Hearing this, Mu Anxiao and the others shifted their gaze to Hun Ling's face, utterly bewildered.
Hun Ling lowered his eyelids and said, "I always thought you, this great demon, only cared about yourself. If I had known you were also considering them, I wouldn't have thought of you so poorly." He then looked up at Piao.
Piao gazed down at Hun Ling's face and couldn't help but smile. "I'm not as great as you are."
"What do you mean by that?" Hun Ling furrowed his brows slightly.
"Rabbit never could bring herself to kill you, which shows you must have sacrificed a lot for them," Piao said, shaking her head. "If I were you, I couldn't stand to see them defect to other demons. But you, you actually agreed. Dare I ask what you were thinking when they chose me back then?"
"I wanted to save them, but it was their choice. No matter how much I said, they wouldn't listen, nor would they even glance at me," Hun Ling said in a low voice.
Piao chuckled lightly. "I can only say you're truly magnanimous. I don't have such a generous heart as yours. If it were me, I would have killed them."
"..." Hun Ling was speechless.
"To be honest, our relationship is one of mutual exploitation. But you, this fool, actually went to great lengths to consider them. For that," Piao's lips curved upward, "I admire you."
Hun Ling lowered his head.
Piao didn't dwell on the topic any longer, turning her head to look at Mu Anxiao. "After we eat, we'll begin."
Mu Anxiao glanced at Hun Ling and nodded.
Feng Qi Shi sighed.
In the deep forest, Shi Yi, not daring to approach the rat demons, stood behind a nearby tree and watched them diligently cast spells to remove the demonic barrier. He asked, "How long have they been maintaining this posture?" He turned his head to look at Xu Lan Yan.
Xu Lan Yan said, "All night." He then glanced at the still unconscious demon in black. "That guy slept through the night."
Shi Yi didn't look at the demon in black, but kept his eyes fixed on the rat demons. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'll go."
"You can do it too?" the demon in black asked, turning his head to look at Shi Yi.
Shi Yi, seeing the female rat demon ahead about to collapse, quickly uttered two words: "I can." Then, with a sweep of his arm, a faint light shot out, catching the female rat demon as she fell backward.
The female rat demon consciously let out a sigh of relief and lay gently on the ground.
At the same time, Shi Yi ran to her side and said, "Rest well." He then looked up at the unchanged demonic barrier above, narrowed his eyes, and raised his arms to begin casting his own spell.
The female rat demon sat up and looked up at Shi Yi, saying, "Shi Yi, you're back."
Shi Yi glanced quickly at the female rat demon as he said, "You've grown." Then, he became fully engrossed in their shared effort.
The rat demons beside them didn't notice Shi Yi's presence and continued their hard work.
The female rat demon slowly stood up and was about to cast her spell when Shi Yi said, "Go rest. I'll take over. If you continue like this, you'll damage your soul."
"You..."
"Go," Shi Yi uttered the word.
The female rat demon responded with an "Okay" and retreated a few steps.
Xu Lan Yan watched Shi Yi's back, then walked up to the female rat demon's side and said, "I can tell, he's quite afraid of you all."
"Afraid?" the female rat demon echoed, turning to Xu Lan Yan. "How do you know he... fears us?"
"I can sense it. He'd rather go to the dangerous cultivation sect than come here. If you hadn't collapsed, he wouldn't have stepped forward at all," Xu Lan Yan said based on his intuition.
The female rat demon pursed her lips and said nothing.
Outside the deep forest, the old gentleman opened his eyes and looked at the constantly swaying immortal rope, sighing, "He helped after all." He then gently tapped the immortal rope.
Immediately, streams of immortal light flowed along the immortal rope into Shi Yi's hands. Shi Yi looked up at his hands in surprise at the flowing immortal energy, thinking, He's helping me. He quickly focused his mind.
Xu Lan Yan looked at Shi Yi's back and his lips curved. "I didn't expect Feng Qi Shi's master to help a demon. Hmph, that's truly rare."
"What did you say?" the female rat demon asked, not having clearly heard Xu Lan Yan.
Xu Lan Yan calmly shook his head. "Nothing. Even if you heard it, you wouldn't understand what I'm saying."
The female rat demon nodded slightly. "You're right. I can't understand the thoughts of you immortals."
Xu Lan Yan smiled and did not reply.
Then, the female rat demon thought for a moment and said, "By the way, have you stopped those demons?"
Hearing this, Xu Lan Yan's brow furrowed, and he turned to the female rat demon. "What do you mean by that?"
"There's a group of demons who specifically seek out immortal-destined women, absorb their life essence, and then become true demons. Do you know about this?" the female rat demon asked earnestly.
"No," Xu Lan Yan replied, frowning. "That's strange. Mu Anxiao and the others didn't mention this to me either."
Seeing Xu Lan Yan's serious demeanor, the female rat demon quickly said, "I was just saying it casually. You don't need to take it to heart."
"After this matter is resolved, I'll ask about it," Xu Lan Yan said seriously.
The female rat demon nodded, unsure of what to say.
At the back door of the cultivation sect, the vine spirit sat on a small stool, looking worriedly at the dog-headed demon squatting opposite him and staring at him. He said, "Can you stop staring at me like that? Your face is really asking for a beating." He then reached out and patted the dog-headed demon's dog face twice.
The next second, the dog-headed demon touched his face with a look of grievance. "When will I be able to cultivate a human face?"
"Why are you telling me this?" the vine spirit furrowed his brows slightly.
"I want to have a human face. This face really doesn't suit my handsome personality," the dog-headed demon said seriously.
The vine spirit hesitated for a moment and said, "Based on my observation of you, your personality isn't exactly handsome either. Honestly, this dog head really suits your slightly plump physique."
"You have so much power, can't you help me?" the dog-headed demon stared at the vine spirit and said.
The vine spirit looked at the dog-headed demon and took a deep breath. "There is a way, but it might be a bit troublesome to implement."
"What way?" the dog-headed demon asked excitedly.
"This way, I've told you before," the vine spirit said.
The dog-headed demon thought for a moment and said, "Absorb the life essence of immortal-destined women, and that will do?"
"Yes," the vine spirit nodded.
"Then I'll go now," the dog-headed demon said, jumping to his feet.
"You're going now..." The vine spirit looked up at the dog-headed demon and frowned. "I'm afraid it's not a good time."
"What's not good about it? Ever since those rat demons escaped, I've been tired of staying here. Especially now that you've become human-shaped," the dog-headed demon sighed, "I hate this dog face of mine even more."