Starting from his vigorous old age, he began to conquer Liaozhai.

After leaving Qingping Village, Cao Xiong always felt that someone was secretly watching him.

Cao Xiong never ignores his intuition.

He had sent people to investigate secretly on several occasions, but they found nothing unusual.

After nearly a day of travel, they finally arrived at the edge of the Ten Thousand Mountains. In another day, they would be able to leave the mountains.

Cao Xiong felt inexplicably uneasy. It was nighttime, and the feeling of being spied on grew stronger.

When they arrived at a relatively flat valley, the officers and soldiers stopped to rest.

Cao Xiong had Liu Mingzi brought before him. "Didn't you say you knew divination?"

Liu Mingzi was somewhat puzzled, unsure of Cao Xiong's meaning. "I must inform you, sir, that I do indeed know a little bit."

"Alright, ever since I left Qingping Village, I've felt like someone is secretly following me. Do you have a way of predicting whether anything unexpected will happen on my return journey?"

Upon hearing Cao Xiong's words, Liu Mingzi took out three ancient bronze coins from his pocket.

He muttered incantations and threw copper coins on the ground six times in a row.

Cao Xiong knew nothing about divination and couldn't understand the hexagrams, but from Liu Mingzi's increasingly worse complexion, he had a vague feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

"The hexagram 'Pi' signifies blockage, with no communication between superiors and inferiors, a very ominous sign."

Liu Mingzi's voice trembled as he said this.

"My lord, the fact that such a divination has been produced indicates that the enemy is no ordinary person; it must be a powerful demon that is pursuing us."

Cao Xiong sighed inwardly, "Just as I expected." He immediately looked at the people around him and said, "Pass the word: stop resting and get on your way immediately."

"Yes, sir!"

Liu Mingzi didn't dare to delay for a moment and, together with the other officers and soldiers, relayed Cao Xiong's orders to the outside world.

Within minutes, Cao Xiong led the soldiers from Guobei County to set off again.

All the musketeers were dispersed around the ranks, remaining highly vigilant.

On the summit of a high mountain not far away, a monster with wings on its back, a blue face and fangs, and a steel fork in its hand silently watched the soldiers.

He was tall and his eyes were wide open like two lanterns.

"Cheers~"

The monster emitted a bird-like cry, flapped its wings, and swooped down, stirring up a whirlwind.

Cao Xiong suddenly sensed something, turned around and looked behind him, just in time to see two red spheres floating in the night sky.

"Everyone, prepare for battle!"

Cao Xiong channeled his internal energy, making his voice loud enough for everyone to hear.

As the monster drew near, Cao Xiong finally saw what it looked like.

"Yaksha~"

Cao Xiong immediately recognized the enemy as the Yaksha that Nie Xiaoqian had mentioned.

"Musketeers, fire!"

The Yaksha's crimson eyes were extremely conspicuous at night, and the other officers and soldiers also spotted the Yaksha.

"Bang bang bang~"

The musketeers controlled the distance, and when the Yaksha entered the firing range, smoke and fire filled the air.

Explosions were heard one after another.

The Yaksha is like a swimming dragon, large in size but not clumsy.

Most of the gunpowder bullets fired from the musket were easily dodged by the Yaksha.

If there was no way to avoid it, the Yaksha simply flapped its wings.

The lead bullet struck the Yaksha, sparks flew, and it was like a stone sinking into the sea, causing only a slight ripple, which was of no significance.

The Yaksha's speed did not decrease; like a falling meteorite, it headed straight for Cao Xiong.

Cao Man shielded Cao Xiong firmly behind him and swung his Xuanhua giant axe at the Yaksha.

The yaksha gripped the steel fork with both hands and thrust it into the giant axe.

The weapons collided, and the Xuanhua giant axe was pierced directly by the steel fork.

The spiritual energy, carried by the weapon, formed a hidden force that entered Cao Man's body.

"Pfft~"

Cao Man spat out a mouthful of blood, knelt on the ground, and the Xuanhua giant axe in his hand broke into three pieces.

"Sword Drawing Technique~"

Cao Xiong's body flew out from behind Cao Man.

The Evil-Sniffing Longsword glowed with a faint red light, giving it an eerie appearance.

"Cheers~"

The Yaksha spread its lower limbs, its silver claws like hooks, and grabbed the Evil-Sniffing Longsword, attempting to snatch it away.

"Ah~"

Cao Xiong used all his strength to wrestle with the Yaksha.

"Human blood food, you killed my corpse servants, cutting off my blood food source. New and old grudges, let's settle them all today."

The yaksha's voice was shrill, making Cao Xiong's ears ring.

Knowing he was no match for Yaksha, Cao Xiong quickly threw out the scroll from his robes.

The scroll is unfurled, and the Yaksha is captured within it.

Cao Xiong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, less than two minutes later, Cao Xiong felt a burning sensation in his chest.

He quickly took out the scroll and saw that there was a small tear on the edge of the scroll.

It was like someone had set the edge of the drawing paper on fire with a tinderbox.

"This is troublesome!"

The damaged area is expanding at a visible rate.

The muskets could not harm the Yakshas, ​​and the gunpowder had been used up during the bandit suppression.

These officers and soldiers staying with him would only be a burden, increasing casualties.

With that in mind, Cao Xiong immediately made a decision: "Everyone, continue on your way. I have something to attend to and may need to leave for a while. During this time, all the flag officers will perform their duties."

After saying that, Cao Xiong immediately used the Leaf-Picking Step to traverse through the mountains and forests.

Before it had gone far from the group, the scroll was already mostly burned.

Cao Xiong threw the scroll violently, and with a loud bang, the scroll shattered into pieces.

The Yaksha reappeared in mid-air, its aura disordered.

"Insects, damn them."

The Yaksha's voice was cold and sharp, and he was surrounded by black spiritual mist.

The spiritual mist transformed into black feathered arrows, enveloping Cao Xiong.

"Sword Drawing Technique~"

Cao Xiong unleashed his ultimate move to block the Yaksha's attack.

He felt an irresistible force coming from the arrow.

Cao Xiong's body kept moving backward, leaving two shallow grooves on the ground, before finally crashing heavily to the ground.

Just as Cao Xiong fell to the ground, a plume of red smoke billowed from his body and drifted toward Yaksha.

The red smoke was released by Cao Xiong controlling the Ghost Smoke Bottle.

He put the ghost smoke bottle back into his bosom, and while the yaksha was shrouded in smoke, he used the Leaf-Picking Step to slip into the forest and disappear.

The Yaksha flapped its wings, blowing away the red smoke.

When Yaksha looked at Cao Xiong again, he found that Cao Xiong had already disappeared.

"You think you can get away?"

Yaksha twitched its nose and chased after the direction Cao Xiong had fled.

Not long after, Cao Xiong was caught up again.

Yaksha raised his steel fork, aimed it at Cao Xiong's body, and threw it directly out.

As Cao Xiong was walking through the forest, he suddenly felt himself being locked onto by a powerful aura.

He looked up and saw the steel fork piercing through the branches of the tree, hurtling towards him at high speed.

"Difficult to handle!"

There was a dirt slope in front of Cao Xiong. Cao Xiong did a front flip, flipped over the slope, and rolled down.

The steel fork was stuck into the earthen slope, smashing a stone into dust.

Yaksha snatched the steel fork from a distance and continued chasing Cao Xiong, then tossed the steel fork in his hand repeatedly like a toy toying with its prey.

And so it went, one chasing and the other fleeing.

Unbeknownst to him, Cao Xiong had already traveled from the foot of the mountain to the summit of an unknown mountain.

Below was a bottomless cliff. The Yaksha flapped its wings and looked at Cao Xiong with a mocking expression in mid-air.

"Ants, accept your fate."