I Possess a Scroll of Demon-Subduing Records

Xu Yan trembled all over and stammered, "I know that man. His name is Zhang Quan. He specializes in catching snakes and often sells them in the city. Those snakes are so pitiful. They stay in the mountains and haven't done anything wrong, yet they are caught and eaten. I just wanted to release the snakes. I didn't mean to kill him."

“You have a good reason and evidence. Then tell me, if you are just an ordinary farmer, why do you know how to control snakes? You don’t really think I look easy to fool, do you? Judging from your simple clothes, you shouldn’t be from a wealthy family, yet you have fair skin and delicate flesh, without any signs of hard labor.”

Come on, let me guess, are you genuinely mentally unstable and overly compassionate, or have you secretly made a shady deal with something?

Upon hearing this, Xu Yan's face turned pale.

At first, seeing how polite Lin Yi was to Zhang Quan and even paid for things out of his own pocket, he thought Lin Yi was a novice martial artist. The characteristics of such people are that they are simple, have a chivalrous heart, and are generous.

He thought that as long as he gave a reasonable reason, he could get away with it, but he didn't expect that this person would expose his secret so easily.

Faced with Lin Yi's questioning, Xu Yan couldn't say a word. Lin Yi rubbed the back of the knife and said, "I'll give you two choices. One, I'll chop you up right now. Two, take me to see your mastermind."

"The second one, I choose the second one..."

Chapter 174 Surely no one can really be that unlucky?

Xu Yan made his choice without hesitation; he dared not gamble on whether Lin Yi would kill him.

At this point, there was no need for pretense anymore. He recounted in detail how he had been entrusted by someone to take the flute to the city and play it.

Although Xu Yan claimed that this was the first time he had done something like this, Lin Yi could tell from his skillful hiding and running away that it was definitely not the first time.

Lin Yi was too lazy to argue with him. He casually took out a talisman, lit it, and stuffed the remaining ashes into Xu Yan's mouth, making him eat a mouthful of ash. Then he said, "Go back first. After eating my talisman, your life or death is in my hands. Don't try to play tricks."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yan's face immediately filled with despair.

Before he could say anything more, Lin Yi had vanished in the blink of an eye.

He had no choice but to find a bowl of water and spit out the ash in his mouth. He felt that the talisman had probably worked, otherwise why would Lin Yi let him go so easily?

At this point, they had no choice but to do as Lin Yi said.

In fact, Lin Yi didn't have any means to control life and death with a single thought. However, he had already left his aura on Xu Yan. If he wanted to find him, he could find him at any time and then physically stab him, and the result would be the same.

He let Xu Yan go back because Xu Yan said he didn't know where the mastermind lived and could only wait for the other party to come to him.

Lin Yi then decided to play the long game.

When Bao Sanniang came to Lingling to provide support, she mentioned that there was a snake demon causing trouble in Lingling County. Now that she has encountered a problem with the snake catcher's snake, doesn't that connect the dots?

Since there's a snake demon here, he's come to the right place.

As long as it's not the demon king hiding in Cangwu Mountain that jumps out, Lin Yi isn't afraid of other demons. Even if the demon king does come out, as long as it's not two or three attacking him at once, Lin Yi can still run away.

There are only a handful of powerful demons in the world, scattered in various locations. It's unlikely that he was so unlucky as to happen to run into the Demon King's meeting.

Meanwhile, as Lin Yi arrived in Lingling County looking for a place to settle down, Madam Poison, exhausted, returned to her cave on Spider Mountain.

She was quite tired after scraping her skin all night.

Fortunately, her opponent was only good at defense and not at pursuit, which allowed her to escape.

Madam Poison is now filled with lingering fear. She was truly enraged at the time. Slaughtering the city would not have benefited her; it was merely a way to vent her emotions. Fighting with that tortoise-shell-like Taoist Guishan was pointless. If she couldn't hurt him, she could have just left. Instead, she wasted so much of her power.

If someone were to take advantage of the situation and try to harm her, she might be in danger.

Returning to the Spider Mountain cave from a state of high tension, she naturally relaxed quickly. But as soon as she stepped into the cave, the entire cave suddenly lit up, and countless runes were linked together, like chains, encircling her inside.

Madam Poison immediately sensed something was wrong. This was her cave, and someone had set up a formation on it. Someone was plotting against her!

That's incredibly audacious!

However, she was extremely weak at the moment. When she fought with Guishan Daoren, she was injured by the backlash. She didn't realize it at first, but when the fight ended, she realized that while she was attacking Guishan Daoren, he was also reflecting some of his power back into her body, but he just kept it hidden.

She realized that the situation had accumulated to a certain extent, but it was too late. She could only flee in panic. Unexpectedly, when she got home, there was another plan.

The fact that the calculations were so precise suggests that someone had been plotting against her from the very beginning.

But by now she realized it was no use. The golden runes forming a chain kept wrapping around her. The Poison Lady tried to pass through the chains, but was thrown back by the enormous force of the recoil.

She used all her strength to try to break the chains, but unfortunately, she hadn't yet neutralized the power of the Taoist Guishan within her body. Her punches landed on the chains like tickling an itch.

The chains drew ever closer, finally binding the Poison Lady into a shameful position. Only then did someone emerge from the cave and place a talisman on the Poison Lady's head...

……

Northern Xuzhou, Zhongli County.

This was an important border city of the Great Qi, guarding against the Northern Wei. It could advance to form a pincer movement with Qingzhou, Jizhou, and Yanzhou, and capture the three prefectures of Xiapi, Huaiyang, and Lintong. It could also retreat to rely on the natural barrier of the Yangtze River.

The King of Liang, who held considerable military power, stationed his troops here and repeatedly refused orders to return to the capital under the pretext of guarding the Northern Wei.

Half of this land belongs to the King of Liang, and the half he controls is the half in the north that commands a large army.

The emperor's half of the territory consists of the south, which has virtually no troops. If the King of Liang were to march south directly, the emperor probably wouldn't be able to withstand the attack for more than three days.

But King Liang didn't make a move; he was waiting.

Everything must have a just cause. If an army is raised without a just cause, many people will not submit to it. The Southern Dynasty cannot withstand too much turmoil. The enemy in the north has always been eyeing it covetously. Although it has been declining in recent years, an old wolf that is pretending to sleep still has the ability to hunt its prey.

At this moment, another urgent secret letter appeared on King Xiao Zhao's desk. Xiao Zhao opened the letter and saw a line of small characters written on it: "The Crown Prince will return to Xingsha soon. I suspect his sworn brother Lin Yi, so I will take his place and observe him secretly."

"This Dark Demon is getting more and more fond of acting on his own initiative."

As Xiao Zhao spoke, he casually crushed the letter in his hand into dust, then picked up a small note and wrote back: "The bait has been fully inserted. Wait for the bamboo to rise, and you may act accordingly."

They summoned the messenger eagle, stuffed the paper into its mouth, and then released it into the air.

The cloud eagle soared into the blue sky with a whooshing cry, heading straight south. By dusk, it had reached Lingling. As it flew over Cangwu Mountain, a burst of energy suddenly shot into the blue sky, bringing down the hidden cloud eagle.

Inside the cave, Bai Lianxian's tone suddenly turned sharp: "Cang Yu! You dare to defile my home, I'll poison you to death!"

After she roared, a sharp gust of wind blew the fallen cloud eagle away.

"Hmph, it's such a trivial matter, why make such a fuss?"

The man opposite Bai Lianxian was a cold and arrogant one, who retorted to Bai Lianxian.

He is the Azure Feather Demon King, one of the nine great demon kings. His true form is an azure eagle, and he despises eagles enslaved by humans the most.

In his view, eagles are inherently noble, proud, and look down upon the world, which is why they are considered outstanding eagles!

They caught a cloud eagle and killed it.

But Bai Lianxian was genuinely angry, and roared, "What do you mean 'small matter'? Would you be happy if such an ugly thing died in your house?!"

What a jerk! He has no manners whatsoever as a guest. He's not allowed in next time.

The woman on the other side, who seemed a bit gentler, quickly advised, "Alright, both of you, don't be angry. We're here to discuss important matters, not to argue over such trivial things."

Bai Lianxian calmed down a bit and said, "Sure enough, good-looking people are more pleasant to talk to."

Now the Azure Feather Demon King was displeased. He was most confident in his looks and angrily said, "I am exceptionally handsome, unparalleled in the world. How can you two ugly women compare to me?"

Very well, you've offended two people at once.

That kind-faced woman was of course also a demon king, and she was no ordinary person. Not only was she a demon king, but she was also the patriarch of all the fox clans in the world. Her name was Yan Qingqiu. It is said that she was born with a spirit and was entrusted by the fox clan with the great hope of restoring the ancient Qingqiu Kingdom.

The fox clan is known for its beauty and allure, but Yan Qingqiu has cultivated to the point where she has a holy appearance. Even when Cang Yu called her ugly, she did not change her expression and still smiled kindly, saying, "The three of us belong to three different clans, and there is no need to argue about our different views. Let's talk about the disappearance of Jin Lin and Du Xie now!"

With two of the nine demon kings gone, the other demon kings were somewhat uneasy.

At first, they thought it was just Jin Lin who was missing, since it was Jin Lin who sent the distress message, so everyone naturally paid more attention to Jin Lin and overlooked the equally silent Poison Scorpion. Later, when the matter of the Demon Emperor's Secret Realm came to light, they naturally stopped thinking about it.

It wasn't until Yan Qingqiu suddenly realized that Liusha Valley was closest to Tongtian River and that Poison Scorpion might have a chance to provide support that he called for Poison Scorpion, only to find that Poison Scorpion was also missing.

Now, even the demon kings were not calm.

Of course, there are more than nine demon kings in the world. Not all demon kings like fighting and killing. Many of them hide in deep mountains and forests or in pools of water, making it impossible to find them.

This kind of demon is also relatively gentle and doesn't fight with the world; it will never leave the mountain.

There are seven demon kings on the surface, but the human race still has ten first-rank demon kings. If a war breaks out, wouldn't the demon race definitely lose?

What's even more frightening is that all the demon kings said they encountered a first-class demon blocking their way, and each of them encountered something different. So the question is, what exactly happened to Poison Scorpion and Golden Scale? Is all of this because of the Demon Emperor's Secret Realm?

Under these circumstances, Yan Qingqiu and the Demon King Cangyu secretly came to Bai Lianxian's cave on Cangwu Mountain to discuss the matter.

It's definitely not acceptable for the Demon King to make a grand entrance, but it wouldn't be difficult to meet him secretly.

The secret method consumes a lot of energy, so it's impossible to keep using it to contact each other. It's better to meet in person so that we can act together.

This meeting of the three demons was also planned.

Too many demon kings gathering would cause too much commotion, which would surely alert the human race. But if there were too few people, they might not be able to handle the crisis. That's why this combination of a snake, a fox, and an eagle came about.

Yan Qingqiu is the team's intellectual backbone and also a peacemaker. If it weren't for her, Cang Yu and Bai Lianxian might have died first today.

When it came to serious matters, Bai Lianxian and Cang Yu both put aside their tempers and took their seats.

This made Yan Qingqiu seem a bit like the master of this place. But now is not the time to be particular about such things. Bai Lianxian shared her thoughts: "The day before yesterday, the Poison Spider came to me and said she wanted to catch someone. I don't know if she caught anyone or not."

I think she definitely knows more about the Demon Emperor's Secret Realm than we do.

"Whether the news about the Demon Emperor's Secret Realm is a trap set by humans or is real, we cannot be sure at the moment. Perhaps we should go and find the source."

"Arrest Wang Jinxuan?"

Bai Lianxian's words contained a hint of refusal. She already had Madam Poison under control, so she could simply sit back and enjoy the fruits of her labor; there was no need for her to go out and make a fuss.

A beautiful demon must have a clever mind.

Yan Qingqiu shook his head and said, "When a person blends into the crowd, it's like a raindrop falling into the world. It's too difficult to find them. Besides, Madam Poison is not the source. The real source is the secret itself."

"Whoever spread the news first, we'll go find them first, follow the clues, and we'll eventually find the truth..."

Chapter 175 Fishing Master Lin Yi

Lin Yi was unaware that the three great demon kings were having a meeting in the mountains at that moment. Under the cover of darkness, he sneaked into Xu Yan's village and hid there.

He Dong and Xiao Cao have already been settled in the city by Lin Yi. This time, Lin Yi did not bring his family along. He gave Wang Er, Li Yi and others different instructions, telling them to find ways to hide in the city and absolutely not to expose that they were members of the Jingtian Sect.

Because Chen Lin seemed the most clever, Lin Yi appointed him as the deputy altar master, in charge of the appropriate size of the hidden forces.

We'll deal with the follow-up matters after we've gone into hiding.

In fact, Lin Yi wanted to break them up so that they could adapt to their new lives. They could help each other and lie low for a while. When they had the ability to make a living, they could choose to go home or live alone, it was up to them.

After settling these trivial matters, Lin Yi finally got to do his own thing. The bait had already been released, and it was time to cast his line.

He didn't expect Xu Yan to obediently help him, so he decided to do it himself.

Since the other party has contacted Xu Yan before, they will likely do it again.