The Little Demonic Cultivator in the Courtyard: Borrowing 100,000 Japanese Pirates to Heal

After Xu Jiande completed three full cycles of the Great Heavenly Circuit, the demonic energy returned to his dantian.

Xu Jiande looked down at his hands. He could vaguely see a layer of dark red lines under the skin of his palms. They were not blood vessels, but the light shining through when demonic energy circulated rapidly in his meridians.

He clenched his fist, and his strength increased significantly.

It's not that vague feeling of becoming stronger; it's a precise and perceptible increase in power.

He squatted down, picked up a piece of blue brick the size of a goose egg from the ground, and gently squeezed it in his palm.

The brick shattered into several pieces, and fragments fell through my fingers. I crushed it with my bare hands, without even using my full strength.

Changes in perception are greater than changes in strength.

Xu Jiande didn't need to look back to feel something crawling on the other side of the wall behind him.

It was a mouse, scurrying into the cracks in the wall, its claws scratching the brick surface with a very faint rustling sound.

A bat flew by about five zhang above his head, and he could feel the air currents created by its flapping wings.

The smells of blood, gunpowder, and distant coal dust in the air were automatically separated, labeled, and located in his nasal cavity.

He could tell that the blood flowing from the corpse on the left was fresh blood from a ruptured carotid artery, while the blood on the corpse on the right had oxidized and turned black.

This feeling is hard to describe. It's like the whole world suddenly becomes clear. You no longer need to deliberately listen, see, or distinguish; your body knows what's happening around you on its own.

Simply put, you can see clearly even in the dark, just like an ordinary person can see things in daylight.

This is what it means to have eyes that generate electricity.

Overjoyed, Xu Jiande took a few more steps forward and squatted down to examine a Japanese soldier's corpse next to him.

He was an ordinary soldier whose back he had just stabbed with a bayonet; the rank insignia on his shoulder indicated that he was a private first class.

Xu Jiande turned him over, closed his eyes, and tried to use his senses to explore the situation inside the other person's body.

The demonic energy extended from the fingertips, seeped into the corpse's skin, and slowly advanced into the subcutaneous tissue.

He could feel the blood inside the corpse congealing, the muscle tissue beginning to stiffen, and the internal organs being slightly warmer than the surface but rapidly decreasing in temperature.

There was no trace of demonic energy, and nothing unusual.

He was just an ordinary Japanese soldier, only a bit stronger than the average soldier.

Xu Jiande withdrew his demonic energy, stood up, and dusted off his hands.

It seems I was overthinking things.

The sniper whose soul left his body last time was an exception; not every Japanese soldier possesses that kind of bizarre power.

This relieved him slightly, but he didn't completely let down his guard.

At least one thing was learned: there were indeed people among the Japanese soldiers practicing similar techniques, but in very small numbers, and they might only exist in a special unit or a specific department.

Or perhaps it was a top expert from the Japanese side.

Xu Jiande quickly reviewed the results of tonight's battle.

They killed probably more than fifty Japanese soldiers and captured seventy or eighty hand grenades, eight rifles, and two pistols, but they used most of these and didn't have much left.

There are only three rifles, five grenades, and some bullets left.

After unexpectedly upgrading to the third level of Qi Refining, Xu Jiande's strength increased significantly, and his mood improved considerably.

Afterwards, he quickly returned towards the courtyard house.

When I climbed over the courtyard wall and landed in the courtyard, my feet made almost no sound on the bluestone slabs; it was lighter and more stable than before.

……

At the same time, Yi Zhonghai was standing in his own house. He seemed to have vaguely heard someone walking in the courtyard, but he couldn't see clearly.

After thinking for a while, Yi Zhonghai walked into the courtyard to see which house still had its lights on.

There was no result.

Just then, a scream rang out from not far away, "A ghost!"

It was Jia Zhangshi's voice.

Jia Zhangshi's voice was shrill and hoarse, exploding in the quiet of the night.

The sound came from the courtyard, passed through the door panels and window paper, and woke up all the residents in the surrounding rooms.

Xu Jiande suddenly opened his eyes and sat up in bed.

Bai Ling also woke up. Her expression was unclear in the darkness, but one could feel her hand pressed under the pillow—where the pistol Xu Jiande had left for her was hidden.

"What's going on?" Bai Ling asked in a low voice.

"I don't know." Xu Jiande stood up, put on his coat, and walked to the door.

He didn't open the door immediately; he listened for a while first.

The sound of hurried footsteps and a door opening came from the courtyard, followed by He Daqing's voice: "What's wrong? What happened?"

Then came He Liu's voice, very low, but you could tell she was very nervous. Sha Zhu was crying, his sobs muffled, probably because Liu was holding him in her arms.

Xu Jiande opened the door and walked into the courtyard.

The light from the kerosene lamps shone through several doors, casting irregular patches of light on the bluestone slabs of the courtyard.

Jia Zhangshi slumped to the ground in front of her house, pointing one finger toward the courtyard wall, her mouth agape, the flesh on her face trembling violently.

With her other hand, she gripped Jia Dongxu's arm tightly, making the child wince, but Jia Dongxu didn't dare to cry out, instead shrinking his neck and hiding behind his mother.

Yi Zhonghai stood on the other side of the courtyard, wearing a patched gray cloth coat and cloth shoes with the heels off.

He was clearly also awakened by Jia Zhangshi's scream, but he came out even faster than Xu Jiande.

This is interesting.

"What's wrong?" Yi Zhonghai walked up to Jia Zhangshi, his voice not loud, but his tone carried the authority of an administrator.

Jia Zhangshi pointed at the courtyard wall, her finger trembling violently: "There's someone on the wall! I just came out to use the toilet and saw a shadowy figure flying across the wall, like a ghost!"

Xu Jiande stood at his own doorstep without saying a word.

He just climbed over the wall from the outside. With his current agility, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to see his movements in the dark. But Jia Zhangshi saw it anyway.

She got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and happened to catch him climbing back over the wall. At that moment, she saw the figure that she mistook for a ghost.

This wasn't Jia Zhangshi's fault; it was his own carelessness.

After breaking through to the third level of Qi Refining, he became too confident in his movement skills and forgot that there might be people in the courtyard who didn't sleep at night.

Yi Zhonghai turned and glanced at Xu Jiande.

This glance is short, but the contents are very complex.

He didn't say anything, but simply looked away, walked to the courtyard wall, squatted down, and touched the ground with his hand for a while.

There were no traces on the ground, only the bluestone slabs dampened by the night dew.

"Are you seeing things?" Yi Zhonghai stood up, dusting off his hands. "There's nothing on the wall. What are you yelling about in the middle of the night? You woke up everyone in the courtyard."

"I didn't! I really saw it!" Jia Zhangshi's voice rose again.

"A dark shadow scurried over here, just like a ghost! It must be a ghost! I knew it! The Japanese devils have killed so many people outside these past few days, and their vengeful spirits have all come to our yard!"

Many people were immediately horrified.