Chapter 117: Continuation

“Here it comes.”

Chen Mu’s expression was calm, his figure unmoving, but his gaze first focused ahead, then his eyes quickly shifted, turning to the left.

Almost in the next moment.

Accompanied by a fierce and strange wind, a white giant wolf with a silver-white body and a massive size almost reaching a man’s chest suddenly appeared, not charging from the flat ground, but from above, leaping down from a tall tree to Chen Mu’s left, viciously and ferociously pouncing directly at Xu Hongyu who was standing to Chen Mu’s left.

Shua!

Xu Hongyu stood calmly in place, the soft sword in her hand flicked gently, the sword body trembled, shaking out a sword flower, setting off a curtain of light like rain in the air, facing the white wolf demon that was pouncing down.

The white wolf demon raised its right limb, the front end suddenly flashed thick and gleaming silver claws, ferociously striking down, colliding with the sword curtain raised by Xu Hongyu, sparks flew in all directions in an instant, bursting out a sound like the clash of swords.

The sword curtain exploded.

The entire right limb of the white wolf demon was shaken, seeming unable to bear that force, it sprung back into the air, falling ten feet away, while Xu Hongyu stepped back two steps, the soft sword in her hand was withdrawn and swept diagonally backward, unloading the remaining force, and cutting a gully crack in the ground.

Immediately after, Xu Hongyu raised a ray of sword light again, her whole person actively attacked, and fought with the white wolf demon.

Xiao He tightly gripped the soft sword, but was not in a hurry to step forward, she could tell that the white wolf demon’s strength was not very strong, and Xu Hongyu was enough to deal with it, also it was just right for Xu Hongyu to use to hone her qi and blood swordsmanship.

For a martial artist to practice martial arts, whether it is body tempering or skill training, they often cannot reach the ultimate realm by shutting themselves in and practicing behind closed doors. Xu Hongyu had entered the perfection of Tendon Transformation, exchanging blows with an opponent of comparable strength could both activate her own qi and blood, and hone her swordsmanship and sword momentum. Her being able to enter the perfection of Tendon Transformation from the great accomplishment of Tendon Transformation so quickly, was inseparable from the fact that she had been hunting demons outside during the entire ‘Great Cold.’

At this thought.

Xiao He couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Chen Mu, her eyes slightly strange.

Only Chen Mu… in her impression, he seemed to either work at the City Guard, or shut himself in to cultivate, yet in such circumstances, he could make progress like a deity, and even comprehend Artistic Conception, the gap between people is truly difficult to measure by the smallest of units.

At this time, Chen Mu stood aside with his hands behind his back, his eyes calmly watching the battle between Xu Hongyu and the white wolf demon. Compared to the previous encounter with the remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect, Xu Hongyu had displayed her true strength this time, her two types of sword momentum intertwined, almost without flaws. Although the white wolf demon was stronger than Xu Hongyu in both speed and strength, it was consistently being suppressed by Xu Hongyu.

Soon, the person and the wolf fiercely fought for a dozen rounds.

A glimmer of light flashed in Xu Hongyu’s pair of clear and cold eyes, in the midst of the fierce battle, her sword momentum changed, the curtain she wielded transformed into a flung-out rain of fine droplets, which instantly passed through the white wolf demon’s claws and struck its eye.

“Aow!!!”

The white wolf demon let out a howl of pain, a splatter of blood appeared in its right eyeball.

Having suffered this blow, the agitation in its remaining left eye subsided a lot. In the gaze it directed at Xu Hongyu, there was actually a human-like trace of fear and hatred. Then it fiercely flung out a claw, tearing through Xu Hongyu’s sword curtain, twisted its body, and darted into the depths of the jungle.

Its movement was as fast as the wind, and it instantly escaped the attack range of Xu Hongyu.

Xu Hongyu exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, and immediately lifted her sword to chase, but in terms of speed, she was no match for the white wolf demon, even though she was pursuing at full speed in the dense forest, she could only still see its figure fleeing further and further away.

However, just when it looked like she was about to lose the chase, a figure silently swept over from above, arrived directly above the white wolf demon, drawing an arc as it fell.

Boom!!!

Chen Mu did not draw his saber, he just calmly raised his fist in the air, and his fist suddenly struck down, hitting the white wolf demon’s forehead squarely, the huge wolf’s entire head abruptly plunged downward, like a headfirst fall, crashing into the soil with a boom. Its running torso raised upright, as if it had been directly wedged into the ground.

Xiao He silently covered her eyes with both small hands.

Too brutal.

Just relying on his physique to forcibly bring down the white wolf demon… How will Miss be able to endure it in the future.

Shua shua shua!

The white wolf demon’s head was planted in the ground, its limbs upright, but it was not dead, and it soon began to move again. Its claws scratched and waved wildly in the air, looking very ridiculous. Finally, it pulled out its head, but seemed to still be in a daze, neither knowing to run away, nor knowing what to do, just constantly shaking its head in place, shaking off the dregs of soil from its fur.

At this time, Xu Hongyu’s figure had already arrived close by, her entire person quietly lowered, with a slide passing beneath the white wolf demon’s head, the soft sword in her hand struck straight into the throat of the white wolf demon, and a line of blood bloomed silently.

The white wolf demon’s huge body briefly froze, and then shook twice, finally falling down.

Swoosh.

Xu Hongyu withdrew her sword and stood up, walked straight to the white wolf demon’s corpse, using practiced techniques to wield the sword, piercing through its chest with one sword, the tip of her sword flicked gently, and her right hand plunged into it, and when she withdrew it, a blood-colored object the size of a baby’s finger, shaped like a prism, appeared on her blood-stained bare fingertip.

"Here.”

Xu Hongyu raised her bare hand, and this blood-colored crystal flew toward Chen Mu.

Chen Mu reached out and caught it, staring at it: “This is the demon’s blood essence…”

Blood essence was the most quintessential part of a demon’s qi and blood. It is something that only appears occasionally in second-tier demons, and third-tier and above demons mostly have it. Martial artists above Flesh Training can directly swallow and refine it, which could nourish their own qi and blood.

Usually, they can only eat it directly, because blood essence dissipates quickly. If it is not stripped away at the first moment, it will quickly dissolve into the demon’s heart blood. Even if it was stripped away at the first moment, without top-grade cold jade, it could not be stored and would dissipate into the world within a period of time.

This thing should be useless to me.

This thought flashed through Chen Mu’s mind, but this was the first time he had come into contact with it. After a brief thought, he still swallowed it. Soon, a warm current spread out from his abdomen, flowing through his whole body, surrounding his entire body in this warmth.

But after a long while, until the warmth receded, the qi and blood in his body did not become stronger, still at its original level, but he had slightly replenished some of the lost strength, and his qi and blood had become more active.

He shook his head slightly in his heart.

Chen Mu was not surprised by this.

He had reached the limit of the three realms of Skin Grinding, Flesh Training, and Tendon Transformation, with a Tiger and Leopard Thunder Sound and muscles resonating, his qi and blood had long reached the limit that he could currently accommodate, far surpassing ordinary people.

Only those whose qi and blood had not been condensed to the limit of one realm, like Xu Hongyu and Xiao He, could improve their qi and blood by a small amount by taking this kind of blood essence, allowing their body tempering methods to progress faster, and making it less difficult to impact a higher realm.

Xu Hongyu quickly handled the white wolf demon’s corpse, her technique was so fast, and her movements so skilled, that even Chen Mu was a little amazed. In an instant, she handled everything neatly, and with the entire hide of the white wolf demon, made a large package, and all the bones and claws of the wolf, and other things were wrapped and arranged inside.

Then, she lifted her hand, and this package that was bigger than her own body, was carried on her back, and she said to Chen Mu:

“Alright, we can go back and report.”

"…"

Chen Mu’s mouth twitched slightly, he felt that Xu Hongyu’s current appearance was a bit ridiculous, but Xu Hongyu herself seemed completely unaware, she turned her body with a normal expression, and walked toward the way they had returned.

Looking at Xu Hongyu’s figure getting further and further away, Chen Mu could not help but shake his head and followed her.

Xiao He covered her mouth and giggled, but did not dare to say anything, and quietly followed beside them. The three of them traveled along the way, and before long, they exited the mountain forest. The blazing sunlight was no longer blocked by the dense forest and leaves, and fell upon the three of them.

“A White Tier mission, how much merit is it?”

Chen Mu walked next to Xu Hongyu, asking about the merit matters of the Demon Slaying Division.

“The mission itself is 100 merit, and then it depends on what kind of demon was captured, a white wolf demon, should be 500 merit recorded additionally.”

Xu Hongyu said after thinking for a while.

Chen Mu showed a thoughtful look. He had previously learned that from the Demon Slaying Division, exchanging 20,000 merit points for one portion of bone forging pills, one portion was about 30 pills, enough to use for three months, and each guard of the Demon Slaying Division could exchange it at most three times.

This was actually the old regulation of the Great Xuan Dynasty.

The threshold of bone forging was not as difficult as Tendon Transformation, rather, the biggest problem martial artists faced here was their age, usually over 30 years old, and their qi and blood activity would gradually decline as they aged. This was an obstacle to entering bone forging.

If one could not break through after exchanging the bone forging pill three times, then their qi and blood would likely begin to decline, and they would have even less chance to enter bone forging, and there would be no point in exchanging it more, it would just be a waste of resources.

If a mission that kills a white wolf demon was worth 600 merit points,

And one bone forging pill required 20,000 merit points,

It was a bit much.

Demons like the white wolf demon would require hunting more than 30 of them, and that would be 30 missions. If you based it on the six to seven days it took for this time’s mission, a white uniform guard at the perfection of Tendon Transformation like Xu Hongyu would need more than half a year to exchange for a bone forging pill from the Demon Slaying Division, and she would have to ensure that each mission was completed and without any accidents.

Of course, if they could encounter a situation where there were relatively large numbers, with dozens of them at a time, they could obtain a large number of merit points at once… but the problem is that if an average white uniform guard really ran into a pack of a dozen or twenty white wolf demons, let alone hunt them, their main concern would be whether they could escape.

However, he could easily solve it, and to him, one demon like the white wolf demon was no different from ten of them.

It was only that he had to travel over mountains and ridges and track it all the way to find just one.

Unless it was during celestial phenomena like the great cold or great drought, where they caused a large number of demons to fall into a frenzy, it would be very difficult to obtain a large amount of merit points in a short period of time, this would explain why in the last year’s great cold, various Inner City families sent a large number of men to go hunting demons, and even Xu Hongyu, who was in charge of the South District Chief Constable at the time, also temporarily left her office and went out.

And while Chen Mu was pondering,

Xiao He, who had been following beside him, suddenly waved her small hand to fan a breeze, and said, “Ai, why does today’s weather feel so much hotter than yesterday?”

Chen Mu came back to his senses, looked at a distant place, and said with a sigh: “I’m afraid it is not just a little hotter.”

In the distance,

A river was surging.

Just a day ago when they had passed through here, this river was still very wide, with at least two to three zhang, but now it had shrunk by almost half, revealing a large exposed riverbank.

Xu Hongyu was slightly stunned at seeing this scene, and said, "Great drought…"

Chen Mu shook his head and said: "The great cold was at the beginning of the year, the great drought in the middle of the year, this year is a year of disasters."

Following the great cold with the great drought, it was undoubtedly a continuation of a year of disasters.

The great drought was coming, he had also seen it in his memory before, although the duration would not be as long as the great cold, it would still be at least half a month or even a month. Every family would have to prepare enough water, so there would be no risk of dying of thirst, but the planted crops would be destroyed for one season, in addition to the large number of active demons.

However, because it would occur every few years, it was not considered an extremely serious situation. Just like during the previous great cold, various departments including the Demon Slaying Division would take action.

Having said this,

Chen Mu also glanced at Xiao He, and said, "Look, God has punished you, your sins must not be light in your last life."

Xiao He opened her innocent big eyes, and shrunk next to Xu Hongyu, sticking out her tongue.

“Let’s go, let’s return to Anyu first.”

Xu Hongyu withdrew her gaze, and said solemnly: "The great drought is coming, so we don’t need to rush back to the Prefecture City, let’s stay in Anyu for now, the Prefecture City will send more men to Anyu as well."

The great drought was coming, and the matter was not too big, not to the extent of the sky falling, but it was not too small either. Not to mention that this season’s crops would be destroyed, the demons that appear everywhere would also require more people to suppress them, so it would basically be the same as during the great cold at the beginning of the year. In the name of the Demon Slaying Division, all departments would be temporarily recruited, and the men from each family would also take action.