Da Xuan Martial Saint

The blade wielder from the Yu family felt somewhat relieved.

During the drought, the stimulated demons would become agitated, yet they often calmed down at night. Thus, night patrols didn't require too much worry. However, he and the other officer still took turns patrolling the high slopes.

Chen Mu's figure occasionally disappeared into the darkness until the next morning, when the sun rose again, the blade wielder from the Yu family came to the high slope and looked out, but couldn't see Chen Mu anywhere.

"The master has left,"

said the county officer quietly.

Feeling slightly relieved, the tense feeling dissipated, and he felt regret that he hadn't achieved anything notable, but he was sure that Chen Mu must have gone to patrol the area and would probably return after some time.

...

Among the wilderness hills.

Chen Mu strolled along, and occasionally when a demon approached from a distance, launching a sudden attack from behind, he simply waved his hand, and these low-rank demons were killed on the spot.

After sorting out only the most valuable items, he discarded the rest, not having the time to bring everything back.

"High-ranking demons are even rarer than I thought,"

said Chen Mu after removing a piece of velvet from a demon deer, slightly shaking his head while looking at the corpse of the deer.

He had patrolled for a day and a night, and had mostly dealt with first and second-rank demons. So far, he hadn't encountered any third-rank demons, which was not quite what he had expected; however, it might just be due to the early stage of the demon chaos.

As he was pondering,

suddenly,

a sharp whistle that broke through the clouds came from the horizon, piercing upwards.

"A single whistle?"

Chen Mu glanced in the direction of the sound and then quickly changed direction, heading towards where the whistle had come from.

A message whistle was needed generally for deeply troubling situations that were completely unmanageable. A single whistle represented a demon that couldn't be dealt with, often of a higher rank, and such a whistle would only spread locally, handled by the Green-Clothed Guard leading a team.

A double whistle meant a large number of demons that couldn't be stopped, crossing the patrol line. This situation would cause continuous responses, with double whistle signals transmitting from segment to segment until reaching the local authorities, who would deploy troops to suppress it.

The last was a triple whistle.

It represented the most severe situation, gathering personnel from an entire locality, and depending on the severity, might even necessitate requesting reinforcements from the county government.

Chen Mu moved very quickly, his feet barely touching the wasteland before leaping out a great distance, his whole figure like a fleeting shadow speeding across the ground, quickly nearing the direction of the message whistle.

At this time.

On a high rock terrain, a member of the Demon-Slaying Office dressed in black was tensely crouching behind a rock, staring intently at the hills in the distance. He saw a yellow-brown snake meandering its way forward.

It was a third-rank demon, a Rock Scale Demon Snake, its scale armor nearly as hard as the rocks themselves, with weaker attacks barely leaving a mark on its surface, a type that the Black-Clothed Guard couldn't handle.

Even,

the Green-Clothed Guard might not be able to defeat it, only able to continually stand off against it to deplete its energy, looking for a way to make it retreat.

He had already used "Camouflage Incense," hiding tightly without making a sound—a method generally effective against normal demons. Unfortunately, his luck was poor this time, encountering a snake-like demon, the Rock Scale Demon Snake.

Among all demons, aside from those that could fly, snake-like ones are almost always particularly troublesome. Depending on the type, their senses vary; some have extremely acute hearing, others rely on scent, and some can even detect body heat.

Hiss, hiss.

The rock-scale demon snake approached the vicinity of the black-clothed guard and flicked its forked tongue, seemingly hesitating.

The black-clothed guard's body stiffened, daring not to make any sound.

But just at this moment, another servant lying on the ground behind him, nervously clutching a rock, accidentally snapped off a corner of the rock and made a 'snap' sound.

Damn!

The face of the black-clothed guard changed.

The hesitant rock-scale demon snake suddenly arched its body, and darted towards the direction where the men were hiding, bouncing like a brown arrow along the rocks, moving at a startling speed.

Just as the black-clothed guard's expression turned ugly and the servant behind him turned pale with fright, a sharp breaking sound came from behind. A beam of blade light coming from afar drew a long arc, slashing towards the swiftly moving rock-scale demon snake.

Whoosh!

The movements of the rock-scale demon snake were extremely sharp, being straight one moment and suddenly arching upwards the next, lifting nearly a third of its body, including its head.

Accompanied by a crack, that beam of blade light finally fell, landing less than three inches in front of the snake. It was a fine iron knife hurled through the air, now completely piercing through the rock.

"Hiss, hiss!"

The rock-scale demon snake stood up straight, its tongue trembling, appearing extremely infuriated.

Ignoring the black-clothed guard and the others, it immediately turned its head and lunged towards the figure below the rock.

"Hmph."

Chen Mu snorted coldly, and although unarmed, he showed no fear. He formed his right hand into a sword strike, hitting the charging snake right at the top of its head, causing its swiftly moving body to momentarily recoil.

"The hardness is sufficient."

Chen Mu looked at the rock-scale demon snake, which only paused slightly after his strike and showed no obvious injuries, and commented indifferently, then he quickly moved and was soon atop the rock, grabbing the handle of the knife, the tip of which protruded out of the rock.

With a clang, he drew out the fine iron knife then suddenly turned around and struck, colliding again with the oncoming rock-scale demon snake, slashing directly on its head, sparking a shower of sparks accompanied by a crisp clanging of metal.

In the shocked gaze of the black-clothed guard, Chen Mu's fine iron knife blade thrust forcefully into it!

"Hiss!!!"

The rock-scale demon snake let out a painful, long hiss as its body recoiled back, with blood pouring from its head and its frenzied, savage gaze significantly receding. It tried to flee.

But Chen Mu's movements never stopped. With an indifferent look in his eyes, he stepped forward, stomping on its tail, and with a horizontal swipe of his fine iron knife, a snap resounded as he brutally severed its body into two halves!

The lower half of the rock-scale demon snake twisted around his ankle, while the upper half burst forth with ferocity, biting menacingly at Chen Mu, albeit ineffectually, as he swiftly hacked it into several pieces.

So powerful!

The black-clothed guard from the Demon Slaying Office nearby gasped as he witnessed this scene. Having encountered a rock-scale demon snake before, he knew that because of their tough scale armor, even a Tendon Changing Perfection-ranked White-Clothed Guard might find it hard to breach their defense with a subpar weapon, at best only wearing it down and forcing it to retreat.

Yet Chen Mu, with the Demon Slaying Office's standard fine iron knife, had chopped it into several pieces in a few strokes; no wonder Xu Hongyu valued him so highly and even decided to transfer him in the council hall.

"Thank you, sir, for your rescue!"

The black-clothed guard climbed up from the rock, bowing respectfully to Chen Mu, his eyes filled with awe.

Chen Mu was busy handling the corpse of the rock-scale demon snake, extracting its gall, heart, and blood, and finally leaving the least valuable meat on the ground. He looked at the black-clothed guard and said indifferently, "Continue your patrol."