Clearing Out Demons

There was another possibility!

Liu Sanmei and the other demons of Chaotic Stone Stronghold might merely have been stringing him along with their earlier oath of loyalty. To prevent Shen Mo from killing them through the restrictions left in their Divine Souls, they had only truly resolved to return to his side after he displayed extraordinary strength capable of contending with Hou Corpse Cave.

But no matter what, Liu Sanmei and the other Chaotic Stone Stronghold demons had rendered considerable merit in this great battle.

Given Shen Mo's temperament, he naturally would not refine them into Soul Generals or treat them as blood food!

After weighing the matter, Shen Mo laid down a rule forbidding them from eating humans. He then granted a dozen or so fourth-rank demons and several hundred third-rank demons the status of Scarlet Flame Sect protectors, marking out a region on the edge of the Mountain River Domain for them to inhabit and guard the sect's inner territory.

Among them, Liu Sanmei possessed peak fourth-rank cultivation, while quite a few demon protectors had mid- and late fourth-rank cultivation. They were a notch above even Scarlet Flame Sect disciples in the Origin Core Realm, the fifth rank.

Should Shen Mo suffer calamity or lose the ability to deter them, it was highly likely to unleash chaos and inflict grievous losses upon the Scarlet Flame Sect.

Thus, Shen Mo bestowed Spirit-Controlling Talismans upon the sect's higher-ups. After having them leave Divine Soul imprints on the talismans, he drove them into the soul bodies of Liu Sanmei and the other fourth-rank demon protectors as restraints. As for the talismanic restrictions Shan Hao had left behind, so long as he did not enter the Azure Cloud Grotto-Heaven, he could not actively trigger their power, so they posed no cause for