"What's that smell? The stench of a corpse?"
The young man held a golden briefcase containing a ghost-faced demon, furrowing his brow as he warily scanned the dark scene of the storage room.
Then, he quickly remembered the zombie demon who had caused trouble at the Dragon King Hall headquarters not long ago and was subsequently imprisoned by Mu Jinyu.
"Is it that zombie demon?"
The young man's face suddenly changed at the thought of that zombie demon.
However, he remembered that the zombie demon was supposed to be suppressed with a golden coffin. How had it escaped in less than a day?
The young man felt panic rise within him, the urge to flee immediately overwhelming him.
But being part of the Dragon King Hall meant he was quite mentally strong, and he quickly thought that if the zombie demon had escaped, he should have been attacked the moment he opened the door.
The fact that nothing had happened yet meant the situation wasn't too severe.
Thus, the young man suppressed the fear in his heart and then turned on the lights, illuminating the dimly lit storage room.
With better visibility, the young man instantly saw the golden coffin placed not far from the door. The lid of the coffin now had several finger-sized holes in it.
Drops of corpse water began to seep through these holes, trickling down the side of the coffin.
The sound of dripping he had just heard was originating from this.
"Drip!"
At that moment, the young man heard another noise from inside the coffin, which made his face turn even paler.
He was unsure whether the zombie demon inside was moving or something else was happening, but he didn't dare stay there any longer.
He quickly grabbed the golden briefcase, prepared to turn around and run out, not even bothering to close the door.
"Splat!"
However, just as the young man was about to move, he slipped the moment he turned around, crashing down hard.
"Bang!"
The golden briefcase he was holding flew up into the air and then crashed down heavily!
The young man watched this scene, extremely nervous, fearing that the golden briefcase might break and release the ghost-faced demon inside.
Fortunately, gold isn't so easily shattered; the briefcase was just a bit flattened, not enough to release the demon inside.
The young man scrambled up from the floor in a panic and looked at his feet, only to realize that the liquid that had caused his fall was a pool of bright yellow rotten corpse water!
"Damn it!"
He cursed, not daring to stay there any longer.
He didn't even dare to pick up the briefcase, fearing that if he carried it, he might have another accident and break it, thus releasing the demon inside.
It might be better to just let it lie there quietly; due to the nature of gold, the demon really couldn't do anything with it.
The young man carefully avoided the pool of corpse water that seemed almost to be wriggling, and then ran out frantically.
...
In Mu Hongchen's office,
Mu Jinyu was observing the five women cultivating when she noticed that amongst them, the one with the best talent for cultivation was not Su Zijin, who possessed the Dragon King bloodline, nor was it Mu Hongchen, who had progressed to the Energy Transformation level...
It was actually Wen Rou, who had always seemed quite ordinary.
Her talent for cultivation was indeed very strong; Mu Jinyu could feel threads of nature's spiritual energy seamlessly flowing into her body through her heavenly spirit cover in less than half an hour!
Meanwhile, Su Zijin and Gu Xiyan and the other women showed no sign of activity even after half an hour.
"Strange, to think it would be Wen Rou. It seems appearances can truly be deceiving!"
Mu Jinyu stroked his chin, a surprised smile in his eyes as he watched Wen Rou, who was meditating with her eyes closed, speaking to himself internally.
Wen Rou had always given him the impression of a very ordinary girl-next-door.
Their connection was entirely because they shared similar backgrounds—both abandoned by their mothers and with fathers who had passed away, creating a sense of shared sorrow. Even more unfortunate was Wen Rou's father, who had a gambling addiction, so Mu Jinyu felt extra pity for her, taking a bit more care of her in small matters, not wanting her life to be so hard.
Once they were together, his interactions with her were always somewhat calm and flat, giving the impression of an old married couple who respected each other.
Her performance was far from the brilliance of Gu Xiyan and Mei Yinxue, not nearly as dazzling, often causing one to inadvertently overlook her a bit more than the others.
Mu Jinyu also admitted that his care for Wen Rou was indeed less compared to Gu Xiyan and Mei Yinxue.
Perhaps it was because... she never tried competing?
She neither fought nor competed, just quietly staying by his side.
Thinking about this, Mu Jinyu felt even more pity for Wen Rou in his heart.
"Dinglingling!!"
At that moment, Mu Hongchen's communicator rang.
Seeing this, Mu Jinyu grabbed her communicator and answered it.
As he answered, he glanced back at the five women. Fortunately, they were all immersed in deep cultivation and had not been disturbed.
Otherwise, it would have been a shame if Wen Rou's hard-earned cultivation state had been disrupted—it was unknown how long it would take them to reenter that state.
"Hello..."
Mu Jinyu stepped out of Mu Hongchen's office while continuing the call, lowering his voice as he spoke.
"Vermilion Bird sir... Dragon Master? Dragon Master, it's terrible, the Zombie Demon in the storage room seems to be trying to escape, you should come and see."
A young, panicked voice came through the phone.
It sounded a bit familiar.
With a slight thought, Mu Jinyu recalled that this was the young man who had just been notified by Mu Hongchen to collect the Golden Briefcase and take the Ghost-Faced Demon to the underground storage room.
Hearing him say this, could it be that there was a problem with the basement?
The Zombie Demon was trying to escape?
"Okay, I'm on my way now, don't panic!"
Mu Jinyu quickly reassured the young man, then hung up the phone, entered back inside, switched the phone to silent mode, and placed it back by Mu Hongchen.
This way, when Mu Hongchen woke up, she could promptly handle the things she hadn't managed to deal with during her cultivation.
Afterward, Mu Jinyu looked over them a few times uneasily, his eyes filled with struggle.
After all, he was originally stationed here to protect them, so even if something went wrong during their cultivation, he could quickly respond and help them channel energy for healing.
But now, with the Zombie Demon problem in the headquarters' underground storage room, if he didn't resolve it quickly, it could lead to disaster, preventing him from protecting them here!
"Sigh..."
Mu Jinyu sighed lightly, finally thinking that nothing too drastic should happen, and considering that Mu Hongchen wasn't a novice in cultivation, she should be unlikely to injure herself by changing her cultivation technique. And if something happened to Wen Rou and the others, she should be able to look after them.
After one final look at them, Mu Jinyu quickly left them a message not to worry about him when they woke up, then left the room, carefully closing the door behind him as he ran towards the storage room.
"Dragon Master, you've finally arrived!"
Just reaching the front door leading to the storage room, a young man, pale-faced and devoid of any color, excitedly called out to Mu Jinyu.
"Hmm, what exactly happened?" Mu Jinyu asked.
After all, the previous call had contained too little information, and Mu Jinyu wasn't clear about how urgent the situation was at the moment.