CH 9

Ding! The system’s notification alert resounded.

[4 demon hunting points have been awarded.]

However, looking at Liu Lan who was holding the corpse of her brother in her arms, Gu Qing’an wasn’t happy.

“This, what happened is…”

Gu Qing’an rubbed her temples and walked forward, showing a smile she thought was kind.

Liu Lan was startled and looked at her in horror. “Don’t, don’t come over…” she cried.

“No, this…” Gu Qing’an panicked and attempted to calm down the child, but it seemed to have backfired.

“Sister Gu, let me do it.” At this moment, Lin Yao stepped in. Gu Qing’an didn’t know what she said to the child, but after a short while, Liu Lan eventually stopped crying. She grabbed the hem of Lin Yao’s clothes and followed her closely.

Liu Lan was covered with blood and water stains, and her thin summer clothes obviously couldn’t bear the cold autumn night.

Lin Yao obviously noticed this and said, “Sister Gu, let’s take this child back to the inn first.”

Gu Qing’an only nodded in agreement. She really couldn’t handle small children.

“Besides, I killed her brother.”

“And Wang Zhi, he’s dead too.” Gu Qing’an sighed.

Although she wasn’t very familiar with it, losing the life of someone still made her a bit unhappy.

“If only I was a little stronger.”

Gu Qing’an’s desire for power once again intensified.

In this world, if you aren’t strong enough, a day will come where you can’t do anything with just a meager amount of strength.

Once they arrived at the inn, Lin Yao immediately took Liu Lan to take a bath first as the latter was already soaking wet.

Only Gu Qing’an was left alone to go back to her room. She sat on the bed and stared blankly at the door.

Of course, she wasn’t in a daze. She was looking at her attribute stats.

***

Name: Gu Qing’an

Cultivation:  None

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Physique: 3

Defense: 2

Skills: Retribution Lv. 2 (1/5)

【Retribution Lv. 2: Capable of inflicting a Lot of Damage on Demons Cooldown: 30 seconds】

【Additional Effects: This skill can lease life of others.】

Demon Hunting Points: 4

***

Although killing different demons was all the same, the amount of demon hunting points given this time was a bit more than the last time. Gu Qing’an guessed that it might be because the corpse demon was relatively stronger this time than the other demons she killed before.

In any case, it was always gratifying to have more points. Gu Qing’an unhappiness somehow also eased when she looked at the 4 demon hunting points shining brightly on the panel.

“Strength and agility can be increased using points.”

After she was crushed by the demon and suffered a loss in terms of physical strength, Gu Qing’an had already had enough. Although using “Retribution” was effective, after slaying two demons so far, Gu Qing’an deduced that if she encountered one or more demons in the future, she, who keeps relying on “Retribution” would be as good as a fish on a chopping board.

(T/n: “as good as a fish on the chopping board” means: as good as dead)

Using her mind, as she intended, her strength and agility points jumped up a little bit.

BOOM!

A huge heat flow suddenly emanated from her and scattered into all parts of her body, down to her last limbs and bones. It was rapidly circulating. Gu Qing’an felt the temperature of her whole body begin to rise sharply.

Her face flushed involuntarily as she exhaled a big mouthful of air to somehow lower her body temperature.

It took a long time before the burning sensation in her body finally stopped.

Gu Qing’an consciously touched her back. Her white clothes were soaking wet, her hair was sweaty and sticking on the sides of her face, and her cheeks were still slightly reddish. If someone were to see her right now, that person’s heart would probably skip a beat.

However, Gu Qing’an has still yet to realize her current situation, only feeling uncomfortable with her sticky body.

“It’s time to test my new strength.”

Her physique and defense did not let her down, so she concluded that her improved strength and agility would be the same as well.

Gu Qing’an stood still and tried to clench her right hand.

Boom! Like thunder rising from the flat earth, the room exploded out of thin air.

“With just a little boost, there’s already this much increase in power?” Gu Qing’an was stunned.

She looked at her strength in the attribute panel, and a message suddenly appeared.

It wasn’t that her pure strength had improved alone, but Qu Qing’an’s agility had also improved at the same time.

As everyone already knows, as long as its speed is as fast as lightning, even flying flowers and picking leaves can be deadly to people. The fragile and soft flowers and plants can be turned into sharp weapons at a very high speed, let alone the powerful fists that contain a great amount of power.

Once the same strength was applied to a fast punch, hitting a person would become twice as painful.

“I see. So that’s how it is.” Gu Qing’an nodded.

Next, Agility.

Swoosh!

After only using a little to no effort, Gu Qing’an dashed over several meters in a blink of an eye and abruptly came to a stop in front of the door.

“That was close. I almost hit it.”

After a moment, Gu Qing’an’s eyes narrowed.

Why does it feel like she can directly smash the door?

Gu Qing’an did not bother on making a stance in front of the door. She calculated, “With my current physical condition, I should be as good as the corpse demon now.”

People always have preferences. For example, those who practice martial arts such as fist and palm techniques have strong upper bodies, strong arms and great strength. And those people who practice leg techniques have stable lower extremities, flexible legs, and fast speed.

The same is true for demons, corpse demons are obviously speed-type.

On the other hand, Gu Qing’an has blessings from the system, and with her improved attributes, it wasn’t that difficult to suppress the corpse demon.

After testing her new abilities, Gu Qing’an prepared to take a bath.

She stretched out her hand and pushed it, and with a “click”, several cracks appeared on the wooden door.

The corners of Gu Qing’an’s mouth twitched as she unconsciously said, “It seems that the remaining two points should not be allotted first.”

After waiting for some time, then maybe she could use the remaining points once she got used to her upgraded physical abilites.

……

Meanwhile.

There’s an old and dilapidated Taoist temple in the middle of wilderness.

The temple looked like it had been deserted for quite some time. In the courtyard under a dry and withered jujube tree, a gray-robed Taoist nun was sitting on her knees. The moonlight descending from the sky was like a wisp of silk flowing into her body, looking surprisingly enchanting, yet at the same time demonic.

If Liu Xingxiu was still alive, he should be able to recognize that this was the same person who had sent him off before.

“Hm?” The gray-robed Taoist nun suddenly stopped performing her kung fu and took out a yellow talisman paper with red characters written on it.

At this moment, the talisman suddenly ignited and started to burn.

The gray-robed Taoist nun was startled and quickly got up, “Master, what are your orders?”

An old and hoarse voice came out from the talisman: “Jiang Yanlan, Black River’s Jingyao Division is patrolling around Guangyuan County. Quickly bring your junior brother Liu back, and don’t reveal your whereabouts!”

(T/n: “靖妖” read as “jìng yāo”, which means “calm demon” in literal translation.)

The Song Village belonged to Guangyuan County.

Jiang Yanlan’s eyes showed a hint of surprise, “Yes! This disciple obeys the order!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jiang Yanlan hurriedly imbued her spiritual power, and soon the talisman stopped burning.

As she checked the talisman, she let out a sigh of breath.

“Phew. This is fine. I can still use it twice.”

After she shoved the talisman in her pocket, another pang of sadness burst out from her heart.

Ever since the rebellion of Youquan Sect was extinguished 30 years ago, the Jingyao Division has spared no effort in pursuing these remaining evils. Even though her master is so powerful that he can get a batch of supplies from time to time, he is still short of money. In order to save resources for cultivation, they must save all materials as much as possible.

Sometimes she couldn’t help but doubt what her Master had said, and said to herself, “Did our Youquan Sect really dominate Pingzhou in the past?”

Although her Master said so, so did her senior martial brothers and sisters; however, in the past ten years that they were hiding from the world, with less and less materials to come by, her senior martial brothers and sister also gradually disappeared in an ambush, one after another.

“Ugh…”

Jiang Yanlan sighed and got up to walk out of the rundown Taoist temple.

She looked at the direction of the Song Village.

“Jingyao Division…” Jiang Yanlan’s eyes showed both hatred and fear.

“I have to pick up Junior Brother Liu and return as soon as possible.”