Chapter 101: Chapter 99: A New Direction for the Heaven and Earth Scale?

Song Ciwan stood in the middle-back of the line, listening to the crowd’s gasps of amazement.

A few veteran soldiers were talking in low voices on the outer circle. "This Tiger Ox was captured by five Demon Slayer Guards working together. It was still alive when it was delivered to our Washing Room. Lord Zhang personally took action and killed it on the spot."

"Tsk tsk, a freshly killed Tiger Ox like this is what you call truly brimming with Qi Blood. After it’s dismantled, when these servants start washing it, I bet a few more of them are going to die."

...

The soldiers’ voices were soft and low, nearly impossible for others to hear over the surrounding din.

But Song Ciwan’s Spiritual Sense was so keen she could hear far more than just the soldiers’ hushed conversation. She could make out the rustle of grass in the wind, the scuttling of insects, and even the sound of Spirit Medicines rising and falling in the distant Eight Trigrams Pool.

Basically, she could hear any sound within a radius of several hundred yards, as long as she chose to listen.

Song Ciwan frowned slightly as she listened to the soldiers’ talk.

’Didn’t a steward just say the servants wouldn’t have to wash this Tiger Ox?’

She believed it. Mortal servants couldn’t possibly wash such a massive demon.

Of course, if possible, Song Ciwan would have loved to touch the Tiger Ox Demon Corpse.

’If I could touch it, it would be much more than just an eye-opening experience...’

While she was lost in thought, the roll call at the front of the line proceeded at a rapid pace.

Large numbers of servants were dispatched—some to the Grass Washing Room, some to the Second Wash Room, and others to the butchering room...

This part of the process was much the same as at the Washing Square in Su Yang City, so there’s no need to elaborate.

The difference was that the Washing Square in Pinglan City was on a much larger scale; there seemed to be over a thousand servants.

The people stood on the vast, ring-shaped plaza beside the Eight Trigrams Pool, organized into ten lines. After they had been waiting for a quarter of an hour, the soldiers collecting the Tiger Ox’s blood suddenly dispersed.

The next moment, a figure shot out from the other side of the Eight Trigrams Pool.

The man was dressed in Profound Iron-colored martial attire. He leaped ten zhang into the air. While still in mid-flight, he reached behind his back and drew a Spring and Autumn Great Saber that was a full two meters long.

SHIIING!

The unsheathed blade streaked across the clear blue sky, a brilliant silver gleam like a falling meteor, descending with a thunderous crash.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

As the blade fell, the massive Tiger Ox by the Eight Trigrams Pool was instantly diced into countless pieces by the flash of light.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Countless chunks of the corpse rained down, the impact making the ground by the Eight Trigrams Pool tremble.

Absolute silence fell over the square. Every onlooker was profoundly shaken, feeling as if their very souls had been captivated by that single flash of the blade.

An unknown amount of time passed until the Blade Master in Profound Iron-colored attire landed on the ground. He sheathed his blade and, without a word, turned and walked away.

Only then did a steward from the Washing Room hurry after him, calling out his thanks. "Lord Zhang! Thank you for dicing the demon for us!"

The Blade Master known as Lord Zhang waved a hand dismissively without looking back and was quickly gone.

Meanwhile, the Washing Room stewards resumed the roll call.

"You, you, you..."

Nearly all the Demon-Washing Servants in the latter half of the lines were chosen, Song Ciwan among them.

"All of you, come here! Move these corpse chunks to the Grass Washing Room in Earth No. 9!"

’So, in the end, the Tiger Ox’s Demon Corpse still had to be cleaned by the Demon-Washing Servants. The difference was, they weren’t washing an intact corpse, just its shattered pieces.’

Song Ciwan blended into the dark, swarming crowd, joining the other servants in picking up pieces of the corpse. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The stewards handed each person a wicker basket. As Song Ciwan picked up a heavy, broken bone, a fragmented image instantly flashed through her mind—

’What was that?’

’Was it a lush, green field, with an ox plowing the earth?’

The Heaven and Earth Scale materialized, having collected an extremely faint wisp of energy. [Death Qi of a mutated Spirit Communication Stage Tiger Ox Demon Beast, one mace and three cents, exchangeable.]

The Death Qi was incredibly faint, but Song Ciwan felt a jolt of joy. ’The Washing Room... I really did come to the right place!’

She quickened her pace, diligently gathering the corpse chunks.

The larger chunks of the corpse often yielded a faint wisp of Death Qi. Even if the smaller pieces had none, fragmented images would still flash through her mind when she touched them.

They were mostly scenes of old oxen plowing fields or children tending to cattle. Overall, the images were bright, carrying the narrative feel of a pastoral life.

Soon, Song Ciwan’s basket was full. As she was lifting it to leave, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye: a nearby servant was reaching for a fragment of the skull.

The Demon Beast had the head of a tiger and the body of an ox. Most of the corpse chunks came from its bovine torso, but the skull was that of a tiger.

The instant the servant’s hand stretched out, Song Ciwan’s Spiritual Sense flared, and she felt a wave of baleful aura wash over her.

’This is bad!’ she thought. A phrase she’d heard earlier echoed in her mind—the soldiers standing guard in the distance, laughing carelessly as they spoke: ’A Tiger Ox... when these servants start washing it, I bet a few more of them are going to die.’

The servant’s hand made contact with the Tiger Ox’s skull. As his face instantly turned a deathly pale, Song Ciwan, carrying her basket, feigned carelessness and brushed past him.

BUMP!

The bone fragment in his hand was knocked to the ground, and the servant himself staggered back a step from Song Ciwan’s bump.

"You—" The man whipped his head around, about to shout in anger, but a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him.

He couldn’t get the words out. His heart pounding, he plopped onto the ground.

Song Ciwan picked up the Tiger Ox skull he had dropped. The Heaven and Earth Scale immediately collected two wisps of energy.

[Mortal’s Baleful Aura, two taels and three maces, exchangeable.]

[Baleful Blood Aura of a mutated Spirit Communication Stage Tiger Ox Demon Beast, one mace and one cent, exchangeable.]

The wisp of the mortal’s baleful aura was especially noteworthy.

Normally, even if Song Ciwan managed to collect energy from another person through contact, that energy was usually just ambient. After the Heaven and Earth Scale collected it, there would be no effect on the person whatsoever, good or bad.

Therefore, back at the Washing Room in Su Yang City, Song Ciwan had never bothered trying to collect the Malice from other Demon-Washing Servants through touch.

’It was impossible to collect anyway, a waste of energy that could easily arouse suspicion.’

This time, however, was different.

When Song Ciwan bumped into the servant, he had just made contact with the Tiger Ox’s bone fragment.

The baleful aura from the bone fragment had just begun to infect the man’s body. By making contact at that precise moment, Song Ciwan was able to collect the unstable aura.

With the baleful aura collected by Song Ciwan, the man had essentially served as a conduit.

After passing through this conduit, the aura changed, transforming from the baleful aura of a Demon Fiend into that of a mortal. And, strangely, its weight had increased.

Song Ciwan didn’t know what she would get for exchanging such an aura, but it was clear her action had indirectly saved the servant’s life.

It was a strange transformation, one that made Song Ciwan feel she had just glimpsed a brand-new possibility for the Heaven and Earth Scale.

As she was pondering this, she suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream from somewhere nearby.