Slaying demons and eliminating evil, a martial saint among mortals.

Soon, the sound of war drums echoed from afar.

Boom!

The armored figure suddenly stood up straight, raised the knife in his hand, and walked towards the depths of Broken Wind Pass.

"Where is he going?"

"They probably went to guard the pass after hearing the drumbeats."

After Lu Chen said this, everyone fell silent.

The soldiers of the Broken Wind Camp have been dead for hundreds of years, but when the drums sound, their remnants still know where they are.

"Don't alert him, let's continue searching."

The four of them continued walking forward, and the trail of blood became more and more obvious, eventually leading to the entrance of a courtyard that had collapsed halfway.

A cracked wooden plaque hung on the gate of the courtyard, with two characters faintly visible on it.

鼓台

Li Hu looked up and glanced at it.

"A war drum platform?"

"No matter where it is, let's go inside first."

Li Hu gently pushed open the half-collapsed door, and as soon as the door opened, an even heavier stench of decay rushed out.

Qin Lie subconsciously raised his hand to block it. After the gray mist dissipated, he saw a high platform standing in the center of the courtyard, with a dilapidated drum on it.

The drumhead was cracked in many places, and the rim was covered in black bloodstains.

What made Qin Lie's scalp tingle was not the war drum, but the person hanging next to the skeleton.

The man was wearing a black outfit from the Demon Suppression Bureau, with several iron hooks piercing his chest.

"Found it!"

The person on the skeleton should be one of the missing leaders.

"Don't go over there!"

Xu Qinghe raised her hand to stop everyone.

Everyone looked at Xu Qinghe with some confusion, but Xu Qinghe just stared at the broken drum.

"There's something on the drum!"

Following Xu Qinghe's gaze, everyone indeed discovered a gray-black figure lying on the drum surface.

The figure had no face, only two hands.

Hands raised high

It's as if they're preparing to beat that war drum once more.

Qin Lie used his Qi Observation Technique to take a look. On the silver-command demon hunter hanging next to the skeleton, there was a very thin red aura wrapped around the iron hook, and then connected to the bottom of the skeleton.

"You can't save him directly. His blood and energy are connected to his skeleton. If you touch him or damage the iron hook, the thing on that drum might go berserk."

Li Hu's face immediately turned ugly.

"What the hell is this thing? The person is almost dead and can't you save them?"

Xu Qinghe's brows furrowed slightly.

"There's no other way; we're using the lifeblood of the living to nourish those remnants of the soul."

"The drum sound that the villagers heard yesterday should not have come from this drum."

"This drum is no ordinary drum; it must have been the war drum used by the Duanfeng Camp to relay orders back then. When the drum sounded, the resentment of all the old soldiers in Duanfeng Pass would be awakened."

Looking at the skeleton of the Silver Token Demon Hunter, Lu Chen asked, "Qin Lie, is he still alive?"

Qin Lie stared at the red aura for a long time.

"The person is still alive, but their vital energy is very weak. If this continues, things might get complicated."

Li Hu was getting a little anxious.

"Then what are we waiting for? Qinghe, don't you know how to seal souls? You suppress that war drum first, and I'll go get the person over here."

Xu Qinghe did not agree immediately, but looked at Lu Chen instead.

"I can try, but I can only suppress it for a while. The lingering resentment wrapped around that drum is very strong. It must be the mixed thoughts of many people. If I can't suppress it, the drum will continue to sound."

What would happen if the drums were to sound?

"We just saw the remnants of the old pass start to move from outside. If another sound comes from here at close range, the remnants of the old soldiers all around the ancient platform will be awakened, and then we will be surrounded."

"Not only can I not save anyone, but I probably won't be able to get out myself either."

After hearing Xu Qinghe's words, everyone was at a loss.

"Actually, it's not necessary to suppress everything."

Qin Lie sensed some clues through his Qi Observation Technique.

"What did you see?"

Qin Lie pointed to the area under the drum stand.

"That red aura wasn't directly connected to the drumhead. It first went under the drum stand. There seemed to be a nail under the drum stand, and the nail was wrapped with death energy and that person's aura. If we cut that nail first, we should be able to separate it from the war drum."

Li Hu glanced down. The light under the drum stand was dim, and the ground was covered with dust and wood chips. An ordinary person couldn't see what Qin Lie was talking about at all.

Lu Chen looked at Xu Qinghe.

"How long can you hold back?"

Xu Qinghe opened the booklet and pressed her finger on one of the pages.

"If we're not affected by the drumbeats, it will probably last ten breaths."

After hearing Xu Qinghe's words, Lu Chen did not hesitate.

"Ten breaths is enough, Qinghe. Suppress that gray shadow on the drum. Qin Lie, point out the location of the nail. Li Hu, save the people. I'll cut the nail!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qinghe took a step forward, and the booklet in her hand automatically opened, the pages rustling in the wind.

But there was clearly no wind in the yard.

The pages stopped abruptly in the middle. Xu Qinghe raised her hand and gently tapped the paper, and a yellowed page flew out of the booklet.

There were black characters on the paper, and those characters seemed to come alive, crawling out of the paper.

Xu Qinghe whispered a soft snort.

"seal up!"

The piece of paper suddenly flew towards the war drum and stuck to its surface.

The gray figure on the drum surface immediately froze.

Xu Qinghe's face was slightly pale at this moment.

"He's struggling to break free, you need to be quick."

Lu Chen immediately looked at Qin Lie.

"Location!"

Qin Lie didn't dare to delay and immediately pointed to the lower left of the drum stand.

"Under that broken piece of wood that's close to the ground, there's a black nail; that's where the blood and qi enter."

The next second, Lu Chen's figure flashed and he was already next to the drum stand.

The long sword was drawn.

He flicked the finger diagonally downwards from where Qin Lie was pointing.

boom!

A piece of broken wood was thrown into the air.

Sure enough, a black nail was visible underneath.

Lu Chen pressed his long sword down, the blade slicing along the ground, cleaving the black iron nail in two.

At the same time, the silver-command demon hunter hanging next to the drum stand suddenly trembled, and several blood lines on his chest broke off.

"Now!"

Li Hu had been waiting for these words. He rushed up to the platform and grabbed the shoulder of the silver-command demon hunter.

"Bro, just bear with it!"

After saying that, he directly cut the chain next to the iron hook with a single stroke. The man's body fell down, but Li Hu caught him and turned to jump off the stage.

"It's done!"

After the silver-command demon hunter was rescued, Li Hu immediately laid him flat, and Xu Qinghe came over to check his wounds.

"The person is still alive, but most of their vital energy has been drained. If it had been any later, they wouldn't have been able to be saved."

Lu Chen squatted down, took out a pill and put it into the man's mouth, then pressed his hand against the man's chest and transferred a breath of blood into him.

After a long while, the Silver Token Demon Hunter suddenly coughed and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Qin Lie took a step forward. The silver-command demon hunter's eyes were half-open, but his gaze was unfocused.

As if he hadn't woken up from a dream, he kept muttering something over and over.

Lu Chen moved closer, trying to hear what he was saying.

"Wake up, can you hear me?"

"I'm from the Demon Slayer Division of Dongxuan Town, Lu Chen. What happened after you came in?"

The silver-ranked demon hunter's lips moved, but no one could hear what he was saying.

Lu Chen asked again.

"Where is the other person? What did you see?"

The silver-ranked demon hunter suddenly grabbed Lu Chen's sleeve.

"Don't……"

"Don't go to the main hall..."

Lu Chen frowned slightly.

"What's inside the main hall?"

Silver Order Demon Hunter's breathing suddenly became rapid. He seemed to have thought of something terrible, and his whole body was trembling.

"He's awake..."

"The demon-suppressing nails have loosened..."

"Who woke up? Explain yourself!"

Silver Order Demon Hunter's lips trembled as he finally uttered a name.

"Pei..."

"Pei Jinghan!"

After saying those three words, his head lolled to the side and he fainted again.

The courtyard immediately fell silent.

Qin Lie looked at Lu Chen, and he could tell that Lu Chen's expression had completely changed.

Li Hu stopped joking.

Xu Qinghe looked down at her booklet, her pen hovering over the paper for a long time without falling.

Qin Lie couldn't help but ask a question.

Who is Pei Jinghan?

Lu Chen looked up at the outside of the ancient platform.

Deep within the old pass, a dark gray aura was slowly gathering towards the main hall.

After a moment, he finally spoke.

"Commander of the Broken Wind Camp!"

"The people who guarded Broken Wind Gorge a hundred years ago!"

"He's also the last person in the case file who shouldn't have woken up."

Qin Lie was somewhat puzzled; he had heard Old Zhao mention this name before.

"Pei Jinghan, isn't he a hero of the human race? Why is he sealed away beneath the pass?"

Upon asking this question, Li Hu also looked at Lu Chen, clearly indicating that even Li Hu didn't know much about this matter.

Lu Chen remained silent for a moment.

"It's not written very clearly in the case file, or rather, ordinary case files don't dare to write it very clearly."

"All I know is that Pei Jinghan did not die a normal death in battle. After the Duanfeng Camp was wiped out, a seal was added to Duanfeng Pass, and what was pressed inside the seal was related to Pei Jinghan."

After Lu Chen finished explaining, Qin Lie was even more confused.

A general who guarded the old pass of the human race eventually became something sealed away by the Demon Suppression Bureau.

"Should we retreat now?"

Xu Qinghe did not answer, but looked at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen looked towards the main hall and spoke after a long while.

"We can't just retreat now."

"Why? The silver token said not to go to the main hall. If we go there now, aren't we just heading into the most dangerous place?"

In Qin Lie's view, their mission was complete. They were there to investigate, and now they had gathered useful information. The rest should be reported back to the department so that the department could decide whether to send in experts.

"You're right, the main hall must be very dangerous, but we didn't come in here to kill Pei Jinghan."

"We still need to confirm one more thing: if the seal has loosened, to what extent has it loosened?"

"If it's only slightly loosened, we're perfectly capable of handling it. If it's loosened too much, we'll need to notify Commander Han to come and deal with it."

"There are still people waiting for our news to save their lives."