Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

This time, Hu Taigu came to the territory of the Python Clan not to seek revenge, so she only went with Ning Xiu and Chang Fenghai, without bringing any other fox spirits from the Hu Clan, so as not to displease the Python Clan.

Not long after entering this dark forest, a large number of snakes suddenly appeared on the nearby trees—red, green, white, and mixed colors—it was as if we had entered a snake den.

Each snake flicked its tongue and twisted its body at Ning Xiu and the others, sending out warning signals.

The scene looked rather gruesome.

"The Python Clan Caves don't like receiving outsiders. Their shamans rarely come here on weekdays; they rely entirely on the spirits of the snake immortals for communication," Chang Fenghai explained.

Although Hu Taigu possesses the strength of a third-rank cultivator, she wouldn't easily venture into the territory of the Python Sect Cave. Today, with Ning Xiu, the Demon-Subduing Commander, as her backer, she is naturally quite confident.

She then stepped forward and said, "I had no intention of trespassing. It's just that Lord Fumowei has come here and needs to ask the Great Immortal of the Python Sect Cave to do something. Please go and inform him. I dare not keep Lord Fumowei waiting."

The snakes hissed, some turned and slithered away, while others remained where they were, raising their heads and staring intently at the intruders.

Soon, a strange wind arose from the distant mountains and forests, and a giant gray python, at least ten feet long, quickly crawled over along the ground.

Compared to other ordinary small snakes, this giant python clearly had a glint of intelligence in its eyes, proving that it possessed sentience.

"The python from Mangqiu Cave greets Lord Fumowei." Like Aunt Hu and Aunt Hu, this giant python also spoke human language.

Since Ning Xiu had seen it beforehand, he was no longer surprised.

"What brings you here today, sir? If we can be of any help, the Python Clan will certainly contribute its strength," the giant python said.

“Recently, a demon immortal has been causing trouble in Donghai Prefecture by stealing innocent children. I need your Python Clan’s Seventh Day Resurrection Technique to investigate the situation. You only need to send one of your clansmen who knows how to use the Seventh Day Resurrection Technique to go out with me.”

The giant python released a cloud of white smoke, and a young man in a robe emerged from it. He bowed and said, "I see. Then I will accompany you on this journey, sir. There is no need to look for my other clansmen."

The ability of demons to transform into humans is a symbol of the middle-level three rank. Aunt Hu and Aunt Hu can also do this, but they are used to acting in their demon forms. Unless they want to enter the mortal world to avoid attracting too much attention, they will not easily transform into humans.

"Great! Then let's not delay, we'll head out of the mountain right away." Ning Xiu nodded in agreement.

[103] The Identity of the Mountain God

Demons live much longer than humans. If Mangqiu Liu hadn't revealed it himself, Ning Xiu would never have guessed that he was actually 416 years old.

However, correspondingly, it is far more difficult for demons to cultivate than for humans.

A century of spiritual awakening, a century of wisdom, a century of cultivation, a century of minor achievement.

These are the four most difficult initial stages for a demon. Only after passing through these four stages can a demon be considered relatively powerful.

People like Mangqiu Liu and Hu Taigu belong to this stage of demons.

The ancestor of the Python Cave never comes out of the world, and snake demons like Mangqiu Liu are among the leaders within the Python Cave.

Since she was going to leave the mountains and go out to meet the people, Aunt Hu could no longer show herself in the form of a fox walking upright, as this would definitely attract a lot of attention.

So she transformed into an ordinary-looking young woman, someone who would likely go unnoticed in a crowd.

Chang Fenghai was extremely excited to suddenly be traveling with the true forms of the two great immortals, Hu Taigu and Mangqiu Liu. In the Donghai Prefecture, the status of the demon immortals was very high, and they were especially respected by the shamans.

As soon as they left the mountain, the dragon that had been waiting there saw Ning Xiu's figure and immediately ran over happily with its claws. The sight of this enormous creature immediately made the two demon immortals, Hu and Mang, pause in surprise.

To say that there is no distinction between noble and lowly among demons is also false. How can ordinary wild beasts compare to dragons? Although dragons do not have the true bloodline of those in mythology, they still possess the form and blood of dragons.

So when they saw the dragon appear, both Hu Taigu and Mangqiu Liu were surprised and puzzled as to why a dragon would appear in Donghai Prefecture.

“Don’t panic, you two. I’m familiar with this dragon,” Ning Xiu said.

Mangqiu Liu looked at the dragon with envy: "Lord Ning is truly all-powerful."

Becoming a dragon is the dream of every scaled monster. Turtles, fish, crocodiles, snakes, and others all have the opportunity to transform into dragons. As one of them, Mangqiu Liu knows that the chance of a dragon transforming into a dragon is the greatest, so he looks at it with great envy.

"Enough of that. I already had Liu Mei store Granny Ma's body in the village when I arrived. We should hurry over and perform the seventh-day resurrection ritual on Granny Ma," Ning Xiu said.

As they rode on the back of the dragon toward Liu Mei's village, they discovered thick smoke rising on the distant horizon, with pillars of fire shooting into the sky—clearly a sign of a major fire.

“That seems to be…” Chang Fenghai frowned.

"Fire! Fire!"

"Quickly, put out the fire! Why can't we put it out?"

Upon arriving at the fishing village where Liu Mei lived, one could hear a great deal of anxious shouting coming from the village. Fishermen who were not out fishing were running around with buckets of water, trying to put out the fire in the village.

However, the effect was not very obvious. The houses built of wooden planks were constantly attacked by the flames, which gradually increased the fire.

Ning Xiu didn't say much. He leaped off the dragon's back and quickly entered the village. This season was not the kind of dry weather that would cause a fire.

The sudden fire is truly bizarre. We must quickly take good care of Granny Ma's body to prevent any unforeseen events.

However, Ning Xiu and his group arrived quite late. The fishing village was severely affected by the fire, and without a master of water magic, it would be difficult to extinguish the fire in a short time.

"Don't worry, sir. Leave the firefighting to me," Aunt Hu said confidently as she followed Ning Xiu into the village.

"Great-aunt has such methods? Then I'll trouble you." Ning Xiu said immediately.

Then, Aunt Hu sat cross-legged on the ground with her hands on her knees and began her ritual. Instantly, a strong wind swept through the entire fishing village, swirling up all the sand on the ground and turning it into a dust storm to wash away the raging fire.

Using sand to extinguish the fire, the fire was quickly brought under control. The houses were battered by the yellow sand, and the flames were extinguished in the blink of an eye.

After the fire was brought under control, Ning Xiu immediately began searching for Liu Mei in the village, and finally found her in a house that was half burned down.

Unfortunately, she was already dead, with a bleeding cut on her neck.

"It seems someone took precautions against the seventh-day resurrection technique," Mangqiu Liu said, looking at the burned coffin inside the room.

This coffin was meant to contain Granny Ma's body, and now, along with the coffin and the body, it was all burned to ashes in this fire, started by someone unknown.

According to Mangqiu Liu, once the body is burned, the connection with the soul is completely severed, so the seventh-day resurrection technique can no longer be used. They are currently unable to contact Granny Ma's soul at all.

"Now that the trail has gone cold, finding out the mastermind's identity will be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Chang Fenghai said, shaking his head helplessly.

Ning Xiu put down Liu Mei's body and asked with a gloomy face, "Do you two great immortals have any other methods? If I cannot find out the identity of the mastermind this time, I can only hand this matter over to the Demon Subduing Division and have it handled by many Demon Subduing Officers."

Ning Xiu's purpose in coming to Donghai Prefecture was to find the Demon Buddha and then take him to the Four Symbols Prefecture in the outer realm. However, he could not stay here for too long, lest Fang Jingzhou, who carried the Vermilion Bird's blood, completely disappear in the outer realm.

Therefore, if the matter of the missing child cannot be resolved in a short period of time, Ning Xiu will have no choice but to report it to Tianmu Tower.

However, not all Demon Slayers are as easy to get along with as Ning Xiu. Some Demon Slayers are meticulous and thorough in their investigations, while others are ruthless and willing to do anything to complete their missions. Even a demon immortal would find it a headache to encounter such a Demon Slayer.

"Lord Ning, please don't worry, leave this matter to me." Mangqiu Liu immediately agreed.

He reached out and patted the ground. Soon after, the earth was turned over, and a small ground squirrel with tiny eyes emerged from underground.

"Python Immortal, what is it?" the ground rat asked in human language.

"I have a question for you. Can you help me find the people who left this village within the last hour? I will reward you handsomely if you succeed," Mangqiu Liu said, cupping his hands in greeting.

“This is no small matter. According to the old rules, I want three pieces of snake saliva golden grass.”

“Sure.” Mangqiu Liu agreed without hesitation.

"Wait a moment." With that, the groundhog burrowed back underground.

"Lord Ning, these are the Earth Immortals of the Su family, who are most skilled at finding people and objects. With them on the case, we should be able to find the real culprit of the murder and arson soon. Let's wait here for a while."

If you want to ask a demon immortal for help, you have to offer some benefits. In order to help Ning Xiu, Mangqiu Liu is going all out this time.

Snake Saliva Golden Grass is an extremely expensive herb that helps demons increase their cultivation speed. It can only be cultivated by snakes and pythons, and other demons have nowhere to obtain it even if they want it.

Therefore, whenever the Python Sect Cave asks other demon immortals for help, what they always ask for is this thing.

While the Su family's geomancer was handling his business, Ning Xiu carried Liu Mei's body outside. First, he stole children from people's homes, and now he set fire to kill someone in order to destroy the evidence. His crimes are truly unforgivable.

……

Pang Chao led several villagers in a wild run through the mountains and forests. After leaving the village, he followed the orders of the Mountain God and did not return to the village. Instead, he went to the mountains to meet the Mountain God, who would give Pang Chao some instructions.

“Witch doctor, I can accept arson, but isn’t murder going too far? If the authorities find out, we’ll all be in serious trouble,” a villager asked worriedly.

Pang Chao turned around and said fiercely, "Stop talking nonsense. Do you think we won't get stabbed for all the things we've done for Master Shan? We guys from Fengmeng Village have been bad people for a long time."

Upon hearing this, everyone sighed; things were indeed as Pang Chao had described.

In recent years, in order to get rid of the mountain god and change the fortune of their village, they have gone so far as to kidnap and rob children from all over the place and send them to the mountain god as offerings.

They are no longer human; their sins are so grave that they have no fear of committing further evil deeds.

"I just don't know what happened this time. It's quite unusual that Grandpa Shan would need us to do things personally," Pang Chao muttered to himself.

Unbeknownst to the group, the ground behind them was inexplicably rising, and several ground squirrels of different colors were emerging from the soil.

"Chirp chirp chirp!"

"Squeak!"

The gophers called to each other, then nodded in confirmation.

Rats have an exceptionally keen sense of smell, and for gophers, which live underground year-round, this sense is even more acute.

After Pang Chao and his group set the fire and fled, they thought they had covered up the traces cleanly. However, the smell was something that could not be completely dispelled in a short time, and the Su family's Earth Immortal found them right away.

So a few ground squirrels stayed behind to continue tracking, while the others turned and left, intending to take the news back to the village and inform Yu Ningxiu and his group.

……

They skillfully advanced through the mountains, weaving through the bushes, until finally the eerie stone temple came into view.

Although this wasn't his first time here, Pang Chao always felt a strange sense of oppression whenever he arrived, as if a terrifying monster lurked in the stone temple, ready to devour any intruder at any moment.

As they climbed the steps and arrived at the entrance of the stone temple, Pang Chao bowed respectfully and called out, "Grandpa Mountain, we've arrived."

Whoosh!

A chilling wind emanated from deep within the stone temple, causing Pang Chao and the others to shiver.

As the cold wind blew and mist rose, a thin figure slowly emerged from the darkness of the stone temple.

He was a short, thin old man, his body entirely white, but covered in festering sores, with hardly any hair left on his head.

This man wore a tattered dark blue robe that emitted a pungent stench, and his face was covered with white sprouts that looked like sprouted potatoes, making him indescribably eerie.

"Greetings, Grandpa Shan." Pang Chao and the others greeted the old man as they recognized him.

"Have you taken care of everything I asked you to do?" The old man's voice was unusually hoarse, and his eyes were cloudy and murky, as if he were blind.

Even so, Pang Chao did not dare to meet his gaze and could only bow his head and reply, "Grandpa Shan, everything is done. I have completely burned the body of the shaman, and I also killed the woman who later discovered us. There will definitely be no clues left behind."

"Hehehe, very good. Come in with me." The old man turned around and walked deeper into the temple.

Only then were Pang Chao and the others able to see clearly what was behind Shan Taiye.