WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Icy glints of light shot out, dancing through the air.

Three hundred and sixty blades streaked through the air, descending upon a ten-meter-long Demon Fiend. The creature was fat and lizard-like, but it had eight legs and a pair of foreclaws as sharp as knives, perfect for digging burrows in an instant.

SHHNNK~

"THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!"

Blood blossomed into the air as bits of flesh flew everywhere.

The three hundred and sixty blades pierced the Demon Fiend’s body, slicing through it from front to back, top to bottom. When they pulled away, they left behind a pile of uniformly diced flesh, its overall posture still perfectly intact.

But when the wind blew—

SLUMP~

The once-intact body collapsed into dozens of pieces, falling into a pool of blood.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +28]

[Demon Points +30]

Bloodshed, Demon Essence!

The second-rank Dwarf Earth Dragon had been minced into a pile of meat before it could even escape underground.

SWISH~

The three hundred and sixty blades danced through the air, returning to Gu Zheng’s side to spin and circle around him.

"Grr-huh~! Grr-huh-huh!"

Standing on a hillock, Gu Zheng heard strange cries coming from not far away.

Cannibal Demons!

In the dim mountain forest, three towering figures cloaked in a scarlet glow were moving quickly toward the location of the Dwarf Earth Dragon’s remains.

The Cannibal Demons, drawn by the scent, had saliva dripping uncontrollably from the corners of their mouths.

THUD THUD THUD~

The sound of heavy footsteps grew closer and closer.

Finally, three Cannibal Demons, nearly five meters tall, with bloated, ugly, gray-white bodies, charged toward the Dwarf Earth Dragon’s remains, their dead-fish eyes wide as they let out bizarre cries.

"Grr-huh~ huh-huh~!"

The three Cannibal Demons shrieked with excitement, grabbing chunks of the Dwarf Earth Dragon’s flesh and stuffing them into their gaping, stinking maws.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Icy glints of light danced as a Divine Wondrous power surged.

SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH~!

The three hundred and sixty blades split into three groups, slicing through the heads and chests of the three Cannibal Demons.

Amidst great sprays of blood, the Cannibal Demons, who had been wolfing down the Dwarf Earth Dragon’s remains, collapsed into the pile of meat without so much as a scream, deader than dead.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +9]

[Demon Points +10]

[Demon Points +10]

’Only first-rank?’

Gu Zheng’s sharp eyebrows rose as he mentally recalled the blades.

The auras of these three Cannibal Demons were comparable to second-rank, but he hadn’t expected them to actually be only first-rank.

Cannibal Demons were stupid and bloated. They ate anything and were both gluttonous and greedy.

Yet, they showed no fear when facing beings one or two ranks higher than themselves, never hesitating to charge or attack.

Half a day earlier, Gu Zheng had seen four first-rank Cannibal Demons surround a second-rank Dwarf Earth Dragon.

The latter’s oppressive aura had no effect at all. It had to rely on its sharp claws to kill two of the Cannibal Demons before being severely wounded by the other two and forced to flee.

Of course, in the end, none of them escaped. They all died under his Chaotic Heaven Shield, contributing their Bloodshed and Demon Essence.

He had entered the portal and arrived in the Demon Realm over a day ago.

Gu Zheng had discovered that Dwarf Earth Dragons mostly acted alone, Cannibal Demons moved in groups of three to five, and Centaurs appeared in herds.

He had yet to see a Blood Boiling Demon Eagle or encounter a Rock Giant.

To harvest Demon Points the fastest, killing Centaurs was the best option!

...

「Qixia Valley.」

Night had fallen. Sun Yunrang was stationed in a temporary wooden hut not far from the portal’s entrance, monitoring it.

This had become a routine surveillance measure since the portal stabilized.

Jiang Xiong and Sun Yunrang took turns stationed in the hut, guarding the portal to prevent any third-rank Demon Fiends from coming through.

Tonight happened to be Sun Yunrang’s turn.

He sat in the hut, meditating and regulating his breath, while keeping half his focus on the world outside.

Suddenly, Sun Yunrang stopped meditating. He sensed an unusual surge of qi flash past the hut.

SWOOSH!

Sun Yunrang’s figure blurred, and he instantly appeared outside the hut. His eyes were like torches as he scanned his surroundings.

All he could see was the dim jungle and a stretch of flat, cratered land full of sand and dirt. There was nothing else.

No people, no Demon Fiends.

The unusual qi had already vanished, and there was no trace of a Demon Fiend’s aura.

’It wasn’t a Demon Fiend. Did someone enter the portal?’

Sun Yunrang’s eyes flickered as he looked up thoughtfully at the portal entrance hanging in mid-air.

...

...

RUMBLE~!

Hoofbeats thundered, kicking up clouds of dust.

Between the lush, dark mountains, a troop of several hundred figures weaved along a mountain path, running swiftly against the cold wind.

A closer look revealed them to be a group of Centaurs, who were growling and roaring as they fled in disarray.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Just then, a wave of icy light descended from the sky. It started at the rear of the herd, engulfing and sweeping through them.

"THWACK~ THWACK~ THWACK~"

Flesh was thrown into the air as Demon Blood splattered everywhere.

In less than a breath’s time, the hundreds of Centaurs were all dead.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +8]

[Demon Points +9]

...

With this one harvest, his accumulated Demon Point total was restored to twenty thousand.

The only problem was that Centaurs were becoming harder and harder to find.

These half-man, half-horse beings were much smarter than Cannibal Demons.

Gu Zheng had been specifically tracking their auras to hunt them, and they had quickly noticed, hiding away in their dens.

Since they didn’t have fixed lairs, Gu Zheng couldn’t eliminate them all at once.

As for third-rank Centaurs, he hadn’t found or encountered any yet.

"SKREEE!!"

A clear eagle’s cry suddenly exploded across the sky.

The overwhelming stench of blood from the pile of Centaur corpses had attracted a giant eagle, seven or eight meters in length.

The giant eagle was shrouded in black qi that coiled around its body like a python.

Its cry echoed through the mountains. As Gu Zheng heard it, the qi and blood in his body began to stir, threatening to boil.

A Blood Boiling Demon Eagle!

Its cry alone possessed a terrifying demonic power that could make a creature’s blood and vital energy boil uncontrollably, to the point of explosion.

Gu Zheng circulated his energy to forcefully suppress the effect, his gaze following the black shadow as it descended upon the pile of Centaur corpses.

WHOOSH~!

Under the twilight sky, which shimmered with a crimson glow, the Blood Boiling Demon Eagle opened its beak and inhaled, sucking in a massive amount of blood qi.