevent demons from infiltrating among them, and because they simply couldn't feed so many, Gu Zhu State could only turn away most of these refugees. Thus, these fleeing people established the Da Huang Ji just beyond the mountain pass into Gu Zhu State!"

You San sidestepped slightly, letting a group of bandits gallop past on horseback, swords and blades swinging.

"Don't run!" another bandit group chased after them. "Liu the Pockmarked, that wolf den was cleared by me with sweat and blood! Everything inside belongs to me, Big Knife Zhang! You killed my two guards left behind and stole my loot—by the code of the road, I'd be justified in cutting you down!"

"Big Knife Zhang!" shouted the bearded bandit ahead, leaning back on his horse. "Who doesn't know that four out of ten wolf demons in the world have mysteriously died? Now every bold gang in the Da Huang Ji has gone out hunting wolf dens!"

"What's yours? You just got there a step ahead of me!"

"I only took a few scraps from your leftovers—you got the big share! Are you going to turn on your brother over such petty gains?"

Liu the Pockmarked grew angrier the more he thought about it, pulled his horse to a halt, and turned to fight the pursuers; over a dozen men roared and clashed in a bloody melee.

A severed limb, casually tossed by someone, flew straight toward Si Princess Qingcheng; she frowned and sidestepped the limb.

At that moment, Big Knife Zhang, his face splattered with blood, axe in hand, glanced back and caught a glimpse of Si Princess Qingcheng's posture as she dodged, the silhouette beneath her wide-brimmed hat.

His eyes lit up instantly; he bellowed to his men: "There's a little lady behind us—pretty as hell! Brothers, let's go grab her—"

The gang members, still fighting like bandits rather than martial artists, whistled and spun their horses around…

You San's white bone knife slid from his sleeve into his palm; he took three swift steps, leapt up with lightness skill, and charged toward the bandits.

Hu Wu Liu raised his hand and shot two iron cones into the eye sockets of the two bandits rushing forward; You San's knife flashed, instantly slitting the throats of four or five men.

"These guys are tough! Retreat, brothers—"

Zhang Da and Liu Ma's men merged together, trying to flee.

You San's curved knife, shaped like a rib, flew from his hand, spinning to sever Zhang Da's head, then killed Liu Ma; it circled once in midair before returning to his grip.

"Forgive me, True Person—these mortals are ignorant and lawless!"

You San knelt halfway, clasped his fists toward Si Princess Qingcheng: "I'll chase them down and kill them all!"

"No need," Si Princess Qingcheng raised her hand to stop him; she scanned the surroundings, seeing the passersby hiding beside the road, their eyes timid yet utterly indifferent to the bloodshed, and whispered: "Why doesn't Gu Zhu State send anyone to govern this Da Huang Ji?"

You San bowed his head: "True Person, our state has sent people before. That great city was once the Mang City, a hundred years ago, guarding the mountain pass into Gu Zhu State and protecting the Wasteland folk from demons. Then the demons invaded and easily destroyed Mang City."

"The city was built, destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, rebuilt again—only then did our state realize the demons won't allow us to build cities beyond the mountains. Every time demons invade Gu Zhu, this place is always the first to be razed. Gradually, our state gave up."

Brother Qian Chen nodded slightly, gazing at the distant ruined gate tower, then turned: "To enter Gu Zhu State, we must pass through the Da Huang Ji. This place lies on the front line of the human-demon war, a mix of all kinds—perfect for contacting the main quest!"

Yan Shu frowned: "Who knew the Wise Zhi Zhi Lang Wang had so many divine fragments? Killing one triggered countless reactions. The White Bone King's aura has vanished—he sensed danger. The Black Ox King is also on high alert; no opening presents itself!"

Ning Ning Qingchen whispered to Brother Qian Chen: "Brother, we killed the Wise Zhi Zhi Lang Wang—surely that should earn humanity's attention and let us join the core mission to protect the Chi Tie Demon King. Why come here?"

Brother Qian Chen whispered back to the group: "Chi Tie isn't easy to kill. Once the Peacock Great Ming Buddha moves, my Mirror of Revealing Demons will detect it. So close proximity to Chi Tie isn't necessary."

This is a faction mission. Besides us, other reincarnators are involved; some may be top-tier. The enemy is unknown, and we are unknown—better to conceal our identities for now.

"Humanity's remnants can't even handle a Wise Zhi Zhi Lang Wang—they're useless. Hiding ourselves matters far more."

Ning Ning Qingchen lowered her wide-brimmed hat to cover her face; the group entered the city quietly. What passed for a gate was merely a dirt path; beside it, people wept as they burned paper money, while everywhere along the road, martial artists with swords and knives, their temples bulging, walked about.

Anyone with even a modicum of martial strength had wary, vicious eyes.

"Get out of my way!" A man with a nine-ring great sword shoved aside a pedestrian blocking his path.

Around his waist hung a grotesque fox skull; he arrived at the inn built from the gate tower, tossed the shrunken head onto the counter. The innkeeper lifted the skull, tapped his abacus twice, and said: "One head of a man-eating fox demon—reward: ten demon coins."

"Pay at the back!"

"It's been lowered again! This was a forty-year-old fox demon—fierce as hell!" The big man bared his teeth in a threat.

The innkeeper didn't even lift his eyelids: "We've taken too many wolf demon heads lately—prices must drop."

"It's a fox demon, not a wolf demon!" The big man slammed the table.

"Looks alike!"

The innkeeper said only those three words, then waved him off.

The big man cursed under his breath, slung his great sword over his shoulder, and turned to glare at Brother Qian Chen and the others: "What are you staring at?"

"Damn it! Prices drop every day—I wonder who'll still bring you demon heads…" Still, he walked to the back to settle his payment.

After settling his reward with the waiter, the big man turned back and tossed two bone coins to the innkeeper: "Book me two rooms. Don't skimp on wine and meat every day. In the whole Da Huang Ji, only your place doesn't sell human flesh!"

You San also pulled out several bone coins from his sleeve; Brother Qian Chen asked for one, held it in his palm, feeling a faint warmth, yet sensed a trace of demonic aura on it.

"Cast from the bones of a great demon?"

You San nodded: "Gu Zhu State uses these demon coins for all external trade or material exchanges. Made from demon bones, they're effective against minor demons."

"Is this inn also owned by Gu Zhu State?" Brother Qian Chen, still holding the demon coin, sensed that this specially refined bone currency emitted a faint stimulation to human blood and qi.

You San nodded slightly, went forward to book two rooms.

Brother Qian Chen noticed that inside the inn, a bookstore sold only martial arts manuals; some martial artists purchased texts, and specialized instructors explained them. But his spiritual sense swept through—most were ordinary martial arts; few could reach Gang Qi, and none contained cultivation methods for magic.

Clearly, Gu Zhu State didn't spread cultivation techniques outward—but martial arts harmless to demons were vigorously promoted.

Along the way, Brother Qian Chen had noticed that most young men in this world possessed martial skills.

In the Da Huang Ji, either pitiful old, weak, women, and children, or sword-and-knife-wielding martial artists—utterly chaotic, strength ruled.

But most people still sized up their targets, dared not be too arrogant.

Brother Qian Chen's group was fully covered, yet not overly conspicuous—just obscure enough that no one dared provoke them lightly. At that moment, a sound came from behind; Brother Qian Chen glanced back and understood why no one reacted to their attire.

Behind him was a figure wrapped even more tightly than theirs—clad head to toe in a black robe, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, beneath which was a bronze demon mask.

At his entrance, the inn's noise quieted; even the innkeeper, who had ignored the big man, now offered a faint smile.

"It's Ghost Blade Luo Sen!"

"Which great demon did he kill this time?"

"He cuts down demons and ghosts alike—does his blade technique really live up to the rumors?"

This man had some reputation in the Da Huang Ji.

As soon as he entered, many whispered about his exploits; from their chatter, Brother Qian Chen learned that Ghost Blade Luo Sen was a famed demon hunter in the Da Huang Ji.

He never involved himself in other affairs—only killed demons, collected rewards, stayed at inns, drank wine.

When out of money, he killed more demons; when spending, he was always the most generous, often giving away large rewards to those who asked. Thus, despite earning vast bounties from slaying several great demons, he never hoarded wealth.

The innkeeper checked the sack he tossed down—a bulging burlap bag seeping foul blood. He counted the demon heads inside, then said solemnly: "Three hundred and sixty-eight coins. Round it up—three hundred and seventy."

"Waiter, bring the money."

The innkeeper called to the back.

Luo Sen merely nodded slightly, said nothing, took the coins, and ascended to the second floor, vanishing from sight.

Besides Brother Qian Chen, another group also watched Luo Sen closely—sitting in the farthest corner, utterly unremarkable, staring at him for a long time.

"Is this an important plot character?" someone asked in the team channel.

"Probably. I've inquired—he appeared mysteriously over sixty years ago. Gu Zhu State once tried to recruit him, but he silently refused. He kills demons without mercy, formidable in combat—even some demon generals have died under his blade. Yet he's only ever used martial arts, never revealed any magical abilities!"

"Only martial arts can kill a demon general?"

The group leader found it hard to believe.

This was understandable—after all, their world had no martial cultivators.