Although the Fox Demon’s demonic power was suppressed, his ability to read the room remained intact. Seeing everyone’s reactions, he quickly deduced what they were thinking and hurriedly said, “Heroes, I really have an eighty-year-old son! I’ve cultivated for a hundred years, so having an eighty-year-old son isn’t strange, right?”
“How do you explain a three-year-old mother then?” Lu Da asked with a cold smile.
“Uh.” The Fox Demon hesitated for a moment and cautiously asked, “Does it count if my mother died three years ago?”
“Get lost!” Lu Da snorted.
“Got it!” The Fox Demon nodded and bowed, eager to lie down on the ground and roll away.
Lu Da raised an eyebrow, and the handcuffs and leg irons on the Fox Demon flashed with rune light. A strong electric current surged from the restraints, crackling all over the Fox Demon. Not only did the fur on his ears and tail become singed and curled, but a faint aroma also emanated from him.
The timing was perfect, just short of adding some salt, cumin, and chili sauce.
The Husky looked at the Fox Demon with its mouth wide open, saliva dripping profusely.
It didn’t desire the Fox Demon’s beauty but was drooling over his delicious scent…
After the handcuffs and leg irons stopped discharging electricity, Lu Da cast a healing spell on the Fox Demon, restoring his health bar and healing his electric burn injuries.
The Fox Demon still had some crucial information, so he couldn’t be allowed to die just yet.
“Enjoying it? Want another round?”
Lu Da squatted beside the Fox Demon, poking his flesh with a finger.
Hmm, from cooked meat back to raw meat-the healing process was going well.
The Fox Demon shook his head repeatedly. Although the injuries were promptly healed, the pain remained, unrelieved in the slightest.
With a face filled with sorrow and grievance, he whimpered, “Didn’t you tell me to roll away?”
“If I told you to die, would you? Stop playing games with me!”
Lu Da sneered, “I’m asking you, what exactly is hidden beneath this ice crevice? Why is it emitting eerie negative energy? You trick people into reciting the words on the stone tablet, claiming it’s for a sacrifice. Is this sacrifice for the thing hidden beneath the ice crevice? What’s your purpose? Are the missing patrol teams we encountered in the Snowy Mountain Perilous Land related to you? Did you lure them here and sacrifice them?”
The Fox Demon clamped his mouth shut, refusing to speak.
Surprisingly, Lu Da did not press further and stood up directly.
“Tough guy, aren’t you? It’s fine if you don’t tell me. We’ll take you back and hand you over to my Senior Brother Shang for interrogation. His majors include alchemical pills, alchemical cuisine, beast taming, and Artifact Refining. Dealing with demonic beasts like you is his specialty.”
It was only now that Su Mu realized what Senior Uncle Shang’s specialties were.
Gu Ranxi, puzzled, quietly asked, “Why would studying alchemical pills, alchemical cuisine, beast taming, and Artifact Refining make him particularly good at dealing with demonic beasts?”
“Of course, it makes sense,” Su Mu explained. “The alchemical cuisine and beast taming majors involve extensive research on demonic beasts, from understanding what they fear most and their weaknesses to how to dissect and cook them. As for alchemical pills and Artifact Refining, using some methods of coercion and poison during interrogation is quite reasonable, don’t you think?”
Coercion and poison? How on earth is that reasonable?
The Fox Demon shivered in fear, feeling that falling into the hands of these cultivators was a truly miserable fate.
He quickly cried out, “Wait! Aren’t you supposed to offer me various benefits first? Why is that step being skipped?”
Lu Da frowned, “Who told you there’s such a step? Our policy has always been leniency for confession, severity for resistance! Since you’re resisting, naturally, we’ll handle you severely! You expect us to offer benefits? Do you think this is a story where the hero and the villain negotiate? Not a chance, even in your dreams!”
He couldn’t be bothered to deal with this Fox Demon any longer. It was evident that the Fox Demon was just being stubborn and wasn’t going to confess honestly.
He’d seen plenty of demonic beasts that wouldn’t shed a tear until they saw the coffin, so he wasn’t surprised at all.
Lu Da called over an officer and instructed, “Da Biao, take a team and escort this Fox Demon back to the base. Hand him over to my Senior Brother Shang. If he shows any signs of resistance along the way, eliminate him immediately!”
“Yes, sir!” the officer replied, promptly selecting a few powerful soldiers and summoning their flying swords to escort the Fox Demon back to the frontline base.
These soldiers were more formidable than Su Mu’s team and were accustomed to training in the Snowy Mountain Perilous Land. Even with the intense wind and snow, they could still fly with their swords.
The Fox Demon knew what fate awaited him, but with his movements restricted by handcuffs and leg irons, and his demonic power suppressed, he couldn’t resist. Instead, he shouted, “You can’t torture me! I’ll report you to the Spiritual Beast Protection Organization!”
Lu Da scoffed, “Are you out of your mind? The Spiritual Beast Protection Organization protects spiritual beasts. How could an evil demon like you have the audacity to call yourself a spiritual beast?”
The Fox Demon retorted, “Why not? Don’t you humans say, ‘A fox isn’t a demon, and sexy isn’t promiscuous?’ If we foxes aren’t demons, then we should be considered spiritual beasts!”
At this, not only Lu Da but also Su Mu and the others were bewildered, thinking that the Fox Demon must have suffered brain damage from the Illusionary Poison or the recent explosions.
“Take him away!” Lu Da waved his hand dismissively. This slippery Fox Demon would be better off being interrogated by Senior Brother Shang.
Lu Da was confident that once the Fox Demon was in Senior Brother Shang’s hands, there were only two possible outcomes: either he would obediently confess everything, or he would end up as part of the mess team’s ingredients. Did the Fox Demon think that the mess team’s prized possession, “The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Ultimate Recipe Collection,” was just for show?
Da Biao escorted the Fox Demon away. To prevent him from shouting and causing any unnecessary trouble while airborne, Da Biao even gagged him…
After sending off the Fox Demon, Lu Da turned to the officer in charge of the unmanned reconnaissance drone and asked, “Pillar, have you found anything? What exactly is beneath the ice crevice?”
They had deployed several unmanned reconnaissance drones this time, controlled by a few technical soldiers. The drones were all sent to the bottom of the ice crevice, spaced apart.
This was done to ensure they could comprehensively scout the situation beneath the ice crevice and to safeguard against potential issues below. As long as not all the drones were destroyed, they could at least bring back some information.
Pillar quickly reported, “Captain, the drones have transmitted some footage, but… I can’t really explain what this thing is.”
“Hmm?” Lu Da’s interest was piqued, and he quickly walked over.
Su Mu and the others, equally curious, followed suit. Soon, they were all gathered around a computer screen, viewing the footage transmitted by the drones from the bottom of the ice crevice.
Everyone’s minds simultaneously buzzed with the same question: What is this thing?
The ice crevice was bottomless, and one drone had captured an image of a massive… uh… how to put this… a massive tangled mop? And it was in a very chaotic and scattered state.
“Is that… Flying Noodles?!” Kevin exclaimed.
Su Mu rolled his eyes at him and said, “Even if Flying Noodles did exist, they wouldn’t come here. Besides, this thing looks nothing like noodles! If anything, it resembles hair.”
Su Ye looked closely and nodded, “It does indeed look a bit like hair…”
Gu Ranxi, Lin Junjie, and Xun Ling joined the discussion, debating what exactly was sealed within the ice layer.
Some speculated it was the Demon of the Mop, an entity born from ancient resentments against household cleaning. Others agreed with Su Mu and Su Ye’s guess, believing it to be hair, spawned from the collective grievances of those suffering hair loss!
The discussion went in circles, but none of the theories seemed particularly plausible.
Ignoring their speculations, Lu Da asked Pillar, “Have you analyzed what’s inside the ice layer? Any conclusions?”
Pillar responded, “We’ve analyzed it, and the AI system’s result is-hair!”
“It’s really hair?” Lu Da glanced at Su Mu and Su Ye.
Did these siblings actually get it right?
“Whose hair is it?” Lu Da inquired.
Based on the footage transmitted by the unmanned reconnaissance drones, the ice crevice appeared to be at least several hundred meters deep. Starting from about a hundred meters down, it was filled with this hair-expansive and plentiful. Which monster was known for having such dense hair?
“Could it be a Jinpo?” Xun Ling asked.
Specializing in the Major of beast taming, she had read about Jinpo in her textbooks. She knew that this monster was renowned for its long, thick hair, which could be used as a weapon.
Su Ye shook her head, “It doesn’t seem like it. Jinpo is a sea creature. Although it’s not impossible for one to be sealed in the Snowy Mountain Perilous Land, the size doesn’t match. If this were a Jinpo, it would be at least a hundred meters tall.”
Lu Da pondered for a moment before saying, “Pillar, find a way to-“
“Blast it open with a cannon?” Pillar interjected, looking up.
These unmanned reconnaissance drones were equipped with firepower systems, and he assumed Lu Da wanted him to use them to break through the ice layer and collect some samples.
“Absolutely not.”
Lu Da scolded, “This ice layer is clearly meant to seal this weird thing. Besides, the firepower of the drone might not even be enough to break it. If we do manage to break it open, whatever is sealed inside could escape, and that would be a disaster!”
“So what do you want me to do?” Pillar asked.
Lu Da said, “See if you can use the drone’s spiritual power scanning system to analyze what exactly is hidden within that hair.”
“I’ll give it a try.” Pillar nodded in agreement. His hands moved rapidly, creating a blur, as he wrote out runic script, transmitting it to one of the drones.
After a while, the AI system did indeed produce an analysis result.