If I, a death row inmate, am not to become a demon, am I to become a member of the Imperial Guard?

Qin Shuang's hands were very cold.

Zhou Yang stood up, holding that hand, but before the warmth of his palm could reach her, she abruptly pulled it back.

Why are your hands so cold?

Qin Shuang stared into his eyes, her brows furrowed deeply. Her intact hand was still suspended in mid-air, her fingertips trembling slightly.

Zhou Yang looked down at the back of his hand. Several faint bluish-black veins were visible beneath his skin, slowly wriggling like worms. This was a sign that the corpse poison had fully erupted. He had feigned death in the blood pool to launch his sneak attack, pushing his zombification to its limit in order to hold his breath.

"Secret medicine."

Zhou Yang grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth. He deliberately moved his shoulders, making a cracking sound.

"The Dragon-Tiger Pill I just took is causing side effects. The effects have worn off and I feel a bit weak; I need to take some tonics."

"You think I've never taken the Dragon Tiger Pill before?" Qin Shuang's voice turned cold. She took a step forward, the scabbard pressed against Zhou Yang's chest. "That stuff will at most make your blood surge, it won't turn you into an ice pop."

"I have a special constitution."

Zhou Yang reached out and grasped the scabbard, gently pushing it open. His fingers brushed against Qin Shuang's tiger's mouth, feeling its rough texture. He chuckled, rubbing his hands together and exhaling a puff of white breath.

"Lord Centurion, shall we take care of business first? This place is so gloomy; staying here too long will easily cause rheumatism. When we get back, could you make me a pot of ginseng and chicken soup, and give me a red envelope containing a thousand or eight hundred taels of silver? I guarantee I'll be full of energy again in no time."

Qin Shuang stared at him for a long time.

Her gaze was like a knife, scraping across Zhou Yang's face. Finally, she withdrew her gaze and turned to walk towards the headless corpse in the center of the stone platform.

"search."

Zhou Yang breathed a sigh of relief and quickly followed. He squatted down and rummaged through the Grand Preceptor's tattered Taoist robe. His fingers touched a hard object, and when he pulled it out, he saw it was a black jade ring.

Storage ring.

Zhou Yang probed in with his mental energy, and his face almost broke into a wide smile.

"It's out!"

He pulled things out one by one. First was a stack of gold notes, each stamped with the seal of Datong Money Exchange, so bright they made one's eyes dizzy in the torchlight. Then came several jade boxes; lifting the lids released a fragrant aroma of medicine. The roots of a thousand-year-old ginseng were still covered in soil, the surface of the lingzhi mushroom shimmered with a purple light, and there were several fist-sized demon beast cores, burning hot to the touch.

"This old thing is really fat." Zhou Yang stuffed the gold notes into his pocket, his movements as practiced as if he were picking cabbages in his own backyard.

Qin Shuang ignored the yellowed and white objects. She picked up a yellowed booklet, flipped through two pages, and her expression suddenly changed.

"come over."

Zhou Yang leaned closer. The booklet was filled with names, each followed by a date and numbers. The more he looked, the more something seemed off.

"This is... an account book?"

"It's the list of offerings." Qin Shuang's fingers gripped the pages tightly, her knuckles turning white. "The list of tributes the royal family presented to the celestial envoys."

She turned to a page and pointed to a line. Zhou Yang squinted and read the words: "Anyang Prefecture, Bingyin year, tribute of three hundred pills of 'Human Elixir,' half taken from boys and half from girls, refined in a blood pool."

Flipping through the pages, there are many more similar records. Not only Anyang Prefecture, but also Yunzhou, Jizhou, Jiangbei Circuit... each place is marked with a number, ranging from dozens to thousands.

"A breeding farm." Zhou Yang clicked his tongue. "This place is a breeding farm."

Qin Shuang slammed the booklet shut. She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, her eyes were filled with coldness.

"Let's blow it up."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Zhou Yang emptied everything from his storage ring into his own pocket, even taking the few demon beast cores. He stood up, dusted off his knees, and said, "You can go out first. I'll bury some gunpowder. I'm good at this; I'll make sure it explodes like an earthquake. Anyone who comes to investigate will be considered to have suffered a natural disaster."

Qin Shuang didn't move. She watched as Zhou Yang took out several dark iron lumps from his storage ring. Those were the standard-issue mountain-breaking mines of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, capable of blowing up half a mountain when detonated.

"What exactly happened to you just now?"

Zhou Yang was stuffing gunpowder into the cracks of the stone pillar, and he didn't even look up when he heard this.

"I'm really fine. It's just that I took too much of the secret medicine, and my meridians are a bit stiff." He paused, then added, "Remember to pay me extra when you get back; this is a work injury."

Qin Shuang pursed her lips. She wanted to say something, but in the end, she simply turned and walked towards the cave entrance.

"A stick of incense."

"Alright, you wait outside, and keep watch for me while you're at it."

As soon as Qin Shuang's footsteps faded into the distance, the smile on Zhou Yang's face vanished instantly. He looked down at his hands; the bluish-black veins had already crept up to his wrists. His fingernails were growing longer, harder, and gleaming coldly.

[Abnormal host life form detected]

[Is it true that the Blood Fiend Body Refining Technique can be developed to its perfect state, but it requires consuming one hundred years of lifespan?]

"Confirmed," Zhou Yang silently repeated to himself.

[Consuming one hundred years of lifespan, the deduction begins]

A sharp pain instantly swept through his entire body. Zhou Yang groaned and knelt on one knee. He felt as if countless tiny knives were scraping his blood vessels, scraping away the necrotic parts bit by bit, reshaping them into tougher tissue. His bones crackled and popped, and his muscle fibers tore and reformed.

The sweat froze into ice crystals as soon as it appeared, then shattered on the ground.

Zhou Yang gritted his teeth, counting his heartbeats. With each beat, the chilling aura emanating from his body subsided. Once his heartbeat returned to a normal rhythm, he raised his hand, and the bluish-black veins had disappeared. His skin now possessed a warm, jade-like hue, looking even healthier than before.

He clenched his fist. The air burst in his palm with a muffled thud.

"This deal is a good one." Zhou Yang grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.

He got up and stuffed the last mine into a crack at the bottom of the blood pool. The fuse was long enough to reach the cave entrance. Zhou Yang took out his tinderbox and glanced back at the cave where he had been for so long.

The blood pool has dried up, and the Grand Preceptor's body still lies beside the stone platform. Everything that happened here will soon become a pile of ruins deep underground.

"Take care." Zhou Yang blew on the tinderbox, "Don't be reborn as a dog in the royal family next time."

He turned and rushed out of the cave.

A deafening roar came from behind, and the ground trembled violently. A shockwave surged from behind, propelling him forward. Zhou Yang rolled over, landing right at Qin Shuang's feet.

Dust filled the air, and gravel rained down.

Qin Shuang reached out and grabbed him by the back of his collar, lifting him up. The two stood on the hillside, watching the ground behind them collapse, forming a huge crater. Groundwater surged up and quickly filled into a small lake.

"It's clean now." Zhou Yang brushed the dust off his clothes and pulled the ledger from his pocket. "What should I do with this?"

Qin Shuang took the booklet and put it into her bosom.

"We'll talk about it when we get back to the yamen." She paused, then took a wine pouch from her waist and tossed it to Zhou Yang. "Have a couple of sips to warm yourself up."

Zhou Yang uncorked the bottle and tilted his head back to take a large gulp. The strong liquor burned his throat, then warmed him all the way down to his stomach. He wiped his mouth and handed the bottle back.

"The cost of the drinks is separate."

Qin Shuang took the wine pouch, unusually refraining from glaring at him. She gazed at the newly formed lake in the distance, its surface tinged crimson by the setting sun.

"How much?"

"It depends on your sincerity." Zhou Yang stretched, his joints cracking. "My demands aren't high. I just want to go back and sleep for three days, eat five good meals, and get a permit to go to the armory and pick out a suitable weapon."

"greedy."

"That's called fair distribution," Zhou Yang grinned, leaning closer. "Lord Centurion, you just said you'd add more money when we got back. If you're short even a penny, I'll come to your house for meals until you go bankrupt."

Qin Shuang glanced at him sideways, then turned and walked down the mountain.

"Keep up. It's getting dark, and the mountains aren't clean."

Zhou Yang quickly caught up, and the two walked side by side on the mountain path. Their shadows were stretched long by the setting sun, overlapping and making it impossible to distinguish one from the other.

The cawing of crows came from afar, shrill and piercing.

Zhou Yang touched the gold notes in his pocket and then the few demon beast cores in his hand, feeling quite pleased. Although he had burned through a hundred years of his lifespan, the gains were worthwhile. More importantly, with the account book in hand, Qin Shuang was now tied to him.

This deal is a good one.