Da Xuan Martial Saint

The divine protector beast, meticulously nourished by the sect with all its might and sustained with human blood, had just vanished... gone...

For a moment.

Countless gazes converged on Chen Mu as a hush fell over the crowd, which was followed shortly by the ashen faces of the Black Crow Sect members.

Conversely, the City Defense Division was greatly invigorated, with many not even hoping for the bounty money of a thousand taels, but simply wishing to quickly resolve the battle. Witnessing the instant collapse of the Black Crow Sect's morale, their own spirits naturally soared.

"Well done."

Xu Hongyu's expression remained cool, her eyes unrippled, but her soft sword suddenly grew three times sharper, creating a sword rain that completely engulfed the sect leader of the Black Crow Sect, blocking any escape.

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She had originally planned to rush over and destroy the blood pool, but now her sword has changed its target.

"Damn it!"

The face of the Black Crow Sect leader twisted in ugliness.

He hadn't expected that among Xu Hongyu's subordinates, there would be someone so brazenly fearless of death, braving the poison water line and charging over, and it wasn't even Min Baoyi or the other Prefecture Chiefs, but a blue-clad Head Constable.

With the death of the blood-thread demon rat, his entire plan had collapsed, and the Black Crow Sect members were already in disarray. Even trying to escape was difficult now; with a grit of his teeth, a fierce light flashed in his eyes as he flipped his left hand and pulled out a black orb.

Bang!

The black orb exploded, instantly spreading a gray fog. Wherever it reached, the vice sect hierarchs and others affected didn't even have time to scream; their faces quickly turned pitch black, and they thudded to the ground.

Xu Hongyu had already retracted her sword and stepped back the moment the gray fog erupted.

"Corpse Poison Jade again."

She furrowed her brows.

She had seen one at Tang Quan's place six months ago, and today, encountered another one with the sect leader of the Black Crow Sect, but didn't know from where they had come.

But just as Tang Quan had used it to escape from her the last time, the same trick wouldn't work twice. As she leaped to avoid the gray fog, Xu Hongyu's gaze had already locked onto the fleeing sect leader of the Black Crow Sect. She swung around the spreading fog at the blink of an eye and charged into a passageway after him.

The explosion of the Corpse Poison Jade caused a momentary pause in the battlefield; members of the Black Crow Sect and the City Defense Division alike were pulling back to escape, all retreating towards the distance from the frightful fog.

When the fog ceased to spread.

What remained of the Black Crow Sect members looked around in panic, and seeing the ever-watchful Qin Bei and others who had lost the will to fight, surrendered one after another, abandoning their weapons; those who did not surrender were quickly killed by Qin Bei, Xiao He, and the others.

On the other side.

Chen Mu's eyes were currently fixed on the blood-thread demon rats he had chopped in two, paying no attention to the cleanup of the Black Crow Sect's remaining forces.

He had already made his presence felt, and the bounty money wouldn't escape him; there was no need to rush over for the leftover tasks.

In front of him, even decapitated, the demon rats' body halves were still writhing and struggling, squeaking eerily, their vitality far surpassing that of ordinary rats.

"Monsters..."

Chen Mu murmured in his heart.

Now that his status was different, although he had never seen a monster with his own eyes before, he understood this world much more clearly through various records of the City Defense Division and many idle talks, such as the existence of monsters.

Monsters were intimately related to martial arts. Not only were some martial practices, like the 'Fierce Ox Body Refinement Method,' modeled after the monsters, but also many medicinal recipes required parts of monsters as a medicinal primer.

Outside Yu City, there was an elite garrison army stationed, responsible for eliminating monsters that approached Yu City. Of course, occasionally some would slip through the net and enter the city, often causing some disasters.

Among the duties of the City Defense Division, apart from maintaining security in major areas and daily taxation, handling wanted criminals, there was also the monitoring and handling of monsters. However, Ninth District in the Outer City was fairly central, and Chen Mu over the years hadn't encountered such incidents.

Still, it was said that areas closest to the city outskirts would sometimes have monster sightings.

These bloodline monster rats should be classified among the weakest, possessing almost no strength besides their tenacious vitality, which of course was related to them being newly born. Yet, even if they were well-fed and grew to a tremendous size, a Skin Toughening martial man could still handle them.

As far as Chen Mu knew.

The Imperial Court once classified the monsters of the world into ten ranks.

Monsters like the bloodline monster rat would at most be considered First Rank, whereas the Fierce Ox described in the Fierce Ox Body Refinement Method, which could easily lift giant boulders with a slight toss, would be at least Third Rank.

While it may sound terrifying, in the end, monsters could not stir up major trouble. On one hand, they were a resource valued by martial artists, their flesh, tendons, bones, and skin all treasures, subjects to be hunted. On the other hand, no matter how chaotic the world was, it was always the era of martial artists, as martial arts had never declined from ancient times to the present.

Clang! Clang!

Chen Mu struck again, chopping the corpse of the bloodline monster rat into a mushy mass, and then, along with the other constables, they kept their distance from the spreading gray fog, dealing with the remaining Black Crow Sect followers one by one.

Soon, other passageways were also cleared, and constables who entered from different directions arrived at the Forbidden Land. Min Baoyi was covered in blood, seemingly affected by some kind of explosion, with multiple bloodstains on his body, though most were superficial wounds.

The situation for the other, Xu Chasi, was not as good. Also covered in blood, his complexion was somewhat darkened, seemingly poisoned, and he was staggering into the Forbidden Land with the help of others.

After a moment.

Hongyu, carrying her sword, returned with a blood-covered, unconscious leader of the Black Crow Sect in tow, throwing him to the ground. Then noticing the situation on this side, she immediately approached Xu Chasi.

Xu Feng had already taken the Poison-Avoiding Pill from Xiao He, but it seemed not to be very effective. He now forced a wry smile and said, "I was careless and fell into a trap..."

Hongyu quickly checked Xu Feng's wounds. The injury itself was not serious, but the key issue was that the poison had entered his body. If Xu Feng were not a martial man with Body Refinement Perfection, full of Qi-Blood and with a vitality far exceeding ordinary people, he would either be dead or already unconscious by now.

"Immediately carry Xu Chasi out."

Hongyu spoke with a grave voice, commanding some subordinates to escort Xu Feng out of the Black Crow Sect's Main Altar.

She did not have many people she could trust in the City Guard General, and Xu Feng was one of them. Now that he was poisoned, it was uncertain whether he would recover. Although they had achieved a great victory over the Black Crow Sect, it was not as clean-cut as expected.

But just at that moment, Xiao He leaned close to Hongyu and whispered a few words in her ear, causing a hint of surprise to flash across Hongyu's eyes. Her gaze swept over the crowd and landed on Chen Mu's figure.

The limit of Skin Toughening?

No wonder he charged forward boldly without fear of the poison.

Reaching Skin Toughening Perfection in just half a year was enough to amaze her, but to develop a Copper-Steel Skin impervious to poison was even more astonishing, especially since when she had checked Chen Mu's innate qualities before, she had found nothing unusual, nor was he inherently of the Copper Skin constitution.

Initially thinking that Chen Mu had missed some cultivation time, reaching Body Refinement Perfection was not difficult, but the chance of breaking through to the Tendon Changing Level seemed small. Now, him completing the Skin Toughening Realm's cultivation in just half a year meant he had caught up a lot.

With Blade Momentum in hand and Copper-Steel Skin, if he could break through to Tendon Changing, even just reaching Minor Achievement, his strength might very well rival her current Major Achievement. Even in the Inner City, he would be considered a person of exceptional talent.

In an instant.

All sorts of thoughts flashed through her mind.

In the end, Hongyu said to Xiao He, "Once this is over, have him come to see me at the Chief Officer's office."