A Compendium of One Hundred Demons: My Path to Immortality in a World of Demons and Monsters

These three men in black were clearly trained fighters; they landed silently and moved with perfect coordination.

The three approached the second floor of the inn in a triangular formation. The leader made a hand gesture, one of them stayed in the courtyard to keep watch, while the other two climbed up the railing like cats, and in a few leaps they reached Xu Yuan's room.

Behind the door, Xu Yuan held his breath and hid in the shadows, his right hand already gripping the handle of the woodcutter's knife, his body's energy circulating at full power.

"Squeak—"

The window latch was pried open with a thin blade, and the window was silently pushed open a crack. A dark figure was the first to flip in, landing lightly, followed closely by a second person.

After entering the room, the two men had a very clear objective. The bedding on the bed was bulging, as if someone was fast asleep. The two men pounced on the bed at the same time, and the blades pierced the bedding, but only cut open the pillow.

"Not good!" The leader of the men in black reacted quickly, turning around to retreat.

But Xu Yuan made a move.

He emerged from behind the door like a ghost, his wood-chopping knife transforming into a streak of black light, slashing straight at the back of the neck of the leading man in black.

This strike was devoid of any fancy moves; it was all about speed and ruthlessness!

The man in black realized the danger and barely managed to turn to the side. The woodcutter's knife grazed his shoulder, spraying blood. The pain made him groan, and he stabbed Xu Yuan in the ribs with his short blade.

Instead of retreating, Xu Yuan advanced, gripping the other man's wrist with his left hand like an iron clamp. With a forceful twist, the wrist bone shattered with a "crack." The black-clad man's scream had barely left his lips when Xu Yuan's knee slammed heavily into his abdomen.

"Ugh—" The man in black curled up and collapsed to the ground, completely losing his fighting ability.

Upon seeing this, the other man in black turned and fled without hesitation, rushing towards the window. But Xu Yuan was not about to let him escape. He threw his wood-chopping knife, which struck the man in the back of the knee.

"Ah!" The man in black fell to the ground, struggling to get up, but Xu Yuan had already arrived and stepped on his back.

The entire process, from the start of the fight to its end, took no more than five or six breaths.

Hearing the commotion, the third man in black, who was keeping watch in the courtyard, turned to escape over the wall when he sensed something was wrong. Xu Yuan grabbed the teapot on the table and threw it. The teapot drew an arc in the air and hit the man precisely on the back of the head.

With a "bang," the teapot shattered, and the man in black fell to the ground. Xu Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, knocked all three men in black unconscious, dragged them into the room, and tied them up tightly with hemp rope.

Only then did the oil lamps in the other rooms of the inn begin to light up, and anxious, worried inquiries could be heard.

"It's nothing, I just knocked over a teapot," Xu Yuan called out into the courtyard.

Xu Laogen was also startled awake. He pushed open the door and, seeing this scene, turned pale with fright: "This...this is..."

"They're coming for me!" Xu Yuan said in a deep voice.

He pulled off the masks of the three men in black and found that they were three unfamiliar middle-aged faces with fierce expressions, unlike ordinary bandits.

Xu Yuan rummaged through the arms of the leader and found a crudely made wooden plaque with a ferocious beast head carved on it and the character "Wind" on the back.

"Could they be bandits from Black Wind Stronghold?" Xu Laogen's cloudy eyes couldn't hide his worry.

Xu Yuan's eyes turned cold. He recalled the band of bandits he had wiped out in Xiaowangzhuang during the day. The one-eyed leader, a martial artist at the third level of Blood Refinement, had left a deep impression on him. The other party had indeed said that he was the fourth leader of some Black Wind Stronghold.

"How could they have arrived so quickly?"

Xu Yuan thought about it again and realized something was wrong. He had clearly killed all the bandits. Judging from the timeline, even if they had accomplices who discovered the matter and immediately went to report it, it was impossible for them to come to him so quickly and pinpoint his location so accurately.

Unless... these people already had informants in the city, or they came specifically for the county town!

Xu Yuan searched the three men thoroughly, finding nothing but the wooden plaque and a few taels of silver.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Yuan said to the old village chief, "Village chief, you should go back and rest first. I'll handle things here."

Xu Laogen hesitated for a moment, then sighed and went back to his room.

Xu Yuan closed the door, took a deep breath, and placed his hand on the head of the leading man in black. The Hundred Ghosts Diagram in his mind slowly lit up, and a cool aura quietly seeped into the other man's body through his palm.

This was Xu Yuan's first attempt at the "Manipulation Technique" after unlocking the Changgui Illustrated Book, and he found it quite novel.

The man in black trembled, his face turning deathly pale. An invisible force was slowly draining his life force from him, and the terror of losing his life was more despairing than any torture.

"Ugh—"

As the power of the ghouls surged wildly from Xu Yuan's body, a look of painful struggle flashed in the black-clad man's eyes, but it quickly became empty. On his forehead, a black mark exactly the same as that on the ghoul illustration slowly appeared.

"It's a success!"

Xu Yuan was secretly delighted. He followed the same method and turned the remaining two men in black into his accomplices.

He looked at the three men in black who had turned into ghouls and said in a deep voice, "Kneel down."

The three-headed demons knelt down in unison, their expressions numb, like marionettes.

"Who are you people? Who sent you?" Xu Yuan asked.

"We are from Black Wind Stronghold. The second-in-command sent us."

"Purpose?"

"The second-in-command said he had a tough case during the day, and killed the fourth-in-command and more than a dozen brothers. He asked us to come and investigate. If we can handle it, we'll kill them directly."

The leader of the men in black answered mechanically.

Xu Yuan's eyes grew even colder: "How did you know I was here?"

"We have informants in the city. They reported you when you entered the city."

Xu Yuan pressed on, "How many people are there in Black Wind Stronghold? What is their strength?"

"There are 273 people in the stronghold. The chief, Zhang Biao, is at the sixth level of Blood Refinement. The second chief, Chen Bao, is at the fifth level of Blood Refinement. The third chief, Zhou Weiguang, is at the fourth level of Blood Refinement. The fourth chief is dead. The rest of the leaders are mostly at the first or second level of Blood Refinement."

More than two hundred people, including a master at the sixth level of Blood Refinement!

Xu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. This was no ordinary bandit group; it could barely be considered a small army. He quickly continued questioning, getting a general idea of ​​Black Wind Stronghold's background. But when he asked if there had been any unusual activity recently, the courier's answer sent a chill down his spine:

"Half a month ago, some people from the grasslands came to the village and had a secret talk with the chief. After that, the village began to stockpile weapons and sent brothers out to collect food and fodder."

People from the grasslands? Could they be the Xiongnu?

"What did those grassland people look like? What did they talk about?"

"They were masked and only spoke the language of the grasslands. The day after their meeting, the chief ordered an increase in 'food supplies,' saying that chaos was about to break out and the opportunity was rare, so the brothers in the city should be ready at any time."

Xu Yuan's eyes were grave. Black Wind Stronghold had contact with the grassland people, and at this time they were stockpiling food and weapons. Coupled with the sudden martial law in the city and the rumors he had heard about the Xiongnu's southward invasion...

This is no coincidence!

Xu Yuan asked for many more details, and only after the three-headed ghosts revealed all the information they knew did he take action to "kill" them again, turning them into progress updates for the Hungry Ghost Encyclopedia.

Xu Yuan originally intended to keep the three demons, but unfortunately the situation in the city was too complicated at the moment. Although Zhao, the chief clerk of the Demon Suppression Division, had acted extremely lazy and perfunctory during the day, Xu Yuan had seen his attitude towards demons.

He didn't want to be labeled a heretical cultivator at this time. Most importantly, he absolutely couldn't expose the secret of possessing the Hundred Ghosts Diagram!

After quickly disposing of the body, Xu Yuan knocked on the old village chief's door.

"Village chief, this is not a safe place to stay."

The bandits of Black Wind Stronghold have informants in the city. This failure may not be the last time. The inn is clearly no longer safe. Although Xu Yuan is not afraid, the old village chief has no way to protect himself.

Seeing his solemn expression, Xu Laogen didn't ask any more questions. The two of them hadn't brought much with them, so they quietly left through the back door of the inn.

It was late at night, and the streets were deserted, with only the occasional sound of patrolling soldiers' footsteps.

"Where to?" Xu Laogen asked in a low voice.

Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, then said, "To the Shen residence!"