Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

Gou An took the so-called Demon-Slaying Pearl and tried hanging it around his neck.

Sure enough, the next second, he could feel his own demonic energy gathering towards the bead. Even if he didn't deliberately conceal his aura, the demonic energy wouldn't be released.

The effect is much better than Gou An actively hiding.

"This thing is quite amazing!" Gou An couldn't help but exclaim.

"If you can successfully lead me into the City of Ten Thousand Demons, I will be eternally grateful!" Xuan Kongzi continued.

Gou An didn't rush to agree after hearing this, but instead asked, "What kind of thanks? It's better to make things clear beforehand."

Xuan Kongzi's lips twitched slightly, then he gave an awkward smile: "I just escaped from the Locking Heaven Tower, and I don't have anything valuable on me."

"But rest assured, fellow Daoist, I am at least a Nascent Soul stage cultivator. How could I possibly mistreat you?"

"Once we enter the City of Ten Thousand Demons and pledge allegiance to the Demon King, I will give you spirit stones, magic treasures, and cultivation techniques, as long as you ask."

After listening, Gou An thought for a moment and then said, "I have another question."

Seeing this, Xuan Kongzi shook his head helplessly and said with a wry smile, "Why do you have so many questions?"

"After all, this matter is of great importance!" Gou An smiled and said, "Since you have this ring hidden, why not find a cultivator to guide you? Wouldn't that be safer?"

"Hehe!" Xuan Kongzi couldn't help but laugh after hearing this. "It's indeed safer for a human cultivator to lead the way, but what if he betrays me?"

"And since you are a demon cultivator, we are in the same boat, so there is no need to worry about your betrayal."

"Most importantly, it's not as convenient or easy for a lone cultivator to go to the City of Ten Thousand Demons as it is for you, is it?"

After hearing all of Xuan Kongzi's answers, Gou An finally chose to cooperate: "In that case, I agree."

"Alright!" Seeing Gou An agree, Xuan Kongzi finally smiled and said, "It's late tonight, fellow Daoist, you can rest in this cave tonight. Tomorrow morning, we will proceed according to the plan."

Gou An fiddled with the ring in his hand, still somewhat uneasy: "Senior, can this ring really isolate the soul imprint you mentioned?"

Xuan Kongzi stroked his beard and laughed heartily: "Of course it's true, otherwise wouldn't I be risking my life?"

"Alright!" Gou An nodded, sat down on the stone chair, and stopped asking questions.

Although he possessed a better treasure for hiding people, such as the Heavenly Map, he could not take it out at will.

Otherwise, if the other party harbors ill intentions, given the vast difference in strength, I probably wouldn't be able to defend myself, and there's no point in doing so.

into the night.

Xuan Kongzi remained seated cross-legged on the stone platform, motionless, his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing, his spiritual energy flowing slowly around him.

Unlike his calm demeanor, Gou An felt extremely uneasy.

A powerful cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage sat to the side, while the Xuan Guards searched everywhere outside.

For a demon like myself who has only recently transformed into a demon, they are all beings I cannot afford to offend.

Now we can only hope that everything goes smoothly as Xuan Kongzi said, and that we will be safe once we successfully return to the City of Ten Thousand Demons.

The human world may be nice, but it's not a place where monsters like myself can live freely.

"Fellow Daoist seems somewhat troubled!" Xuan Kongzi suddenly spoke slowly, his spiritual energy flowing more slowly, as if he had just finished a cycle of cultivation.

"The road ahead is fraught with danger, so naturally I'll think about it more." Gou An shook his head helplessly.

Xuan Kongzi chuckled softly, "Fellow Daoist, rest assured, as long as you do as I say, there won't be any major problems. Even if something does go wrong, I have a way to help us get out of this predicament."

Seeing Xuan Kongzi's confidence, Gou An took a deep breath and stopped overthinking.

"Senior, I'm very curious. How could you, a rogue cultivator, have cultivated to such a high level as the Nascent Soul stage?" Gou An asked curiously. "As far as I know, a human cultivator needs a lot of resources to reach this level! It's simply unbelievable that you don't have a major sect to rely on."

Xuan Kongzi stroked his beard and slowly said, "Anyway, nothing's going on tonight. If you want to know, I might as well tell you."

"Actually, I wasn't a rogue cultivator at first, but a disciple of a sect..."

It seemed that Xuan Kongzi had been imprisoned in the Locking Heaven Tower for too long, and now that he had someone to talk to, he opened up and recounted his past in detail.

After hearing about his life, Gou An could only give him one assessment: he was a jinx reincarnated.

As a high-grade Earth-rank spiritual root, he was initially selected by a small local sect, and with such talent, he naturally received the sect's full support.

He lived up to expectations, successfully condensing his golden core before the age of fifty, becoming the most powerful cultivator in the sect.

Just when their sect thought everything was going in a good direction, their sect was attacked and wiped out.

The reason was that Xuan Kongzi, relying on his high cultivation level, stole someone's fiancée and even made the woman humiliate him in public.

Although this person came from a small local family of cultivators, no one expected that he would have such high talent, possessing a Heavenly Rank spiritual root.

In less than five years, he caught up with Xuan Kongzi's cultivation level.

Then, dragging a large sword, he stormed the sect and single-handedly wiped out the entire sect.

Xuan Kongzi was also seriously injured, but eventually faked his death and escaped.

After his sect was destroyed, Xuan Kongzi could only travel around. Later, he was noticed by Tianfeng Sect, one of the twelve Dao Sects, and was recruited as an elder of the sect. He also took in several disciples.

However, his disciples were also unruly, relying on Xuan Kongzi's protection to bully others in the sect.

Later, during the sect competition, several of his disciples were repeatedly defeated by an inconspicuous new disciple, and it seemed they were about to lose the competition.

So Xuan Kongzi fed his only remaining disciple a forbidden drug, causing the disciple to unleash tremendous power at the competition.

Unfortunately, the power was too great, and the disciple accidentally killed the new disciple, and then unfortunately exploded and died himself.

Later, Xuan Kongzi learned that the new disciple who was beaten to death was actually a rare genius with a Heaven-rank spiritual root in the sect.

The sect wanted to punish him, so Xuan Kongzi had no choice but to fight his way out and escape.

Later, Xuan Kongzi was about to break through to the Divine Transcending Realm and urgently needed a large amount of resources for cultivation.

So he married into a family of cultivators, and ended up falling for his sister-in-law.

After his scheme was exposed, Xuan Kongzi did not flee but instead launched a preemptive strike, wiping out the entire enemy family.

Later, his reputation was ruined, so he had to change his Taoist name and appearance, and hide for more than ten years before reappearing after the storm had passed.

But Xuan Kongzi was not one to stay still after he came out; he continued to cause trouble everywhere.

Wherever he goes, something big happens.

The biggest event, of course, was that a group of cultivators discovered the entrance to a secret realm. Hundreds of cultivators came upon hearing the news and entered the secret realm together to explore.

Xuan Kongzi finally succeeded in entering the deepest part of the secret realm, but the treasure had already been obtained by someone else.

That is the legendary treasure that can extend one's life by a thousand years.

You should know that the most valuable thing in the cultivation world is lifespan, because no matter what realm you cultivate to, your lifespan is limited.

Realm cultivation takes time to accumulate, which is why many powerful beings whose lifespans are nearing their end try to prolong their lives.

Xuan Kongzi ruthlessly killed someone in order to obtain this treasure.

Furthermore, in order to cover up the news, they even annihilated the entire secret realm.

Unfortunately, no secret can be kept forever, and the news eventually leaked out, leading to a siege by the Zhixuan Guards.

After consuming the longevity treasure, Xuan Kongzi took the opportunity to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.

Therefore, he was somewhat arrogant at this time. He could have escaped from the encirclement of the Zhixuan Guards, but he insisted on being reckless and was unfortunately trapped by the pre-arranged trap array, which led to his capture.

As for how he escaped from the Locked Heaven Tower, Xuan Kongzi wasn't entirely sure at first.

However, on that day, it seemed as if the Locking Heaven Tower was attacked from the outside. Suddenly, a corner of the seemingly unbreakable Locking Heaven Tower collapsed, which gave him the opportunity to escape.

Later, I learned that it was a powerful demon from the East Sea at the Nascent Soul stage who attacked the Locked Heaven Tower, apparently to rescue a monster from inside, which caused a great commotion.

There were about a dozen evil cultivators and demon cultivators who escaped from the Locked Sky Tower together, but half of them have already been recaptured.

Upon learning the news, Xuan Kongzi could only hide in a cave, suppressing the soul imprint within his body to prevent his location from being exposed.

Xuan Kongzi happened to know a minor spell called the "Wandering Silk Attachment Technique," which allowed him to separate a wisp of his divine consciousness to reside in the small beasts and control their actions.

Xuan Kongzi was able to take this opportunity to observe the situation outside, and Gou An's appearance was also an accidental discovery by Xuan Kongzi using this method.

Xuan Kongzi spoke of these experiences lightly, but Gou An listened with a chilling dread.

This guy is no good!

But thinking about it, it makes sense. How could a good person be locked up in the Tower of Locked Heaven?

Furthermore, given how wicked this person is, is it truly trustworthy to cooperate with him?

Most importantly, this guy is unlucky wherever he goes; even in a place like the Chain Tower, he encounters a Nascent Soul level demon forcing its way in.

If we really bring him to the City of Ten Thousand Demons, the city might suffer a great disaster.

Thinking about all this, Gou An couldn't help but swallow hard, and even regretted agreeing to the cooperation.

Seeing that Gou An's expression was somewhat off, Xuan Kongzi asked, "What's wrong? It seems you're afraid after hearing about my past?"

"Uh-huh!" Gou An gave an awkward laugh and quickly denied it, "No, no!"

"It's normal to be afraid!" Xuan Kongzi laughed. "There's no future in this world if you're a good person. Only those who are ruthless enough can make it to the end."

"If someone truly adheres to the old ways and follows the rules set by those powerful beings, then they will forever remain subordinate to them."

At this point, Xuan Kongzi shook his head and gave a self-deprecating smile.

"I am merely a low-level spiritual root. The fact that I have reached my current level in five hundred years is all due to my methods."

"If it weren't for these methods, how could I have achieved such speed?"

"The path of cultivation is inherently a struggle against heaven, against earth, and against man."

"If you don't compete or fight, and you don't have a background, you'll get nothing."