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

Seeing Hongyue's reaction, Gou An was very satisfied and continued to boast, "You have no idea how humble he was when he knelt in front of me begging for mercy. He even kowtowed and called me grandpa."

"But Lord Jinyang is ruthless and vindictive!" Hongyue suddenly worried, "Aren't you afraid he'll find a chance to retaliate against you later?"

"I'm not afraid!" Gou An waved his hand and said, "I made him swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao that he cannot harm me, or he will be annihilated!"

"So that's how it is!" Hongyue suddenly realized.

"Also, do you know why he disappeared for more than a month?" Gou An asked with a smile.

"Going... to heal his wounds in seclusion?" Hongyue guessed cautiously.

"That's right!" Gou An nodded: "It was precisely because his injuries were too severe that he went to receive treatment, which caused this commotion in the city."

"So that's how it is!" The more Hongyue listened, the more admiring she looked at Gou An.

"Furthermore!" Gou An said with a smile, "I'll find a time to have him hand over the Scarlet Moon Pavilion back to you, and make sure he can never interfere in the pavilion's affairs again."

"I can't kill him for now, but I can return what belongs to you."

Upon hearing this, Hongyue took a deep breath with excitement and quickly asked, "Really?"

"Guaranteed authentic!" Gou An nodded: "Since you don't like to show your face, you can focus on making money behind the scenes from now on. Without the ill intentions of those lecherous ghosts, you'll have more time to concentrate on your cultivation and the things you want to do."

"Thank you, fellow Daoist!" Upon hearing this, Hongyue was so excited that she wanted to kneel down before Gou An.

Gou An quickly helped Hong Yue up, and looked her in the eye, saying with deep affection, "So from now on, you belong only to me."

Upon hearing this, Hongyue's cheeks flushed, and her face was filled with deep affection.

Gou An swallowed hard, then pulled Hongyue into his arms and said with a wicked grin, "I'm going to have an extra meal today."

By the time Gou An came out of Feiyue Tower, it was almost dark.

The entrance to the newly opened Scarlet Moon Pavilion was already packed with all sorts of monsters, and business was still booming.

Gou An slipped away silently through the back door, this time without supporting his back, and walked briskly.

As his cultivation level improved step by step, Gou An's physical fitness also increased.

Especially now that he is about to condense his golden core, his body is full of energy.

When Gou An left, Hong Yue was too tired to get up and see him off, so she could only wave goodbye to Gou An from her bed.

Upon returning to his residence, Gou An immediately went into the alchemy room, closed the door, and took out the map that Xuan Kongzi had given him.

After staring at the map for a long time, Gou An seemed to remember something, and then took out the animal hide map he had bought on the black market.

The two maps were then unfolded and placed side by side for comparison.

The markings on that animal hide map were already blurred and indistinct. Although it was unclear what was drawn on it, it vaguely resembled the map markings of the Monster Mountain Range.

Through Gou An's continuous comparison and analysis, it can be determined that the animal skin map is not a complete map of the Monster Mountain Range, but only a part of the Monster Mountain Range, which may record the location of a certain secret realm.

Unfortunately, the traces were indeed blurred and unclear, and no matter how long I looked, I couldn't figure out what was going on.

Then Gou An took out the bone staff he had obtained from the Blackwater Domain. As long as he poured a little demonic energy into it, the bone staff would emit a blood-red ghostly light.

This thing is an evil artifact that can absorb soul power to enhance the power released by magical treasures.

Just like when Gou An was spying, that evil cultivator used this item to absorb the souls of his accomplices, and then unleashed even more powerful moves.

Furthermore, after Gou An examined it, he discovered that the bone staff had absorbed a large number of souls.

The majority of them are the souls of mortals, while the rest are the souls of various cultivators.

As soon as he tried to use it, Gou An could hear the screams of those wronged souls, as if they were imprisoned in hell and being repeatedly tortured.

Gou An couldn't bear to hear these sounds, so he quickly let go, feeling a throbbing pain in his meninges.

This object reminded Gou An of something like the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which operates on the same principle.

Unfortunately, although this item is powerful, one dares not use it, as a slight mishap could easily lead to demonic possession.

So Gou An quickly put the item away again, and shuddered at the thought of the screams of the souls he had just heard.

As for the recipe for the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, Gou An looked at it for a long time before finally calling out Liu Dayong and handing him the copied list of ingredients.

He then said, "I'm giving you a new task: find the spiritual materials on the list in the Heavenly Palm Map. The year doesn't matter, just the correct variety. Also, cultivate a few more spiritual fields specifically for growing the spiritual materials listed."

"Yes!" Liu Dayong quickly bowed.

"Furthermore!" Gou An said, "The spiritual liquid in the Jade Lotus Bottle is limited each day. From now on, ordinary materials will be planted normally, and only those spiritual materials on the list will be nurtured with spiritual liquid."

"Rest assured, Daoist Master!" Liu Dayong nodded emphatically.

"Oh, right, here you go!" Gou An said, taking out a storage bag and handing it to Liu Dayong: "There are 100,000 low-grade spirit stones in here. You can take them in to reward those who are diligent. You can decide how many to give out and how many to keep on your person."

"Yes!" Liu Dayong took the storage bag, slightly excited.

"Alright, go back now. Just remember what I told you!" After saying this, Gou An waved his hand and put Liu Dayong back into the picture.

The reason Gou An chose to keep Liu Dayong in the Palm Heaven Map was because Liu Dayong was more reliable.

Unlike Pigsy, who, despite being a good worker, was impulsive and lacked control over the overall situation.

With nothing else to do, Gou An took out a spirit stone, sat cross-legged on the futon, and began a new round of cultivation.

After a night of cultivation, Gou An's demonic power increased by more than 30,000.

Breaking through to the Golden Core stage requires nine million demonic power, which means it will take about ten months.

Just as Gou An was feeling a bit tired, he pushed open the door to the courtyard and found a spot where he could get some sun to lie down and rest when he suddenly heard a sound.

Upon opening his eyes, he was surprised to see Bai He, the messenger from the Demon King's side.

"Master Gou, it's been a long time!" The white crane landed, its wings automatically transforming into hands, and it sat down beside him as if they were old friends.

"The White Messenger!" Gou An perked up and hurriedly asked, "What brings you here so suddenly?"

"The Queen Consort has taken all six pills you gave the King yesterday!" Bai He said, taking out a piece of paper from his bosom and handing it to Gou An. "The six pills can alleviate the pain to varying degrees, but the effects are all mediocre, and the pain is still excruciating."

"The paper describes the different effects of different medications; you can re-refine it based on that."

Gou An took the paper, looked at the description on it, and frowned slightly.

Bai He's words were rather subtle, but judging from the description, these six pills actually had no effect. They only had a slight pain-relieving effect for a moment after being swallowed and the medicine dissipated, but the pain would recur immediately afterward.

But Gou An's six self-developed formulas were all modified from Gu Dan's formulas. Even if they couldn't completely relieve the pain, they certainly wouldn't be completely ineffective.

Then there is only one possibility: the reason why Princess Yunyao has a headache is not because her soul has not been fully repaired, but something else.

"Also!" Bai He suddenly said, "I came to see you because there's something else I wanted to discuss."

"Please speak, Messenger Bai!" Gou An snapped out of his daze and quickly replied.

"It's about the spirit smoke." Bai He smiled meaningfully.

"What's wrong with the spirit smoke?" Gou An asked.

"Production! We're producing too little right now, not enough to meet demand!" Bai He exclaimed, his voice trembling with excitement.

"This!" Gou An's lips twitched. Currently, more than 70% of the monsters in the Palm Heaven Map are planting spirit tobacco to make spirit smoke, and the production has already reached its maximum.

"You have no idea!" Bai He continued excitedly, "This spirit smoke is not only popular in our Ten Thousand Demon City, but it is also very popular in the human cultivation world. I can't even count how many sect cultivators have tried to buy it through connections."

"And most importantly, they're giving us spirit stones!"

After hearing this, Gou An was no longer so affected.

After all, I'm already a multi-millionaire, and I really don't want to waste my energy on these things anymore.

So he said, "But we really don't have many raw materials left. The new ones have only just been planted. I also need to refine some for the princess, so I really can't spare the time."

"Why not just buy more demon slaves?" Bai He said urgently. "If you don't have time, I do. I can help you. You can just sit back and collect spirit stones."

After Bai He finished speaking, he looked at Gou An expectantly, waiting for his answer.

"If I give it all to you, how much will I get?" Gou An asked curiously.

"Based on my current estimates!" Bai He calculated with his fingers and slowly said, "As long as you let me manage your spirit fields, you can refine the spirit herbs for me after they grow, and I will be responsible for selling them."

"I can easily earn two or three hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones a month!" Bai He said. "And most importantly, these spirit smokes aren't sold in the Ten Thousand Demon City; they only pass through my hands, so there's no need to give any to the Cangxuan Protectorate."

Gou An became somewhat interested after hearing this. As long as he didn't have to do those tedious little things himself, earning an extra few hundred thousand spirit stones every month seemed pretty good.

Moreover, with this income, it won't be long before I can launder the tens of millions of spirit stones I've stolen, which is also a benefit.

However, besides these, a very serious problem began to trouble Gou An.

That means you have too many spirit stones and nowhere to use them!

Absorbing a hundred or so spirit stones a day is enough for me; I can't even absorb ten thousand spirit stones in a month.

Even if he gritted his teeth and managed to absorb 20,000 spirit stones a month, he wouldn't be able to use them all up; in fact, he would accumulate more and more.

Is this the trouble of the rich?

that's nice!

"How is it?" Bai He asked quickly when he saw Gou An staring blankly. "This is a very profitable business."

"Alright!" Gou An came to his senses: "The entire Spirit Tobacco Duling Field outside the city will be handed over to the White Messenger, and I will provide the seeds."

"It's a deal!" Bai He smiled happily, as if he could already see mountains of spirit stones beckoning to him.