Wait a minute, where is my master?

Kitchen Cave.

"Young Taoist, I really am one of our own."

The ox-horned, sturdy man had a simple and honest face that now wore a hint of pitifulness and fear, and beside him was a bottomless pit.

That was created just now by Jin Xu with 'Hand Palm Thunder'.

"Hmm."

The young Taoist's right hand flickered with arcs of golden light as he silently weighed the truthfulness of the ox demon's words.

The minotaur claimed to be an undercover cultivator from Qingmu Academy, infiltrated into the Demon Clan to monitor the evil movements in Qing State, and had been undercover for many years. To prove his truthfulness, he even showed Jin Xu some characteristic magic of Qingmu Academy.

Seeing how confidently the ox-horned, sturdy man guaranteed the authenticity of his magic, it seemed that any cultivator from the Nine Provinces Realm would recognize his identity based on it. However, the awkward part was, Jin Xu had no idea what Qingmu Academy's signature magic was; none of the numerous books he had read in the night-watchman's library had mentioned anything about it.

Nevertheless, the young Taoist had seen the man's qi, and indeed, the color of this ox demon's qi was much purer than that of the demon kings in the main cave.

Initially, Jin Xu had thought this ox demon was naturally vegetarian, only to discover he was actually an undercover agent.

After much consideration, the young Taoist spoke calmly, "I can't trust you, and I'm not interested in your undercover story. I came here on a whim today, simply wanting to rescue the civilians inside. So, I..."

Thinking Jin Xu was still going to kill him, the minotaur didn't wait for the young Taoist to finish and suddenly knelt down with a thud!

The force was so great, and his desire for survival so strong, that it cracked the bluestones on the ground.

"Young Taoist, you must believe me. Ten years, it's been ten years! Do you know how I've survived these ten years? I couldn't go home or contact fellow Daoists, diligently hiding in this rat demon's cave, all to earn a good name for our righteous Demon Clan, to let the world know that not all of us are bad. Young Taoist..."

"Stop... I'm not going to kill you."

Jin Xu interrupted the ox-horned, sturdy man's lengthy kneeling "speech."

"Ah, then it's all right."

Upon hearing that the young Taoist wouldn't kill him, a simple and honest smile instantly appeared on the minotaur's face.

"Although I'm not going to kill you for now, I still can't trust you. So, we need to find a way to restrain you. You have two options now. First, I can knock you out, but sometimes I can't quite control my strength, and 'knocking out' might turn into 'killing'. Second, you think of a way to restrain yourself that will put me at ease."

Jin Xu spoke amiably, very humanely offering the ox demon a chance to choose.

"... This."

The ox-horned, sturdy man hesitated, but after glancing at the bottomless pit next to him, he instantly knew what he had to choose.

"I choose the second option. Don't worry, Young Taoist, I'll definitely restrain myself properly!"

Having said that, Jin Xu watched him retrieve a spiked mace from his storage magical treasure, gripped it firmly with both hands, and gestured over his own forehead a few times.

Then, with a determined look on his simple face, he swung both hands heavily and hit himself hard on the forehead with the mace!

And then... he fell backwards to the ground.

"Hiss... Couldn't you just find a rope and tie yourself up? I didn't say you had to knock yourself out."

Muttering to himself, Jin Xu stepped forward to lift the fainted minotaur and started walking towards the innermost part of the cave.

A third of an incense stick's time later, the young Taoist emerged.

After entering, he had briefly comforted the civilians and left a Golden Spiritual Power Shield to protect them. Jin Xu planned to deal with that old rat and various other demon kings in the main cave first, then come back to lead the large group of civilians out.

"Little White must be about done fighting too."

The young Taoist muttered quietly, following the path he had taken on the way here.

During his conversation with the ox demon and the comforting of civilians, his Spiritual Sense was always enveloping the entire cave, closely watching over the two ladies to prevent any life-threatening danger.

...

Inside the main cave.

Scattered rubble and deep pits, ice shards and spider silk linger in the air with the remnants of spiritual power.

In one corner of the cave, two groups of people are facing off.

On Mao Jin's side, the number of colorful spiritual power shields surrounding the Demon Kings has decreased by two.

They have now turned into broken demon corpses on the ground, bodies still covered with bits of ice crystals and spider webs.

Clearly, they were slain by Little White and her companion.

Demon King Mao Jin himself also bore ice shards, but no visible wounds could be seen, his eyes blood-red, and a dark green spectral glow emerging on his claws.

In contrast, on Shiqi's side, the two women were also in a difficult position.

Little White's huge body had several bloody marks, the wounds turned black, with dark green blood oozing out, preventing her self-healing ability.

Zhuzhu was now in her true form, a fuzzy eight-legged spider. She didn't seem to have sustained any injuries, but her spiritual power fluctuations had visibly weakened.

However, Shiqi, although wounded, was still brimming with a desire to fight.

Her brows furrowed tightly as she stared at Mao Jin's claws, her face showing disdain.

"You, a body cultivator, actually using poison, are simply a disgrace to body cultivation!"

Her wounds were incurred while covering for Spider Demons; she could naturally feel the toxin spreading at the site of the injury.

Body cultivators in the Nine Provinces Realm believe that the body is the best weapon.

Most of them do not rely on magical artifacts, talismans, toxins or other external means but fight with their own two fists.

Little White is an ardent believer in this philosophy of cultivation.

One can see that she fought for half a day, relying solely on a pair of wolf claws and her innate divine ability, right?

"Heh, little girl, you better remember in your next life that the Cultivation World is a place where the weak are the prey of the strong, and killing you is all that matters, no matter the means. Besides, this is a Gu, not poison!"

After speaking, Mao Jin suddenly vanished from the surface, employing the Earth Escape Skill once more to launch a surprise attack.

The Demon Kings behind him, seeing him take action, also cast a variety of random spells, providing cover for the rat demon's movements.

"Sister Zhuzhu, be careful of the ground."

"Okay."

Zhu Qingmei spun her silk and suspended herself in mid-air.

True to form, Mao Jin usually targeted the weaker Spider Demon, but with Little White's swift actions and the two women being close, Mao Jin's sneak attacks never succeeded.

As expected, the rat demon once again chose to go after the Spider Demon.

Just as Little White blocked the random spells with a breath of frost and remained alert to the ground around her, ready to provide support at any moment.

Right beneath where Zhuzhu was suspended in mid-air, the stone slabs began to crack.

Shiqi instinctively dashed over.

But it turned out, the strike was a feint!

At the site of the damaged stone, only a thick stone pillar appeared, Mao Jin himself hadn't emerged from the ground.

"Not good!"

Little White's heart sank, knowing she had been tricked.