The Washing Room had not only received many more Demon Corpses today, but had also hired a number of new workers.
It was bustling by the Eight Trigrams Pool. A few Stewards were rapidly assigning tasks, and as soon as Song Ciwan arrived, she was sent to the Grass Washing Room.
Her cultivation of "A Grain of Sand in the Sea" had gradually reached the Minor Success Realm of the First Layer. To the Stewards, she was simultaneously present and invisible.
She was just a tool, meant for work and nothing more.
Just as Song Ciwan, in her guise as the Nameless Divine Venerable, had used Yan Hanzhang as her tool, she herself had now become a tool in the eyes of others.
'But what did it matter?'
'Everyone is a potential tool in someone else's eyes. You trade labor for compensation. As long as both parties agree on the value of that exchange, who could say there's anything wrong with it?'
They were short-staffed today, so Song Ciwan was assigned ten Demon Beasts all by herself. She immediately felt that the Demon Refining Platform wasn't the only one getting rich today—so was she.
But Song Ciwan soon discovered that things weren't that simple.
Of the ten Demon Beasts, seven were giant cockroaches!
Most of these giant cockroaches had shattered carapaces and looked absolutely wretched. They hadn't died by fire—anything killed by fire was usually burned to ash, hardly leaving a corpse behind.
These giant cockroaches, the ones with bodies left to find, had all died from having their heads pulverized and their bodies torn to shreds.
The moment Song Ciwan touched the mangled remains, an indescribable stench assaulted her.
Her expression faltered. Washing these things was more disgusting than any Demon Corpse she had ever handled!
Nearby, other workers who had also been assigned the giant cockroaches were already retching audibly.
They were numb, but they weren't dead!
The sound of vomiting rose and fell around her, prompting Song Ciwan to immediately hold her breath. She picked up the remains of a giant cockroach and began to wash it quickly.
The Heaven and Earth Scale appeared, and the broken bodies of the Demon Beasts brought with them a series of disjointed images.
The overall tone of the images was dim, distorted, and even fragmented.
There was a gloomy, subterranean world, and the sound of dripping water… DRIP… DRIP…
A dark river gurgled by. The occasional splash seemed to be dark red, carrying the stench of blood.
Giant cockroaches crawled out of it in dense, teeming swarms.
For a moment, Song Ciwan felt her trypophobia about to flare up.
She tried to get a clearer look at where the giant cockroaches were coming from, but the scene suddenly shifted.
The giant cockroaches emerged from underground and swarmed to the surface, bursting into one home after another. They lacked any real capacity for thought, driven only by the instinct to seek food and life.
Anything alive, anything edible, whether it was livestock or people…
In the distorted vision, someone screamed in terror as limbs were bitten off, followed by the horrifying sound of chewing.
Song Ciwan's grip went slack, and the piece of cockroach carcass dropped into the water.
The vision was cut short, but Song Ciwan's heart was pounding in her chest.
The impact was overwhelming. She now had only one thought: 'These giant cockroaches all deserve to die!'
This world had Humans and Demons like Lady Cui and Little Fox who, despite their evil deeds, could still evoke a sense of pity. But there were also Demons like these giant cockroaches—creatures with almost no emotion, only chaotic instinct, that inspired nothing but revulsion.
The Heaven and Earth Scale appeared and collected seven faint wisps of Death Qi. The strands were barely there, much fainter than the condensed Death Qi Song Ciwan had obtained from the demon she killed herself the previous night.
Song Ciwan sorted the cockroach remains and carapace fragments to one side. Next up was a Snake Demon.
This Snake Demon was about as thick as a man's arm and six feet long. Half of its head was cleaved open, and a large hole was torn in its belly. It was clear it had gone through a fierce battle before it died.
Song Ciwan submerged the snake's corpse in the water. The Heaven and Earth Scale appeared, and fragmented images began to spin by like a zoetrope.
Again, a dark, subterranean place, with the sound of dripping water.
Then, the Snake Demon slithering through a humid jungle.
And then, somehow, the Snake Demon entering a city.
Followed by people fleeing in panic as the Snake Demon killed on instinct.
The Snake Demon moved like the wind, kicking up dust and stones as it slithered. It too showed no obvious emotion, but it possessed an instinctive command of Demon Techniques!
Finally, Song Ciwan saw the moments before the Snake Demon's death. It spat a venomous mist and whipped up a sandstorm. Pedestrians all around collapsed. In one family's courtyard, a tree was instantly blighted by the poison, withering rapidly.
But then, a Martial Artist in green robes strode forward. His Qi Blood surged, and from the Snake Demon's perspective, he was like a humanoid furnace, scorching and brilliant.
He charged into the Snake Demon's poisonous mist. When the corrosive vapor, capable of rotting away living flesh, made contact with him, his body erupted in a reddish-gold glow.
HSSSSSS! The poison mist failed to corrode him; instead, it was burned away by his searing Qi Blood.
The Snake Demon shrieked. The sandstorm intensified, toppling the large tree and cracking the brick walls.
The green-robed Martial Artist brandished his spear, roaring, "Vile beast, how dare you!"
The head of his spear transformed into a long blade. He broke through the wind with his sheer physical power, meeting the Snake Demon's technique head-on and cleaving its skull in half.
The vision ended there, but Song Ciwan felt as if she had just watched a thrilling act from an epic drama about a battle between man and snake.
This was the first time she had witnessed the sheer power of a Martial Artist's Qi Blood. Judging by the intensity of the fight in the vision, this man was far stronger than Zhang Ping, who had died from his Heart Demon.
No, it was more than that. They weren't even in the same league.
'Could this be the Innate realm?'
Song Ciwan felt like her eyes had been opened. This, along with her encounter with Chi Hua Fairy that morning, gave her a much clearer understanding of the experts in this world.
She couldn't deny it. After assassinating Zhang Ping with such ease, even though she had carefully erased all traces of her presence and repeatedly warned herself to be more cautious, a part of her had grown complacent from the success.
'But in the grand scheme of things, what was Zhang Ping?'
A Ninth Grade Demon-slaying Captain, it turned out, was nothing more than bottom-tier in this world of Humans and Demons.
And by extension, Song Ciwan, who had a peripheral connection to his death, didn't amount to much either.
'That won't do. Being at the bottom is too dangerous. I have to work harder!'
Back to washing Demons.
Song Ciwan pulled the clean snake corpse from the water. A ball of energy rested on the Heaven and Earth Scale: [Demonic Qi, Chaotic. Value: 160. Sellable.]
Song Ciwan stored the energy for now and continued on to the next Demon Corpse.
The ninth Demon Corpse of the day was also a snake, slightly smaller than the last. Song Ciwan washed it quickly. When her hand touched the corpse, no vision was transmitted this time.
Song Ciwan knew this was because the snake had been too weak. When it died, it left behind almost no discernible information.
When Song Ciwan finished washing, she obtained an even fainter wisp of white energy: [Chaotic Demonic Qi. Value: 3. Sellable.]
Song Ciwan collected it all and quickly moved on to washing the tenth Demon Corpse.
The tenth Demon Corpse was just as mangled. It was another snake, and from it, she received another ball of energy: [Chaotic Demonic Qi. Value: 2. Sellable.]