“Did they send the vanguard to test the waters? Hehe, they sure are cautious.” Scholar Xian Gong gently smiled and said, “Everyone, be careful. The appetizer is coming! The incoming enemies are all of the Third and Fourth Stage; who wants to help me take care of them?”

　　Xian Gong didn’t want to expose the location of the traps and the number of helpers he had invited over too soon. After all, he wanted to use them to deal with the big fishes hiding in the back lines. Therefore, it was better to ambush and kill the vanguard while it was still far!

　　Scholar Xian Gong’s voice had hardly faded when one of the experts stood up.

　　“In that case, I’ll assist Brother Xian Gong and help you kill these guys.” A chubby cultivator smiled and stepped forward.

　　He was carrying a big steamer on his back, and when he revealed his presence, a large amount of steam was released from it. The steam flew upward and stopped after reaching a height of one meter, hovering there without dispersing.

　　It was one of Scholar Xian Gong’s friends—Scholar Rice Cake, a cultivator of the Fifth Stage Realm. One could guess from his name that he was an immortal chef.

　　Nevertheless, he was a combat-type immortal chef. Every combat-type immortal chef had one or two special abilities or innate skills that were very difficult to deal with.

　　“You can count me in. I’m itching to get into action; laying low isn’t really my style.” Another cultivator revealed their presence.

　　It was a woman with short blue hair and wearing plain clothes. Her fringe was very long and covered even her eyes.

　　Her name was Scholar Flying Fish, and she was a monster of the Fifth Stage.

　　Scholar Flying Fish was very famous in the world of cultivators, and her name had spread far and wide for a rather peculiar reason.

　　Although she was a woman herself… she liked other women.

　　“In that case, I’ll rely on you two to swiftly take care of these small fries,” Scholar Xian Gong said with a smile.

　　Xian Gong’s mood was very good at this time. Since the demons of the Netherworld had come, that demodragon couldn’t be too far, either.

　　Come, come!

　　My traps are waiting to enter into action!

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　After arriving at the periphery of Venerable White’s holiday mountain residence, the fifty demons of the Netherworld stopped.

　　At this time, three figures had suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

　　They could sense from their auras that the team was made of human and monster cultivators.

　　The demons of the Third Stage growled.

　　It didn’t matter if they were dealing with human cultivators or members of the monster race. As long as the opposite party wasn’t a creature of the Netherworld Realm, it was an enemy. And if it was an enemy, they had to shred it to pieces or bring it back to the Netherworld Realm as a slave.

　　The ten demons of the Fourth Stage carefully stared at Scholar Xian Gong and the others. They felt that the three people in front of them weren’t easy to deal with.

　　But just as though they had gone mad, the forty demons of the Third Stage pounced forward without waiting for the demons of the Fourth Stage to issue a command.

　　The demons of the Fourth Stage were dumbfounded. These demons of the Third Stage should have been under their control. Such being the case, why had they charged forward like madmen without waiting for orders?

　　However, they didn’t have much time to ponder, and could only get helplessly dragged into the battle.

　　Scholar Rice Cake stepped forward and stood in the forefront position. Afterward, the steamer on his back opened, and a lot of sticky rice cakes flew out of it.

　　Scholar Rice Cake excelled at preparing rice cakes, and could use them for other things as well aside from serving them as food.

　　The rice cakes fell amidst the crowd of demons like raindrops. Afterward, the rice stuck to the bodies of the demons as though it was alive and glued them together, preventing them from moving.

　　“I’ll leave the rest to Fellow Daoist Xian Gong and Fellow Daoist Flying Fish.” Scholar Rice Cake retreated after using this move.

　　“Leave it to me.” Scholar Flying Fish’s body flickered, and she teleported amidst the crowd of demons. Next, tens of knives appeared in her hands and started to quickly behead the demons.

　　Scholar Flying Fish’s strong point was her speed. In the blink of an eye, she had killed twenty of the fifty demons of the Netherworld.

　　Her speed had reached the limit of the Fifth Stage, to the point that it was a match for some True Monarchs that had just advanced to the Sixth Stage.

　　Scholar Xian Gong had invited them here to deal with a demodragon of the Sixth Stage rank. If the strength or skills of these helpers had been insufficient, Xian Gong wouldn’t have invited them in the first place.

　　While facing a demodragon of the Sixth Stage that had been strengthened by the foul energy of the Netherworld Realm, ordinary Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperors were of almost no use.

　　Only cultivators of the Fifth Stage like the ones present in the Nine Provinces Number One Group—who had seven dragon patterns on their Golden Core—or like Scholar Rice Cake—who had unique skills at their disposal—could help Scholar Xian Gong complete this task.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The demons of the Netherworld were dropping dead one after another… but right at this time, a demon of the Third Stage in the crowd smiled.

　　There are only three cultivators and a few aura-jamming formations engraved on the ground. I didn’t notice the presence of any other helper even after a careful inspection. A cultivator of the Sixth Stage and two of the Fifth Stage, huh… although they have some skills, they aren’t aren’t a match for the six of us, the demon thought to itself and grinned.

　　This demon of the Third Stage was actually a cave lord of the Sixth Stage in disguise.

　　It had decided to infiltrate the vanguard to obtain information firsthand.

　　Had this demon been dealing with any other human cultivator, it would have discovered the traps below and sensed the aura of the other helpers… too bad that the one it was facing was Scholar Xian Gong!

　　In the Nine Provinces Number One Group, Scholar Xian Gong could easily rank amongst the first five when it came to ‘formations’. He was a true expert in this field.

　　Since it was Scholar Xian Gong who had arranged the formations, the cave lord of the Sixth Stage rank couldn’t sense anything amiss. It even failed to discover the presence of the various helpers who were also making use of Scholar Xian Gong’s concealing formations.

　　Since their forces are only this strong, we can easily crush these humans and rob them! The cave lord of the True Monarch rank stretched out its hand and ignited a signal flare.

　　Now that it had used the signal flare, the other five cave lords and their elite subordinates would rush over and commence the attack.

　　After that, this cave lord of the Sixth Stage in disguise got into action.

　　Earlier, it locked onto the position of that evil survivor of the Jingang Temple, Song Shuhang, and the monster willow subordinate of Cave Lord Dragon. Both of them were in the nearby mountain valley!

　　After locking onto the position of the target, the body of the cave lord expanded and turned into a four-headed snake with evil, black fire burning all over it.

　　The rice stuck to its body was immediately burned to ashes.

　　Afterward, the cave lord swept the nearby area with its tail, ultimately grabbing two demons of the Fourth Stage with it and burning away the substance gluing them together.

　　It wasn’t planning to save these two demons of the Fourth Stage. After all, these two weren’t even his subordinates.

　　After coiling its tail around the two demons, it threw them at Scholar Xian Gong.

　　It wasn’t wise to engage in combat with this powerful human of the Sixth Stage before the arrival of the other cave lords. In addition, it had no intention of fighting this human cultivator of the Sixth Stage True Monarch Realm in the first place.

　　At this time, it had only one objective in mind: steal the credit from the others.

　　It wanted to be the first one to capture or behead that evil survivor of the Jingang Temple. With that, it would be able to receive the biggest reward after returning to the Mountain of Next Life.

　　If possible, it was better to capture the target alive. It would get a greater reward that way!

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Scholar Xian Gong stretched out his hand and cut the air, drawing a line.

　　Afterward, two fiery formations appeared out of nowhere and wrapped the two demons that were coming at him, swallowing them down.

　　However, the four-headed snake demon seized the opportunity to swiftly get past Scholar Xian Gong, and headed toward the mountain valley.

　　“There was unexpectedly a demon of the Sixth Stage hiding amidst the cannon fodder.” Scholar Xian Gong furrowed his brows. However, that four-headed snake wasn’t the demodragon they were looking for.

　　Scholar Xian Gong quickly used a thousand mile sound transmitter to send a message to Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, True Monarch Ancient Lake Temple, and the others, notifying them about the four-headed snake demon of the Sixth Stage heading toward the mountain valley.

　　Scholar Xian Gong decided not to pursue the demon, and held his position.

　　Then, he glanced at the slowly disappearing signal flare in the sky. In which era was that demon living? He actually used such an unsophisticated method of communication! Wasn’t it better to use a thousand mile sound transmitter or a similar method?

　　Oh… wait a moment. The opposite party was a demon of the Netherworld Realm. In there, it was very difficult to make use of electric equipment or thousand mile sound transmitters that cultivators used.

　　Under these circumstances, the opposite party was excused for using this ancient method of communication.

　　Anyway, since it sent a signal… it meant that reinforcements should be on their way, right?

　　If reinforcements were coming, it was possible that the demodragon would be amongst them!

　　Scholar Xian Gong was beaming with joy.

　　“Everybody, get ready. The target should be coming. We absolutely can’t let it get away!” Scholar Xian Gong said in a grave tone.

　　As for the four-headed snake, he would leave it to the fellow daoists in the mountain valley.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The four-headed snake demon headed toward the mountain valley at its fastest speed.

　　After arriving at the mountain valley, it noticed that there was a great battle between wild beasts going on.

　　There was a monster fish with the bloodline of a flood dragon on one side and a pack of snow wolves on the other.

　　Both parties were covered with blood and injured…

　　Next to the battling wild beasts was a human cultivator wearing a daoist robe; he called out pitifully and then fell to the ground.

　　This human cultivator looked really pitiful.

　　In the next moment, when the four-headed snake demon saw the human cultivator clearly, it was unable to move its eyes away from him.

　　Such a delicate and pretty creature should exist only in the world of immortals, and wasn’t supposed to appear in the mortal world.

　　The four-headed snake demon discovered that its cold and lonely heart had started to beat once more.

　　Ah~ 

　　Just because I’ve taken an extra glance at you in the crowd~ 

　　I can’t forget your face anymore~ ¹

　　A mere glance was enough for that pretty and delicate human cultivator to leave a deep impression in the heart of the snake demon. At this time, there was only one thought flashing through the four heads of the snake… it had to obtain this human cultivator at all costs—he was going to be its war trophy!

　　“Stupid beasts, get the hell out of here!” The four-headed snake demon descended. Its four heads danced in the air, and it used its tail to attack.

　　Yu Jiaojiao and Cave Lord Snow Wolf’s family, who were in the middle of their performance, were stunned by the sudden appearance of the four-headed snake demon, and were thus sent flying.

　　Afterward, the tail of the four-headed snake demon gently coiled around the ‘unconscious’ Venerable White, who was now lying on the ground.

　　The corners of the mouths of the various fellow daoists present twitched.

　　“I haven’t forgotten about you! Evil survivor of the Jingang Temple!” The gaze of the four-headed snake demon shifted onto Song Shuhang’s body.

　　In the next moment, one of its four heads stretched out and coiled around Song Shuhang.

　　The speed of a Sixth Stage True Monarch was simply too much for the current Song Shuhang. He had no way of resisting, and was kidnapped as well.

　　Afterward, the four-headed snake demon glanced at the distant group of ‘ weak² ‘ cultivators and laughed complacently.

　　Under normal circumstances, it would have already killed that group of weak cultivators.

　　However, its mood was especially good now that it had gotten its tail on this pretty and delicate cultivator. Therefore, it decided to leave this group of weak cultivators to the other cave lords.

　　Wahahaha!

　　In the next moment, the four-headed snake soared into the sky and disappeared on the horizon while carrying away the ‘unconscious’ Venerable White and the dumbfounded Song Shuhang…