Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Don't pretend, just say it. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I think you're very nervous."

"Yes, I'm very nervous," Zuo Donglu replied calmly.

At this time, the Asura King, Feng Ying, and Xiao Yunhan also arrived, and they were the main force in dealing with the Yakshas. They also had to deal with some of the Slave Swords whose divine souls were extremely strong.

Therefore, we are now a step behind in returning.

The losses suffered by the Sword Dynasty are a foregone conclusion, and there will inevitably be worries and troubles afterward. However, it would be better to enjoy a brief period of relaxation and happiness for now.

No matter what, since the Smiling Buddha brought the Heavenly Realm people along to attack, our side is the victor.

Enjoy your happiness first, then worry about it.

"Aunt Lan'er, are you alright? How are your injuries?" Chu Mingkong asked with concern.

The moment he uttered that title, Zuo Qiuchi and Feng Ying instantly focused their subtle gazes on him.

Zuo Donglu whispered, "Balan has the power of extreme Yin protecting her."

This simple sentence means nothing to outsiders, but to those in the know, it says everything.

Balan, however, was poised and graceful. Her gaze was filled with gratitude as she shook her head and said:

"It's nothing, just a minor injury. I was almost fully healed before I even used my internal energy. The healing power of the Su Nu Gong is too strong."

Was that really our ancestor? The real deal?

Queen Ba had met with Ba Sheng before. After composing herself, she said:

“It is indeed the ancestor herself, not the ancestor transformed from the will of the scriptures, but I don’t know how she was reborn.”

"Mingkong, you must know, right? Tell me, it's a big matter concerning our ancestors, we can't keep it a secret!" Balan said earnestly.

"And tell me about your fight in Wuxiangtian as well." Xiao Yunhan pressed for details, and at the same time walked over and touched her younger brother all over to check if he had any injuries.

After the examination, I took the opportunity to keep him by my side.

Let him continue describing the situation as usual, but don't let him leave.

Chu Mingkong pondered that standing in the ruins all this time wasn't a good idea.

"How about we find another place to sit?"

"Let's go to the Sword Emperor Palace then. Before the many reconstruction matters come to a head, let's chat and relax for a while."

When the group arrived at the Sword Emperor Palace, Chu Mingkong first gave a brief introduction, recounting his encounter with the Smiling Buddha, before mentioning Grandma Basheng's condition.

Previously, Chu Mingkong could say that he was mindful of Grandma Basheng's wishes and didn't want to make a big fuss about it, but now he has nothing to worry about.

"Do you remember the strange woman I encountered at the bathhouse earlier...?"

From that strange encounter, all the way to entering the underworld, and Basheng's "hatred of life" mentality.

The women from the Sword Dynasty now know the whole story.

Even now, Empress Ba finds it unbelievable that Ba Sheng's status in the Sword Dynasty surpasses that of all gods. The gods in folk legends are not as respected as the first empress in the hearts of the people.

The descendants of the Ba family naturally held this ancestor in even higher esteem.

Her emotions were fluctuating:

"Ordinary people revere their ancestors as guardian deities who protect them and bring them peace. Little did they know that their ancestors have truly been protecting us all along."

Balan didn't continue with her sentimental remarks; instead, she teased:

"When Mingkong was keeping us in suspense, he said that a mysterious person might make a move, and I wondered if it was possible that the power of our ancestors would reappear."

But I never expected it to be the ancestor himself!

Feng Ying stretched, her gaze falling on Balan, who had been frequently expressing her affection for her man. She said:

"You can only enter the underworld through a bath? Let's go take a bath together now, I wonder if we'll have a chance to go in and see what the underworld looks like?"

-----

(P.S.: When visiting relatives, I inevitably get asked about my work, and especially about the novels I write. It's a really difficult question to answer...)

Chapter 115 Burying Hands

The last time a scene involving a multi-person bathroom seemed to have occurred was when Jin Yu "poisoned" the elders, causing everyone to suffer from food poisoning.

However, this time it's different. Chu Mingkong and Empress Ba are still a bit too far apart in terms of relationship, so how could they just take a bath together naked?

He made an excuse that he was in a hurry to go back and see his baby, thus ignoring the matter that Feng Ying had stirred up.

After parting ways with Balan and Queen Balan, Chu Mingkong gathered with the women and sensed that Feng Ying had something to say.

"Fengying, did you discover anything else while dealing with those people? You've been trying to make things difficult for me from the very beginning, hoping to 'end the meeting' as soon as possible~"

"Does this mask count as a discovery?" Fengying took out a stack of Yaksha masks, about ten in total.

These are the spoils of war; the women all put them with her for collection.

Considering that some of them were shattered along with their masks by a single slap from the Asura King, there were probably a few more to go.

"There should be more than this, right?" Chu Mingkong felt that this was not a particularly special discovery and not worth Feng Ying mentioning.

“Indeed, there are more. Follow me.” Feng Ying waved, signaling everyone to follow.

Xiao Yunhan was somewhat displeased with her keeping things a secret, but she still followed Feng Ying to the outskirts of the Sword Dynasty with Zuo Qiuchi and the others.

As they approached their destination, Zuo Donglu keenly sensed the unfamiliar aura of the foreign race:

"It smells like a fox, a bit unpleasant..."

Before Su Nu had even returned her body to Yun Nongyu, she sniffed with her delicate nose and immediately made a judgment:

"The mixed smells and aromas of the herbal remedy are so numerous that there are hundreds of them."

The people were no longer naive children; they immediately understood what it meant.

"Isn't there a more accurate number for this 'hundreds'?" asked the guide.

Su Nu paused, removed the veil from her jade-like face, and carefully examined the aura within. On her usually expressionless face, a rare look of disgust and aversion appeared, as if she were smelling a stench even worse than that of a corpse.

After a while, she put her veil back on and said with certainty:

"Over nine hundred."

If you ask her to specify the exact number, Su Nu will refuse.

After walking several dozen more steps, the group finally saw the creature that Fengying had discovered—a fox woman, a hybrid fox woman with spider compound eyes on her forehead.

While Rokuma's strength is undeniable, the "quality" of her tail and her mixed-race features suggest that she comes from an ordinary background, and that her parents did not have any outstanding bloodlines.

Feng Ying explained the fox woman's origins, his tone quick and clear:

"I noticed this fox woman while I was traveling around helping various parties. She had been hiding on the edge of chaos, observing. I took advantage of her unpreparedness, subdued her, and knocked her unconscious. She also had a Rakshasa Society mask on her face."

Her actions suggested she was like a hidden soldier lying in wait, yet hesitant to strike.

Chu Mingkong knew the origin of this fox woman, or rather, he had a general understanding of her. She was the fox-tailed woman who had used her seductive arts to test his "mount" at the Rakshasa Gathering!

This is truly bizarre; even peeking from the edge was detected by the Wind Shadow, who then launched a sneak attack and subdued him.

She seemed so arrogant back then, but it turns out she only dares to act tough "online." When she's "offline," she's a completely different person.

However, his strength on paper is indeed quite good, with an early stage of the eighth rank in the Five Elements cultivation, but his soul cultivation is only around the fifth rank.

Chu Mingkong shared what he knew about her:

"This woman is indeed from the Rakshasa Society, but she was planning to use the Rakshasa Society's convenience to enter the Heavenly Domain. This time she should just be here to observe and didn't dare to make a move."

Zuo Donglu hadn't seen the fox woman much in the Sword Emperor Dynasty, and was even more curious after hearing Su Nu mention "more than nine hundred cultivation experiences".

With a flick of her jade-like hand, she removed the fox woman's clothes to examine the "magical tool" used for cultivating the art of sexual intercourse.

Hmm, unlike the weathered black I imagined, this fleshy lotus is quite pink, but the pink is unnatural; if you look at it for a few more seconds, it looks unreal and fake.

But these are all secondary...

"This hybrid is so weirdly mixed up! Why does it have spider fangs in its mouth? I've only ever seen people use poison before, never seen one with fangs!" Chu Mingkong couldn't help but complain.

The women were also greatly surprised.

Normally, the spider's fangs could be hidden, but now that she had been knocked unconscious by the wind shadow, the fangs were unconsciously exposed.

No wonder there are so many cultivators in the Hehuan Sect who practice sexual cultivation, yet she stands out from the crowd. It turns out that her tools for committing crimes are inherently unique!

Even though he used his internal energy to guard against her poisoning, he couldn't withstand her biting fangs.

The older sister, Xiao Yunhan, stared sternly at her younger brother and warned him:

"Mingkong, you're not allowed to touch this kind of woman!"

These words were unanimously agreed upon by the girls, and their pressure-filled gazes all fell on Chu Mingkong.

He could only raise his hands in surrender, explaining to himself, "I do have my bottom line!"

Zuo Qiuchi subconsciously wanted to kick the prisoner a few times, but remembering what Su Nu had said earlier, she felt that even touching him would mean having to change his shoes, so she silently withdrew her leg.

"What should we do with this fox spirit? Kill her?"

Chu Mingkong wanted to shake his head, but fearing the girls might misunderstand and think he really had feelings for this fox spirit, he decided to let her off the hook and explain before any misunderstanding arose.

"No, but let me explain in detail first. My master's wife and the Asura King both said that the Rakshasa Society's referral channels are problematic, and we shouldn't try to make contact. But I haven't been able to get specific details from them. In other words, is there any way to have this fox woman experience it for us?"

What he wanted was for this fox woman to scout ahead.

Ideally, we should report back to them the situation after she enters the "passage" and heads to the Heavenly Realm without her knowledge, as if we had installed a miniature camera, but we don't have that kind of technology here.

The more plausible explanations are that they would tamper with the fox woman's soul.

“These are not within our capabilities; the Sword Dynasty does not possess such abilities,” Zuo Donglu said.

"What about our ancestor Basheng? Didn't she capture the Smiling Buddha and Wu Yiling to search their souls? Does she have any means to do so?"

"There shouldn't be any. Searching and surveillance are two different things." Chu Mingkong had some knowledge in this area, having "learned" it from Qing Ning.

Su Nu plucked a strand of her own hair, spun it into a needle, and pierced the fox woman's nape.

"This method can barely achieve the effect of surveillance, but it can only tell you when she will die; it's hard to say what she will encounter."

This is a good solution, since we have no other choice anyway.