Thirty Years of Demon Slaying at the Demon-Slaying Department - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Huyue of the Greenhills

The incident of the star courtesan, Mingyue, did not impact Zhou Yi at all.

When it came to vanquishing demons and whatnot, the Demon Slaying Department’s Immortal Masters would deal with it.

Even if the sky were to fall, Zhou Yi would not bother to care about it as long as it did not fall on his head.

When he got paid for his second month of work, he spent a thousand dollars on two elixirs.

He had become acquaintances with an elixir dealer through Zhang Cheng. His appearance was nothing special, and his accent did not seem local to the capital city.

An elixir cost around two to three hundred dollars, which made monthly payday merely symbolic. It was no wonder everybody said that transferring Zhou Yi to the Resource Division was a blessing to him.

After he got paid, he immediately invited his colleagues from all nine divisions and squandered all his money in one night at a brothel. This brought them closer and elevated their friendship to another level.

Among the colleagues was a clerk by the name of Li Xun. He had the most forthright personality. Aside from Zhang Cheng, he was the highest in rank.

When playing a drinking game on the wine table, Li Xun lost to Zhou Yi and as a result, got drunk. He began spouting nonsense, like his grandfather was the seventh son of the Great Qian Dynasty’s founder and him being a descendent of Great Qian’s imperial family.

Unfortunately, after many generations, he could not even be considered as an offshoot of the imperial family. The only thing left of the emperor’s grace was to offer him a position in the Resource Department.

When it came to both prosperous forbearers and mediocre descendants, the feeling of dismay in the latter was inevitable.

His colleagues were either quietly lost in the background or purposely ignoring him. They were all unbothered enough to listen to Li Xun’s babblings. Zhou Yi was the only one who was listening to him

Zhou Yi used his Qi Inspection Technique to observe Li Xun. It revealed that Li Xun’s fortune was mediocre, and he would not encounter any significant events that would alter his destiny. Because of this, it would be difficult for Li Xun to make any significant changes to his life.

But a person’s fortune was not fixed in stone.

The moon waxes and the moon would wanes; humans have goods days, and humans have bad days. A person’s fortune was like a wave in the sea; sometimes it rises and sometimes it falls.

The two most fundamental factors that could affect a person’s fortune were internal strength and external criteria.

Strength was easy to understand: knowledge, combat capability, position, power, and so on.

Every time one rose within the nine Cultivation Bases, their fortune would grow by a tier. Zhang Cheng, who was at upper-third-grade, had a fortune that was a thousand times greater than that of ordinary people.

External criteria, on the other hand, was a very broad subject. Money, connections, background, treasures, and so on. These were factors that could improve one’s fortune.

The Demon Handbook could be classified as a fortune-suppressing external criterion.

Jing-Tai-Year 49 went by in the blink of an eye, unaffected by windswept rain or shine.

Zhou Yi spent his days organizing books, going out for drinks with his colleagues, and learning the art of calligraphy and tea from Zhang Cheng. He adhered less and less to the habits of his previous life and was gradually becoming a typical official of the Great Qian Dynasty.

The only thing he held on to was his diligence in cultivation.

Whenever Zhang Cheng was not at home at night, Zhou Yi would quietly go to the dungeon. He became an executioner by choosing a demon from Prison Cell B to kill.

His Taoism attainment was improving far less than when he was an executioner, yet it was much more secretive.

As long as Zhou Yi was willing, he could remain in the Resource Division until the Demon Slaying Department was disbanded as no one would care about a small official.

…

The sky slowly brightened.

Torture Room.

Zhou Yi morphed into an unfamiliar appearance. Dressed in his executioner uniform, he expertly maneuvered the depths of the dungeon.

Executioners came and went very quickly. Even Demon Slaying Lieutenants only knew the executioners who were under them. No one even knew the total number of executioners.

In recent days, Zhang Cheng was becoming more and more obsessed with the felicities of the brothels. Because of that, he would clock in at the Resource Department later and later each day.

Zhou Yi had advised him before, telling him that he should not exert himself too much given his age. Zhang Cheng however, was so angry that he smashed a one-foot-tall rockery with one single punch.

In the vicinity of Prison Cell B, there happened to be a lone executioner in front of him who was about to open Prison Cell B17.

A ray of spirit light flashed, and the executioner fell into a hypnotic daze.

“A year more of Taoism attainment and I’ll achieve a minor goal. A thousand-year Taoism attainment will provide a major boost in power level. I wonder what changes a ten-thousand-year Taoism attainment would bring about.”

Zhou Yi morphed his appearance to that of an executioner. He then took the key and opened the two-layer prison door. He saw a beautiful woman bounded by chains.

She turned out to be an acquaintance.

A month ago, he had seen her dancing. There was even a VIP who had spent thousands of gold coins to be her private customer.

At that time, Zhou Yi, Zhang Cheng and a few others were also there. According to Li Xun, that man was his grandnephew, the son of King Huai.

It was the Spring Breeze Court’s star courtesan, Mingyue.

The last time he saw her, she was expertly dancing with her long sleeves. Compared to that, her state right now could only be described as extremely miserable.

Her head was locked in a heavy cangue and she had no choice but to stretch her neck forward. Iron chains wrapped around her limbs and locked her on the rack. There were also five differently colored nails that pierces her five internal organs.

Soul-binding Cangue, Bone-piercing Chains, Heartpike Nails.

Zhou Yi had killed countless demons, and the last demon to be tortured as badly as this was the Black Evil Demon King who had almost slaughtered the entire city.

Generally speaking, the Demon Slaying Department would not torture demons to death. Even the most hateful death row prisoners would be given a meal before their execution. The Department would not go this far to torture a vixen who simply absorbed Yang Qi.

Hearing his movements, Huyue (who’s also known as Mingyue), tried her best to look up. Her right eye had been gouged.

“It’s you? The officer from the Resource Division. I remember that your surname is Zhou!”

“Hm?”

Zhou Yi said in surprise, “You can see through my illusion technique?”

“I’m of the Immortal Fox bloodline and born with spirit eyes. I’m not someone you filthy humans can fool so easily!”

Huyue’s voice was hoarse and her speech was unclear. Half of her tongue had been cut off, and most of the teeth were pulled out. And yet, her ego was still big.

“Did that b*tch Princess Huai sent you to kill me? Tell her that the Foxes of the Greenhills will avenge me, and King Huai’s Mansion is bound to perish!”

“No one asked me to come. This is just a coincidence.”

Zhou Yi shook his sleeves, and Feng Ling’er fell to the ground and transformed into a three-foot-long white fox.

“Ack-ackawoooo… Zhou Yi is a good person. I was captured by the Demon Slaying Department. He was the one who saved me.”

Feng Ling’er circled Huyue and sniffed her. They seemed to share a vague blood connection.

“Soul of the Spirit Fox! Cough cough cough…”

Huyue coughed violently as her eyes flashed with hope. “Are you here to save me?”

Zhou Yi shook his head. “No. I’m here to kill you, but I’ll make sure I will end your misery and suffering.”

“We, foxes, leave no kindness unpaid. If you save my life. I might very well offer myself to you.”

“I’m sorry, I have greater pursuits.”

Zhou Yi grabbed a torture instrument and asked, “Any last words?”

“…”

Huyue was silent. She eventually realized that the man in front of him was not joking. She then looked at Feng Ling’er and said, “Before I die, I want to teach her the Sky Fox’s way of cultivation. With such a pure and powerful Soul of the Spirit Fox, she is bound to become a genius of the fox clan in the days to come.”

“I will allow that.”

“This is the clan’s top secret. Please excuse us.”

“Pass it to me as well.”

Zhou Yi’s perverseness was not for no reason. Up until now, he had yet to acquire a method of cultivation. He did not even know his own Cultivation Base.

He was certain that his power level was at the upper-third-grade realm. As for whether he was a first or second grade, he could not really distinguish it.

Although the cultivation methods of humans and demons was different, it did not deviate from the three energies. He did not need to cultivate in the Sky Fox’s method. All he had to do was to use it to determine his own Cultivation Base and understand himself.

Huyue’s spirit eyes flickered. She had never seen such a brazen individual. She kept silent for a moment but eventually gave in. “You better not leak it to anyone else,” she threatened. “Otherwise, the Foxes of the Greenhills will hunt you down to the end of the earth!”

She slowly uttered a scripture made up of 12,000 lines that would get one directly from the introductory level to the first-grade in the technique.

The Secret Tome of the Sky Fox was divided into nine levels. Completing each level would make one grow a tail, and upon complete mastery, one would transform into a Nine-tailed Demon Sky Fox.

Feng Ling’er listened as she cultivated. When Huyue finished her chanting, Feng Ling’er’s tail split into two, and after a while, into three.

Huyue was dumbfounded. She muttered to himself, “Exceptional talent! Demeanor of an Immortal Fox!”

Zhou Yi could not help but curl his lips. Due to conflicting bloodlines, the cultivation aptitude of a half-human half-demon belonged to the lowest of classifications.

Feng Ling’er being able to attain three tails in a short period of time was classified as slow deliverance of accumulated power and developing a part of the soul power within her body.

Over the course of five years, Zhou Yi had vanquished more than 5000 demons, and most of them were in the middle-third-grade. The soul power he had refined was massive. Even if he were to feed them to a pig, it would become a colossal demon.

Now with the Secret Tome of the Sky Fox, Feng Ling’er would improve by leaps and bounds in a short time, all until the vast sea of soul power in her body was exhausted.