Junior Sister is skilled in subduing demons.

Chapter 204 The Steadfast Group Treasure

"Here, put it on." Anzhi took out the bamboo collar from her storage ring again and put it around Tuantuan's neck: "Tuantuan, Mommy doesn't not want you. Mommy is just worried about you, that's why I'm saying this."

Tuan Tuan remained silent, lying on the edge of the bed...

The moon rose outside the window, illuminating the straw raincoat hanging under the eaves of the innkeeper's robe, still stained with the blood of Qiang City. Anzhi touched the newly formed bronze armor on Tuantuan's paw and suddenly understood: this wound was the mark of its transformation from pet to guardian, a growth she could no longer contain with her bamboo collar…

Inside the room, candlelight cast flickering shadows on the paper windows.

Shen Anzhi sat on the edge of the bed, his fingertips gently brushing the newly grown down on Tuantuan's back. The bronze pattern on Tuantuan's chest had faded, and the bandage on its left front paw had been removed, leaving only a few shallow scars.

Like a puppy drenched in the rain, Tuantuan pressed its round body against Anzhi's legs, whimpering pitifully. It would occasionally nuzzle her wrist with its head, its dark, grape-like eyes full of dependence, completely devoid of the fierceness it had shown when it bared its teeth at the old monkey king in the Emei Monkey King Cave after starting a business with its cousin.

Looking at it like this, Anzhi suddenly recalled the scene in the bamboo forest. Back then, Tuantuan was small, and although it was mischievous, it always loved to sleep while holding her fingers, and when it woke up, it would gnaw on the bamboo strips left over from her basket weaving.

Anzhi couldn't help but chuckle, poking its chubby face with her fingertip: "It used to be so well-behaved, how come it's become more and more troublesome as it grows up?" Tuantuan seemed to understand but not quite, nudging her palm with its nose and gently hooking its paws around her sleeve.

“Sister Anzhi,” Ge Wensong pushed open the door and came in, “Sister Lingxuan sent word that the north gate of Qiangcheng is about to fall. We need to get there before midnight.” After speaking, his gaze fell on Tuantuan, who was nestled next to Anzhi, and the corners of his mouth curved into a gentle smile: “It seems that this little guy is really better.”

Anzhi nodded and patted Tuantuan's head: "Let it rest for another half an hour before we leave, let it recover a bit more."

Half an hour later,
Just as Shen Anzhi finished packing his bags and was preparing to go to Qiang City, only a messy pile of bedding remained by the bed.

"Tuantuan?" Anzhi's heart tightened. Just as he was about to take a step, he saw Ge Wensong point to the window frame and exclaim, "There she is!"

Tuantuan was clumsily climbing out of the window, its round bottom stuck in the crack, its paws still hooked on half a piece of fallen window paper. Hearing the noise, it hurriedly struggled and fell with a thud into the yard, then limped towards the backyard, making squeaking noises.

"Hey monkey, hey monkey!" Tuan Tuan's voice echoed in the empty backyard. "I'm all better! Let's go back and continue our business. My front paws are all healed!"

Anzhi chased after them to the courtyard gate, just in time to see Tuantuan clinging to the fence and shouting over the wall: "What's so special about the old Monkey King? Next time we'll bring three hundred monkeys! I've even mastered the Vajra Armor..."

“Start a business?” Anzhi’s voice suddenly turned cold.

Tuantuan shuddered in fright, her face still showing lingering excitement as she turned around. But when she saw Anzhi's expression, she belatedly swallowed the rest of her sentence, pressing her ears tightly to her head and scratching the ground restlessly with her paws.

"What kind of business?" Anzhi approached step by step, his gaze sweeping over the scars on its front paws. He suddenly remembered the rumors he had heard in Yading Village about a monkey on Mount Emei that led its herd in rebellions more than eighty times. "Did you go with that wild monkey to fight the old monkey king?"

Tuantuan lowered her head even further, letting out muffled sobs, neither admitting nor denying.

Ge Wensong quickly smoothed things over: "Sister Anzhi, look, Tuantuan has found a like-minded friend." He squatted down and rubbed Tuantuan's head, then winked at Anzhi: "Iron-eating beasts are wild by nature, letting them roam around isn't a bad thing." Anzhi looked at Tuantuan's guilty yet stubborn appearance and suddenly remembered that in the bamboo forest, it had also secretly followed the monkey troop to steal bird eggs, and when discovered, it would look at her pitifully with its round eyes.

The anger in his heart gradually subsided, leaving only a helpless sigh: "Forget it, let's go to Qiang City first."

Tuantuan secretly glanced up and saw that Anzhi didn't ask any more questions. She breathed a sigh of relief, but still followed her closely, like a little dog afraid of being abandoned.

The sound of the clapper at midnight echoed through the town, and the three people and one beast set off on the road to Qiang City. The moonlight cast long shadows of them, and Tuan Tuan walked in the middle, brushing against An Zhi's trouser leg on the left and touching Ge Wensong's boots on the right.

Anzhi glanced back at Tuantuan, who was following closely behind, and then at Ge Wensong, who was explaining the defenses of Qiangcheng in a low voice. Suddenly, he felt that the wind and snow along the way didn't seem so unbearable.

She didn't notice that as Ge Wensong spoke, his gaze would always unconsciously fall on her hand holding the sword hilt, like a gentle snowflake falling.

With the battle at the front intensifying, the Demon-Slaying Sword found, and Tuan Tuan reunited, Shen Anzhi and Ge Wensong set off for Qiang City without stopping. Unexpectedly, a heavy snow began to fall halfway there.

"The sacred mountain has fallen." Ge Wensong looked up at the sacred mountain in the clouds, where the snow had disappeared.

"Cough cough..." Suddenly, a heavy breathing sound came closer and closer from the roadside ahead, accompanied by a grating metallic scraping sound.

An Zhi looked in the direction of the sound and saw a cultivator wearing tattered armor struggling to move forward with a broken sword. His left leg was twisted unnaturally, and each step left a dark red trail of blood on the snow.

His breastplate was cracked like a spiderweb, and a few strands of blood-stained hair clung to his frozen, purple cheeks, clearly indicating that he had just broken through a fierce battle.

“It’s Shushan Sect attire.” Ge Wensong lowered his voice, his fingertips quickly tracing the Buddhist beads at his waist: “The armor has the wolf fang marks unique to the Ge people.”

An Zhi gripped the hilt of his sword and was about to get up when he was startled by the cultivator's sudden hoarse roar: "Don't go any further! The main road has been occupied. It has long been turned into a slaughterhouse. If you go to Qiang City, you will be walking into a trap."

"What should we do?" Shen Anzhi gripped the precious mirror tightly; the illusory image of Qiang City on its surface was being stained with blood. "The Black Python is still inside the city..."

"Charge!" Ge Wensong's sword flashed as he drew it: "These mere Ge people, how could they possibly block our way?"

"No!" The cultivator suddenly coughed violently, the blood and phlegm falling onto the snow like blooming red plum blossoms. "The Ge people are fierce, but it's still a conflict between humans. But the demon soldiers in Qiang City are different. They broke through the north gate last night, and I heard that Senior Lingjizi is leading righteous men to defend the Scripture Pavilion. Any later and..."

After speaking, the cultivator pondered for a moment and continued, "Listen to me, don't get entangled with the Ge people. Take the ancient Shu Road, a secret path left by the ancient Shu Kingdom, which leads directly to the back of Dragon Cauldron Mountain and can bypass all the blockades!"

Looking at the anxiety in his eyes, Anzhi suddenly remembered what Zilingxuan had said: "The Ge people are the original inhabitants of Bashu, and their grudges with the Qiang people have a long history. This time, they were used by the Demon Lord to get involved in the war."