I can push my cultivation progress to the end

According to the 《True Scripture of Commanding Demons》, a demon is essentially a beast that deviates from the norm.

Being a wild beast, it naturally lacks advanced intelligence and abundant emotions, remaining untamed, cruel, and bloodthirsty.

Therefore, in the process of nurturing and training demons, one must never harbor compassion but must be strict and ruthless to the end, instilling fear in the demon towards its master, leading to submission.

Therefore, for demon beasts like the Black Howl Tapir, continuous beatings and abuse should be inflicted during its growth process to instill absolute fear of the master, leading to absolute obedience.

Otherwise, once the Black Howl Tapir roughly masters its abilities, even if only out of a playful whim, it will surely drag its master into terrifying nightmares, indulging in teasing until death.

Not only the Black Howl Tapir, but basically all the other demon beasts recorded in the 《True Scripture of Commanding Demons》, except for one called Ironscale Fungus Ox, which has a gentler and less contentious nature, are of the same ilk.

For example, a type of Illusion Scale Demon Hound recorded in it likes to sneak into villages and towns under the cover of night, stealthily gnawing on the heads of human children.

Often, when the children's parents realize something is wrong, they will only see their children's heads gradually disappearing into thin air, piece by piece, and clear sucking and chewing sounds will continue to come from the surrounding air.

The scene is utterly terrifying.

"Demon... beast..."

Li Hai pondered for a moment, then asked Qiu Fangzheng, "Fangzheng, have you ever heard of such things as demons and demon beasts?"

"No, I have never seen or heard of them."

Qiu Fangzheng shook his head and added, "Sir, not only in Niujiao Town but also throughout the entire Qiulong Mountain, there has never been any mention of demons. Bandits and outlaws, on the other hand, are abundant."

"Alright." Li Hai curled his lips. "Maybe they exist in some places within the Jing Dynasty's territory; otherwise, how could such a book exist?"

"Probably... maybe."

Qiu Fangzheng echoed, "After all, the entire Qiulong Mountain area is not even as large as a province of the Great Jing Dynasty, so perhaps demons exist in some provinces."

After the chat, the two ghosts transformed into two wisps of black smoke again and disappeared on the spot, beginning to rush towards the last location.

That place was precisely where the ancient sect's lost stele, which Qiu Fangzheng had been talking about, was located.

After some time—

"Sir."

Qiu Fangzheng pointed to a fallen stone tablet covered in cracks, lying face up, and said respectfully, "This is the stele I mentioned earlier. Judging from the records on it, this stele should have been left by the survivors of the earthquake back then."

"Mm." Li Hai nodded and strolled over to examine it closely.

As Qiu Fangzheng had said, the stele, about seven feet tall, detailed various information about this sect.

According to this information, Li Hai learned that the sect's name was the Hunting Deer Pavilion, an ancient sect with a thousand-year heritage, known for its expertise in raising demon beasts, and also quite accomplished in the arts of pills and body tempering.

The reason it moved its entire sect from the mainland of the Great Xuan Dynasty to a remote area like Qiulong Mountain was that people in the sect accidentally unearthed a world-shaking treasure from the depths of the northern grasslands of the Xuan Dynasty during the 173rd year of the reign of the sixth Black Sky Emperor of the Great Xuan Dynasty.

That is, the gold that Li Hai had previously seen and taken away.

"Black Sky Emperor... what a strange name."

After seeing this, Li Hai muttered softly, "Judging from the style of this name, could the so-called Great Xuan Dynasty... be a demonic kingdom?"

After muttering, he continued to read.

He then discovered that the ancient stele recorded that the gold... was not the real 'protagonist' of the treasure.

The key factor that truly prompted the Hunting Deer Pavilion to decide to move the entire sect was actually a legendary... dragon egg.

"Dragon egg?"

Li Hai couldn't help but ask Qiu Fangzheng, who was beside him, "Fangzheng, you are older than me and have a wider range of knowledge. Have you ever heard of the existence of dragons in this world?"

"Uh..."

Qiu Fangzheng's skull face couldn't help but wrinkle slightly.

I'm older than you?

This sentence almost made Qiu Fangzheng unable to hold back.

It sounded both right and wrong.

But in the end, he honestly replied:

"Sir, although I have lived in this world for more than seventy years, I have never seen or heard of a true dragon appearing anywhere."

"Alright." Li Hai shrugged. "Then it seems that this is probably another specialty of the Great Xuan... oh no, the Great Jing Dynasty."

After chatting for a few words, he continued to look at the ancient stele.

According to its content, after obtaining the dragon egg more than a thousand years ago, the Hunting Deer Pavilion developed a great ambition.

That is, to dominate the world and be enfeoffed as lords.

To put it bluntly, the Hunting Deer Pavilion's high-level executives were betting the sect's future on this dragon egg.

Hoping to use it to cultivate and train a demon beast king that could crush all living beings, helping them seize the world.

Therefore, after several secret discussions, this sect left the Great Xuan Dynasty and moved to the remote Qiulong Mountain range.

Wanting to secretly hide in this desolate place, waiting until the dragon egg developed enough strength before returning to the Great Xuan to play a round of the king's return.

Unfortunately, their luck did not keep up with their ambitions.

As soon as they arrived at Qiulong Mountain and built their sect's base, boom, an earthquake came.

In the end, all the Hunting Deer Pavilion's efforts and ambitions came to naught.

Li Hai's evaluation of this was:

"Don't blame society for bad luck; rest in peace."

The things behind these contents were slightly lackluster.

Basically, it was reminiscing about the sect's ancestors, cherishing the sect's past glory, lamenting the sect's current miserable state, and then angrily scolding the heavens for being blind and the way of heaven for being unfair.

At the very end, it was hoping that later generations would see this inscription and rebuild the Hunting Deer Pavilion, and other such wishful thinking.

Yes, in Li Hai's view, this was wishful thinking.

Looking at this ghostly place they were in, who could enter it?

Not to mention people, even ordinary ghosts couldn't enter.

Moreover, Li Hai already had the heavy responsibility of reviving the Naihe Prefecture on his shoulders, so he didn't have the time to do any sect revival for his Hunting Deer Pavilion.

"I've finished reading it. In short, it's a very unlucky sect. It was glorious for a thousand years, but in the end, it was buried by an earthquake."

Li Hai slowly raised his head and concluded, "However, everything has prosperity and decline; this is the correct principle of the way of heaven and the virtue of the earth, so it is normal for the Hunting Deer Pavilion to perish."

"Sir is right," Qiu Fangzheng echoed.

After speaking, the two ghosts transformed into black smoke and prepared to leave this place.

But at this moment, Li Hai's calm mind suddenly trembled inexplicably.