Chapter 64: Memorial
Chapter 64: Memorial
After dealing with the Bear Demon, Li Hao noticed some movement in a nearby cave.
When he scanned the area with his Divine Soul, he saw seven ragged survivors, both men and women, all around twenty to thirty years old, with no children or elderly.
Their hands and feet were chained, with the other end of the chains passing through a hole in a large rock. Unless they could drag the rock, there was no way to free themselves.
They seemed to have experienced some terrifying event, and their expressions were dazed and filled with fear. Some were completely numb, lost in a daze.
Li Hao sighed inwardly, then used his stone manipulation to break the iron chains and release them.
But even without the physical chains, it seemed as though they were still bound by something else.
After a brief moment of shock, they looked around blankly, still standing in place, showing no signs of trying to escape.
One of them seemed to remember something and started trembling, crouching on the ground and grabbing the broken chains, wrapping them around their own limbs while pleading:
"Don't eat me, don't eat me..."
They were utterly terrified.
Li Hao fell silent for a moment. He wasn't good at comforting people, so he decided to give them some time to come to their senses. Meanwhile, he took the opportunity to clean up the area.
He casually manipulated objects, gathering all the demon corpses into a pile, arranging them neatly into a square platform.
"Uncle Lin, your disciple is powerless, but I can only offer these demons to honor your Heroic Souls!"
Li Hao flipped his palm and pulled out a wine gourd.
He then unscrewed the gourd's mouth and poured the wine over the platform of corpses.
In front of him was a sea of blood, but in his mind, he saw that courtyard bathed in the glow of the evening sunset.
It was the night when that man drank and sang his killing poems.
It was the afternoon when that man, seeing that I couldn't absorb the Foundation Building Elixir, hung his head in sorrow.
It was that autumn when leaves fell onto the chessboard, and we laughed and argued over our game.
Li Hao shook the wine gourd, which had one last mouthful left. He drank it, saying softly, "Uncle Lin, cheers."
He then put away the wine gourd, turned, and walked into the forest with his Demon Slaying Blade in hand.
In this sprawling mountain range that stretched for a hundred miles, there were tens of thousands of demons, with thousands gathered just in the surrounding area.
Whoosh!
Li Hao's figure stood on a leaf at the treetop, his Divine Soul emerging from the top of his head, wielding the Demon Slaying Blade as he darted through the green forest, sweeping through the area.
One by one, the demons—whether crouching, sleeping, foraging, or playing—were cut down by a black glow, their lives extinguished.
The black glow darted through the mountains like a flying needle, piercing through the bodies of the demons. They sensed the danger and panicked, fleeing in all directions, but the black glow was faster.
If it were a typical Fifteen Li Realm cultivator, such a feat might not have been so easy, but Li Hao's object manipulation range and speed were several times greater than that of a typical Fifteen Li Realm cultivator, and he hadn't even used any special techniques.
The tens of thousands of demons gathered at the foot of the mountain were terrified, unsure what was happening, and instinctively fled. Some rushed to the mountain top to ask the king what was going on, but they were beheaded before they could reach the summit.
The entire mountain shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.
The fleeing demons were all cut down and killed within a dozen miles, their blood staining the shrubs and the earth, flowing like a river along the ground's crevices, pooling in the lower areas, forming a river of blood and tears in this mountain range!
As his Soul Essence returned to his body, the black glow landed in his hand.
Li Hao glanced at it.
After slaying tens of thousands of demons, the blade's edge was dulled.
If not for the protection of his Divine Soul, the blade would have broken long ago and would not have been able to pierce through the tough bodies of some demons.
He didn't stop there but continued to hold the dulled black blade, heading toward the distant areas where some demons were still unaware of the situation and wandered near their nests.
Since he was here, he might as well finish the job.
...
...
"Indeed, there are demons gathered here!"
High in the sky over the Blackwind Mountains, a subtle golden light was flying through the clouds. It was Song Yueyao's Divine Soul.
She herself was stealthily moving along the outside of the mountains, her Soul Essence Soaring, surveying the entire mountain range.
Along the way, she had already seen many traces of demons.
Near the city, there were only a few demons, and the demonic aura was thin, indicating they were just small demons that had barely become sentient, not much to fear. Some hunters with crossbows might even be able to scare them off.
But as she moved deeper, she saw large areas of the forest shrouded in thick demonic aura, with the number of demons increasing.
"Governor Yue wasn't wrong; there are indeed demons gathered here, and it's very obvious!"
Song Yueyao frowned. "But why, if the situation is so clear, hasn't Governor Yue reported it truthfully and requested assistance from the Xia Clan?"
She couldn't understand. Was Governor Yue not afraid that the demons would suddenly attack the city?
Or did the Xia Clan refuse to come, due to some past conflict?
But if Cangyu City fell, the casualties would be severe, and both Governor Yue and the Xia Clan would be held accountable.
She couldn't figure it out, feeling that the situation was more complicated than it seemed.
As she continued deeper into the Blackwind Mountains, she soon reached the heart of the range.
Along the way, she had mostly encountered Soul Succession Realm demons patrolling the area, which she easily avoided without being detected.
Suddenly, a pungent, bloody wind blew through the forest.
Song Yueyao's expression changed, and she stopped, carefully probing ahead with her Divine Soul.
Soon, she witnessed a scene that defied imagination.
The mountain forest was awash with rivers of blood, and almost every water source was stained red. The bodies of monsters lay scattered nearby.
Song Yueyao was taken aback, her face filled with shock and confusion. She had initially thought the bloody wind was caused by monsters preying on and harming humans, but it turned out to be the blood of the monsters themselves!
Her face filled with shock, she wondered what had happened here.
After a moment's hesitation, she instructed her Divine Soul to cautiously advance. Soon, she reached some of the monster corpses and quickly examined them, discovering that all the wounds were recent, with the time of death not exceeding one hour.
Someone was slaying monsters!
This thought flashed through Song Yueyao's mind, causing her heart to tremble. Could it be another Inspector from the Demon Suppression Bureau?
Cangyu City's Demon Suppression Bureau had only one Inspector, a Divine Wanderer Realm expert, who, along with the City Governor, guarded this border city.
She, on the other hand, was a temporary addition, and her position would not be a long-term one in Cangyu City.
Filled with doubt, Song Yueyao had her Divine Soul lead the way. If they encountered the other person, they could assist each other and assess the situation.
However, as she continued deeper, her expression grew increasingly stunned.
The path was littered with monster corpses!
Everywhere she looked, there were corpses!
Densely packed, her Divine Soul's reconnaissance revealed at least ten thousand!
The density of monsters gathered here was on par with a small-scale monster tide, but the most shocking thing was that all of them were dead!
To command such a large number of monsters, there had to be a Great Demon!
But where was the Great Demon?
Song Yueyao had never clashed with the other Inspector, but based on what she saw, she doubted she could have achieved the same feat. She lacked the skill and the courage.
As her Divine Soul moved forward, she encountered even more monster corpses, more than before. Among them were some massive monsters, some of which had begun to transform, showing signs of approaching the Divine Wanderer Realm, yet all of them were dead, with wounds that were strikingly consistent—pierced through vital points by a sharp weapon.
Soon, Song Yueyao arrived at a large mountain.
She could vaguely see a thick, cloud-like demonic aura gathering at the summit!
Such a terrifying demonic fog could only belong to a Great Demon, and from the color of the fog, there were more than one!
She was filled with dread and had an urge to turn back, but the countless monster corpses at the base of the mountain and the eerie silence at the peak sparked an incredible thought in her mind.
She suppressed her fear, allowing her Divine Soul to quietly soar, concealing its aura, and peered down at the demonic cloud.
What she saw left her expression frozen.
A platform of flesh, formed by the bodies of over twenty Great Demons, stood on the summit, neatly stacked.
A gentle breeze revealed the frozen eyes of some Great Demons, still holding the shock and terror of their final moments.
Song Yueyao's body stiffened, and she was too stunned to speak.
The number of Great Demons was even more than she had anticipated, yet they were all... dead!
These were all Divine Wanderer Realm Great Demons. Who could have killed them all?!
The other Inspector? Impossible, they were also at the Divine Wanderer Realm.
To achieve this, even a top-tier Divine Wanderer Realm genius would find it extremely difficult. It would have to be a Fifteen Li Realm expert!
Was it a general sent by the Xia Clan?
Or perhaps a passing expert from a sect?
Song Yueyao snapped out of her daze and suddenly noticed several figures slowly emerging from a cave at the summit. Upon closer inspection, they were humans, and from their disheveled appearance, they seemed to be survivors.
She quickly moved to the summit and approached the survivors.
"Did the monsters capture all of you?" Song Yueyao asked, hoping to get some answers.
She had expected the survivors to feel safe upon seeing her Demon-Slaying Uniform, but instead, they all trembled, their eyes filled with fear, as if they were seeing a monster.
"Don't, don't capture us!"
"Please, let us go!"
Several survivors collapsed to their knees, sobbing and pleading for mercy.
Song Yueyao was taken aback.
Her mind struggled to process the situation, and after a moment, she angrily said, "What are you talking about? I am a Demon Suppression Inspector, here to rescue you."
"Please, spare us, sir, spare us!"
The survivors continued to beg and kowtow.
Song Yueyao was speechless, wondering if they had been driven mad by the monsters.
Given their state, she doubted she could get any useful information from them. The expert who had slain the monsters had likely left, realizing the survivors were already insane.
However, the Great Demons had clearly died recently.
With this in mind, Song Yueyao decided to ignore the survivors and quickly urged her Divine Soul to scout the area.
Soon, she saw a trail of blood, with monster corpses lining the path.
She hurriedly followed it.
Before long, Song Yueyao leaped onto a tree branch and stopped.
She saw a clearing in the forest ahead, where the ground was covered with the bodies of ape monsters, apparently from a clan.
But now, they were all dead.
The blood pooled on the ground, and in the center of the corpses stood a young man.
Wearing the most ordinary Demon Suppression Bureau Demon Exterminator Mystic Uniform, he held a battered and broken Demon Slaying Blade in his hand.
(End of Chapter)
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