Hearing the provocation, Brian Cooper withdrew his gaze, raised his eyebrows, and said indifferently, “A beauty has invited me—how could I refuse?”

William Brooks hurriedly tried to stop him: “What are you doing? Old Cooper, seriously, why are you competing with a girl? Everyone, don’t be so impulsive.”

Emily Moore also pulled Grace Bennett aside: “Zheng’er, don’t get angry with that stinky monster. Let’s just ignore him.”

Brian Cooper wasn’t the type to take things to heart. He’d just felt a bit impulsive when he saw Grace Bennett earlier for no apparent reason, but now he didn’t want to get entangled with this group, so he called out, “William, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back first.”

“Wait a minute, we still have things to discuss.”

“What now?”

“Did you forget about the lady we met yesterday? This is the only sect in this city that can help us—Haitian Mingyue Sect. It’s an affiliate of the Anti-Demon Alliance.”

“Just these five people?”

James Bennett said in a deep voice, “What exactly do you mean?”

Brian Cooper replied coolly, “Nothing in particular. It’s just that last time there were twenty or thirty assassins, and if next time there are fifty or sixty, I’m afraid you won’t have enough people.” From a human perspective, these few people had decent cultivation, but they were about the same as William Brooks, so Brian Cooper naturally didn’t think much of them.

“The five of us are definitely not weaker than the two of you. You’d better worry about yourself.” The voice was crisp and full of pride—it was Grace Bennett speaking again.

“You guys can discuss it with that lady. It has nothing to do with me.” Brian Cooper had lost interest in arguing.

James Bennett asked in confusion, “Sister, what’s going on? Did something big happen?”

Grace Bennett turned to the other four in the room and said, “Just now, William Brooks told me that a European paladin has asked for help. They want to investigate some criminal activities involving a monster syndicate. What do you all think? Should we help?”

William Brooks picked up the thread: “Why don’t we go to my place first and meet that lady? It’ll be easier to discuss things with everyone present.”

Brian Cooper wasn’t buying it—he didn’t want to get involved. So he said, “I’ll head out first. You guys can follow later.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure flickered and he disappeared.

The Five Elements Great Shift—an unparalleled escape technique.

Only a master of Brian Cooper’s level could use it so effortlessly, coming and going as he pleased.

Except for William Brooks, who had already more or less figured out Brian Cooper’s background, the remaining five all gasped in shock, each secretly becoming more vigilant. The strength Brian Cooper had just displayed was indeed impressive.

Back home, Brian Cooper didn’t even go up to the fifth floor—his Five Elements Great Shift took him straight to the fourth. He didn’t care at all about the monsters’ activities; after all, he himself was a high-level demon. If he hadn’t been so diligent in cultivation, he might have started a gang or formed a monster syndicate for fun. So, regarding William Brooks’s actions, he wouldn’t interfere, but he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic either.

What he was more concerned about was how to prevent others from seeing through his monster identity. Otherwise, in modern society, if people kept recognizing him as a monster, how could he get by?

Some human cultivators who especially hated demons would kill any non-human without mercy. Brian Cooper wasn’t afraid of that, but he found it troublesome. For an easier life in the future, it was necessary to take precautions—after all, as the saying goes, “If a man has no long-term worries, he will surely have near-term troubles.”

What he’d learned before couldn’t solve this problem, so he could only look for a solution in his own materials. Brian Cooper thought to himself, “I have three Daoist classics: ‘Jade Palace Golden Chapter,’ ‘Heavenly Mansion Purple Ginseng,’ and ‘The Divine Book of the Sixty Jiazi.’ I should be able to find a method to conceal my demon identity.”

These days, it was the first time Brian Cooper had carefully read through all three classics. A few days ago, he’d only skimmed the parts that interested him.

‘The Divine Book of the Sixty Jiazi’ consists of sixty volumes, recording systematic Daoist spells and the secrets of immortal artifact refinement. Its author’s Daoist skills were also top-notch, and Brian Cooper held this book in high regard. The content was on par with what Brian Cooper himself had learned. The book is divided according to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches into ten sections—Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui—each with twelve levels: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai. The ten sections cover sword formulas, talismans, qi refining, spells, Qimen, forbidden arrays, artifact crafting, alchemy, divination, and demon sealing. It’s a grand and comprehensive work.

‘Jade Palace Golden Chapter’ and ‘Heavenly Mansion Purple Ginseng’ were both obtained from the Daoist texts of Jinting Yuzhu. Unlike ‘The Divine Book of the Sixty Jiazi,’ they aren’t as complex, but they record the highest Daoist techniques, going straight to the essence and reversing the innate. However, their paths are completely different. ‘Jade Palace Golden Chapter’ emphasizes out-of-body ascension and the eternal indestructibility of the primordial spirit, abandoning all material needs—this is the path of the Celestial Immortal. ‘Heavenly Mansion Purple Ginseng,’ on the other hand, is the opposite: it unites the primordial energy of heaven and earth with the physical body, with the key being to refine one’s body into an indestructible immortal form of immense power. It’s a unique cultivation path that Brian Cooper had never heard of before. The Daoist methods recorded in this book are no less wondrous than those in ‘Jade Palace Golden Chapter.’