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At night, Jinzhou was once again shrouded in silence.

From time to time, sounds of the night watchman’s reporting reached the streets.

Every household had their oil lamps lit, and the paper windows shone brightly, as if everyone was fearful of something.

However, the scene was quite picturesque, reminiscent of the “ten thousand families’ fireworks and lantern lights.”

But there was one exception: a completely dark house with no lamps lit, looking out of place among the rest of the homes.

The plaque on the door read, “Huai’s pawnshop.”

And a pair of deep eyes stared out through the window, watching all the movements around them.

Zhao Huai stood still by the bedroom window.

“Husband… aren’t you going to sleep?”

Inside the house, Yu Qinghan yawned listlessly, wearing a thin white dress and lying on the bed, her figure fully exposed. Seeing Zhao Huai still standing by the window, she couldn’t help but ask.

“You go ahead and sleep. I’m fine,” Zhao Huai said with a faint smile. Initiation Stage cultivators possess strong and robust spiritual power, allowing them to go a week without sleep.

For cultivators, sleep is essentially a time to restore spiritual power. With strong spiritual power, they naturally sleep less, and not sleeping is not an issue.

He stood there by the window tonight because, of course, of the divination’s results during the day.

Demons lurking in the city – what did that mean?

It showed that a large number of demons had malicious intentions towards Jinzhou. This was not good news. He had lived in Jinzhou for three years, and his base was here. More importantly, he had become accustomed to life here and the people he had met. They were far from being in a position to move away.

Tonight, he would set up a Dragon Gate formation and see who dared to come.

Seeing that his wife had gone to sleep but there were still no demons in sight, Zhao Huai didn’t worry. Instead, he sat down to cultivate and wait.

“Squeak!”

Suddenly, a scream came from the shop window, sounding a bit like a mouse.

It had arrived.

Zhao Huai slowly opened his eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Powerful thunder talismans had been placed on the windows of Huai’s pawnshop.

Any demon that dared to come would undoubtedly be blown to smithereens, unrecognizable even to their mother.

In an instant, the light of the [Demon-Seeing Eye] in Zhao Huai’s destiny was blazing brightly.

Zhao Huai’s pupils changed color suddenly, and the world in his eyes transformed.

A faint black smoke appeared in the house where the pawnshop was located, guiding him.

Without hesitation, Zhao Huai left his bedroom.

On the ground lay a charred object that resembled a rat’s head, but it was different. It had a pair of fangs, a chest covered in white fluffy fur, and black fleshy wings on its back.

“A bat?” Zhao Huai stared at the corpse, baffled.

He immediately recognized it as a white-furred bat, quite large with the size of a child, looking well-fed with the blood it had consumed.

No wonder it was a bat demon. Bats were afraid of light, which is why they feared it.

At that moment, the window was wide open, and a cold demonic wind blew in, while the night sky was dark except for the faint moonlight.

Zhao Huai looked up at the sky, his eyes narrowing, while the black smoke acted as his guide.

It seemed there were still other bats, this must have been a colony.

The black ring flickered, and a beautiful cyan spiritual sword floated up, parallel to the ground.

Zhao Huai’s silhouette flickered.

With a slight move of his sword, the spiritual sword flew out with a “whoosh.”

In the night sky, a group of dark bats was flying in panic above the rooftops of Jinzhou.

“What’s happening?! Why is there a sudden thunderbolt?” “Fool! We’ve encountered a cultivator! We must report this to The King!”

“Poor Old Nine! He’s so badly burnt that even his fur is black!”

Several bat demons were speaking in human language, their voices full of panic.

“Let’s return to Tianmu Mountain first. Those guys from Blackwind Cave are so hateful; they concealed the existence of a cultivator in Jinzhou and didn’t tell us.”

“Yes, The King will surely seek justice for us.”

Tianmu Mountain soon appeared within their view.

Just as the bat demons were preparing to return to their lair, a dazzling sword radiance streaked across the distant sky.

With the dark green sword qi slashing down, several bat demons were cut in half instantly, unable to make a single scream.

Zhao Huai’s figure appeared slowly. Before the bat corpses hit the ground, several white rays of light flew out and entered Zhao Huai’s body.

“Such pure energy,” Zhao Huai said in amazement.

He could feel his cultivation growing rapidly, his dormant Qi Sea suddenly activated, and his True Vigor roaring with excitement.

As the True Vigor broke free of its constraints, he actually made a breakthrough.

Initiation Stage, third level.Zhao Huai felt the increase in his cultivation and couldn’t help muttering, “These few little demons actually amount to more than a year of hard cultivation.”

With the [Slaying Demon] destiny, he could deal significant damage to demonic creatures and also improve his cultivation by absorbing their pure energy.

For the first time, Zhao Huai felt that breaking through was so simple, so he stood on his spiritual sword, looking down with narrowed eyes. The reason he waited until the last moment to make a move was to find out where these demonic creatures came from. With the effect of the Demon-Viewing Eye to see through them, he locked onto their demonic qi and followed them all the way to this place.

It seemed that the area below was the lair of the demons.

“The demonic qi here… is so strong.”

The black smoke was incredibly thick, taking on the shape of roaring figures, indicating that there were powerful demons here.

Zhao Huai naturally would not be reckless and venture deeper into the mountains. He pondered whether he should tell the Immortal Yearning Sect about this news.

Rather than telling the Immortal Yearning Sect, it was actually more like telling Lu Wanqiu.

After parting with the Lantern Woman, Lu Wanqiu had given him a way to contact her. As long as he awakened the communication stone, he could contact her.

Upon careful consideration, Zhao Huai also sensed that something was off. Would the Immortal Yearning Sect not know about the powerful demon presence here?

They definitely knew, but did they not have a good solution?

So they just left it be?

Zhao Huai didn’t quite understand yet, so he took a deep look at the mountains under the night sky and left the area.

On the next day.

Zhao Huai woke up the communication stone, intending to ask Lu Wanqiu about some things.

The two agreed to meet at an inn.

After waiting for a while, Zhao Huai saw a beautiful woman with an extraordinary temperament, in a green lotus long dress, walk into the gate. Lu Wanqiu saw Zhao Huai from afar and greeted him as she walked over. “Young Master Zhao, long time no see.”

Zhao Huai smiled and nodded, staring at her dress and teasing her:

“Every time I see you, you’re wearing the same outfit. It seems like you never change.”

Hearing this, Lu Wanqiu giggled and explained,

“This is a dust-repelling spiritual gown made by the sect for inner disciples and above. It generally won’t get dirty and is made from high-quality Heavenly Silkworm spirit thread. It’s warm in winter and cool in summer, so one set is enough.”

“I see.”

Zhao Huai nodded slightly.

“What’s the matter? It’s rare for you to come looking for me.”

Lu Wanqiu poured herself a cup of tea and said with a light laugh.

Zhao Huai thought for a moment and then said, “Do you know about the mountains near Jinzhou, I think they are called Tianmu Mountain?”

“I know, the Blackwind Cave is located nearby.” “There must be many demonic creatures there.”

“Indeed, there are many.”

Lu Wanqiu nodded in agreement.

“So why hasn’t the Immortal Yearning Sect taken any action?” Zhao Huai asked with deep gazes.

Upon hearing this, Lu Wanqiu didn’t respond but just smiled. After a pause, she slowly asked Zhao Huai a question,

“I want to ask Young Master Zhao, what are demons?”

Zhao Huai didn’t hesitate to reply, “Demons are cunning and brutal, they kill indiscriminately and take pleasure in eating humans.”

Lu Wanqiu nodded, clearly agreeing.

“What you said is not wrong, but do you know, not all demons are actually evil.”

“Are you saying that there are good demons?” Zhao Huai asked, puzzled.

Lu Wanqiu slowly explained, “In the path of cultivation, all beings are equal. If humans can cultivate, then demons can naturally cultivate as well. In Tianmu Mountain, there are honest cultivating demons, demons who start families and businesses, and demons who live in seclusion in the mountains. The Immortal Yearning Sect cannot exterminate all the demons wantonly, this would be an act of unkindness according to the Heavenly Power and would disturb the balance of cause and effect, causing karmic debts.”

“So, the sect only kills the troublesome demons but does not kill all the demons. It’s not just the Immortal Yearning Sect, but other sects as well.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Huai began to understand and said with a faint smile, “Is this your own idea or the sect’s idea?”

He didn’t believe reality could be so beautiful. When demons eat people, they don’t care if they are good or bad people.

Just as when cultivators kill demons, they won’t differentiate between demons or evil demons.

The two sides are still irreconcilable.

Lu Wanqiu gave him a glance and said helplessly, “It’s both the sect’s idea and my idea.”

Seeing her appearance, Zhao Huai understood completely.

It was still a matter of priorities. The rules were just an excuse, and the Immortal Yearning Sect couldn’t spend all their time and effort on slaying demons.

Those who showed themselves would naturally be killed, but as for those who didn’t cause trouble, the sect didn’t really want to bother with them. After all, slaying demons came at the cost of human lives.

Through their conversation, Zhao Huai came to understand the sect’s specific attitude towards demons.

He stared at Lu Wanqiu’s reminiscing expression and knew that she must have experienced something. Her parents died at the hands of demons, and it was truly remarkable for her to come to such a conclusion.

It reflected her innate kindness.