"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and bury my dearest white moonlight."
Seeing that the two did not move, Qi Yuan assumed they wanted to slack off and reminded them once more.
An Qiao spoke with great difficulty. "The demons... you killed them?"
The man in black martial attire also stared at Qi Yuan, looking utterly shocked.
"Naturally. Stop slacking and bury them quickly!" Qi Yuan said calmly.
"This..." An Qiao looked at the corpses on the ground, her shock beyond measure.
She truly could not understand. Wasn't Qi Yuan a newcomer?
How had he wiped this place clean in one burst?
She originally wanted to say something, but the man in black martial attire shot her a look, so she swallowed her words, not daring to speak further.
Clearly, this Qi Yuan was anything but ordinary. He was a veritable god of slaughter.
What if he killed them too?
And so, following Qi Yuan's instructions, they burned the corpses of the demons and buried them.
Qi Yuan stood to the side directing them, resembling a fountain commander barking orders in a game.
"Who was that deranged person just now?" Qi Yuan asked.
He was quite curious about that Jade-Blood Realm madman.
"We don't know," An Qiao said, shaking her head. "We spotted him while investigating the Chen family. Suspecting he was connected to the massacre of the Chen household, we followed him here. However, he was extremely powerful. We didn't dare follow too closely and could only track him from afar using props."
"Is it related to the quest?" At the mention of this, Qi Yuan fell somewhat silent. "*Sigh*, it's been so long, yet there's still not a single clue. This quest is way too hard. I don't want to do it anymore—I really want to turn on cheat codes."
After working hard for half the day, Qi Yuan had only learned about the Spirit Blood Child.
As for the massacres of the Luo and Chen households, there wasn't a single lead.
Sure enough, an investigative puzzle game was not suitable for him.
He was suited for mob-grinding games where the big boss was marked on the map—for example, Boss Kun—and he could just march right over and clear the mob. How simple would that be?
Qi Yuan was growing disinclined to finish the game quest.
"What happens if this game quest isn't completed?" Recalling something, Qi Yuan asked.
"There won't be any rewards," An Qiao replied.
"Huh? No punishment? Doesn't that mean it's fine even if I don't finish the quest?" Qi Yuan was delighted.
In that case, he could just issue himself a quest to annihilate Boss Kun.
"If you don't complete the quest, you can't return. If we stay in these quest worlds for too long, our blood-martial qi will be corrupted, and in the end, we will... go mad and die," An Qiao said with a solemn expression.
During a past quest, one of her companions had fallen in love with a scholar and refused to leave, wanting to stay behind to spend the rest of her days with him.
Consequently, that companion chose not to take part in the quest.
In the end... she went mad and died.
That incident had left a deep impression on An Qiao.
"What kind of bullshit setting is that?" Qi Yuan shrugged.
It seemed his idea of abandoning the quest was destined not to pan out.
"Are there any new clues right now?" Qi Yuan asked.
"None. That madman might know something," An Qiao answered truthfully.
When they saw the madman, he had been wailing bitterly in front of the Chen household gates, so he might know some inside story.
However, that madman was too formidable, a Jade-Blood Realm martial artist.
They didn't dare get too close.
Otherwise, dying here before completing the quest would be miserable.
Seeing this, Qi Yuan pressed on, "In this Yunyan County Seat, who is the most well-informed?"
Since he couldn't get quest hints by just holding his hand out here, he would seek out the most well-informed person in Yunyan County Seat.
"Boss Kun of the Water Clan." At this mention, fear surfaced in An Qiao's eyes.
Boss Kun was a great demon of the Jade-Blood Realm.
For the four members of their Demon Suppression Division dispatched on this mission, surviving an encounter with Boss Kun would be extraordinarily difficult.
Therefore, even though they had tracked leads pointing to the Water Clan, they hadn't dared to approach Boss Kun so quickly, choosing instead to start from other angles.
"Where is Boss Kun?" Qi Yuan asked.
At this white moonlight meetup, he had shown all manner of forbearance and suffered every humiliation, yet he still hadn't managed to pry Boss Kun's whereabouts from Eldest Master Huang.
This saddened him greatly.
"Unknown." An Qiao shook her head, then recalled something and cautioned, "Boss Kun is a great demon of the Jade-Blood Realm. You must be careful. Moreover, I've heard this demon is exceptionally hostile toward humans. Anyone who enters its territory is guaranteed to be swallowed alive and skinned!"
"Oh. Such an evil demon must definitely be the big boss. I now suspect that the massacres of the Luo and Chen families were its doing!" Qi Yuan said earnestly.
An Qiao: "..."
The man in black martial attire chuckled awkwardly. "If it truly did it, that would make things troublesome."
He wanted very much to ask whether he could not be so casual about convicting a demon without any evidence whatsoever.
"What a pity there's no internet here. Otherwise, I would definitely write a callout essay targeting it," Qi Yuan sighed with emotion.
The power of a callout essay was formidable.
When he destroyed the Palace of Light, his callout essay had played a stellar role.
"All right, I'm heading off to play the game. Everyone... bye-bye."
Having said that, Qi Yuan's figure dissipated into thin air.
In Yunyan County Seat, there were three major factions: the weasels, the snakes, and the Water Clan.
The weasels were already wiped out.
The Water Clan's Boss Kun was missing.
Right now, Qi Yuan naturally went to look for the snakes.
After all, those snakes were all substitute white moonlights.
Even if they couldn't provide experience points, they could provide blood.
Watching Qi Yuan's departing figure, An Qiao and the man in black martial attire took a deep breath.
"He's just a newcomer. How could he be this strong? He must be at Qi-Blood mastery at the very least, right?"
"Could he really be a genius?"
In this world, martial geniuses did exist after all.
Their team wasn't particularly strong; the only one with any reputation as a genius was Chen Fan.
Yet above Chen Fan, there were many even greater geniuses, like Qi Yuan.
Before even completing the quest, he had already attained Qi-Blood mastery.
"Oh dear, I shouldn't have given him the *Heaven-Shocking Art*. That manual is incomplete. He'll probably have to switch to another art before he can... step into the Jade-Blood Realm!"
***
Three double-hours passed.
Qi Yuan was drenched in blood, looking like a serial-killing maniac.
He patted down his clothes, his expression playful. "Dawn is breaking already? The harvest this time... was pretty good."
Indeed. After slaughtering the weasel demons, Qi Yuan had rushed through the night straight to the snake demons' stronghold.
After all, Qi Yuan was too powerful; that group of weasel demons hadn't been enough to satisfy him. He had to seek out new substitute white moonlights.
Now, the snake demons had also been slaughtered to the last.
He had acquired more than two hundred additional drops of demon essence blood. Combined with the fifty drops remaining from earlier, he now had two hundred and sixty drops left.
"With this much demon essence blood, it should be enough to level me up to the Jade-Blood Realm, right?"
Qi Yuan also wanted to grow stronger quickly; otherwise, he lacked a sense of security.
Not only women lacked security; men could lack it too.
Gaining strength gave Qi Yuan a strong sense of reward.
Furthermore, because he possessed the Innate Seed, nearly all the strength he gained in this world would feed back into his main body in the Canglan Realm.
Even mosquito meat was still meat.
"Add stat points... break through!"
Qi Yuan gave a loud shout, then began providing his own voiceover.
"The ever-frugal you uses three drops of demon essence blood to attempt a breakthrough to the Jade-Blood Realm.
"However, your *Heaven-Shocking Art* says no to you. It says: I am incomplete.
"Gritting your teeth, you expend fifty drops of demon essence blood to deduce the *Heaven-Shocking Art*.
"Assisted by your unique eyes, your deduction fails.
"Gritting your teeth once more, you expend another fifty drops of demon essence blood, finally deducing the *Heaven-Shocking Art* to the Jade-Blood Realm through a stroke of serendipity.
"Enlightenment dawns upon your heart, and in this very instant, your martial cultivation breaks through to the Jade-Blood Realm."
A flash of white swept across Qi Yuan's eyes at that moment.
He felt his cultivation leap significantly in this instant.
If he encountered Eldest Master Huang or the snake demons again, he could easily handle them without even needing to merge with Xiao Jia.
"Still... compared to that madman, I seem to be quite a bit weaker," Qi Yuan reflected.
He had no martial techniques.
It was equivalent to relying entirely on raw blood-martial qi.
Having witnessed the power of Jade-Blood Realm martial techniques, Qi Yuan naturally would not underestimate the game's NPCs.
"I need to get myself a martial technique; otherwise, I'm losing out too much. But here... it's all Old Martial Arts."
Qi Yuan felt somewhat troubled.
Practicing Old Martial Arts brought misfortune.
Therefore, he had no desire to learn the Old Martial Arts found here for the time being.
"Wait, my innate martial technique... should count as New Martial Arts, right?"
Qi Yuan recalled asking An Qiao when he had reached out to her for handouts earlier.
The martial arts in the real world were New Martial Arts.
"So I do have a martial technique after all.
"It's just that my technique's level is a bit low."
The Explosive Bird-Killing Fist was indeed overly ordinary.
Let alone Jade-Blood, it couldn't even be considered a Qi-Blood Realm martial technique.
"You're in luck. I'm going to expend the blood of my dearest white moonlight to upgrade you."
Now, the remaining demon essence blood was insufficient to deduce the *Heaven-Shocking Art* further; doing so would require obtaining more cultivation manuals. His martial cultivation had hit a plateau.
Only his martial technique could still be upgraded.
As of now, the only big bosses left here were Boss Kun and the Spirit Blood Child.
Qi Yuan had to raise his strength quickly.
"Add stat points!"
Qi Yuan began his voiceover again.
This time, he spent quite a bit of demon essence blood to upgrade his martial technique.
In the end, his innate martial technique, the Explosive Bird-Killing Fist, underwent a magnificent transformation, turning into... Jade-Blood Rank Explosive Bird-Killing Fist.
"This punch is comparable to the speed of sound, with even higher lethality against birds."
Qi Yuan gained a bit more security, though still not enough.
"*Sigh*, all this voiceover work has made my throat dry. How great would it be if I could capture a system to do voiceovers for me?
"If all else fails, install a system into my body that can speak aloud whatever thoughts pop into my head."
Qi Yuan let his imagination run wild.
On Can Star, this was actually feasible.
Can Star had electronic products capable of vocalizing the thoughts in a person's head.
One screenwriter had relied on this to write scripts with incredible speed.
"Time to go home and get some good sleep." Qi Yuan looked at the faint morning light.
After bustling about all day, it was time to go home and get some shut-eye.
***
Qi Yuan was woken up by a child.
When he woke, the sun was shining brightly.
Estimating the time, it was roughly three in the afternoon.
"What are you knocking on my door for early in the morning?"
Qi Yuan looked at the little boy outside, his tone none too pleasant.
Just now in his dream, he had been having a wonderful time, winning a grand lottery of one hundred quadrillion, finally purchasing Arch Star and becoming a winner in life.
He had just been preparing to head over to Wuyun Pavilion and tell that former secretary, 'All of Arch Star belongs to me,' when he was startled awake.
He felt somewhat annoyed.
However, he was very generous, always broad-minded and never one to hold grudges.
Thus, he refrained from hacking the kid to pieces.
"A-Are you Qi Er?" The little boy's face was sallow, looking somewhat malnourished.
"Hmm? What's going on?" Qi Yuan pondered, wondering if he had triggered a hidden plotline.
So sleeping could trigger hidden plotlines.
"Sister Xiao Mei told me to find you!" the little boy said nervously. "Last night, Sister Xiao Mei went to our village and stayed over at my house. But in the middle of the night, villagers from the neighboring village abducted her."
"Oh, they took a fancy to her?" Qi Yuan's expression was placid.
"The Sea God took a fancy to her! The people from neighboring Haishi Village want to marry her off to the Sea God!" the little boy said anxiously.
Being married off to the Sea God was no good thing.
Haishi Village had always worshipped the Sea God, seizing young women, dressing them in red wedding robes, and sacrificing them to the deity.
In exchange, the Sea God would bless their fishing without worry, keeping the winds and waves at bay.
Hearing this, Qi Yuan wore an astonished look. "Xiao Mei really possesses an innate marriage-prone divine body."
Not long after arriving in this game, Xiao Mei was already about to get married twice.
Unbeatable.
This game's setup was somewhat entertaining after all, featuring a few comical characters.
In Qi Yuan's eyes, Xiao Mei served as the comic relief.
"This Sea God... is it a demon?" Qi Yuan asked the question he cared about most.
Right now, he was severely lacking in demon essence blood.
Yet aside from Boss Kun's Water Clan faction, he had killed nearly all the other demons.
Boss Kun's whereabouts were unknown, and now a water god had appeared.
Qi Yuan instantly felt motivated.
"Lead me there. I'll go talk reason with that water god and tell him not to marry Xiao Mei—marry me instead!" Qi Yuan said without the slightest reservation.
The little kid was struck dumb, staring at Qi Yuan in utter terror.
***
Several hours later, guided by the little kid and his older brother, Qi Yuan arrived at Haishi Village.
The little kid pointed at the village ahead, his face terrified. "Up ahead is Haishi Village. We don't dare go in."
Ever since the people of Haishi Village began worshipping the Sea God, their notorious reputation had spread far and wide.
They caught plenty of fish, made heaps of money, and colluded with the yamen authorities.
Whenever their haul was poor, they would take a bride for the Sea God.
Where did the young maidens for the brides come from?
The village certainly didn't have enough to spare.
Thus... they targeted travelers passing through who stayed overnight.
However, as word spread, no young women dared pass through Haishi Village anymore.
So the villagers of Haishi Village turned their sights toward neighboring villages.
The Mujia Village where this little kid lived had once engaged in an armed clan brawl with Haishi Village over this very issue.
However, Haishi Village enlisted help from the yamen, and Mujia Village was defeated that time.
Therefore, toward Haishi Village, the little kid harbored deep dread.
"Even on such a wide official road, there's not a single traveler in sight. It seems this Haishi Village... is indeed notorious far and wide,"
Qi Yuan remarked casually.
To reach Yunyan County Seat, one had to take the official road, which passed by Haishi Village.
On the way here along the official road, Qi Yuan had seen numerous carriages and merchants.
Yet on the stretch near Haishi Village, there were none.
Clearly, those merchants would rather take a detour than travel past Haishi Village.
Just as Qi Yuan approached the entrance of Haishi Village, two burly men with hostile expressions eyed him suspiciously.
"Who are you, and what are you here for?"
Qi Yuan wore an amiable smile. "I am Qi Yuan. I am soon to take a wife and get married myself.
"Having no experience with my first... oh no, second marriage, and hearing that your Sea God is taking a wife, I came specially to observe the ceremony and pick up some experience."
Hearing this, the two burly men gave him bizarre looks.
Observing a ceremony was fine, but this was the first time they had heard of someone doing so to 'pick up experience.'
Nonetheless, a grin flashed through their eyes, and their demeanor grew hospitable. "Since you're here to observe the ceremony, esteemed guest, please come in."
The smiles in their eyes seemed to conceal a trace of mockery, as well as pity.
Chapter 319