Ghost Immortal

The matchmaker's smile faded, and she said solemnly, "This bull demon's soul has already condensed to a considerable degree, and it's just one step away from transforming into a demon cultivator. Its attack just now detonated its soul. After all, it was a last-ditch counterattack, and it shouldn't be underestimated."

The carpenter squatted down to examine the bull demon's vertical pupil between its eyebrows. The pupil had completely closed, leaving only a dark purple vertical mark.

"Part of the demon soul self-destructed, and the rest should still be inside the bull demon's body. If this demon soul can be extracted completely, its value is higher than the bull horns and beef combined."

The butcher's eyes lit up: "How much can I sell a demon soul for?"

"It's hard to say, it depends on who it's sold to." The carpenter stood up and dusted off his hands.

"Selling it to Taoist cultivators as alchemy materials can get you about ten low-grade spirit stones. If you exchange it for Buddhist rituals for the deceased, you can get a merit. If you encounter evil cultivators like corpse carriers, you can let them use it to refine vengeful spirits, and the price might be even higher. But we are the real lowlifes, and we can't do business with evil cultivators."

The matchmaker looked thoughtfully at the bull demon's corpse and smiled, "I heard that the auction house in Qingyan City is currently collecting demon souls, offering prices that are 30% higher than usual. Apparently, some important figure in the city is about to start a furnace to refine some kind of elixir and urgently needs demon souls as a catalyst."

"Thirty percent? This deal isn't a loss." The butcher's face was bulging with fat, and his eyes narrowed as he smiled.

As the three men talked, they began to dismember the bull demon's corpse.

The butcher skillfully used a boning knife to cut open the bull demon's hide and remove pieces of beef from the bones.

His knife skills were extremely exquisite; the blade followed the muscle fibers, easily separating the meat from the bone.

Li Feng noticed that when the butcher cut the meat, the crimson magic would seep into the beef, seemingly preserving it.

The carpenter focused on working on the cow's horns and hooves, carefully prying two horns off the cow's head with an adze and chisel.

The dark gold patterns on the bull's horns have been perfectly preserved and shimmer in the sunlight.

The ox hooves were tied with ink thread and placed in the bundle.

The matchmaker was in charge of disposing of the bull demon's internal organs. She tied the bull's heart, liver, and lungs together with red thread and took them out of the bull's belly.

The surface of these internal organs still lingered with a faint purple, eerie aura. The matchmaker placed them into a red cloth bag she carried with her, embroidered with a pattern of mandarin ducks playing in the water, matching her red robe.

Li Feng lay on the treetop, watching with envy.

In his eyes, all that beef, offal, and bones were pots of spiritual soup.

But he held back.

These three people work together so well, and each has their own unique methods.

The combined combat power of the three individuals far exceeds the sum of the three individuals with eight-inch spiritual roots.

Moreover, Li Feng noticed that when the matchmaker was dissecting the bull demon's internal organs, the red rope was always hanging on her wrist, ready to join the battle at any time.

Although the carpenter's ink lines were no longer used to form an array, the wooden eagle above his head was still circling overhead.

The butcher was still cutting meat with his boning knife, but his stance remained at an angle where he could exert force at any moment.

These three seasoned veterans didn't let their guard down even when dividing the spoils.

If Li Feng were to make a rash move, he would surely be surrounded and attacked by the three of them.

Although he and Gao Feng had a considerable chance of winning by joining forces, they were not 100% certain.

However, the matter doesn't seem to be over yet.

Li Feng noticed that the purple vertical mark between the bull demon's eyebrows was gradually fading, and a wisp of extremely fine purple mist seeped out from the mark, drifting in the air, carrying a faint demonic aura.

The demonic aura was too faint, suppressed by the intense stench of blood from the bull demon's corpse, and neither the butcher, the carpenter, nor the matchmaker noticed it.

Li Feng, with his keen senses, successfully detected the demonic aura.

The purple mist drifted to a height of three zhang above the bull demon's corpse and slowly condensed.

Li Feng narrowed his eyes slightly.

Demonic soul?

No, the demon soul is much more solid than that.

This is more like a fragment of a demon's soul, a remnant left after the bull demon self-destructed its soul before dying.

Although these remnants are not as valuable as complete demon souls, they are still fragments of demon souls from demon beasts on the verge of transformation, and the demonic energy they contain is enough to make low-level cultivators drool.

However, before Li Feng could even feel smug, a piercing whistling sound suddenly came from the mountains and forests.

The carpenter was the first to react, turning his head to look in the direction from which the whistling sound came. His expression changed drastically: "Oh no, it's the Black Wind Bandits!"

The butcher and the matchmaker both turned pale.

The butcher put down his boning knife, grabbed the iron hook leaning against the tree, and stared gloomily into the depths of the forest.

"What are the Black Wind Bandits doing here? Aren't they supposed to only operate around Black Wind Ridge?"

The matchmaker's red string was already unfurling at her fingertips, like a spider web, and a stern look appeared on her kind face.

"They're probably after the bull demon. A bull demon on the verge of transformation is a treasure trove; how could the Black Wind Bandits not be envious?"

The carpenter quickly gathered up the cut horns, bones, and beef, his movements as swift as if he were rushing to meet a deadline.

"We didn't have time to cut them all up, so we'll take as many as we can, and use the rest to feed the dogs."

Before he could finish speaking, a group of people rushed out of the mountains and forests.

Looking out from the treetops, Li Feng saw at least seven or eight burly men dressed in black emerge from the woods, wielding weapons and exuding a bandit-like aura and the stench of blood.

The bald, burly man leading the group was as big as the butcher, with a black centipede tattooed on his smooth forehead, stretching from his forehead to the back of his head.

He carried a large, ghost-headed sword, its blade shrouded in thick black energy, vaguely resembling some kind of vengeful spirit magic.

Behind the bald, burly man were two other men, one tall and thin, carrying a bow and arrows with three arrows nocked on the bowstring. The arrowheads glowed with a ghostly green light, indicating that the arrows were poisoned.

Another short, stout man held two short-handled axes in his hands, the blades stained with dark red blood, and his face was bulging with fat like the pleats of a steamed bun.

The bald, burly man glanced at the bull demon's corpse on the ground, then grinned at the spoils in the hands of the three butchers, revealing his rotten, black and yellow teeth.

"Hey, isn't this Butcher He, Carpenter Lu, and Matchmaker Zhou from Huangshi Town? It's quite something, isn't it? The three of you, instead of doing business in town, dare to come hunting in our mountains without a word!"

His eyes lit up as he stared at the bull demon's horns.

"A bull demon on the verge of transformation, tsk tsk, this is a good thing! Three old acquaintances, there's a share for everyone. Leave me one bull horn, give me half the beef, take the bull heart back to make soup, and the rest is yours."

The butcher gripped his boning knife tightly, crimson magical power flowing along the blade. He grinned maliciously, "Old Ma, we risked our lives to kill this bull demon, and you think you can just take half?"

Ma Laosan touched his bald head, and the centipede tattoo on his forehead twitched, as if it were alive.

"Butcher He, what you're saying is unreasonable. Who doesn't know that Black Wind Ridge is our Black Wind Bandit territory? You hunt on my land, shouldn't you pay some rent?"

Carpenter Lu silently buried several ink lines in the ground, which quietly spread under the withered leaves. He said, "Black Wind Ridge is forty miles away from here. Isn't Boss Ma meddling too much?"

When Ma Laosan saw him, he was furious: "Carpenter Lu, I haven't settled the score with you for undermining me in town last time. Today is the perfect day to settle it all."

With a wave of his hand, the Black Wind Bandits behind him immediately dispersed, forming a fan shape to partially surround the butcher and his two companions.