In the Demon Slaying Department.
Zhou Yi made his way to prison cell number B13 in an unhurried and leisure manner.
A dozen or so captains from the Demon Slaying Department were standing guard outside the prison cell. When they saw Zhou Yi approaching, the head of the group, who was a youth clad in silver armor, shouted out to him.
"Hold it! Who are you?"
"My greetings to you, Captain. I am Zhou Yi, a Class-A division executioner. This is my pass."
Zhou Yi flashed his identity token and said, "This is the task that Captain Xu has assigned to me for today, to deal with the demon in prison cell number B13."
"Xu Yun?"
"Yes."
"Prison cell number B13 is temporarily out of bounds today. You can take the day off for today."
"Thank you, Captain."
Zhou Yi turned around with a look of delight and left.
He could hear the conversations within the prison about the Blackwater Mystic Snake. They were all discussing how it died so tragically that even its soul was not spared, and how it should have been killed by an escaping demon.
Earlier on, some highly skilled masters of the Demon Slaying Department arrived at the prison cell and killed the snake demon right on the spot. While the contemplation on how this matter could be covered up was still in progress, these three people directly went off to hunt down the dragon's soul instead.
The captain of the Demon Slaying Department now, who was far weaker than Zhou Yi, quietly made a beeline for the exit of the cell.
So, by right, now there should not be any major problems for Zhou Yi to deal with the demon by exerting his rights as an executioner.
The Demon Slaying Department was Zhou Yi's treasure trove. He would never leave this place unless he was left with no other choice.
Over the next three days, the entire prison of the Demon Slaying Department was turned upside down where all the executioners had to be subjected to a screening by the demon-revealing mirror.
Zhou Yi himself was summoned for questioning several times, but all these sessions were handled only by the captain of the Demon Slaying Department.
The role of an executioner within the Demon Slaying Department was inferior, somewhat similar to that of a handyman. He was just someone who had signed a deed to sell his body for labor. Before entering the Demon Slaying Department, everyone would need to undergo several tests and checks, thus no one would even find cause to suspect the condition of executioners in the first place.
In the end, nothing unusual was found. Except for the fact that the dragon's soul had managed to escape from the prison, the Demon Slaying Department did not make any losses. Thus, this matter was simply put to rest.
"Zhou, wake up. Roll call for the day is starting soon."
Zhou Yi heard a voice and woke up from his nap.
The torture room was still as dark as before. But Zhou Yi was already accustomed to seeing things in the dark.
He was now the longest surviving executioner working in the torture rooms of the prison, making everyone else his junior in terms of experience. This was why everyone called him Senior Zhou.
From the attendance taken during the morning roll call, the headcount of executioners in Division A was currently 80 people or so.
Evidently, the rate at which executioners were dying was far slower than the rate of replacement.
"The main task today is to dispose of a group of water demons, and the most important of which is… prison cell number A35."
Captain Xu took a look at the list of executioners, then said, "Zhou Yi, you're the veteran here. It is a big fellow this time, so I will give you three days. Ensure that every cut you make is sharp and precise. Don't waste even a fraction of it."
"Got it."
Zhou Yi felt anticipation stirring within him. There might be a surprise awaiting him.
Opening the door to cell number A35, he saw a dragon nailed to the wall with long spears. Indeed, this was an old acquaintance.
For the past few days, the Dragon King of Green Waves had its soul and magic powers sealed under a spell, so by now, it could barely open its eyes.
When it saw Zhou Yi walking into the prison cell, the eyes of the Dragon King of Green Waves immediately turned red.
If its mouth and nose had not been sealed, it would have viciously hurled all the curses that it had accumulated over a thousand years on Zhou Yi.
"I had not expected to share such a deep affinity with you. It had only been a few days, and now, we meet again."
Zhou Yi was a no-nonsense person. Since everything on that dragon's body was a treasure, he was certain that the captain would definitely be keeping an eye over him somewhere.
The torture instruments in prison cell number A35 were also specially made. The ones that were commonly used by executioners would not be able to slice through the dragon's skin.
Two days later, after being kept suppressed for a prolonged period, the Dragon King of Green Waves finally lost its soul due to extreme suffocation, and what was left of it included dragon scales, dragon skin, dragon claws, dragon teeth, dragon eyes, dragon gall…
To ensure that the materials were kept at maximum freshness, each time Zhou Yi peeled and stripped something off the dragon's body, he would deliver it to the logistics department right away. Each time he appeared, the people would marvel.
They were all marveling at how this dragon's body was made up entirely of precious treasures. It was completely different from the Dark Evil Demon King, which had simply nothing worth offering at all.
They were also marveling at how highly skilled and practiced Zhou Yi was. He was indeed worthy of being the representative of all executioners of the torture room. There was no need to further process the dragon scales that Zhou Yi had stripped off the dragon's body. They could be used to refine treasured armor right away.
The dragon appeared on the thousandth page in the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters, which was quite far away from the Black Evil Demon King.
Reward: Summoning the Wind and Rain!
This was one of the 36 Tiangang Spells. It not only allowed one to summon gales and rain but also, to disperse clouds and stop the rain. Among these, one could also control snowstorms, hails, typhoons, and the likes of them, all of which belonged to the variety of forms that clouds, and also, rain could appear in.
The method of summoning the wind and rain enabled one to gain additional control in the realms of water and wind spells. Upon comparison, the method of summoning clouds and rain was really not worth mentioning at all.
"It's a pity the Tiangang Spell is not like one of those great supernatural powers that can invert yin and yang or change the positions of stars. But being able to manipulate the wind and rain, as well as having control over all astronomical phenomena, this can qualify as a magic power of the same class as that of immortals!"
The rewards from the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters were not only ancient books and records of divine skills and supernatural powers but also, the feelings and insights from cultivating these skills and powers.
It would take Zhou Yi some time, but he would eventually reach the realm of great success.
The dragon broke into and trespassed the prison premises and even managed to escape thereafter Even if it was eventually punished according to the law with a death sentence, it still became an awe-inspiring figure known to all demons and monsters. And its reputation would probably last for the next hundred years to come. As for the arrogant and complacent Demon Slaying Department who had been quite lax in its duties, this would serve as a timely warning.
Moreover, they failed to apprehend the person who fought the dragon within the prison's premises. After this incident, the Demon Slaying Department increased the frequency of patrolling and inspection of the torture rooms.
Furthermore, the Taoist Immortal Master laid an array of magnetic elements, but none of which was one of the Five Elements. The Buddhist Zen Master added strength to the inscription that he was using to suppress the demon. But unfortunately, more than a year had passed, the identity of this highly skilled person, who fought the dragon and escaped unscathed, remained a mystery.
But this did not affect Zhou Yi at all.
Every day, he would slay demons and earn rewards. And at the same time, he was also building upon his Taoism attainment, which was also consistently increasing.
The number of pages in the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters was innumerable, but only hundreds of kinds of demons and monsters were more commonly seen. It was said that demons with special talents would not be sent to the Demon Slaying Department. There would be another place to deal with them.
During this period, Zhou Yi decapitated a lizard demon in the Class-B prison cell and was awarded the shapeshifting technique. This technique allowed him to transform into anyone he had seen before. It kind of reminded him of Mystique, a female demon from a movie he once watched while he was still in his previous life.
If Mystique were to come to the Great Qian, she would definitely die a horrible death. There were too many spells that allowed demons and monsters to change their forms and appearances in the Great Qian, so the monks had learned how to seek out and determine if a demon was in disguise by sensing the auras of their souls.
After Zhou Yi learned how to shapeshift, he made use of this technique to deceive another executioner. After putting the other executioner under the effect of the illusionary spell, Zhou Yi killed the demon assigned to the other executioner instead. And it was only after he had claimed the reward for himself that he relieved the latter from the illusionary spell.
As for the other executioner, in the illusion he was in, he was the one who killed the demon. And when he snapped back to reality, there was no difference in the outcome for the demon really did die.
And besides, during the time where he was under the spell, the executioner would only feel a short bout of dizziness. With countless demons and monsters in the prison, this fleeting period was not suspicious enough at all.
As a result, the reward that Zhou Yi earned from the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters was doubled.
By helping to kill a demon, Zhou Yi was considered to have helped his fellow executioners avert a life-endangering crisis.
Almost every day, there would be executioners dying at the hands of demons. Even Zhou Yi himself had met with several occasions where the demons used the secret technique of desperate struggle on him in an attempt to kill him before they breathed their last. But they all ended up being tragically crushed by his thousands of years of Taoism attainment.
After almost two years, Zhou Yi finally accumulated more than five thousand years of Taoism attainment. At long last, he had fulfilled the minimum requirement of years of attainment to be able to execute the Tiangang Taoist Method of "Summoning the Wind and Rain".
The Summoning Wind and Rain method were categorized in the mid-to-lower tier among all 36 Tiangang methods. One would need five thousand years of Taoism attainment to cultivate this method. On the other hand, supernatural powers that could allow one to change and remake the world like Managing Creations, Sky-mending, and Sun-Immersing would require one to have at least 100,000 years of Taoism attainment.
Zhou Yi personally could not imagine what realm he would attain if he were to cultivate the Huang-ting Scripture for 100,000 years.
At the moment, after killing the snake demon in front of him, he gained a year of Taoism attainment. He came to realize that after the day he accumulated a thousand years of Taoism attainment, the rewards he would get from the Class-C prison cells began to get from bad to worse.
He scanned the prison cell with his divine consciousness and found no traces of hidden surveillance. This worked well for him as he could experiment using the Tiangang Spell.
Stepping onto the Tiangang, Zhou Yi held the formula of the spell and began to chant.
"Summoning the Wind and Rain!"
...
The forty-sixth year under Emperor Jing Tai's reign.
Summer.
There were 123 counties in the 16 states of the Great Qian, but more than half of them had not seen a single drop of rain since the start of the drought.
In a year of severe drought, demons and devils were bound to take advantage of the situation and wreak havoc.
The Bare Body (Demon) Sect of Fei Yun Residence and the White Lotus Demon Sect of Jingcang Residence used evil magic to beguile the innocent civilians and deluded them into staging a revolt with the refugees.
Among the 16 states of Great Qian, the State of Wei was most severely affected by this situation. The evil, yet powerful Yaksha Demon King wasted no time at all. It rose in revolt, and its disciples, known as the Eight Heavenly Kings, simply swept across five counties within a short period of time, taking everything away with them.
To address this pressing situation, the Deity-worshipping Department, Dragon Protection Department, eunuch department, and Demon Slaying Department had to make haste in sending out immortal masters to suppress the army of rebels, as well as to slay and eliminate the monsters and demons.
However, while demons in the real world were relatively easy to eliminate, demons that resided in the hearts of people were difficult to eradicate.
The people were helpless when it came to alleviating the adverse impact of the drought, and there was not a single grain on the ground to be harvested. The people were left with no choice but to rebel.
The local town gods, mountain gods, and water gods could gain power from the burning incense that the people offered them and bring about rainfall. But for these gods, from the moment they were conferred their titles, various rules would be imposed upon them by the Great Qian dynasty. Without the imperial court's Yellow Decree, any god who sent rain to the people without permission would be considered to have committed a rebellious act. Furthermore, he would be suspected of collecting incense without permission and the mandatory punishment he had to face was the destruction of his temple.
One month ago, out of pity for the people, the Earth God of Jiangning County sent rain without permission, and also secretly changed the underground river flow to irrigate their farmlands.
The very next day, an immortal master of the Deity-worshipping Department made a descent to Earth. He had come to put an end to the Earth God of Jiangning County, whose soul was shattered, and the temple was destroyed.
Gods all over the Great Qian were pretty shaken by what happened so for a period of time, no one dared respond to the prayers of their worshippers for rain.
Cultivation of the Way of God did not place heavy emphasis on talent so one could enter a realm very quickly. However, it was still heavily reliant on the power of faith from the incense offerings.
At the beginning of the drought, worshippers of the different gods eagerly offered sacrifices to pray for rain, leading to a great increase in the amount of power of faith from the incense offerings.
However, the imperial court refused to issue a Yellow Decree to permit rainfall, so naturally, the gods did not dare to respond to the prayers. As a result, the number of worshippers who placed their faith in these gods also began to dwindle.
The incense offerings were constantly being depleted, while the people were getting increasingly anxious.