Chapter 16 The Truth of the Demon Painter
There was still nothing to do in the Demon Slaying Division in the afternoon.

A few days ago, some terrifying monsters appeared in Linchuan, a thousand miles away. Shen Qingcheng, the only fourth-rank monster painter in the Monster Slaying Division, went there with many experts, leaving only a few experts such as Qin Shimiao and Qu Fengshan in the division.

Recently, there have been very few monsters appearing within 800 miles of the capital, so the company is relatively quiet.

After Su Yu returned to the Demon Slaying Division, he drew the sign of “卯” in front of the hall and turned around to go to Qin Shimiao.

When passing by a rockery, I saw Mr. Sun feeding his old goat with a cabbage.

Both the man and the goat were thin and had a goatee on their chins, so they looked very similar.

The black goat ate the cabbage in big and small bites, its goat beard trembling, and its pair of yellow-brown pupils seemed to always look at Su Yu coldly.

Su Yu greeted Mr. Sun, but Mr. Sun just glanced at him indifferently with his eyes, which were mostly white and less black, and did not reply.

When I arrived at Qin Shimiao's place, I saw him still sitting at the table, petting the cat dejectedly.

For a forty-year-old boy, life is so peaceful and dull.

Seeing Su Yu coming, he just nodded, then turned to look out the window.

For some reason, Su Yu always felt that Qin Shimiao had a faint melancholy.

Su Yu had previously thought that it was because he was a loner and had not yet lit the six soul lamps at the age of forty.

But now looking closely, Qin Shimiao seems to be worried about something.

Of course, as a fifth-rank demon painter, he would naturally have many secrets that ordinary people could not access, and even intrigues at the power level. It was natural for him to have his own concerns.

"I have nothing to do this afternoon, so you can just stay in my room."

Qin Shimiao pointed to the bookshelf in the room:

"You can read my book at will."

Su Yu thanked his master and turned to Qin Shimiao's bookshelf.

Qin Shimiao's bookshelf is not big, with only a few books on it, which are basically humanities classics, as well as picture albums of monsters from various places and the like.

Su Yu saw that there was a lot of dust on Qin Shimiao's bookshelf, so he didn't take the book to read immediately. Instead, he turned around and got a bucket from outside, washed the rag with it, and wiped the dust on the bookshelf.

He is now Qin Shimiao's apprentice, and it is his job to do odd jobs for his master.

Besides, Qin Shimiao was quite nice to him. He lit up the soul lamp for him right after he accepted him as his disciple, and also helped him find the life-saving item!

After wiping the bookshelf, Su Yu cleaned the house with a broom and rag.

While Su Yu was doing things, Qin Shimiao was still stroking the cat with one hand, but his eyes were looking out the window with loneliness. Only the black cat was watching Su Yu busying around, its eyes following his figure.

After cleaning the house, Su Yu picked up a book and sat down to read.

This book is called Da Qian Lu, and it records many monsters and strange beasts that the Demon Slaying Bureau has killed and collected over the years. It contains not only text but also pictures. Although these monsters and strange beasts are drawn very abstractly, they look quite interesting.

In the mountain of Xianju, there lives a beast with the body of a horse and the wings of a bird, the face of a man and the tail of a snake. It likes to raise people, and its name is Shuhu. Its courage can increase strength.

There is a beast on Gua Mountain, with a human face and a short tail. It cries like a baby, is suspicious and lustful, likes to kidnap women into the cave for sexual intercourse. Eating its kidney can strengthen your virility.

There is a monster in Baishan, with the body of a wolf and the feet of a man, sharp claws and fangs, moving as fast as a rabbit and extremely difficult to catch, bloodthirsty and brutal, with infinite strength, able to tear cattle and horses apart alive...

Su Yu was watching with great interest.

It turns out that there are many strange beasts and monsters in this world, and the Daqianlu also shows the effects of eating them. The monster in Baishan seems to be very similar to the legendary werewolf.

There is a monster called Shuhu in the mountain of Xianju. Eating its gall can increase one's strength.

The monster in Guashan, eating its kidneys can enhance sexual performance...

After a while, the sun set in the west and it was time to get off work. Su Yu's day as a civil servant of Dasheng was over.

He put the Daqianlu back on the bookshelf, turned around and walked to Qin Shimiao. Just as he was about to bow and leave, Qin Shimiao suddenly looked at him and said:

"Don't leave in a hurry. I'll take you to Chen Shiguan's house."

Su Yu couldn't help but be stunned.

Wasn’t the issue of Chen Shiguan’s family resolved?
What are you even going there for!
"Although his young lady has been buried, the sixteen Yellow Fairy demon spirits that were killed by her have not yet been tamed. It is most appropriate to use them for you to practice martial arts."

Use demon souls to practice martial arts?
Su Yu was stunned again.

Doesn’t the practice in this world rely on breathing?
Qin Shimiao glanced at Su Yu and said:
"It seems that what Yan Xu taught you is really just the basics. It's hard for you to break through the bottleneck of body tempering and enter the bone tempering realm. It's a good thing that Yan Xu died, otherwise your great talent would have been wasted in his hands!"

"From what I've seen in the past two days, your talent and character are still very good. I no longer have any reservations and have decided to help you enter the path of cultivation of the demon painter as soon as possible."

Su Yu couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed when he heard Qin Shimiao praising him.

I just cleaned your room...

At this point, Qin Shimiao said seriously:
"You just got a glimpse of the path to cultivation, so you don't know that breathing is the slowest skill in cultivation. In addition to using elixirs and other aids, the most needed thing for cultivators is soul painting!"

"The corpse painters of the Demon Slaying Division only know that after killing a demon, they must paint a picture to collect the remaining soul of the demon ghost, so as to suppress the demon. However, they do not know that this is simply fooling ordinary people. Of course, this statement is also conducive to the Demon Slaying Division to collect more paintings of demon ghosts, so that people dare not not report it!"

"In fact, the real purpose of our demon painters making soul paintings is to assist in cultivation. It is the same principle as refining elixirs! This is also the meaning of the demon painters' existence!"

Hearing this, Su Yu's breathing became a little rapid.

It was not until now that he finally grasped the truth about cultivation in this world.

It turns out that the Demon Slaying Division collects the residual souls of monsters to create soul paintings, not for suppressing monsters, but to absorb the power of the residual souls to create soul paintings for cultivation!
Because the boys who paint corpses are the lowest level of consumables, they have no way of knowing the truth!

The soul paintings of the Demon Slaying Department, like the elixirs of the Pill Department, are necessities for practitioners in Da Sheng and other countries. They are also the means for Da Sheng to maintain its national strength!
Essentially, there is no difference between these young men who paint corpses and the apprentices in the Alchemy Department who chop wood and boil medicine.

"But the soul paintings we made were basically handed over to the court for the use of masters in cultivation. Each one has a record, so you, as a corpse painter, naturally cannot get it. But since Chen Shiguan still has 16 residual souls of the Yellow Immortal, they are just right for you to practice with!"

At this point, Qin Shimiao suddenly sighed, and a melancholy expression appeared on his face again:

"The master has some problems recently. If you become stronger sooner, you can help the master a little bit!"

After Qin Shimiao finished speaking, he turned to look at the darkening sky outside the window and slowly stood up:

"Let's go, follow me to Chen's house!"

The black cat jumped from the table and nimbly landed on Qin Shimiao's shoulder.

Qin Shimiao gently stroked the black cat's fur, but suddenly remembered something and turned to Su Yu and said:

"Take your little fox with you. If you can get the sixteen soul paintings, it will also be beneficial to it. Light up the second soul lamp as soon as possible, and it will have another life!"

(End of this chapter)