"Demon Fiend! Where is that demonic aura coming from!?"

"This aura... it’s at least Third-Order! Quick, go report to the Commander! A Third-Order Demon Fiend has entered the State City!"

"No, wait, that demonic aura seems to be coming from right inside our headquarters?"

"..."

Cries of alarm and shouts suddenly erupted from outside.

The residual demonic aura released by the Vajra Thunder Demon Turtle’s shell was so intense and dense that it sent the people outside into a panicked frenzy.

It also snapped the dazed Meng Taiqi and Xie Bisheng out of their stupor.

"Calm yourselves!"

The moment he came to his senses, Meng Taiqi roared, his voice amplified by his Divine Wondrous power, echoing throughout the entire Demon Slayer Bureau headquarters.

"It’s not a Demon Fiend invasion, just a test! Everyone, disperse!"

After he spoke, he withdrew the Divine Wondrous amplification and looked at Gu Zheng, taking a deep breath. "This turtle shell is too valuable. I can’t accept it."

"Then just throw it away, Master Meng."

Gu Zheng played the rogue. Before Meng Taiqi could reply, he tapped his toes and leaped into the air. "Master Meng, Master Xie, this student will be leaving now. If Zuo and the others arrive, please entertain them for me. I’ll be off."

"Wait!"

Meng Taiqi quickly called out to stop him, "Take these Communication Tokens."

As he spoke, he flicked his hand, tossing out a dozen or so palm-sized tokens that were dark and shimmering with a faint glow.

"These Communication Tokens are specially made. Their main function is to mark locations and directions. Each one is part of a pair. The other dozen or so are carried by our men when they are out investigating the Evil God Sect. If they discover a Fourth-Order Evil God incarnation or avatar, they will crush it."

"When the other one is crushed, Ping’an, the token in your hand will also crack and receive the location and direction of the broken one."

"...So that’s how it works." With a wave of his hand, Gu Zheng collected all dozen-plus tokens and stored them on his person.

One breaks, the other reacts, and it receives the location information.

This was undoubtedly much faster than channeling Divine Wondrous power into a Communication Token, waiting for the other side to receive it, and then reading the message.

After stowing the tokens, Gu Zheng’s figure flickered. He soared westward and vanished over the horizon.

He moved so fast that Meng Taiqi, Jiang Xiong, and Xie Bisheng on the ground couldn’t even see an afterimage.

"Sigh..."

Jiang Xiong withdrew his gaze and sighed. "Comparing yourself to others is just infuriating."

"Old Jiang, what are you trying to say?" Meng Taiqi shot him a sidelong glance, circling the turtle shell with a huge grin on his face.

Jiang Xiong’s eyes were filled with envy. "What I’m trying to say is, since Commander Meng doesn’t want this turtle shell, why not give it to me—"

"Hah!"

Meng Taiqi cut him off with a low shout. "Don’t even think about it! This was a gift from Ping’an out of respect for me. Old Jiang, if you want one, have your apprentices go kill one."

At that, Jiang Xiong looked at him, speechless. "Do you really think my apprentices can kill a Fourth-Order Demon Fiend? They can’t even kill a Third-Order one, okay!"

"Then there’s nothing to be done about it," Meng Taiqi said gleefully.

"Hmph."

Jiang Xiong was both contemptuous and envious. A moment later, he sighed again.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked toward Xie Bisheng.

"One word."

Xie Bisheng, as if long prepared, raised a hand to stop him. "Impossible!"

As soon as he spoke, his Divine Wondrous power surged, enveloping the turtle shell floating before him to cleanse the demonic aura from it.

Meng Taiqi did the same, beginning the cleansing process.

A turtle shell that large wouldn’t fit in their Storage Pouches; they would have to get new, bigger ones.

...

...

Gu Zheng left the Demon Slayer Bureau headquarters but didn’t leave the State City.

He made a detour and landed in a secluded alley.

SWOOSH!

He took out the Demon-Seeking Pot, held it in his hand, and sensed for traces of Demon Fiends within a ten-thousand-meter radius.

To his surprise, he discovered three Demon Fiends hiding right inside the State City!

The Demon Slayer Bureau headquarters was in the State City, and there were patrols day and night, yet Demon Fiends had still managed to sneak in.

Hiding in the shadows, who knew how many people they had harmed.

’Probably not many yet.’

Gu Zheng went after them directly, killing them one by one and harvesting Demon Points.

The amount wasn’t much; the three of them totaled twenty-one points.

These three Demon Fiends could all turn invisible.

Evidently, for sneaking into the city and hiding in the shadows, invisibility was key.

Gu Zheng systematically scanned the entire city.

Finding no more, he left the State City and began searching the surrounding area.

There were many more Demon Fiends roaming outside.

Although they were widely scattered, with the Demon-Seeking Pot in hand, not a single Demon Fiend could escape his hunt.

After clearing out an area of several dozen li around the State City, Gu Zheng headed west, sensing for Demon Fiends, tracking them down, and killing them.

He killed his way back to Nanyun Prefecture, harvesting Demon Points as he went.

He cleaned out Nanyun Prefecture, both inside and out, and then continued westward.

Following the Demon-Seeking Pot’s guidance, he found the Demon Fiends and killed them one by one.

The number of Demon Points he obtained grew steadily.

One thousand, two thousand, three thousand...

This carpet-bombing style of sensing, killing, and harvesting was a bit slow, but it had its advantages, leaving the Demon Fiends with absolutely no place to hide.

Of course, this couldn’t account for any new ones that came through the passages as reinforcements.

For several days, Gu Zheng’s life consisted of sensing, killing, and harvesting.

This continued until one of the Communication Tokens on his person vibrated and cracked, simultaneously releasing a sealed wisp of Divine Wondrous aura.

Gu Zheng intercepted the aura and sensed a guidance signal pointing south.

He immediately shot into the air, taking a high-altitude route and pushing his speed to the maximum.

...

「Southern Fengzhou.」

Dashun Prefecture.

In a county seat.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

A fierce wind howled and muffled thunder cracked.

Dark, heavy clouds shrouded the sky, gathering over the center of the county seat. They converged above a single courtyard, forming a vast, eerie cloud bank.

In the middle of the cloud bank, a massive dark figure floated in mid-air. It was over thirty meters tall and wreathed in countless strands of black qi. Its face was obscured, but one could see a dense thicket of arms encircling its body. A formless aura disturbed the space around it, causing ripples to spread out. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Different patterns of black qi swirled on each arm. The skin was deathly pale, thick with condensed Death Qi. The hands were varied—some slender, some thick, some meaty, some with seven fingers, others with nine.