"These two old men really don’t want to take risks with their lives!"

Upon hearing the response from Daoists Wutian and Wudi and Elder Fumo, Wang Zhifan couldn’t help but shake his head slightly.

The situation was clear now. He had already identified his target, but the target gave him an intuitive feeling of danger. If he attacked alone, the outcome would be uncertain. Waiting for reinforcements would take too long to call for strong aid, leaving him in a bit of a bind.

"Should I fight or retreat... If I just retreat now, apart from discovering the Demon Venerable’s location, I still know very little about it. Organizing an attack later would be difficult... If I decide to fight, perhaps I should wait. The Dream Me Avatar of Elder Fumo could still play a role..."

After some thought, Wang Zhifan decided not to back down. Just because the enemy seemed strong didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight them. It wasn’t the type that made him feel invincible at first sight.

Of course, dealing with such a formidable enemy, charging in directly was certainly unwise. He needed to keep a safe distance first, probe a bit, and then respond after learning the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.

So Wang Zhifan quickly devised a strategy.

He quickly retreated outside the city of Ruizhou, hiding in a small grove outside the city.

The task of probing was handed over to a Dream Me Avatar, but this Dream Me Avatar was different from the usual ones he sent out previously. It was a powerful avatar specially crafted and infused with a significant amount of power to ensure it posed a significant threat during a sneak attack.

The preparation phase was quick and smooth. When Wang Zhifan hid in the grove outside the city and dispatched the powerful avatar to sneak back into the city, nothing unexpected happened.

Furthermore, this time the avatar infiltrated the small inn where the scholar-like Demon Venerable resided without a hitch, as if the formidable Demon Venerable’s perception was ordinary and unaware of the outsiders spying on it.

Once the avatar was in place, Wang Zhifan controlled it to hide within the inn’s wall, silently observing. He didn’t have the avatar strike immediately because he wanted to continue observing the enemy and wait for the support from the strongest avatar Elder Fumo mentioned.

Until this moment, in the small room of the inn, the Demon Venerable, who instinctively felt very dangerous to Wang Zhifan, was still playing Go with the shabby old man across the wooden table.

The Demon Venerable, appearing as a young scholar in white, focused intently, seemingly putting all his attention on the chessboard before him.

Every move he made was thoroughly thought over. The Wandering Dragon Jade Folding Fan in his left hand gently swayed rhythmically, reflecting the fan’s new owner’s light and joyful mood.

Seeing this through the avatar, Wang Zhifan couldn’t help but think an immediate sneak attack might be successful. But when he shifted the avatar’s focus to the other two Demon Venerables beside the target, he had to suppress the impulse.

This was because the two Demon Venerables, appearing as middle-aged servants in gray clothing, were always on alert. Although they had not yet discovered Wang Zhifan’s sent avatar, which showed their lack of skill, there was no doubt that if Wang Zhifan controlled the avatar to attack, they would certainly interfere and obstruct. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Though the avatar Wang Zhifan sent was a specially crafted powerful entity, its strength was still far inferior to his real self. So without a good enough opportunity, he could only wait, waiting for those two servant Demon Venerables to expose a flaw or for Elder Fumo’s support to arrive.

As time continued to slowly pass, in the dimly lit room of the small inn under the light of an oil lamp, the white-robed scholar Demon Venerable continued playing Go with the old man across the wooden table until the old man’s side finally emerged victorious.

"Not bad! This human game of yours is very interesting! As long as you keep winning against me, I will keep letting you live!"

Despite losing to the old man across the table, the scholar Demon Venerable showed no signs of anger, instead appearing as if he had found something amusing, cheerfully expressing a desire to play several more rounds.

However, the shabby old man sitting opposite him wasn’t so pleased. His deeply wrinkled face showed a hint of a bitter smile, his long white eyebrows and sparsely messy white hair on his head sagging powerlessly. In a resigned tone, he spoke to the Demon Venerable:

"Your Excellency Demon Venerable, you are exceptionally intelligent. Just one game and your chess skills have continuously improved to the point where I admit I cannot win against you in the next round. Do what you will with me."

As it turned out, the shabby-looking white-haired old man was a monk and clearly knew he was playing chess with a Demon Venerable, which made Wang Zhifan, silently observing, let the avatar take a few more glances at him.

Originally, Wang Zhifan hadn’t paid much attention to the old man playing chess with the Demon Venerable, mainly because he didn’t know him and his appearance was terrible.

With a face full of wrinkles like an old man, a head of messy hair like a bird’s nest, and wearing seemingly no clothes, apart from not having obvious dirt on his body, he wasn’t much different from a street beggar.

As for strength, he seemed to be a master of the Innate Realm, but to someone of Wang Zhifan’s level, it was insignificant.

"Hehe... You, baldy, want to die now? Where did your courage go when you challenged me earlier? I order you to continue! As long as you finish another game before dawn, I won’t punish you for being slow!"

The young scholar-like powerful Demon Venerable responded immediately after hearing the old man’s words, with an attitude of not letting the other go and wanting to continue the game.

The old man sighed bitterly after hearing this. He seemed to have compromised with the Demon Venerable’s proposal to play slowly, acknowledging that he still wished to live a few more hours.