From time to time, strange but insightful words would come out of Chen Yuan's mouth, causing Yue Shan to ponder whether Chen Yuan might have a good path to follow in literature as well.

It was a pity that Confucianism had long declined, and now martial arts were flourishing.

"Then... this subordinate will take his leave!"

Seeing that Chen Yuan had no intention, Yue Shan no longer tried to persuade him and said with cupped fists.

"Mm."

Chen Yuan nodded slightly and picked up 'Spring and Autumn' again.

He, Chen Yuan, was reading Spring and Autumn!

Yue Shan turned to walk out, when suddenly a wriggling sensation on his back caused a fist-sized lizard to fall off. Just as it was about to run, Yue Shan was even faster, catching the lizard in his hand with quick eyes and hands.

"This is..."

Chen Yuan's eyes narrowed.

This isn't a good thing to play with, Yue Shan!

*Yang yin lao yi bei zhi!* (A nonsensical phrase, best left untranslated to preserve the original meaning)

Clutching the small lizard, Yue Shan explained:

"This is a little toy from Yan Qing, just taking it to play with for a few days."

"Don't be impulsive."

Yue Shan: "???"

Although he didn't understand what Chen Yuan meant, he nodded and then took his leave from the public office.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Yuan put down the Spring and Autumn in his hand, a glint flashing in his eyes. He reached out and grabbed the long saber hanging beside him, preparing to practice his swordsmanship.

It was also a way for Chen Yuan to dispel loneliness.

By pouring all his mind into swordsmanship, Chen Yuan basically had no other thoughts. Any that arose were extinguished with a single slash.

......

......

South Mausoleum Prefecture, within a certain small courtyard.

The Blood Demon Elder sat cross-legged, surrounded by strands of scarlet blood energy, emitting an eerie aura. He exhaled a long breath.

Concealing the blood energy within his body.

Opening his eyes, a sharp glint shot out. Although he was old, his physical body was not weak at all. Using demonic secret methods to refine his body allowed him to maintain youthful vitality.

Of course, the price was also enormous. His full head of white hair was a side effect.

Although he was known as the Blood Demon Elder, he was only fifty years old, but his appearance was that of an old man nearing a hundred. This was one of the prices.

Locking in his essence to prevent leakage came at the cost of his own life.

But he didn't care, because once the Five Elements Ghost Children were unified, he could step into the Profound Connection realm and transform into a ghost body, restoring his lifespan.

The future was promising!

"Knock knock knock..."

A knocking sound came from outside the door. The Blood Demon Elder said calmly:

"Come in."

"Greetings, Ancestor!"

"Greetings, Ancestor!"

"Greetings, Ancestor!"

The door was pushed open, and four Ghost Children walked tremblingly in front of the Blood Demon Elder, kneeling on the ground and prostrating themselves, their bodies slightly trembling.

It seemed that they had encountered something terrible.

"Has the whereabouts of the Ghost Wood Child been found?"

The Blood Demon Elder asked with a normal expression.

He had refined the Five Elements Ghost Children with demonic secret methods that were mutually reinforcing and restraining. As long as they were within a certain distance, they would sense each other, making their search twice as effective with half the effort.

Although he knew that the Ghost Wood Child was within South Mausoleum Prefecture, he didn't actually know the exact location.

The Blood Demon Elder's words echoed in the ears of the Ghost Children, but strangely, none of them stood up to answer. They simply kept their heads pressed tightly to the ground.

Because the Ghost Wood Child was already dead!

The location they sensed was near an inn some distance from South Mausoleum Prefecture. After searching South Mausoleum Prefecture, they changed locations.

Then, they discovered the Ghost Wood Child's decayed and incomplete corpse.

That's why they rushed back in a panic.

They wanted to run, but they knew the consequences would be severe, and the Blood Demon Elder also had ways to control them. He had left poison pills on their bodies.

They had to take an antidote every seven days, or they would suffer unbearable itching and pain, their skin festering, as if ants were crawling all over them, which was extremely uncomfortable.

"Hmm?"

Looking at the Ghost Children's reaction, the Blood Demon Elder instinctively sensed something was wrong and said sternly:

"Speak, where is the Ghost Wood Child?"

"Old... Ancestor, Ghost Wood is... dead!"

The Ghost Metal Child looked up at the Blood Demon Elder, then lowered his head again.

"What, dead!"

The Blood Demon Elder's tone rose slightly, and his face showed some anger.

The Ghost Wood Child was crucial to his breakthrough plan, how could he die!

Ghost Children couldn't be refined casually. It was necessary to find a body of the Five Elements, as well as a child born in the yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour to refine them.

In the past, he had lost a Water Child and had to spend a great deal of effort to find another one.

"The corpse is in South Mausoleum City..." The Ghost Metal Child said a location.

At the same time, he told the Blood Demon Elder about the Ghost Wood Child's decayed and incomplete corpse.

After a long silence, the Blood Demon Elder looked at the Ghost Metal Child gloomily and asked:

"Who killed Ghost Wood? Has it been investigated?"

Since the matter was beyond redemption, he could only refine another one. It was a pity that it would delay him for several years, but the person who ruined his plans had to die.

In the past, the Ghost Child died at the hands of a disciple of a Dan Realm expert, and in his anger, he directly refined that person into a human pig, which meant cutting off their limbs, leaving only a head in a jar of poison, allowing them to endure the pain of a thousand cuts.

Now it was the same!

Those who ruined his plan had to pay the price, no matter who they were.

Demons acted without regard for anything, and he was the most demonic of all demons. He had made a name for himself in Blood Province with the Condensed Astral realm, which showed the Blood Demon Elder's abilities.

The Ghost Metal Child didn't hesitate and quickly told the Blood Demon Elder what he had investigated:

"Reporting to Ancestor, the Ghost Wood Child was previously..."

Near that inn, they easily found the traces left by the Ghost Wood Child, who was using the pseudonym 'Azure Demon'!

Later, he was successfully killed by a passerby in the inn. Although he was just a passerby, they still found some traces of people related to the Ghost Wood Child.

One group was a group of disciples from the Azure Wood Sect, the second was the Cloud River Five Ghosts who had previously made a name for themselves, and the third... was the now well-known Patrol Envoy, Chen Yuan.

There were many people eating in the inn that day, so it wasn't particularly difficult to find out information about these people.

It took them several days to sort out the clues before the Ghost Metal Child and the others dared to return to report, otherwise, if they only brought back the news of the Ghost Wood Child's death, they would definitely be punished.

After listening to the Ghost Metal Child's account, the Blood Demon Elder's eyes were gloomy. He knew that if nothing unexpected happened, the person who killed the Ghost Wood Child should be one of these three groups.

Then he said in a low voice:

"Go, check their movements for me."

He was preparing to go on a killing spree, killing all those who were suspected of being involved!

If the Ghost Wood Child hadn't died, he could have been preparing to break through, but now... he could only waste several years refining another Ghost Child.

This greatly increased his troubles.

He didn't know what variables would occur in the middle, so the guy who ruined his plans had to die.

"Yes, disciple obeys!"

"Yes, disciple obeys!"

......

......

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, another two days had passed.

Chen Yuan's cultivation steadily improved, and he even relaxed a little. He had been cultivating peacefully for more than twenty days, which was unimaginable in the past.

It was as if a particularly busy person had suddenly become idle.

Chen Yuan was a little unaccustomed to it.

He always felt that because of the Destiny Altar, he had a knack for causing trouble. Even if he didn't go looking for trouble, trouble would come looking for him, but this time...

It didn't seem to be the case.

Even Chen Yuan was a little confused as to why his Child of Destiny hadn't come riding a colorful auspicious cloud... to have his life taken by him for so long?

Without destiny, where would opportunity come from?

Without opportunity, where would strength come from?

Chen Yuan didn't have the same calmness as before. He had been staying in the Patrol Division steadily, without even actively carrying out missions, because he firmly believed that destiny would come back to find him.

But now, he was a little anxious.

He even felt that there were no more Children of Destiny in South Mausoleum Prefecture for him to fleece. For this reason... he would dress up and wander around the prefectural city whenever he had free time these past few days.

He hoped that someone with no eyes would take the initiative to cause trouble.

He wasn't afraid of routines and clichés, he was just afraid that no one would come.

Unfortunately, nothing had happened for several days in a row, which made him a little disappointed. Even more so, no one with no eyes provoked him, and no one even shouted something like "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don't bully the young and poor."

And his cultivation was getting stronger and stronger. Perhaps his physical body had steadily improved a lot during this period, and the pure baleful aura output from the Blood Fiend Saber was increasing.

He was very close to the peak of baleful aura.

Once he reached the peak of baleful aura, he would have to start preparing to break through to the Celestial Astral level.

Transforming Yin Fiend Aura into Yang Astral Aura was not as simple as imagined. Fiend Aura belonged to Yin, and Astral Aura belonged to Yang. The conversion of Yin and Yang required slowly comprehending a trace of Yang Astral Aura entering the Dantian and gradually transforming it.

Or there might be some natural treasures to enhance it. In short, it would take a long time.

But Chen Yuan had a cheat... he was used to working hard, and slowly cultivating always felt like something was wrong.

Chen Yuan, who was very much looking forward to the next opportunity, decided to apply for a mission to take a chance and see if he could find a guy with destiny. If there was, that would naturally be the best.

If not, there was nothing he could do, he would just cultivate slowly step by step.

And just as Chen Yuan had this thought, the Blood Demon Elder had already obtained all his information, including the rumor that the Cloud River Four Ghosts were under Chen Yuan's command.

For some reason, he vaguely felt that this Chen Yuan was the one who killed the Ghost Wood Child!

Realizing this, the Blood Demon Elder decided to kill Chen Yuan. It was better to kill the wrong person than to let him go, and he felt even better about killing geniuses like Chen Yuan, who were young but had such potential.

That old guy Tao Qingyuan had also chased him down. Crippling Chen Yuan, whom he valued, would also be a worthwhile trip!

Killing intent swirled, and the Blood Demon Elder became murderous, thinking about how to intercept and kill Chen Yuan. Of course, he also knew about the rumors that Chen Yuan might be hiding his strength, but he didn't care.

Ridiculous,

Could Chen Yuan possibly kill him instead?