Jiannan Circuit.
Yizhou Prefecture.
Above the firmament, the sun was nowhere to be seen.
Only a heavy, blood-colored haze weighed down upon the city walls.
It was clearly noon, yet within this vast city, not even the sound of a crowing rooster or a barking dog could be heard.
The streets were wide, and the banners of the shops on both sides were still there.
They hung limply in the cold wind, covered in dark brown patches.
The long streets once paved with bluestone were now filled with blood-colored mud.
In the hollows, puddles of black blood had accumulated, with oil slicks floating on top.
The people walking on this long street seemed to have lost their sense of smell.
They were dressed in rags, looking like withered husks.
Their eyes were deeply sunken, showing neither terror nor sadness.
Like a group of walking corpses whose souls had been snatched away.
An old man, barefoot, stepped into the ankle-deep blood-mud.
A crisp snap came from beneath his feet.
It seemed he had crushed half a finger bone or perhaps an eyeball.
The old man remained indifferent, dragging a trail of sticky plasma as he continued to shuffle forward, one unsteady step at a time.
Beside him.
A woman tightly held a swaddle containing only half a body, staring blankly ahead.
Someone would be walking, then their body would tilt, and they would collapse into the filth.
Never to move again.
The people around them didn't stop, not even bothering to spare a glance.
They simply bypassed the new corpse or stepped right over it.
In this prosperous major town once hailed as the Land of Abundance, only this silent despair remained.
Since the beacons flared last night and the demons breached the city.
This Yizhou Prefecture was no longer the territory of the Great Tang.
The high and mighty aristocratic clans of the past were either dead or had fled.
Even the golden plaque of the Demon Suppression Division, which represented the majesty of the Great Tang, had long since snapped in two.
It was discarded carelessly in the filthy mire, left for anyone to trample.
As for the Deputy Generals, Brigade Commanders, and Commandants of the Demon Suppression Division... some were hung from broken flagpoles, swaying in the wind.
Some had their heads severed and piled into a Jingguan, placed right at the entrance of the Government Office.
Severed limbs covered the drill grounds where the morning roll call used to take place.
At the very top of that Jingguan.
A head with eyes wide open in rage stared fixedly toward the east.
The corners of the eyes had even split, weeping tears of blood.
Even in death, he could not close his eyes.
Inside the Regional Governor's Estate.
The sounds of silk and bamboo instruments were pleasant, and decadent music echoed through the rafters.
If one ignored the severed limbs covering the floor and only listened to the music, it would truly seem like a grand, prosperous banquet.
A group of grotesquely shaped demons, some with human bodies and animal heads, others with wings on their backs, were clamoring and shouting without restraint.
"These Great Tang Human Race are so tender-skinned and fair-fleshed, much better than those back in our Spirit Mountain!"
A wild boar demon held a disheveled, beautiful woman in its arms.
Its hairy, large hands roamed shamelessly over her snow-white skin.
The beautiful woman's face was deathly pale, her whole body trembling, yet she didn't even dare to cry out loud.
Only because a sister had cried out earlier.
She had been torn in half on the spot by this beast and swallowed down with wine.
Beside it sat a tiger demon transformed into human form.
Clad in golden armor, its face full of scars and fat, its slanting, white-browed eyes were filled with mockery.
And at its feet.
Lay a man who was completely naked.
If the people of Yizhou City were here, they would surely recognize him at a glance.
This man lying on the ground like a dog was none other than their usually formidable and high-and-mighty Governor of Yizhou!
"Come, fill it up for this King."
The tiger demon raised its foot and rubbed the Governor's face with its grime-covered boot sole.
"Woof! Woof woof!"
The Governor didn't get angry; instead, he put on a fawning expression and barked like a dog.
He crawled over on all fours, clutching the wine jar and carefully filling the cup.
His movements were practiced, as if he were born for this lowly task of serving others.
"Hahaha! Good dog! Truly a good dog!"
The tiger demon laughed loudly, grabbed a piece of meat from the table, and tossed it onto the ground.
"A reward for you!"
A flicker of struggle passed through the Governor's eyes, yet he still lunged forward, devouring it ravenously, his mouth glistening with grease.
Seeing this, the surrounding demons burst into even louder laughter.
What kind of sight was that?
A former local official was now eating the flesh and blood of someone's wife or child, all just to win a smile from a demon.
In a corner of the hall.
Several noblewomen, who usually lived in luxury, were now barely clothed and being shoved around by demons like merchandise.
"Lord Governor, look who this is?"
Having said that.
The demon gave a strange laugh, grabbed the woman by her hair, and dragged her behind the dark curtains.
"No... My Lord! Save me! Save me!"
The woman's shrill screams came, accompanied by the sound of tearing silk.
The Governor, who was gnawing on meat on the ground, stiffened slightly.
But it was only a slight stiffening.
He looked up, forced a smile onto his face, and kowtowed once more to the tiger demon.
"That my humble wife can serve you lords is a blessing she has earned over eight lifetimes..."
The tiger demon looked down at the man at its feet, its expression turning somewhat strange.
"Boring."
It kicked the Governor over with one foot.
"Those people from the Demon Suppression Division were quite satisfying to kill. Why is it that when I come here, it's all just spineless cowards like this?"
The Governor tumbled but didn't dare to cry out in pain.
He scrambled up quickly, still bowing and scraping.
But within his clouded eyes.
There was only dead ash.
From the moment the city fell, from the moment he knelt to save his life.
The person inside this skin.
Was already dead.
At the head of the hall.
Two people were currently seated.
On the left was a woman.
Dressed in a luxurious Phoenix robe with her hair piled high, she looked indifferently at the scene of demons dancing wildly below.
Then, she turned her head slightly, her gaze falling on the person beside her.
The man had a refined face and an extraordinary bearing.
Even though he noticed the gaze of the person beside him, his expression remained calm as he picked up a piece of flesh from his own kind, put it into his mouth, and chewed carefully.
Watching this, a trace of mockery curled at the corner of the woman's mouth.
"I thought the emperors of the mortal realm all loved their people like their own children and valued benevolence and morality... It turns out... they are actually this cold-hearted."
Li Qianyuan slowly put down his chopsticks, picked up a silk handkerchief from the side, and elegantly wiped the corners of his mouth.
"Madam, you are mistaken."
"Heaven and earth are heartless; they treat all things as straw dogs."
"Since it is for the sake of that supreme Great Dao, for the sake of eternal life, what does a few of one's own kind matter?"
The woman covered her lips and chuckled softly.
"Brother Qianyuan's Dao Heart is like iron; I truly admire you. With such Heart-Nature, that world-shaking Great Dao of longevity will surely be grasped in Brother Qianyuan's hands in the future."
Li Qianyuan's expression was indifferent.
He wasn't moved in the slightest by this compliment.
"Madam overpraises me. It is merely a matter of each taking what they need and helping one another."
The woman nodded slightly, then changed the subject.
"However..."
"Even with your help, working from the inside to let my Spirit Mountain children into the borders and breaking two Circuits in a single night, are you sure that human child... will truly come for this?"
"To be able to kill my son with the power of the same realm, she must be considered a Prodigy among you humans. Such figures usually cherish their reputation most and know how to seek fortune and avoid disaster. This place is now a dragon's pool and a tiger's den, a dead end with no escape. Why would she disregard everything to come here and court death for the sake of these ants?"
Li Qianyuan slowly stood up.
He paced to the window with his hands behind his back.
"She will come."