Wait a minute, where is my master?

After arriving at this location, the young Taoist's Spiritual Sense spread out, first sweeping over the two women.

Upon finding both women unharmed, he then adopted a gentle expression and spoke in a calm tone to the figure and the cat standing at the entrance of the alley.

"I heard you were looking for me?"

The boy, who had planned to leave, paused slightly surprised when the young Taoist appeared so abruptly. The orange cat on his shoulder swished its tail, its slit eyes opened slightly, revealing a sliver of a gaze at the person before it, and then closed again.

"Taoist brother, was this High Grade Spirit Stone given by you?"

The little boy quickly adjusted his mood, his chubby face excited, as he took out the High Grade Spirit Stone he had just put back into his pocket.

Jin Xu lowered his gaze to the Spirit Stone flecked with traces of grease.

...To be honest, he didn't recognize it.

Spirit Stones all looked the same; nobody bothered to remember them.

However, in the message Yu Yaoer sent to him just before, Little White's nose had confirmed that this Spirit Stone was indeed one of the two he had given away in Kao Mountain Town.

Thus, the young Taoist replied.

"If you got this Spirit Stone from a teacher surnamed Fan in Kao Mountain Town, then it was indeed given by me."

"That's wonderful! Taoist brother, we are indeed looking for you! Since you gave away this Spirit Stone, you must definitely have an Age Chicken, right?"

The boy cheered and continued, "Taoist brother, if you have an Age Chicken, could you sell it to us? I... I can give you... give you... give you fifty thousand such Spirit Stones!"

The little boy extended his plump little hands in front of Jin Xu.

"These two came to the alley with the real intention of buying a chicken."

The young Taoist mumbled to himself.

When he arrived, Yu Yaoer and Little White had already informed him through telepathy that the visitors claimed to be from the Kunlun Immortal Palace and were interested in buying Little Hong.

"Sorry, I'm not lacking Spirit Stones, so I'm not selling."

Jin Xu spoke with resolve, and walked past the two, heading deeper into the alley.

He had already promised to take Little Hong back home; and besides, the party in question was the very hero who had saved tens of thousands of citizens of Great Xia. How could he sell Little Hong for a mere fifty thousand High Grade Spirit Stones?

The boy, upon being rejected, scrunched up his nose and turned, stretching out both hands toward the Taoist's receding back.

"Taoist brother, do you think the amount is too little? Then I will offer, fifty-five thousand... sixty thousand... no, eighty thousand of such Spirit Stones!"

The pain was visible on the boy's face; even though he was the only great-grandchild of the master of Kunlun Immortal Palace and his maternal family had been merchants for generations with considerable wealth.

For him, eighty thousand High Grade Spirit Stones was no small amount.

This was what he had saved over eight years!

Though his face reflected his distress, his round little eyes were still filled with determination. He had to get his hands on an Age Chicken, a rare spirit bird unseen in the Nine Provinces Realm!

"I said it's not for sale, and that means it's not for sale. It has nothing to do with the amount of Spirit Stones."

Without looking back, Jin Xu waved his hand and reached the two women.

"Temple master, look, these are my new little brothers!"

The husky, wishing to show off upon the Taoist's approach, sidestepped to reveal the group of stray dogs lying on the ground.

At that moment, the dogs had not fully recovered from the suppression of the cat's Spiritual Power, so they were all rather listless, except for the old yellow dog of Foundation Establishment Realm at the head, who managed to run to Jin Xu's feet and wagged its tail upon hearing Little White's words.

"...Pretty good."

The young Taoist scratched his head at the sight of this large batch of new followers and then bent down to pat the old yellow dog's head.

"Uncle Ju, what should we do? The Taoist brother isn't selling. Could you please talk to him for me, or maybe pretend to scare him a bit!"

While Jin Xu and Little White were bonding with their new little brothers,

the young boy who had just been rejected by the Taoist priest was now seeking help from the orange cat on his shoulder, his face bitter.

"No, your dad said I'm only responsible for protecting you when you're in extreme danger. Everything else is not my concern. Besides, bullying others by flaunting power is something we from the Kunlun Immortal Palace don't engage in,"

the orange cat said lazily, its eyes half-closed, even its telepathic communication carrying a hint of drowsiness.

"Uncle Ju~~ please help me out for all the good stuff I share with you, and besides, Uncle Ju, don't you want to taste what Age Chicken is like? When Uncle Wei described the taste of Age Chicken to us, you drooled the most."

The Uncle Wei mentioned by the young boy had eaten an Age Chicken by chance once.

The kind that was stewed with mushrooms.

And the young boy, who had shown an extraordinary appetite since the age of four, had pestered Uncle Wei countless times to describe the taste of the now-extinct bird in Nine Provinces after learning he had once eaten one.

In the end, he even got a few tail feathers that Uncle Wei had once treasured, from that same Age Chicken.

Since they were well-preserved and still carried some of the scent, the boy thought it would be nice to at least be able to smell it if he couldn't eat it.

It was precisely because of this that the young boy was so familiar with the scent of Age Chicken; thus, when he passed through Kao Mountain Town, he immediately recognized the smell coming from the High-Grade Spirit Stone!

Later, he even begged Lord Ju to use his tracking skills to find it.

"Nonsense, it was clearly you who drooled the most,"

the orange cat refuted lazily, then added, "I, Uncle Ju, can't engage in bullying, but Lord Ju is just a cat after all. Little Yuan, have you ever seen anyone's cat pay for chickens they eat?"

Upon hearing the orange cat's words, the young boy's round eyes instantly lit up.

"Uncle Ju, are you saying we can quietly steal that Age Chicken?!"

"Tsk, what do you mean steal? That's called 'fou'! No, wait, that's called survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle. If their chicken gets carried away by a stray cat, who's to blame?"

The orange cat flicked its tail, emphasizing that it was not stealing.

"Like that time in Pan Shi Valley when we 'stole'... 'fou-ed' the immortal crane?"

"Exactly!"

The ginger-colored big cat wore a look of pride, as if it was teaching a worthwhile pupil.

The two clearly weren't strangers to this kind of scheme; if Lord Ju hadn't wanted to eat the Age Chicken, he wouldn't have tracked the High-Grade Spirit Stone in the first place.

"So, what should we do?"

"No rush, I've already left a mark on those two girls while exerting my pressure. That little Taoist seems a bit tough to mess with, so we need to plan this out slowly."

The pair had only arrived in Qingmu City today and headed straight for this remote alley after entering the city.

So they had no idea about the recent event where Jin Xu overpowered Lan Junyan, or they probably wouldn't have rushed into this chicken-snatching plan so hastily.

...

On the other side, after finishing the bonding with his new minions, Jin Xu slowly got up.

Raising his left hand, he struck the chests of the two girls with the Body Purification Skill.

The girls didn't understand what was happening, but one turned red and the other became excited.

Then the young Taoist turned and walked towards the boy and the orange cat.

"You two, discussing stealing my chicken in front of me, isn't that a bit too much?"

Jin Xu's expression was emotionless, his voice carrying a slight chill.

His diffuse Spiritual Sense had stayed out, and the recent telepathic exchange between the boy and Lord Ju was as clear to him as a broadcast.

The Taoist priest heard every word.