In the Demon Suppression Division: Crimson Words Nurture the Blade, Slaying Demons to Prove the Dao

The old woman grabbed Jiao Xiaoxiao's wrist and yelled so loudly that the whole street could hear her.

"Ouch! Whose kid is this?! They've broken my old bones! Pay up! You're not leaving until you pay up!"

Jiao Xiaoxiao was pulled so hard she stumbled, her face turning pale. She tried to pull her hand back, but the old lady's hand wouldn't budge.

"Grandma... I didn't hit you..." Her voice was small and trembling, "I just wanted to help you up..."

"Help me up? You mean help me up? You pushed me!" The old woman spat half a foot away. "Everyone, look at this! This little kid is already behaving badly! He bumped into someone and won't admit it! You be the judge!"

Jiao Xiaoxiao's eyes were already red, her lips were pressed together and turned white, she wanted to say something but couldn't, she just shook her head desperately.

Just then, three burly, bald men strolled over from across the street. They had their chests open, revealing tattoos, and carried daggers at their waists.

The leader, a man in his early thirties, had a scar running from his brow bone to his chin. He kicked over a vegetable stall by the roadside, cursing as he did so.

"Who? Who the hell bullied my mother?"

As soon as the old lady saw her son arrive, her voice immediately rose three octaves.

"My son! This little bastard bumped into his mother! My back is almost broken! You must stand up for me!"

The scarred man glanced down at Jiao Xiaoxiao, who was already curled up in a ball, tears welling up in her eyes, but she stubbornly held them back.

He glanced around again and saw that Jiao Xiaoxiao was dressed in fancy clothes, like someone from a wealthy family. He also noticed that there were no adults around her. He smirked, raised his leg, and spat on the ground in front of Jiao Xiaoxiao.

"You little beast, where are your parents? Bring them here!"

"My...my mother works at the Demon Suppression Division..." Jiao Xiaoxiao's voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum.

"The Demon Suppression Division?" Scarface was taken aback, then burst into laughter, "You little bastard, still making up lies? If your mother's from the Demon Suppression Division, then I'm Wu Santong! Enough nonsense! You hit my mother, pay fifty taels! Can't afford it? I'll sell you to the Cui Xiang Brothel to pay off the debt!"

A crowd of onlookers gathered around, but no one stepped forward.

An old man selling tofu opened his mouth, but a woman next to him tugged at his sleeve and whispered something.

"Are you out of your mind? Those are three troublemakers from the Zhao family. Last month they broke the leg of a cloth seller on West Street, and the constables didn't dare utter a sound when they came."

Jiao Xiaoxiao was startled by Scarface's words, and tears finally rolled down her cheeks, but she still spoke softly.

"I didn't hit her... I really just wanted to help her up..."

"Help me my ass! Look at my mother... Ouch!! My back is broken! I'm going to die!!" The old lady lay on the ground and started rolling around.

"Look how much my mother dotes on you! You little bastard without parents, come with me!"

As he spoke, Scarface reached out and grabbed Jiao Xiaoxiao's neck.

Before he could even touch Jiao Xiaoxiao, he heard a sharp "crack" sound. Scarface's right arm twisted at an odd angle behind him, and he was spun half a circle by the force, slamming face down onto the bluestone slab, sending dust flying half a foot high.

He opened his mouth to shout, but what came out first was a mouthful of blood and froth mixed with his teeth.

Hu Murong stepped on his back, his tone sharp.

"Apologize."

Before her two sons could even make a move, they were frozen in place by the aura emanating from her, an aura that suggested she had slain hundreds of demons.

Jiao Xiaoxiao stood to the side, stunned for a moment, then wiped away her tears and bowed to the old lady who was still rolling on the ground.

"Grandma...Grandma, I'm sorry...I shouldn't have run so fast..."

Fox Murong: ? ? ?

She looked down at the scarred face at her feet, then at Jiao Xiaoxiao, and took a deep breath.

"Xiaoxiao, I'm not asking you to apologize."

"Huh?" Jiao Xiaoxiao looked up, tears still on her face, looking completely bewildered.

"You..." Just as Hu Murong was about to lash out, a figure had already swept past her.

"Hu Murong, why are you wasting your breath talking to them?"

Wei Xuanfeng's voice came from behind her.

He was buying pineapple cakes across the street. He had just weighed one and turned around when he saw Jiao Xiaoxiao being grabbed by the collar. A black water mosquito gently fluttered its wing on his shoulder, conveying a sense of agitation...

In that instant, he read "Little One is crying" from the black water mosquito's emotional resonance.

When he rushed over, he saw Jiao Xiaoxiao bowing and apologizing.

Wei Xuanfeng simply raised his hand.

Before Scarface could even turn his head to see who it was, a crisp crack came from his neck, and he slumped down, motionless.

The old woman's screams stopped abruptly.

She watched as her son's neck twisted at an impossible angle, and after a long pause, she finally let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"Murder!! Murder in broad daylight!!"

Wei Xuanfeng dusted off his hands, bent down and pulled Jiao Xiaoxiao behind him, using his other hand to shield her from view.

"Don't look."

"Son!!" The old woman scrambled onto the scarred man's corpse, pounding the ground and crying out, "I just wanted to extort some money from you! Did you have to kill me! Did you have to! You officials! You rich people! You bully us ordinary folks! My son just cursed at her a couple of times! He didn't actually sell her to a brothel! What right did you have to kill him! What right did you have!!"

Wei Xuanfeng frowned and turned to look at her.

"Noisy."

He slapped her across the face, sending the old woman flying three meters away. She crashed into a tree trunk by the roadside, slid down, and lay limply beside the tree roots, motionless.

Her face still bore that sharp and sarcastic expression, as if she would never be able to take it off.

The remaining youngest son was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, staring at his mother's body and his brother's body overlapping in a pool of blood. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally managed to squeeze out a harsh word with a sob in his voice.

"You...you're a martial artist, right?! You just wait! You've got the guts to wait!!"

Wei Xuanfeng handed Jiao Xiaoxiao to Hu Murong, who obediently took her and buried her face in his shoulder without making a sound.

Wei Xuanfeng turned his head and looked at his youngest son, who was trembling like a leaf on the ground.

"What, you can't beat them, so you need to call in reinforcements?"

"Yes! You just wait!"

"How long will it take?"

"One...one incense stick!"

"How many people can you call?"

"One...one hundred!"

"Are you thirty yet?"

"At least fifty!"

"Alright, I'll wait for you for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Remember, bring plenty of people. I won't be satisfied if there aren't enough."

The youngest son ran away, tumbling and crawling, tripping along the way, but he got up and didn't look back.

Wei Xuanfeng looked at Hu Murong, who was holding Jiao Xiaoxiao in his arms and gently comforting her, and said with a hint of anger.

"Fox Murong, don't you have a heart? I was only gone for a short while and you've already let your junior sister be bullied?"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Hu Murong said sullenly, "I just wanted to show her how wicked people can be! Okay, okay, I was wrong!"

Jiao Xiaoxiao broke free from Hu Murong's embrace, grabbed Wei Xuanfeng's hand, and said, "Senior Brother, don't be mean to Senior Sister. She's only doing it for my own good."

Seeing the young girl pleading for her, Wei Xuanfeng didn't say anything.

The street was quiet for a moment.

Then the onlookers gradually dispersed, and no one dared to stand for too long.

An elderly man with white hair hesitated for a long time before finally leaning close behind Wei Xuanfeng and speaking in a low voice.

"Young man, you'd better leave quickly. The people that the third son of the Zhao family went to find are from the Leopard Head Gang in the south of the city. It's said that the gang leader has the cultivation of a Martial Master, and he has dozens of men under his command. They kill without blinking an eye and don't even care about the police. You killed their mother and older brother, they won't let you off."

Wei Xuanfeng looked up at him and smiled.

"Thank you so much, sir."

The old man stamped his foot, sighed, and walked away.

The owner of the mutton hotpot stall next door abandoned his stall, grabbed his apron, and ran into the back alley.

The street vendors were all gone in less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

Wei Xuanfeng then turned to look at Jiao Xiaoxiao.

Jiao Xiaoxiao peeked half her face out from Hu Murong's arms and timidly tugged at Wei Xuanfeng's sleeve.

"Senior Brother...why don't we...go?"

Wei Xuanfeng reached out and pulled her to his side, sitting back down at the stall, and handed her a bowl of mutton soup.

"What are you afraid of? Eat without worry."

Hu Murong also sat down and poured himself a bowl of tea.

"If your senior brother has to run away from even a few thugs, he'll probably be laughed at by the boss for the rest of his life when he goes back."

Jiao Xiaoxiao seemed to understand, but she still obediently sat down and picked up her small bowl.

……

Not long after, a series of chaotic footsteps came from the street corner.

Wei Xuanfeng looked up and saw a dense mass of people pouring out of the alleyway, at least fifty or sixty people, carrying broadswords, iron rods, and axes, all with bare chests and backs and messy tattoos.

The few burly men in front stepped on and overturned a roadside stall cart that hadn't been properly packed up.

As soon as the vendors further away saw the group, they immediately picked up their loads and ran away without even looking back.

The entire street was instantly deserted, leaving only Wei Xuanfeng and his two companions and the dark mass of people opposite them.

Jiao Xiaoxiao gripped Wei Xuanfeng's clothes tightly.

"It's nothing." Wei Xuanfeng glanced down at her, then turned to Hu Murong and said, "You caused this trouble, so deal with it yourself."

Hu Murong shoveled the last mouthful of tea into his mouth and slammed the bowl down on the table.

"Fine, I'll go."

She stood up and walked towards the group of people empty-handed.

Zhao's youngest son hid behind the crowd and shouted at Hu Murong.

"It's her! It's that woman! And that man too, they killed my mother and my brother! Brothers, get them! Chop them up and feed them to the dogs!"

Hu Murong stood in front of the group of people, without saying a word, and pounced on them.

No one saw how she took her steps. A dark figure cut in from the outside of the crowd. The first thug, before he could even raise his broadsword, was kicked in the chest and sent flying backward, knocking down three people behind him.

Fox Murong's figure weaved through the crowd like a slippery fish, his moves incredibly fast, accurate, and ruthless...

In just a dozen breaths, seven or eight people had collapsed to the ground, clutching their severed hands and feet and groaning in pain.

She studied archery for three months, but never neglected close combat.

The days I spent training with Jiao Yu, the beatings I endured, the sweat I shed—all of that has now become a conditioned reflex, a physical memory.

She ducked to avoid a horizontal iron bar, then used the momentum to elbow the man in the ribs, and with a twist, kicked the man who was attacking her from the right to the ground.

The highest cultivation level among those thugs was only the seventh level of the Martial Realm, while she had already been standing at the peak of the Martial Realm for three months.

A few breaths later, a group of people were lying on the ground, and the few remaining people still standing began to back away.

The youngest son of the Zhao family was still shouting hoarsely from behind.

"Go! Go! She's all alone!"

But these martial artists were either dead or wounded; none of them could stand up again.

"Stop! Everyone stop!"

Two figures dressed in the black robes of yamen runners rushed out of the alley, panting as they ran into the center of the field, pulled out iron rulers from their waists, and gestured to both sides.

"Who! Who's fighting in the street! Don't they know this is illegal?!"

The group of thugs, as if grasping at a straw, scrambled to get close to the constable.

"Sir! Sir! It's her! This woman attacked people! She killed several of our brothers! And that man over there! He killed my mother and my brother!"

The two constables looked in the direction the thug was pointing and immediately spotted Wei Xuanfeng sitting on a bench, slowly eating mutton from a bowl.

The two of them were stunned for a moment, and the younger one rubbed his eyes.

"Xuan...Brother Xuanfeng?"

Wei Xuanfeng looked up and recognized the other person...

Zhou Xiaoliu was his comrade-in-arms when he was a yamen runner in the county government. They sat in the same cell for half a year. He was honest and hardworking.

He also recognized the older man next to him; his surname was Wang, and he had entered the county government three years earlier than him.

"Xiao Liu, Lao Wang," Wei Xuanfeng put down his bowl, "We were out for a stroll and ran into a bunch of clueless bastards."

Zhou Xiaoliu had already walked quickly to him. Looking down at the scarred corpse on the ground and the old woman's corpse next to the tree root, his legs trembled.

But before he could speak, Wei Xuanfeng took the black iron token from his waist and threw it over.

"I've killed a few thugs, and I'm sorry for the trouble. Just do it officially, don't give me any special treatment."

Zhou Xiaoliu caught the token and turned it over to take a look.

Made of black iron, with cloud patterns inlaid at the four corners and the two characters "General Flag" cast in the center.

His hand trembled violently, and the token almost slipped from his grasp.

Old Wang, who was standing nearby, peeked over and took a look; his expression changed as well…

This is the token of the chief officer of the Demon Suppression Division. Even high-ranking officials of the prefecture must bow and pay their respects to those who hold this token. A mere county yamen runner would feel that his back is not flexible enough to kneel.

The two men simultaneously bent over, their knees buckling, and knelt on the street: "We... greet Commander Wei!"

One of the thugs behind him sat down on the ground with a thud.

The fierce look on Zhao's youngest son's face vanished instantly, and his lips began to turn white.

Wei Xuanfeng stood up, put the token back at his waist, and patted Zhou Xiaoliu on the shoulder.

"Get up. If the county magistrate asks later, just say that Wei Xuanfeng of the Demon Suppression Division got itchy and scolded a few ignorant beasts."

"Yes...yes..."

"Alright, nothing else, you can go back to your work. Oh, by the way, you can deal with these corpses."

Wei Xuanfeng waved his hand.

"Yes, sir!" Zhou Xiaoliu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Just as he was about to leave, he saw Hu Murong's face clearly. "Commander Wei... Commander Wei, is your friend Miss Qin Zhaodi?"

"My name is Hu Murong!"

It seems that the name Qin Zhaodi is Hu Murong's Achilles' heel, and he will be enraged if touched.

Wei Xuanfeng frowned.

How do you know the name Qin Zhaodi?

"Replying to...replying to Commander Wei, I...I..." Zhou Xiaoliu hesitated for a moment, then seemed to muster a lot of courage, looking at Hu Murong, "Aunt Qin...no, no, Miss Hu...why don't you...go home and take a look..."

After saying that, he turned and left with Old Wang.

Hu Murong, on the other hand, was stunned.

Wei Xuanfeng seemed to realize something was wrong and immediately looked at Hu Murong.

"How about I go back with you to take a look?"

"No need, you take your junior sister back first!"

After saying that, Hu Murong turned and left without giving Wei Xuanfeng a chance to speak.

In a few flashes, they disappeared into the street...

"Senior Brother, Senior Sister seems to be in a bad mood..." Jiao Xiaoxiao immediately went to Wei Xuanfeng's side upon seeing this.

"Um."

"Should we go help her?"

"Let me think about it... never mind, with her current abilities, she shouldn't be too dangerous." Wei Xuanfeng pondered for a moment and said, "I'll show you around some more, and if she hasn't finished dealing with this by evening, we'll head back first."

"it is good."

……