With half a game of chess, I vanquish all demons!

Hey~

Zhao Yao pushed himself up from the ground, and couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

Although he had his back to Song Angran and couldn't see his expression, he could already guess at his gloating look.

The blatant malice of this military officer reminded him of some of the bad people he had encountered in the post-apocalyptic world.

He had killed countless such despicable people in the past, yet now he had to endure it again and again.

Ultimately, it's because they're too weak!

I need to get involved in martial arts as soon as possible, or obtain more pills to increase my vital energy.

"Haha~ Just kidding, are you alright?"

Song Angran chuckled and pretended to be concerned from a distance.

"Don't worry, sir, I'm fine."

Zhao Yao turned to look at him, pressed her chest where she had been bumped, and shook her head as if she were injured.

"Look at you, you're so careless. It was just a joke, how did you end up getting hurt?"

Song Angran, on the contrary, cheerfully blamed Zhao Yao.

"My lord, there's no need to worry about me... Is this man a villager from this area? What's wrong with him?"

"Are you really alright? I'm relieved that you're alright."

As for this person, he is indeed a villager, but he has been corrupted by a demon and lured into possessing demonic nature.

You absolutely must not go near him again; he will definitely attack you again.

"Is there really a demon here? The village of Shanyin is deserted, could it be...?"

"You guessed right, all three villages have been ravaged by the demon, and all the villagers corrupted by the demon have been taken under my control... Tch~ What's with that expression? What a coward! Heh~"

Song Angran pointed at Zhao Yao's wary expression upon hearing this, and sneered disdainfully and without any respect.

He looked at Zhao Yao with disdain, and then said:

"No need to worry too much! The demon has already fled, and even if it were still here, it might not be a match for me."

Furthermore, I have already reported the situation here, and soon the superiors of the Heavenly Dao Division will send people to hunt down the demons and deal with these villagers as well, helping them to eliminate the demonic nature within them.

...Next, I'll make my usual trip to Shanyang Village to see if there are any descendants who have ascended from the lower realm.

Are you still going to follow me?

At this point, Song Angran made a suggestion, but the way he glanced at people clearly showed that he didn't want Zhao Yao to come along.

He was like that before; even if he didn't want anyone to follow him, he would still ask questions, and no one knew what the inside story was.

"That's just how it is."

Zhao Yao looked at him and gave the same answer again.

"You'd better not come with me."

These villagers have all been corrupted by the demon, and to prevent them from causing trouble, someone needs to stay here to guard them. You should just stay here obediently.

Perhaps because his previous cold shoulder had no effect, Song Angran now spoke to him gently.

"You jest, sir. It is my duty to follow you and record documents. I already regretted missing you by three days before. How could I make a mistake on top of that?"

If the official doesn't like the students taking notes, the students can simply stop writing, but they should still follow along.

Song Angran watched Zhao Yao finish speaking, and did not respond for a moment.

He remained silent for a long while, then looked at Zhao Yao's head before slowly saying:

"Judging from your disheveled hair, you may not be the student from the county school I'm assigned to."

"..."

Now it was Zhao Yao's turn to fall silent.

He touched the hair he had cut himself, and he hadn't expected this person to threaten him so directly.

The student suddenly understood that the official's arrangement made sense.

These villagers who have been corrupted by the demon need to be watched over.

"You may leave, sir; I will remain here."

Zhao Yao bowed, then decisively changed his mind.

"Hmph~ You ungrateful wretch! You won't listen to reason, so you'll have to suffer the consequences."

Song Angran muttered something to himself in a very low voice, just enough for Zhao Yao to hear.

Zhao Yao, however, seemed deaf, his expression remaining unchanged.

"Then you can stay here."

After saying this, Song Angran didn't want to say another word and immediately left the place, walking along the mountain path towards the mountain peak.

Zhao Yao watched him leave, silently counting the 'sins' committed by this military officer during their brief time together.

"We agreed to meet at the foot of the mountain, but you came up the mountain alone first and then turned around and accused me in a bad manner."

Then they tried to trick me into writing false documents, and they even hit me, threatened me, and insulted me... I remember it all.

You don't want me to write it down, huh? Fine, I'll write it all down for you.

He's currently no match for this person in terms of physical strength, so he can only try to win in spirit for now.

Standing in front of the Ascension Pool.

Zhao Yao looked around the village and pounded his chest with his fist.

He could have dodged the villager's blow, but he deliberately took it to avoid arousing Song Angran's suspicion.

But who knew he wouldn't even let anyone follow him? This time, he got hurt for nothing.

Next, Zhao Yao began his exploration, starting from the first house on the street.

bang~

He pushed open the courtyard gate and saw another person in the courtyard who was also tied up with a rope by Song Angran.

The man's arms and legs were twisted in a strange way, suggesting that they were broken by Song Angran before being tied up.

"You bitch! You bitch!"

This man had dead fish eyes, staring straight at Zhao Yao, as if he were possessed, repeatedly muttering these words to himself.

Zhao Yao frowned and glanced at him, but without lingering, she went straight into the room and began searching.

Next, he went to other people's houses and searched them again.

He followed the same method and quickly searched almost the entire village.

"This is supposed to be a village, how come there are only a few bottles of pills?"

Back at the Ascension Pool, Zhao Yao held several bottles of the pills he had found in his hand, sighed, and suddenly a thought struck him.

"Could it be that Song Angran ransacked the place?"

He recalled details from the villagers' homes and realized that this guess was very likely.

It's impossible for every household in a village to be penniless, and Zhao Yao indeed didn't see much money, even among those whose houses were well-built.

This is very abnormal.

"So that's why I insisted on going up the mountain early, and why I immediately turned hostile when I tried to record things truthfully."

Zhao Yaoming understood this point and planned to write this conjecture into the written record later.

Then, he opened the medicine bottle, took out the medicine without hesitation, and swallowed it.

The pill took effect immediately.

He routinely gathered and accumulated vital energy within his body, and without stopping, began to ransack the last few houses.

In almost every household, there was one or more demon-infected villagers who were tied up, and these last few households were no exception.

The difference is that the person Zhao Yao is now entering is a young woman who is tied up, and she is bound by an unusually large number of ropes.

"Child, run! Run fast!"

Bound by ropes, the woman writhed, repeating the same phrase over and over.

Zhao Yao walked past her, went inside and searched the room, but found nothing.

He walked out of the house and looked at the woman again, then suddenly froze.

He felt like he'd seen that face somewhere before.