Becoming a leader of the immortal path begins with sowing the seeds of inner demons.

Were you seen through?

Lu Ming immediately flashed through a series of pre-set scenarios in his mind and devised countermeasures in an instant.

Judging from the boy's actions just now, he was clearly no match for him.

But he didn't act immediately. He just asked questions. Whether he was genuinely curious or deliberately teasing him, he couldn't afford to make a move and break off the facade. He had to keep up the act no matter what.

Only by dragging it out can we find a way out.

At this moment, the boy scratched his face in confusion and continued, "There is no trace of practicing any cultivation techniques, yet the three dantian have already been opened... naturally formed through breathing exercises?"

"You came from the west?"

The boy leaned forward, took a light sniff, and denied it before Lu Ming could speak: "No, you're not human... no, you have a very faint human scent."

The boy stretched out his two small hands, covering his head with a troubled expression. Seeing Lu Ming looking at him, he pouted and said somewhat aggrievedly, "Thinking about it is giving me a headache."

What exactly are you?

"..." Lu Ming suddenly stopped panicking.

The boy in front of me looks like an immortal, but why does he speak with a bit of a simpleton's tone?

Whose expert is this?

Lu Ming didn't answer, and the boy stopped asking. He bit his finger, circled around Lu Ming in deep thought, and walked around and around again.

Lu Ming waited for a moment, and seeing that the boy ignored him, he thought for a moment and then sat down on the spot.

He knew that with the skills the boy had just displayed, let alone letting him run a few hundred meters ahead, even if he ran out of Yuhua Mansion, he would be caught in the blink of an eye.

Rather than panicking and revealing weaknesses, it's better to remain calm and observe.

"Lin Yue, you're here!" Zhou Jiangyuan's excited voice rang out from afar. "I have good news for you, we can go to Yuhua... Who is this child?"

Tongzi and Lu Ming both looked at Zhou Jiangyuan. The next second, Tongzi disappeared from his spot and appeared in front of Zhou Jiangyuan, tilting his head up and asking, "A member of the Zhou family?"

Zhou Jiangyuan was taken aback, then nodded subconsciously.

"Another pure yang physique, supreme yang consciousness... Yin-Yang Reversal Fruit?"

You found this?

The boy looked curious, and with a wave of his hand, a fruit with a jade-like luster appeared in his palm.

The boy pinched it between two fingers, looked at it against the light, and said with reminiscence, "Back then, when I first came to Yujiang Prefecture..."

"Watch out!" Lu Ming suddenly shouted.

"Be careful of what?" The boy turned around blankly, completely unaware that Zhou Jiangyuan, whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot, was kneeling and raising his arm, throwing a punch with all his might in the backlight behind him.

Boom!

Like the dull thud of a giant bell, it resounded throughout the entire Zhou residence.

Lu Ming only saw a blur fly past his eyes and crash heavily into the house across the street.

The next moment, the house collapsed with a roar, kicking up clouds of dust.

"..." Lu Ming's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, his eyes twitching slightly.

His subsequent response strategy was completely shattered by this punch.

We hadn't noticed Zhou Jiangyuan's bipolar tendencies before.

How come after the yang energy enters the spirit, one doesn't even think before acting?!

Zhou Jiangyuan maintained his punching stance, slightly out of breath. Facing the complex gaze from Lu Ming, his expression gradually returned to normal.

She valued the Yin-Yang Reversal Fruit more than her own life, and her actions were entirely instinctive.

At this moment, she realized something was wrong, but she didn't say anything. She quickly stepped forward and waved her hand, signaling Lu Ming to leave.

Lu Ming sighed inwardly, stepped forward and pressed down on Zhou Jiangyuan's shoulder, looking helpless.

Zhou Jiangyuan was taken aback, then turned his head and said in a low voice with surprise, "You don't need to do this."

Seeing this, Lu Ming knew she had misunderstood, but he was too exhausted to explain.

Run? There's no way you can escape!

The only hope now is that the Jade Flower Sect will notice what's happening here...

The thought had barely formed when Lu Ming heard countless sharp whistles piercing the air.

He looked up and saw more than a dozen streaks of light falling towards the Zhou residence.

Lu Ming's face lit up with joy. He grabbed Zhou Jiangyuan's hand and shook his head slightly at her.

He did this because he was afraid that Zhou Jiangyuan would act recklessly again, so he simply kept him by his side to nip the potential threat in the bud.

Zhou Jiangyuan was taken aback, then nodded with a complicated expression, a hint of tenderness inexplicably appearing in his eyes.

Lu Ming didn't notice Zhou Jiangyuan's change, his eyes fixed on the falling light.

As the light touched the ground and a human form appeared, Lu Ming couldn't wait to say, "It's him! He broke into the Zhou residence, wanting to..."

Ignoring Lu Ming, everyone rushed to the ruins in a panic, anxiously calling out, "Sect Master? Are you alright?"

metropolitan?!

Lu Ming was stunned.

These people are all cultivators from the Jade Flower Sect.

The sect leader they were talking about...

"That's right, I am the sect leader of Yuhua Sect, Liquan." The boy, whose forehead was still slightly red, sat on a chair in the main hall of Zhou Mansion. His clothes were still covered in dust, his feet were dangling in mid-air, and his little face was tense.

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the main hall became even more suffocating.

Lu Ming sat in the corner with Da Jin in his arms, pretending to be very interested in his toes;

Zhou Jiangyuan stood in the middle of the room, head down, silent.

From the moment Zhou Yunting entered the room, he was sweating profusely, feeling both anxious and frightened, and kept wiping his forehead.

As for the remaining members of the Zhou family, they were all kept outside by the Yu Hua Sect cultivators, anxiously awaiting the outcome.

Li Quan looked around, first glancing at Da Jin with scrutinizing eyes.

"Meow?" The big golden ears perked up instantly, and without caring whether it could be hidden or not, it crawled behind Lu Ming's legs.

Li Quan remained silent, then looked at Zhou Yunting, her tone unusually serious. "Is this how your Zhou family manages its household?"

Zhou Yunting's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly said, "Sect Master, you are wise, my daughter truly did not know."

Zhou Jiangyuan also suddenly bowed and said apologetically, "Today's events were entirely due to my impulsive actions. No matter how the sect leader decides to deal with it, I will have no complaints."

"I only beg the sect leader to have mercy and not implicate others."

"Hmph, show mercy?!" Li Quan slammed his hand on the armrest and coldly shouted, "Do you even know how serious this problem is?!"

Zhou Yunting was sweating profusely and, disregarding everything else, said in a trembling voice, "Sect Master, my daughter really didn't mean it."

She's not usually like this; I don't know what's wrong with her today... May I...may I take the blame for her?

"Take the blame for the woman?" Li Quan frowned. "Does the Yu Hua Manor have any rules left?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yunting turned ashen-faced, his vision blurred, and he looked at Zhou Jiangyuan in despair.

Zhou Jiangyuan's face turned deathly pale. He looked back at his father, then at Lu Ming, and let out a long sigh as if resigned to his fate.

Lu Ming frowned, quickly flipping through the guide in his mind.

Both emotionally and logically, he cannot remain uninvolved at this moment.

The only solution now is an exchange of benefits; there is no other way.

If a lower-level official wants to change the mind of a higher-level official, they must offer a sufficiently large benefit.

Whether it works or not, let's get through this first...

"You've kept a demon beast in your household, and you haven't even reported it to the government office!" Li Quan said discontentedly. "Don't you know that there are still many mortals living in Yuhua Mansion?"

What if you fail to keep an eye on them and the monsters run away and hurt mortals?

Have you all carefully read the precautions for cultivators in Chenzhou?

Why are you looking at me?

"There's no room for negotiation. You're fined ten low-grade spirit stones, and you have three days to register this cat demon at the government's spirit beast office, plus a year's worth of fees... You're the master, aren't you?"

Zhou Jiangyuan stared blankly, and when he saw Li Quan looking at him, he subconsciously shook his head.

A moment later, Lu Ming raised his hand with a blank expression.

"It wasn't you." Li Quan scratched her face a little embarrassed. "Then you shouldn't have stood in the middle."

I thought it was your pet.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Ming and Zhou Jiangyuan switched places.

Li Quan's face hardened again, and he said in a deep voice, "You will attend three days of classes at the government office to learn the regulations for raising spirit beasts in Yuhua Prefecture, understand?"

Lu Ming nodded blankly.

At that moment, hearing those unfamiliar yet familiar terms, he felt as if he had traveled through time again.

Where is this? Is this still the world of cultivation?

He had long guessed that Yuhua Prefecture was a place with rules, but wasn't it a bit too rule-bound?

Or is this... the true world of cultivation?!

"Your attitude is not bad." Li Quan nodded in satisfaction, his expression softening, and continued, swinging his legs, "I'm here today because there's another matter to attend to."

That is, the right of your Zhou family to mine spirit stones.

The agreement between Zhou Changfu and me from back then has now expired.

If you want to continue mining spirit stones, you must follow the rules.

Zhou Changfu?

Upon hearing this name, Zhou Yunting was startled and looked at Li Quan, trembling as he asked, "May I ask if the Sect Master is... the founding patriarch of the Jade Flower Sect?"

"That's right, it's me." Li Quan nodded with a smile.

The other three people inside the room looked at each other in bewilderment.

Founding Patriarch of the Yuhua Sect?

Didn't he pass away peacefully?!