Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

Soon they arrived at the entrance of the alley next to the street they had just been on. Looking at the alley, Ning Xiu thought for a moment, but still chose to go in. He wanted to find out exactly what had happened.

Relying on his memory, Ning Xiu quickly arrived at the location of the tiled house, only to find that there was no tiled house at all. In front of Ning Xiu was just a solid wall, clearly an ordinary alley.

Seeing an old man pushing a cart walk by, Ning Xiu quickly called out to him and asked, "Grandpa, has this place always been just a wall? Has a tiled house ever been built here?"

The old man scratched his head blankly and said, "This wall has been there for more than 20 years. I even helped build it when it was first built. It was built on an empty lot, and there were no tiled houses."

Ning Xiu asked again, "Did a blind old woman ever live around here?"

"There is one lame person, but no one blind."

The old man glanced at Ning Xiu suspiciously, then quickly pushed his cart away, muttering to himself, "This young man seems so strange, always asking about things that never happened."

After receiving the response from the locals, Ning Xiu was completely confused. It seemed that what had just happened was definitely not something he could access at this stage.

That must be some powerful supernatural ability, and the old woman is a powerhouse far surpassing the first rank.

Since that's the case, Ning Xiu stopped worrying about investigating the matter. In any case, without the old woman's explanation, he probably wouldn't be able to figure out what had just happened in the short term.

The problem Ning Xiu is facing now is that the old woman said before she disappeared that she entrusted her granddaughter, Aying, to his care.

Ning Xiu could help with this, but here's the problem: where is the thin little girl next to the old woman?

The people are nowhere to be found, their whereabouts unknown. Where am I supposed to go to take care of them?

Just as Ning Xiu was wondering what was going on, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.

He turned his head and saw a slender and tall beauty walking slowly towards him. She was wearing a white dress, a hat with white veils hanging down her head, and holding a broad knife wrapped in animal skin. She was very eye-catching.

"Lord Ning." The beauty lifted the white veil in front of her with one hand, revealing her true face.

With her familiar, snow-white skin, even though the woman in front of him looked to be around twenty-one or twenty-two, Ning Xiu could still see the shadow of the thin little girl A Ying in her at a glance.

"Are you Aying?"

"Lord Ning, it's me," A-Ying said with a light laugh.

The little girl has grown into a young woman, and she has become even more beautiful and charming.

On their way to the yamen (government office), the two began to talk to each other.

"What exactly happened? When I saw you in that tiled house, you were just a little kid this tall. How did you grow up so much in the blink of an eye?" Ning Xiu asked, puzzled.

Aying was also quite puzzled by this question, because what she had experienced was not like that at all.

"After Grandma finished speaking that day, Lord Ning left. A few years later, before she left, Grandma specifically instructed me to come here every year on this day to see if I could meet you. If I did, I would stay by your side and work under you. I have been here for many years now, but I never expected to actually meet you today, Lord Ning."

“Several years…” Ning Xiu pondered.

Was it that his own time was stolen, or was it that the time Ah Ying was in was not the same as his own?

Regardless of which one it is, the old woman's methods are far too terrifying; she is simply beyond Ning Xiu's current reach.

His identity and origins are shrouded in mystery.

It could even be said that no one in the entire Shang Dynasty knew of a powerful figure who could rival the old woman.

Ning Xiu immediately pulled over a passerby and asked, "Excuse me, what year is it this year?"

"Eighty-nine years of Shangwu, what happened?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Hearing the answer, Ning Xiu breathed a sigh of relief. The answer was consistent with the year he knew, which meant that he was not affected. This made Ning Xiu feel much more at ease.

Upon arriving at the yamen, Ning Xiu asked the yamen runners for information and soon met Chang Fenghai, who had been waiting for Ning Xiu to return.

After the other party revealed that he was a Demon-Slaying Captain of the Copper Leopard Squad, he immediately received preferential treatment from the city guard and his status was elevated.

When Chang Fenghai came out to see Ning Xiu, the city garrison commander also came out and greeted Ning Xiu.

"My lord, the sorcerer has been imprisoned. The prison cart specifically for sorcerers is ready, and we can set off at any time to return to Jingzhou," Chang Fenghai said.

“Very good.” Ning Xiu nodded: “Then this time you will carry out the escort mission with our new team member, A Ying. See if there are any other demons imprisoned in this prefecture. Transport all the ones that need to be escorted back to the Demon Subduing Division.”

Currently, in Ning Xiu's Bronze Leopard Squad, there is a young genius named Chen Peifeng with a light red aura.

Chang Fenghai, who, although not a cultivator, is connected to two powerful demon immortals through his own connections.

A Ying, a mysterious figure with a powerful background, is a descendant of a great being.

The team is becoming increasingly well-organized, and under Ning Xiu's leadership, it is likely that his team will become famous within the Demon Subduing Division in the future.

"Lord Ning, what about you?" A-Ying asked when she heard Ning Xiu assign her a mission.

"I need to go out for a few days. After you take the demons here back to the Demon Subduing Division, just wait for me to return in Chaotian Capital."

Aying: "Okay, I understand."

Although Aying is already a grown woman, she still appears somewhat naive and innocent. Chang Fenghai, on the other hand, has been a shaman for many years and has been taught by a demon immortal, so he is naturally reliable in handling matters.

The two returned to the capital, and with Chang Fenghai taking care of Aying, Ning Xiu felt at ease. After giving some instructions, he quickly left the city, met up with the Demon Buddha and the Flood Dragon, and headed directly to the northern border.

The matter of capturing Fang Jingzhou and bringing back the Vermilion Bird Blood cannot be delayed any longer.

In the long run, either other Demon Slayers might complete their missions first, or Fang Jingzhou might completely hide in the outer realms, making it impossible to track him down even with the Demon Slayers' powerful intelligence network.

……

After hundreds of years of stalemate, the territory of the Great Shang Dynasty and the other states that had not yet been recovered had undergone tremendous environmental changes.

In places where evil spirits have long been occupied, yin and evil energy abound, causing changes in the land environment. The plants contain yin and evil toxins, and their sap has a corrosive effect.

While it is more suitable for evil spirits to live in, it also means that humans cannot stay here for long.

Therefore, the states and territories outside the borders are now referred to as 'outer regions' by the people of the Shang Dynasty.

The outer realms are dangerous, teeming with powerful evil spirits, but also hold great opportunities.

Someone once discovered a rare material called 'Heavenly Crystal Stone' in an outer realm. It was mined from a piece of corroded ore and sold for tens of thousands of taels of gold, allowing him to enjoy wealth and luxury for the rest of his life.

Some people simply vanished into the outer realms, their fate unknown.

To prevent evil spirits or demons who have fled to other regions from infiltrating the territory of the Great Shang Dynasty, the Demon Subduing Division has set up an extremely long defensive line on the border.

It is divided into three major border defense zones: Seven Killings, Greedy Wolf, and Broken Army, each guarding the border in the north, west, and south directions.

Sixiang Prefecture is located in the northwest. To get there, you need to reach the Greedy Wolf Defense Zone and obtain permission from the border garrison general before you can leave the Great Shang Dynasty.

As Ning Xiu made his way to the Greedy Wolf Defense Zone, he saw an increasing number of Black Feather Falcons along the way, each one representing a summons to subdue demons.

You will never see a Black Feather Falcon even if you stay in Chaotian; that is the safest place in the entire Shang Dynasty.

This clearly shows that the closer one gets to the border, the more critical the situation becomes.

The safety and peaceful life in Jingzhou were all thanks to the hard work of the soldiers and the Demon-Subduing Officers on the frontier.

On the sparsely vegetated land, a steel city wall stretching to the horizon, entirely cast from copper and iron, stands.

Even though you are thousands of miles apart, you can feel the oppressive feeling coming your way.

The feeling didn't come from the city walls, but from outside them.

Outside the city walls, the sky was filled with thick, gray clouds, as dark as snow, obscuring the sun and making the sky appear gloomy and dark.

As Ning Xiu rode the dragon closer, a cavalry unit quickly arrived from afar and intercepted him.

"Who goes there?" the leading cavalry captain asked, brandishing his gun.

"Ning Xiu, the Copper Leopard Demon Subduer, has received the summons for the Demon Subduing Ceremony and is preparing to travel to the Four Symbols Prefecture today," Ning Xiu said, taking out his Copper Leopard token.

"Is this your mount?" the cavalry captain asked.

"Yes."

"Go ahead, but keep it under control and don't let it cause chaos in the defense zone, or even the Demon-Subduing Captain's mount will be punished." The cavalry captain waved his hand, indicating that Ning Xiu could pass.

As expected of the Great Shang's frontier, even the captain of a patrol team possesses the strength of a fifth-rank martial artist, while the others are at the sixth or seventh rank. It seems that the Great Shang's true strength is mostly deployed in the three major defense zones.

Riding a dragon through the city gate, the Demon Buddha followed closely behind.

After passing through the city gate, which was several meters deep, the scene outside immediately came into Ning Xiu's eyes, causing his expression to turn serious.

Traces were everywhere, signs of an attack. The ground and walls bore numerous teeth marks, claw marks, and cracks.

Some of the claw marks were as long as three people combined, which shows how huge the creature that attacked them was.

The ground was scarred with battle marks, and the bloodstains were so deep that they could not be washed away.

Everyone who passed by Ning Xiu carried an intense killing intent and bloodlust, an aura that could only be honed through countless life-or-death battles.

This is inside the city wall. We still need to pass through another gate to officially leave the territory of the Great Shang Dynasty and enter the Sixiang Prefecture.

The moment the dragon beneath Ning Xiu crawled out of the city gate, it immediately attracted the attention of many passersby.

As one of the most powerful types of demons, very few people are capable of taming a dragon, and it is virtually impossible to see a dragon coming to such a place on a normal day.

Therefore, many people focused their attention on Ning Xiu, who was sitting on the back of the dragon. The fact that he could tame a dragon as a mount meant that his strength must be considerable.

Everyone quickly realized that they couldn't see through Ning Xiu's true strength.

He was shrouded in a mist, preventing anyone from observing him.

【112】Blood God Worm

On the frontier, the most common sights are the Demon-Subduing Commanders and soldiers.

As soon as Ning Xiu entered the city wall, he saw many Demon-Subduing Guards wearing black silver chainmail. They all looked hurried and rushed. They only glanced at Ning Xiu's arrival before quickly going back to their own business.

The borderlands are never short of experts. Although riding a dragon would be quite unique, other rare and exotic beasts are not good mounts either, so it didn't attract too much attention for the Demon Subduer.

Ning Xiu jumped off the dragon's back, stopped a patrolling soldier holding a long spear, and asked him where the checkpoint was located.

If you want to leave or enter the border region, you need to register your identity so that people know that someone has left the Great Shang and entered the Great Shang.

After leaving his identification information at the checkpoint, Ning Xiu didn't linger and immediately left the border city wall with the Flood Dragon and the Demon Buddha.

Stepping out of the second gate, the desolate landscape of the outer realm immediately came into view.

Outside the city walls, less than seven feet away, the ground was scorched black, emitting a strong, corrosive stench, and not a single blade of grass could grow.

The borderlands and the demon kingdoms of the outer regions often clashed in war. The blood of those evil spirits when they died mingled with the earth, and over time it turned into this ghostly appearance.

This kind of land is completely incapable of growing grains, and it will take more than ten years of purification to restore it to normal.

Since the Four Elephant Prefectures have not yet been recovered, this land issue is not something Ning Xiu, as the Demon Subduer, should be concerned about.