I defeated the saint with a parry.

"We could have avoided being enemies."

Sumeru cried out in a sorrowful voice, "We are in the same situation."

"Perhaps we're in the same situation, but we have different ideas and different choices. We can't work together if we're on different paths." Xu Ling disagreed: "Besides, you're not thinking straight. Since you've decided to kill people anyway, why not kill bandits and outlaws? As long as you stand on the moral high ground, who wouldn't give you a moral vanguard position? You'll reap both fame and fortune, and you'll never run into me... Why bother harming your own son and the people in the village?"

"..." Sumeru remained silent.

He had actually thought about it too.

But he was just an ordinary person before, how could he dare to deal with bandits and outlaws? Besides, it's easier to swindle someone you don't know than someone you do.

Xu Ling didn't bother to say anything more, and with a light wave of his hand, he chopped off Xumi's head, sending him to his death.

With the reward for the kill credited to his account, Xu Ling underwent another transformation, now comparable to a cultivator in the Concentration Realm.

The ruins of Taoyuan Village have completely turned it into a basin, and groundwater, from an unknown source, is constantly seeping out and slowly submerging the village.

Xu Ling ran quickly to the edge of the village, grabbed the Yaksha doll, jumped out of the ruins, and returned to the vicinity of the peach grove.

This place should become a wonderful spot in the future, with lakes and peach orchards. If some literati and scholars knew about it, they would probably come here to compose poems and songs to cultivate their minds.

Li west leaned closer: "Even a Spirit Platform Realm cultivator couldn't do anything to you, are you really a Body Tempering Realm cultivator?"

"Absolutely the real deal." Xu Ling spread his hands: "Standing before you is none other than Xu Ling, a demon slayer with a severed meridian physique and at the Body Tempering Realm."

"Tsk tsk." Li west pinched Xu Ling's arm, feeling the strength of his body, and tentatively asked, "But I feel you've gotten stronger, how come your cultivation level hasn't slackened at all?"

"As expected of the cultivation prodigy that Master Hou spoke of, his perception is very sharp." Xu Ling didn't hide it; his strange increase in strength couldn't be kept secret from everyone: "My physical body has only become stronger; my cultivation level hasn't changed."

"It's amazing. It's not from the Body Forging lineage, yet it's very similar to Body Forging."

Of course it's amazing, but can Xu Ling talk about something like the Fourth Calamity?

Xu Ling took out the doll he had retrieved from the rubble and asked, "Do you recognize this?"

He knew that the two came from prestigious families, and some of their lineages were even more profound than those of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Hou Le took the doll, sensed its aura, and said, "This thing is a sacred treasure of the incense-offering tradition. You can't use it, so you might as well hand it over and exchange it for some benefits."

It doesn't matter if it doesn't work, anyway, the Demon Suppression Division accepts all sorts of junk. What Master Hou said is just right.

"Do you want some?"

"We don't need it either."

"Never mind then."

Xu Ling then put everything away and said wearily, "Peach Garden Village is destroyed. Let's rest here for a while and continue our journey tomorrow morning."

"That's exactly right."

As Xu Ling spoke, he took out a map, gestured on it a few times to confirm the direction, and then said, "After passing the mountain road ahead, there will be an official road. After traveling a few dozen miles, we will see Fancheng."

After saying that, he found a flat spot to sit down and took out the Breakthrough Pill from his pocket: "Please take a look, two of you. This is a Breakthrough Pill that I tricked from Li Hong. It's not a fake, is it?"

Li west gestured for Hou Le to take a look, and the latter sniffed it: "It is indeed a Breakthrough Pill. However, a Breakthrough Pill cannot solve the problem of blocked meridians, so it is still useless to you."

"Fine!" Xu Ling said speechlessly, "Is this stuff poisonous? Even if it can't break through to the next level, it should at least boost my qi and blood, right?"

"Um..." Hou Le had never seen such a completely different use before: "It can indeed be somewhat useful, but if it's for increasing qi and blood, it's better to just swallow qi and blood pills directly. These breakthrough pills can be sold for hundreds of qi and blood pills, so swallowing them is really not worth it."

"What? Up to several hundred?" Xu Ling's eyes lit up. He immediately took it back, put it in a jade bottle, and stored it away. "That's definitely a good thing."

Since he doesn't need it anyway, he can just sell it in Fancheng and make a fortune.

No wonder Li Hong would use this to lure people into betraying him.

Of course, more importantly, he was quick-witted enough to take the deposit before Li Hong died; otherwise, now that Li Hong and the others are all dead, where would he find the Breakthrough Pill?

This was definitely a worthwhile investment.

"What are you Li family thinking? Why do you have to kill you? With such a wealthy family, can't you even tolerate a illegitimate son like you?" Xu Ling asked sincerely. This was indeed not what he thought of aristocratic families. Didn't Li west have talent for cultivation? Aristocratic families should have nurtured him properly. There was no need to send so many people to kill him.

Li west didn't hide anything: "The eldest master of the Li family is dead, and there's no one to inherit the main family business. I'm an illegitimate child, so do you think the second and third masters' lineages will tolerate me?"

"Tsk tsk, so why have so many children?" Xu Ling's body had an exceptionally clean background, saving him a lot of trouble: "With so many offspring, internal strife becomes inevitable."

Li west laughed and said, "Then you'll have to ask the patriarch of the Li family. Telling me won't help."

Judging from his reaction, Xu Ling felt that he didn't care about the Li family's affairs, but he didn't know if it was just his imagination.

"The person is dead, where am I supposed to ask?"

"Let's get this straight first, the Li family's affairs have nothing to do with me. After I take you to Fancheng, I should go to the Demon Suppression Division to report for duty. I have no say in your Li family."

"It's alright. The Li family's affairs have nothing to do with you. We were prepared."

Just as Li west finished speaking, a commotion came from the ruins ahead. An arm suddenly rose from the ruins and lay on the edge of the earthen slope at the edge of the peach grove.

"Huh? There are still living people?"

Xu Ling was shocked. The entire village had been razed to the ground and was now submerged by groundwater. Where could there be any living people?

Upon recognizing the person, Xu Ling couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Master Zhao!!"

"It really is you!"

Xu Ling rushed forward to help, pulling Old Zhao up from the slope. Following closely behind were Zhao's wife and two thugs.

"How did you manage to crawl out of here?"

Zhao Yi looked terrified: "Let's not say anything more, it's great to be alive."

His wife and the two thugs all had the same expression on their faces, as if they had just escaped from the brink of death.

The three of them had just come up and, disregarding the filth and etiquette, lay down and began to pant, looking as if they had just survived a disaster.

"It was terrifying. The floor above our room was hollow, and then some kind of earthquake suddenly happened, and we all fell in."

"Fortunately, there is groundwater beneath this village. A few of us were lucky enough to fall into the water and survive, while the rest of us died instantly. We followed the passageway, climbed up a broken altar, and were able to swim out of the water."

"What happened to Taoyuan Village? How did it suddenly collapse completely? Where are the villagers? And how did you all end up here? Didn't you fall into the groundwater?"

Zhao Yi had even more doubts than Xu Ling.

"you..."

"We thought you were all dead, but a few of you are still alive," Hou Le said with a smile. "It seems Chief Zhao is really lucky."

"Um?"

Although these words were unpleasant to hear, considering their current situation and the collapsed village behind them, Zhao Yi suddenly realized that they might have missed some major events.

For some reason, his first reaction was to look at Xu Ling: "Demon Slayer, you've slain another demon?"