81: Chapter 81. This is what they brought from Nanyan County?!

The twenty-day deadline arrived in the blink of an eye.

Thirty miles outside the Qingzhou Prefecture capital, the "Demon Locking Array," personally overseen by Pojun, was already prepared.

The entire array used eight mountain Peaks as its foundation, drawing upon the earth's Qi, and was further bolstered by the True Qi of hundreds of Demon Slayers, forming a massive golden cage covering an area of dozens of miles, which could be described as impregnable.

All members of the Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division were on high alert, surrounding the area so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through, and the atmosphere was extremely grim.

Everyone knew that an unprecedented "Feast of Ten Thousand Demons," one destined to be recorded in the annals of Qingzhou history, was about to begin today!

...

The day the Hidden Dragon Martial Arts Tournament officially began.

Before dawn, in front of the "Demon Locking Array" outside the Qingzhou Prefecture capital, it was already a sea of people, with heads moving like a tide.

Martial Artists, Sect Disciples, and powerful clans from all directions, having heard the news, surrounded the surrounding Peaks, craning their necks and waiting expectantly, wanting to witness this once-in-a-millennium spectacle with their own eyes.

In the very center of the array, a high platform built from a single piece of profound crystal rock had already been erected.

Gold Rank Commander Xiao Xuan sat upright in the main seat.

Below him were the three Silver-Rank Supervisors—Lin Feng, Pojun, and Honglian—along with the senior leadership of the Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division.

As a long horn sounded across the sky, the tournament officially began!

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Amidst the heavy sound of war drums, eight imposing teams slowly entered the array from eight different directions.

These were the representative teams from the eight prefectures under Qingzhou's jurisdiction, excluding Nanyan Prefecture!

Each team was led by a senior Bronze Medal Envoy, and behind them were dozens of massive prisoner carriages made of profound iron, covered in dense suppression Talismans that emitted heart-palpitating spiritual fluctuations.

"Look! It's the people from Dongyang Prefecture! The one leading them this time seems to be Luo Lie, the Mad Lion, right? I heard his physical cultivation has reached the point of being impervious to swords and spears!"

"The Fairy of Illusory Butterflies from Xiling Prefecture is here too! Tsk tsk, hearing about her a hundred times is not as good as seeing her once; she truly is a beauty of national renown!"

"Beihe Prefecture is really going all out this time! The leader is actually their Silver-Rank Deputy Supervisor, the Sea-Covering Spear, Wang Tao!"

Bursts of exclamations erupted from the crowd, clearly familiar with these experts who had long been famous within Qingzhou.

As all eight teams entered the venue, the prisoner presentation ceremony officially began.

An elderly man wearing silver official robes and a stern expression walked onto the high platform and announced loudly: "The first item of the Hidden Dragon Martial Arts Tournament: verify the prey and calculate the points! Dongyang Prefecture, step forward!"

Upon hearing this, the leader of Dongyang Prefecture, the Mad Lion Luo Lie, laughed, stepped forward, and bowed from a distance toward the high platform.

"Dongyang Prefecture's Luo Lie, under the orders of the Commander, presents one Tier 4 Yao Beast Blazing Mad Lion and thirty-seven Tier 3 Yao Beast Human-Faced Demon Spiders... Please verify, my Lord!"

Following his command, the prisoner carriages behind him were slowly driven over.

"Roar—!"

A lion's roar, filled with endless cruelty and madness, instantly resounded throughout the entire array!

Everyone saw a massive male lion, the size of a small hill and burning with raging flames all over its body, appear before them!

The terrifying Aura belonging to a Tier 4 great Yao Beast made everyone present feel a sense of suffocation.

Immediately after, another prisoner carriage opened, and dense swarms of massive spiders with human faces poured out like a tide, emitting "hissing" shrieks that made one's scalp tingle.

"Good heavens! Dongyang Prefecture is really going all out this time!"

"The points for this Blazing Mad Lion must be at least ten thousand, right? Plus those thirty-plus Human-Faced Demon Spiders, the total points will probably exceed ten thousand!"

On the high platform, the deacon responsible for tallying points quickly finished the verification and announced loudly: "Dongyang Prefecture, total points: thirty-three thousand three hundred!"

Upon hearing this, Luo Lie retreated with a smug expression.

Immediately following was Xiling Prefecture.

"Xiling Prefecture presents one Danyuan Realm Ninth Layer evil cultivator, the Joyful Old Demon, and seven Tier 3 Yao Beasts, Soul-Stealing Foxes..."

"Beihe Prefecture presents one Tier 3 Peak Yao Beast, the Single-Horned Great Water Buffalo..."

"Tianfeng Prefecture presents the Tier 3 Ghost King, Ghost-Faced Rakshasa..."

One after another, the monstrous demons and evil heretics who had been lording over their respective territories and were notorious for their ferocity were displayed before everyone like pork in a vegetable market.

Inside the entire array, for a time, Demonic Qi soared to the heavens, with ghosts crying and wolves howling—it was truly a chaotic dance of demons, a spectacular sight.

The spectators present were also having their eyes opened, exclaiming repeatedly, as the atmosphere was pushed to one climax after another.

However, right in the midst of this heated atmosphere, a discordant voice began to quietly rise among the teams of the various prefectures.

"Deputy Supervisor Wang, something is wrong."

In the Beihe Prefecture team, a trusted aide quietly said to the leader, Wang Tao: "When we came, we clearly caught a Tier 3 Shark-Man, so why is it missing during the tally?"

Wang Tao frowned and said in a deep voice: "Could it be that it escaped due to the bumpy journey?"

"Impossible!"

The aide said with certainty, "The prisoner carriage is forged from millennium-old profound iron, and it has the Restrictions you personally placed on it. Let alone a Tier 3 Yao Beast, even a Tier 4 great Yao Beast wouldn't be able to break free! Furthermore... I just quietly asked, and Tianfeng Prefecture and Pingshan Prefecture have encountered the same situation! The prey they were escorting all mysteriously decreased by one or two after entering within three hundred miles of the prefecture capital!"

"Oh?"

A flash of sharp light glinted in Wang Tao's eyes.

The same scene was playing out in the teams of several other prefectures.

"Strange, I remember we caught the Seven Ghosts of Yin Mountain, so why are there only six left?"

"Our Blood-Hand Man-Butcher is also gone! He was still cursing in the prisoner carriage last night and took a few slaps from me, but he's vanished early this morning!"

Although these whispers were not loud, they were heard clearly by the high-cultivation Silver-Rank Supervisors on the high platform.

A trace of an imperceptible, playful smile flashed in Honglian's charming phoenix eyes. She leaned toward Lin Feng's ear and said, her breath orchid-like: "It seems someone is intercepting the loot in the dark."

Pojun also had a strange expression; he couldn't figure out who would have the guts to rob a prisoner carriage right under the nose of the Demon Suppression Division.

Only the Gold Rank Commander, Xiao Xuan, remained as calm as an ancient well.

He just picked up his teacup and took a gentle sip, but his gaze drifted, intentionally or unintentionally, toward the direction of Nanyan Prefecture, which had yet to arrive.

Finally, when the other eight prefectures had all finished tallying, Beihe Prefecture, with the highest total points, was temporarily in the lead with a high score of thirty-five thousand.

"The last team, Nanyan Prefecture, step forward!"

As the announcer's voice rang out, everyone's gaze focused in unison on Lin Feng, who was on the high platform.

They were all very curious about what kind of surprise the Yama, who had stirred up the entire Qingzhou, would bring with the team he brought.

Under the eyes of everyone, six figures slowly walked in from the entrance.

However, when they saw the prey behind them clearly, the entire venue instantly fell into a deathly silence.

They saw that behind them, there was only a small, and even somewhat shabby, wooden prisoner carriage.

And inside the carriage, there was only one...

A person wearing tattered Daoist robes, bound by profound iron chains, with a look of grievance...

Standing on its hind legs, a yellow weasel.

The entire audience: "???"

The eight prefectures: "???"

All senior leadership of the Demon Suppression Division: "???"

Everyone looked as if they had been hit by a freezing spell, staring blankly at the yellow weasel that was "struggling vigorously," their minds completely blank.

After all that, you Nanyan Prefecture only brought this thing?!