Follow the path of Dao from infancy

The person was none other than the foodie from the cold pond, the Water Qilin, Song Qiumo.

How did she come here?

Li Hao remembered that she seemed to have promised the founder of the Tan Palace Academy, an ancestor of the Song Family, to guard the Tan Palace and not leave lightly.

But now.

This place was thousands of miles away in Liangzhou.

At this moment, under the watchful eyes of the others, Song Qiumo, dragging two demons behind her, each the size of a small hill, slowly approached the mountain pass.

Seeing Li Hao's stunned expression inside the camp, she smiled, and the cold wind around her seemed to become warmer and brighter.

"What, an old friend comes over, and you don't welcome them?"

Song Qiumo said with a light laugh.

The sound of her voice, like clear spring water, snapped everyone back to reality.

Li Hongzhuang and Li He looked at Li Hao in shock. As members of the Li Family who had grown up in Qingzhou City, how could they not recognize the Great Demon King of the Tan Palace Academy!

Only, this Qilin Demon King had actually come for Li Hao?

As far as they knew, this Qilin Demon King hardly ever left the mountain.

Li Hao came back to his senses and immediately broke into a smile, "Wait for me to deal with this one, then I'll come to greet you."

He was still holding onto that giant frog demon after all.

However, the arrival of Song Qiumo had blocked the giant frog's escape route as it desperately tried to crawl out of the camp. With its fat and bulky body trembling on the ground, it didn't dare to struggle anymore.

With two Four Stands Realm powerhouses nearby, even if it could break free from the grip of the young child, it would not escape the attack of the Four Stands Realm.

The giant frog's heart was filled with despair and hatred towards Li Hao. Its only hope at the moment was that by serving the Human Race, it could somehow be spared...

"Need help?"

Song Qiumo glanced at the giant frog. Her casual question made the fat on the frog's body tremble, sweat oozing out like starch, and it stammered:

"Elder, I was wrong, please spare my life. I am willing to be a beast of burden; you can command me to do anything, I..."

Before it could finish speaking, Li Hao had already started to reel it in, pulling its body back.

His arms possessed the colossal strength of tens of thousands of pounds, enough to drag the body of the giant frog.

The giant frog's feelings at this moment were complex and conflicted.

To struggle, or not to struggle?

If it struggled, it meant it still had the will to resist.

If it didn't struggle... but it felt like it would die!

Ultimately, after a fierce inner conflict, its body remained prostrate and motionless, letting Li Hao drag it back, creating a long trail of friction marks on the ground.

"Young man, I meant no offence; it was all that old dragon's doing. I have cultivated for thousands of years, doing good deeds, and being kind and helpful, I..."

The giant frog was pulled in front of Li Hao and faintly realized that its life hung on the whims of the young man before it. It began to plead desperately.

Li Hao smiled and said, "Do you have a Cultivation Technique?"

"?"

The giant frog was taken aback and then said, "I do have one, but the Cultivation Techniques of us Demons are only suitable for ourselves, and the techniques of each race are somewhat different. For example, I have become refined by swallowing the essence of the sun and the moon and absorbing the power from the marshlands of the earth..."

"If you have one, let me take a look."

Li Hao interrupted it.

The giant frog looked at Li Hao doubtfully and hesitated a bit, "I don't have the technique on me, you can accompany me to my home..."

"Give it to me now," Li Hao said calmly.

The giant frog trembled all over, sensing the killing intent of the young man. It was filled with indignation inside, but only hesitated slightly on the surface before smiling awkwardly, "I just remembered, I seem to have a scroll on me."

As it spoke, it opened its mouth, and its tongue rolled out a large scroll of Cultivation Technique covered in mucus.

Li Hao waved his hand casually and, with the power of Object Control, stripped the mucus off and then drew the Cultivation Technique aside.

After doing all this, he smiled briefly and then suddenly picked up the Pighound Sword and charged ferociously at the other party.

The Fishing Experience had just been fully harvested, and even if he let the creature go now, fishing for the same prey again would be futile.

The experience gained from repeatedly fishing for the same prey was minuscule.

Seeing Li Hao suddenly burst forth with murderous intent, the giant frog's eyes also revealed ferocity and anger as it roared, "It's all your fault, even if I die, I will eat you!"

It knew there was no hope of escape and had been harboring the thought of killing Li Hao when it was being dragged along.

At that moment it opened its mouth wide, and a vast cloud of poison mist sprayed out, but the poison mist was blocked by a glimmer of water—it was Song Qiumo who made a move.

Immediately after, a segment of water surged into the mouth of the giant frog, and in an instant, the frog's body suddenly swelled and started to inflate.

Then, it let out a scream as arrows of blood shot out from its eyeballs, and blood spurted from other parts of its body too. Its swelling flesh rapidly deflated amidst the spray.

Li Hao, not wanting to be stained and dirty his clothes, stopped in time.

Before long, the body of the giant frog was completely shriveled, with its eyeballs also shrunken and wrinkled, as if it had been soaked in water for months.

Li Hao turned to Song Qiumo, feeling both impressed and helpless, "I could have handled it myself."

"Look at you blame me," Song Qiumo couldn't help but laugh.

Li Hao scratched his head, realizing his words were out of line, "My apologies, I owe you thanks for today."

"No need to apologize. Even if I hadn't come today, you would have been unharmed."

Song Qiumo glanced at Feng Boping above the clouds and said, "I thought you were having a hard time, but I didn't expect that others were looking after you. It seems my arrival wasn't so timely."

Li Hongzhuang and Li He both secretly thought as expected, this Great Demon King indeed came for Li Hao.

Li Hao quickly said with a smile, "That's not true at all. Without you, those Great Demons would have escaped. Speaking of which, how did you get here? Were you just in combat with that Dragon Lord?"

"That old dragon was spying from the side. I wanted to launch a sneak attack but he was too vigilant," Song Qiumo said, her expression a bit regretful. "Still, that old dragon is as strong as I am, and it would be difficult to capture him. If it weren't for another person here, he probably would have engaged with me properly."

Feng Boping smiled lightly and said, "You're too modest."

Song Qiumo gave him a look and suddenly recognized Feng Boping's identity, surprise flashing in her eyes. She glanced at Li Hao and couldn't help but smile.

This guy, he really dares to make friends with anyone.

"I'm here to deliver a swordsmanship manual to you,"

Song Qiumo said.

"Deliver a swordsmanship manual?" Li Hao was surprised.

"Have you forgotten? You are a titular teacher at Tan Palace Academy. According to our previous agreement, once you have completed your teaching, you can receive the peerless technique of the Tan Palace."

Song Qiumo's figure floated over and landed before Li Hao.

A delicate orchid fragrance filled the air, as if the scent of fresh fruits wafted all around.

Li Hongzhuang and Li He felt a slight shock in their hearts and a sense of oppression that involuntarily tensed their bodies, but knowing that the other party had no ill will, they immediately relaxed.

"But I only taught two classes..." Li Hao said.

Before he could finish speaking, Song Qiumo flipped her palm over and pulled out a sword manual from seemingly nowhere.

Li Hao glanced at the name; it was indeed the peerless technique of Tan Palace, the Taiji Qiankun Sword.

"The Palace Master said to tally the remaining classes for now. When you have time, you can go back and teach," Song Qiumo said with a smile.

Li Hao looked at the sword manual and fell silent for a moment.

Back when he was teaching at Tan Palace, he was known throughout Qingzhou City as an unparalleled genius, yet Tan Palace set many conditions.

Now that he had fallen into misfortune beyond Heaven's Gate, they had crossed thousands of miles to gift it to him.

"Thank you."

Li Hao said and took the sword manual.

Li Hongzhuang and Li He's eyes narrowed slightly. They could tell from Song Qiumo's words that she seemed to deliberately let them hear that the gift of the sword manual did not represent any personal ties between Tan Palace Academy and Li Hao, but was purely due to his status as a titular teacher.

Currently, Li Hao's relationship with the Li Family was extremely poor. Helping Li Hao was not something that would win the Li Family's favor; rather, it could easily backfire.

Yet, despite the risk of offending the Li Family, they gifted a peerless technique. Tan Palace's intentions and attitude towards Li Hao were quite clear.

Li Hongzhuang looked at Li Hao. She had been maintaining the defense of the town at Heaven's Gate Pass for many years without strong reinforcements, yet on the second day of her nephew's arrival, two Four Stands Realm figures had appeared to protect him.

She didn't recognize Feng Boping in the clouds above, guessing that he must have concealed his true identity.

But for the Water Qilin of Tan Palace, who wouldn't come down the mountain for trivial matters, to actually travel thousands of miles to come here was simply incredible.

What magic did this child have to make these two figures value him so much?

Was it because of the Li Family?

She had a feeling it wasn't.

Li He stood to one side, his expression solemn, silently noting these events to report back to the Duke.

Since the end of the battle in Northern Yan, Li Tian Gang had been promoted from a second-class marquis to a third-class duke in one sweep, raising his status even higher.

In the Li Family, only the older generation had managed to accumulate the status of a duke.

And basically attaining a first-class duke was considered reaching the peak, with any further ennoblement being extremely rare.

Advancing to the even higher rank of Divine Marquis was even more improbable, and aside from the national Divine Generals, it was practically never bestowed.

Li Junye, over a decade ago, saved Cangzhou from being overrun, rescuing hundreds of cities and their people, and was only promoted from a captain to a marquis in one go, which was already considered an unprecedented cross-spanning ennoblement in history.

If Li Junye had been a marquis at that time, he might have been ennobled to the rank of duke, but he started from too low a point, making a meteoric rise.

Watching the two Four Stands Realm figures before him, Li He suddenly felt somewhat out of place, as if he was superfluous.

Moreover, having witnessed Li Hao's combat strength, he felt that his protective role was genuinely not significant.

"Isn't there supposed to be a city here?"

Song Qiumo asked with her hands clasped behind her back, surveying the surroundings curiously.

Li Hao put away the sword manual and forced a smile, "The city was destroyed."

While speaking, he noticed the peacock that was barely breathing and quickly condensed his True Force into a fishing hook, casting it out and hooking it onto the creature's head, and violently pulling it towards him.

[Fishing Experience +2820]

Wow, that's quite a lot.

Li Hao couldn't help admiring to himself.

He had just finished pulling the giant frog ashore, which was essentially fishing it onto land, and had gained around eight thousand experience points.

Now, this peacock demon that Song Qiumo had battered was very easy to "fish" and still retained a third of the experience, which was already quite considerable.

If he were to fish on his own for an Immortal Great Demon, he could earn a total of roughly ten thousand experience points.

His fishing experience, which had initially been over twenty thousand, had now reached about thirty-five thousand.

If he fished another Immortal Great Demon, he would almost level up to the Sixth Stage.

"You kid..." Feng Boping saw that Li Hao was even fishing the nearly dead and couldn't help feeling somewhat speechless.

Li Hao gave an awkward smile. If not for the sake of experience, as a fisherman, he himself found this act somewhat disgraceful.

"I'll find some paper later to make do. The corpse of this great demon must not be wasted; it needs to be drawn," Li Hao thought to himself.

The conditions here were rough and not suitable for painting, but the corpse of an Immortal Great Demon was valuable for accumulating Painting Experience and was too precious to be squandered.

"So tragic,"

Song Qiumo exclaimed upon hearing Li Hao's words and raised her eyebrows slightly but said nothing more.

"Are you hungry after traveling such a long distance?" asked Li Hao.

Song Qiumo replied with a smile, "There are no little pastries here."

"I can make some for you,"

Li Hao said with a smile, but then remembered something and added, "However, there are no materials here, so you'll have to help gather some first."

"I think you want to take the opportunity to have me gather a batch for you, so you can benefit from it too," Song Qiumo had already seen the basic conditions of the place, where food and drink depended solely on the corpses of demons.

Caught out, Li Hao's face reddened slightly, "Share the blessings, right?"

"And what about the hardships?"

"I'll handle them,"

Li Hao said with a smile.

Song Qiumo gazed at him for a moment, then burst into laughter, her chuckle as pleasant as the sound of bells.