After transmigrating, I made a name for myself through my culinary skills.

Inside the Demon Spirit Fortress on the Western Continent, Yan Ming listened to his subordinates' reports with his eyes closed and his face expressionless, making it impossible to tell whether he was listening or sleeping.

When he heard Gui Cang say that a Demon-Devouring Lion had appeared in Jiangzhou, Yan Ming slowly opened his eyes and stopped playing with the skull.

"You mean, not only did the Demon-Devouring Lions appear in Jiangzhou, but two of them appeared at the same time?"

His voice was calm, yet it carried a chilling undertone.

Gui Cang knelt on one knee with his head down, not daring to look up at him: "Yes, and the cultivation of these two Demon-Devouring Lions is not low. It is precisely because of this that all my brothers perished there."

He made no mention of how he disregarded the lives of his subordinates and abandoned his ammunition to escape.

Yan Ming moved his foot, signaling the maid to stop massaging his legs. The maid obeyed and knelt obediently to one side, waiting for her master to need her again.

"After the Demon Emperor's incident, the Demon-Devouring Lions also disappeared without a trace. No one has seen them for nearly a thousand years. It's such a coincidence that they have appeared at this critical moment, and there are two of them."

Gui Cang lowered his head and said humbly, "It seems to be a mother and child. One of them is a young man's spirit pet. He is only at the Nascent Soul stage. I don't know what opportunity he had to take the Demon-Devouring Lion as his spirit pet."

Seeing that no voice came from above, Gui Cang raised his head and asked cautiously, "My lord, are you going to meet them?"

Yan Ming stared at Gui Cang with his completely black eyes. Despite the freezing weather, Gui Cang's forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

His little thoughts were written all over his face, but Yan Ming didn't expose him. "Hmm, I'll go take a look."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Ming transformed into a wisp of black mist and disappeared from the spot.

After his superiors left, Gui Cang stood up, a sinister smile playing on his lips. These humans dared to hurt his brothers; they would surely make them pay for their crimes in blood.

"You failed in your task this time. Remember to go to Blood Skull to receive your punishment."

Before Gui Cang could even wipe his smile away, Yan Ming's voice came from the air. Upon hearing the content, his smile froze on his face.

The thought of Blood Skull sent a chill down even through a ruthless demon like Gui Cang. That place was a true hell on earth, where demons who carried out executions devoured people without spitting out the bones, and when they got angry, they didn't care whether you were one of them or not.

He figured he'd be spending the next two weeks in bed. Thinking of this, Gui Cang's hatred for Ye Lan and the others deepened; he wished he could skin them alive immediately.

Winter has officially arrived in the South.

The north wind howled, and heavy snow fell, covering the wasteland. From a high vantage point, it was mostly a vast expanse of white land.

Ye Lan has been busy these past few days, as he and everyone else have been tracking down the third wave of demons they encountered.

Last time they went out of the city, Jiang Ning invited Zhang Liangxing and Zhang Liangye to go with him. The two of them, along with many Jiangzhou guards, had already wiped out two groups of demons.

When they caught up with the second wave of demons, they were about to start massacring the village. Fortunately, Ye Lan and his group arrived in time and prevented the demons from harming the villagers in the slightest.

Zhang Liangxing arranged for his younger brother to lead a group of people to send all the villagers back to the city, while he continued to follow the others, traveling day and night to track down the demons.

During this period, Xiaobai and Baiwu were the biggest beneficiaries, as the demonic energy enhanced their strength, and Ye Lan also enjoyed many benefits as a result.

Ye Lan's cultivation level is now approaching the late stage of the Nascent Soul stage. If this pace continues, she might be able to break through to the Divine Transformation stage next year, becoming the fastest person to advance to the Divine Transformation stage in the entire Southern Continent.

Before it even got dark, Little White sensed the presence of the demons. It ran ahead, with Ye Lan and the others following behind on their flying swords. But the more they walked, the more uneasy they felt.

They have now left the territory of Jiangzhou and arrived at the border of the Western Continent. The ground has changed from desert to a continuous stretch of red boulders. There is no snow here, and the view from above is especially spectacular.

Why did Ye Lan sense that something was wrong?

That's because just as they were about to catch up with the demons, the demons sped up and left them behind. When they were about to lose them, the distance gradually closed again, as if they had deliberately lured them here.

Thinking this, Ye Lan called out to Xiao Bai and explained the situation to everyone. The others didn't have as strong a sense of the demons as Xiao Bai, and they still thought it was a normal pursuit.

Just as Ye Lan and the others were about to discuss countermeasures, the demonic aura completely vanished. He frowned slightly, wondering how the other party had left so easily.

To confirm whether the other party had really left, this time they switched to Big White to search. They searched for half an hour, but did not find any demons within a hundred kilometers.

Unable to detect any other demons, the group began their journey back, intending to return to the city before nightfall.

On their way back, they encountered several cultivators from the Western Continent. These cultivators were dressed strangely and looked at Ye Lan and his companions with great vigilance.

Ye Lan and the others were also on guard against them, but none of them wanted to cause trouble at this juncture, so they simply flew past on their flying swords.

Only after the group disappeared from sight did the cultivators from the Western Continent breathe a sigh of relief. The Western Continent had been quite turbulent recently, with several groups of bandits appearing due to the scarcity of resources.

They had just seen these men approaching menacingly and feared that they were unlucky and had encountered robbers.

If Yun Zhi knew that she was almost mistaken for a robber, she would definitely complain loudly: "Look at how they're dressed, who's robbing whom?"

Because of the two Demon-Devouring Lions, the threat to Jiangzhou has decreased significantly. However, the situation is more critical in other major cities of the Southern Continent, with Jingzhou being the most severely affected by the demonic attacks.

Upon receiving this news, Jiang Ning immediately decided to return to Jingzhou. In order to save time, they even used a teleportation array this time.

Gu Yu said he would have nothing to do there anyway, and he was planning to go to the Western Continent, so the group parted ways.

Upon arriving in Jingzhou, Ye Lan noticed obvious signs of fighting within the city. Jiang Ning frowned as he looked around, surprised that they were so brazen.

Jiang Nan and a few others also rushed back. They arrived first and stood in the most conspicuous spot near the teleportation array. When they saw Jiang Ning, they surrounded him.

Besides Jiang Nan and the other two, Senior Brother Song and Senior Sister Wen also returned. They gathered together, greeted each other, and then headed to the Green Mountain Sect.

After nearly a month apart, Jiang Nan's personality had become much more composed, and Little Phoenix had lost weight and no longer looked like a chubby chicken; instead, she looked radiant.

Su Bo was a whole head taller than Nangong Yue. When Ye Lan arrived, she saw him standing behind her in all black, like a bodyguard.

Calling her a bodyguard is quite accurate. Recently, in addition to the demons hunting her down, the Medicine Sect has also issued a kill order against her. Hidden weapons are flying at her from behind from time to time, which is why Su Bo thought of standing behind her to protect her.

The elders of the Medicine Sect declared that if the Green Mountain Sect did not hand over Nangong Yue, they would be making an enemy of them.

When these words reached Jiang An's ears, he ignored them completely, but instead spread the word that Nangong Yue was a disciple of the Green Mountain Sect.

The cultivators who wanted to capture her to exchange for the Medicine Sect's pills had to think twice.

The demons came with overwhelming force, seemingly inexhaustible.

After half a month, everyone's emotions have changed to some extent. Even Ye Lan, who has a good temper, now has a hint of hostility.

All twenty-six major cities in the Southern Continent were affected, with only Jiujiang County, where the Heavenly Sword Sect was located, and Huazhou, where the Medicine Sect was located, faring relatively better.

The reason why there was no trouble in Jiujiang County was that when the demons first attacked, the sect leader of the Heavenly Sword Sect personally led people to capture them. As long as the demons dared to show their faces, they basically could not escape the sect leader's grasp.

Furthermore, the Heavenly Sword Sect was wealthy and powerful. Shen Feng not only sent people to buy grain, but also spent a lot of money to create many magical artifacts to distribute to the people. When the demons invaded, they were able to know immediately, and the people were also protected by magical artifacts, so the casualties were not serious.

Meanwhile, the Medicine Sect issued a notice requesting all cultivators on the Azure Sky Continent to help protect the people of Flower State. One demon corpse could be exchanged for a mid-grade pill, and two corpses could be exchanged for a high-grade pill.

Upon hearing this news, many independent cultivators flocked to Huazhou. If they encountered demons along the way and managed to kill one or two, they could amass considerable wealth.

Even the smaller sects within Huazhou are eager to try their luck.

And so, Huazhou became the toughest nut to crack. The demons abandoned their invasion of this place and turned to other major cities, with the most serious situation being Jingzhou, the capital of the Qingshan Sect.

It's not that the Green Mountain Sect didn't send people to protect Jingzhou, but strangely, they killed the most demons here, yet the demons kept coming.

As a result, a rumor began to circulate in Nanzhou.

Rumors spread throughout Jingzhou, saying that the leader of the Southern Continent Alliance had made an enemy of the Demon Clan, which was why the Southern Continent was being retaliated against. Otherwise, why would the Demon Clan choose the Southern Continent as their target instead of the Eastern or Western Continents?

In terms of strength, the Western Continent, where the demons fled before, was the weakest. It would have been easier for them to attack there if they wanted to, but the Western Continent is currently safe and sound.

Moreover, during this period, the leader of the Southern Continent Alliance—that is, Jiang Yunshu, the head of the Green Mountain Sect—has not shown up. Even now that Jingzhou is in a predicament, he has not come out to resolve it.

Rumors only get more and more outrageous as they are passed around.

Some say the alliance leader is afraid of death and therefore doesn't dare to show up, while others say, could it be that he's colluding with the demons? That's why he's not dealing with this matter. In short, none of the comments are pleasant.

Jiang Nan was searching for demons in the city with Jiang Ning when he heard passersby talking about the sect leader. He got so angry that his temper flared up again, and he wanted to beat up the people with Little Phoenix, but Jiang Ning stopped him.

He turned around and glared at the man, wondering why he was being stopped. Those people were talking about Jiang Ning's father!

Jiang Ning grabbed his arm and said calmly, "If you attack them now, it will confirm the rumors that our Green Mountain Sect is colluding with the Demon Clan to bully the people tomorrow."

Jiang Nan was furious: "Then what do you suggest we do? Just let them slander the sect leader?"

Seemingly still angry, he added with a hint of exasperation, "That's your own father!"

He was met with silence, but seeing Jiang Ning's expression, he finally loosened his fist. He couldn't believe Jiang Ning wouldn't be worried about his own father being slandered and defamed like this.

Jiang Ning was indeed anxious, but his father hadn't shown up. And not all the people were ignorant; some remembered their kindness and were speaking up for the Green Mountain Sect.

He heard the white-bearded old man say, "We can't be heartless. Have you forgotten how much the Green Mountain Sect has done for us people recently?"

"Not to mention that they've been sending us food and fasting pills all along, the Green Mountain Sect has suffered over a hundred casualties recently due to the pursuit of demons. The fact that we can stand here and chat is all thanks to them holding off the demons."

A disgruntled junior retorted, "That was done by their disciples, not by the sect leader."

A bystander said, "Exactly! Look at the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Jade Sound Palace, which one doesn't have its sect leader personally taking action?"

The old man pounded his cane, pointing at the younger generation with a look of disappointment and admonishment: "The worst thing about being a person is being heartless and ungrateful. If the sect had given an order, would they have done this for no reason?"

Take Elder Shen for example. The medicine he's been using to heal everyone lately was all sent by the Green Mountain Sect. He and Miss Nangong, a disciple of the Green Mountain Sect, have been working day and night to help the injured people, without even getting a moment's rest.

Now that winter is here, Young Master Jiang has specially sent us the Four Seasons Pause Symbol, just in case we have too little cotton this year and will get cold. Have you all forgotten all these good things?

"Sect Leader Jiang may have just run into some trouble and couldn't show up. You've received kindness from the Green Mountain Sect, and instead of being grateful, you're spreading rumors and causing trouble here!"

The younger generation was scolded and didn't look too good, but they did take the old man's words to heart.

Jiang Ning listened to the whole thing, said goodbye to Jiang Nan, and headed towards the Green Mountain Sect, leaving Jiang Nan completely bewildered.

Upon returning to the sect, Jiang Ning's first task was to find his elder brother and mother. Not finding his mother at home, he headed towards the ancestral hall.

Sure enough, Mother and Brother were both inside the ancestral hall. Hearing the commotion, they both turned around.

Madam Jiang had been dealing with numerous sect affairs lately, and her face looked quite haggard. Upon seeing Jiang Ning, she managed a smile.

"Ning'er, why are you back? Didn't you say you were going on patrol with Jiang Nan today?"

Jiang Ning took a deep breath to calm himself down: "I went on patrol in Jingzhou City and just got back."

Jiang An stood quietly to the side without saying a word. He sensed that his younger brother had something to say when he suddenly returned.

"Then why don't you go and rest? Why are you running over to your mother like a little kid?" Madam Jiang said, reaching out to tidy up his hair that had been ruffled by the wind as he ran over.

Jiang Ning looked into her eyes and asked, "Mother, what exactly happened to Father? Are you and my elder brother still unwilling to tell me?"

He had a feeling something was wrong from the first day he returned, but he didn't ask because he thought the two of them didn't want to talk about it. But now that things have come to this point, they still intend to keep it from him.

He turned to look at his father's nameplate, where the light was already extremely faint.

Madam Jiang sighed softly; there was no point in hiding it any longer.

She said in a deep voice, "Your father has gone to the Valley of No Return."