I Have 10 Equipment Slots-Chapter 67 - 61: New Demon Techniques

THUD!

A dull thud echoed.

Before the burly young man could even get near Gu Zheng, Sun Zhenyao shot out a kick, sending him flying. The cleaver flew from the young man’s grasp and landed in the bushes.

’Idiot! How dare he?’

Sun Zhenyao cursed inwardly, glaring at the portly middle-aged man. "Wang Yaocai," he roared, "goading your simple-minded subordinate into attacking an official is a capital offense! Do you have a death wish?"

"What capital offense?"

The portly middle-aged man looked bewildered and protested, "Did I goad anyone? I was just asking him what to do about people showing up at our door looking for..."

SHING!

A line of light from the blade cut through the air, crossing a distance of ten paces to graze the portly middle-aged man’s neck.

The portly middle-aged man’s words stopped abruptly.

The next moment, his head slid from his shoulders. It hit the ground with a heavy THUD. At the same instant, crimson blood erupted from his neck, spraying the surrounding sword-wielding Martial Artists, covering their faces and hair.

"...AHHH!"

After less than three breaths of silence, horrified screams erupted, shattering the stillness.

The guards on the perimeter, the Martial Artists spattered with blood—everyone scattered, scrambling to get away.

They stared at the head on the ground, the portly man’s face still frozen in an expression of protest. Their hands trembled and their legs grew weak. Hearts hammered against their ribs, threatening to leap out of their throats.

GULP.

Cold sweat dripped down Sun Zhenyao’s forehead. He swallowed hard, trying to speak, but found his body was stiff with shock.

The few constables behind him were equally horrified, their hands tightening into fists instinctively.

"Too much noise."

Gu Zheng strode forward. The Celestial Frost Blade in his hand looked as if it had never left its scabbard.

"Chief Sun, you may begin the search."

"...Y-Yes!" Sun Zhenyao worked his jaw, forcing himself to calm down. He waved his hand forcefully. "Search! Wang Yaocai’s son must still be here."

"Yes, sir!!"

The constables, snapping out of their stupor, roared their reply.

Then, with a strange excitement on their faces, they fanned out and began searching the large estate.

The guards, Martial Artists, and servants—none dared to stand in their way.

The family of the portly man hid themselves away, not daring to make a sound.

Soon, a shout came from the distance.

"Found him!"

"...Damn it, he’s making a run for it!"

’Trying to run?’

SWISH!

Gu Zheng’s form blurred. Following the shout, he shot forward, skimming just above the ground.

Sun Zhenyao hurried to keep up.

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~

The wind howled past.

In the spacious courtyard, a young man dressed in brocade was leaping and sprinting, racing toward the outermost wall.

Wisps of mist trailed behind him like a shadow, drifting along with his movements.

WHOOSH!

Just as the young man was about to reach the high wall...

WHOOSH~!

A figure suddenly shot past him from the side.

"SHING!"

A thread of light from the blade flashed and vanished.

The running young man suddenly froze. The next moment, just like the portly man before him, his head slid from his neck. It fell to the ground with a THUD as crimson blood, mixed with a pale purple fluid, sprayed into the air.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +5]

Hm?

’Looks like this possessing Demon Fiend was an adult.’

Gu Zheng examined the young man’s corpse, a thoughtful look on his face.

’The other possessed Demon Fiends I’ve killed only yielded one Demon Point from Bloodshed, or sometimes none at all.’

’But this one gave me five.’

’Such a large difference... It must be the distinction between a juvenile and an adult Demon Fiend.’

With those five new Demon Points, Gu Zheng mastered another Demon Technique.

Water Manipulation!

’Its abilities are similar to Fire Manipulation. I can condense the moisture in the air into mist or even water droplets. I can also walk on water and part rivers.’

’The prerequisite is having enough Divine Wondrous to expend.’

’Mist? Water Manipulation?’

As he processed the new Demon Technique, Gu Zheng looked up at the sky.

’Mist?’

’Right. There’s something not right about the mist in the air.’

SWISH~

His figure flickered as he shot across the ground, appearing before Sun Zhenyao. "Chief Sun," he asked in a low voice, "has Daping County always been this foggy?"

"It has."

Sun Zhenyao answered instinctively, but as the words left his mouth, he caught himself and shook his head. "No... uh, to be precise, while we’ve always had plenty of moisture in the air and frequent fog, in previous years it would only appear in the morning and at night. It would always be gone by noon or the afternoon."

"This phenomenon—fog that lingers all day and night, swirling everywhere—only started about a month ago..."

As he said this, Sun Zhenyao froze. He stared at Gu Zheng, his eyes wide, and stammered, "...it only... only started then."

GULP!

He swallowed hard. Before Gu Zheng could press him, Sun Zhenyao’s face filled with dawning horror as he put the pieces together himself. "The dead began to rise about half a month ago, and the fog started spreading everywhere within the last month... this..."

"Lord Gu, are you saying the rising dead are connected to the fog!?"

"I fear it’s more than just a connection."

Gu Zheng’s brow furrowed in thought. "Within Daping County, have there been any other anomalies in the past month?"

"None..."

He had barely gotten the word out before he realized something and snapped his mouth shut. His mind raced, and he continued awkwardly, "Well, Daping County covers a large area. Compared to other counties, our southern region has numerous lakes and rivers. But there’s also a lot of miasma, so despite its size, the south is sparsely populated, with only a handful of villages."

"So our... our attention to the south is rather limited."

By the end, Sun Zhenyao’s voice had dropped to a barely audible whisper.

Limited attention meant they had no idea what might be happening in the south.

"Send men at once... No, forget it."

Gu Zheng shook his head slightly. "It will be faster if I go myself," he declared.

"Chief Sun, you and your men will continue compiling a list of the resurrected. Include those outside the city and in the more distant villages. I’m going south to investigate."

As soon as he finished speaking, he tapped his toes and shot a hundred meters into the air.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

With a continuous Triple Jump, his figure soared like a great bird, quickly vanishing over the horizon.

"O-Okay." Sun Zhenyao stared up at the sky, his mouth agape. It took him a long moment to close it.

The others around him did the same, staring blankly at the sky in stunned silence.

...

...

From the moment they entered Daping County from the north, Gu Zheng, Yan Hongxue, and Zhang Boshong had seen the mist. It clung to the mountain forests, lurked in the corners of houses, drifted between fields, and hovered over streams. But none of them had given it much thought.

The mist wasn’t thick enough to obscure their vision.

Although it drifted everywhere, it remained thin and scattered.

However, as Gu Zheng now leaped and glided south through the air, he found that the farther south he went, the thicker the mist on the ground and in the air became.

By the time he reached the airspace above a vast lake whose shores were not visible, he saw a familiar sight.

It was the same transparent curtain he had seen outside Great Dragon Mountain before the Domain activated.

A thin, airy membrane connecting heaven and earth, shrouding everything in all directions and blocking all passage!