Zhou Hong stood aside, quietly watching them eat.
"Young Master, this dish is good, it has a faint gamey smell," one of the followers said with a smile, picking up a piece of food.
"But I feel... it tastes a bit too rank."
"Young Master, you wouldn't know, the meat of this type of demonic beast is supposed to have this flavor."
Seeing how happily they were eating, Zhou Hong almost wanted to try it himself to see if it was really that delicious. Soon, they finished eating.
"Alright, we're done eating. Where is the girl?" the second-generation official asked Zhou Hong.
"What girl?" Zhou Hong played dumb.
"You damn bastard, you're asking for death." The second-generation official got angry.
"You are the ones asking for death." Zhou Hong was no longer being polite. He felt he had been more than generous by treating them to a meal.
"Very well, you've offended me. We'll see," the second-generation official threatened fiercely and prepared to leave. He had originally planned to stay in Wumeng City for ten days to half a month and have Zhou Hong host him, but he didn't expect Zhou Hong to be so uncooperative.
"Wait, did I say you could leave?" Zhou Hong immediately blocked their path. He figured that once they left, they would definitely not let him off. It was better to not let them leave at all.
"How dare you stop me, this young master?" the second-generation official exclaimed in disbelief. With his father's official rank, let alone a mere city lord, even higher demon officials would have to serve him carefully.
"Don't act so powerful. Your father commands 500,000 heavenly soldiers, and I reckon his strength is at most that of a fifth-rank demon king," Zhou Hong said deliberately to probe, hoping to find out the strength of that Zhenlong General to better deal with future events.
"You truly are a frog in a well. Do you think a fifth-rank demon king is powerful? Listen carefully, my father, General Zhenlong, is a ninth-rank demon king."
Zhou Hong chuckled. It was just as he suspected. With this knowledge, Zhou Hong no longer feared the Zhenlong General.
Zhou Hong wondered in his mind if he could kill the Zhenlong General and seize his position as general.
In the cultivation realm, as long as one had the strength, one could seize another's official position and take it for oneself.
"Zhou Hong, it's better not to. It's meaningless and will only cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. Your most important task now is to accumulate 100,000 puppets and then gain the strength to fight a Demon Emperor. Only then can you overcome that hurdle. What's the point of you seizing a general position? It will only draw attention to you prematurely and lead to your demise," Zhou Hong's grandfather advised in his mind.
"Alright, then how should we deal with this second-generation official? If I kill him, his father will surely come looking for me. Although I have 500 puppet sword formations and can kill a ninth-rank demon king, this would expose me prematurely."
"Isn't that simple? Refine these few people into puppets, and then erase their memories of you," Suo Suo said from Zhou Hong's inner world.
Zhou Hong smiled, "Suo Suo, I'll have to trouble you again."
"Look at you, being polite with me again."
Zhou Hong immediately released Suo Suo, and then, with ease, refined the second-generation official into a puppet. Afterward, he erased his memories of Wumeng City and finally let him leave.
If it weren't for the sake of the bigger picture, Zhou Hong wouldn't have let him leave alive.