"Humph! At least you know what's good for you," Xiao Long said. "Besides that, I'll teach you human as aiquette. Don't worry, as long as you do well, you'll be rewarded generously."

  Hearing this, Huang Mao's eyes lit up, and he eagerly asked, "What kind of reward?"

  "A reward that will make you stronger," Xiao Long replied.

  "Stronger enough to bee a Demon General?" Huang Mao's breathing became rapid.

  "Humph! A Demon General is nothing. Follow me, and being a Demon Emperor won't just be a dream," Xiao Long said with a cold snort.

  "Re... really?" Huang Mao seemed incredulous.

  "Would the words of this Emperor be false?" Xiao Long said proudly.

  Huang Mao was so excited he could hardly speak, nodding vigorously at Xiao Long.

  His dream was to one day bee a top-tier Demon General, return to his tribe, bee a mountain king, and live out his life peacefully. He never dared to hope he could leave this pce.

  To him, even being a Demon King was unimaginable, let alone a Demon Emperor, which was legendary. But he had plete faith in Xiao Long's words; if Xiao Long said it ossible, then it was.

  "I'll first teach you the human nguage." With a thought, Xiao Long transmitted a vast amount of words and expnations through soul unication.

  Theransmitted human as, s, and more.

  Huang Mao fell into a state of ption.

  The tent of these teags was parable to a Profound-level teique. For Huang Mao to fully uand it would take at least three to five days.

  Xiao Long took out the ingredients for a Soul-Reviving Pill from his iory and also retrieved a middle-grade spirit tool alchemy furnace he had just acquired.

  He tossed the ingredients into the furnad began refining the pill.

  With the fifth level of the Azure Dragon Tome, Xiao Long found alchemy much easier. He pleted many plicated steps effortlessly, even multitasking by melting several ingredients at once. In just half a day, a third-grade Soul-Reviving Pill was successfully produced.

  Xiao Long swallowed it.

  Before long, the pill's effects kicked in, and Xiao Lo an unpreted fort in his sea of sciousness—a pleasure from the depths of his soul.

  Half an hour ter, the pill's effects were exhausted, but Xiao Long's soul power seemed unged.

  Xiao Long khat giveent of his soul damage, even a ninth-grade Emperor Pill might not be enough to repair it. Only a legendary elixir might work.

  "With my current soul power, I easily kill a mid-stage Qi densing Realm warrior with a soul needle. Against a high-stage one, I make them lose focus briefly and then kill them. But to trol a soul sve, I only manage a low-stage Qi densing Realm."

  Xiao Loimated that in his current state, as long as he didn't enter that fat Xue Wuqing, he wouldn't be in any danger.

  To be safe, Xiao Long refiwo more Soul-Reviving Pills, giving oo Xiao Bai, who also had a wounded soul. The pill was beneficial for her, and he kept the other as a backup.

  As for the higher-grade Spirit-Reviving Pill, he didn't attempt it.

  Firstly, he cked the ingredients. Sedly, the Spirit-Reviving Pill was a frade pill, and a prerequisite for refining it was nurturing it with True Qi fmes. Xiao Long could only trol basier Qi fmes for now. He would o reach the Demon General level, verting all Inner Qi to True Qi, to attempt it.

  , Xiao Long took out a rge amount of fiscated ingredients and spent three days refining several well-formed third-grade pills.

  "gxu Pill, Explosive Yuan Pill, Qi densing Pill—in this backwater try, they should be worth quite a bit," Xiao Long thought to himself.

  These three pills were his capital for earning spirit stones.

  Xiao Long gnced around the cave. Da Hei and Er Hei had finished abs human blood essence, leveling up twice to bee seventh-stage demos. Their bodies grew to five meters ih, shedding a yer of snake skin.

  In trast, he himself was still only half a meter long, like a big earthworm.

  The white fox, Xiao Bai, had disappeared after taking the Soul-Reviving Pill and hadn't returned for two days. Xiao Long didn't bother to look for her; with her strength, she could roam the demo mountains freely.

  "Huang Mao!" Xiao Long called out.

  Huang Mao quickly ran over, standing straight like a spear.

  "You've almost mastered human nguage habits, right?" Xiao Long asked.

  Huang Mao scratched his head. "I've learned about y pert."

  "Alright, put these on."

  Xiao Long took out a coat, a bamboo hat, a mask, and long boots from his iory, all found in a Fire Cloud Sect elder's ste ring.

  Huang Mao put them on, and soon, a three-meter-tall masked man with a bamboo hat stood before Xiao Long.

  Xiao Long looked him over and was fairly satisfied.

  Ape-like demos had a physique simir to humans. As long as they mimicked well, disguising as a human wasn't impossible.

  Huang Mao had a bloodline and could cultivate the Battle Saint Physique, so his prehension shouldn't be too bad. If he couldn't even disguise as a human, he wouldn't be worth following Xiao Long.

  "Show me your hand," Xiao Long ordered.

  Huang Mao extended his furry hand, and Xiao Long spat a fme of Inner Qi, burning the fur off his hand.

  "Ah! No!" Huang Mao shrank ba fear.

  "What? If you're not satisfied, I refine a Hair Removal Pill and strip all your fur," Xiao Long said.

  "No, I'm very satisfied," Huang Mao said with a forced smile. After a pause, he hesitantly asked, "Boss, what about the tail?"

  Xiao Long then noticed Huang Mao's tail was tucked under his clothes, making a rge bulge like a giant whip—far too spicuous.

  "Don't worry about it. No one will ask."

  "Uh, alright."

  Xiao Long slipped into Huang Mao's sleeve, coiling around his arm.

  "When we reach the human city, do exactly as I say. Don't speak out of turn. Any mistake could cost us our lives. Do you uand?"

  "Uood!"

  "Let's go!"

  Huang Mao took a step and disappeared from the cave entrance.

  ...

  In the dense forest, a ghostly wind blew, rustling the leaves. Faint sounds of fighting could be heard.

  In a clearing, two female disciples from the Ask Sword Sect wielded long swords, besieging a white demon wolf. The wolf's body was covered in sword wounds, its fur stained with blood.

  The two disciples weren't faring well either. One had her clothes torn, revealing a shog wound on her white skin, arength was waning.

  This was a third-stage demo, a Blood g Wolf. The more i got, the more its bloodlust was aroused. Seeing the two women falter, it became even more ferocious, its power increasing.

  "Sister Xiao Nan, attack its tail from behind. I'll use the Star Point Sword Teique to hold it off!"

  "Okay!"

  Xiao Nan dashed to the Blood g Wolf's rear, but suddenly stepped on something, losing her bahe Blood g Wolf seized the ce, swiping a cw at her head.

  "Xiao Nan!" the other disciple shouted.

  Xiao Nan realized her mistake, but at such cle, she couldn't dodge. She could only watch as the wolf's cw came at her.

  This would either kill or cripple her.

  "No!" Xiao Nan despaired.

  At that moment, a tall, imposing figure dropped from the trees, stomping on the Blood g Wolf's head, then flipping it away.

  "Get lost!" The man swung his arm, smashing the wolf with a massive tree, sending it flying and leaving it dazed and fused.

  "Die!"

  A tree came crashing down, and the Blood g Wolf's head exploded, red and white spttering everywhere—dead beyond doubt.