After escaping the trap, Tang Ru felt relieved, but her brows were still furrowed. She whispered, "Is that enough of pretending? Can you let go now?"

Although this man saved her, she still had a hard time getting a good impression of him. She was still on guard. What made her particularly unhappy was that she had to accept that he had become her "father" in name. The two of them had to pretend to have a strong father-daughter relationship in order to leave smoothly, otherwise if the cat beast thought she couldn't accept him, he might take her back.

Li Muye didn't move his lips, and directly sent a message to Tang Ru: "The big cat is still looking at your back reluctantly. If you don't want it to leave the mountains with you, it's best not to make any unnecessary movements."

Tang Ru's back stiffened, and her small hand had no choice but to continue to be held by the other party.

Li Muye seemed to find it very interesting. He curled the corners of his lips and said in a voice transmission: "Dwarfs have a unique advantage in dealing with cat beasts. Do you want to learn the method of taming beasts from me? You don't have to become my disciple. Just learn the basics and I can guarantee that you will get a cat beast as your tamer for free."

Tang Ru turned around and glared at him with a look of shock and anger, his voice almost squeezed out from between his teeth: "You said that people in the Central Territory are treacherous, but you are no less evil. This is not a method of taming an animal, it's just abusing the nature of cats."

Li Muye raised his eyebrows, as if to say, "I didn't expect you to be so smart." Tang Ru turned her head away from him, and felt that he was even more hateful in her heart. She whispered, "The cat beast was born in the mountains and lived a free life. Using the cat beast's nature that cannot be escaped or stopped to control it and drive it into slavery, isn't it shameless!"

Li Muye smiled faintly and said coldly: "Time and everything in nature have their own reasons for existence. This is both the nature of cat beasts and their shortcomings. Being driven by dwarfs who are born with a body that is no bigger than a child, cat beasts can enjoy the feeling of taking care of cubs forever. You are not a cat beast, how do you know that cat beasts will not be happy?"

Tang Ru snorted coldly: "I give you the same advice. You are not a cat beast, so how do you know that the cat beast will be happy? The cat beast is not a fool. Sooner or later, it will know the truth, and then it will definitely retaliate."

Li Muye's blue eyes looked even colder in the sunlight. He said, "So we still have to learn how to tame the beast. It's safer to tame it. As for whether the cat beast is happy or not, that's not within my consideration. If the cat beast really doesn't want to be captured by exploiting its nature, it will remember the lesson after suffering too many losses and change its temper from then on. This is the way to follow nature."

After hearing this, Tang Ru felt that she and Li Muye were not the same kind of people. She even felt ashamed for having such thoughts as walking with such a person.

When they passed the Bailing Fruit Forest and walked towards Chen Xiao and his camp, the atmosphere between them was cold and silent. Tang Ru kept his mouth shut and didn't want to say another word to him.

"A Rou!" Tong Nuonuo was still the first to spot her. He immediately ran over, looked her up and down, and found that she was wearing thin clothes. He quickly took out a piece of clothing and put it on her body, "Your storage bag is with Chen Xiao, take mine first, and change later."

Tang Ru smiled at him gratefully: "Nunuo, thank you for saving me."

Li Muye snorted and laughed at the side, and Tong Nuonuo was like a small animal that met its natural enemy, and immediately got angry. He stared at him and said sternly: "Master Li, you saved Ah Rou, I remember your kindness. I will let you go this time. You killed your companions in the training team, I will kill you to avenge them in the future! Remember this, your head will definitely be taken by my own hands in the end."

Tong Nuonuo said this very seriously, and he didn't think it was inappropriate for him, a foundation-building stage mechanical master, to speak harshly to a golden elixir stage beastmaster. He would eventually become powerful and become a mechanical master, or even a mechanical grandmaster. By then, Li Muye would no longer be his opponent.

Li Muye was thrown directly in the face by this challenge, but he was not angry at all. Instead, he looked at Tong Nuonuo with amusement. He said playfully, "Okay, I'll wait." He was not afraid of his enemies coming after he did something. He still remembered the strange story of Tong Nuonuo in the team, who could not be found even when he got up at night. It would be interesting to see how he would seek revenge on him in the future.

At this time, Chen Xiao and Xi Yunting arrived. Li Muye nodded to Xi Yunting and said, "Remember our exchange. I think with your character, you should be able to ensure that it can be fulfilled."

Xi Yunting said coldly: "Of course."

Li Muye certainly realized that the people present did not welcome him, but he did not care. He said "goodbye" and walked away into the woods.

When Tang Ru returned, Shen Yongqing immediately ordered them to move camp. The group did not dare to stay in the cat beast's territory for too long, and they only stopped to rest after traveling for a whole day.

Chen Xiao used Tong Nuonuo's stove to boil a large pot of hot water, and asked Tang Ru to wash up and change into clean clothes. Tang Ru ate another pot of hot rice, and then found a place to meditate and recover. After all, his foundation was injured before, and his true essence recovered very slowly. His Dantian also needed to be warmed up for a period of time before it could recover.

It was difficult to recover from the injury while walking, so Tong Nuonuo gave the mechanism box to Chen Xiao, carried Tang Ru on his back, and the group marched quickly out of the mountain.

The weather was good. Although the snow was thick and the road conditions were bad, there was no heavy snow, so they got out of the mountain smoothly and returned to Jincheng.

Shen Yongqing's men held down the evil cultivators and waited for him to join them. He stopped in Jincheng for a while to reorganize, and then led the team back to the capital without stopping. This time, they almost wiped out the evil cultivators in one fell swoop and rescued seventy or eighty children. This was a very positive event with a huge impact for the new dynasty. The royal family was already looking forward to it, waiting for them to go back and deal with them publicly to establish their prestige.

Chen Xiao and his group returned tiredly to the rented mansion, and Shen Yanxing actually came out to greet them. Although Chen Xiao did not accept him as a formal apprentice in name, the master-disciple relationship between the two could not be denied. In this world, the relationship between a master and a disciple is sometimes closer than that between a father and a son. In the mansion, he is equivalent to the little master. After returning from the capital with reinforcements, Shen Yanxing did not go anywhere and just lived here. He declined the invitations of Hu Qingyun, who had succeeded the city lord, and other family masters in Jincheng, and read books seriously every day, waiting for Chen Xiao and the others to come back.

"Teacher." Shen Yanxing was very happy to see Chen Xiao. He formally performed a disciple's salute and said, "Teacher, you have returned safely. I am very happy. There are also several senior brothers. The food and bath are ready. You can go to rest directly after you use them."

Chen Xiao smiled: "Thank goodness you're here, it saves a lot of trouble."

Shen Yanxing bowed modestly and said, "If there is anything, I will do the hard work. I dare not take credit for it."

Compared with Chen Xiao's previous disciples who were more formal than practical, Shen Yanxing truly treated Chen Xiao as an elder. It was because of him that the mansion was in good order and prepared in advance to welcome the tired group of people back.

The four of them ate and took a bath comfortably, and then went to sleep.

The next morning, the weather was good. Chen Xiao got up and went to the nearest martial arts training ground wearing only a thin short suit, regardless of the cold outside.

After doing some warm-up exercises and stretching his muscles, Chen Xiao began to practice his body movements step by step. During this trip, he had made some breakthroughs in his body movements, and Chen Xiao wanted to seize this opportunity to improve his external strength as a whole.

Chen Xiao strictly followed the steps of Professor Xi Yunting, moving gracefully and elusively, and the changes in trajectory were unpredictable. This body movement was extremely demanding on the waist and legs, and there were many places where extreme speed changes and turns were required. It was also because Xi Yunting had a good foundation that Chen Xiao did not hurt himself because of improper movements.

Because Chen Xiao needed a large distance to use his energy to attack, Xi Yunting taught him the most important thing about his body movements. This made it easier for him to dodge in battle, less likely to get hurt, and he could find opportunities to distance himself and attack.

However, this time, as the poisonous viper was chasing and biting him, Chen Xiao felt that just dodging would not work, and he also needed to find a way to practice close attack.

After practicing his body movements for an hour, Chen Xiao felt that he had barely achieved his desired goal. However, if he wanted to stabilize his condition, it would be too slow to figure it out without anyone to guide him.

Chen Xiao finished his training, went back to his room, took a shower and changed into his normal clothes. He went out along a garden path through the courtyard and came to the main courtyard halfway to the east.

The courtyard door was wide open, and a servant was cleaning at the door. When Chen Xiao appeared, the other party hurriedly bowed and saluted. Chen Xiao stopped him, thinking it was inhumane to make people kneel on the ground in such a cold weather. However, this world has a clear hierarchy, and the rules of etiquette are deeply rooted in people's hearts. Chen Xiao couldn't change it, and all he could do was to say "no need to be polite" before the other party saluted.

Chen Xiao asked: "Have you ever seen Big Brother go out?"

The servant lowered his head and said, "I was just cleaning here, and I haven't seen you, Master."

Chen Xiao and Xi Yunting both disliked having people serve them, so there was only one person in each of their yards who was responsible for cleaning and doing the housework. This person was responsible for cleaning, and the fact that he had not been seen before probably meant that Xi Yunting had not gone out.

This made Chen Xiao feel a little strange. In the past, Xi Yunting would go to him for dinner after finishing his morning exercise. He didn't see him at the usual time, so he thought Xi Yunting had gone out for something else.

Chen Xiao went in directly without asking anyone to come in, and knocked on the door himself. He said, "Brother, can I come in?"

After a while, Xi Yunting said, "Brother Xiao, come in."

Chen Xiao opened the door and Xi Yunting walked out. Chen Xiao looked at him in surprise: "Could it be that you were meditating just now? Did I disturb you, big brother?"

Xi Yunting said calmly: "Nothing."

Although he said nothing happened, Xi Yunting frowned slightly. Chen Xiao could see a hint of melancholy. Chen Xiao was a little surprised to see such a distinct emotion on Xi Yunting's face. However, if this elder brother didn't want to say something, there was no way to know it even if he asked. Chen Xiao could only remember it temporarily and keep an eye on it secretly.

Chen Xiao smiled and said, "In the past, Big Brother always came to look for me. Today, I will take the initiative to invite Big Brother to have breakfast together. Today, it's just the two of us, without Nuonuo and Ah Rou. Let's go to the city to find something delicious. How do you think?"

Xi Yunting's eyes softened when he heard this, and the sadness between his brows disappeared. He nodded gently and said, "Brother Xiao invites me, and I will obey you."