"You gave the paper ball to her," Feng Qishi said, his smile not reaching his eyes.
The beggar glanced at the tattered bowl in his hand and declared with unwavering conviction, "I did."
Feng Qishi nodded slightly. "Then, what did I say when you left?"
"You said..." The beggar repeated, lowering his gaze to recall Feng Qishi's parting words. He softly said, "You said only when she arrived would you give me... the reward money."
"Did she arrive?"
Immediately, the beggar glanced behind Feng Qishi, his expression awkward. "No."
"If she didn't, why are you here?" Feng Qishi's expression turned cold.
"I understand. I'll wait," the beggar said. He dared not meet Feng Qishi's gaze any longer and turned to leave.
Xiao Zeng glanced sideways at the beggar's dejected departure, then looked up at Feng Qishi. "Logically, she should have returned by now."
"I don't know what's going on either," Feng Qishi replied, feigning confusion as he bent to right a fallen long bench.
Concurrently, the wolf demon had brought Mu Anxiao to the city gates.
Mu Anxiao calmly observed the familiar scene, then glanced at the abandoned, dilapidated houses on either side. "He disappeared from here," she said.
"Yes," the wolf demon nodded, then mused, "Though, he wasn't a dog head, but had a human face."
Mu Anxiao didn't know if the dog-headed demon had transformed into a human face.
However, she knew that the rattan spirit only had the dog-headed demon associated with him. If she were to think of other demons, she truly couldn't.
So, she thought, perhaps he had already taken on a human face?
Thus, she said, "You are a wolf, and you also use a human face." She pointed at the wolf demon's face.
"I am Hu Yuan..."
"Even when you're a wolf demon, you have a human face."
"I use a human face?" the wolf demon asked, surprised.
Mu Anxiao's lips twitched. "Did you forget?"
"I forgot."
Mu Anxiao sighed and asked, "Then when can you forget me?"
"Impossible," the wolf demon smiled.
Mu Anxiao glared at the wolf demon and looked up at the sky. "It's getting dark."
"That just means it will be harder to find."
"Are you in a hurry?"
"Of course I'm in a hurry. That guy..." The wolf demon's eyes darted away. "That guy destroyed my home."
However, Mu Anxiao didn't believe the wolf demon would go to such lengths just because his home was destroyed. On the contrary, she felt the wolf demon was hiding something from her.
"..." She smiled at the wolf demon.
Seeing the strange smile on Mu Anxiao's face, the wolf demon's tone became unnatural. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I think things are not that simple."
"How are they not that simple?" The wolf demon forced himself to meet Mu Anxiao's gaze. "He destroyed my home, and I want compensation. What's wrong with that?"
"You're not interested in money."
"I..."
"Did he steal something very important from you?" Mu Anxiao interrupted.
The wolf demon's eyes darkened. "..." He lowered his head.
"..." Mu Anxiao observed the slight change in the wolf demon's expression and a smile played on her lips. "It seems I've guessed correctly."
Just as Mu Anxiao suspected, the wolf demon lost the courage to hide the truth. He said in a low voice, "He stole my demon core."
"Demon core?"
"Yes, it's what I cultivated over many years. He stole it."
"What is the function of that demon core?"
"It contains my demonic energy. If he uses it carelessly, for me," the wolf demon said, "it will be very troublesome."
"You're afraid of trouble?"
"Of course. I've finally managed to not be tracked by you all. If he uses my demon core to commit evil, I'll definitely be the one to clean up the mess. But I won't have done anything. Wouldn't that be a great loss for me?"
"Besides your demonic energy, what else does the demon core contain?"
The wolf demon's eyes flickered. "It also has..." He hesitated.
Seeing the wolf demon's stammering, Mu Anxiao grew anxious. "What can't you say? Your demon core was stolen, which is already embarrassing enough."
"..." The wolf demon found Mu Anxiao's words reasonable and lowered his eyes slightly. "It contains my years of cultivation. If he were to consume it, all my efforts would be in vain. Not only that, my demonic energy would suppress his, and all the crimes he commits would be inexplicably attributed to me. Of course, this is just my worry."
"No," Mu Anxiao thought she misheard and furrowed her brows slightly. "Why would you make your cultivation into a demon core? Shouldn't cultivation be within the body?"
Regarding the world of demons, Mu Anxiao was truly... confused.
"If it were within my body, I would constantly be tempted to use it. So, I stored it in my demon core. Who knew I'd encounter that fellow," the wolf demon said, grinding his teeth in anger. "If I had known, I would have killed him long ago."
"Did that guy eat your demon core? What if..." Mu Anxiao knew her words might make the wolf demon uncomfortable, but considering their relationship, she felt it necessary to say, "What would you do if he ate it?"
"He didn't eat it," the wolf demon affirmed.
"How do you know?"
"Big sister," the wolf demon said with a helpless expression, "that's my possession. If he ate it, I would have felt something. But so much time has passed, and I still feel nothing. What does that mean? It means he didn't eat my demon core."
"..." Mu Anxiao yawned. "Ah, I see."
"Now, I want to ask you, can you handle this?" the wolf demon asked, looking at Mu Anxiao's tired expression.
Mu Anxiao replied, "Okay, I basically understand." As she spoke, she looked around, took a step forward, and crouched down, patting the uneven ground. "..."
Seeing this, the wolf demon asked, confused, "What are you doing?"
"I stayed here for ten years."
"And then?"
Mu Anxiao gently placed her palm on the pitted ground and said, "Come here."
"..." The wolf demon walked to Mu Anxiao's side with a puzzled look, then squatted down and stared at Mu Anxiao's glowing blue hand. "What are you doing?"
"Bite or cut your finger open."
"Why?" The wolf demon instinctively refused self-harm.
Mu Anxiao: "Hurry up."
"Why don't you bite or cut your own finger, why do you insist on me biting or cutting mine?"
Upon hearing this, Mu Anxiao clenched her hand, which was emitting a blue light, into a fist. She turned her head to meet the wolf demon's eyes and asked, "Does your demon core contain your blood?"
"No..."
"Does it contain your demonic energy?"
"Yes... I think!" The wolf demon had a bad premonition.
Mu Anxiao smiled. "Is this the place where that fellow disappeared?"
"Yes."
"When you arrived, was there no one here?"
"Yes."
"Then it's correct."