Chapter 28

"En, it shouldn't happen. The monsters from the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge rarely come to the county town. At the city gates and walls of Tongshan County, there are talismans that can warn us. Unless it's a powerful demon in the transformation stage that uses magic to fly into the city, that might cause some trouble!"

The innkeeper thought for a moment before replying to Zhu Lingwu, then he pondered a bit more and continued, "If this little white fox really has a powerful demon as an elder, those adventurers would hardly have survived to return. According to their accounts, the fox demon they encountered on the road was probably just at the stage of having cultivated a demon core. They lost five companions who were at the fifth and sixth levels of martial arts, while the three who escaped were at the seventh level of martial arts and used several life-saving talismans to survive. A fox demon of this strength, even if it came to Tongshan County, would only be seeking its own death. The demon-slaying crossbows we have in the city should be able to deal with these demons!"

Since Tongshan County is on the edge of the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge, it naturally has to prepare to fight against demons. Besides having aristocratic descendants like Zhu Junyan, who have the strength of the seventh level of Qi cultivation, to guard the area, ordinary soldiers are also equipped with special weapons.

One of these is the so-called demon-slaying crossbow, which is a crossbow arrow made with special methods, inscribed with runes that can penetrate the protective demonic energy of demons, causing damage. This is an official special weapon of the Da Jin Dynasty, equipped only in the aristocratic class, and commoners and poor adventurers cannot possess it.

Since this weapon also poses a threat to aristocratic cultivators, fortunately, it can only be made by cultivators, so there's no need to worry about commoners and poor families making and equipping themselves with weapons that threaten the rule of the aristocracy.

Zhu Lingwu nodded slightly after hearing this. He didn't want to cause a big fuss because of his actions. As an aristocratic descendant, he didn't need to worry, but he was concerned that this might lead to the discovery of his true identity as a soul snatcher.

Then, Zhu Lingwu's gaze fell on the little white fox. The little white fox seemed to understand the innkeeper's words, and its eyes, which had been staring at Zhu Lingwu, narrowed slightly, hiding its thoughts, as if it was thinking about something.

Zhu Lingwu's soul consciousness naturally detected the fox's subtle reaction, and he couldn't help but become curious about the little white fox's intelligence. Could this little guy really understand human speech? If so, would it be considered a spirit beast or a demon?

So, Zhu Lingwu walked a few steps to the cage of the little white fox and examined it carefully. "En, are you male or female? Can you turn into a beautiful woman? If you can, I'll let you go, okay!"

The little white fox, upon hearing Zhu Lingwu's words, immediately opened its eyes and looked up and down at Zhu Lingwu, its ears perking up slightly. But soon, its ears drooped again, its eyes flashing, and it bared its teeth at Zhu Lingwu, as if it knew that Zhu Lingwu was just lying, or rather, lying to the fox.

"Eh, it seems to understand human speech. It can't be a demon, right!"

Zhu Lingwu immediately turned to the innkeeper and asked. Zhu Lingwu naturally wasn't as knowledgeable as the innkeeper about the distinction between beasts and demons.

"En, Young Master, actually, it's hard to tell if intelligent spirit beasts like monkeys and foxes are demons. However, this little white fox doesn't seem to have any demonic energy, so it might just be naturally intelligent!"

The innkeeper was clearly unsure about the little white fox. He looked at it thoughtfully and then hesitantly said to Zhu Lingwu, "Young Master, if we sell this little white fox to the inner court, it could fetch a good price and avoid trouble for Tongshan County. Young Master, what do you think..."

"No, I'll take it. By the way, is it male or female?"

Zhu Lingwu understood the innkeeper's meaning. It seemed this little white fox was quite valuable, and the innkeeper wanted to sell it for money.

But Zhu Lingwu still felt a strange anticipation for the little fox. He even had the idea of raising a fox spirit.

"Uh, it's female. However, Young Master, for a spirit fox to cultivate to the transformation stage, it would take at least several hundred years. Although its quality is indeed good, it's not easy to become a fox demon. In fact, the alluring fox demons in legends are mostly illusions created by fox demons. Truly transformed fox demons are very rare. A demon that can transform is a super powerful demon. Even in the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge, the demon monkey king hasn't reached the transformation stage yet!"

The innkeeper, being a shrewd person, naturally understood Zhu Lingwu's hidden meaning. He couldn't help but chuckle inwardly, thinking, "He's just a child, believing those street rumors."

Unless Zhu Lingwu could successfully cultivate and reach the foundation stage, he would likely die of old age before this little white fox could reach the transformation stage and turn into a beautiful fox demon.

But the innkeeper also knew about Zhu Lingwu's innate spiritual meridian quality, which had already spread within the Zhu family. Especially the previous owner of this body, an eight-year-old child who had been struck by lightning once, "probably can only be a mortal like me, just lucky to be born into an aristocratic family."

Naturally, demons also have different cultivation stages. Like humans, they first need talent, and then they start cultivating Qi, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth.

Compared to humans, who become cultivators by cultivating Qi and building a foundation, demons need to condense a demon core in their bodies to become true demons.

With a demon core, demons can use it to absorb the essence of heaven and earth, which is hundreds of times faster than their original absorption rate.

This is like originally breathing the essence of heaven and earth through the mouth, but with a demon core, it's like using a tube to directly draw in the essence of heaven and earth, which is naturally much faster.

After that, depending on the demon's talent, after three to five hundred years, when the demon core reaches a certain level of strength, it can attract a tribulation to refine its body and transform.

Because if a demon continues to cultivate in its original form, it can only rely on the demon core to absorb the essence of heaven and earth, and then use the demon core as a conversion center to transform the essence of heaven and earth into demonic energy, which is then used to enhance its demonic body. This process is actually quite slow.

In this regard, demons are extremely envious of humans, who can use various cultivation techniques to directly absorb the essence of heaven and earth with their bodies, which is several times faster than demons.

Therefore, humans have surpassed demons and become the dominant force in this world. Of course, whether this is influenced by the rules of the Heavenly Dao is something ordinary demons cannot know.

For this reason, demons are accustomed to transforming into human form when they reach a certain level of strength, so they can use human cultivation techniques to enhance their demonic energy. After that, their cultivation stages are similar to those of human cultivators...