Once Nathan's head made the rounds, Danny was waved through.A short while later, following the Razor Society's men, he arrived at a great hall to meet the head of the outfit.The room was set up with two long rows of seats facing each other ten to a side, every one of them occupied.Every top lieutenant in the Razor Society had gathered here.Danny scanned the room, expression unchanged, and let his gaze settle on the raised platform ahead.Three armchairs sat there, spaced apart.On the right, an old man with a white beard, eyes closed, apparently resting didn't spare Danny a glance.On the left, a young man about Danny's own age, watching him with open curiosity.In the center, the broad-shouldered figure who could only be Cutter, head of the whole operation.Cutter spotted Danny and greeted him with a smile and a fist to palm."Young man, I'm Cutter. Appreciate the assist clearing out a rival. What can I do for you?"The war between the Razor Society and Kessler had never really s

"Someone, a seat for the Thirteenth Master."Once Danny sat down, Cutter scanned the room and continued. "Alright. Gaining a new brother is cause for celebration, but we don't have time for that today.""Since Thirteen just joined, let me lay the situation out again.""An internal-energy tiger spirit broke loose from the Demon Slayer Division's custody up at the provincial level. It's been hiding out in the northern mountains above Ashford County ever since.""Over the past while, it's hit several merchant caravans. Losses are piling up.""When it escaped, one of the Division's own experts nearly killed it badly injured, cultivation knocked down hard. Should be sitting at External Force now, best guess.""But one of the caravans it hit belonged to Whitfield's apothecary a full shipment of spirit herbs. If that tiger got its claws on those, it could be healing its wounds right now.""We need to shut this down before it climbs back to internal energy. Once that happens, it's a whole dif

Danny left the Razor Society compound with a thousand dollars in silver over one shoulder and ten catties of demon leather over the other.Down to a few hundred dollars left in his pocket, sure but he felt great.He walked with a light step, whistling under his breath.Joining the Razor Society had been a move of necessity, not preference. But so far, things had worked out better than he'd hoped. Cutter was a man of his word, and he'd handed over exactly what Danny needed most.Still surviving a few more days from the curse's grip wasn't the same as surviving it entirely. A comfortable, prosperous life had its own way of drawing new trouble.Either way get stronger, fast, no matter what.Unfortunately, the Razor Society didn't have anything above internal-energy tier in its arsenal. According to Marcus, any technique capable of taking someone straight to internal energy or beyond counted as a genuine internal secret manual the kind of thing only the county magistrate himself might act

Blood Puppet Sutra?Danny paused, glancing at the cover.Ironwood Method.Interesting. The biggest, most respected martial arts school in all of Ashford County and apparently something ugly buried underneath it.He'd never heard of the "Blood Demon Sect" before. But given the name and the way this technique worked, it was clearly nothing good.Whoever trained in this ended up as little more than a walking nutrient supply for whoever ran that sect. Whether the Ironwood School had stumbled into this by accident, or whether its leadership were secretly Blood Demon Sect operatives running the whole school as a recruitment pipeline for blood puppets Danny had no idea.Either way, he wasn't equipping this thing. No question.The curse already had his Vitality bleeding out steadily. Adding a technique that shrank his max pool further was asking for trouble.Sure, 160 total Vitality made losing 30 feel small right now. But that number was propped up entirely by two century-grade herbs stacked

This was the first gold-tier item Danny had ever laid eyes on.The best he'd found before this was a blue-grade century root.He felt no excitement at all.Most people probably would've called retained-memory reincarnation the ultimate blessing. But Danny had only been in this body a handful of days. What difference did carrying his memories forward actually make to him?And who was to say the equipment system would even survive a trip through death and rebirth?He'd suspected Uncle Sully had some hidden background from the start. He hadn't expected it to be this deep.Reincarnation was supposed to be legend. Folklore. And here it sat, real, in a wooden box on Sully's shelf.More importantly what did this old man actually want out of this?Sully caught the pale look on Danny's face and raised an eyebrow. "That expression tells me you already know what this thing is."He gave Danny a long, meaningful look, then stood. "Whether you use it is entirely your business.""Time for me to move