Demon Slaying, Gaining 60 Years of Cultivation From the Start

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The lord's mansion of Qiongtian City occupied a sizable area, with pavilions, towers, waterside pavilions, and courtyards, making the scenery quite appealing.

After Gu Chen handed his horse to a servant, Wen Ziyun pulled Gu Chen into a courtyard and explained the situation to him.

It turned out that just a moment ago, citizens of Qiongtian City who gathered herbs had come to report to the authorities. They said they had seen several vague ghostly shadows devouring the corpses of wild beasts in a large mountain outside Qiongtian City. Terrified by the sight, they hastened to escape and reported to the lord's mansion.

Wen Ziyun said, "Originally, I intended to dispatch the garrison to suppress them, but I feared it might be a trap set by the demon sect. Just when you, Lord Gu, happened to arrive, what do you think?"

Gu Chen certainly would not refuse; killing demons and ghosts was a good thing for him. Hearing this, he smiled broadly, nodded, and said, "Of course, there's no problem; I'll set out immediately."

"Good, there's certainly no problem. Lord Gu is truly as the rumors say, caring for the people. When you return victorious, Lord Gu, I will certainly host a grand feast to welcome you," Wen Ziyun said, visibly delighted by Gu Chen's agreement.

Moreover, what was most important was that Wen Ziyun found Gu Chen easy to speak with, which would make cooperation between the two much smoother moving forward.

After all, young and promising individuals like Wen Ziyun had seen many; because they were young, they all tended to be proud and ambitious. He feared that after making such a name for himself in Xu'an County, Gu Chen might become arrogant and look down upon him, the lord of this mansion, not taking his words seriously.

If such a self-important person came, and if it was hard to get along, Wen Ziyun would have really been troubled. Thankfully, Gu Chen now seemed to be a very amiable person.

All that mattered was that Gu Chen was not troublesome; this had been Wen Ziyun's only thought upon Gu Chen's arrival.

At this moment, Gu Chen said, "There's no time to delay. I will set out now."

Hearing this, Wen Ziyun quickly asked, "Does Lord Gu need to bring some men along?"

Gu Chen, now in possession of great skill and courage, and since the mountain was not too distant from Qiongtian City, was confident that even if an accident occurred, he could still manage to escape, even if he encountered a martial artist of the Gang Qi Stage.

Besides, should someone dispatched by Wen Ziyun slay a demon, would he then have to ask for the soul crystal? After all, that would be regarded as their spoils of war, and it wouldn't be proper for him to request those spoils from others.

Therefore, Gu Chen declined Wen Ziyun's kind offer.

Before arriving, Chen Yu had shown Gu Chen Wen Ziyun's dossier, and he knew that Wen Ziyun was a good official who, over the years, had made considerable contributions to Qiongtian Mansion and was dearly loved by the citizens.

Moreover, observing Wen Ziyun's extraordinary demeanor and the faint halo around him, he knew that this lord of Qiongtian Mansion also possessed cultivation, not the ordinary kind of scholar with no strength to truss a chicken.

Of course, this cultivation was different from martial cultivation. In Da Xia, civil officials cultivated the Confucian Path, perfecting the righteous qi within their chests, which was a completely different concept from martial artists.

They remained very vulnerable physically, no different from ordinary folks, but possessing that righteous qi meant that once their cultivation reached a certain level, they were protected from external evil and immune to many illnesses, enabling them to live a stable life until a natural death.

However, this righteous qi was not very effective against enemies and could not launch many attacks; it merely provided some degree of self-protection.

Of course, some highly skilled scholars of the Confucian Path could infuse their writings with this qi, giving their words the power to suppress evil and exorcise demons.

Moreover, some grand scholars could confront demons and ghosts, as their righteous qi did have a restraining effect on such beings, but that was merely to the extent of posing a challenge or repelling them. To slay demons or ghosts still required martial strength.

Most importantly, this righteous qi was closely linked to their vitality; large expenditures could harm their essence, which was why members of the Confucian Path would not use their righteous qi against enemies unless absolutely necessary.

For external battles and skirmishes, martial artists were still more adept.

Wen Ziyun then informed Gu Chen of the exact location, and Gu Chen immediately left the city, heading straight for the mountain Wen Ziyun had mentioned.

The mountain was only fifty miles from Qiongtian City. With Gu Chen's speed, he didn't need a horse; in a short while, he had arrived.

Many herbs grew on this mountain peak, which is why villagers living in nearby mountain villages frequently gathered them to sell in Qiongtian City for a living.

The mountain was quite lofty, hundreds of feet tall, with lush forests within. Arriving here, Gu Chen sensed a faint and sinister presence upon entering.

"It seems there really are demons here," Gu Chen thought to himself. The presence of demons meant he could collect merit points, allowing his stalled cultivation to advance once again.

Following his sense of the sinister qi, Gu Chen steadily made his way deeper into the mountain.

As he moved on, the scent of blood grew stronger; the higher he climbed, the more wild beasts there were. Generally, the villagers only dared to venture halfway up the mountain before refraining from climbing further.

After all, though the villagers had some strength, they were no match for the more powerful beasts.

Soon, Gu Chen saw numerous corpses of wild animals, blood scattered everywhere, and the pungent smell he had detected was emanating from here.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a fierce howl echoed from beside Gu Chen's ears, and a dark shadow darted out from the dense jungle.

Boom!

Gu Chen responded with a backhand palm strike, sending the shadow flying away.

But at that moment, Gu Chen felt a chill envelop his body as several cold auras appeared, targeting him.

"Four ghost-class demons?" Gu Chen looked around, slightly surprised. Not far from him, there were four bizarre creatures with pitch-black bodies and blood-red pupils.

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Some had the heads of oxen, yet sported tails like those of lions, standing erect on their back legs as if they were half beast, half human.

Others crawled on all fours, resembling lone wolves, but were covered in fish scales, looking incredibly bizarre.

Gu Chen paid them no heed. Specters were always varied in shape, and he had seen all sorts in the files of Jing Tian Department, so none were particularly strange to him.

After all, specters didn't belong to the species of the Nine Provinces, nor could they be understood according to the common sense of the Nine Provinces.

"Ao——"

The specter with the ox's head and the stance of a minotaur let out a long howl to the sky, the cold and sinister aura it exuded being the strongest among them. Its blood-red pupils, resembling two blood-red lanterns, stared fixedly at Gu Chen.

Gu Chen's eyebrows lifted in slight surprise as he said, "A late-stage You-level specter?" Discover more stories at мѵʟ

The Jing Tian Department had classified specters into several levels according to different martial arts realms, and because the strength of specters varied, there were also subtle distinctions between the levels.

A late-stage You-level specter was equivalent in strength to a martial artist at the grand completion of the Vajra Stage of the Human Clan. Simultaneously, it was possible that they were not weaker than some martial artists at the third layer of the Vajra Stage with a physique as strong as a savage dragon's.

Even, some within the Jing Tian Department speculated that if a You-level specter reached the extreme limit, it could very well match an unbreakable Vajra Stage martial artist from the Human Clan in arm-wrestling.

However, these extreme cases of specters were rare, and in recent centuries, the Nine Provinces hadn't seen a Vajra Stage martial artist reach the unbreakable level.

Therefore, all of this was just conjecture by the Jing Tian Department.

"I wonder how much merit points a late-stage You-level specter is worth?" Gu Chen thought to himself, but showed no mercy as he stopped hesitating and made his move at once.

Chi!

Pressing his finger into the void, a razor-sharp Sword Qi suddenly burst from his fingertip, cutting through the emptiness and striking the late-stage You-level specter in the form of a minotaur.

"Ao!"

The minotaur specter screamed in pain. As specters fundamentally had no physical bodies and thus no blood, they were formed from condensed energy. Gu Chen's Condensing Pulse Sword Wave tore a hole in its body, but as dark energy gathered, the wound healed in the blink of an eye.

Swish swish swish!

Just then, as Gu Chen was fully focused on the four specters before him, suddenly, several dark figures flashed out of the grass behind him, one of them with a sinister palm strike aimed directly at Gu Chen's heart.

Sensing the attack, Gu Chen didn't even bother to dodge, letting the palm strike land squarely on his body.

Bang!

The malicious palm strike tried to penetrate Gu Chen's body to shatter his heart, but vainly so. Gu Chen's physical body was extremely robust. Even without using any martial arts, the rebounding force inherent in his body caused the ambusher to let out a muffled grunt, blood dripping from the corner of their mouth as they stumbled backwards.

"People from the Evil Heart Sect?" Gu Chen glanced at the attacker, a trace of surprise in his eyes.

The palm strike just now was the unique martial skill of the Evil Heart Sect, Crush Heart Palm.

Having been on numerous missions, Gu Chen had had several encounters with the Evil Heart Sect. As soon as they made a move, he recognized them.

It seemed the intelligence of Jing Tian Department was correct; magi practitioners were indeed lurking near Qiongtian City.

"Gu Chen, we've been waiting for you for a long time!" the martial artist from the Evil Heart Sect coldly huffed.

Gu Chen regarded them, counting six or seven people, all of Vajra Stage cultivation. Around them were the four You-level specters, with one specter barely matching a Vajra Stage martial artist with a physique strong as a savage dragon. Their lineup was undeniably formidable.

"This is our gift to you. Do you like it?" the Evil Heart Sect martial artist sneered and said, "You've disrupted our sect's plans time and again, even slain many of our followers. Particularly, our sect's most famous prodigy fell by your hand.

Before coming here, our sect leader commanded us to cripple your cultivation and bring you back alive, to thoroughly enjoy the tortures of the Evil Heart Sect."

Gu Chen, upon hearing this, was momentarily puzzled; he had killed too many sorcerous martial practitioners to immediately recall which one was the Evil Heart Sect's prodigy.

Seeing Gu Chen's reaction, the leader of the Evil Heart Sect let out an irritated snort as air seemed to choke in his chest.

The ability of sorcerous sects to gather intelligence was indeed extraordinary, to have known that the Jing Tian Department would send Gu Chen, thus lying in wait here for his arrival.

In fact, had it not been for the Six Union God Sect requiring the Evil Heart Sect's services elsewhere, the sect leader of the Evil Heart Sect might have taken action personally or, at the very least, sent an elder of the Gang Qi Stage.

Nevertheless, despite this, the forces the Evil Heart Sect brought this time were so formidable that the majority of the Metropolitan Procurators of Jing Tian Department would have nothing to do but flee.

After all, the late-stage You-level specter was terrifyingly powerful, and with the other three specters and their Vajra Stage martial artists, the Evil Heart Sect's preparations were thorough.

But had they known that Gu Chen had killed eight Vajra Stage martial artists with a single palm on his way here, they would probably not be so confident.

Be that as it may, the Evil Heart Sect was an old rival of Gu Chen's, and the two had clashed on numerous occasions. Since they were so 'enthusiastic', Gu Chen could not afford to treat them lightly.

A hint of a smile appeared in Gu Chen's eyes as he said, "Since you've delivered such a grand gift to me, naturally, I must respond in kind."

Clang!

Before the Evil Heart Sect's leader could speak, Gu Chen's inner qi swelled, his breath surged like ocean waves, and he unleashed a vast and powerful Condensing Pulse Sword Wave. With a resonance shattering like the heavens, one You-level specter was turned to ashes by this move in just one clash.