Seeking the Flying Sword Path

It was a day with good weather at a village with a population of thousands. The guards were on alert on an arrow tower while the children in the village were running around. The scene was peaceful and quiet.

Phew! Phew! Phew!

Three black-robed figures revealed themselves from three black-colored twisters that descended. They were a flood dragon demon, a leopard demon, and a cat demon.

"Demons! Demons!"

"Run!"

"Demons! Children, my children!"

The villagers broke out in hysteria. Some even rushed forward to carry their children away.

The flood dragon demon scanned the surroundings. "Take action. Do it as fast as possible."

"Yes, Brother." The leopard and cat demon replied before they immediately took action.

They transformed into two black streams of light that shuttled through the various regions of the village.

As for the flood dragon, he exhaled deeply. The breath he exhaled was slightly dark in color. It swept through every corner of the village like a gust of wind. Any villager that made contact with it would collapse to the ground silently. Their bodies turned thin as their flesh and blood were absorbed clean. The black breath also gradually suffused the color of blood...

The black breath howled in every corner. The crimson color turned richer as more lives were culled.

"Release the Sounding Arrows!"

"Release the Sounding Arrows!"

The village guards shouted with burning eyes.

Immediately, a Sounding Arrow sounded with an ear-piercing shrill. However, the surrounding Heaven and Earth powers had insulated the sound, causing the Sounding Arrow from being effective a distance away.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

The leopard and cat demons flitted around crazily and wherever they passed, injuries would appear on the villagers’ bodies. In addition, their bodies would rapidly shrivel into what seemed like desiccated corpses.

There were villagers who ran desperately with their children out the village. However, the Heaven and Earth powers lifted them up into the sky as they were thrown back into the village. Then, a black wind with the color of blood would rip through them, shriveling the villagers and their children’s body into breathless husks.

It took less than thirty seconds from beginning to end before the entire village with a population of thousands was wiped out.

"Heave—" The flood dragon suddenly took a deep breath as the black breath brought back with it dense and rich sanguine light. It was absorbed into the flood dragon’s nose and mouth.

After he finished the absorption, the flood dragon demon sat cross-legged and began cultivating quietly.

Phew! Phew!

The leopard and cat demons flew back and immediately sat by the side to cultivate.

"Is it done?" Moments later, the flood dragon looked at his partners.

"Yea." The leopard and cat demons nodded.

The flood dragon solemnly took out a unique black figurine. It was about a foot long but it was a Fiendcelestial figurine that emitted a strange captivating allure.

"Phew." The flood dragon immediately opened his mouth and spewed out a blood-colored beam that shot towards the Fiendcelestial figurine.

The leopard and cat demons also spewed out two blood-colored beams that fused into the Fiendcelestial figurine.

When the blood-colored beams infused the ordinary-looking Fiendcelestial figurine, it emitted all sorts of strange lights. The figurine’s eyes turned much brighter as though it was alive as it looked at the three demons in front of it.

The three demons only rested after they finished spewing out the sanguine beams from their mouths.

"Thousands of humans have been dedicated to the Fiendcelestial. With this batch, I estimate that we have gathered nearly half of the flesh and blood powers required. It will be over once we finish gathering everything." The flood dragon put away the Fiendcelestial figurine.

The leopard demon snorted angrily, "We have never left a trace in Cloud Prefecture before. Human cultivators did not even know that the crimes were done by us from Evil Dragon Mountain. Who knew that in one of the villages we slaughtered, one of the men had a secret relationship with a fox demoness. That fox demoness pursued us crazily and even prompted the Inspector Heavenly Alliance to discover our Evil Dragon Mountain. The twelve counts of village massacres were piled on us. Now, we don’t even dare to return to Evil Dragon Mountain."

The cat demoness’s voice was a little colder. "Second Brother, back when we slaughtered the humans with Eldest Brother, we knew the outcome of being exposed. Eldest Brother’s cultivation had reached a most critical juncture. As long as he broke through, he would be at the Connate Golden Core realm. Back then, we took the risk to engage in the slaughters...but it was previously agreed upon. There’s no need to feel any regret now."

"I don’t regret it. I only blame it on that fox demoness. She forced us to escape to the Lu Prefecture," said the leopard demon.

The flood dragon let out a rapturous laugh. "The amount of flesh and blood dedicated is almost half done. Once all of it is dedicated, the Fiendcelestial will bestow me with great gifts. My fiendish body would improve again and I’ll break through to the Connate Golden Core realm. As for you two, the Fiendcelestial will likely bestow you with something, allowing your strength to greatly increase. When the time comes, would we be afraid of the Inspector Heavenly Alliance? And that six-tailed fox demoness thinks that we can’t do anything to her because of her movement techniques. When I enter the Golden Core realm, I’ll squeeze her to death directly! No, I’ll capture her and torture her to death!"

"Yes, torture her to death," said the leopard demon immediately.

"Second Brother, Third Sister. Quickly deal with the village. Make it clean. I do not want the Inspector Heavenly Alliance to suspect that the slaughtering of this village is a result of our Evil Dragon Mountain. After you are done, we shall leave this county and head for the next."

"Alright, Brother."

The leopard and cat demon proceeded to carry out the orders.

Moments later—

The three great demons left the village with the wind. It was only night time when soldiers from the local on-site inspection office discovered that the village’s villagers were all dead.

Everyone was dead?

The local on-site inspection office immediately informed the higher-ups. News reached County Governor Manor before reaching Lu Prefecture’s prefecture overseer! The prefecture overseer was infuriated as he immediately sent forces to investigate!

...

In the clouds.

The flood dragon great demon and the other two demons were flying.

"Oh?" Suddenly, they came to a halt.

"Brother, what’s the matter?" The leopard and cat demons were puzzled.

The flood dragon flipped his hand and produced a bronze mirror. A blood-colored flood dragon with unfathomable might appeared in the mirror.

"Senior." The flood dragon immediately spoke respectfully.

"Lou Li, I heard you are pursued by the Inspector Heavenly Alliance after you slaughtered humans in Cloud Prefecture?" The blood-colored flood dragon said, "You were too rash."

"It was because a fox demoness had leaked the information. But whatever, I have already made plans." The flood dragon laughed, "Senior, is there something good that Myriad Temple has for me?"

"There is one." The blood-colored flood dragon said, "In Jiang Prefecture’s Grand Dominance, there is a cultivator by the name of Qin Yun. He is a newly promoted Azure-token Inspector Heavenly Ambassador."

"I’ve heard of him." The flood dragon nodded. "For an itinerant sword immortal to be that powerful is truly rare."

"Kill him and you will be rewarded with two Immortal Crystals," said the blood-colored flood dragon.

The flood dragon’s eyes lit up as he nodded, "Alright, I’ll accept the mission."

"How long will it take to complete it?" asked the blood-colored flood dragon.

"It can’t be rushed. In three months," replied the flood dragon.

"Alright, this is Qin Yun’s detailed information. Read it carefully." The dragon cut off the communication once it was done speaking. Rows of dense text appeared on the bronze mirror.

The flood dragon read it carefully with the leopard and cat demons.

"Brother, are you going to kill the sword immortal, Qin Yun?" The leopard demon asked. "Aren’t we busy with the sacrifice?"

"We have been extremely careful while gathering the powers from the flesh and blood. Every village we wipe out needs us to flee five hundred kilometers away. We wait for a period of time before taking action again carefully. This way, the Inspector Heavenly Alliance might not be able to find us, but to gather all the powers from the flesh and blood would probably take a year or two." The flood dragon said, "Our original plan was to travel across the various prefectures. Let’s go to the Jiang Prefecture while passing by it. By killing that Qin Yun, I can obtain two Immortal Crystals. With what I have previously accumulated... I can exchange for some treasures and attempt another breakthrough. Perhaps, I might be able to directly break through into the Connate Golden Core realm."

"Even if the breakthrough doesn’t happen, it will ensure a robust foundation."

"When we gather enough power from the flesh and blood, the Fiendcelestial would bestow its grace on us. The more robust my foundation, the higher my chances of me entering the Connate Golden Core realm," said the flood dragon.

Although he was about to break through, it was still the gap between the Connate True Core to the Golden Core. He did not have the confidence of succeeding either.

Naturally, it was best if he made even more preparations.

"Well, when we kill Qin Yun, we can also take advantage of wiping out more villagers as a byproduct of the battle," said the cat demoness.

"Killing an Azure-token Inspector Heavenly Ambassador is indeed very simple through our collective efforts." The leopard demon was very confident as well.

They had the capacity to be confident.

Evil Dragon Mountain’s three demon monarchs, Flood Dragon King Lou Li was a flood dragon himself. He was naturally born strong! Furthermore, he had cultivated in Fiendcelestial heritage and now, his accumulation of power meant that he could break through to the Connate Golden Core at any time! While fleeing recently, the Inspector Heavenly Alliance had sent Golden Core realm cultivators but he had managed to successfully escape.

Although the other two great demon monarchs were much weaker, their strength was exceedingly close to an Azure-token Inspector Heavenly Ambassador.

The trio was collectively infamous.

This time, they were hoping to amass a large amount of blood and flesh, allowing the Flood Dragon King to break through into the Connate Golden Core realm.

...

With so many fiendish demons in the world, there were some that entrenched themselves in a particular area and there were others that scattered themselves in various parts of the world.

There were two reasons why one would wander the world. First, they lacked the ability to protect themselves. By settling down in one area, they were afraid of being vanquished by cultivators! Therefore, they could only wander the world. The other possibility was that they were too cruel and had wreaked too much havoc. For example, the Inspector Heavenly Alliance did its best to hunt down Evil Dragon Mountain’s three demon monarchs! They naturally could not stay in one place and had to wander everywhere.

Such wandering fiendish demons were even crueler!

To the Evil Dragon Mountain’s three demon monarchs, killing Qin Yun was a freelance job done on the way past Jiang Prefecture!

An Azure-token Inspector Heavenly Ambassador?

They did not think anything of him.

******

Grand Dominance. Qin Manor.

Qin Yun and Yi Xiao were by the lake discussing the Dharmic Dao. Of course, about a third of the lake belonged to the massive Qin Manor’s grounds.

"Second Young Master! Second Young Master!" Far away, Ah Gui shouted from the yard entrance.

"Oh?" Qin Yun stopped in puzzlement. "Ah Gui, what’s the matter?"

"Second Young Master, a cultivator has come to our residence and wants to be a distinguished mercenary of our Qin Manor," said Ah Gui immediately.