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

Song Zhao was speechless. Pretending not to hear the witch's voice, he jumped to the mountain wall on the other side of the river.

Inside the mountainside, the boatman, covered in blood, rose from the rubble, his heavy breathing laced with bloody saliva.

"Xu Sanshan sent me to kill you; we have no grudge against each other!"

"If you spare my life, I can lure Xu Sanshan here for you. Together, we can kill him!"

Song Zhao chuckled: "I can kill him even without you."

With a flick of his finger, the flying sword pierced the boatman's forehead, piercing his head and leaving a gaping, bloody hole.

The Heavenly Demon Pearl appeared in his hand and quietly refined the boatman's physical body and soul.

Song Zhao picked up the storage bag from the boatman's body. Inside was a sword technique book called "Black Flame Sword Technique." It was probably a family secret technique, not a technique from the Demon Slayer Bureau.

After erasing the boatman's traces from the world with a fire, Song Zhao came to the boatwoman's corpse.

It was still refined in an instant.

When the Crimson Demonic Qi refined by the boatwoman entered the Heavenly Demon Pearl, a third demonic pattern appeared on the surface of the pearl.

The boat girl's storage bag contained nothing noteworthy except for some spirit stones and some women's undergarments and trousers.

"Tsk tsk, why are you in such a hurry? I've already seen it, that woman is still a virgin. Why not take advantage of the situation while it's still going strong?" the witch complained.

After counting the number of spirit stones he had, Song Zhao replied, "Senior, I don't have that kind of hobby."

"Preferences? What preferences? This is called cultivation, don't you understand?" The witch's voice was filled with doubt: "Oh, I see. You humans definitely can't accept a headless girl. You're so hard to please."

Song Zhao felt a chill run down his spine: "Senior, aren't you a human?"

"Of course I'm not human, I'm a demon, old man, can't you tell?"

The witch revealed two sharp fangs, and a playful tail grew from her back: "We demons aren't picky eaters. We can sleep with even headless girls."

Song Zhao felt ashamed. After putting away his things, he went to the riverbank and took out the red jade water bottle.

As soon as I bent down, the water ripples on the red jade bottle suddenly came to life, and began to absorb the 'qi' from the river, flickering intermittently.

The water rippled in the bottle more than ten times before stopping, indicating that the river's energy had been completely collected.

Looking through the bottle opening to the bottom, Song Zhao discovered that there was only a tiny bit of "Red Jade Dew" inside, less than half a drop.

"This river is too small; it can't gather much of the essence of a great river."

"I'll go to that big river outside Tianwu Market; I'm sure I can refine several drops of 'Crimson Jade Dew' there!"

He put away the red jade bottle and walked towards Tianwu Market.

The market was still bustling, as if the Blood Demon Cult attack had never happened. The rogue cultivators haggled over prices, and the disciples of the minor sects walked together. It was just that some of the cultivators who died back then had been replaced by other cultivators, and a few shops had simply changed their signs.

"That's how cultivation works. In Xuanzhou, with its hundreds of millions of people, who cares who lives or dies?"

As Song Zhao walked through Tianwu Market, he sighed inwardly.

After passing through a shadowy area, he changed his appearance, put on a mask, and wandered around before finally arriving at an old shop where the restrictions could be broken.

Those who break through restrictions are called Restriction Breakers, who are derived from Weapon Refiners. Their method is to break through the restrictions on various magical artifacts and spiritual weapons to make a living.

The items that were most frequently broken were storage bags and storage rings.

"What does Your Excellency wish to break the taboo on?"

Upon entering the shop, a curtain immediately obscures the barrier-breaker behind it.

Song Zhao glanced inside and was surprised to find that the voice of the barrier-breaker in this shop was male, but it was actually a woman.

Masters who break through barriers usually don't show their faces, but that doesn't stop Song Zhao from using his Golden Core Eye to see through the curtain.

"Two storage rings."

Song Zhao displayed the storage rings of the two young masters of the Du family.

The female barrier-breaker took the two storage rings, glanced at them, and smiled, saying, "The restrictions on these two storage rings are extremely profound."

"There are very few barrier-breaking masters in the entire Xuanzhou who can break this barrier. Luckily, you ran into me."

Song Zhao nodded: "How many spirit stones?"

The Du family is a family of Golden Core cultivators, so the storage rings of their two direct descendants must have many restrictions, and the level of these restrictions must be quite high.

"One ring costs five hundred spirit stones. If you want two, I'll give you a discount, nine hundred spirit stones."

The barrier-breaker behind the curtain spoke slowly.

"So much?" Song Zhao clearly hadn't expected that two storage rings would cost nine hundred spirit stones.

But thinking about the good stuff inside, he gritted his teeth and paid nine hundred spirit stones.

"alright."

In a short while, the restrictions on the two storage rings were lifted.

Even Song Zhao, who was watching the lifting of the restriction using the Golden Core Technique, was somewhat bewildered.

Was I scammed?

Just now, the other party simply placed the two rings in their hand, tapped them a few times with their fingers, and the restrictions on them were broken.

He hesitantly took the storage ring and first examined its contents.

Unsurprisingly, the Du brothers were incredibly wealthy, possessing as many as five thousand spirit stones!

In addition, there are some Foundation Establishment talismans, pills, Du family cultivation techniques, and the like. All in all, it would cost at least 10,000 spirit stones.

"Your method of breaking the restriction is quite clever?" Song Zhao asked again after discreetly putting away his storage ring.

The female barrier-breaker inside seemed quite proud, and laughed, "Of course."

"You get what you pay for!"

"In the entire Xuanzhou, there are no more than five people whose methods of breaking restrictions surpass mine!"

"And in a few years, I'm certain that no one in Xuanzhou will be better at breaking the restrictions than me."

"Don't worry, sir. I've removed all the restrictions on the ring for you, including the tracking restrictions. The original owner will definitely not be able to find you."

Perhaps fearing that Song Zhao would worry, the female barrier-breaker added another sentence.

Seeing the female master of breaking the restrictions so confidently, Song Zhao took out the cultivation technique left behind by Linghutang before his death from his storage bag.

This cultivation technique has restrictions, and the old man's last words clearly stated that the way to break the restrictions was to make a vow to the Heavenly Dao to bury his remains near some demonic sect.

"This technique also has a layer of restriction on it. See if you can break through it."

The female master of breaking restrictions asked curiously, "It's rare to find a cultivation technique with restrictions on it. Could it be a royal technique?"

"Shouldn't a barrier-breaker be kept quiet?" Song Zhao said with a faint threat.

He didn't want the origin of the cultivation technique to be known.

"Oh, sorry, I was just being nosy."

She took the manual, examined it, and then frowned deeply.

"The restrictions on this technique are quite powerful. Give me some time, and I can break them!"

Song Zhao lowered his eyes and asked, "How long?"

"Two days! Give me two days, and I'll definitely break through the restrictions on this place. And I don't want your spirit stones!"

The female barrier-breaking master seemed to be defying the restrictions on the cultivation technique, and surprisingly refused to accept any fees for breaking the restrictions.

"Two days is too long. I'll only give you one day. You want to challenge yourself, don't you, little girl?" Song Zhao smiled, staring at the face behind the curtain.

"Yes, I need to challenge myself!"

"Wait a minute? How did you know I was a girl! I clearly used a man's voice!"