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

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

Beyond the rocky beach, deep in the dense forest, rustling sounds gradually grew clearer as they approached.

Xu Yuan gripped the hilt of his sword, activating his [Mountain and Forest Traversal] and [Yin Qi Perception] abilities. His mental power spread like a spider web, and he quickly and clearly "captured" the three demonic energies approaching in a triangular formation.

Unlike the chilling death aura emanating from the changgui, this was a more violent and ferocious demonic aura.

"There are three heads, and their demonic transformation is quite significant," Xu Yuan said in a low voice. "They'll come from the left."

Xiao Yunhan nodded slightly, his left thumb already pushing his sword out of its scabbard an inch, a cold glint in his eyes.

Zhao, the registrar, drew a short blade from his waist and stood protectively in front of Shen Qingyi, who held several talismans in her palm with a focused expression.

Three breaths...

Two breaths...

Breathe!

"Awooo—!"

With a mournful wolf howl, the bushes on the left side of the dense forest suddenly burst open, and three dark figures pounced out like arrows released from a bow!

Upon closer inspection, everyone saw that they were three jet-black demon wolves, twice the size of ordinary wolves, with protruding fangs. Wherever their saliva dripped, the weeds on the ground made a soft "sizzling" sound and quickly withered.

"A demonized wolf beast, its saliva is poisonous!" Chief Clerk Zhao shouted in a deep voice.

Almost at the same time the demon wolf pounced, Xiao Yunhan moved.

"Clang—!"

The longsword was drawn from its sheath, its cold light flashing like a bolt of lightning.

While the first demonic wolf was still in mid-air, its head separated from its body, spraying out black blood.

Strangely, the wolf carcass quickly dried up after hitting the ground, turning into a pool of black water in the blink of an eye, emitting a foul stench.

"Beware of corpse poison!" Xiao Yunhan warned.

Meanwhile, Xu Yuan had already encountered the second demon wolf.

He didn't use his full strength, only employing the [Mountain Forest Traverse] technique in conjunction with the Blood Fiend Blade Technique—he wanted to test the limits of this new ability.

When the demon wolf pounced within three feet of him, Xu Yuan shifted his feet lightly, his body sliding half a step to the side like a willow catkin in the wind, just avoiding the wolf's claws. At the same time, he swung his long sword back up, slicing across the demon wolf's belly.

"Sizzle—"

The blade only penetrated three-tenths of the flesh before being stopped, clearly underestimating the toughness of the wolf's hide.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan suddenly exerted force with his wrist, channeling his bloodthirsty energy into the blade. The blade flashed with a faint crimson light, the resistance vanished, and he successfully cleaved open the demon wolf's abdomen.

"Woo-woo!" The demon wolf howled and fell to the ground.

Xu Yuan understood: the bonus of the [Mountain and Forest Traversal] ability in a mountain and forest environment was far stronger than expected.

If the wolf had pounced on flat ground, he would have had to take at least two steps back to avoid it. But in the mountains and forests, it was as if water had flowed naturally, and everything around him was helping him to use his strength.

Xu Yuan sheathed his sword and turned his gaze to the last battlefield.

The third demon wolf has also been dealt with by Zhao Zhubu and Shen Qingyi.

While Chief Clerk Zhao held the wolf back, Shen Qingyi threw out a series of "fire talismans." The talismans transformed into fist-sized fireballs that struck the wolf's head, and Chief Clerk Zhao seized the opportunity to behead it with a single blow.

All the battles ended in less than ten breaths, but everyone's expressions became even more solemn.

Xiao Yunhan walked to the black water that the first demon wolf had transformed into, squatted down, dipped his fingertip in a little water and sniffed it lightly, then bent down to carefully examine the marks on the ground.

"That's not right." Xiao Yunhan suddenly stood up. "These three demon wolves... were driven here by someone."

"Did they drive them away?" Xu Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Xiao Yunhan pointed in the direction the demon wolves came from: "Look at the claw marks they left behind. They are of varying depths and their gait is hurried—this is not the posture of normal hunting or patrolling. It is more like they were frightened or manipulated and driven away."

He then pointed to the black water: "And the speed of their corpse transformation is also abnormal. Ordinary demonized wolf beasts take at least half an hour to begin corpse transformation after death. But these three corpseized almost instantly, which is more like... their demonic power was prematurely accelerated by some kind of magic!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingyi quickly took out a compass from her bosom.

"Buzz—"

The compass needle trembled slightly, eventually pointing in the direction from which the demon wolf had come, but it returned to calm in an instant.

"The residual magical aura is very faint, but it is definitely there." Shen Qingyi nodded and confirmed, "It's a trace of... beast-taming magic, and the technique is very subtle."

Beast Taming Techniques?

A passage from that incomplete book flashed through Xu Yuan's mind—

It seems that one of the members of the Demon Suppression Division team from twenty years ago was skilled in beast taming.

Even more coincidentally, there was a blurry black mark on the wall of Li Ergou's earthen house, and Xiao Shitou's strange behavior when he saw his son behaving oddly as he entered the back mountain...

Could it be that Li Ergou is involved in what happened back then?

Or perhaps, he wasn't just an ordinary, insane villager at all?

For a moment, Xu Yuan was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

"It seems someone doesn't want us to set up the formation smoothly." At this moment, Xiao Yunhan made a judgment, his eyes cold and stern. "Miss Shen, the formation must be set up quickly. I will stay here to oversee it. Xu Yuan, you will assist Miss Shen in setting up the formation. Zhao, the registrar, you will go and investigate in that direction. You don't need to go deep, just investigate within a hundred feet."

"Yes!" Clerk Zhao gladly accepted the order and quickly disappeared into the dense forest.

Xiao Yunhan looked at Shen Qingyi: "Miss Shen, let's begin."

Shen Qingyi nodded and didn't delay any longer.

She quickly took out the array materials from the bag: eight bronze nails engraved with runes, each as thick as an adult's finger; dozens of special talismans drawn with cinnabar mixed with the blood of demonic beasts; and a box of stones the size of pigeon eggs that emitted a faint glow.

"The Eight Gates Demon-Sealing Formation is based on the eight trigrams." Shen Qingyi explained to Xu Yuan as she quickly set it up, "Insert one array nail into each of the eight positions: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui. Attach talismans to the nails to draw upon the earth's energy. Place spirit stones around the nails to provide them with the energy to operate."

She looked at Xu Yuan: "Young Master Xu, the bronze nails need to be driven into the earth's veins. I would appreciate your help in doing this."

"Alright." Xu Yuan stepped forward and, under Shen Qingyi's direction, hammered each of the eight bronze nails three feet into the ground. Shen Qingyi followed closely behind, attaching corresponding talismans to the shaft of each bronze nail and adjusting the angle to subtly resonate with the earth's veins.

Xiao Yunhan remained vigilant with his sword at the same time, his eyes scanning the surroundings like a hawk.

Half an hour later, all eight bronze nails were in place.

Shen Qingyi placed the thirty-six spirit stones near the bronze nails, then retreated three zhang outside the formation, formed hand seals, and began chanting incantations.

"Heaven and Earth are boundless, the universe borrows its power—the Eight Gates seal the demon, activate!"

"Buzz—!"

The eight bronze nails vibrated simultaneously, and the runes on the nails lit up one by one, spreading from bottom to top like flowing water. When the runes were fully lit, eight pale golden beams of light shot into the sky, converging three zhang above the ground and transforming into a huge golden net of light that slowly sank down.

The moment the light net made contact with the ground, the remaining sealing power within the stone pillar circle seemed to be activated, and the nine stone pillars simultaneously emitted a faint glow.

The old and new sealing forces began to merge and resonate, as if forming a more stable composite seal.

The yin energy that had been permeating the air was instantly suppressed and weakened at a visible speed.

"It's done!" Shen Qingyi breathed a sigh of relief, fine beads of sweat already appearing on her fair forehead. "The formation is functioning normally, which should buy us at least two hours to hunt the tiger demon."

Xiao Yunhan strode forward, reached out to sense the strength of the seal, and then nodded in satisfaction: "Miss Shen's mastery of formations is truly astonishing!"

"There's one last step." Shen Qingyi took out a palm-sized copper bell from her bosom. "This is the Soul-Suppressing Bell. It needs to be hung within a hundred paces of the tiger demon before I can activate the sonic attack..."

"I'll take it!" Xu Yuan reached out and took the copper bell.

Xiao Yunhan looked at him with slight surprise: "Within a hundred paces is the most dangerous range for the tiger demon's attack, are you sure?"

Xu Yuan remained calm and said, "My movement skills are decent; I'm fairly confident."