What do you mean you also want to return to the world?

Chapter 32 Slaying Demons

In Tang Shi's view, Shi Yan, who had previously been timid and submissive like the first unlucky guy to die in a horror movie, now seemed to have transformed into a god of war. Wielding a burning sword, he charged into the midst of the hundred demons, as if there were no demons in the world. The demons struck by the sword fell like wheat, and then were burned to ashes in their struggles. The entire venue echoed with mournful howls.

"How...how did you do that?"

Tang Shi was quite shocked.

There are only two ways for humans to harm yokai. One is to use the yokai's power, like Saitei-ryo, to possess them. The other is to use a specific weapon, like the swords of these swordsmen.

But the sword in Shi Yan's hand was clearly just an ordinary, cheap ornament that could be bought for a few hundred yuan on Taobao.

But Shi Yan was able to imbue this sword with the ability to slay demons.

This was the first time Tang Shi had encountered such a situation, and she couldn't help but ask Qi Fei, "Did you anticipate this from the beginning?"

How is that possible? I've never seen anything like it before.

"Of course." Qi Fei nodded slightly, his expression full of confidence. "I knew this young man was extraordinary."

Tang Shi rolled her eyes, realizing that Qi Fei was talking nonsense.

But she had no time to argue with Qi Fei. Instead, she turned her gaze back to the hall and looked at the boy who was slaying demons like a vengeful ghost.

As a demon slayer, Tang Shi was well aware of just how powerful Shi Yan's ability was. It meant that, whenever he wanted, he could disregard the limitations of time and place and slay demons at any time. Unlike them, who were no different from ordinary people once they were without their swords.

That's why Tang Shi always carried a sword with him, to prevent being unable to respond quickly in case of an emergency.

However, keeping a sword close at hand also brings other problems. The most direct one is that the sword itself also possesses demonic power, and not just demonic power, but also the killing intent left over from thousands of years of slaying demons and monsters. To demons with strong perception, this killing intent is like the loudspeaker on a junkyard cart, capable of waking you from your afternoon nap with a single blast.

To counter this, the Sword-Wielding Bureau created a special sealing box to isolate the sword's demonic power and killing intent. However, this isolation only works on lesser demons with weaker perception; it's not very effective against powerful demons. Furthermore, unlocking the box and awakening the sword takes time, and in battles against top-tier demons, this time can be fatal.

But Shi Yan doesn't need to worry about this at all. To the monsters, his ability is like an ordinary-looking, unarmed guy who suddenly picks up a tree branch and cuts off your head when he walks up to you.

It can transform anything around it into a weapon to slay demons...

Tang Shi held her breath as she looked at Shi Yan's valiant figure.

This is a born demon slayer.

But just as Tang Shi had this thought, Shi Yan in the museum suddenly fell to the ground and rolled several times.

"What happened?!" Tang Shi exclaimed in surprise. "Has he been corrupted by the monster's power?"

"Uh, it doesn't seem like that." Qi Fei glanced at him, his expression strange. "It seems like he's not in good physical condition; his legs are weak."

Tang poetry: "..."

……

Damn, I'm out of energy.

Shi Yan was panting heavily, but his legs were trembling as if he were having a seizure.

He didn't know if it was because of the adrenaline, but Shi Yan felt like he was Xiang Yu just now, with fierce swords and raging fire, and no demons or monsters could stop him.

But now that the adrenaline has subsided, he feels like his whole body is being hollowed out, and he can barely stand up.

No way? This high school student's body isn't very good either. It seems even weaker than his previous life's corporate slave body... Well, if it were his previous life, he would probably have collapsed long ago.

"Oh dear, you're already done for?" Seeing Shi Yan collapse, Crimson's voice rang out at just the right moment. "And you used my power, yet you can't even handle such a trashy little monster. You really are... um, a weakling?"

Scarlet remembered a word she had heard from Qi Fei before. Although she didn't know the exact meaning of the word, she felt that it was quite aggressive, and she liked it.

Shi Yan's lips twitched slightly.

How did she really go from a great demon to a little female ghost?

However, he also knew that Crimson was right. Although he had done a good job of hacking away, using the corpses as fuel to turn the entire arena into a burning reed bed (Crimson cannot ignite normal objects), it was not very useful. New corpses kept crawling out of the ground, seemingly endless.

What's going on?

"Give up, your body won't last much longer," Crimson said leisurely. "It's not too late to hand you over to me now... I'll only take half your life, how about that, is it a good deal?"

"You might as well just kill me, if you can do that."

Shi Yan replied irritably, then began to think again.

He's already killed so many, but the number hasn't decreased, so there are only two possibilities. One is that there really are that many monsters here, and all the servants who were killed back then have transformed into monsters. The other is that he hasn't been able to attack the monsters' true forms; he's only been dealing with illusions and the like.

So which possibility is it?

Shi Yan felt that it could only be the latter, because Qi Fei had said that if there were really so many monsters gathered in the same place, it would not be a small problem that he could solve.

If it's the latter, then what Yan needs to do is very simple.

He held the sword across his chest, then stuck out his tongue and licked the "scarlet" color that was both fire and blood.

Then, black lines appeared before his eyes, and all of these black lines converged into one place.

Shi Yan's lips curled up slightly, but he didn't notice that the "scarlet" color on the blade had faded considerably.

……

"He seems to know how to break the deadlock."

After Tang Shi noticed that Shi Yan was looking in the right direction, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and then said with a hint of complaint.

"Seriously, why didn't you just do this earlier? Your combat intelligence is just too low."

Watching Shi Yan's battle, Tang Shi felt like he was watching a top-tier numerical monster being toyed with by a cunning mechanical monster.

Shi Yan was a top-tier numerical monster; that crimson flame seemed like an instant death upon contact, yet he couldn't touch it even once, constantly being toyed with by the monster. The monster released one bait after another like flying a kite, and Shi Yan was going all out for each one. If this continued, he would eventually be worn down and killed by the monster.

Fortunately, he has finally found the monster's location.

"The battle is about to end," Tang Shi concluded. "That monster can't stop him."

But Qi Fei shook his head: "It's hard to say."

Tang Shi immediately glared at Qi Fei, clearly displeased that he had questioned her.

While she was far inferior to Qi Fei in theoretical knowledge, Qi Fei was far inferior to her in combat understanding. After all, one of them passed the combat test on the first try but failed the theory test countless times, while the other passed the theory test on the first try but failed the combat test countless times. Therefore, she would listen to Qi Fei when it came to theoretical matters, but Qi Fei would listen to her when it came to combat matters. The two almost never overstepped their boundaries, but now…

Qi Fei naturally noticed Tang Shi's displeasure, so he smiled and shook his head: "I'm not questioning your judgment, but didn't you notice that Shi Yan is almost at his limit?"

"You mean stamina?" Tang Shi frowned. "He should still have enough stamina to complete one more attack."

"It's not physical strength, it's his spirit," Qi Fei said. "He's different from us. Our power comes from the sword. But his power comes from—I mean the part he extracted from the monster's body—this part needs to be maintained by his spiritual power. You can think of it as the fuel for that flame."

Tang Shi understood: "You mean, he's almost unable to maintain his current strength?"

"We should still be able to maintain our strength; we can just grit our teeth and persevere with all our might," Qi Fei said. "But things other than strength are another matter."

"Either speak like a human being," Tang Shi said, completely unconvinced by Qi Fei's words. "Or don't speak at all."

"...That means his mental state will be very unstable and he will be easily disturbed by mental factors," Qi Fei said. "And what he is facing now is a collection of hundreds of wronged souls who died a thousand years ago."

……

After catching his breath briefly, Shi Yan rallied once again.

That's the advantage of being a high school student; even if you're exhausted, you can still squeeze out energy after stopping to rest.

His current target is an ancient corpse fifty meters away.

This wasn't a manufactured corpse, but a real, unexcavated ancient body still in the burial pit. Its exterior appeared perfectly normal, but in Shi Yan's brief, demonic eyes, it was the source of all demonic energy. The archaeological bureau had clearly awakened it because of this discovery.

Then what you need to do next is very simple: rush over and give it a good stab, and everything will be solved.

It seemed to realize the danger, and the remaining corpses suddenly increased their speed, rushing forward one after another to try to stop Shi Yan.

But it was clearly useless; in front of Scarlet, these guys were just fuel.

Just when Shi Yan thought the demon-slaying assessment was finally coming to an end, his vision suddenly blurred, and he heard indistinct shouts and screams.

"I...I am not King Li!"

"No, no, don't kill me."

A burst of crimson light filled Shi Yan's vision as he saw a soldier in armor, expressionless, killing a maid who was trying to escape.

What the hell?

Shi Yan blinked hard before he realized that he was still in the archaeological museum, and the monster's true form was less than twenty meters away from him.

So he continued forward, but the sensation he felt under his feet was not from the pit of corpses, but from the hard and slippery road surface.

He instinctively looked down and found himself standing on blood-soaked bluestone bricks, with corpses piled up on both sides of the road.

Not again?!

Is this some new trick of that monster?

Shi Yan had a vague sense of unease. His gaze kept switching between the venue and the Li Wang Mansion from two thousand years ago. The closer he got to the monster's true form, the more frequently he switched between them, like a slideshow.

Fortunately, he could always see the black lines that symbolized demonic power, whether in the stadium or in the Li Wang Mansion.

So Shi Yan continued forward, cutting down the corpses that tried to pounce on him. But with the constantly shifting perspectives, the corpses Shi Yan had just cut down one second would become servants of the Li Prince's mansion the next. The crimson flames on their bodies transformed into real blood, and Shi Yan could even feel the scalding heat of this blood splattering onto him.

The feeling of slaying monsters is different from slaying living people, so even though Shi Yan knew it was all fake, he still felt immense psychological pressure.

With no other option, Shi Yan had to quicken his pace.

Fifteen meters, ten meters, eight meters, five meters...

He was getting closer and closer to the monster's true form, close enough that he could reach it with just one more sprint.

But his steps grew heavier and heavier, because his perspective lingered on the Prince Li's mansion for longer and longer, the screams around him became clearer and clearer, and his consciousness became increasingly blurred, as if he could no longer distinguish which side was reality.

Finally, he stopped and placed a bronze sword against the shoulder of a beautifully carved little girl.

The little girl cried and begged for mercy.

He shook his head.

Because he could not disobey the emperor's orders.

……

"Damn it." Looking at Shi Yan, who was already standing in front of the target but had stopped at the last step, Qi Fei couldn't help but sigh. "We still fell for it. We were just a hair's breadth away."

"But he has done enough."

"Of course," Qi Fei readily admitted. "He's passed the test. Go and bring him back. Don't let those monsters really hurt him."

Tang Shi nodded slightly, then drew his sword again and charged toward Shi Yan, who was about to be swallowed by the corpses.

……

"Please spare me, okay?"

Shi Yan hesitated.

Although he came under imperial orders, he still couldn't bring himself to harm such a child, especially since he knew the child was innocent, something he had known from the beginning.

But the imperial decree could not be disobeyed...

For some unknown reason, Shi Yan, whose hands were already stained with the blood of innocent people, began to struggle.

What should he do?

Just then, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang in his mind: "If you can't bring yourself to do it, leave it to me."

"Who...are you?" Shi Yan asked, somewhat dazed.

"I'm here to help you." The man coaxed gently, "Leave all the things you don't want to do to me, and I'll help you...bear the darkness and sin."

Bearing darkness and sin?

Shi Yan didn't know what this meant, but he didn't know if the other party's words were really convincing or if he really wanted to escape. At this moment, his mind was involuntarily drawn closer to the voice.

"Come on, just like that... leave everything to me."

The other person spoke softly, their voice as gentle as a mother's. Shi Yan gradually loosened his grip, as if he were about to succumb to it.

"I'll only take half your life."

The other party spoke gently, as if it were the most ethical business deal imaginable.

However, when it reached Shi Yan's ears...

What? Half a life?

As if he had caught some key word, Shi Yan's previously confused pupils instantly became clear.

He remembered, he remembered everything.

That damn little brat, she wants to kill me again!

Alarm and anger surged up at the same time, washing away all emotions such as confusion and self-blame.

So he raised his sword and slashed down.

The illusion shattered instantly!

The crying little girl before him, along with the blood-red Liwang Mansion behind her, vanished under the sword's edge.

Instead, the ugly, dried-up corpse, half-buried in the ground, was set ablaze by "Scarlet".

"boom--!"

The flames no longer clung to the blade, but transformed into a devastating storm. Centered on Shiyan, it spread wildly in all directions, igniting hundreds of twisted corpses in reality. The previously ferocious and vengeful spirits could no longer even utter a wail before turning to ashes in the crimson tidal wave.

it is finally over.

Shi Yan took a deep breath and extinguished the crimson glow.

I should go and report to Qi Fei.

He instinctively turned around, then was startled.

Because he saw Tang Shi standing right behind him, still in the posture of drawing her sword, her expression very stiff.

"What, what's going on?" Shi Yan panicked, wondering if that idiot Fei Hong had been discovered.

But Tang Shi said nothing. She only glanced at her half-drawn sword, then at the still-burning ashes, remained silent for a long time, then sheathed her sword and left, leaving only one sentence behind.

"Don't take such a risk next time."