The old man left as hurriedly as he had come, leaving no trace behind.

Hou Niao hadn't asked him why he needed to kill those Demon Beasts. He was no longer the naive young cultivator who needed to justify his actions for peace of mind. He killed them, and that was that—what reason was needed?

As with Demon Beasts, so it was with humans.

Furthermore, the old man wasn't a bloodthirsty person. Back when he was chased around the world by the Wu Sect after leaving the Anhe Daoist Sect, he hadn't killed anyone either.

After the old man left, Hou Niao carefully checked his surroundings for any spying eyes before reverting from Hao Ren's appearance and changing himself into the guise of the Mosquito Daoist. Looking into the mirror, he saw nothing but an extremely sleazy character.

His chin was very sharp, protruding, with an overbite.

He felt his abilities weren't affected in any way, but couldn't detect any special distinguishing traits either?

Perplexed, he knew he hadn't yet unlocked the true path, so he pondered carefully. Before long, he discovered a small line in his Purple Mansion, far from the Sword Seed, as if it feared being cut down by the Sword Seed.

Understanding dawned upon him. When he focused his spirit on that mosquito, his body suddenly felt light. His hands transformed into wings, and with a slight flap, he found himself floating. He couldn't help but make a buzzing sound with his mouth.

He had actually become a mosquito.

He didn't know the species, but it was similar to a common mosquito. The only strange thing was that its blood-sucking proboscis seemed misplaced?

Shouldn't a regular mosquito's proboscis be on its mouth? Yet, his was at the rear, like that of a wasp.

No, it wasn't quite like a wasp, because a wasp's stinger is at the back, while his was underneath his belly.

What a peculiar adjustment to such a valuable treasure.

There was nothing he could do to change it, so he just accepted it and attempted to explore any abilities he had in this mosquito form.

Cultivators had the ability to transform; at the Golden Core stage, they could achieve limited transformations, and after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, they could transform into anything. However, for humans, the path of transformation was trivial—better not to transform at all.

Human abilities aren't based on instinct; they are earned through the accumulation of countless efforts, vast resources, and life-and-death trials—all built upon the capabilities of the human body.

If you were to transform into another race, you might lose most of your human skills while not necessarily gaining the supernatural abilities of your new form, rendering the transformation pointless. Why bother?

Cultivators must adhere to several balance principles when changing shapes, such as transforming only into objects of the same weight and volume. This means if he directly turned into a mosquito, he would become a hundred-pound giant mosquito, which would defeat the purpose of hiding and surely lead to being killed as a monster.

The true path of transformation lies at a different level where one masters the Great Dao Imagination, a realm immensely difficult to reach.

The transformation abilities we humans refer to usually mean that the transformed object possesses the supernatural abilities of that form. This generally falls under the domain of the Body Cultivation Dharma Form. For most cultivators, if they want a particular ability, they would just cultivate spells in that aspect. Why transform into a mismatched form just for that skill?

It's like dropping your pants to fart.

Hou Niao had now transformed into this mosquito, possessing a certain ability called "blood detection."

He could smell the blood aura of different people, making identification easy. Of course, it also allowed him to differentiate between Demon Beasts' blood and human blood effortlessly.

He intended to use this ability to discover which of the Beasts that entered Sui Mo City were the real ones.

Hou Niao knew that the Demons of the Jinxiu Continent wouldn't dare march openly into the mainland, especially given that the war between humans and Demons had only ended a few years ago and both sides were still hostile.

The Earth Demons lacked the ability to conceal their presence. Even Golden Core Demons or Nascent Soul Great Demons couldn't manage it. However, the Demon Beasts from Outer Space could; they had honed their abilities over tens of thousands of years.

Thus, he had felt a sense of unease before, uncertain of which it was.

Once transformed, he had to test the capabilities of this body, which nearly drove him to swear out of anger.

Perhaps he hadn't transformed correctly, maybe his level of strength wasn't sufficient, or maybe this was the best form he could manage. Besides the blood detection skill, the rest were rubbish.

He couldn't fly fast. How fast could a mosquito fly? Not even as fast as a fly!

His stamina was poor: flying just one street left him feeling exhausted and in need of a rest, making it clear he couldn't rely on this body to thoroughly search Sui Mo City.

The body's durability was lacking, too. A child could smack him to death, which would break his disguise and result in him falling out of the sky as a living human.

This mimicry was so real, indistinguishable from a real mosquito.

The only advantage was nobody would suspect this mosquito, nor would they wonder why its proboscis was under its belly instead of the head—no one was that idle.

Though inconvenient, Hou Niao was not someone who retreated in the face of difficulty. If he promised the old man something, he would see it through.

Most of these Outer Space Demon Beasts had surely played a role in the preceding Beast Tide, and for that reason alone, he wouldn't let them off.

He targeted the Stele, knowing the Demon Beasts weren't here to appreciate flowers. The Stele was the only thing likely to interest them.

In the form of a Mosquito Daoist, he made himself appear as someone fascinated by the Stele, staying openly near it to observe every visitor.

First, he'd rely on his intuition to assess whether someone was disguising their presence. Once he had a target, he would transform into a mosquito to sniff out whether they were human or Demon.

He couldn't stay in mosquito form all the time. With so many small animals relying on insects for food nearby, he might accidentally get eaten.

Luckily, the visitor flow wasn't high—around a hundred people per day, mostly mortals. Only about ten were true cultivators. Otherwise, using this method to find Demon Beasts would indeed be tiring, requiring constant transformation, and he'd have to consider how not to get noticed.

A few troublemakers remained: Zhao Xintong and Luo Yewang, the persistent pair, stayed here doggedly, though what they persisted for was unclear.

For cultivators, it's normal to stay in one place for months or years. They have the time and the means to satisfy their curiosity, treating the process as part of their cultivation, which is beyond reproach.

He should have driven them away earlier—Hou Niao regretted a bit.

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