Holy Maiden, wait a minute. Why are you asking me to cultivate again?

The two demon-slaying officers focused their gazes on Song Zhao, who was dressed in plain clothes and was fifty-six years old.

"Get lost! If you ruin my plans, I'll kill you!"

The captain who was closer used his magic as a pen to write a sentence in the air.

Song Zhao grinned, and instead of stopping, he walked faster and faster.

This puzzled the two captains, who cautiously scanned Song Zhao with their divine senses.

"At the fourth level of Qi Refining, he must be an old, independent cultivator in the mountains. He probably doesn't have much money on him."

"Hmph, does this old scoundrel think we're ordinary people? He dares to keep coming up?"

"Kill him quickly, without making a sound."

The two captains communicated using their divine senses, and with just a few words, they could determine whether a person was alive or dead.

"Then die!"

A captain produced a poisoned dagger and threw it in the blink of an eye, aiming it at Song Zhao's neck!

Even to a layman, this move is a direct attack on vital points, capable of taking a life.

But in Song Zhao's eyes, who possessed the Golden Elixir Eye, it was a trivial skill, not worth mentioning.

He simply turned slightly to the side to dodge the poisoned dagger, then took a thrusting step, covering more than ten meters, and arrived in front of the captain.

"Wow, that's fast!"

The captain was shocked and was about to raise his hand to resist when suddenly an old hand struck his neck and lifted him up.

"What were you writing in the air just now?"

"I'm old, my eyesight isn't good, and I can't see clearly."

Song Zhao's eyes remained calm and composed as he casually snapped the captain's neck.

"You dare kill him? Do you know who we are?"

Another captain, sweating profusely, drew his demon-slaying sword with a swift motion: "We are captains of the Demon-Slaying Division of the Crescent Moon Dynasty!"

"Aren't you afraid the imperial court will use the Life Lamp to hunt you down?"

Song Zhao said "Oh," and then laughed, "I'm most afraid of being threatened. You have a life lamp, right?"

He took out the Heavenly Demon Pearl from his pocket and immediately refined the captain at his feet into the Heavenly Demon Pearl.

"Demonic cultivator! You are a member of the demonic path!"

Upon seeing this, the other captain's pupils dilated in shock, and he inwardly screamed for his legs to give way!

If you encounter a demonic cultivator who commits murder, you won't even have the chance to be reincarnated, let alone have the Crescent Moon Dynasty use the Life Lamp to find the murderer.

"So what if they're followers of the demonic path?"

Song Zhao strode over: "It's still better than you hypocrites."

"I'm just passing through, and you want to kill me? You're more demonic than demons."

The captain held his sword in both hands, imbuing it with magical power: "We are here to rid the people of this scourge, and it is you who are disturbing us..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was struck by another demon-slaying sword and cleaved in two.

"Stop being so noisy, come into my Heavenly Demon Pearl."

The magic orb flashed and gathered another bit of energy.

"roar!"

The silverback bear inside the cave was awakened by the noise from the outside and charged out aggressively.

This monster was five meters tall, with silver needles covering its back, and its cultivation level was roughly between the seventh and eighth levels of Qi Refining.

"It's a late-stage Qi Refining demon beast."

Song Zhao weighed the demon-slaying sword in his hand and found it to be quite useful: "You killed two captains, and then I killed you. That can be considered helping the Crescent Moon Dynasty."

Three minutes later.

Outside the cave, Song Zhao, covered in blood, pulled out the Heavenly Demon Pearl and refined the Silverback Bear's corpse into it.

"They're really thick-skinned and tough."

Song Zhao washed himself, changed his clothes, and noticed that there were two more lines on the beads.

"As expected, we still have to kill beings with high cultivation levels."

"Both captains and the bear demon are in the late stage of Qi Refining... If we kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator, we might be able to go from having no patterns to having two patterns directly."

Song Zhao muttered to himself as he began sorting through the spoils of war.

The entire silverback bear has been refined into the Heavenly Demon Pearl. There's not much to say about it. Bear bile is the essence, and if the bear bile is removed, the Heavenly Demon Pearl probably won't be able to accumulate that much energy.

Each of the two captains had a storage bag containing a total of over two thousand spirit stones.

"He's really fat; no wonder he's a 'good official' who preys on the people."

"Huh, what's this?"

Song Zhao discovered a stack of booklets, which contained a list of the Xuanzhou Demon Slaying Division.

He flipped through the booklet, trying to find the name of the governor of Xuanzhou's son.

Unfortunately, it's not on there.

"Indeed, sixty years have passed. That young master has probably been transferred to a more prosperous place."

"Moreover, the names of high-ranking officials may not be included in the booklet."

Song Zhao burned the list to ashes and found a booklet inside.

"Wow, there are quite a few people from the Xuanzhou Demon Slaying Division."

As he continued flipping through the roster, one name struck him like a jolt.

"Bai Chenyin, how come she's on this list?"

Song Zhao frowned and looked at the positions on his left:

"A general?!"

The Demon Slayer Bureau has a strict hierarchy. Starting from the Demon Slayer Envoy, one needs to achieve real merit to advance in the ranks.

In theory, there shouldn't be more than three people holding the position of Demon Slayer General in the entire Xuanzhou.

Bai Chenyin was his lover from sixty years ago; he never expected that she would become such a prominent figure.

"Is this your reason for abandoning me and marrying the governor's son?"

Song Zhao couldn't help but feel a little sad. After thinking about it, he decided to keep the list.

Bai Chenyin was ultimately his white moonlight, the first woman in his life.

"I'll meet you if I have the chance."

Song Zhao sighed, cleaned up the surroundings, and continued searching for Qi-refining demons.

That night.

After killing several more Qi Refining demons, Song Zhao was a little tired and leaned against a big tree, preparing to rest for a while.

Although killing demons isn't tiring, running around all day, and since he can't fly, gets tiring.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, he suddenly heard a wolf howl in the distance.

"Awoo~~~"

Wolf demon!

Song Zhao was wide awake and immediately looked in the direction of the wolf howling with his Golden Core Eye.

About five or six miles away, a pack of ferocious wolves were worshipping the moon and absorbing its essence.

"These wolf demons can actually cultivate?"

Song Zhao's heart sank, realizing that the promotion mission was indeed a promotion mission, and it was extremely troublesome.

Logically speaking, low-level demons do not cultivate.

Only great demons at the Golden Core stage can gain sentience, transform into human form, and begin to cultivate like humans.

"That alpha wolf is probably a Foundation Establishment stage ferocious demon!"

Song Zhao looked into the distance and saw that the alpha wolf was even bigger than a tiger, and its whole body exuded a bloodthirsty aura.

Most notably, the alpha wolf has a third eye on its forehead, which is constantly turning and absorbing the demonic energy from the pack.

"It's actually cultivating by relying on the wolf pack; it's practically become a spirit!"

After hesitating for a moment, Song Zhao still did not use the jade slip to speak to Lin Shuangwan.

If the other party comes over, it will not only affect his use of the Heavenly Demon Pearl, but he might also be a burden.

After all, she was only at the eighth level of Qi Refining, and couldn't deal with a Foundation Establishment level demon.

"But with my abilities, I'm afraid it's a bit risky."

"Senior Heavenly Demon Pearl, how about giving me some advice?" Song Zhao asked the witch first, to see if she could lend a hand.

The witch yawned: "Greed is insatiable. If you can't finish it, then don't eat it."

"Senior, we members of the Demonic Sect are not greedy. Do you still want to cultivate demonic arts?"

The witch laughed and said, "Hehehe, you have a point. Doesn't the Heavenly Demon Pearl have two lines?"

"Why don't you sacrifice yourself to become stronger? That will give you a better chance of winning."

Song Zhao certainly didn't want this answer. He whispered, "Senior, what I mean is, could you please help?"

The witch said flippantly, "Tsk tsk, you old rascal, you think about quite a lot."

"If you want my power, you can. Just come to the Heavenly Demon Pearl, find me, and sleep with me."