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Gu An's eyes gleamed with ferocity.
This was the second time he'd dragged the demon into the water.
The first time he dragged the demon underwater, he'd nearly killed it!
Suddenly, the ox-headed farmer opened its ox mouth. Inside the mouth were no teeth—only a single blood-red eyeball.
The crimson eye flashed with an eerie, malevolent gleam. It rolled bizarrely inside the mouth, as if searching for a pair of eyes to lock gazes with. But there were none.
The moment the ox mouth opened, Gu An closed his eyes.
Last time he'd dragged the demon underwater, he'd made eye contact with that mouth-eye and died with blood flowing from all seven orifices.
He couldn't look at that eye.
This time, he naturally had to avoid eye contact.
Unable to meet Gu An's gaze, the crimson eye dimmed. The ox mouth closed, and the two mouths at the eye sockets gurgled with bubbles, making burbling sounds.
At this moment, the ox-headed farmer was like a landlubber drowning, while Gu An was like a water ghost. He stopped pressing the head down and instead gritted his teeth, grabbing the demon's leg to prevent it from reaching shore.
After some time, the ox-headed farmer floated up, its gaunt body drifting on the water's surface.
At first glance, it looked like a corpse drowned in the river.
The time was ripe.
Gu An opened his eyes and quickly surfaced, gasping for air.
Looking at the ox-headed farmer floating like a corpse, he knew he was just one blade away from killing the demon.
The ox-headed farmer wasn't truly dead yet. At this moment, it was similar to a person who'd choked on water and passed out.
Only by severing the ox head would it truly die.
Without a moment's hesitation, Gu An gripped the woodcutter's knife tightly with both hands, raised it overhead, and chopped toward the ox-headed farmer's neck.
In the distance, Hong Tiandi, who'd rolled down from the hillside into the water and climbed ashore, witnessed this scene.
Hiss—
Suddenly, the moment the knife touched the skin on the ox head's neck, Gu An's body shook as if struck by lightning. Blood flowed from all seven orifices.
"Urgh!!"
He vomited blood profusely. He couldn't hold onto the knife in his hands—it fell into the river with a splash.
Suffocation surged into his heart, accompanied by a bone-chilling coldness that swept through his entire body.
In the unseen realm, invisible hands gripped his body and clutched his throat.
This wasn't the demon's supernatural power.
It was an indescribable sense of oppression coming from all directions.
At this moment, Gu An's pupils contracted as he recalled Old Man Hong's words.
"Without immortal fate, you cannot kill demons, nor should you try to kill demons."
He'd asked what these words meant.
Old Man Hong couldn't answer.
But now he understood.
Ordinary mortals truly couldn't kill demons. Once they tried, they would suffer divine punishment.
At this moment, a thought emerged in his mind, as if Heaven itself was rebuking him.
Gu An's entire body went ice cold.
He vomited massive amounts of blood.
His consciousness blurred, and his body sank into the water.
Before death, a passage of words from the unseen realm surfaced in his mind.
[Mortal flesh and turbid bones, having not attained divine powers, how dare you offend demons? You shall be slaughtered for this!]
On the river surface, blood bubbled up profusely from the water—Gu An's blood.
The red color spread, staining half the river bend.
...
Inside the thatched cottage.
Gu An sat on the bed made of straw, looking at the familiar cramped thatched cottage around him.
"Without immortal fate, you cannot kill demons nor should you try to kill demons..."
He muttered to himself, his jet-black eyes resembling the surface of a rippleless, cold pond.
Such a gaze shouldn't appear on a farmer's face, yet now it did.
Recalling the death experience just now—that oppression from the unseen realm—he'd no longer been facing the demon, but confronting Heaven itself.
Gu An raised his hand.
It was trembling.
This wasn't a manifestation of fear toward that power, but rather anger—a fury so extreme it turned to laughter.
He pushed open the door and stared fixedly at the dirt road outside his home.
"Cannot kill?"
Gu An's body trembled, his eyes containing a viciousness so concentrated it seemed ready to drip out.
Then he looked up at the sky.
"Then I'll kill it for you to see!" His eyes were filled with coldness.
The more they prevented him from killing it, the more he wanted to kill it.
He'd died so many times.
So many times of physical suffering—all of it real and tangible.
These pains remained in his memory with each experience.
He absolutely had to kill the demon.
No one could stop him from killing it.
He was determined to do this.
Hiss—
Suddenly, an eerie slashing strike appeared, and Gu An's body was cleaved vertically in half.
His body was split open.
The two halves of his dead body wore an eerie, fierce smile.
After his death, the ox-headed farmer appeared and looked down at Gu An's body with its strange smile.
...
Inside the thatched cottage.
Gu An sat on the bed made of straw, looking at the familiar cramped thatched cottage around him.
An eerie fierce smile appeared on his face.
He rubbed his face with both hands, making his expression look more normal.
Then he took a deep breath, suppressing the emotional impact from the previous death.
Only by controlling his emotions could he make better judgments. Otherwise, it would only increase the number of deaths. Death wasn't frightening, but it was very painful.
"Ordinary mortals can't kill demons? Because I don't have immortal fate?"
Gu An spoke to himself, the scene after dragging the demon into the water appearing before his eyes.
"Can I kill it using its own sickle?"
As soon as he thought of it, he acted.
Gu An pushed open the door.
He crouched as usual and skillfully avoided the demon's slashing strikes.
He also once again saved Old Man Hong, whom he'd implicated.
Afterward, he once again dragged the demon underwater.
Glug glug glug—
The water surface churned.
Moments later, an eerie ox-headed human-bodied demon corpse floated up on the river surface.
Gu An was in the water, gripping the woodcutter's knife.
This time he didn't slash at the demon's neck. Instead, his gaze fell on the demon's right hand, where there was a sickle embedded in the arm's flesh—a rust-spotted sickle with a blade that revealed bloodstains.
He raised the woodcutter's knife and chopped toward the ox-headed farmer's right arm.
The ox-headed farmer's right hand was severed.
Gu An immediately grabbed the sickle in the demon farmer's hand.
The pain woke the demon!!
ROAR—
Even though its mouth was underwater, it could still emit a deep roar.
The two mouths at the eye sockets screamed loudly, and at the same moment, the ox mouth opened again.
Gu An had anticipated this—the ox-headed farmer would wake from the pain. He closed his eyes and simultaneously swung the sickle toward the ox-headed farmer.
Something eerie happened.
As the sickle was swung, his body felt intensely weak—like the weakness after being with a woman seven times, and it lasted for a full two hours.
The slashing strikes that frequently appeared around him were now emitted from the sickle, slashing toward the ox-headed farmer.
At this moment—
Glug glug glug—
Bubbles rose from the river surface.
That power from the unseen realm appeared again.
The strike he'd swung with closed eyes was an act of killing the demon. He'd died again.
...
Inside the thatched cottage.
Gu An opened his eyes, recalling what had just happened.
He'd died once more.
Moreover, this death was the same as the one before last—death at the instant of killing the demon.
"Using the demon's sickle to kill the demon doesn't work either?" Gu An summarized this latest cycle.
After summarizing, the coldness in his eyes was unconcealed.
"I don't believe I can't kill it."
Gu An stood up.
He walked toward the outside of the thatched cottage, thinking and pondering: "Should I obtain that so-called immortal fate before killing? Or is there a way to avoid the immortal fate restriction and then slay the demon? Why must one have immortal fate to kill demons... I don't understand any of this. I know too little about demons. I need to learn more."
This wasn't easy to do.
The demon constantly followed him, leaving little free time to learn about demons.
"But it's not without opportunity."
Gu An licked his lips as he spoke, a train of thought forming in his mind.
Then he walked out the door.
As the saying goes: the first time is raw, the second time is familiar, the third time is skillful.
Having successfully "killed" the demon twice before, the third time became easier.
All of this was thanks to his seventy-four deaths.
He still saved Old Man Hong, then dragged the demon into the water. After once again drowning the ox-headed farmer unconscious, he quickly severed the demon's right hand along with the sickle. Then, with closed eyes, he swung the sickle. This time he didn't swing it instinctively but adjusted the direction of this swing.
Toward the demon's legs!
If he couldn't kill the demon, he'd cripple it first.
Surely this was allowed!
The sickle swung.
Hiss—
The feeling of weakness appeared again.
"ROAR!!"
A shrill howl erupted from beneath the river water.
Glug glug glug.
Crimson blood water surged from the river surface, but this time it was no longer Gu An's blood.
It was the demon's blood.