In the blink of an eye, Mu Anxiao, panting, followed the wolf demon and the vine spirit. She glanced at the subtly changing environment and the road, and couldn't help but ask, "Are we almost there?"
Hearing this, the wolf demon and the vine spirit stopped together, turning sideways to look at Mu Anxiao. "What's going on with your stamina?" the wolf demon asked, coming up to Mu Anxiao.
"I'm fine," Mu Anxiao said, placing two fingers on her wrist again.
This time, the wolf demon understood. "Spiritual energy, the more you conserve it, the faster it is consumed. If you keep paying attention like this," he said, staring at Mu Anxiao's wrist, "it will hide itself."
"Hide itself? What do you mean?" Mu Anxiao had never heard these three words from anyone, so the wolf demon's sudden statement piqued her curiosity.
The wolf demon's eyes darted away.
The vine spirit glanced at the wolf demon's evasive eyes, then at Mu Anxiao, who was still staring at the wolf demon, and said, "Wolf demon, you should explain it clearly to her."
"I don't know..."
"No one has ever said that to me. All this time, my spiritual energy has always fluctuated between consumption and improvement," Mu Anxiao stared directly at the wolf demon. "Can you tell me why?"
At this moment, Mu Anxiao suddenly remembered... the wolf demon had been in the cultivation sect for quite some time, and... if she remembered correctly, he always found a way to keep himself alive. Therefore, based on his experience, she believed... he must know something.
"I am your enemy." The wolf demon suddenly paid attention to Mu Anxiao's previous attitude.
Hearing the wolf demon say this, Mu Anxiao couldn't help but recall the conditions the wolf demon had discussed with her. She then thought about her relationship with the wolf demon a year ago and said, "Do you really believe me?" To get the answer, she let down her guard against the wolf demon.
"What?" The wolf demon didn't react.
The vine spirit also didn't react, blinking its eyes.
Mu Anxiao said indifferently, "Didn't you say you wanted to leave here?"
"Didn't you say..."
"You were the one who set conditions for me just now. Now it's my turn to negotiate with you," Mu Anxiao interrupted.
The wolf demon frowned slightly. "Then I'll be at a disadvantage."
"You..."
"I am at a disadvantage. I have only one condition, and you want two... This is clearly unfair," the wolf demon began to haggle.
The vine spirit exchanged glances with Mu Anxiao and the wolf demon, speechless.
Mu Anxiao crossed her arms in front of her chest. "..." She just watched him, wondering what else he could possibly say?
Seeing this, the wolf demon said righteously, "Unless you agree to another condition of mine." He said this with an arrogant expression.
"You say it, but you must explain the matter of spiritual energy to me clearly." Mu Anxiao became impolite under the wolf demon's pushy attitude.
The wolf demon didn't mind this at all. He nodded and said, "Alright, I said it." He paused for a few seconds and then stated firmly, "When we get back, I want to have another decisive battle with those demons."
"...." Mu Anxiao was speechless.
The wolf demon was serious. "I strongly suspect the referee had a problem. Those demons were clearly much weaker than me, so why..."
"Do you know where those demons are now?" Mu Anxiao interrupted, wanting to ask.
The wolf demon shook his head.
"Then tell me, who do you want me to help you find?" Mu Anxiao thought the wolf demon's idea was quite simple, and decided to admonish him.
The wolf demon frowned.
"I can't remember," Mu Anxiao said.
The wolf demon, using Mu Anxiao's words... thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, I can't remember."
"Since that's the case, abandon this pointless condition and think of a new one," Mu Anxiao said, pointing at the wolf demon. "Now can you tell me why my spiritual energy is so erratic?"
"Because your emotions are controlling your spiritual energy," the wolf demon said calmly.
"Emotions?" Mu Anxiao was startled and touched her wrist again, only to find... the spiritual energy had completely returned.
"Yes, fear, dread, sadness... in short..." the wolf demon said, thinking for a moment, and continued, "Your seven emotions and six desires are controlling your spiritual energy all the time."
"Then how do normal immortals control their spiritual energy?" Mu Anxiao asked, looking serious.
The wolf demon smiled. "They all control it through reason. Simply put, when you use spiritual energy, you always inject too much emotion into it. In other words, acting on impulse will plunge you into an abyss. But reason is different. A rational immortal will naturally not..."
"I don't feel like I'm injecting too much emotion into it," Mu Anxiao retorted.
"No, then why are we still alive?" the wolf demon smiled.
Mu Anxiao frowned slightly.
The vine spirit tensed up, hit the wolf demon's shoulder hard, and said, "You really are asking about the one thing that's causing trouble."
The wolf demon glanced at the vine spirit, then looked back at Mu Anxiao. "You should act rather than talk. You, on the other hand, want to understand the past of those demon souls. Naturally... when you handle tasks, you inject emotion. When emotion arises, spiritual energy fluctuates. You... become unstable."
"I have been decisive before, but the final outcome..." Mu Anxiao said, recalling how the vine spirit released the two hundred and fifty demon souls, her eyes darkening. "More than half of my enemies have increased."
"Every demon wants to die with understanding. You should explain their crimes from your professional perspective, instead of saying right away, 'You have committed evil, so you deserve to die.' In short," the wolf demon said seriously, "no matter what situation you encounter, you must use your rational side to solve problems. At that time, you weren't actually that rational. If you were rational... you wouldn't have offended them."
The vine spirit felt that the wolf demon made sense and its eyes lit up.
Mu Anxiao's eyes darkened. She thought about her interactions with demons over the past few decades and realized... she seemed to have fallen into two extremes. One extreme was that evil demons deserved to go to hell. The other extreme was that evil demons also had reasons for their evil deeds, and were pitiable. Looking at the wolf demon's serious expression, she suddenly didn't know what to say.
So, she fell silent.
The wolf demon looked at the no-longer-speaking Mu Anxiao with a calm expression and sighed. "This... you will have to find the answer yourself."
"Answer..." Mu Anxiao repeated... and became distressed.
Seeing Mu Anxiao's expression, the vine spirit didn't know what to say.
Then, the wolf demon glanced towards the palace and said, "Let's go."
"Can you explain to me more clearly what I should do?" Mu Anxiao said with anticipation.
Similarly, the wolf demon faced Mu Anxiao very calmly. "I only know this much. I'm not clear about anything else. Moreover," he smiled, "I'm just a demon. I only understand the superficial aspects of spiritual energy. If you want to cultivate demonic energy, I can show you the way."