By the time the ancestral master was thanked, the sky was nearly bright.
I wonder if that husky I caught woke up yet?
Jin Xu, with a small incense burner in his left hand and three uneven sticks of sandalwood incense in his right, passed through the small door behind the grand hall.
Head down, he walked toward his own room.
When he lifted his head.
Huh?
He saw a girl with short gray hair standing at the kitchen door, dressed in an unidentified animal skin robe, wearing boots of the same material.
Her face looked serious, her beautiful eyebrows furrowed tightly, her light brown eyes intently staring at Yaoer standing in front of her.
Suddenly, the short-haired girl sniffed, joy appearing in her brown eyes. She pushed past Yaoer blocking her path and ran toward Jin Xu at the door.
"I remember your scent, you're the person who pulled me here while I was eating," she declared.
Jin Xu swore, he had really just wanted to catch a fish he liked to eat, who knew he would end up hooking a husky.
Before Jin Xu could even open his mouth to explain.
Yaoer, wearing a golden-red silk dress, also came over.
Looking anxious, she said,
"Young Master, I couldn't keep her in check, her cultivation is higher than mine, and it seems she specializes in body cultivation."
"It's okay, I… oh fuck, what are you doing?!"
Jin Xu was still figuring out how to explain to Yaoer.
The short gray-haired girl suddenly knelt on one knee, placing her hands in front of her mouth. She gently opened her lips and spit out a gray-white bead, which caused the temperature around to drop suddenly.
Then, she held her hands in a presenting gesture, offering it up to Jin Xu.
"Please accept my Demon Core."
Jin Xu was dumbstruck, this wasn't some dramatic saga, why was everyone kneeling and proffering items? In his excitement, he had crushed all three sticks of sandalwood incense in his hand.
Ancestral masters, I apologize.
"You should rise first."
"If you won't accept it, I won't get up!"
Jin Xu, hearing this, thought, moral blackmail?
He stepped around the kneeling girl to a stone table, placed the small incense burner on it, and scattered the crushed sandalwood inside it.
After sitting down, he first sent a meaningful glance to Yaoer standing by and then spoke calmly,
"Then kneel if you must."
Now it was the turn of the short gray-haired girl to be perplexed. Standing up didn't seem right, but neither did staying down.
Yaoer, standing on the side, looked at the gray-haired girl and then at the glance her young master had sent her.
She blinked her big clear, yet slightly dim-witted eyes,
and quietly sat down opposite her master.
"I meant for you to help her up!"
Jin Xu, seeing Yaoer sit down in front of him, felt utterly drained.
Servant-master Maturity -1.
"Ah, I thought you wanted me to ignore her."
Yaoer walked over again, helped the gray-haired girl up, and brought her to the table.
"Sit."
The gray-haired girl sat down grudgingly, still holding her Demon Core.
"Could you put away the Demon Core first? It's rather cold."
Having said this, Jin Xu then turned to Yaoer and, not daring to just send a glance, directly spoke,
"Go brew some tea with the leftover leaves in my master's room, and don't add anything extra!"
"Right away, Young Master." Little Yu scurried off to make tea, eager to leave the chilly room as she wasn't a body cultivator.
"Tell me, why must you insist I accept your Demon Core?"
......
Two quarters of an hour later
"So, it was because of what your father said that you did this," Jin Xu said, holding his teacup.
The girl with short gray hair was a "traverser," of course, different from Jin Xu. She came from one of those small worlds attached to the Nine Provinces Realm. She hailed from the Snow Wolf Clan. Before "crossing," her father had given her numerous warnings, worried that his somewhat slow daughter wouldn't remember.
She could still vividly recall that scene now.
On an altar made of blue ice, a burly man over two meters tall said to the girl with short gray hair.
"Fei'er, you must remember, after successfully breaking through the realm, find and follow the first person whose scent you smell."
The girl with the short gray hair was eating a fish, nodding along as she responded.
"Um, yeah, er, Hic~"
Yu Yaoer picked up the teapot and refilled everyone's teacups.
She had now adapted well to her role as a maid.
She then asked curiously, "The Snow Wolf Clan? My grandma mentioned that a thousand years ago, you should have lived in He State, right?"
"He State? Isn't the current Nine Provinces Realm only comprised of Central State, Ling State, Qing State, Miao State, and Yu State?" Jin Xu inquired.
"It was a thousand years ago, young master. My grandma said, the sacred land of the Demon Clan, the Demon Country, used to be in He State, but it was shattered during the great war between immortals and demons a thousand years ago."
"I've never heard of He State; since I was born, people of our clan have called the place we live the Demon Realm." The girl with the short gray hair explained the confusion for both of them.
"I see." Jin Xu felt like he had gained a bit more understanding of this world unintentionally, yet it also seemed like there was even more unknown.
"By the way, we've been talking for so long, but I still don't know your name," Jin Xu looked at the girl with short gray hair and asked, before taking a sip of his tea.
"My name is Xue Zhongfei."
"Pfft, kukuku, kukuku."
Poor Yu Yaoer got sprayed with tea again by Jin Xu.
She blinked her big eyes that revealed a bit of silliness, unsure of what had just happened.
"What's wrong?"
Xue Zhongfei didn't understand.
"No worries, pfft, kukuku, your name, your name, haha haha, your name is quite warm," Jin Xu barely held back his laughter.
Unfortunately, he wasn't trained professionally.
Ultimately.
He decided to keep this "down jacket,"
After all, a demon named Xue Zhongfei who also happens to be a husky is rare.
Jin Xu gave Xue Zhongfei a nickname, called Little White, which was also pretty bad, but he thought it sounded much better than Xue Zhongfei!
Mainly for his own convenience; he was worried he might burst out laughing at some critical moments later on.
He then shared his current predicament with Little White, mentioning that he had just offended ancestral figures from two local major powers yesterday, and was most likely still in a state of being hunted.
The future was uncertain, life and death worrying.
Little White expressed that even if he died now, she would stand by his grave.
Jin Xu thought the kid might be a bit slow, stubborn.
But seeing her determination, he didn't say anything more.
Now that Little White's issue was sorted, they needed to figure out how to find his master. It wasn't right to keep floating in the sky.
The three of them discussed it.
Well, actually, mainly Yu Yaoer made the suggestions, Jin Xu made the decisions, and Little White just listened.
Despite the Little Fish Demon's usual unreliable cooking, she had been cultivating for over two hundred years, though she spent most of that time in her Water Mansion studying culinary arts. But who could blame her when her grandmother is the Shui Clan Elder? She still had some insight.
"You suggest we go to the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty?"
"Yes, grandma said although the national power of the Great Xia Dynasty has weakened, it's still much safer than those major states controlled by Immortal Sect sects. If we want to avoid the Qingmu Academy and White Emperor Pavilion's scrutiny and find a safe environment to seek clues about your master, then the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty is the best choice,"
Jin Xu looked at Yu Yaoer in surprise, not expecting such well-reasoned words to come out of her mouth.
Little White sipped her tea on the side, nodding vigorously, not sure if she had understood.
With a target set, it was time to act; Jin Xu had always been proactive. He checked the records inside Xuanxu Temple and confirmed the route to the Great Xia Dynasty.
After floating in the sky for a whole day, they finally decided it was here.
Inside the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty, outside Gusu City in Ling State, on an unknown small mountain over two hundred li away!
Jin Xu, with Yu Yaoer and Little White, settled down here.