Old Refining Spirit

"Halt! What are you doing?" The fat constable suddenly stood up straight, drew half of his waist knife, and blocked the two men with the gleaming blade. A strong smell of cheap liquor, mixed with an indescribable stench, like a dead rat that had been rotting in a sewer for three days, instantly assaulted their nostrils.

Xiaoman trembled with fear, quickly lowered her head, and timidly replied, "Sir, sir, we are refugees from the nearby mountains, and we want to go into the city to stay with relatives..."

"Refugees? Enough of your damn nonsense!" The fat constable impatiently interrupted her, his cloudy, bloodshot eyes roaming brazenly over Xiaoman, his gaze more like that of a piece of fresh meat on a chopping board than a person. "To enter the city, each person must pay twenty copper coins as a 'city gate peace tax'! Can't afford it? If you can't afford it, this little girl can stay and work in the county yamen's kitchen to pay off her debt! The magistrate is having fresh meat soup tonight, just in time!"

With that, he grinned, revealing his foul-smelling yellow teeth, and stretched out his chubby, hairy hand, with black grime under his fingernails, and reached directly for Xiaoman's collar.

Xiaoman screamed in terror, trying to back away, but it was too late.

Just as the dirty hand was about to touch Xiaoman's clothes, a pale, slender hand with distinct knuckles suddenly reached out from the side, casually yet firmly gripping the fat constable's wrist.

It was Li Xuangeng.

"You blind, wicked Taoist priest, are you looking for death?! How dare you meddle in the affairs of my Qingping County government!" The fat yamen runner roared in anger, trying to pull his hand away forcefully. But to his shock, he found that no matter how hard he tried, even with his face flushed red, the seemingly soft and boneless hand resting on his wrist was like an iron tower cast with mercury, completely immovable.

Li Xuangeng ignored his barking. He even tilted his head back slightly in disgust to avoid the other's foul breath.

He tilted his head slightly, staring at the fat constable's fleshy face with his eyes covered by white silk. His slender fingers were still firmly gripping the constable's pulse, and his tone was extremely gentle, as if an old Chinese medicine doctor was taking a patient's pulse and asking questions.

"Your forehead is dark, your life palace is adorned with a needle, and evil energy has invaded your Niwan Palace. The most wonderful thing is..." Li Xuangeng's smile grew wider, but his voice grew colder, "Sir, there is actually a 'Chang Gui' with three eyes and oozing yellow pus on the top of your head."

Under the gaze of the [Aura Observation] technique, the fat yamen runner's true nature was revealed. He was not human at all, but a half-human, half-ghost monster fed with corpse energy and flesh by the great demon in the county yamen.

"You wear the official robes of the Great Abyss Dynasty, yet you're nothing but scum, gathering blood and flesh for the great demon. Beneath that greasy shell of yours, there must be at least thirty vengeful spirits of innocent children, right?"

Li Xuangeng gently pronounced his death sentence.

Upon hearing this, the fat constable's expression changed drastically, and a strange, eerie green light flashed deep within his eyes. Now that his background had been exposed, he didn't bother to pretend anymore; his features instantly became grotesque and distorted, like melting wax.

"roar--!"

He opened his blood-red maw, his original teeth fell out, and rows of fine, sharp, pale white fangs, like those of a shark, burst out from his gums, carrying a pungent, fishy smell. Like a mad beast, he viciously bit down on Li Xuangeng's throat!

"presumptuous."

Li Xuangeng sighed softly. There were two things he hated most in his life: first, unclean ingredients; second, someone getting his clothes dirty.

Faced with this fierce and deadly attack, Li Xuangeng didn't even bother to use a single spell. He suddenly pulled his five fingers, which were resting on the fat bailiff's wrist, inward.

"Snap!!!"

A chilling sound of bones cracking echoed through the city gates. Li Xuangeng's methods were extremely brutal and savage; the gentle, white-robed Taoist priest had transformed into an absolute thug!

He actually managed to tear the fat constable's thick right arm off his shoulder with his bare hands!

"Pfft—"

There was no scene of blood gushing out. Instead, the severed arm of the fat constable was covered with a dense, swarming mass of thumb-sized, pitch-black, foul-smelling corpse worms, like a hornet's nest! The worms, stripped of their flesh, fell to the ground and writhed wildly.

"Ah—! My hand! My hand!" The fat constable let out a shrill scream that was not human, and his huge body convulsed violently from the pain.

Li Xuangeng's eyes were as cold as ice. Without hesitation, he launched a kick with tremendous force, slamming it into his opponent's chest.

"Bang!"

The terrifying force of the kick completely crushed the fat constable's sternum, causing his entire chest cavity to cave in deeply. Like a tattered sack filled with rotten flesh, he flew more than ten meters off the ground, crashing heavily onto the thick city wall with a loud "boom," turning into a pool of foul-smelling flesh, and never moving again.

The entire room fell silent.

Only the swarm of corpse worms struggling in the minced meat made a chilling rustling sound.

Just then, the cold, mechanical voice arrived in Li Xuangeng's mind as expected.

"Ding! Slaying a novice-level mutated demon, clearing away karmic obstacles. The Forge of Creation is now open..."

"Refining successful! Obtained [Inferior Fiend Qi Pill] x1."

With a flick of his wrist, Li Xuangeng sent a flash of the dark golden Creation Furnace phantom through the void, spitting out a dusty pill with some impurities on its surface.

Li Xuangeng pinched the pill between two fingers, examined it for half a second through the white silk, and curled his lip in disgust: "The heat is too poor, there are too many impurities, it's not even worthy of being my appetizer."

With a slight squeeze of his fingertips, he crushed the [Inferior Fiend Qi Pill] into powder with a "snap," letting it scatter in the wind.

At this moment, the skinny constable who had originally intended to draw his sword to help was already terrified. His legs went weak, and he knelt heavily in the muddy water with a "thud," dropping his waist knife to the ground. A large yellow stain appeared in his crotch, and a foul stench instantly filled the air.

"Immortal... have mercy... Taoist priest, have mercy!" The thin bailiff kowtowed repeatedly, his forehead becoming a bloody mess.

Li Xuangeng pulled a flawless white silk handkerchief from his wide sleeve and carefully wiped each of the fingers on his right hand that had just torn the fat constable's arm. His movements were extremely elegant, as if the violent fight had nothing to do with him.

Only after confirming that there was not a speck of dirt under his fingernails did he casually toss the handkerchief in front of the thin yamen runner, without even glancing at him.

"Let's go, Xiaoman."

The blind Taoist priest straightened the hem of his faded robe, and with steady steps, stepped across the high threshold of Qingping County. Facing the densest, darkest demonic aura in the city center, a gentle smile returned to his lips. His voice, carried on the morning breeze, was both polite and chilling:

"Today, I am going to the county government office... to purchase some top-quality medicinal herbs."