“Are you certain that there is another demon? An eighth-stage fox demon?”

　　“Meow, meow, meow.” The civet cat nodded his head vigorously.

　　“So when you appeared in the night to scare the residents, you were actually trying to… prevent them from leaving the town in case they encountered the fox demon?”

　　“Meow, meow, meow.” He nodded his head vigorously. “Once they step out of the town, they will be caught by the fox demon. I have been working very hard to keep everyone from leaving the town.”

　　Holy shit! No wonder those who saw the demon were either merchants or hunters.

　　“As a civet cat, you should stick to eating fish. Why do you eat other people’s chickens?” Lonemoon glanced at the demon. Xi Qiu had told him that those who died had deep claw marks on their body. As the cuts were long and narrow and most of the missing animals in the town were chickens, he had guessed that it might have been a fox demon’s work. It had never crossed his mind that there would have been two demons.

　　“But… but chicken meat is delicious.” The civet cat replied timidly.

　　“Yeah.” Shen Ying agreed, nodding. “I also love chicken!”

　　“Is there any food that you don’t like?” Lonemoon turned around and glanced at Shen Ying. “Whose side are you on… Wait, what are you doing?”

　　Shen Ying’s hand, which was in the act of picking up the gold pieces, froze for a moment. “Uh… Just picking up loot out of habit?” How can victory be achieved without picking up loot?

　　“…” Picking up loot my foot! You think you are playing an online game? I think you just want to pocket the money. I saw you put them in your pocket. “Put down the gold pieces!”

　　“Tch, pig-like teammate.”

　　“What are you talking about? I dare you to repeat it.”

　　“Master.” Yi Qing silently stepped forward with a reminder, “Gold holds no meaning for cultivators.”

　　Lonemoon heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the Sword Immortal still retained his smarts.

　　“Cultivators have always used spirit stones to trade, so why don’t we…” Yi Qing suggested earnestly, “get the civet cat to exchange these gold for spirit stones instead.”

　　“Good idea!”

　　Lonemoon: “…”

　　Enough! Are both of you here to capture the demon or to extort?!

　　——————

　　Although the demon was caught on the first day of the experiential training, the matter had yet to be resolved.

　　To Lonemoon, this matter was getting to be a bit of a headache. An eighth-stage fox demon was equivalent to a late stage Golden Core cultivator. It was obvious that this group of disciples would not be able to deal with it. Only he or Yi Qing could handle it, but the area outside was so vast that he did not know where to start looking for the demon.

　　“What did the fox demon want to rob you of?” Shen Ying, who had been watching the proceedings by Lonemoon’s side, suddenly poked at the civet cat next to her.

　　The civet cat, who had been trying his utmost to behave like a meek and obedient domestic house cat, froze for a moment. His body, which had been upright, slumped to one side and his expression suddenly became flustered. His big eyes darted left and right, looking as if he wanted speak yet was afraid to.

　　Lonemoon’s expression hardened as he remembered about this matter. Yes, the civet cat had said that he entered the town to prevent the fox from robbing him. What was so special about this item that even an eighth-stage fox demon had to have it?

　　“Tell me the truth. What are you carrying with you?”

　　“I… I…” Terrified by the look in Lonemoon’s eyes, the civet cat trembled in fear. Hesitating, he gritted his teeth and said, “I… I am actually on a mission for the patriarch of our civet cat clan. To… to send our congratulations to the Myriad Demon King for the ascension of his cultivation level. What the fox demon wants is… the gift I’m delivering—the Splendor Lingzhi!”

　　“Splendor Lingzhi!” Lonemoon was stunned. This was a supreme-grade spirit herb which matured only once in ten thousand years. Not only was it a divine healing medicine, but it could also be refined into a neonate formation pill that could increase a cultivator’s neonate formation chances by fifty percent. Even the Blackheaven Sect could only boast one or two of these herbs.

　　So it turned out the fox demon was thinking of refining a neonate formation pill so that it could raise its cultivation level to that of a tenth-stage Demon Monarch. That was why it was so desperate to get its hands on it. But why did it have to kill people and take out their hearts?

　　Also, when did the demon world come to have a Myriad Demon King? An ordinary Demon Monarch’s cultivation was at the tenth-stage, equivalent to the Nascent Soul stage, but a Myriad Demon King’s cultivation was at the twelfth-level which was equivalent to the Soul Formation stage.

　　“Dear Immortals, I’m really a good little kitty cat. I beg you to release me.” The civet cat turned to them and bowed repeatedly. “The ceremony to celebrate the advancement of the Myriad Demon Monarch is in seven days time. If I am late for it, our clan patriarch will have my skin.”

　　“Okay, okay. We aren’t interested in your kitty affairs.” Not wishing for further entanglements with this little civet cat demon, Lonemoon waved his hands, saying, “On account of the fact that you really didn’t harm anybody, we’ll let you go. But from now on, you are not to go out at night to scare people. As for the fox demon, we’ll settle our scores with it in due course. You better wait a few days before leaving the town to avoid being robbed again.”

　　“Thank you, great Immortals.” The civet cat nodded complaisantly. “You can rest assured that I have already hidden it. Even if the fox demon enters the town, it won’t be able to find it…”

　　But before it finished speaking, there came a loud bang from the sky. The upper atmosphere of the entire town suddenly buckled under, followed by a loud cracking sound. The transparent array that had formed a shield in the sky suddenly broke into thousands of pieces, raining tiny bits of fluorescent lights from the sky.

　　“Defend the formation!” Lonemoon was shocked. Someone had forced an entry into their array formation.

　　“Demonic aura!” cried out Yi Qing in alarm. Frowning, Yi Qing turned to hop onto his sword and started flying towards the east side of the town.

　　“Could this be the fox demon? Shen Ying, can you help… Huh? Where did she go?” Lonemoon had wanted to instruct her to look after the other disciples, but realised that Shen Ying, who had been dozing next to him until this moment, had disappeared. And… she had taken the civet cat along with her!

　　Bloody hell, when did she leave?!

　　Looking in the direction of the demonic aura, Lonemoon had no choice but to set up several layers of array formations to protect the entire inn. Having done this, he turned back to the disciples and said, “You all wait here. Remember not to step outside this formation. I will return in a while.”

　　So saying, he flew off in pursuit of Yi Qing.

　　They were not far away, just at the east end of the town. It was originally an empty place that was covered with wild grass except for a dry well in the middle.

　　At this moment, a red figure flew out of the dry well. It was very tall and fur so red that it seemed like it had been dyed in blood, and it was waving its nine flaming red tails wilfully in the air.

　　It was actually a Nine-Tailed Blood Fox!

　　Yi Qing was the first to fly out on his sword, directly preventing the Blood Fox from escaping.

　　“My gift!” A voice cried out from behind him. Yi Qing instinctively looked back only to see the civet cat that Shen Ying had brought along. On closer look, Yi Qing saw a rectangular box on the tail of the fox demon.

　　This fox demon was doing this on purpose. It had already discovered that they had entered the town and also knew the place where the civet cat had hidden his treasure, so it decided to turn the situation to its advantage by letting the civet cat draw away their attention and then used the opportunity to break through the defensive array to steal the gift!

　　It was just that the demon had not counted on the arrival of a Nascent Soul and even a Soul Formation cultivator; this was why they had managed to uncover its tracks.

　　Roar…

　　Suddenly giving out a loud roar, the huge Blood Fox ignored the sword array that Yi Qing had set up and swept its nine tails directly toward the tip of his sword. Its two tails were instantly cut off, but despite the blood gushing out, it managed to force its way through the array and fly off into the distance.

　　Yi Qing stood stunned for a moment as did Lonemoon who had just caught up. They had not expected this fox demon to go all out.

　　“Go after it!” cried out Shen Ying. She was the first to run in the direction of the fox demon. She had flashed past them before they could react, leaving behind a trail of dust.

　　Only then did the other two men follow after her on their swords. They could barely catch up with the indistinct figure in the distance—she was moving so fast that that it seemed like she was teleporting.

　　Lonemoon: “…” Is she really running? Since she can run so fast, then why does she always cadge rides on other people’s swords?!

　　Yi Qing: “…” Master is a true master.

　　The civet cat: “…” Chase it all you want, but why grab me along with you? On no, I’m going to puke, [vomits]…