Chapter 327

The demon Li Hao sat upon was the Candle Zhu Huoshen, who was currently revealing its original form, though not fully, as if manifesting.

After all, the Candle Zhu Huoshen's original body was over a hundred zhang tall, and walking caused the earth to shake and mountains to sway; the commotion was too great.

Returning to his homeland, Li Hao had a long-lost, nostalgic feeling. Although the difference between the outside and the inside of the Great Desolate Heaven was extremely obvious, the energy wandering between heaven and earth was significantly reduced and thin, which was why it was called a barren land.

But it was precisely this "barren" scent of soil that felt as if it were buried in his bones; it was the familiar smell he had breathed since he was a child upon arriving in this world.

Very comfortable.

This comfort was not the same as the comfort during cultivation, but it made one's body and mind feel pleasant.

His thoughts crossed a thousand mountains, thinking of that Tianmen Pass, that small courtyard with the fence, the old man in the small courtyard, and that little girl holding a sword.

If there was time, he could invite that gluttonous woman again to join him for a barbecue.

Thinking of those moments of peace in the wind and snow, a slight arc appeared at the corners of Li Hao's mouth.

He let the Candle Zhu Huoshen continue forward.

Through the attributes of the Qiankun Map, Li Hao saw that the number of markers he had left behind had dropped from 100 to 96, a loss of only four battle flags.

This was the total number of battle flags he had left at Tianmen Pass. They might have been accidentally damaged, but from this number, he could roughly judge that Tianmen Pass should be safe and sound.

The Candle Zhu Huoshen carried Li Hao, flying through mid-air, with mountains, rivers, and lakes whistling past below.

Seeing those vast deep ravines and large lakes, Li Hao could sense the presence of demon auras within them, and his heart couldn't help but itch. He kept all these places in mind; these were all great spots for wild fishing.

When he returned, he could invite Old Man Feng to come along for some leisurely fishing...

At this time, Xiyan, who had transformed into a red wooden ring wrapped around his wrist, also raised a red whisker from the wooden ring, swaying in the wind like a stray hair, curiously examining the fresh appearance of this land outside the Great Desolate Heaven.

"Where are we going?"

"First, go see some old friends, then go see this world."

"Oh."

Xiyan's small red whisker extended onto Li Hao's arm so she could see everything around them more clearly.

Li Hao didn't stop her, letting the breeze blow against his face.

"Straight ahead?"

The Candle Zhu Huoshen beneath him asked in a whisper.

"You don't recognize the way either?" Li Hao was surprised.

"No impression."

"You have no impression of the entire area outside Liangzhou?"

"No impression of Liangzhou either."

"..."

Li Hao was slightly dumbfounded; it seemed Senior Yun Ge had truly wiped the memories of the couple quite thoroughly.

If this master of the Tai Xu Realm were to see his original old companions, he probably wouldn't remember them either.

"Any impression of the Tai Xu Realm?"

"A little."

"How much is a little?"

"I only remember there is a mountain there, and on the mountain, there are many little demons who fear me."

"..."

Li Hao nodded. He had heard the Tai Xu Realm had been reclusive for a thousand years; it seemed that the things branded into the roots over a thousand years still left some traces.

"Since you don't recognize the way, then just go straight. If you encounter mountains, cross them; we will eventually be able to return to Emperor Da Yu," Li Hao said.

On his return journey, he encountered some demons, and occasionally Xiyan would detect rare divine elixirs and go to collect them. Such tossing and turning caused them to deviate from the original route.

When they went to look for it again, they found they were already lost.

Within the Great Desolate Heaven, miasma was pervasive, and the terrain was similar. Li Hao himself was not particularly sensitive to routes (he had no sense of direction), but fortunately, he used his Dao Domain to break through the miasma, aimed for a direction, and used the most straightforward method, traveling in a straight line, and finally managed to walk out.

Now, he had to use this straightforward old method again and continue walking in a straight line.

As long as he entered Emperor Da Yu and asked someone, Li Hao would be able to know his orientation.

After all, he had once seen the map of the Nineteen Provinces; that was considered confidential within the Divine General Mansion, and it was only because the old man had a casual temperament that he allowed a child and youth like him to flip through it.

However, although they were lost, these few days of traveling were not without gains.

Besides traveling, Li Hao would draw upon the power of heaven and earth during his rests to heal the Candle Zhu Huoshen and Lady Yin, helping them recover their cultivation, which also attracted many demons to spy on them.

These were like mosquitoes attracted by the smell of blood. Li Hao naturally didn't miss them; he killed them all and refined their demon blood with the Sacrificial Spirit True Demon Art, then transported it to Xiyan.

These Demon King essences no longer had much effect on Li Hao.

His current physical body had been refined to an unimaginable degree and seemed to have reached a certain bottleneck; unless it was some kind of extreme super-tempering method, it would be difficult to improve.

And Xiyan's original body possessed the ability to absorb fresh blood and convert it into nutrients. Now, this specialty hadn't been lost. With Li Hao's help and the rare divine elixirs collected along the way, Xiyan's strength had also been enhanced by leaps and bounds, and her cultivation had stepped from the Dao Heart Realm of this blood body into the Fate-Reversal Realm.

In addition, her body was refined and extremely tough, reaching a strength comparable to a Five-Cast Divine Weapon.

Among peers of the same realm, even the physical body of the Dragon Clan might not necessarily be as strong as hers.

The wind whistled, and the Candle Zhu Huoshen carried Li Hao, galloping all the way, crossing over a hundred thousand miles, flying over mountain peaks coiled with demons.

These demons sensed the Candle Zhu Huoshen's Great Demon King aura and were all terrified, hurriedly bowing their heads.

As Li Hao passed along the way, he would casually flatten the mountain peaks that had residual human auras, incidentally wiping out the demons on them.

As for the other demons that fed on demons or only cultivated the clean energy of heaven and earth and lived in seclusion, Li Hao didn't pay them any mind.

As they continued to advance, gradually, Li Hao also saw battle flags and dilapidated armor hanging on tree branches on some mountain peaks along the way. He knew he was about to return to Emperor Da Yu.

Now, re-entering the Jianghu, he had no sword in his hand, nor did he need to carry one anymore.

The grass and trees of heaven and earth could all be transformed into the sharpest sword energy in his hand, severing everything.

"The Xia Clan, huh..."

Li Hao saw a tattered battle flag on a mountain peak, and his gaze flickered at the characters fluttering on it. It seemed he had arrived at the territory guarded by the Xia Clan.

Not long after, when he saw some villages scattered at the border, Li Hao immediately had the Candle Zhu Huoshen perform a demon transformation, changing from its original fire lion and dragon tail appearance into an unremarkable, bristly horse.

Otherwise, entering the territory riding a Demon King would be too arrogant, and he would instantly become a spectacle, surrounded like a monkey.

Afterward, taking advantage of the night, he landed in an uninhabited wasteland. Soon, a youth rode out on horseback, stepped from the wilderness onto the official road, galloped all the way, and arrived at a township.

There were not even magic arrays in the township, so it would be impossible to know if demons had infiltrated, but Li Hao noticed that every household had some demon-suppressing talismans hanging on them.

Li Hao scanned them and found they were all low-level demon-suppressing talismans. If ordinary little demons approached, they would burn and turn into red light, tracking the demons.

But for Great Demons, they could blow them away in one breath, making them completely useless.

The township was relatively simple, but it was night, and the town was brightly lit. He heard bursts of opera music coming from the center of town, along with the beating of gongs and drums; it was extremely lively.

Along the way, children were carrying lanterns, chasing and playing, running toward the center of town.

Li Hao's spiritual sense covered and scanned the area. He saw that besides the government office handling cases, there was also a Demon-Suppressing Division with a broken door plaque in the township. However, the entrance to the Demon-Suppressing Division seemed to be a busy market, and there were still many rotten vegetable leaves left behind by stalls on the ground.

Perhaps this was the "small but complete" nature of things.

The Demon-Suppressing Division was empty, and the two or three staff members handling cases hadn't even buttoned their clothes properly, which quite fit the simple and casual style of the township.

Li Hao smiled slightly, took out the corpse of a demon he had hunted along the way from his heaven-and-earth space, and used his power to send it into the storeroom of this simple Demon-Suppressing Division in the night. Afterward, he found a silver box under the bed of a locked house and extracted a few ingots of silver from it.

It could be considered an exchange of goods.

If they handed in that demon's head, they should be able to receive quite a few rewards.

As the few ingots of silver flew back into Li Hao's hands in the night, he found an empty alley and had the Candle Zhu Huoshen transform into the appearance of a young man. It was just that he was not like he was when he was chasing Li Hao, with divine flames burning all over his body and a powerful, eye-catching momentum, but rather he restrained his aura and hid his divine light.

But even so, the cold-faced Candle Zhu Huoshen still gave people a feeling that he was not to be trifled with.

Standing in this simple township, his unique temperament was also extremely eye-catching.

Li Hao brought him to the front of an inn and asked the waiter to prepare two sets of clothes for him and open a room.

Currently, the clothes on Li Hao's body were still the divine clothes he had constructed with power, only with the brilliance hidden, so they looked slightly more ordinary.

He planned to rest a little tonight, ask for the route, and set off tomorrow to return to Tianmen Pass.

"Guest, you are also going to Liyang City for reinforcements, right?"

The waiter's attitude was extremely polite, even somewhat respectful.

He could see that Li Hao had an extraordinary temperament, which had nothing to do with his clothes, but was purely his eyes and aura.

Coupled with the Candle Zhu Huoshen behind Li Hao, whose eyes were calm but made people afraid to look directly at him.

Although Li Hao and the Candle Zhu Huoshen both deliberately restrained themselves, they were still relatively eye-catching.

"Liyang City?"

Li Hao's thoughts stirred, and he immediately understood that he was in the territory of the Xia Clan.

This was where the Xia Clan's headquarters was located, Youzhou.

It was not far from Liangzhou.

"Reinforcements for Liyang City? Are there demons invading there?"

Li Hao asked with some surprise.

The major provinces guarded by the headquarters of the Five Great Divine General Mansions were basically the most stable and prosperous, all guarded by heavy troops, and demons dared not invade.

"You don't know?"

The waiter was stunned, but still kindly said, "Guest, listening to your accent, you are not from our Youzhou, right? If you are here for sightseeing, you had better leave quickly. Youzhou has not been peaceful lately."

"Oh?"

Li Hao's eyes flickered: "Tell me in detail."

Soon, from the waiter's mouth, Li Hao learned about the recent situation in Youzhou. Liyang City was a dangerous pass in Youzhou, on the front line of the border, but currently, it was frequently raided by demons.

Besides Liyang City, several other cities on the Youzhou border had also been attacked by demons, causing panic among the people.

And this small town was some distance from Liyang City. Previously, some young men from aristocratic families heard about the war in Youzhou and came together to slay demons, hoping to build merit and compete for fame.

"It seems the battle in Liangzhou was just an appetizer for these demons. Breaking with the Emperor Da Yu Divine Dynasty—are they planning to fight to the death?"

Li Hao's brows furrowed, and he faintly sensed a storm brewed by demons approaching the entire Emperor Da Yu Divine Dynasty.

He then asked the waiter about the situation in Liangzhou.