Chapter 31 - 25: Great Demon
With the keen tracking of Demonic Qi provided by Huang Silang’s Demon Shadow, Jiang Mu precisely hunted down the snake demon chieftain no matter where it tried to hide.
He also cut down the few lesser demons that fled alongside it.
"AHH!!"
The snake demon chieftain couldn’t take it anymore. It stopped running, spun around, and glared venomously at Jiang Mu.
"Just who are you!?"
"Are you blind? Can’t you tell I’m a Demon Slayer Envoy?"
Covered in blood, Jiang Mu advanced step by step, saber in hand. He was like a vicious fiend crawling out of a pool of blood, radiating a violent Evil Qi.
At the same time, Huang Silang’s Demon Shadow gradually dissipated.
Its energy was clearly depleted.
The snake demon chieftain said in a cold voice:
"You’re just a lowly Second Realm lackey from the Demon-slaying Bureau. If you kill me, my Matriarch will surely hunt you down for revenge. She’ll rip out your tendons and peel off your skin! If you don’t believe me, then go ahead and..."
SWISH!
Jiang Mu’s expression was impassive as he slashed with his saber.
"Damn you!"
Seeing Jiang Mu’s resolute killing intent, a look of crazed determination appeared on the snake demon chieftain’s face.
It took out a blood-red bead the size of a quail’s egg.
A flicker of pained reluctance showed in its eyes. Then, it threw its head back, crushed the bead between its teeth, and swallowed it.
The next moment, the snake demon let out a bloodcurdling hiss.
Its body, originally over ten feet long, swelled as if being inflated. Scales bristled all over as its form exploded in size, growing several times larger.
Strange, twisted, blood-red patterns appeared on its scales.
It radiated an aura of bloody Evil Qi.
In the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a giant python nearly forty feet long.
Its scales were menacing, its ferocious might overwhelming!
Its belly fused with the ground, as if it were drawing nutrients from the earth.
CLANG!
Jiang Mu’s slash struck the snake’s belly, but it only managed to leave a white scratch mark.
"Hm?"
Jiang Mu paused, narrowing his eyes. ’It still has tricks up its sleeve?’
The transformed snake demon chieftain coiled its massive body, looking down on Jiang Mu from above. Its voice boomed like thunder:
"You little bastard, did you really think you could kill me?"
"Don’t you know? As virtue rises one foot, the devil rises ten! Today... is the day you die!"
Before it finished speaking, its tail, as thick as a roof beam, swept toward him.
Trees as thick as bowls snapped in its path.
Mud and rock flew, the display of power astonishing.
Jiang Mu snorted. "The devil rises ten feet? Well, I rise a thousand!"
He gripped his saber with both hands.
Blood was frantically drained from his Demon Slot, converting an endless stream of Demonic Qi into a torrent of True Qi that flooded his entire body.
"Sky-rend!"
Jiang Mu swung his saber, clashing head-on against the hard scales with heaven-shaking momentum.
A tremendous BOOM erupted.
Sending waves of rain splashing into the air.
"Again!"
Jiang Mu continued to swing his saber.
One slash, two slashes, ten slashes...
He was like a tireless machine, completely ignoring the consumption of True Qi as he unleashed a frantic assault on the snake demon.
The snake demon chieftain had initially relied on the enhancement from its Secret Technique, hoping to drain Jiang Mu’s True Qi and kill him once he was exhausted. But it soon discovered in horror that this man was an absolute monster.
’Is his True Qi endless?’
With each slash heavier than the last, the blood-red patterns on the snake demon’s body began to fade rapidly.
Its tough scales cracked and flew off, leaving behind a mess of mangled flesh and blood.
"No... Impossible..."
The ferocious glint in the snake demon chieftain’s eyes turned to despair.
It wanted to flee, but the Secret Skill had temporarily fused it with the ground, making it unable to move.
Finally, on Jiang Mu’s twenty-first slash, it came crashing down.
"NO—"
Amidst the snake demon chieftain’s cry of despair, the saber, wreathed in a brilliant Saber Aura, sliced through its vital point as if cutting tofu and severed its head.
THUMP!
The massive snake’s body collapsed with a thud, making the ground tremble.
After death, the snake demon’s body rapidly shriveled and shrank, finally turning into a small snake only the length of an arm.
A wisp of black qi was drawn from the corpse.
It burrowed into Jiang Mu through his birthmark and poured into the Demon Slot.
At the same time, the Demon Shadow of a small, cyan snake appeared next to the Demon Slot.
Jiang Mu tried to reach out and touch it, but his hand passed right through.
’Looks like it’s a utility-type Demon Shadow, just like Huang Silang’s.’
Jiang Mu speculated to himself.
"Hee hee~~"
Just then, the sound of a young girl’s laughter suddenly came from behind him.
The hair on Jiang Mu’s entire body stood on end.
He instinctively rolled forward, holding his saber defensively in front of him as he fixed his gaze on the source of the sound.
There, floating in the curtain of rain, was a blurry figure.
It exuded a chilling Ghost Qi.
’Another demon?’
Jiang Mu’s heart sank.
SWOOSH!
The blurry figure suddenly shot forward.
The vast curtain of rain seemed to be brutally torn apart by a giant hand, parting to either side.
A terrifying pressure bore down on him, like a collapsing mountain.
’Fuck! It’s a Great Demon!’
With no time to think, Jiang Mu immediately mobilized all the True Qi in his body and slashed fiercely at the phantom-like figure.
However, his saber froze abruptly halfway through its arc.
He couldn’t move it another inch.
And the figure was already right in front of him.
But it didn’t attack. Instead, it hovered in mid-air.
The black, fog-like demonic qi parted slightly.
A delicate, flawless little foot emerged from the mist.
The small foot was beautiful.
A silver anklet was wrapped around its smooth, rounded ankle.
Its five crystal-clear toes were held closely together, slightly curled, their tips glowing with a faint, soft orange-red hue.
The toenails looked like tiny, lustrous pearls.
They had a healthy pinkish tint.
It landed as lightly as a dragonfly on water, right on the sharp tip of his saber.
Unafraid that the blade would cut its delicate skin.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Jiang Mu wanted to raise his head to see the person’s face, but he found he had been robbed of even the strength to do so. He could only see the bare foot resting on the tip of his saber.
Gritting his teeth, he asked in a low voice, "Are you also a Snake Demon?"
The figure didn’t speak.
But Jiang Mu could clearly feel a playful, teasing gaze falling upon him.
As if sizing up an interesting toy.
"What a pity~~"
A sigh echoed, the voice ethereal and elusive. "I hope you’ll be a little stronger the next time we meet. That way... I can happily eat you up, hee hee."
Jiang Mu’s brow furrowed tightly.
Before he could react, the weight on his saber’s tip suddenly vanished.
Everything returned to normal.
He looked up to see that the space before him was empty. The mysterious figure was gone.
Jiang Mu didn’t lower his guard, still gripping his long saber tightly.
After observing his surroundings for a long time and confirming that the Demon had left, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
’Is this damned place a Demon headquarters?’
Jiang Mu cursed his bad luck under his breath.
He didn’t dare to linger any longer. He picked up the corpse of the snake demon chieftain, gathered the bodies of the other small snake demons, tied them together with a vine, and hurried back.
...
「Meanwhile.」
After Jiang Mu left, Zhang Xiaokui prepared to deal with the snake demons.
Just then, the sound of messy footsteps came from up the slope.
It turned out that the members of the Third Hall had finally heard the commotion and had rushed over.
When they saw the field littered with corpses, they were all dumbstruck.
’What the hell happened here?’
Zhang Xiaokui glanced at them and said coldly:
"Lord Jiang and I killed these. He’s gone after another Demon now. As for you lot... hmph."
The men looked at each other in dismay.
After a moment of shock, a few of the more quick-witted Demon Slayer Envoys rushed forward, dealt a few finishing blows to the heavily wounded snake demons still struggling on the ground, and then tried to take them away.
Zhang Xiaokui was stunned for a moment, then he roared angrily:
"What are you doing? Lord Jiang and I killed these! Put them down!"
One of the men laughed as he dragged a snake demon’s corpse away:
"Come on, Zhang Xiaokui, we all know each other here. Stop showing off, will you?"
"Just the two of you? Killed this many?"
People tend to be trapped by their own limitations; if they can’t do something themselves, they assume no one else can either.
The leader of the group sneered:
"These snake demons were obviously already badly injured. One of the other lords must have wounded them down in the well, and they just managed to escape.
You two just got lucky and picked up the scraps.
And since it’s just picking up scraps, then finders keepers. There’s no harm in us taking a few for ourselves, is there?"