Wait a minute, where is my master?

"Young master, young master, what are you doing?"

Yu Yaoer asked with her mouth, but her tail splashed up a handful of water and tossed it towards Little White, wanting revenge for just being frozen under the water surface.

However, the water splashes hadn't reached Little White before they transformed into chunks of ice and fell to the ground.

Jin Xu ignored her and instead looked down at Little White at his feet and asked,

"What did you just say?"

"I said, I just smelled something strange on one of the villagers who left, the one who was limping."

"Strange, what kind of strange, can you still track that smell now?"

Jin Xu pressed.

"Finding it is certainly possible, that smell stopped at a place to the west and hasn't moved since. As for the strangeness, first... temple master, do you remember that green bead you took out from the big banyan tree, the one like a Demon Core? That person had the same scent! It's faint, but I still smelled it."

A confident glimmer flashed through Little White's brown eyes.

She seemed to almost call Jin Xu 'chief' but corrected herself in time. When she first crossed over, she wanted to call him chief, but Jin Xu stopped her, claiming this was a Taoist temple, not a tribe.

Moreover, he was from a league in his previous life!

Little White didn't want to join the Little Fish Demon in calling him young master; she felt her role by Jin Xu's side should be that of a loyal warrior.

Ultimately, she chose between 'boss' and 'temple master' and settled on 'temple master'.

"Right, right, right, young master. Now that Little White mentioned it, I also remembered, the tree elf's condition was also strange. It seemed different from ordinary sentient plants."

The words Yu Yaoer whispered to Jin Xu by his ear meant to tell him that there was something wrong with that tree.

She had originally planned to pluck a leaf or branch to experiment with new recipes.

But as she got close, she sensed the presence of a living person inside the tree and felt there was a big problem with the tree, so she quickly informed Jin Xu about it.

"Strange?"

"Yes, the tree had a faint demonic aura, even a Demon Core, but it lacked its own consciousness. And normally, the Demon Cores of monsters are hidden deep because if the Demon Core is destroyed, their entire cultivation is destroyed. Yet, the tree elf's Demon Core was just hidden inside the trunk and you found it immediately, young master. That green bead seemed like... it seemed like..."

"Like what?"

Jin Xu had directly struck it, finding the Demon Core to verify a small technique he had devised during his cultivation practice. He discovered that by spreading his golden spiritual power around if it touched a person, he could feel the strengths of the person's spiritual power, and the point where the spiritual power was most dense.

He secretly tried it several times on both the Little Fish Demon and Xue Zhongfei about that point. He had a hypothesis, and tonight it was partially confirmed. At least in monsters, this dense point of spiritual power was something like a Demon Core.

"It's like a Demon Core that has been implanted but not yet assimilated."

"Like a substitute for some type of Demon Core!"

Both the fish and the dog said in unison.

Jin Xu was already thinking about what An Laoxiang had said on the mountain path, feeling he was not far from the truth.

Now, after hearing what both of them said, he felt a layer of fog had enveloped the whole affair again.

Regardless, Jin Xu planned to have Little White take him to the west to see what was really going on with this strangely smelling person.

He also cautioned Yu Yaoer.

"Don't sleep for beauty tonight, use your Spiritual Sense to monitor the entire Da An Village. When we return to Gusu City, I will buy you that set of kitchenware you liked last time; we have money now," Jin Xu said as he pulled out a black money pouch from his bosom, weighing it in his hand.

Indeed, making promises is a man's nature.

The Little Fish Demon heard that her young master had assigned her a task.

She joyously somersaulted twice in the water tank, splashing up a big handful of water.

Yu Yaoer signaled to the young master to be assured she could handle this matter.

Little White transformed back into her human form, ready to take Little Master Jin to the west.

As the two approached the gate of the courtyard, Jin Xu stopped, flicked his hand lightly, and a black object flew towards the Little Fish Demon in the water tank.

Yu Yaoer controlled the flow of water to catch it and saw that it was the black money pouch that her young master had just weighed.

Jin Xu was set to defy his nature today!

"Keep the money pouch with you. If there is danger, prioritize your safety." The voice came over the low wall from outside.

"Young Master is concerned about himself," thought Yu Yaoer, her heart brimming with joy.

Then,

she noticed the black purse engulfed by the current, beginning to leak a yellowish clay liquid.

Transforming into human form, she opened the purse to find that inside, only a superficial layer of scattered silver covered a pile of copper coins, clumps of earth, and rocks that melted away with the water.

"emmm....," Yu Yaoer was on the brink of calling the Young Master back to report a serious matter.

It seemed they had encountered a village scam.

But thinking of the village woman who had died before her and the child wailing for his mother,

she ultimately stowed the purse inside her red jade bracelet on her wrist.

Lifting her delicate chin, Yu Yaoer looked towards the west, her beautiful lips curling upwards slightly, then covered the entire Da An Village with her Spiritual Sense.

...

Gusu City, East Market Street, a huge abandoned mansion.

In a gloomy basement,

"Have all the 'seeds' of the Divine Fruit been spread?" asked a man in black, whose complexion was as dark as the dead, sitting with a heavy voice.

"Reporting to Master Zou, in several counties under Gusu City and dozens of villages, more than half have already been 'planted.'"

"Hmph, the Third Elder of the Holy Sect will visit soon. If it delays the Holy Sect's plan, I'll sacrifice you to the Transformation Pond."

"Master Zou, please calm your anger, Master Zou, please calm your anger. Your subordinate will speed up the 'planting' immediately to ensure no mischief towards the Holy Sect's important matters!" The white-robed disciple kneeling before the man in black trembled in fear upon hearing 'Transformation Pond,' promptly assuring loudly.

Seeing the white-robed disciple kneeling before him vouching loudly, the anger in the man in black's heart subsided slightly.

But he still cursed, "Then why aren't you scattering to 'plant'? Are you waiting for me to send you off?"

"Yes, yes, Master calm your anger, this subordinate is leaving."

After speaking, the white-robed disciple bowed and hurried out of the basement.

Once he was far enough from the basement, he muttered softly,

"Damn this Demon Sect, don't the lower ranks have any dignity? This dead-faced man curses me all day as if I were a dog, yet I am a Cultivator at the Golden Core Stage. One day, if I'm pushed too far, I might as well risk it all and go blow the whistle on this son of a b*tch."

Just then, a buxom woman with a waist as slim as a snake approached him.

The white-robed disciple, upon seeing the woman, couldn't control his trembling body for a moment and quickly put on a respectful face, bowing his head and saying, "Hall Master Xia."

The woman gave a seductive smile, nodded lightly in acknowledgment, and headed towards the basement door.

"Phew~~" Taking a deep breath and patting his chest, the white-robed disciple quickly made his way to the ground floor.

In the basement, Master Zou, with his dark-as-death complexion, still sat in his chair as the buxom woman, slender as a snake, pushed the door open and walked up to him, teasingly speaking,

"Oh~~ who has angered our dear Master Zou so much? From far away, I could hear it."

The moment the woman's voice emerged, it was as if her mouth contained a melting candy, with a sticky sweetness enveloping the space.

Seeing that Master Zou remained silent, the buxom woman circled the chair and whispered into the man's ear before saying,

"I heard your little subordinate is about to go to the night watchman to snitch on you, and I specially came to tell you."

Hearing this, Master Zou, who had remained silent until then, scoffed coldly.

"Ha, the night watchmen are probably too busy to care about him now."

...

Da An Village, west end of the village

Under the June sky, heavy rain fell with occasional thunder.

Jin Xu and Little White stood in front of a farmer's doorway, the house itself spacious but visibly more dilapidated than other village homes, with a small banyan tree planted in the yard.

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the creaking sound of the old wooden door being pushed open.

An old man with a limping leg walked out.