The cultivation of demon souls belonged to the heretical way of ghosts.
According to Fahai, it would be difficult for those from heretical sects to break through to first grade.
The ultimate goal of cultivation through the way of ghosts was to allow one to become a Ghost Deity, but first, one had to be converted from a Yin God to a Yang God.
Once a ghost deity gained a physical form, it could cultivate through other Ways, therefore making it possible to break through realms.
So, it was not very accurate to say that cultivation through heretical paths and unorthodox ways would ruin one's future.
The ways and paths were devoid of life, whereas the people were alive. One just had to stay open to opportunities that came along one's way.
For example, Zhou Yi chanted the Huang-ting Scripture day and night, practiced the authentic Xuan Sect Method, had some knowledge of the spells of the Way of God, and could also read a few words of the Mantra of the Buddhism Attainment.
The Way included everything essential and pure. And it also involved widely gathering and drawing on the strengths of the various school of thought.
After eight years of slaying monsters and eliminating demons, the rewards that Zhou Yi obtained from the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters had probably enabled him to figure out a trace of the laws.
Slaying the monsters was more of a physical task while eliminating demons, on the other hand, involved the use of spells and magic. But there were also exceptions. For example, the higher the grade of the monsters and demons, the higher the randomness of the reward. Generally, the reward would not differ too much from the demons' attributes.
Zhou Yi had slain so many low-grade monsters that he had encountered almost all the various kinds of demons that existed. And all the rewards that he had received so far had been used to build on his Taoism attainment.
On the other hand, the reward for eliminating demons had always been of a different nature. The human race was favored by the gods in Heaven and Earth, so even the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters treated humans preferentially. As such, it had arranged for every human to have an individual catalog exclusive to each of them.
Think about it, would having a private graveyard possibly be the same as being buried in a public cemetery?
This day, he was carrying out his daily routine of slaying demons.
Yo!
Yo!
Feng Ling'er pranced around a wolf demon in circles while crying out delightedly. It was as if she was very satisfied with what she was going to have for dinner.
"Little fox. Quickly release me. I am the commander of Black Wind Mountain and I can take you places where you can find all kinds of good food and drinks!"
"Have you ever eaten human flesh? It is super crunchy!"
The wolf demon, that was half-human and half-wolf, was originally wallowing in despair. However, upon seeing a fox demon in the Demon Slaying Department, it began to feel hopeful.
The Demon Slaying Department was notorious among the demons. The moment one was sent into the Demon Slaying Department, there would be practically zero chance of walking out alive. But every year, there were occasionally demons escaping, and these were the ones who would spread information about the situation inside the prison.
The torture rooms in prison were divided into three classes, A, B, and C respectively, and the executioners…
The wolf demon was quite strong and was also a general under the command of a great demon. It could be said to have wide experience and extensive knowledge and had long heard the great name of the Demon Slaying Department.
"You tell me about the Black Wind Mountain, and later on, I will let you die a fast and swift death."
Zhou Yi was sharpening his torture instrument. The blade used to slay demons could not blunt. If not, he would not be able to do a clean job of slicing through the flesh, and that would not make sense at all.
This wolf demon was the third demon he was going to slay for the day. Since the first time he floated the rules to rescue the soul of the fox demon, Zhou Yi had become slightly bolder.
Every day, he would randomly select two executioners and it did not matter to him if they were from other divisions. What was more important was that the executioners he selected were at the very least, allocated to slay demons and monsters in the Class B prison cells. And it would be best if these were demons and monsters already recorded in the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters. Then after slaying and destroying them, he would be able to gain rewards to add to his Taoism attainment.
After more than a year, his Taoism Attainment had increased by more than two thousand years, which was not that far away from his mini-goal of 10,000 years.
The number of demons slain by Zhou Yi was increasing by the day. It was highly likely that he could become the cultivator who killed the greatest number of demons in the world.
The more demons he slew, the more unique comprehensions he gained on the ways of killing. For instance, he was becoming more skillful and his techniques were increasingly exquisite. He no longer needed to execute the Spirit Eye Technique because he was able to determine the demon's meridians and bone structure clearly at just one look.
This state was similar to how a butcher practiced until he became so adept at dismembering the ox. And upon perfecting his technique, he would have attained the peak of his skill.
If Zhou Yi were to make a record of all the techniques he knew, it would definitely become a school of martial arts that specialized in the slaying and dismembering of demons.
This was a skill he acquired based on his self-comprehension. It was independent of reference from the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters and knowing this made Zhou Yi extremely delighted.
"Despicable humans. If you have not tempted me with blood, would I have fallen into your trap? If you have guts, let me go, and believe it or not, this grandpa Wolf here will devour you in one clean bite!"
The wolf demon heard the shrill sounds of torture instruments being sharpened and felt a chill run down its spine. Its eyelids were twitching ceaselessly, but it went on shouting at Zhou Yi.
"What a pity. It would have been much better if you'd be obedient. Then I would have spared you from the pain of my soul-searching skill!"
Zhou Yi was done polishing his torture equipment, and with a swift flipping motion of his wrist, he sliced off a layer of skin from the wolf in a flash.
There was nothing much of value to be found on the wolf demon's body. The wolf skin could be used for refining vestments, the wolf claws and teeth could be used for refining magic weapons, the wolf tail could be used for refining the pen used to draw talisman, and then, the remaining parts of blood and flesh would be thrown into the Demon Refining grotto.
Soul-searching!
The scenes in its memory appeared before Zhou Yi's eyes, who flipped through them and found quite a fair bit of useful knowledge.
The state of Qi, big demons, Black Wind Mountain…
Zhou Yi did not need to step out of prison at all. Through the demon's memories, he could already see the map of the entire Great Qian Dynasty in his mind.
"So, it turns out the Demon Slaying Department does carry out sting operations. It drove away mountain bandits who disrupted the order in Black Wind Mountain and lured the wolf demon into leading its pack to slaughter and devour the bandits. Then it jumped a surprise attack on the wolf demon and subdued it."
Zhou Yi pondered for a moment and frowned slightly. The Demon Slaying Department had obviously gone overboard and crossed the line.
Laws of the Great Qian had imposed various restrictions on immortal masters. The eradication of mountain thieves and bandits was one of the local military responsibilities and was within the scope of humane jurisdiction. Anyone who intervened without authorization was considered to have committed a felony.
Moreover, in the wolf demon's memory, its pack of wolves was devouring mountain thieves and bandits. How would they have known that these were actually ordinary civilians in disguise?
"This world is getting more and more chaotic…."
Zhou Yi raised a spirit fire from his palm to refine the soul of the wolf demon.
After a moment, the sounds of wailing and howling stopped, leaving only a gray soul bead that was formed from the condensation of pure soul power into a solid form.
Then he was rewarded with 3 years of Taoism Attainment!
With a flick of his fingers, the soul pearl fell into Feng Ling'er's mouth.
Yo! Yo!
Feng Ling'er was ignorant of the method of cultivation via the way of ghosts. She simply swallowed the soul pearl into her body and waited for it to self-initiate the fusion process. And in doing so, she was unknowingly conforming to the natural way of cultivation.
Eradicating this wolf demon was, however, just a small episode. After this day, Zhou Yi realized that there was a great leap in the number of demons year on year.
At present, there were only five or size executioners who had been working in the torture rooms for more than a year and not a day passed without them fearing death. So would they even pay attention to the number of demons and monsters?
Zhou Yi had long developed the skill of photographic memory and could retain a clear memory of everything at one glance. He had been killing demons every day of his life for the past eight years, and yet, the memories of every demon he killed were still vividly in his mind.
Calculating time on the premise that one month consisted of 30 days, then there was not much fluctuation in the number of demons slain each month for the first eight years. It was only until the most recent two months that the number rose significantly.
"Natural disasters, human disasters, troubled times for the Great Qian is drawing near. Who knows what kind of ending this will all turn out to be?"
Zhou Yi's book, "The Stories of an Executioner," that he had not updated for a long time, finally had some new chapters to add.
Among the new stories added, one of them was about the experience of the wolf demon, which he did not describe the exact details of what really happened. Instead, he titled the story "The Debate between Two Executioners".
As an author, Zhou Yi preferred to use the setting of a dialogue between two executioners to write his story. In the end, he even wrote a lamentation on how the world was such a difficult place to live in and implicitly pointed out the fact that the Demon Slaying Department had overstepped its authority in law enforcement matters.
The second story was about a demoness from the Bare Body Demon Sect.
It had been more than a year since it started wreaking havoc in the state of Feiyun, but the Bare Body Demon Sect was not only free of suppression, it even went on to attack and conquer three more counties. It was fast becoming the next great evil existence after the Yaksha Demon King.
This demoness was originally a virtuous young woman. Her husband was compelled to serve in the military force and died on the battlefield while besieging the rebels.
In times of catastrophes, where only the old and widows were left in the household, it was not difficult to imagine what a hard life this woman led. To put food on the table for the family, she had no choice but to sell herself as an unlicensed prostitute.
Because she was quite a beauty, most of the men in the village were either involved or once involved, with her. This caused many women in the village to find discontent with her. But the situation with the famine worsened, and the men could not even afford to pay for a handful of rice.
So, when it was time to perform the next rain calling ritual, the villagers tied this woman to a boulder and threw her into the river as a blood sacrifice to the Water God.
A patrol envoy of the Bare Body Demon Sect happened to pass by and rescued the woman when she was on the verge of death. He found that she had a natural aptitude for cultivation and recruited her as a spy of his sect.
After this woman started on the cultivation of demonic power, she worked her way into becoming the favorite concubine of the county chief of Yangqing County with her striking beauty and alluring charm. And then, she took the opportunity to steal the city defense map and the garrison plan.
As a result, Yangqing County fell into the hands of the Bare Body Demon Sect. While escaping, the woman was caught and brought to the capital by the county chief, who had managed to escape through a secret passage. At court, this woman begged for mercy.
---- Having executed so many demons, executioners found that most of the demons were simply going with the flow. They were all people forced into dire situations in the real world, thus falling into the demonic path. Perhaps it was worth trying to see if changes made to certain causative factors would reduce the number of demons from the Path of Demons. Based on this matter alone...
Zhou Yi simply ended with a brief comment without diving deep into the subject.
In his previous life, Zhou Yi belonged to a generation born in the new China. The communist party reigned, and there were promises for a bright future. Basically, he never had to encounter the dark side of the world, which was the main reason why he found the torture rooms of the prison too gloomy and depressing. And this book was what he needed to vent a little of his frustrations.
The latest stories in "The Stories of an Executioner" were clearly laden with words of mockery and ridicule.
A few of them were so close to pointing and swearing at the Demon Slaying Department, which was why they were shelved right away without the chance of being publicized. This was just the authorities' efforts to at least ensure that these stories would not be spread beyond the boundaries of the torture rooms.
"Why do I have such a … acting nice before a meal, but after the meal, they go on to make all sorts of unreasonable complaints?"
Zhou Yi muttered to himself, "No wonder those who wrote novels were never well-liked!"
During his ninth year working in the torture rooms of the prison, Zhou Yi met an old friend.
Immortal Master Fahai.