"Ah, you mean him? He's still in the kitchen. I don't know what's wrong with this guy lately, he really likes to sit in the kitchen and work on recipes. Oh, by the way, here's the forbidden area token for you, so you don't get stuck later."

Although Qingcheng said something distasteful, his expression was quite happy. When Yue Jiuling saw this, she knew that he was just saying he didn't like it, but he was actually very happy inside.

So he grabbed the two small tokens, took a chicken leg to eat, took a sip of tea, and said, "Alright, then we'll go check out the forbidden area first. You two can take your time studying the recipes. Bye-bye."

With that, Yue Jiuling disappeared from the study, and Ya Zi smiled at Qingcheng before following Yue Jiuling away.

When Yue Jiuling reappeared, she was already outside a suburb, a suburb of the demon realm, very close to the forbidden area.

"The forbidden area is just ahead. This place is really remote."

Looking at the desolate wilderness around them, Yue Jiuling said to Ya Zi beside her, "But the aura is alright, unlike the unpleasant atmosphere inside the forbidden area."

"Did you go straight into the forbidden area last time?"

Ya Zi looked around and said, "The atmosphere here is indeed not good. Let's go and come back quickly."

"Yeah, last time Xinyu and I went straight into the forbidden area and that crocodile escaped. Luckily you came back in time, otherwise I would have been ambushed."

Yue Jiuling thought of what happened at the theater before, so she said, "But when I went in, I didn't attract any attention inside, so it was easy for me to come out."

"Well, thankfully it went smoothly back then. If you had been discovered, you might not have been able to get out."

Ya Zi followed behind Yue Jiuling, looking at her swaying ponytail and said, "Jiuling, do you think there's something else in this forbidden area?"

How did you know?

Upon hearing this, Yue Jiuling suddenly turned around and looked at Ya Zi calmly, saying, "Why do you think that?"

“Well, actually, I think since the forbidden area has already been handed over to the Demon King, you don’t need to worry about these things if you have nothing else to do. But you just had to come back, so I guessed that you might have thought of something or discovered something that made you want to come back to the forbidden area again.”

Ya Zi stared intently at Yue Jiuling, his expression so certain that he believed Yue Jiuling had returned to the forbidden area for ulterior motives, which immediately made Yue Jiuling laugh.

"Haha, as expected of Young Master Long, you are truly clever."

Yue Jiuling smiled and continued walking. She nodded and said, "That's right. Xinyu and I entered the forbidden area that day and left quickly. After we got back, we destroyed that prop. Although I was very shocked when I went in, I also discovered something else. I sensed a faint trace of demonic energy inside the forbidden area!"

"Demonic energy? There's demonic energy in this forbidden area? Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Upon hearing Yue Jiuling's words, Ya Zi was so surprised that his eyes widened and he said, "If this is true, then could it be that those escaped monsters went to the Demon Realm?"

"I also have my doubts about this. Although the relationship between the demon realm and the monster realm has been very bad over the years, it doesn't prevent criminal monsters in the forbidden area from going to the monster realm."

Yue Jiuling took a deep breath, then frowned and said, "When I sensed the demonic energy inside, I wanted to investigate, but then I remembered Xinyu and that passage, so I turned back. I was worried that if we were discovered, other monsters would run out through the passage."

“You did the right thing back then,” Ya Zi nodded upon hearing this. “If the monster had really come out, things would have been troublesome.”

"Well, I originally asked Qingcheng and the others to investigate after I came out, but it seems they didn't find anything useful or discover the demonic energy. They only found that a few monsters were missing, so now I want to investigate myself and I've dragged you along too."

Then Yue Jiuling turned to look at Ya Zi and said, "Because I wasn't very sure, I didn't explain it clearly to you. Thank you for helping me again, Young Master Long. I'll treat you to dinner later~"

"Well, it's nothing really. I know you also want to figure out about the demonic energy."

Ya Zi shook her head and smiled: "But I only ate one chicken leg at the barbecue earlier, so this doesn't count. You still owe me two meals~"

"Haha, it's okay, two meals is fine. I can cook for you myself after everything is over."

Yue Jiuling said with a smile, "It's just that you've had a hard time."

The two walked and chatted, and before they knew it, they had reached the forbidden area.

"This is the forbidden area of ​​the demon realm?"

Ya Zi looked at the swamp shrouded in black mist before him and said, "This aura is really unpleasant."

"Right, I felt very uncomfortable when I came in, so I had to protect my breath and be on high alert when I went in."

After Yue Jiuling saw that the barrier around the forbidden area had been reinforced and there were no guards left, she said, "The barrier around this forbidden area is such that you can only enter but not leave, but we have identity tokens, so we're not afraid."

"Then let's go in and take a look."

Ya Zi gripped the token in his hand, then cast a spell to protect his body and conceal his aura before finally stepping into the forbidden area.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!