Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1302: First Test of Edge

"The Great Wilderness Book of Strange Things: Southern Frontier Prophecy" states: There is a ginseng guest in the mountains, who often goes deep into the mountains to collect ginseng, and will surely have a rich harvest. When someone in the market asks about it, he will say that he has a unique skill. Some people who do not believe it secretly follow the ginseng guest into the mountains, and observe his behavior, which is often strange, as if he knows where the ginseng is hidden. Over the years, the ginseng guest's name has become more and more famous. Strong men and bandits want to force him to ask about the secret method, so they break into the ginseng guest's house at night and threaten his family. The ginseng guest laughed and said, "Today, there are three or five more servants." The bandits were impatient and cut the ginseng guest's son with a knife. No blood flowed, only dead wood was seen, so they knew it was not a human. A few days later, the ginseng guest took his servant into the mountains and saw a demon with the body of a ginseng spirit of ten thousand years, dressed roughly like a human, with dew hanging from its roots, and drinking ginseng to transform people, named Shenjun.

  =

Lu Ning followed the two hunters for a while. She had originally planned to see what changes would happen to the two men after drinking the liquid produced by the monsters, but apart from looking a little more energetic, there was nothing unusual about the two men.

She even felt the coldness with her own sense for the first time in a long time. After reaching the third level of Senluo Jiuzhuan, her resistance to coldness was already very high. She needed to concentrate to be able to sense the coldness emitted by some not-so-powerful demons. But now these two people had no coldness at all - the old ginseng spirit could still let her feel a little.

There was nothing unusual. After thinking about it, Lu Ning decided to go back and look for the old ginseng spirit.

But as soon as she turned her head, she "saw" the two hunters also turned their heads and looked at her. The two did not know that her demon eyes could see directly behind her through the back of her head, so they did not know that Lu Ning had already prepared for the possibility of changes.

She can accept failures caused by accidents, but she will not leave any blind spots for such controllable problems.

"There is indeed a problem."

Lu Ning's hand was already on the hilt of his sword. At the moment when the two hunters pounced on him quietly, he swung his sword with his backhand. A cold light flashed where the sword passed, and two heads fell to the ground.

No blood gushed out. It was not that the cold air froze the blood, but that the bodies of these two people were no longer made of flesh and blood, but a large number of wooden branches twisted together. Lu Ning immediately stepped back, and the two headless men still walked towards her with steel knives.

"You don't use your eyes to see things, no wonder you can find me... a minions derived from the wood demon?"

Lu Ning looked at the trees around him, jumped back, grabbed a handful of leaves, and threw them around with his backhand. The leaves quickly rotted and turned into fungi, which scattered around.

One problem with the "wild plague" is that although the colonies it spawned could transcend the limitations of saprophytic life and eat living things, they were far from being that fast. The leaves she grabbed could be quickly decomposed because they no longer had nutritional supplements, but if it was a living tree, there was no way for the colonies to eat it quickly.

The same goes for the two headless minions. Originally, the best way to deal with these tree minions was to burn them, but Lu Ning didn't want to attract attention and didn't bring anything like an oil bottle to start a fire, so she couldn't burn the two minions directly with just a fire starter.

"It's really troublesome..."

She swung her sword to cut off the limbs of the two henchmen. To be prepared, she only touched them with the sword. She also picked up their heads and piled them together. Then she picked up some dead branches and burned the two henchmen with fire.

Such an action would inevitably attract the attention of the demon, but Lu Ning didn't care. In her perception, the ginseng spirit was not strong. It was far less oppressive than the few she encountered at Zhenjian Villa, and it was not as strong as the demon Niying.

In that case, Lu Ning doesn't mind being a little bit arrogant.

After lighting the fire, she quickly returned to the village. At this time, the village was already on alert, and everyone in the village took up their weapons and closed the village gates. The ginseng spirit was sobbing inside, which made Lu Ning feel very disgusted.

Needless to say, all the people in this village have been turned into minions. The individuals that demons can generate can be minions from humans, monsters from birds and beasts, companions from plants, insects and fish, or offspring from their own bodies.

This is all the information related to monsters that can be found in the courtyard purchased by Lu Qingxu, so Lu Ning is still trying to make a book called "Dream Records of Mountains and Seas" to at least clarify some historical rumors about monsters.

  =

"Oh, Ning Ke, I told you that those guys did it on purpose."

On the mountain road, two Siyi from the Demon Suppression Division were hurrying on their way.

One was Ning Ke, and the other was a young woman of similar age.

"I know."

"You still took this job knowing this? Do you really not know what level of demons the Thirteen Demon Kings of Southern Border are? They are not comparable to the Dish Butterfly you chopped down when it was weak."

"I've seen the files."

"Dossier, haha."

The woman who was communicating with Ning Ke was Lin Xiyin, the youngest official in the Demon Suppression Division before Ning Ke. But unlike Ning Ke, Lin Xiyin's family had been officials in the Demon Suppression Division since their ancestors. They were one of the few families in Wei who had served in the Demon Suppression Division for generations. There were always several people in the family who held important positions in the Demon Suppression Division, which was very different from Ning Ke's background, who was recruited into the Demon Suppression Division because of his talent.

But Lin Xiyin also looked down on the current state of the Demon Suppression Division. Since the establishment of the Great Wei, the Demon Suppression Division has been dealing with demons in various places in secret, which was originally for the benefit of the people and to accumulate merits. But there are always greedy people. The officials of the Demon Suppression Division have both outstanding qualities and seek outstanding positions. It has long been transformed from a hidden institution when the Great Wei was first established to a facade. There are also many factions in the Demon Suppression Division. The demon suppression officials below fight to the death, but the credit is taken away by some old guys above, and they are hard to be promoted.

If the Demon Suppression Division had not had to fight against demons and had not relied on their abilities, they would have been corrupted long ago. Even so, Ning Ke, who had clearly made great contributions in killing the demon king and preventing more demon disasters from coming to Zhenjian Villa, was actually accused of failing to provide adequate protection, which resulted in the death of all the demon suppression officials near Zhenjian Villa, the destruction of Zhenjian Villa by natural disasters, and casualties. He was even given the euphemism of being allowed to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, and was ordered to go to southern Xinjiang and kill any one of the thirteen demon kings to atone for his mistakes.

  What a mistake!

When Lin Xiyin heard the news, she immediately wrote an official document, requesting to go to southern Xinjiang to help eliminate the monsters. Then, without caring about any approval, she followed Ning Ke to the south.

She was just indignant that this group of people were able to sit in high positions in the Demon Suppression Bureau, and she was also furious at Ning Ke's attitude of not resisting at all even though he was clearly at a disadvantage.

"General Teng Liuyun, who is in charge of the war in Southern Xinjiang, once wrote a letter and sent it to the Demon Suppression Division. He believed that with the banditry in Southern Xinjiang getting to the point where it is now, it is hard to say whether there are demons behind it. He hoped that the Demon Suppression Division could send someone to deal with it. Southern Xinjiang is remote, and there is no Siyi-level demon-suppression officer in charge. If there are really demons running rampant, it would be a good opportunity to get rid of them," said Ning Ke.

"Except for that, you thought it was easy to kill demons - oh, yes, you just killed a demon king, that felt easy, but the difference between demons is obvious! Even if you were lucky enough to kill the butterfly, if you were besieged by other demons, could you easily escape?"

"How can we escape? Kill them all." Ning Ke said.

Lin Xiyin laughed angrily: "You are so arrogant. Kill them all at once? Even my father wouldn't dare to say that he could kill all the monsters with the strength of five monster kings and monster generals. It's good enough that you can run away." "Lin Xiyin, how did you get your position as a demon suppressor?"

"Ah, I know what you want to say. You really got promoted based on your merits, but I relied on the power of my family. I know I'm not the most talented one in the Lin family, but I dare say that I have more knowledge about monsters than you."

"That's right. But you don't have much practical experience. It's not advisable to judge the victory or defeat of humans and demons based on experience." Ning Ke said seriously, "They are not that strong. As long as you choose the right method, you can restrain the power of demons. With the means of the Demon Suppression Bureau, even the demon king and demon general can be killed."

"So confident? That's good... huh?"

Lin Xiyin looked up and saw a wisp of black smoke rising from the forest not far away. She immediately became excited: "Something is happening! There is smoke in the mountains, it doesn't look like a natural forest fire!"

"Yes."

Before Ning Ke finished speaking, Lin Xiyin put her index finger and thumb in her mouth and blew a whistle. A red shadow rushed out of her right eye and flew straight into the sky.

"Jinghong! There must be a demon here!"

As Lin Xiyin called out, a red shadow crossed the sky and turned into the shadow of a flying bird. A pair of pitch-black eyes spread out above its wings. After a cry that only Lin Xiyin and Ning Ke could hear, all the mountains, rivers, and trees within a hundred miles were taken in by Lin Xiyin's sight.

"I see. A fight is about to break out...it's a visitor." Lin Xiyin said with a smile.

"Fight?"

"Well, someone found the lair of the Canke monster and is preparing to break in. Unfortunately, although the Canke monster's combat ability is not strong, its defense ability is very good. Those around it are probably its minions." Lin Xiyin commented, "The person who rushed in recklessly is probably going to suffer a loss. It doesn't look like he is a demon-suppressing officer."

"Why don't we get going as soon as possible?" Ning Ke took out his compass and took a look. "Location?"

"It's settled." Lin Xiyin touched her neck with her backhand, and lightly touched the cervical vertebrae at the back of her neck with her fingers. "It won't take a moment."

"Walk."

The smile on Lin Xiyin's face suddenly became evil. Her fingers pierced the skin on her neck, but no blood flowed out. Instead, a black gas emanated.

"of course."

Two pairs of black bones rose from the back of the neck and spread out, turning into wings. Ning Ke grabbed Lin Xiyin's arm, and then the black wings spread out, wrapping the two of them together, and turned into a black mist and rushed into the mountain.

At the same time, Lu Ning had already started fighting with this group of thugs.

Just like the two hunters she burned, this group of minions also had their flesh and blood replaced by wood. Beheading, piercing the heart, and disembowelment could not lead to their death. In any case, these creatures derived from the demons had more tenacious vitality than the demons themselves.

Lu Ning did not try to engage in a fight with the minions. After all, her martial arts skills were not good enough to deal with several minions at the same time. Although she could use her internal force to infuse the sword to split their limbs, she still had to be careful not to be surrounded by them. Fortunately, she was a person who could really keep an eye on all directions. With her abundant internal force and agility, it was not a problem for her to walk around the minions while cutting off the limbs of several minions.

However, the old ginseng spirit certainly would not let Lu Ning deal with its minions so easily. It was seen crying while pulling out roots from the village. Under such rough tearing, many small roots were torn off on the spot, and liquid began to flow out from the cross-section. The cross-sections of the minions whose limbs were chopped off immediately began to grow wood buds, and not only the cross-sections of the body, but also the broken arms and legs began to sprout.

It turns out that each demon has some strange abilities.

Lu Ning clearly saw that the new limbs were very weak, and they could only crawl slowly on all fours. The buds that grew from the broken arms and legs did not transform into bodies, but turned into another relatively thin arm or leg. The speed of these new body parts growing was much slower than that of ordinary people. However, they were crawling on the ground, like a moving trap, and Lu Ning had to be careful not to be hugged by them.

"It's really a bit troublesome." Lu Ning smiled. She was not really in danger, but she couldn't find an opportunity to kill the ginseng spirit. Whether it was the range of the wild plague or the giant's knuckles, it couldn't guarantee that it would have enough power when it reached the position of the ginseng spirit. She needed to consider other means.

She stabbed the nearest minion into the body with a sword, and then quickly poured her true energy into the sword, triggering the third level of internal force that could break the body. The internal force rushed into the minion's body along the sword, and instantly exploded a large amount of ice crystals. The minion fell backwards with ice all over his body, and immediately became motionless.

"This is possible, but killing the accomplices by rapidly cooling them down will consume a lot of internal energy." Lu Ning weighed it and casually picked up a pair of arms that were secretly crawling on the ground. He also used his internal energy to blast the ice crystals, killing them and throwing them on the ground.

The accomplices she killed in this way never stood up again.

With a way to kill these minions, Lu Ning felt more relaxed. Minions do not have the special abilities of demons, nor can they inherit the martial arts of humans. They are just endowed with certain characteristics according to the demons themselves. As Lu Ning pulled, these minions, which were not very numerous to begin with, finally formed a long line in the forest.

  Seeing this opportunity, Lu Ning immediately exerted his strength, increased his speed, used the woods as a stepping stone, quickly jumped over the encirclement of the minions, jumped directly from the top of the village wall, and slashed at the ginseng spirit with a sword!

“Wow!!”

The ginseng spirit let out a sharp cry, and a large number of thin whiskers rose up and rolled towards Lu Ning. The whiskers were covered with crystal liquid. Lu Ning did not dare to touch it, and waved his cold air to freeze the liquid. In a flash, he came to the side of a herb garden, took out a fire starter and flint, quickly ignited them, and threw them into a basket.

The flames instantly ignited, and Lu Ning hooked the burning basket with one foot and kicked it towards the ginseng spirit. The ginseng spirit's tall body reacted very slowly, and even though it tried hard to dodge, it was still hit by the basket. The tattered clothes on its body immediately caught fire.

At this moment, a large number of whiskers hung down from the ginseng spirit's head, instantly wrapping up the flames, leaving only some smoke dispersing.

"It looks like they are well prepared." Lu Ning glanced at the minions who were anxiously coming back for help, "But there are a lot of things that can be burned here!"