Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

Every minute movement within a twenty-zhang radius was now clearly reflected in his mind.

He could hear the steady, deep breathing of his parents in the next room and sense Little Manx tossing restlessly in her sleep. Even the faint life pulses of the winter insects huddled in their holes at the base of the courtyard wall, seeking refuge from the cold, could not escape his perception.

From this near god’s-eye view, the world around him became three-dimensional and transparent.

However, at that very moment, a sense of dissonance flickered through Chu Bai’s mind.

Amidst the steady, normal breathing from the neighboring house, an extremely faint, almost slithering sound was faintly mixed in.

The thing moved with extreme speed, seeming to pause for a moment at the hearth of each house before moving on again.

Chu Bai’s eyes snapped open, his Divine Thought locking onto the place where it had stopped—the main house next door.

He clearly perceived that as the figure lingered, the once-strong breathing in the room instantly weakened, and the originally rosy Qi grew somewhat dim and gray.

’Not a Mortal thing, nor an ordinary thief.’

Chu Bai stood up, his figure shooting out the window like an arrow loosed from its bow.

Instead of pushing open the gate and disturbing his neighbors’ sweet dreams, he channeled the subtle force of his Formless Cloud Hand. With a light tap of his toes on the snow, his entire body became like a feather, silently vaulting into the neighbor’s courtyard.

He held his breath and focused, his eyes narrowing as the light of the Golden Eye Shattering Illusion flashed and vanished.

Beside the still-warm ashes of the hearth, a monster—translucent, shaped like an infant but with a long, thin, pointed tail—was greedily hunched over the hearth’s opening, sucking up the last wisp of human vitality emanating from it.

’An Age Demon.’

Chu Bai instantly recalled the records from the Evil Suppression Department’s archives in his mind.

This creature was a type of spiritual anomaly, accidentally born from the inauspicious qi of the year’s end and the lingering essence of fireworks.

They are born from hearth fires and specialize in sneaking into homes through the hearth opening on New Year’s Eve to feed on human vitality. While a single feeding isn’t fatal, it causes the victim to become frail, prone to illness, and plagued by misfortune for months after the new year begins.

Age Demons are extremely timid and possess special cloaking abilities, making them completely imperceptible to Mortals.

’As expected, the year’s end is always a trial.’

Chu Bai thought to himself. Age Demons rarely appeared alone. Discovering one meant a whole swarm had already infested the area around the village.

If these little things were allowed to feed and grow stronger, they would eventually merge into one and transform into a "Great Demon." At that point, the consequences would be far more severe than a few days of weakness—it would trigger a plague upon the entire village.

At this moment, the Age Demon was so immersed in the pleasure of feeding on human vitality that its Perception Power was at an all-time low. It was completely unaware that a Regular Ninth Grade Demon Slaying Officer was now standing less than three zhang behind it.

Chu Bai did not act rashly, not wanting to alert his prey.

He took the Demon-slaying Iron Token from his waist. With a dot of Magical Power from his fingertip, an extremely subtle ripple shot out through the Great Zhou Law Net.

He was summoning the members of the Demon-slaying Team on patrol nearby.

Then, with a backhanded wave, the Iron Token emitted a wave of Pure Yang Official Qi, creating an invisible barrier that completely enveloped the area within a hundred paces of his own courtyard.

With the oppressive presence of the Demon Slaying Officer’s authority guarding the area, the other Age Demons in the village wouldn’t dare take another step toward the Chu Family’s home.

As for Chu Bai himself, his figure flickered and once again melted into the dark shadows.

Typically, after an Age Demon finished feeding on a family’s Qi, it would go find its companions to regroup.

’I’ll follow the trail and wipe out this whole nest of filthy things that have snuck into the village during this time of family reunion.’

After feeding on the family’s human vitality, the Age Demon’s body swelled slightly. Beneath its transparent shell, a few wisps of murky gray Qi could be seen swirling.

It twisted its long, thin tail, about to slip through a crack in the wall into the adjacent courtyard, but the moment it drew near, it was as if it had slammed into an invisible wall of fire.

Although the Pure Yang Official Qi emanating from the Demon-slaying Iron Token was restrained under Chu Bai’s Divine Thought, to a small, evil creature of Yin like this, it was like a scorching sun right before its eyes.

The Age Demon let out a piercing yet silent shriek of terror. Its entire body curled into a ball, and then, like a wild dog whose tail had been set on fire, it frantically turned and fled toward the outskirts of the village.

’It’s spooked?’

’Good. This is my chance to track it back to its source.’

Chu Bai stood atop the eaves of the house, his cloak whipping in the cold wind.

He didn’t strike immediately. Instead, like a hawk surveying its prey from high above, he used the Light Spirit Force of his Fire Step Ascension to tail it from a safe distance.

The little monster moved extremely fast, practically sliding across the surface of the snow.

It fled past the continuous rooftops of Chu Family Village and plunged headfirst into the abandoned woods at the village’s edge, a place where sunlight never reached.

The moment he stepped into the woods, the air temperature dropped abruptly.

The snow here was no longer the pure white of the village; long-term corrosion from Yin Qi had stained it a sickly grayish-white.

Dead trees stood like charred skeletons in the wind and snow, and the air was filled with a thick, strange, and acrid stench—a mixture of rotting vegetation and a rank, foul odor.

Deep within the woods stood a long-abandoned and dilapidated Land God Temple.

Amidst the crumbling ruins, dozens of flickering green flames danced silently in the biting cold wind, alternately brightening and dimming.

Chu Bai stopped a hundred paces away, his Golden Eye focused.

In the clearing by the Land God Temple, dozens of Age Demons were gathered in a dense swarm.

Their spindly limbs were tangled together as they madly tore at and devoured one another, some consuming their own kind while others desperately tried to merge their bodies into one. Piercing screeches, audible only to his Divine Thought, rose and fell in waves. The scene was utterly bizarre and nauseating.

’So they’ve made this their nest.’

A flash of understanding passed through Chu Bai’s eyes as he watched the scene unfold.

Age Demons were not born as demonic creatures. Rather, they were "year-end remnants," coalescing from the gunpowder smoke of unburnt firecrackers. They formed from the thoughts of resentment—born of poverty, sickness, and loneliness—that mingled with the collective human vitality from the lights of thousands of homes at the turn of the year.

These things were a projection of the suffering of all living beings.

In previous years, when the incense offerings to the Kitchen God in every household were strong, these things would have simply dissipated on their own after absorbing a bit of human vitality.

But this year, perhaps because Anping County had recently suffered successive upheavals, the anxiety and Resentment in people’s hearts were far greater than before. This had allowed these remnants to gather and become a true calamity.

At that moment, the few Age Demons at the center of the clearing had already mostly merged, and a tyrannical aura unique to a "Demon" was slowly rising.

Once they were allowed to fully combine, they would become a true Demon—a [Great Evil].

Once it took form, the villages for dozens of li around would likely be plunged into a great plague.

’Found them.’

Chu Bai slowly stepped out from the shadows, extending his right hand, palm up. A five-colored light swirled gently in his palm.

’Hunting down these scattered little things all over the village would have been time-consuming and laborious. But now that this group of filthy creatures has gathered together to seek their own demise by merging, for me, this is an effortless matter.’

"Lord Chu."

At the edge of the woods, where the cold wind howled, figures stirred in the snow.

Before long, more than ten Demon-slaying Guards, dressed in the uniform of the Evil Suppression Department and wearing black cloaks, had assembled.

They were all elites at the Qi Cultivation Third Layer. The Demon-slaying Iron Tokens at their waists glowed with a cold, red light in the darkness. Each of them exuded a dense Soldier’s Qi that instantly dispelled the gloom of the place.

This team had been patrolling nearby. Upon receiving Chu Bai’s signal, they hadn’t dared to delay for even a moment and had rushed over at full speed.

The lead guard stepped forward and knelt on one knee before Chu Bai, his eyes filled with reverence. In Anping County, Chu Bai’s name was the very soul of the Demon-slaying Team.

Chu Bai stood upon a pile of rubble, his cloak billowing in the wind. As he looked at his subordinates, still on duty on New Year’s Eve, his stern gaze softened slightly.

He gestured for them to rise, his voice carrying clearly through the silent, snowy woods.

"Thank you all for your hard work. This should be a night for family reunions, yet I have to ask you brothers to freeze with me out in the wilderness. However..."

Chu Bai raised a hand and pointed just ahead.

"If these filthy things are allowed to merge, by tomorrow morning, the people for ten li around won’t live to see the spring sun. Since we’ve stumbled upon them, we won’t let a single one escape."

"Since they are born of resentment, let them scatter completely in this boundless wind and snow."

Chu Bai’s tone was ice-cold. At that moment, the slaughtering aura of his General Star Enters Life surged from him like a great tide, sweeping away the cold gloom of the abandoned Land God Temple.

"Follow me. Purge this evil."

The moment his words fell, the Qi around Chu Bai erupted with explosive force.

"As you command!"