Xu Ying stood motionless in the street of Jiangji Village while villagers scattered around him in panic. At a nearby corner, a black-and-white banded snake demon pointed its tail at him and shrieked piercingly, its forked tongue darting in and out. The villagers had fled in terror—some scrambling to report the crime to the authorities, others barricading themselves inside their homes with wives and children, bolting doors and trembling. Only the boldest dared peek through windows or from behind doors. Xu Ying stood alone on the street, the green-robed deity's corpse at his feet.
After a long moment, the boy came back to himself. He looked around at the people who had once been so familiar—villagers who had joked with him, called him Little Ying or Ah-Ying, teased him as Xu the Soft. Now they feared him as they feared the gods themselves.
*I did this for you,* he thought. *You shouldn't be afraid of me.* They were crushed beneath the heels of tax collectors—was that not enough? Must they also bow to creatures of wood and clay who ate their food, drank their offerings, and still trampled them? Those gods treated them like livestock. But they were not livestock. They were human beings, capable of resistance, capable of vengeance. *So why do you fear me?* Xu Ying could not understand.
After a while, he stepped over the deity's corpse and entered the ancestral hall. He sat behind the offering table, seized the roasted chickens and ducks laid out for the god, and ate. He ate slowly and deliberately, as a snake catcher should. Snake-catching demanded patience, courage, and above all, a full stomach. Hunger meant weakness. Weakness meant mistakes. One mistake, and a venomous snake would end you. Having stirred up catastrophe, Xu Ying could not flee on an empty stomach. He would need every ounce of strength.
He ate an entire roast chicken, devoured half a duck, and stuffed the remaining half into his robes. He ate several fruits and pocketed a few more. When he had finished, he dipped his fingers in Master Jiang's pooling blood and wrote upon the wall: "Deicide: Xu Ying."
He wiped his hands clean on the landlord's robes, left the hall, and returned to his home. There was little to take. His house was bare—no grain in the vats, only some roasted rice flour for travel provisions. Snake catchers spent their days in deep mountains and old-growth forests; they needed portable dry rations, not sacks of rice. Xu Ying packed three days' worth of food, glanced at the dozens of demon cultivation scrolls he had collected over the years, hesitated, and left them behind. With nothing else to carry, he walked out of the village.
At the village gate, his eyes stung. He turned, knelt toward Jiangji Village, and kowtowed deeply. "Thank you all for taking care of me all these years," he said. "Young Ying has brought trouble to his neighbors." He pressed his forehead to the earth one last time, rose, and walked away.
"Ah-Ying!" A woman's voice called from behind. Xu Ying turned to see a girl in bridal robes sitting at the entrance of the ancestral hall, cradling Jiang Lu's body in her arms. "Ah-Ying, thank you!" she shouted. "You must live well!"
"Take care of yourself," Xu Ying called back, waving, and left Jiangji Village behind him.
*I have always been an orphan,* he thought as he walked. *My foster father raised me as his own son. The villagers were good to me. I killed a god to repay their kindness, and I am leaving now for their safety. I will not return.*
A voice stopped him. Near the roadside, a black-and-white serpent had coiled itself around a willow branch, watching him—the very snake demon he had captured earlier. Xu Ying glanced at it and kept walking.
"Xu Ying, wait!" The snake demon slithered down from the tree and hurried after him. "You killed a god—you've really done it now. Every deity in Lingling answers to the City God. When he hears what you've done, he will never let you live. There is nowhere in the world you can hide."
Xu Ying ignored him and pressed on. The snake demon had once raced him through the mountains for three days and three nights before exhaustion finally allowed Xu Ying to capture it. Shaking the serpent off now would not be easy. "You also killed Master Jiang," the snake continued, keeping pace. "The authorities will not overlook that. And you know the officials—they harbor the most dangerous people in the world, the Nuo shamans. Those who wield Nuo sorcery are feared by men and gods alike."
At the word "Nuo," Xu Ying's brow furrowed. The *Rites of Zhou* recorded that those who could open the Hidden Gates of the Body, commune with heaven and earth, command spirits and ghosts, and drive out pestilence were called Nuo. Successive dynasties had recruited such individuals heavily, selecting the most outstanding to serve as officials in every prefecture and county. To ordinary folk, a Nuo-shaman official was more terrifying than any demon or deity. Better to offend a god than a government Nuo. A god might merely kill you; a Nuo shaman could ensure that even your ghost died a second death.
"The authorities will certainly send Nuo shamans after you," the snake demon prattled on. "You've made enemies of both gods and shamans. You're doomed."
Xu Ying snapped, "Keep following me and I'll dry you into snake jerky."
The snake demon laughed. "And then deliver me for tax credit? With a murder charge on your head, walking into the yamen would be walking straight into the tiger's den."
Xu Ying tried to outpace the serpent but could not shake him. "What do you actually want?" he demanded at last.
The snake demon beamed—insofar as a snake without eyebrows could beam—and said, "I want you to teach me the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist."
Xu Ying kept walking, incredulous. "I've barely begun practicing it myself. You have a family lineage passed down through generations. Why would you need me to teach you?"
The snake demon fell silent for a moment. "I have cultivated for one hundred and twenty years," he said quietly. "I have only reached the third level. Neither my father nor my grandfather ever broke through to the fourth."
"You're a snake without hands or feet," Xu Ying said bluntly. "Of course you couldn't master it. Leave me alone."
But the snake demon smiled. "Is there really anywhere in this world for you to go? My Qinyan Cave—now that is an excellent hiding place."
Xu Ying's eyes lit up. "Snake brother, my good snake, which way is Qinyan Cave?"
That day was the first of the month, and the City God temple in Lingling was bustling with worshippers. City God Xue Lingfu had also awakened from his statue, assuming flesh and blood to feast on incense and sacrificial offerings. Suddenly, a wisp of green smoke emerged from the ground and coalesced into a two-foot-tall Earth God, who scurried up to Xue Lingfu's shoulder and whispered in his ear.
Xue Lingfu's fury ignited. "A mortal has killed a Yin Court official—a violation of Heaven's law! This precedent cannot stand. Xu Ying deserves death ten thousand times over! Relay my command: every god in Lingling's eight hundred mountains, five hundred waterways, and twelve hundred villages is to hunt down Xu Ying and execute him on sight!"
Before the order could go out, County Magistrate Zhou Yang stormed into the temple with a retinue of officials in tow. One stepped forward and declared, "Xu Ying is a living man. His crime of killing Master Jiang falls under the jurisdiction of mortal law. This case belongs to the Lingling County yamen. City God Xue, you may rescind your order."
Xue Lingfu sneered. "Xu Ying murdered a deity of the Yin Court, violating our laws. He shall be judged by Yin Court statutes. Magistrate Zhou, you may leave."
Zhou Yang laughed, swept his sleeves, and turned to depart. At the temple gate, he paused and looked back. "Since the Prince of Dongping's rebellion, the Yin Court has encroached steadily upon the mortal realm, extending its reach ever further. But Lingling is my Zhou family's territory. The Yin Court will not lay a finger on it." His voice dropped to ice. "Men! Apprehend Xu Ying. If he resists or anyone interferes—whether god or man—kill without mercy."
His officers acknowledged the order and dispersed. City God Xue Lingfu snorted and dismissed the Earth God on his shoulder, who dissolved into smoke and burrowed underground to shadow the magistrate.
Soon afterward, Magistrate Zhou Yang and his officers arrived at Jiangji Village. The villagers, seeing the officials approach, prostrated themselves in even greater terror than they had shown before their god. Zhou Yang strode through the kneeling crowd, observing the shattered deity statue with professional interest. He poked a finger through the fist-sized hole in its head. "An unusual demonic technique—one that temporarily enlarges the body. A martial cultivation method," he murmured with a thin smile. "This Xu Ying, a mere commoner, has been practicing demon arts. Interesting."
He settled himself on the back of a kneeling villager while his men conducted their search. Turning to Village Chief Jiang Yubo with a genial expression, he asked, "Old Uncle Yu, how has the harvest been this year?"
Village Chief Jiang replied carefully, "The harvest has been decent, my lord. Three extra measures of grain."
"And the crops?" Zhou Yang's smile remained fixed. "How are they growing?"
"Very well, my lord," the chief answered with an ingratiating smile.
Zhou Yang's face darkened. "The harvest is good, the crops are healthy—so why has your village been so difficult about paying taxes? Do you not want me to live comfortably?" The village chief prostrated himself, not daring to speak. Zhou Yang continued, "Do I collect taxes for myself? No! I collect them for the imperial court. Have I ever taken a single grain from you commoners? Never! My salary comes from the court. Everything I eat and drink—all purchased with my salary. I never take so much as a thread from the common folk."
The chief kowtowed repeatedly while murmuring, "His Excellency is incorruptible and righteous!"
An officer approached, cradling a bundle of scrolls. "My lord, Xu Ying has fled. We found these in his home." They were exactly the cultivation scrolls Xu Ying had left behind. Zhou Yang picked one up, flipped through it casually—and his face transformed. He snatched up another, then another, flipping through them with increasing urgency. Each scroll bore Xu Ying's handwritten annotations: commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of demon cultivation arts, personal insights written in precise, penetrating prose. His understanding was profound.
The villagers held their breath.
"I thought Xu Ying was merely a god-killer," Zhou Yang seethed. "But he has been cultivating demon arts and hoarding such scriptures. This villain harbors ambitions to sow chaos throughout the realm. If we do not eliminate him now, he will become a calamity!" He issued new orders: "When you encounter Xu Ying, do not attempt to capture him alive. Kill on sight."
The officers dispersed to track their quarry. The villagers exchanged uncertain glances. Was this the same Xu the Soft they had known?
Zhou Yang returned to the county yamen with the remaining scrolls. In the rear courtyard, an elderly man sat beneath a pavilion drinking tea. Zhou Yang laid the annotated scrolls beside him and stood respectfully. The old man, Zhou Yihang, picked up a scroll and glanced at it. "These are only Qi-Gathering Stage demon techniques," he said dismissively. "Why bring them to me, Yang'er?"
"Father, look at the annotations in the back," Zhou Yang urged.
Zhou Yihang turned the page—and his expression grew grave. He devoured one scroll, then the next, and the one after that, his face increasingly taut. "The person who annotated these texts has attained an extraordinary depth of understanding in demon cultivation. Even our Zhou family elders who have devoted their lives to this study may not match him. Where did you find these scrolls? Who wrote these notes?"
"A fourteen-year-old boy," Zhou Yang said. "A snake catcher."
Zhou Yihang's head snapped up. "Fourteen?"
"His name is Xu Ying, a snake catcher from Jiangji Village. He somehow mastered demon cultivation and killed the village's patron deity. He has fled. I found his annotated scrolls during the search."
Zhou Yihang rose to his feet in disbelief. "For generations, the Zhou clan elders have ventured into forbidden territories, excavated ancient cave dwellings, suffered terrible casualties—all to study demon arts. Yet this fourteen-year-old snake catcher's insights may surpass theirs. Yang'er, you must find this person and bring him back alive."
Zhou Yang hesitated. "The City God is also hunting him. I feared he might fall into the City God's hands, so I issued a kill order."
At the name Xue Lingfu, Zhou Yihang's expression flickered. "If he falls to the City God, death is preferable—but what a waste of talent." He made his decision. "Since the City God has been alerted, I will handle this personally. If I can capture Xu Ying alive, so much the better. If not, I will kill him myself. Under no circumstances can he fall into the City God's hands." Without another word, he drifted away.
Zhou Yang remained behind, frowning. "Are demon cultivation arts truly so important? Why are our ancestors and elders so obsessed with them?" The origins of antiquity had long been lost; few written records remained. Modern humans cultivated the Hidden Gates of the Body—six secret reservoirs, each bestowing extraordinary power when unlocked. The Zhou family was a Nuo shaman lineage, one of the most powerful in the world, which made their fixation on demon arts all the more puzzling. Zhou Yang had heard whispers of certain research conducted by the Zhou patriarch—experiments involving demon cultivation, perhaps connected to the mysteries of ascension. But as a peripheral family member, he was not privy to the details.
Back in Jiangji Village, a two-foot-tall Earth God wearing a tall hat and carrying a deer-head staff emerged from the earth in Xu Ying's abandoned home, clutching a single cultivation scroll that had escaped the officials' notice. The diminutive deity unfurled it, squinted at the text, and sneered. "Utter nonsense. Xu Ying's annotations are absolute rubbish. I will present this to the City God for his amusement." With that, he leaped into the earth and vanished.
Soon after, in the City God temple, Xue Lingfu unfurled the same scroll and his face went pale. He read the annotations with growing intensity, then snapped the scroll shut. "Such profound insight! Relay my revised order: Xu Ying is to be captured alive. I want him unharmed."
The Earth God stammered, "Most of the Lingling deities are already abroad hunting him. They have left their shrines—notifying them all will be difficult. Moreover, Magistrate Zhou's Nuo shamans are also searching for Xu Ying."
Xue Lingfu stepped down from his shrine. "Then I shall go myself," he said. "Xu Ying is too important. If the Zhou family wants him too, I must ensure that even his corpse does not fall into their hands."