"How dare you talk to your mother like that?" Zhuang Shuxia lovingly stroked his face.

"After so many years apart, shouldn't you be crying and rushing into my arms calling me 'Mother'? What kind of attitude is this?" Zhuang Shuxia pretended to be hurt, but her eyes were bright and red, showing no sign of sadness.

"You're not my mother!" Yan Chenghuan said, trying to make a move, but found that she couldn't move her body.

The gluttonous beast, which used to have a huge mouth and devour people everywhere, was now incredibly docile, lying at Zhuang Shuxia's feet and wagging its tail like a dog!

People who don't know her might mistake it for a pet she keeps.

Zhuang Shuxia set up a barrier and watched the cultivators scatter in all directions, as if she had seen something amusing.

"Look at these people," she said. "They used to act all high and mighty, but now they're like monkeys." She then removed the barrier and released the Taotie back into the wild.

Yan Chenghuan struggled to stop her, but due to the difference in their strength, he couldn't move at all.

"Good son, don't waste your energy. Give me that thing and I'll spare their lives."

Finally, they've shown their fangs; it turns out it was all for that thing. Yan Chenghuan smiled and said, "Mother, we're blood relatives. If you don't care about these people's lives, why would I?"

Zhuang Shuxia scrutinized him, trying to discern whether he was telling the truth or not, but found that he remained remarkably composed, as if he genuinely didn't care about their lives or deaths.

Zhuang Shuxia circled around him with great interest, watching as the Taotie excitedly devoured the people around him amidst the crowd.

Yan Chenghuan remained indifferent, but his hand, hidden in his sleeve, silently clenched up because of the female disciple in the crowd who was winking at him.

Zhuang Shuxia was incredibly perceptive; she immediately noticed that this young disciple was someone important and promptly instructed the Taotie to rush towards the female disciple.

:"you······"

Just as the Taotie's claws were about to strike the female disciple's head, Yan Chenghuan forced herself to break free of her restraints and rushed out.

Zhuang Shuxia looked at the scene and revealed a mysterious smile.

Yan Chenghuan reacted swiftly, blocking the Taotie's claws. A talisman was affixed to the target, slowing the Taotie's movements by a fraction. Yan Chenghuan then grabbed the female disciple around the waist and escaped from the Taotie's clutches.

Upon seeing that it was him, Zhang Xu didn't hesitate and pointed at him, saying, "Quickly, find a way to guide it to Yunyan Pavilion."

Without hesitation, Yan Chenghuan recalled the green light he had seen earlier and summoned his sword to strike the Taotie. The sword, imbued with magic, left a deep gash on the Taotie, which, in pain, immediately attacked the two of them.

The two continued on their way.

The Hehuan Gate had been utterly destroyed by the Taotie, with all sorts of mangled limbs scattered everywhere, making one want to vomit.

Yan Chenghuan frowned and quickened his pace. Seeing his struggle, the female disciple took out several talismans from her bosom and stuck them on him.

The two of them immediately quickened their pace.

"When did you learn the spells?"

"How would I know how to do this? Rong Yue gave it to me. She has a lot of talent in this field; she can fight and support."

"They won't come out to save the world," Yan Chenghuan sneered.

"Hey, those two only realized they'd been tricked last night, and they're frantically fixing the formation right now!"

Lu Qinglan and Rong Yue only felt that there was something wrong with the Hehuan Sect, but they couldn't figure out what the problem was. They even thought that she and Yan Chenghuan were in cahoots and wanted to lock her up. It wasn't until those old fogies from the Hehuan Sect came out last night while she was cultivating and tried to kidnap her that Lu Qinglan and Rong Yue realized something was wrong.

When they pressed the elders, they learned that the Hehuan Sect had somehow acquired the Taotie, and they wanted to cooperate with the Taotie to annex other sects.

Unfortunately, the Taotie was too weak and needed to eat, so they conspired to hold this grand event, thinking of first luring some rogue cultivators over to feed the Taotie until it grew up.

However, unexpectedly, the Taotie went out of control, and the formation originally used to trap cultivators somehow went out of control. Now, there are not many living creatures left in the Hehuan Sect.

All they can do now is seal it away to prevent it from harming ordinary people.

Yan Chenghuan ran very fast and soon arrived at Yunyan Pavilion.

Inside the Cloud and Smoke Pavilion, smoke swirled. The person in the center of the formation was using all his cultivation to try to maintain the crumbling formation. Behind him, Rong Yue was supporting him, continuously transferring her cultivation to him.

Seeing Yan Chenghuan and the other person leading the Taotie over, a glimmer of hope appeared in their eyes.

"Quickly, bring it in."

The Taotie, which was about to rush this way, suddenly stopped, as if it had heard something, and tilted its head to think about the square.

"Oh no, someone is summoning it!" Rong Yue exclaimed, her heart pounding with anxiety, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Seeing that the Taotie was about to turn around, Yan Chenghuan's expression changed instantly.

He called out to the other end of the line, "Mother, Father asked me to pass on a few words to you before he passed away."

As if they had heard it, the Taotie stopped moving.

Lu Qinglan opened her eyes and felt the dampness on her back. Her expression changed slightly. Rong Yue seemed to sense Lu Qinglan's emotions and didn't care about that, throwing all the talismans in her hand over.

The Taotie seemed to sense something and, without hesitation, turned and went back.

Zhang Xu was also a little anxious. If she let it go back, that big devil would let it go out and harm people, since she was no longer Yan Chenghuan's mother.

Although the reasons are unclear, it's not a good thing that came about.

Zhang Xu thought for a moment, then took out the bell that Yan Xingyun had given her and started ringing it.

Upon hearing the bell, the Taotie suddenly became enraged and pounced towards the two of them.

It pounced on like a mountain, moving so fast that it seemed impossible to stop.

Yan Chenghuan was holding her, and before he could dodge, he could only roll over on the spot to barely avoid the Taotie's deadly move.

The Taotie didn't have the bell; instead, it heard the sound even more faint, flicked its tail, and pounced again.

Zhang Xu reacted quickly, throwing the bell towards the center of the formation.

Taotie watched as the bell traced a graceful arc in the air, then kicked its legs and pounced toward the center of the formation.

Seeing this, Lu Qinglan pressed her hands together in a seal. The Taotie, which had fallen into the center of the formation, sensed something was wrong and tried to retreat, but it couldn't move and could only let out a series of mournful cries.

The sound, resembling the cry of an infant, resounded throughout the world; the sorrow of the sound was so profound that it made one almost unable to bear it.

Lu Qinglan's thoughts were not affected. The marks in her hands were stacked rapidly. A burst of white light rose up, accompanied by the Taotie's mournful cry, and its huge body gradually disappeared into the formation.

Only when its presence was no longer felt in the air did Lu Qinglan relax, and with a sigh of relief, she managed to spit out a mouthful of blood.

The survivors looked at each other, each seeing relief in the other's eyes.