I Have 10 Equipment Slots-Chapter 66 - 60: Kill Gu Zheng

THUD~

The girl’s body, no longer possessed by the Demon Fiend, fell stiffly to the ground with a heavy thud.

Shi Huaiying was speechless.

He stood there dumbfounded, his eyes wide as he stared blankly at the translucent phantom trapped in mid-air.

As the struggling phantom manifested, its form became clearly visible. Its silhouette was roughly human, but it had six...

No, eight arms!

Its hair was made of thick, long strands that writhed continuously like small snakes.

’Is that a human soul?’

’This is clearly a Demon Fiend!’

And this Demon Fiend had just escaped from his daughter’s body... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Shi Huaiying’s mouth gaped open, but no words came out.

He stiffly lowered his head, his gaze falling upon his daughter’s... corpse... on the floor.

The cold flicker of Vitality from a moment ago was gone. The corpse was now completely rigid, with death spots already forming and a stench of decay emanating from it.

THUMP~

After a long moment of stunned silence, Shi Huaiying collapsed to the floor and began to sob his heart out.

"I didn’t want this! I just missed my daughter so much, I... WAAAH!"

Shi Huaiying sat on the ground, all semblance of dignity gone, wailing and shouting as tears and snot streamed down his face.

Snapping back to his senses, Sun Zhenyao silently turned away.

He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

’Gu Zheng forced the Demon Fiend out of the body first. This will undoubtedly smooth things over.’

Zhang Boshong and Yan Hongxue, however, were amazed.

Amazed at Gu Zheng’s perfect control.

Zhang Boshong could have executed a similar strike just now, but he wouldn’t have been able to pull it back.

This kind of feint, clearly intended to force out the Demon Fiend, had to be both powerful and illusory.

If he couldn’t pull it back in time, he would have ended up slicing her head off.

HISS!

The Celestial Frost Blade’s Divine Wondrous power surged, piercing through the struggling phantom.

The shrieking Demon Fiend instantly stopped writhing, revealing a pale purple body, eight arms, and a head full of snakes for hair.

Before everyone’s eyes, with a POP, its body dispersed like a soap bubble, splattering onto the ground and turning into a puddle of pale purple liquid.

But there was no sign of Bloodshed.

SWISH!

Gu Zheng sheathed his blade, looked at Shi Huaiying, and spoke softly, "Magistrate Shi, have you cried enough?"

"...Enough... It’s enough."

Shi Huaiying’s body stiffened. He replied in a trembling, choked voice.

Then, he hastily wiped his face with his sleeve, scrambled up from the floor, and said with his head bowed and a grief-stricken expression, "This subordinate is guilty. I beg you to punish me, My Lord."

"...Your case doesn’t warrant punishment."

Gu Zheng raised a hand and said calmly, "Besides, it isn’t my duty to decide your punishment. We at the Demon Slayer Bureau are only responsible for slaying Demon Fiends. We came to Daping County this time to eliminate them."

"As for what these Demon Fiends look like, you’ve seen it for yourself, Magistrate Shi. These Evil Spirit-like Demon Fiends possess the bodies of the dead, gaining control and attempting to pass themselves off as human to live among us."

"If we do nothing and allow these Demon Fiends to use corpses as vessels and move freely among the populace, the final outcome will be..."

"Kill them!"

Shi Huaiying waved his hand forcefully and exclaimed through gritted teeth, "Every last Demon Fiend must die! Lord Gu, please give the order. This subordinate will cooperate fully in their extermination."

"Very good."

Gu Zheng nodded. His deliberate control of his blade had not been in vain.

He hadn’t simply lopped off the head of Shi Huaiying’s daughter, but had first forced out the Demon Fiend, precisely because he needed Shi Huaiying’s help.

Wiping out all the Demon Fiends in the city would be much easier with Shi Huaiying’s cooperation.

"First, Magistrate Shi, you are to issue a decree forbidding the exhumation of any buried corpses. This must be announced throughout the entire county immediately."

"Yes, this subordinate will issue the decree at once!" Shi Huaiying bowed and hurried out of the main hall.

Gu Zheng turned to Sun Zhenyao, Zhang Boshong, and Yan Hongxue and said softly, "Once the list is compiled, Zhang, Yan Hongxue, you will each lead a team to eliminate the possessed Demon Fiends one by one. When you strike, be quick."

"Oh, and before you go, apply some Awakening Liquid to your eyes."

"Yes, sir!"

Zhang Boshong and Yan Hongxue replied in unison.

Afterward, Zhang Boshong sighed with feeling, "I never expected this mission to be so bizarre. It’s a good thing we acquired that bottle of ’Awakening Liquid’ earlier. Otherwise, old me would have been a blind man."

"’Awakening Liquid’ was certainly a timely boon, but I’m more curious about these Demon Fiends."

Yan Hongxue frowned and said, "In all of Qiayu Prefecture, the only Domain that has converted into a passage is in the northeast. The Demon Fiends shouldn’t have been able to stray over to Daping County. So where did these Demon Fiends that can turn invisible and possess corpses come from?"

"Also, the fact that bodies dead for months haven’t decomposed is another problem," Gu Zheng added. "There’s more than just these pale purple, invisible Demon Fiends causing trouble in Daping County!"

"Indeed. If we don’t get to the bottom of this, Daping County’s troubles won’t end even if we wipe out all the possessing Demon Fiends," Zhang Boshong sighed.

Sun Zhenyao remained silent.

He couldn’t get a word in, nor did he dare to try.

When the dead first started "coming back to life," Sun Zhenyao had actually drawn his blade and attacked them.

But... it was completely useless!

Hacking off their arms or running them through the heart had no effect whatsoever; they just kept moving.

Only by chopping off their heads or hacking their bodies into several pieces would they finally stop.

It was nothing like Gu Zheng’s method—one strike, and the Demon Fiend was dead.

It was only after seeing the effect of Gu Zheng’s strike that Sun Zhenyao understood. Back then, when he had hacked the bodies to pieces, he had only been destroying the corpses, not the Demon Fiends.

The Demon Fiends had long since escaped!

The County Magistrate’s Office issued a decree that quickly spread throughout the city and to the surrounding villages, causing a commotion and widespread debate.

In the midst of this, Gu Zheng, Zhang Boshong, and Yan Hongxue had each taken a team of constables and were already rushing across the city, going door to door to eliminate the possessing Demon Fiends.

The compiled list showed a total of three hundred fifty-six possessed corpses.

And that didn’t even include the more distant areas outside the county seat.

Gu Zheng went from door to door, slaying one possessed Demon Fiend after another with single strikes and acquiring Demon Points.

Of course, not every possessing Demon Fiend produced Bloodshed when killed.

Roughly only one in every three yielded Bloodshed.

[Demon Points +1]

[Demon Points +1]

...

After rushing around for half the afternoon, Gu Zheng had collected 26 Demon Points.

But as he continued his rounds and arrived at a large, wealthy household, the cleanup operation met with resistance.

"Landlord Wang, are you trying to defy the imperial court? Are you plotting a rebellion?"

Sun Zhenyao, who was with Gu Zheng, wore a grim expression as he pointed at the portly, middle-aged man standing behind a group of spear-wielding guards and surrounded by sword-bearing Martial Artists. "You’d better think this through!" he bellowed. "Obstructing our official duties is tantamount to treason, an offense punishable by summary execution!"

"Chief Sun, you don’t scare me."

The portly man grinned, a cunning glint in his eyes. "An act isn’t treason just because you say it is. When my elder brother was working at the Prefecture Magistrate’s Office next door, he told me..."

"Enough."

Gu Zheng cut him off coolly. "I’ll ask you just one thing: will you hand over your ’resurrected’ son or not?"

"...My apologies, Your Lordship."

The portly man’s expression became slightly more serious, and his tone softened. "My son never died, so how could he have been resurrected?"

"Are you sure?" Gu Zheng pressed calmly.

"...I’m sure!"

"And you?" Gu Zheng’s voice rose as he looked at the guards and Martial Artists protecting the portly man. "Are you sure you want to defy the imperial court and obstruct our official duties for the sake of the Wang Family?"

A hush fell over the group.

The guards and Martial Artists all looked at one another. Most showed fear on their faces and began to shift uneasily.

"What are you doing?! What are you doing?!"

Seeing this, the portly man roared, "You eat my food, you use my things, and you receive a hefty bonus from me every month! Now some random person comes along wanting to make trouble for my Wang Family, and you all start wavering? You don’t even dare to stand in their way?"

"Datou, didn’t you say you’d be loyal to me?"

The portly man pointed at a powerfully built young man with a rather large head and a somewhat dazed look in his eyes. "Someone is trying to harm my Wang Family right now, Datou," he said in a strange tone. "What do you think you should do?"

"Kill! Kill him!"

The young man roared, drew his blade, and pushed his way out of the circle of guards, charging at Gu Zheng with bloodshot eyes...