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

After the rat demon finished telling his story, the remnant soul spoke up: "Now, you may ask your questions!"

Upon hearing this story, everyone felt there were many suspicious points.

The first to ask a question was Master Qingfeng, whose tone carried a hint of doubt.

"I've never heard of this kind of insect demon before!"

"May I ask? What does it look like?"

When questioned, the rat demon calmly replied, "Extremely ugly!"

"His body was bloated, like a pile of fat, with many tentacles wriggling all over his body, which was extremely disgusting."

Master Yunbai followed up with a question: "According to you, the insect demons come by feeding on the sect's disciples. If this continues for a long time, how many people will be left in the sect?"

"If someone disappears for an extended period, don't the other disciples in the sect have any suspicions?"

The rat demon slowly replied, "No one doubted it! Because at that time, the sect I belonged to was a major sect!"

"The sect has tens of thousands of disciples, divided into several peaks, each with its own peak master!"

"The sect recruits a large number of disciples over a long period, then selects those who are neither outstanding nor mediocre from among them, sending them to participate in certain trials—in reality, to feed the insect demons!"

"Then they announced to the public that they had perished in the secret realm trial!"

"These disciples already have a very low profile within the sect, unlike the menial disciples who are needed to do chores everywhere!"

"They don't seem like those exceptionally talented disciples who are an important force in the sect."

"These mediocre disciples are not only numerous, but also easy to control."

Faced with this explanation, Master Yunbai frowned slightly, clearly still somewhat doubtful.

Old Sheep then asked, "Since the Blood Essence Pearls crafted by the insect demons are so miraculous, shouldn't the sect properly raise them? Why torture them?"

"What if they accidentally die from the torture? Wouldn't that be a complete waste?"

The rat demon frowned slightly upon hearing this, pondered for a moment, and then slowly replied, "I'm also very puzzled by what you're saying. After all, shortly after I discovered this secret, my whereabouts were also discovered, and I was too busy trying to save my own life to have any time to care about this."

"I'd like to ask..." the crow then asked, "How did you escape? I've also infiltrated human cultivation sects before, and I know that the larger the sect, the tighter its defenses."

"You just said that your sect is very large. If that's the case, the protective formations should be layered on top of each other. How could a low-level demon rat like you possibly escape from being chased?"

Faced with this question, the rat demon sighed and said, "I almost succeeded in stealing the Blood Essence Pearl, but I was discovered by the guarding disciple."

"To save my life, I had no choice but to drop the bead and crawl into a mouse hole to hide!"

"But this angered the sect's higher-ups, who led a large number of disciples to exterminate the rats throughout the sect!"

"Many of my kin, who hid with me in the sect, have perished!"

"I was the only one who hid in the deepest part of the rat hole for three whole months, surviving only on the food I had stored up in my mouth!"

"After the turmoil subsided a bit, I seized the opportunity and chose to slip away slowly at night when there were fewer people around, and that's how I escaped down the mountain."

After the four people finished asking their questions, only Gou An remained to ask one.

At this moment, everyone's eyes were focused on Gou An, wanting to see if he could ask any targeted questions.

Then Gou An asked, "What was the name of the sect you were in back then?"

The rat demon answered, "Heavenly Star Sect!"

This question disappointed everyone.

Since the rat demon's story did not mention the sect's name, it meant that he could not lie about this issue, nor was it important to him.

But now that the questions had been asked, everyone could only ponder the truth of the story, and their gazes returned to the rat demon, trying to see through it.

However, the rat demon was very resilient and did not show any weakness under the gaze of the crowd.

"The Q&A session is over. Voting is now open," the remnant soul in mid-air announced.

Then everyone raised their hands.

Gou An looked around and saw that most people had chosen to raise their left hands, concluding that the rat demon had lied.

Only Gou An and Lao Yang raised their right hands, believing that he was telling the truth.

This story overlaps with Gou An's previous experiences and confirms many of Gou An's previous guesses about the mother insect.

Only if the rat demon's words are true can Gou An's many doubts be completely resolved.

Gou An didn't know why the old sheep chose to raise its left hand, but it wasn't important.

As the voting concluded, the remnant soul spoke: "Voting is over! Xu Gu Zi, you yourself tell everyone whether what you just said is true or false."

Seeing everyone's choices, Xu Guzi suddenly sighed with relief.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't lying!"

Upon hearing this, Old Sheep was overjoyed.

Master Qingfeng, Master Yunbai, and Crow all looked astonished.

How could such an outrageous story be true?

Even if it were true, there are many details that are beyond the comprehension of most people.

One of the major sects used the flesh and blood of his own disciples to raise insect demons.

Not only did they force the insect demons to refine a bead they had never heard of, but they also subjected them to torture.

Are there any other sects like this in the world?

But the remnant soul did not give everyone another chance to question it. The water mirror floating in the air began to play the story told by the rat demon.

The scene unfolded exactly as the rat demon had described.

Having spent years hiding in the shadows to steal pill residue, the rat demon successfully slipped inside one day when the sect's secret formation loosened.

I witnessed firsthand the bloated insect demon imprisoned in the secret room.

The rat demon's attempt to steal a Blood Essence Pearl was discovered, and the sect began a large-scale rat extermination campaign.

Only Xu Gu Zi's true form remained hidden until the very end, escaping down the mountain only after the storm had subsided.

After the scene on the water mirror finished playing, the remnant soul waved its arm, and the number of light orbs in front of everyone changed again.

Master Qingfeng and Master Yunbai each had only two points of energy left.

The number of points for "expediency" has increased to four.

Old Sheep guessed correctly this time, increasing his strength to two points.

The rat demon successfully told the story, and also gained two points of energy.

Only the crow's mental energy has been reduced to zero!

The remnant soul looked at Crow Xuan Yuzi and then said, "Your mental energy is now completely depleted. If it's depleted again, you will be eliminated!"

The crow swallowed hard, looking nervous, and suddenly spoke up: "I have a question!"

The remnant soul asked in confusion, "Speak!"

"This ancient tower trial has long since ended; all the trials now are meaningless!"

"Why do you think so?" the remnant soul asked.

The crow replied, "You said at the beginning that the pagoda has nine levels, and at least one person will be eliminated on each level!"

"We've only made it to the third floor, but there are already only six of us left!"

"In that case, even if only one person is eliminated on each floor, we can only reach the eighth floor at most!"

"So this trial was destined to fail from the start."

Faced with the crow's questioning, the remnant soul merely smiled slightly and said, "When only one person remains, regardless of which level they are on, the trial they face will only have two outcomes!"

"Successfully climb the stairs; failure results in elimination!"

"In other words, even if there is only one person left on this floor, as long as he is smart enough, he can still challenge himself to reach the top, floor by floor."