Chang Shunping approached with a cheerful laugh. "I have good news! Those Demon Cultivators who slipped in from Wangyan Mountain last time? They’ve pretty much all been caught."

"We’ll be safe here in Qingyang for at least a month."

"Huh? Xiao, why do you look so unhappy?"

Of course Xiao Chen wasn’t happy. He’d been hoping to lie in wait for an easy target.

So much for that. Any hope he had was completely gone.

"All the Demon Cultivators were caught?"

Xiao Chen asked, still holding out a sliver of hope, "Weren’t there any who slipped through the cracks?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"And no new Demon Cultivators have snuck in from Wangyan Mountain?"

Chang Shunping thought for a moment. "I heard a whole squad snuck in. By that count, there should still be three or four left."

"But don’t worry, Xiao. You can rest completely assured."

"There’s nothing for them here in Qingyang County. Those last few Demon Cultivators aren’t stupid. They definitely won’t come here."

Great. Hearing this, the last ember of hope in Xiao Chen’s heart was finally extinguished.

After chatting for a bit longer, he saw Chang Shunping off.

Once again bored out of his mind, Xiao Chen began to wonder, ’Just where could those Demon Cultivators have gone?’

"Boss, where are we even going?"

By a rice paddy outside of Qiuping County, three Demon Cultivators disguised as resting farmers sat under an old locust tree.

One of them watched a nearby sparrow, but he was speaking to the man on his right.

The man called "Boss," Peng Dawei, seemed to be resting with his eyes closed. "Don’t be impatient. We’ll wait for an opportunity."

Another man complained, "Boss, just waiting around like this is getting us nowhere. It’s been two months since I’ve even seen a Cultivator’s Essence Blood."

"I heard the brothers down south caught a bunch of Tripod Furnaces from the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers. Their pretty faces, their figures... I hear they’re all top-notch."

At these words, Peng Dawei opened his eyes, a fiery glint flashing within them.

He’d heard that the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers practiced arts that enhanced beauty; the higher a female disciple’s Cultivation, the more beautiful she became. Thinking of his own sect’s Secret Technique of harvesting yin to supplement yang, he too felt a pang of thirst.

But he remained relatively calm and didn’t let it get to his head.

He advised, "Be patient. We’re surrounded by Lingyuan Sect people right now. If we want to get away in one piece, we have to wait for my intel to arrive."

While they were chatting idly, a stooped, elderly woman approached from the side of the road.

Upon seeing Peng Dawei, she made her way to the locust tree, lifted a coarse, blue-and-white cloth, and took a flatbread from the wicker basket hanging on her arm.

"Young man, homemade flatbread. One copper coin each. Care for one?"

Peng Dawei took out three copper coins. "Make it two more. One for each of my brothers."

After the old woman left, he immediately broke open the flatbread in his hand, revealing a slip of paper tucked inside.

Gao Changjun, seeing this from the side, was completely dumbfounded.

He had just finished swallowing his flatbread in two bites. "Boss, I... MMPH—"

Peng Dawei shoved the rest of his own flatbread into Gao Changjun’s mouth. "You useless thing! How have you not choked to death yet!"

Luckily, there was only one slip of paper with the crucial intel. The other two flatbreads were just for cover.

The other Demon Cultivator stared in shock at the old woman hobbling away in the distance. "Boss, what an incredible Concealing Breath Technique! I couldn’t sense a thing!"

Gao Changjun gulped down the flatbread. "Yeah, Boss! I thought she was just a mortal!"

Peng Dawei gave a smug smile. "You’re right. She *is* just a mortal!"

"The Lingyuan Sect is cracking down so hard right now that Sound Transmission Talismans, Communication Talismans, and Magic Swords are all too easy to expose."

"But these mortals? They can walk right under the noses of those Cultivators, and no one will give them a second glance."

After reading the intel, Peng Dawei opened his mouth and swallowed the slip of paper.

"Second, Third, you two wanted Essence Blood, right? Our chance is here."

"The Qingyang Chang Family is down to a single cultivator at the sixth level of Foundation Establishment. For the past month, he’s been leaving the family estate every few days to go to Qingyang Mountain."

Gao Changjun immediately caught on. "Let’s go ambush him on Qingyang Mountain!"

SMACK!

Peng Dawei smacked him on the back of the head. "You’re as stupid as a pig!"

"I told you last month that Cultivators are stationed at the Qingyang Spirit Ore. What the hell would you go there for?"

"Let’s go. We’ll head to Qingyang County and ambush him on his way back."