Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Dongyang Li's eyes darted around, and he hesitated before saying, "I guess... you could say we've met?"

Xu Lingguang looked at him suspiciously: "I've seen it or I haven't seen it. What do you mean by 'should be considered as having seen it'?"

Dongyang Li was clearly avoiding the topic, and kicked Chai Feng's shin, saying, "Hey, you tell me!"

Xu Lingguang turned his gaze to Chai Feng, who glanced at Dongyang Li, who was picking grass beside him, and said, "I was delayed by something and arrived at Panpan Mountain a little late. Dongyang Li went into the mountain first to explore and fought with a demon who called himself 'Great King'."

Upon hearing that Dongyang Li had actually fought with the "Great King," Xu Lingguang's eyes lit up immediately: "You fought with that mountain king? Did you see what he looked like? What were his distinctive features?"

Dongyang Li was feeling guilty and annoyed when he was stared at by him like a searchlight. He immediately felt uncomfortable and stammered, "We did fight, but I didn't see what he looked like."

Xu Lingguang became increasingly puzzled: "If we hadn't fought, how could I not have seen his face clearly?"

Dongyang Li said angrily, "That demon race is playing dirty tricks! They didn't even show their face!"

Seeing his face flushed and head spinning, Xu Lingguang blinked, somewhat puzzled.

Dongyang Li clutched the wild grass in his hand and said hatefully, "This time I'm going to catch it and hang it up and whip it for ten days and ten nights!"

Xu Lingguang blinked again, catching the key words in his words.

"Hang him up?"

The rumors he had heard before gradually overlapped with those of his friend in front of him, and an impossible yet highly probable guess popped into Xu Lingguang's mind. He tentatively asked, "Before we went up the mountain, the old man in the village said that a while ago a young cultivator went into the mountain to exorcise demons, and then he was attacked by the demon race..."

He shaved his head and hung it at the city gate.

Xu Lingguang paused, his gaze sweeping over Dong Yangli's short stubble, his tone becoming cautious: "That cultivator, could it be you?"

Dongyang Li: "..."

His face turned red, then pale, then red again, finally settling into a self-destructive purplish-red. He gritted his teeth and said, "This is truly a case of bad news traveling far and wide, while good news doesn't go out the door!"

Xu Lingguang never expected that the young cultivator the old man at the village entrance was talking about was actually Dongyang Li. Now that his absurd guess had been confirmed, Xu Lingguang looked at Dongyang Li's head, then at his face which was as angry as a pufferfish, and he held back his laughter for a long time, so as not to shatter his friend's remaining self-esteem.

He took a deep breath, composed himself, and said with a solemn expression, "Could it be that the demon's cultivation is extremely profound? Otherwise, how could Brother Dongyang have been defeated?"

Since Xu Lingguang already knew, Dongyang Li decided not to hide anything anymore and said in a do-or-die manner, "That bastard used dirty tricks! I knew these demons were cunning!"

Xu Lingguang patted his shoulder reassuringly, first expressing his shared indignation: "Using underhanded tricks is truly treacherous!"

He then coaxed, "What underhanded tricks did this demon race use? If it were ordinary methods, I doubt Brother Dongyang would have fallen for it."

These words effectively soothed Dongyang Li's precarious pride. He fiercely snapped the blade of grass in his hand in two and said, "This is a long story!"

Xu Lingguang pulled him to sit down on the ground and said, "It's alright, let's talk slowly."

Dongyang Li sat cross-legged beside him, took a deep breath, and slowly began to recount his embarrassing past.

"I arrived in Qingyu City ahead of others. I heard that the demons in the vicinity were causing trouble and the government was not doing anything about it. I figured I might as well do something I could since I had nothing else to do. At first, I only caught a few troublesome little demons. Later, when I passed by a village at the foot of Panpan Mountain, I heard that there were even man-eating demons in the mountains. Several villagers from nearby villages had disappeared after going into the mountains. How could I let this go? So I went into the mountains alone."

"After entering the mountains, I followed the scent of blood and captured two little demons. When the little demons begged for mercy, they said that they were acting on the orders of their king and that they had no choice. So I naturally let the little demons lead the way to capture their king."

At this point, Dongyang Li became agitated: "When we arrived, the king didn't show himself. He only said that the little demon wasn't his subordinate, and then sent a gray rat demon to kill the two little demons while I wasn't looking!"

Dongyang Li was a man who hated evil as if it were his enemy. Although these two little demons were guilty, they did not deserve to die. Now that they had been silenced in front of him, he was naturally furious and immediately wanted to capture the gray rat demon and destroy the demon clan's lair.

As it turned out, the gray rat demon, though not highly skilled, was incredibly cunning and darted into the cave with astonishing speed.

"The demon leader was also hiding in the cave and did not show himself, so I naturally followed him in, thinking of capturing these demons in one fell swoop to prevent them from harming the nearby villagers again."

"Who knew that the cave was not only winding and convoluted, but also full of hidden weapons and traps. I was hit as soon as I stepped in..."

Dongyang Li's chest heaved: "These mere traps and hidden weapons shouldn't have been a problem for me, but who knew that there was a weasel spirit among these demons? The weasel was hiding deep in the cave, and I was busy dealing with those traps and hidden weapons when it caught me off guard and shot me right in the face!"

As if recalling the smell in the cave, Dongyang Li's face turned green and he felt nauseous. He grabbed Xu Lingguang's hand tightly and said with tears in his eyes, "You didn't smell it. It was a weasel that had become a spirit... The smell was so bad that I fainted from the stench. When I woke up, I was already at the city gate."

Unfortunately for Dongyang Li, the person who found him was a villager who had seen him before. When the villager took him back to the village to recover from his injuries, Dongyang Li was so ashamed and indignant that he wanted to die!

He had cultivated for so many years and had lost before, but he had never felt so frustrated.

The villager seemed afraid of upsetting him, so Dongyang Li wanted to explain, but couldn't bring himself to say anything. In the end, he could only leave the money for medicine and sneak away.

No one could bear this experience.

"Later, I returned to the inn in Qingyu City to recuperate, and Chai Feng arrived a few days later. But the weasel's farts were really pungent. For several days, I slept with that stench in my nose, which made me restless and unable to eat. It took me quite a few days to fully recover, and then I immediately went into the mountains with Chai Feng to seek revenge."

Dongyang Li's face darkened: "Once I catch that weasel, I'll definitely put it in a cage and make it fart at me every day!"

Xu Lingguang: "..."

He glanced at Dongyang Li with sympathy, and hesitated several times before finally saying something, but he didn't dare to say that the bandit chief was likely the person they were looking for.

Xu Lingguang secretly gave Lan Jian a look, cleared his throat and said, "No matter what, we have to find these demons first."

Dongyang Li then smiled and stood up full of fighting spirit, saying, "Brother Lingguang is right. Let's go into the mountain now. But you two should not make any rash moves. I will definitely avenge this grudge with my own hands!"