Thousand Years of Taoist Attainment

The Huang-ting Scripture.

If one were to recite it silently in one's heart consistently, it could increase the years of one's Taoism attainment. 

It was only now that Zhou Yi grasped a rough idea of what one's Taoism attainment was.

The amount of increment in magic power after half a year of cultivation was one-third the amount of magic power of two years of Taoism attainment. Excluding the amount that he had gained from consuming pills, the total increment in his years of Taoism attainment was probably about half a year.

"From the records found in mythological biographies, thousand-year-old immortals and ten-thousand-year-old demons are most frequently seen. I only have two and a half years of Taoism attainment now, so it is still too dangerous for me to venture into the world outside the prison."

Zhou Yi evaluated the situation based on his current level of Taoism attainment and decided to continue slaying demons for the moment. 

After the stats of the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters reached a record of more than 300 kinds of demons, repetitions in types of demons and monsters in the Class-C prison cells also became more frequent.

The rewards that could be earned from slaying demons in the Class-C prison cells were mostly pills and spells. These were not as powerful as Taoism attainment when it came to strength enhancement. Occasionally, magic weapons were rewarded as well, but these were also not very powerful. 

Each time he killed a repeated demon, he would be rewarded with up to three years' worth of Taoism attainment. In just a few months, Zhou Yi's Taoism attainment easily exceeded a hundred years. 

In the Class-B prison cells, a repeated demon only appeared once. That was a snake spirit that sucked the yang Qi of mortals. After slaying it, Zhou Yi earned a reward of 12 years of Taoism attainment. 

His Taoism attainment instantly exceeded a hundred years. 

The magic power in Zhou Yi's body was surging. It felt like many rivers were coursing through his meridians. 

Looking at the demons in the Class-C prison cells again, he had a feeling that even without a seal, he would still be able to suppress them. 

"The Stories of an Executioner" gradually accumulated more than a hundred stories, and all of these were carefully selected to convey warnings to the world in different aspects. 

For example, when a human and demon lived together, there was bound to be trouble.

And for example, when encountering a demon in the wild, how should one self-defend or even scare the demon away?

Some demons were naturally weak, such as the foxes and rats. When they first transformed form, they were not even as strong as ordinary humans. So they could only rely on illusionary spells to confuse and harm people. 

"The Stories of an Executioner" recorded several indigenous methods of cracking these illusionary spells, such as Mantra of the Taoism Attainment, Singing with a Sword in Hand, and The Mind-reading Scholar. Execution of these methods did not require one to have magic powers. 

After the little demon's illusionary spell was broken, it would just take a swinging fist for someone to knock it down. After the killing was completed, one could even harvest a good piece of fox skin. 

The stories by executioners were almost exhausted in terms of variety as the majority of the newer ones were pretty much the same. So they were not recorded in the book. 

In the blink of an eye, five years passed. 

By now, "The Stories of an Executioner" had 206 chapters, and it had been almost a month without a new story, so the original manuscript could be said to be fully completed. 

Zhou Yi should be grateful to the Demon Slaying Department. Otherwise, wanting to collect so many stories on the legends of demons would probably take him more than ten years of extensive traveling. 

The captain of the prison was changed a few times by now. As for Zhou Yi, having achieved a hundred years of Taoism attainment, he was already able to evaluate the strength level of the captain. This should mean that his level of cultivation was already in the stage of refinement of form.

Zhou Yi used the lower third-grade refinement of form as a gauge and made a comparison of strengths between the different levels. Finally, he determined his position to be in the middle third grade. 

During this time, Zhou Yi had also slain a monkey spirit in the Class-B prison cell. This monkey spirit self-proclaimed itself as king of the mountains and dominated the mountain. As a reward, the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters bestowed him the Breath-holding technique that allowed him to control the fluctuations in his power while enabling him to keep his presence obscured from his targets.

As a result, when executing this technique, those who were not as strong as Zhou Yi would only have a vague impression of calling out his name in his presence.

"A hundred years of Taoism attainment is equivalent to the lower third grade, a thousand years of Taoism attainment… I don't know it is comparable to the upper third grade."

The internal magic power of Zhou Yi's energy center had become a vast ocean. When it was calm and silent, the waves were placid and tranquil; when it was set in motion, even the mountains and rivers would shake and tremble.

"This is the upper third grade of spiritual cultivation. Unfortunately, there's no one to teach me what it really means by spirit cultivation."

...

At the Demon Slaying Department.

In the torture room of the prison.

A black, snake-like shadow bore its way out from the ground.

It was holding onto a special amulet with its mouth, so the land and space sealing spell formation to block entry into the prison were not effective against it at all. 

After carefully identifying the direction, the shadow moved like an earthworm wriggling on the ground and silently arrived at the doorstep of prison cell B13.

"This should be the place that person told me about."

With a flash of light, the shadow used its power to cast the technique of Blood Induction. Sure enough, it found a descendant of its bloodline trapped in this prison cell. 

The torture rooms of the prison were heavily laden with bans and restrictions. There was no other way to enter without the keys to these rooms unless one had the strength to break down the doors. However, if one were to break down the doors by force, he would be stirring up a huge commotion. The commotion would in turn gather all the highly skilled elites of the Demon Slaying Department. By then, even an upper third-grade demon might not be able to escape. 

This shadow was swift, in a single flash of movement, it had moved to a corner where it hid. 

After waiting for some time, it heard the sound of footsteps. The executioner tasked to kill the demon in prison cell number B13 had arrived. 

And this person was none other than Zhou Yi. 

Every day, during the morning roll call, Zhou Yi would cast a little magic spell to make the captain assign him with the most powerful demon to kill. 

Since the other executioners earnestly prayed to be assigned to only Class-C prison cells, they did not have any objections at all.

Zhou Yi took out his token and opened the cell door without noticing that a shadow had seized the opportunity to enter.

In the prison cell, a snake demon with pitch-black scales was held captive. The snake demon had several sarcomas on its forehead and abdomen. 

"No wonder it is being imprisoned in a Class-B prison cell. It is already at the point of molting and transforming into a dragon."

Zhou Yi could not help feeling amazed at what he saw. He skillfully prepared the torture instruments, ready to cut off the sarcoma on the top of the snake demon's head.

The sarcoma contained the blood of a dragon, which was a rare ingredient for refining pills and elixirs. 

A shadow appeared at the back of Zhou Yi's head while a black light flashed by, ready to penetrate his mind. 

Buzz!

It had barely touched the back of his head when a layer of five-color brilliance enveloped Zhou Yi's whole body.

The shadow let out a shrill scream in pain as if it was thrown against the iron wall. 

"What the hell?"

Zhou Yi swiftly scooted off to a distance of several feet away. From where he was now, he had a clear view of the shadow. It was suspended in midair, like a banner hanging in midair.

It was more than three feet long with a slender body like a snake. With his sharp eyes, Zhou Yi also clearly spotted dragon horns on the snakehead. There were even four claws on the snake's body.

"Soul of a dragon?"

Zhou Yi exerted more magic power and the five-color brilliance around him intensified tremendously. It formed a layer of five-color armor on the surface of his body, preventing the dragon's soul from sneaking an attack on him. 

"Who are you?"

The voice of the dragon's soul sounded very apprehensive. It had paid the alliance master a large amount to buy himself away into this prison cell where its son was held captive.

According to the plan, it would possess the body of an executioner, cast a spell and break its son out of prison. And then, there would be someone responsible for cleaning up the mess after they had left prison safely.

But this executioner in front of him had such strong magic power that it was overwhelming. Even if it appeared in its actual body, it might not be able to win him, not to mention that it was just a mere dragon soul!

Who could tell this Dragon King exactly what was going on?

"Who do you think I am?"

When Zhou Yi realized that the other party was only a soul, he felt greatly relieved. 

At his current level of cultivation, with the additional support of the thousand-year Taoism attainment he achieved, he could fully comprehend many theories and truths independently. 

It was a fact that one's mind and body were interdependent. There was no way one could function properly without the other. 

The master of this dragon's soul might have reached a supreme level of cultivation, but with its spirit separated from its body, its strength was barely 10 percent of its full potential. Theoretically speaking, if not for the fact that the other party was a thousand-year-old demon, Zhou Yi's strength would not be inferior to any other kinds of demons.

"How do I know who you…."

The voice of the dragon's soul suddenly paused, and there was a flicker in its eyes. Could this be a trap?

And he immediately recalled the time where the human race suddenly appeared in the Dragon Palace. And now, with this sacred immortal right in front of him, everything started to make sense.

That person had most probably found a way to overcome the mind-reading technique or was very sure that he would die in the Demon Slaying Department. That was why he dared to make such a deadly oath. 

Humph…

"If I survive today, I will definitely cook that person alive!"

The dragon's soul let out a long howl. Then it opened its mouth and spat several streams of azure blue divine light at Zhou Yi. Activating all the magic power it had, it crashed into the prison cell door. 

At this point, the dragon's soul had decisively concluded that it had fallen into a trap that the human race had laid and was no longer concerned about whether or not it would alarm the Demon Slaying Department if it smashed a door into pieces. It would be the greatest blessing if it could escape from prison alive.

"Why is this fellow running away so easily?"

Zhou Yi's face was filled with bewilderment. A purple spirit fire rose from his palm and turned into a fire dragon that devoured the azure blue divine light.

This spirit fire was named "Fire of the Ends-of-the-World." From ten-thousand feet deep underground, it made its appearance by spewing out of the ground as flames. It would take a thousand years to produce one such spirit fire, and it had to be nurtured in an environment where the aura of fire was very dense. 

Last year, after Zhou Yi killed a thousand-year-old fire ghost in the Class-B prison cell, the Catalogue of Demons and Monsters rewarded him with this Fire of the Ends-of-the-World.

Although Zhou Yi knew a variety of spells, these were all lower-grade spells. 

The soul of the dragon might have separated itself from its actual body, but it was a demon king of the upper third-grade realm after all. So it was definitely a killer move for every strike is made. 

Purplish-red flames swept across the cell, causing all the ice to turn into vapor right away because of the sudden temperature rise. 

The moment the dragon's soul saw the Fire of the Ends-of-the-World, its expression changed drastically. A spirit fire was best used to restrain forms like souls, and all the more, it was sure that this was all a hoax to entrap him. 

ROAR…

With a resounding roar, the dragon's soul spat out a cloud of spirit essence that transformed into black dragon claws several feet long. 

These dragon claws dug into the prison cell door and directly drilled a gaping hole. The dragon's soul then turned into a stream of light and escaped through the hole. 

The instant the prison cell door was damaged, the alarm of the Demon Slaying Department sounded. Three streams of light entered the torture room. 

The dragon's soul was in the midst of activating an induction charm. Seeing the fast approaching streams of light, it spat out another mouthful of the essence.

The next moment, the induction charm that it was working on emitted a flourishing spirit light, and then the dragon's soul burrowed its way into the ground and disappeared.