Hearing this, Qu Shengwen couldn't help asking anxiously,
"Fairy Maiden, don't listen to my younger sister's nonsense. Age and things like that don't matter."
Cultivators of immortality mostly didn't care about such superficial matters, and there were plenty of dao companions with age gaps of hundreds or thousands of years.
Qu Shengwen was of a disposition that deeply loved beauties, and when he met a top-tier beauty, it was impossible for him to say he wasn't moved.
Although he knew clearly that he was unworthy, no matter what, he still wanted to strive to draw closer.
So he was especially afraid that Xia Wantang would keep her distance from them because of the age gap.
Xia Wantang:??? What kind of nonsense is age doesn't matter, age does matter!
She had been worried beforehand about whether Yan Wen would treat her as an elder, but it was hard for her to bring up age naturally.
Now that Qu Zhuowen had asked, she would only say: little sister, well asked!
"You shouldn't overthink it. My age is only about twenty years old, and I am the same age as you. You can just address me as a fellow daoist."
Strictly speaking, the true age of this body had just been born.
Of course, this was too sensational, so Xia Wantang could only reply according to Yan Wen's situation.
Hearing this, the expressions of the other four carried more or less astonishment.
Ling Xuan's heart for seeking the Dao was the strongest, and he couldn't help asking,
"For Fellow Daoist Tang to be at such an age and possess such high cultivation, how did you achieve it?"
After speaking, he realized that this remark carried the suspicion of prying into someone else's privacy, and added,
"Apologies, I was being presumptuous. If it is inconvenient, you don't have to answer."
Xia Wantang didn't know how to explain it in the first place, so she could only spout nonsense:
"It's fine, I just had good luck."
"I once fortuitously obtained the inheritance of a mighty figure, who passed on everything he had learned in his life to me, along with many spiritual herbs and elixirs. After refining them, my cultivation advanced this quickly."
For now, it seemed this was the only reason.
Yan Wen and the other three understood in their hearts. While envious, they didn't lower their degree of respect for Xia Wantang by the slightest:
Don't think that being able to obtain an inheritance was just good luck and picking it up for free—one also had to be recognized by the mighty figure!
Otherwise, the mighty figure would rather let the inheritance rot in the dirt.
Moreover, even with countless spiritual elixirs and medicines, it was impossible to make a mediocre person raise their cultivation. This showed that Fellow Daoist Tang's natural talent itself was extremely excellent.
To prevent the four of them from continuing to pursue her personal matters, Xia Wantang shifted the topic to business:
"Fellow Daoist Yan, since you arrived in Luoshui Town earlier than I did, is there any progress in your investigation?"
If she could eradicate the Heavenly Demon Cult in the early stages, it would definitely count as a fine deed, which could spare many innocent cultivators from suffering calamities.
Of course, she hadn't been idle when it came to raising favorability either.
Every time she cast her gaze toward Yan Wen, Xia Wantang was secretly casting amorous glances.
What was more, several times she had taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with Yan Wen, and her intentions were already obvious enough.
She had to admit, this move was useful to some extent. Her peach-blossom eyes were naturally bright and clear, rippling with radiant charm.
Coupled with the fact that she was bold, proactive, and exceptional, and Yan Wen wasn't a eunuch, it was impossible for him to feel nothing at all.
Tang Wan gained 5 favorability with Yan Wen. Current favorability: 15, exchanged for 50 faith points.
Hearing the favorability broadcast sound, she still felt unsatisfied:
She truly lived up to being the orthodox Holy Son with the least amount of desires; even in the early stages, the effect of the honey trap wasn't particularly obvious.
Unlike Xiao Rui and Ye Xing, where at least the first 30 favorability points were very easy to grind and didn't require expending much thought.
Noticing Xia Wantang's gaze, the one who felt the most lost was Qu Shengwen.
Several times he had taken the initiative to curry favor, yet the other party turned a blind eye, her eyes holding only Holy Son Yan Wen.
He also understood that although he was outstanding, in all aspects he could not compare to Yan Wen.
It seemed he could only hide his romantic feelings deep within his heart and give up on pursuing her.
Regarding this, Qu Zhuowen was quite happy to see it happen:
Aside from Holy Son Yan Wen, she couldn't think of any other male cultivator who could match a peerless beauty as exceptional as fairy sister.
As for that cheap older brother of hers, he could just forget it.
When he saw a pretty girl, he could fall in love with ten people a day; he didn't deserve her.
Xia Wantang's gaze was far too direct and bold. Yan Wen met it levelly for a second or two, but ultimately conceded defeat, withdrew his gaze, concealed the momentary flurry within his heart, and replied,
"After arriving in Luoshui Town, we made inquiries among the villagers here. Some villagers said they had indeed seen cultivators wearing the same attire as us visit this place, and besides that, there were also some rogue cultivators."
"Because there is a demonic beast forest near the town, though of low grade, cultivators around the Mystic Martial Realm occasionally come here to temper themselves."
"Recently, however, those cultivators never appeared again, and the villagers assumed they had left this place."
Hearing this, Xia Wantang fell into deep thought:
It looked like at the current stage, the Heavenly Demon Cult should have been established not long ago, and they didn't dare to capture cultivators on a large scale, only daring to do so stealthily in the vicinity.
Because in the later stages, when Xiao Rui went to subjugate the Heavenly Demon Cult, the original villagers of Luoshui Town had all fallen victim, and the new villagers were all disguised members of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
They disguised themselves as villagers. If they encountered cultivators with low cultivation, they directly captured them to the Heavenly Demon Cult.
If they encountered those with high cultivation, they wouldn't give themselves away, instead secretly sending word to the Cult Master on how to deal with them.
Now these villagers were still able to leak information about the missing disciples to Yan Wen and the other three, so they should indeed be ordinary villagers.
Moreover, the tea in this teahouse had no problems whatsoever; it was proper green tea.
Pulling her thoughts back, Xia Wantang suggested,
"Why don't we go take a look in that demonic beast forest? Perhaps we'll be able to find something."
She remembered that the lair of the Heavenly Demon Cult was hidden in the core location of the Demonic Beast Forest.
Hearing this, Qu Shengwen put away his folding fan and issued a warm invitation:
"Great minds think alike. To not keep it from you, the four of us were just about to set off for the Demonic Beast Forest. If Fellow Daoist Tang doesn't disdain it, why don't we act together?"
Xia Wantang: Sister has just been waiting for these words!
"Good, let's not let a good opportunity slip by, let's set off right now."
Just like that, the five of them hit it off and immediately set out for the Demonic Beast Forest, and Xia Wantang also successfully infiltrated Asking Dao Valley's team, gaining the opportunity to cultivate feelings with Yan Wen.
The Demonic Beast Forest wasn't far from Luoshui Town. The five of them plied their horses with whips, and in the span of a stick of incense, they arrived.
The moment she touched the ground, Xia Wantang sensed something was amiss:
Her current body was the Supreme Yin Demonic Physique, capable of perceiving the presence of other demonic beasts within a vast range.
Yet this was clearly the Demonic Beast Forest, and she couldn't perceive any demonic beasts, save for a few demonic beasts above the Profound Heaven Realm deep within the forest.
This Demonic Beast Forest was of a low grade, and thus demonic beasts above the Profound Heaven Realm already existed as entities that lorded over a region.
However, to say that only demonic beasts above the Profound Heaven Realm existed in the Demonic Beast Forest was utterly impossible.
The demonic beasts here should mostly have been around the Mystic Martial Realm, otherwise those previous cultivators wouldn't have come here to train.
In other words, there was only one possibility: the demonic beasts in the Demonic Beast Forest had also been ravaged clean by the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Pondering this, a fit of anger inexplicably surged up in Xia Wantang's heart, and subconsciously, she directly punched a nearby tree in half, giving the other four a great fright.
Before you continue