One more catty, one more attribute point

"Uh..."

Su Heng thought for a moment, then waved his hand, "Let's not bother."

Li Xunhao's face immediately showed disappointment.

"The interior of the Demon Suppression Tower is what really matters. With you defending here, I can be at ease," Su Heng said as he patted Li Xunhao's shoulder comfortingly.

Li Xunhao had a rough guess that the real reason was fear that he would slow them down if he went up.

But the fact that the other party was willing to put it this way

still moved Li Xunhao somewhat.

He nodded seriously and said to Su Heng, "I will not fail you."

"Mmm." Su Heng smiled, the window before him suddenly opened wide, the breeze swept through, and the moon shone through the clouds. Su Heng leaped forward.

His black cloak fluttered in mid-air, trailing behind him.

His entire figure, like a huge bat, vanished in the blink of an eye amidst the bustling inner city.

...

...

...

Elsewhere.

Ma Youcai and Wang Bingquan were also at odds.

"You damn idiot, you can't even handle such a trivial matter, and you even got yourself hurt," one berated the other.

Remembering the suffocating presence while he was with Su Heng and that urgent sense of trepidation, and then looking at the feeble demon creature slung over Wang Bingquan's shoulder,

Ma Youcai's vision started to black out.

What a pitfall!

A total pig-headed teammate.

No wonder you're not valued in the Demon Suppression Bureau.

"You don't know what I encountered," Wang Bingquan retorted with a hint of grievance, "Something happened on the seventh floor of the Demon Suppression Tower, most demons disappeared without a trace, the cells were all empty."

He spoke with lingering fear, "After much difficulty finding a suitable girl, I never expected she'd turn out to be a fierce ghost."

"A spirit that has not dissipated after death is a fierce ghost."

"Among the four types of demons, a spirit is the second rarest existence. I almost didn't live to see you."

"Fierce ghost..."

Upon hearing these two words, Ma Youcai's complexion also changed.

"You just said that the seventh floor of the Demon Suppression Tower is pretty much empty?" he asked in a lowered voice.

"Is that even a question!" Wang Bingquan puffed out his belly, a face full of grievance.

"Hiss..."

Ma Youcai's expression changed, showing signs of indecision, "We might have been too hasty with this operation. But now, it's no use talking about that."

"The seventh floor, the Demon Suppression Tower Master... Could it be that all those demons were slaughtered by him? Li Daoxuan has gone mad, letting him act recklessly. But even if he did go on a rampage, to be capable of something like this, his strength must be ridiculously..."

At that thought,

and remembering the imposing figure of Su Heng sitting on the bronze throne,

Ma Youcai couldn't help but shiver.

Just then, a flock of crows flapping their wings flew over the treetops, casting clear shadows on the bright moonlit disk.

Such an ordinary scene made Ma Youcai jumpy.

"Damn it." Ma Youcai felt he had underestimated the new Demon Suppression Tower Master somewhat, "We need to hasten our pace and rendezvous with the Song brothers as soon as possible. We can't handle this kind of monster by ourselves."

"Don't underestimate yourself either," Wang Bingquan disagreed, shaking his head, "We are all strong individuals in the Demon Embryo Realm. How much could our abilities differ, really?"

Looking at this guy with his foolish face, Ma Youcai felt bitterness rising in his throat.

His vision darkened, and he simply kept quiet.

He hastened towards the outskirts of the city in the direction they had agreed upon.

"Hey!" Wang Bingquan had just been full of pride, but when he looked up, he saw Ma Youcai already dozens of meters away,

barely visible in the dark of the night.

He suddenly panicked, with the half-dead demon creature over his shoulder, he spurred his mount forward, all the while shouting, "Wait for me!"

They flew over the city wall and followed the official road for a distance before quickly turning onto a secluded path.

The trees on both sides grew denser, and the sound of running water was heard.

Between the trees, there seemed to be a faint mist lingering. Ma Youcai, intent only on hastening his journey to fulfill his responsibility and then leave as soon as possible, paid no heed to these details.

The further they went, the dimmer the light became.

Eventually, even the ubiquitous chirping of insects in the summertime forest seemed to disappear.

Crack!

Ma Youcai took a step forward.

And snapped a dry twig on the ground, creating a noise.

He abruptly looked up to find himself in a wide, raised clearing in the forest, exactly where he had arranged to meet Song Ting and Song Yingchun.

"Whew..."

He let out a heavy sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Obviously, this sweat was not due to the small distance he had covered on foot, but because of the extreme nervousness he felt.

"Brother Ma, you're really in poor shape, all frail and weak," Wang Bingquan emerged from the woods behind, patting his shoulder and teasing him upon seeing him wipe his sweat, "Do you want me, Old Wang, to recommend you a few prescriptions? Guaranteed to make you energetic and unflagging after you take them!"

"Shut up!"

Ma Youcai slapped Wang Bingquan's hand away from his shoulder with the back of his hand.

He was breathing heavily, muscles tensed, and his tone urgent.

"Something isn't right... The environment here is off. We've arrived at the appointed time and the appointed place, so why haven't the Song brothers arrived yet?"

"Could something special have held them up on the way here?"

"Impossible!"

"And... isn't everything around us too quiet? I can't hear anything."

"Right! The mist, there's something wrong with this mist!"

Ma Youcai only felt his thoughts were a jumbled mess, all converging together and rushing towards his forehead before bursting open like a firework, bringing a moment of clarity.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through his clothes, and with his eyes about to split open, Ma Youcai shouted, "Our whereabouts have been discovered, we need to get out of here quickly!?"

"Leave?"

Wang Bingquan was immediately unhappy, "Brother Ma, you better not screw me over, what about the reward you promised?"

Ma Youcai couldn't be bothered to explain any further, as he abruptly turned around and took a step forward, only to stop again. Stay connected to the story on m-vl-em-py-r

Not far ahead, in the bright and clear moonlight, stood a tall man with broad shoulders and long black hair draped over them.

The moment he saw the man's face clearly.

Ma Youcai's heart nearly skipped a beat, and his scalp felt as if it would explode.

That person was Su Heng.

The worst-case scenario had occurred.

The two who were supposed to cover their escape, Song Ting and Song Yingchun, were trapped, and the main figure, Su Heng, had appeared right in front of them.

"Tower... Tower Master..." Ma Youcai stared fixedly at Su Heng, dryly swallowing saliva.

The step he had managed to take forward, he now slowly retracted.

Su Heng looked at him calmly, seeming to understand what was going through Ma Youcai's mind. He extended a hand forward, a ball of white mist slowly diffusing from his palm, blending into the surroundings.

"This is Mist Fungus, capable of affecting a martial artist's perception to some extent," Su Heng explained. "The two who came to rendezvous with you, though not weak in strength, would need almost a minute to break it."

"Now just half a minute remains; if you can withstand my hand for this long, I will spare your lives."

"What do you say? You two are also strong figures in the Demon Embryo Realm, want to give it a try?" Su Heng persuaded with a smile on his face.

"Hmph, truly audacious!"

Wang Bingquan pulled out a large saber tied to his back and thrust it heavily into the ground. "Even Li Daoxuan wouldn't dare to make such a boastful claim if he were here."

"Brother Wang is right," said Ma Youcai loudly in agreement.

He continued speaking using a method that silently transmitted his voice, "When the time comes, you attack from the left, and I'll attack from the right. Let's hit him from both sides."

"Okay," Wang Bingquan responded with a firm nod.

Whoosh!

He stomped heavily with his foot.

The soft, crispy grass below bent downwards, creating ripples.

In the bright moonlight, large petals and green leaves were whipped up into the air by the bursting gust of wind.

However, halfway through his charge, Wang Bingquan realized something was wrong.

Because to his right, it was empty; Ma Youcai was already fleeing, he had never intended to confront Su Heng head-on.

"Hiss…"

Wang Bingquan clenched his teeth, his eyes reddening.

In the depths of his heart, he felt a strong sense of betrayal.

Before he could react, an intense sense of crisis welled up, as Su Heng slowly raised his hand before him.

Broad swaths of dull golden light, signifying formidable energy, appeared around him, converging towards his fingertips like streams, then erupting with a bang.

Bang!

The immense force pierced through the air.

Like bullets from a sniper rifle leaving a trail in the sky, distinct vapor trails could be seen.

Petals and leaves nearby were pulped and shattered, turning to fragments. Even the ground below showed a noticeable trench.

Wang Bingquan's pupils shrunk, his scalp tingling.

Su Heng's casual strike had inflicted a mortal sense of danger upon him.

"Slash," came a sound.

His clothes tore, and a large swath of flesh on his shoulder turned inside out.

But his head remained firmly on his shoulders, the feeling of a near-death experience causing Wang Bingquan's legs to tremble and his body to go limp, hardly able to grip the saber in his hand.

"Is it… off-target?"

"No!"

A heartbeat later, a scream came from behind him.

Wang Bingquan abruptly turned, just in time to see Ma Youcai's chest pierced through, his body explosively torn apart in a gory spectacle.

Chunks of flesh and gore scattered in all directions, covering an area over ten meters in radius.

Plenty of the bloody mess also landed on his head and body, with the fresh, moist scent from the ground being wiped out.

In its place was a thick stench of blood.

"What the hell…" Wang Bingquan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at the sight.

From a distance of dozens of meters away, the detached energy was still able to split a Demon Embryo Realm elder cleanly in two.

What kind of monster was this?

"You're slightly stronger than him."

A gentle voice sounded right by his ear, pulling Wang Bingquan back to reality.

Somehow, Su Heng had appeared right in front of him. His large hand was spread open, gently pressing against Wang Bingquan's chest.

Wang Bingquan felt as if his heart had skipped a beat.

His voice carried a cry, "Spare me… I was just…" Bang!

In an instant, a furious power surged into his body, cutting off Wang Bingquan's plea mid-sentence. His portly body shot up like a cannonball, flying dozens of meters away before crashing heavily into a branch jutting out from a large tree.

Spurt!

A muffled sound ensued as the force exploded.

Wang Bingquan's body split in sections, and in the blink of an eye, all that was left were strips of skin and flesh hanging on the branches.

The blood painted the branches, trunk, and the ground below a deep red.

From afar, it looked like some kind of gory, hellish creature.

Su Heng straightened his slightly disheveled collar and stood with his hands behind his back.

With two swooshing sounds,

Two figures suddenly appeared on the grassy ground before him.

Both men were similar in height and appearance, and even the disagreeable expressions on their faces were identical.