"The remains of this cultivator, along with his possessions, must be returned to the Lifeless Sect."

Shen Mo's gaze turned to the cultivators of the Defense Division present, and he asked, "I wonder if any fellow daoist is willing to take the trouble to go to Yu State?"

The Lifeless Sect is located within Yu State and is a neighbor to the Seven Stars Altar.

Somehow, this demon managed to escape to Qing State!

The cultivator from Thriving Gold Sect who had previously ridiculed Xu Tong stepped forward, saluted Shen Mo, and said, "Commander Shen, I have a long-standing relationship with an elder from the Lifeless Sect. I'll take care of this matter!"

Shen Mo nodded, allowing him to collect the remains and possessions and depart on his artifact towards Yu State.

"Senior Sister Chen, there's no rush to leave. I have something to discuss with you."

Xu Tong and the others, one after another, departed on their artifacts to return to Hongye City, leaving only Shen Mo and Chen Mengze behind.

When everyone else had departed, Shen Mo took out the Red Carp inner armor from his Universe Bag and handed it to Chen Mengze.

"Senior Sister Chen, it seems you don't wear inner armor."

"This Red Carp has been re-refined by me, and its quality is now exceptional."

"If you don't mind, why don't you wear it? It can block considerable offensive power for you."

Chen Mengze took the inner armor, and upon looking at it, her expression became strange.

She had seen this inner armor before; Shen Mo had chosen this item when they were dividing the spoils at the Ghost Nation Ruins.

However, its appearance had changed drastically.

Its individual plates resembled red carp scales and were quite beautiful.

However, its design had been transformed from a common inner armor into one specifically for female cultivators.

What made Chen Mengze even more embarrassed was that its size and shape seemed to fit her figure perfectly. This left her conflicted; she didn't know whether to be delighted or annoyed. Her face didn't know how to react either, so she just glowered at Shen Mo.

Shen Mo felt somewhat baffled. However, seeing Chen Mengze accept the Red Carp inner armor, he didn't dwell on it.

"Yesterday, a disciple from Riverside Sect brought the share of the Blood Silver Mine to the Defense Division."

"Together with the supplementary contributions from various subordinate powers, the number of middle-grade Spirit Stones in the Treasure Hall has exceeded two thousand."

"I am a bit worried to leave such a huge sum in the Treasure Hall. I've obtained over one thousand four hundred middle-grade Spirit Stones and plan to take this to the Defense Division's headquarters in Zhong State."

The branch was required to contribute seventy percent of its income to the Defense Division headquarters.

Additionally, Shen Mo's and the others' demon-slaying merits must also be submitted to the headquarters for verification.

For urging all parties to submit such substantial resources, Shen Mo's contribution would not be insignificant.

He urgently needed to exchange for a batch of Thunder Killing Pearls to upgrade the remaining Dao swords to high-grade.

Chen Mengze had no objections to this matter.

Neither she nor Shen Mo dared to have any greedy thoughts about this large sum.

Receiving some extra rewards was acceptable.

But if they dared to embezzle these resources, they would probably face the sect's law enforcement cultivators knocking on their doors within a few days.

"Uncle Chen should still be in Tianshan City. Is there anything you'd like me to take to him?" Shen Mo paused briefly before continuing.

"Yes," Chen Mengze nodded slightly.

Subsequently, she took out ten middle-grade Spirit Stones from her Universe Bag.

Although she had come to Hongye City to help Shen Mo, she had not come for cultivation resources.

However, during this time, when Shen Mo determined the rewards, he had allocated a significant amount of Spirit Stones to her from the Defense Division's Treasure Hall, and her gains had been substantial.

One month at the Defense Division yielded as much as a year of her usual hard work!

"Please deliver these Spirit Stones to my father. Let him buy some more Demon Suppressing Pills and Ethereal Void Pills."

"Also, tell Dad not to be stingy and buy the elixirs needed for cultivation."

"With the Demon Calamity escalating, any increase in strength is beneficial."

Given Chen An's cultivation talent, reaching the Spirit Sea Realm seemed impossible without a great stroke of fortune.

In peaceful times, it would have been a good decision for him to gather more resources, then leave the mountain, take a few concubines to give Chen Mengze more siblings, and establish a new Chen Family.

However, the Demon Calamity was currently showing an escalating trend.

Even in a core region of Zhong State like Hongye City, mutated Heavenly Demons kept emerging.

Leaving the Riverside Sect to establish a cultivation family was not a good choice now.

It was possible that just after marrying concubines and fathering children... they would be struck down by Heavenly Demons.

"Alright, I will pass the message to Uncle Chen."

Shen Mo accepted the Spirit Stones. Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, he summoned the Thunderstroke Sword and flew towards the Riverside Sect's mountain gate.

Flying directly to Zhong State on his magic artifact would be too slow.

The journey was also not entirely safe, so using a Teleportation Array was more convenient and secure.

Moreover, there was a Teleportation Array in the Imperial City, allowing Shen Mo to teleport directly from the Riverside Sect to the Capital City.

「The trip was quite smooth.」

The Defense Division headquarters was garrisoned by an Elder from each of the Five Great Sects, all at the Spirit Sea Realm. Naturally, their roles were largely nominal.

The Riverside Sect's Elder at the Defense Division headquarters was a middle-aged female cultivator named Yao Caifeng, who warmly welcomed Shen Mo.

During their conversation, Shen Mo learned that Senior Sister Yao Ting of Stars Peak was actually related by blood to Elder Yao.

Yao Ting's great-grandfather was the brother of Elder Yao's father.

In other words, Elder Yao was Yao Ting's great-grandmother.

Elder Yao's Dao companion had died accidentally early in their lives. Afterward, she did not remarry and had no descendants of her own. Consequently, she took extra care of the other descendants of the Yao family.

By this reckoning, the Yao family Senior Sister Yao Ting hailed from could also be considered a lesser wealthy sect!

After all his demon-slaying merits were verified, Shen Mo exchanged them entirely for Thunder Killing Pearls.

To his pleasant surprise, the Defense Division headquarters' Treasure Hall also allowed for the exchange of Red Heaven Gold.

Subsequently, he exchanged for a fist-sized chunk.

Combined with the spirit gold left over from reforging the Demon Slaying Sword, this was enough to upgrade the Sun Opening Sword to high-grade.

After leaving the Imperial City's Defense Division, Shen Mo did not immediately teleport back to the Riverside Sect. Instead, he waited a day before teleporting to Tianshan City.

"Flawless Dharma Eye, rise!"

Exiting the immortal workshop's Teleportation Array, Shen Mo immediately activated his Flawless Dharma Eye and gazed towards the Tianshan battlefield.

Compared to when he had left, the area covered by Demonic Qi had widened.

However, the quality and quantity of the native Heaven Demons had plummeted drastically.

Never mind late-stage or peak Class II Heavenly Demons; even the number of early-stage Class II Heavenly Demons was pitifully small.

As soon as they emerged from underground, they immediately concealed themselves and began to scatter in all directions.

It seemed the Heavenly Demon Realm of the Lower Realm had changed its strategy. Before instigating another Demon Tide, they intended to gather more intelligence on the cultivation world.

Once a native Heaven Demon demon-corrupts a cultivator, it gains all of that cultivator's knowledge and memories.

This naturally gave them a significant advantage in gathering intelligence.

Cultivators, on the other hand, seeking useful intelligence, had to capture alive a mutated Heavenly Demon that had been demon-corrupted for over twenty years.

Only from such Heavenly Demons could memories be retrieved from their Demon Soul using a Soul Search technique.

After Shen Mo had waited in the city for a long time, Chen An finally hurried over.

His dust-covered appearance indicated he had just returned from leading Body Tempering Realm disciples on a demon-slaying expedition on the Tianshan battlefield.

"Mo'er, what brings you to Tianshan City to see me? How is Mengze doing in Hongye City?"

Chen An was overjoyed and brought Shen Mo to his residence.

When uncle and nephew met, excellent spiritual wine was, of course, indispensable.

After having a cup of Dust-cleaning Wine, Shen Mo took out Spirit Stones, Elixirs, and other items from his Universe Bag and placed them in front of Chen An.

"Uncle Chen, these are the things that Mengze asked me to bring to you."

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