Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

They will be able to check everything thoroughly, leaving no room for omissions. So, just bring these two people to the Demon Extermination Bureau for an identity check.

"It's alright. In that case, you two, master and disciple, can join the Demon Subduing Division with me," Ning Xiu said calmly.

The Taoist priest Kongxu, who was arguing with his disciple, was taken aback: "This humble Taoist, how could someone as old as me join the Demon Subduing Division?"

"That doesn't matter. Ambition knows no age. As long as you can still kill evil spirits, that's enough. I won't say anything else. In the future, when I establish the Copper Leopard Squad, the two of you will join my team and obey my orders."

"Well, that's good. I never thought that at my age, I would actually join the Demon Subduing Division and become a Demon Subduing Captain." Master Kongxu stroked his beard and smiled with satisfaction.

Ning Xiu said, "In that case, Daoist, please find out where that evil spirit is going."

"Oh, alright, I'll begin now."

After saying that, Master Kongxu immediately began searching the floor of the room, seemingly looking for something.

Soon, under Ning Xiu's watchful gaze, he saw Daoist Kongxu joyfully take something out from between two pieces of broken stone, seemingly having found what he was looking for.

Ning Xiu stared intently for a moment, then looked puzzled; it was a tooth that had fallen out.

"Whoever loses it, the result will be the same; cause and effect are a cycle, and revenge is inevitable..." Master Kongxu placed his teeth, which had been knocked out by that strange man, in his palm and muttered a long string of incantations to himself.

As he drew a talisman above the tooth with his finger, the tooth, still stained with blood, suddenly moved without wind and slowly stood up.

No wonder Ning Xiu had felt that Master Kongxu's speech was a bit slurred; now he realized that he was missing a tooth.

The tooth spun in mid-air until it finally stopped and remained motionless in one direction, like a compass rose.

"Sir, this way."

Ning Xiu found it very interesting: "Daoist Master, what is the principle behind your magic for finding people and identifying objects? Can you find the whereabouts of any evil spirit?"

If Master Kongxu truly possesses such abilities, it would be utterly extraordinary. Even if such a talent were only at the eighth rank of the Immortal Path, he would be a highly sought-after individual within the Demon Subduing Division.

Master Kongxu said with embarrassment, "No, this technique is only effective if it causes harm to me and causes something to fall off my body. Hair and dandruff won't work; it only works on parts like fingers, teeth, and bones."

"Oh, let's set off then. You two, get on my mount." Ning Xiu nodded knowingly.

Therefore, the conditions for using this technique are actually quite demanding, and it is not as omnipotent as one might think.

As they climbed onto the back of the Iron-Eating Beast, Master Kongxu and Chen Peifeng suddenly realized that there was another person not far behind Ning Xiu.

The man, dressed entirely in black, sat on a suspended black lotus platform, but he didn't even glance in their direction, his entire focus fixed on a white butterfly on his fingertip.

"I hadn't even noticed there was a second person here. I couldn't even detect his presence," Chen Peifeng thought in shock.

As a lower-third-rank immortal, Chen Peifeng couldn't discern Ning Xiu's true strength despite his cultivation of the Concealing Qi Technique, but he could still sense the presence of this person's aura.

As for the Demon Buddha Ning Xiu, if Chen Peifeng hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have thought there was no one there, just a patch of air.

This strength definitely surpasses that of a mid-grade level 3 expert; they must be a top-grade level 3 expert.

Chen Peifeng glanced at Ning Xiu with a complicated expression. No wonder this Demon-Subduing Officer could remain so calm despite coming alone to pursue evil spirits.

With a top-tier expert guarding him, no one would panic.

Instantly, Chen Peifeng calmed down his panic and felt a sense of security well up inside him.

It feels so good to have someone powerful by your side!

Following the instructions of the Taoist priest Kongxu, Ning Xiu and his companions immediately left Changqing Village. Ning Xiu would report the situation to the nearby county, and someone would come to handle it.

……

A cave located in the mountains northeast of Yunze Prefecture.

"what!!!"

"Kill me! Kill me! I can't take it anymore!"

"Please spare me, please."

Inside a large black furnace, the deep green water was being boiled by a great fire, and the scalding smoke rose straight to the top of the rock, covering the entire surface of the rock with a layer of water vapor.

Inside the black furnace, five emaciated people, without eyelids, whose genders were indistinguishable, were bobbing up and down in the green water, wailing in a terrifying manner.

However, a man in a black coat with a yellow face and a silver headband, who had witnessed all of this, showed no pity or sympathy on his face. Instead, he revealed a joyful smile.

If a seasoned demon-slaying officer were present, he would instantly recognize this person as Huang Tianfei, a member of the Black Heaven Gate, a demon listed as having a danger level of "high-grade earth" on the demon-slaying bounty issued by the Demon-Slaying Division.

This sorcerer's strength had already reached the fourth rank many years ago. He had been hiding in Qingque Prefecture for a long time, and occasionally he would sneak into the territory of Da Shang to harm the people.

The Demon Extermination Bureau has wanted to eliminate this person for a long time, but he is adept at escaping and disguising himself, as slippery as an eel, and is still at large.

Unexpectedly, he actually came to Yunze Prefecture this time.

"With just four villages, I found five suitable people and tools. This trip to Yunze Prefecture has truly brought me good fortune, hahaha."

Huang Tianfei laughed heartily, then took a cloth bag full of medicinal herbs and tossed it into the black furnace.

When the cloth bag came into contact with water, the green water in the furnace instantly ignited into flames several inches high, engulfing the people inside and scorching their flesh.

The amazing thing is that even so, these people did not show any signs of dying; they just cried out and wailed louder.

Just then, a figure walked in from outside the cave.

It was the strange man that Chen Peifeng and Master Kongxu encountered last night.

The strange man now looked completely different from when Chen Peifeng and the other man first met him.

Its body grew taller and stronger, with three arms hanging down to its waist on the left side, and the right side surrounded by white bones, as if the ribs were growing out of the arms.

Seventeen eyes on its face opened simultaneously, and a vertical mouth on its chest slowly opened and closed, making it look extremely eerie and terrifying.

“You’re back. From now on, if you need meat, just tell me. Don’t act alone. You’ll easily give away my trail. If this happens again, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” Huang Tianfei stared at the strange man with cold eyes and warned him in a threatening tone.

As a demon targeted by the Demon Subduing Bureau, Huang Tianfei always adhered to the principle of acting cautiously. He would carefully erase any traces of anything that might reveal his whereabouts afterward so that the Demon Subduing Bureau could not track him down.

"Understood." The strange man walked to the black furnace and spat it out.

Immediately, a large number of dim souls of men, women, and children spewed out of its mouth and were sucked into the black furnace, making the green water in the furnace even more dark.

The strange man asked in a deep voice, "How much longer will it take to complete your evil artifact? You've already sacrificed over two hundred souls. If you continue refining it, it will attract the attention of the Demon Subduing Bureau sooner or later."

"What's the rush? Once the Five Directions Ghost King Pestle is forged, I can make sure that even a third-rank Demon Subduing Officer will not return alive, and even a second-rank Demon Subduing Officer will be helpless against me. These five artifacts have already reached a critical stage in their forging, so we can't rush them. We must proceed slowly to bring their quality to its perfect peak."

As the strange man threw a wave of souls he had collected from Changqing Village into the black furnace, a significant qualitative change soon occurred within the furnace.

As the five people struggled, their bodies began to shrink gradually. They were once the size of an adult, but eventually shrunk to the size of a human head.

Originally, the entire body was retracted into the head, and then an arm could be seen extending from the eye socket of each head.

The five heads floated endlessly in the black furnace, their shapes becoming increasingly translucent and crystalline as they were scorched by the flames.

Ignoring its bizarre and frightening shape, anyone who sees it would think it's a treasure.

"The transformation has finally begun, and we're not far from mastering the evil artifact!" Huang Tianfei laughed loudly as he looked at the five crystalline heads on the water's surface.

……

After leaving Changqing Village, following the directions of the Empty Void Taoist's teeth, the Iron-Eating Beast kept turning left and right in the mountains and forests. Even though branches and leaves interfered and trees blocked its way, they could not hinder the Iron-Eating Beast's progress.

It would smash through thinner tree trunks, while Ning Xiu would handle the thicker ones.

With the cooperation of the human and the beast, they carved out a broad road through what was originally a pathless mountain forest.

“The evil spirit is hiding in a place like this. Without guidance, an ordinary person really wouldn’t be able to find it,” Ning Xiu said, smashing a large tree in half with his hammer.

With the help of the Taoist priest's magic, the group quickly arrived deep in the mountains. As the tooth pointed to a low cave entrance under a mountain wall in the distance, it suddenly fell to the ground and lost its spiritual power.

"My lord, we have arrived at the hiding place of the evil spirit." Upon seeing this, Master Kongxu spoke up.

Indeed, as Ning Xiu looked toward the cave entrance, he could see wisps of evil energy emanating from it.

The moment these evil energies drifted out of the cave entrance, they would evaporate instantly like melting snow, making it impossible to detect anything unusual from a distance.

Ning Xiu found this situation familiar; it was exactly the same as the effect of the evil energy-concealing array that the demon had secretly set up at Chunman Pavilion.

"I understand. You two wait here. I'll go in and take a look." Ning Xiu took the Corpse-Slaying Blade and the Thunder Hammer, then jumped off the Iron-Eating Beast's back.

Chen Peifeng and Daoist Kongxu knew that with their own strength, they probably couldn't help Ning Xiu much. It would be easier for them to stay outside and avoid becoming a burden, so they agreed.

They watched as Ning Xiu and Demon Buddha Ning Xiu entered the cave entrance, their figures disappearing into the depths of the cave.

"Master, have you ever heard Master mention any high-ranking Buddhist or Taoist monks who sit on a lotus platform like that monk?" Chen Peifeng asked Master Kongxu curiously.

He had actually wanted to ask this question all along the way, but he kept it to himself because he didn't know Ning Xiu's temperament.

Now that the opportunity has arisen, it's natural to seize the chance to consult.

To everyone's surprise, Master Kongxu shook his head decisively: "Never heard of it."

[064] Supernatural Powers: Three Heads and Six Arms

Upon entering the cave, the amount of evil energy that could be seen immediately increased, if not for some means at the cave entrance that could prevent the evil energy from overflowing.

The depths of this mountain are likely already shrouded in a dense aura of evil. Anyone with a modicum of strength who passes by will be able to discern the problems within.

Along the way, the cave walls were covered with bloodstains, as if someone had rubbed them with their own blood, outlining a large number of complex and irregular lines.

Looking at these health bars, Ning Xiu couldn't help but feel a surge of blood energy within his body, and his previously calm internal energy was quietly stirred up.

This place is no ordinary place!

Demon Buddha Ningxiu carefully placed the white butterfly into his sleeve to prevent it from being affected by the evil energy in the cave.

As a Buddhist or Taoist master, he saw no threat from these evil energies, but the white butterfly, being an ordinary insect, was unable to withstand them and needed his protection.

As Ning Xiu ventured deeper into the cave, he soon heard gusts of cold wind and faint wails coming from the depths of the cave.

At the same time, the evil energy here has become so thick and strong that it has manifested into human faces, which shows that many people have died here.

……

Staring intently at the surface of the black furnace, Huang Tianfei focused all his attention on refining the evil artifact.

The final stage of forging the Five Demon Kings' Pestle has arrived, and not a moment can be wasted. Once this evil weapon is completed, Huang Tianfei will have even less to fear from the Demon Subduing Division.

A strange-looking man sat not far away, casually playing with a skull he had picked up from the ground.

As a member of the Black Heaven Gate, Violent Slaughter is a rather unique individual.

It is not a real person, but a demonic body created and stitched together by the Black Heaven Gate elder 'Mo Fengjun' using the flesh and blood of various demons and humans.

The essence of the brutality was a lump of filthy blood of unknown origin. When it was accidentally discovered by Mo Fengjun a few years ago, it was coiled on the body of a emaciated male tiger, parasitically attaching itself to the tiger's body, with the two sharing flesh and blood.