"Thank you, Young Hero Bai."

Li Kang held his saber in a reverse grip and cupped his fist to Bai Yuan.

If Bai Yuan hadn’t noticed the Cat Demon concealing its presence ahead of time, Li Kang knew he wouldn’t have just been severely injured—he’d likely have lost his life. Even his six subordinates would have met their end here, their bodies adding to the floating corpses in the pool.

Bai Yuan waved his hand. "Li the Ten Households, there’s no need to be so formal."

"No, you saved my life. I will never forget this kindness."

Before his voice had even faded, he bowed deeply to Bai Yuan.

Seeing this, the other six men also bowed.

Anyone could see that Bai Yuan had been the main force in slaying the Cat Demon.

The rest of the process was much simpler.

Bai Yuan took the Cat Demon’s corpse, while Li Kang and his men stayed behind to deal with the floating bodies and clean up the aftermath.

As he was leaving, Bai Yuan glanced at the pool, a flicker of doubt in his eyes. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

’This scene feels so familiar.’

He had once gone with the County Magistrate’s Office to the bottom of the Qinghe River to eliminate the remnants of the Soul-Chasing Tower. There had been a pool there, too, filled with countless floating corpses.

’For a common mountain Cat Demon to have ties to the Soul-Chasing Tower... their reach is truly extensive.’

"Li the Ten Households, I need to return to the sect to report, so I won’t stay any longer."

"Young Hero Bai, feel free to visit me at the Demon Slayer Guard anytime."

Bai Yuan carried the Cat Demon’s corpse out of the stone cave and headed down the mountain.

Demon flesh was a high-grade supplement. Even in a wealthy sect like the Divine Mansion Sect, Outer Disciples could only receive one pound of demon flesh per month.

This Cat Demon may have weighed over ten pounds, but only about one pound of its flesh truly contained Demon Blood Essence. The rest was merely tastier than normal meat and had no nourishing benefits.

A thought crossed his mind.

A spectral scroll materialized before his eyes—the Ten Thousand Demons Painting.

A new figure had appeared on the Ten Thousand Demons Painting. The black cat he had just slain was now on the scroll, looking vividly lifelike.

From now on, any other Cat Demons he encountered would be naturally suppressed by the Ten Thousand Demons Painting.

It was a pity there was only one Cat Demon on this mountain. Otherwise, he could have neatly gathered the whole family.

...

「At dusk.」

Bai Yuan stepped through the doors of the Merit Hall.

He placed the wooden tablet from his hand and the Cat Demon’s corpse from his waist on the table before the Merit Hall’s Steward.

The Steward glanced at them. "Bai Yuan, three merit points."

’What sharp eyes.’

Bai Yuan was slightly surprised.

The mission was originally rated C-minus, and the number carved on the wooden tablet was only a two. But the Steward had clearly seen that this Cat Demon’s strength far exceeded that level, which was why he had increased the merit points by one.

To make such an accurate judgment based on a mere corpse, his eye for detail already far surpassed most of the world’s master appraisers.

’If this were his past life, he could have made a killing at the antique markets; no treasure would have escaped his gaze.’

"Thank you," Bai Yuan said.

"It’s my duty."

The Steward spoke faintly, wasting no words. He raised his brush and marked "plus three" in Bai Yuan’s Merit Book.

A bit of ink finally touched what had been a blank page for Bai Yuan.

Three merit points could be used for many things, but he decided to save them up for now. If he was going to buy something, he was going to buy something big.

By the time he returned to his small courtyard on Wan Jun Peak, the sky had turned completely black.

He looked at the number "121" on his panel.

[You have practiced Blazing Fire Cooks Oil for one year and gained some insight.]

...

[You have practiced Blazing Fire Cooks Oil for ten years. Your culinary skills show signs of great mastery.]

...

[You have practiced Blazing Fire Cooks Oil for twenty years. Your culinary skills have reached the Proficient level!]

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Occupations: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Chef]

[Skills: Cooking (Master), Blazing Fire Cooks Oil (Proficient), Demon Seeking (Proficient), Demon Control (Proficient), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master), Soul-Hooking Step (Adept)...]

[Enhancement Points: 0]

His predecessor’s talent for cooking was simply too high. It had only taken just over a hundred enhancement points to raise Blazing Fire Cooks Oil to the Proficient level.

If that Divine Chef were still alive, he would have undoubtedly taken Bai Yuan as his closed-door disciple.

He was truly gifted when it came to cooking.

His heart burned with excitement when he thought of the benefits of raising his culinary skills to the Legendary level.

Every skill that reached the Legendary level was practically a divine power, worthy of at least three pages in the annals of history.

A flood of new information also appeared in Bai Yuan’s mind.

It was all about fire control techniques. Blazing Fire Cooks Oil, true to its name, was all about the way of controlling fire.

A chef’s work is inextricably linked with fire. A great chef, merely by mastering heat, can turn an ordinary dish into something miraculous. A second more or a second less, and it wouldn’t be perfect.

The Ancient Suirenshi Clan discovered fire, and the Human Race used it to cook meat. Only then did they gradually shed their ape-like forms and become masters of all living things.

Blazing Fire Cooks Oil clearly contained a Great Dao!

Bai Yuan felt his perspective completely shift. This was a path he had never even considered.

Perhaps this Blazing Fire Cooks Oil could truly bring him some unexpected changes.

...

「Jiuqu Creek, Jiuqu River Beach.」

The stone cave.

Li Kang and his men had already left. There were too many corpses in the pool, far more than they could clear out. Their only option was to seal the stone cave completely to prevent a plague from breaking out.

With the Cat Demon dead, the matter was considered closed.

Li Kang and his men were powerless to do anything more.

Just as night fell.

A loud crash suddenly echoed from outside the stone cave, which had been sealed with a giant boulder.

A pair of hands had actually punched straight through the three-foot-thick boulder!

One palm, two palms... ten palms.

With just ten palm strikes, the ten-meter-high boulder shattered from the center, revealing a massive opening wide enough for several people to walk through side-by-side.

A tall, thin man in a black robe slowly stepped into the cave, followed by several other black-robed figures.

"The black cat is dead?"

The tall, thin man spoke in a voice as harsh and grating as scraping metal, a sound no human could produce.

"Dead," another black-robed man confirmed with a nod.

"It was likely someone from the Divine Mansion Sect," he added after a moment’s hesitation.

"The Divine Mansion Sect..." the tall, thin man repeated in a low voice.

"If the black cat is dead, it’s dead. Take all these offerings for the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival."

After giving a few simple orders, he turned and walked out of the cave, acting as if it were all a trivial matter.

"Get to it," the black-robed man said to the figures behind him.

These figures began dragging the rotten, bloated corpses from the pool. A suffocating stench filled the entire cave, yet their faces remained expressionless.

"Yin-Yang Corpses that have absorbed the essence of the sun and moon for thirty years... they’re valuable things," the black-robed man muttered to himself.

These corpses looked as if they had been dead for less than a month, but they had actually been in this pool for thirty years!

Just as the group of black-robed figures was dragging the bodies out of the stone cave—

A gust of mountain wind swept by.

It blew back the hood of one of the black-robed men, revealing his true face.

It was none other than the Soul Chasing Tower Lord of Qinghe County, Xinchou!

That’s right. The Cat Demon, this pool, these corpses—they were all the work of the Soul-Chasing Tower. Or to be more precise... the work of the Demon Sect.