I defeated the saint with a parry.

Xu Huaixu returned to the location of the corpse in Xumi.

"wrong."

"The way that old bald monk died is not right."

Xu Huaixu's eyes flashed with wisdom, seeing through all the illusions before him. He saw a faint line of blood on the skeleton of Sumeru, pointing straight into the depths of the mountain.

He recalled that Xu Ling had mentioned in his notes that the heretical cultivation method this person had obtained was found in the mountains.

Xu Huaixu followed the trail to the depths of the mountains. The bloodline suddenly disappeared into the void when it reached this place. Such a method was definitely not something that someone in the Spirit Platform Realm could possess.

That old bald monk did indeed die, but before he died, he became someone else's sacrifice.

Xu Ling severed his physical body, but the dissipated spiritual power and blood energy all benefited the person behind the scenes.

Xu Huaixu frowned and reached out to grab at the void. Suddenly, a cold snort came from the deep space. The person behind the scenes directly severed the bloodline, breaking the connection. Xu Huaixu's search came to nothing.

"Impressive methods, capable of severing even causality. Such a powerful individual must have grand ambitions."

The fact that those heretical cultivation methods were leaked out was probably premeditated.

How could a method that allows an ordinary person to quickly grow into the Spirit Platform Realm or even stronger appear in the deep mountains for no reason? His previous guess was correct.

But the cause and effect of Taoyuan Village have been severed, and there is no point in speculating about it any further.

Xu Huaixu went to the temple again and found that everything was consistent with Xu Ling's report. If time allowed, he would have even considered taking a trip to Zhangye.

However, he also noticed something interesting: the old man and the young man from the Li family seemed a bit strange, their auras were neither like those of ordinary people nor like those of cultivators.

Unfortunately, a considerable amount of time has passed, and the remaining scent is of little reference value.

According to Xu Ling's description, the old servant named Hou Le should be a hidden extraordinary cultivator. The current struggle for the Li family headship is likely to be quite a spectacle.

......

The next day.

Xu Ling reported to the Demon Suppression Division as usual.

Although there are no missions, I can take the opportunity to check out the information updated by the young master.

He first chatted with the two lions at the entrance for a while, and even brought them some braised meat he had bought on the way, before entering the place where he had reported for duty the previous night.

Senior Xu from last night was not here. Sitting at the table was a cultivator at the Concentration Realm. Xu Ling saw a golden waist tag on his waist with the character "斩" (meaning "to slay") engraved on it.

"Greetings, senior."

"Hey, hey, hey, we demon slayers don't address each other as 'senior,' just call me 'senior brother.'" The weapon the man wielded was a long sword, the kind that resembled the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, which stood upright beside him without any support, yet it neither tilted nor fell over, clearly also a spiritual weapon.

"My surname is Zhang, and my given name is Li. How should I address you, junior brother? You look a little unfamiliar; are you new to Fancheng?" Zhang Li asked enthusiastically, "Are you here for your work report?"

Xu Ling handed over his waist token: "Senior Brother Zhang, you can just call me Xu Ling. A senior helped me with my report last night, and I'm here today to see if there are any tasks."

Zhang Li took the waist token with some surprise, because no one from the Demon Suppression Division of Fancheng was on duty at this table at night.

He specifically looked up last night's records and found the name of the person who recorded them to be very familiar. At first glance, he thought he had misread it.

"Xu! Huai! Preface!"

Holy crap Σ(°ロ°)？

Isn't that the name of the town's demon lord?

He was absolutely certain he hadn't mistaken those three words. The person who dared to impersonate the town's guardian within the Demon Division of Fancheng must not yet have been born.

Zhang Li looked up at Xu Ling, then glanced at last night's records.

"I think I misheard. Junior Brother's name should be Xu Ling, right?"

"what?"

Xu Ling frowned. He glanced at the record and saw that even his surname had been changed. He wondered if Senior Brother Zhang had some hearing problems. Xu Ling cupped his hands in a respectful gesture and said politely, "Thank you for your trouble, Senior Brother. My surname is Xu, Anxing. Not Xu."

"Hey, look, it must be because I was drunk last night. My hearing isn't good enough, so I misheard. Don't be offended, junior brother." Zhang Li laughed insincerely, then casually covered the record and asked, "Junior brother, I'm afraid you don't have a suitable task for this trip."

"Junior brother, it's not that I'm hiding anything from you, but there are so many people in Fancheng, and missions are all fought over. If there really were missions, I wouldn't need to be here acting as a clerk."

Xu Ling had just remarked yesterday that the Demon Suppression Bureaus in different places were all different, and today he experienced it firsthand.

The Demon Suppression Division in Zhangye is short-staffed, leaving many tasks unfinished, and the demon scourge in the surrounding area cannot be completely eradicated. Unexpectedly, upon arriving in Fancheng, there are no tasks available.

Xu Ling frowned: "What does Senior Brother do when he's not on a mission?"

Zhang Li patted the table and said with a wry smile, "Those beasts are too fast. When we can't outrun them, we naturally do paperwork or cultivate, like we are now."

When the topic of cultivation came up, he deliberately made a drinking gesture.

"Don't underestimate the tedious nature of clerical work; the rewards are substantial."

Seeing Zhang Li's demeanor, which suggested he knew a great deal about the Demon Suppression Division, and considering his involvement in clerical work, Xu Ling couldn't help but ask, "Senior Brother Zhang, do you know Zhong Song?"

"Brother Zhong! Of course I know him!" Hearing the familiar name, Zhang Li's enthusiasm grew even stronger: "He took on a merchant escort mission a few days ago and has been gone for some time. If you want to find him, you're probably going to be disappointed. You might as well wait a little longer."

"Brother Zhong is a really good person. He has a high alcohol tolerance and excellent character. If I remember correctly, he should take the reward he received this time and start practicing diligently to try and break through to the Concentration Realm."

"Oh, right!" Zhang Li suddenly realized, "Brother Zhong is a local of Fancheng, how does Junior Brother Xu know him?"

Xu Ling was at a loss for words.

Chung Chung is indeed a good person.

"They must have met on the escort mission." Zhang Li looked down at the documents, wanting to find Xu Ling's performance report according to the records, but the book stated that Xu Ling's performance report had been sealed, and he would have to apply to his superiors to view it.

Seeing this, Xu Ling stopped him: "I met Brother Zhong in a dilapidated temple. At that time, facing the encirclement of a Nascent Soul Realm human-faced tiger and more than twenty fox demons, Brother Zhong... sacrificed his life to save people and died at the hands of the human-faced tiger."

"..."

The courtyard remained quiet for a while.

Xu Ling thought Zhang Li would need time to process this, but unexpectedly, he spoke up: "In this world, it's better to die. Junior Brother Xu, there's no need to be nervous. When we joined the Demon Suppression Division, we had already thought about this day coming. Brother Zhong's family is like mine, all alone, and there are no funeral arrangements to make."

"Just build him a cenotaph and pour him a few cups of wine. If Brother Zhong could know this from beyond the grave, he would smile and send us a message in our dreams."

"Those on duty in the Demon Division of Fancheng Town are mostly used to seeing their colleagues off on their final journey, but no one expected it to be him this time."

Zhang Li pointed to the courtyard inside the Demon Suppression Division: "Come with me."

He got up and walked inside, not caring whether anyone would come to report on their duties, since not many demon slayers liked doing clerical work anyway.

"Senior Brother Zhang, don't you need to worry about the work related to the performance review?"

"It's just a part-time job, what's there to be afraid of?"

Zhang Li led Xu Ling to the left side of the third courtyard, where a tall tower stood, and the smell of incense could be smelled as soon as they got close.

From the outside, the tower is only three zhang tall and is quite inconspicuous, just like the stone towers commonly found in temples.

But when Zhang Li pushed open the door, the space that suddenly opened up inside truly amazed Xu Ling.

There were no fancy decorations in the tower. The first thing you saw was a warm golden light shining down from above, its top invisible. Under the light, there were floating memorial tablets, layered and staggered, scattered throughout the space.

As Xu Ling stepped into the tower, a divine sense swept over him, its aggressiveness and coldness sending shivers down his spine.

Zhang Li explained, "This is the spirit of the True Spirit Tower. Everyone who enters this place receives this treatment, so please don't take it personally."

"Only members of our Demon Suppression Division are allowed to enter this place. Any outsiders who dare to approach will not have a good end."

Xu Ling had never been to this place before in Zhangye, so he asked, "Where is this?"

Zhang Li: "When we joined the Demon Suppression Division, we all left our essence and blood at the yamen to make True Spirit Life Tablets. This place is where the True Spirit Tablets are stored."

"Senior!" Zhang Li finished speaking and cupped his hands towards the void, "This junior begs..."

He silently recited the mantra in his heart, and when he opened his eyes again, a dim and cracked palm-sized token was floating in front of him.

Even though he had accepted reality, Zhang Li still felt extremely distressed when he saw Zhong Song's life tablet.

"please!"

Just as Xu Ling was wondering why the memorial tablet and the token he saw were different, Zhang Li spoke up, "Please, senior, help me set up a memorial tablet for my brother Zhong."

"good!"

A response came from the void, and the token automatically melted down, eventually transforming into the same shape as the memorial tablet that Xu Ling had seen.

Chung Chung's information also appeared automatically.