"Uncle Ba, when you were young… did you ever cause trouble in the Demon Territory?"

"How could that be, I’m such an honest person. At most, I just helped others with some minor tasks, running errands. I wasn’t the main one committing the bad deeds."

"I heard that both the Long Clan and the Phoenix Tribe are close to the Human race, so it should be possible to visit them, right?"

Lu Yang remembered that when they visited Li Haoran’s hometown, they met a member of the Phoenix Tribe selling blood to create Phoenix Blood Stones. After revealing their identities, the Phoenixes were quite hospitable.

"It’s possible to go, but that’s provided certain little things haven’t been exposed."

"What little things?"

"There’s a saying that dragons and phoenixes bring auspiciousness, symbolizing good luck, and during weddings, wealthy families like to stick up dragon and phoenix paper cuttings."

"Old Nine pondered that a wedding is just a couple announcing to everyone that they are going to consummate their marriage at night. Therefore, the dragons and phoenixes in the paper cuttings should imply the same, but since people never have the chance to witness dragons and phoenixes mating, the cutouts don’t resemble reality."

"Old Nine dared to be the first to secretly find a dragon and phoenix couple, observe their mating process, record it, and compile the firsthand information into a book called ’The Transformation of Dragon and Phoenix,’ leaving a reference for future generations. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it."

Lu Yang: "..."

How could I have not heard of it? The ’Transformation of Dragon and Phoenix’ was the first thing I found on my first day in the Scripture Pavilion. It was even hidden in a corner, and I thought I had found a great opportunity.

Back then, the Senior Brother in the Scripture Pavilion was puzzled why the ’Transformation of Dragon and Phoenix,’ a banned book that couldn’t be found anywhere in the whole continent, was hidden there.

Turns out it was written by you, Master!

From the reactions of the Dragon and Phoenix clans, they still don’t know it was you, Master, who did it, but who knows about the future.

"What about the Bai Ze clan?" Lu Yang had heard that the Bai Ze clan was neutral and often acted as mediators and witnesses when conflicts arose within the Demon Race.

"There’s not much of an issue with the Bai Ze clan. It’s just that back then, when we brothers caused some commotion in the Demon Territory and were chased fiercely, we disguised ourselves as Bai Ze to escape a disaster. Unfortunately, we were later spotted by a real Bai Ze who insisted on capturing us.

Out of desperation, Old Eight asked him, ’Since the Bai Ze clan knows everything, do you know what you don’t know?’"

"While he was pondering the question, we took the opportunity to escape. I heard that the Bai Ze who was asked that question by Old Eight has now become the Clan Leader."

"The Bai Ze clan is fair and kind-hearted, with many affairs to attend to. They probably have long forgotten about our little incident."

"Caused a bit of a commotion?" Lu Yang felt that this commotion must have been significant.

"It wasn’t anything major, just that we happened to be in the Demon Territory during the secret realm which opens once every five years. We decided to try our luck to see if we could get some good items. The requirements for entering the secret realm were high, one had to be of pure blood. Luckily, we were all pure-blooded from the Human race, and entered without any issues."

"Unexpectedly, once inside, the Demon Race turned hostile. They allowed us to enter but then specifically targeted us, trying to squeeze us out, trip us up, play dirty, and there were even some who wanted to kill us. Seeing this, we thought it was unacceptable, no way we were going to be bullied like that."

"So I blocked the entrance to the secret realm with stones, and Sixth Junior Sister created a fake entrance with an illusionary realm right beside the real one. Then we shouted out loud, claiming there was a problem with the entrance and that we couldn’t leave."

"Of course, the Demon Race didn’t believe it and walked into the fake entrance of the secret realm. Once inside, they found themselves not in the outer world, but an unknown space. He quickly tried to return, suspecting that they had encountered a spatial anomaly and could no longer exit."

"The fake entrance was linked to a specially made Beast Taming Sect storage ring, designed to hold living creatures. What he entered was indeed a storage ring, hence the unknown space."

A typical storage ring can only contain inanimate objects.

"When one Demon Race member’s attempt failed, several high-ranking members of the Demon Race entered the fake secret realm entrance, reaching the same conclusion—they had encountered a spatial turbulence."

"The secret realm’s entrance was open for ten days, and we left at the end of the tenth day, telling those outside that the secret realm was too dangerous and all the demons had died. The group of Demons that we had locked up for five years started searching the whole world for us once they got out."

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"Why bother with such games when everyone could just compete for opportunities fair and square? Why stoop to underhanded tricks and cunning against us?"

Lu Yang: "..."

Meng Jingzhou: "..."

"The Taozhu race... Well, since they’re a demon race that detests the human race, provoking or not doesn’t make much of a difference."

Uncle Ba nodded in agreement, "That’s true, the Taozhu race’s disdain for the human race has little to do with the Seek Dao Sect. The Boss merely visited the ancestral graves of the Taozhu for research purposes and was discovered by them in the end."

After questioning Uncle Ba, the two went on to ask the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Elders, one by one.

The two were lucky to find out that what Uncle Ba said was a lie—the number of times the Nine Disciples of the Dao Seeking Sect had provoked the demon race was significantly more than Uncle Ba had let on.

"This precaution is clearly not just about not revealing our association with the Seek Dao Sect; it’s practically telling us to stay away from the Demon Territory."

Lu Yang felt the perilous future brimming with murderous intent.

"It should be fine, look at how well our Third Senior Sister is doing in the Demon Territory, and she even gets a chance to study ancient history. We will be safe under her wing for sure."

"The only question is whether our portraits have made it to the Demon Territory or not."

"They probably haven’t, since we haven’t even heard the names of the demon geniuses. By that logic, the Demon Territory is not familiar with the geniuses of Great Xia either, at best they might know a name or two."

"Makes sense."

After discussing it, the two decided to head for the Demon Territory.

As cultivators, we should not shy away from a challenge.

They went on a major shopping spree, focusing on purchasing life-preserving items, storing them in the Identity Jade, and set off lightly equipped, taking a flying boat to the old place—Demon Suppressing Pass.

It was the Eldest Senior Sister who had dumped them there in the first place.

The once-booming wig industry at the Demon Suppressing Pass was in decline, and without Lu Yang’s antics, wigs were no longer necessary.

The two no longer needed the elixirs for repelling insects; with their Golden Core Stage aura being emitted, no mosquitoes or insects dared to approach.

The dense forest stood between the Demon Suppressing Pass and the Demon Territory, and it was in this very forest that Lu Yang had advanced to the Golden Core Stage.

"Back then, those Golden Core Stage demon beasts posed quite a threat to us, and encountering a Nascent Soul Stage beast meant fleeing for our lives. Now, they seem trivial." Two cultivators at the Golden Core Eighth Heaven talked and laughed merrily in the forest.

Tall trees blocked the sunlight, and in the dark underbrush, pairs of green, glowing eyes greedily and bloodthirstily watched Lu Yang and his companion, full of lethal intent.

However, after the two old ancestors nonchalantly killed a Nascent Soul Early Stage demon beast, the hidden creatures knew to retreat from the difficulty and quietly withdrew. Nothing happened.

Even when they entered the territories of the Nascent Soul Stage demon beasts, those with a strong sense of territory dared not show themselves and acted as if they saw nothing, silently praying that no incident would occur.

None of those who had cultivated up to the Nascent Soul Stage were fools. They were very well aware of their own abilities; they were just mixed-blood demon beasts with mediocre combat power. The two humans’ combat strength was on par with the top geniuses of the elite demon races; they didn’t dare to provoke them.

The dense forest no longer posed a threat to Lu Yang and his companion.

Before officially entering the Demon Territory, the two took every minute to flex their might.

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