After sending Qu Yougu away, things did not become much smoother. On the contrary, when people from the other sects saw Qu Yougu return from Shu Xin’s place looking utterly dejected, it only took a little digging to figure out what Myriad Dao Sect was up to.
Well, well. They had started making their move this quickly?
Seeing this, the other sects stopped caring about propriety. Since Myriad Dao Sect was doing it, they would do the same.
What if a blind cat happened to catch a dead mouse?
And so, over the next few days, Shu Xin had to find all sorts of excuses to turn down these gifted young cultivators.
It was almost like going back to a hundred years ago, when she had first joined the Longevity Dao Sect and had been forced to attend matchmaking meetings with cultivators from various aristocratic families.
Only back then, she had been the one being chosen. Now, she was the one doing the choosing.
After rejecting several people in a row, there was still an endless stream of people coming to confess their feelings to her.
Just when Shu Xin was on the verge of losing her temper, Wen Jingzhi stepped in and decisively beat them up before sending them away.
“Jingzhi, they aren’t my enemies.” Shu Xin was delighted inside, but on the surface, she hypocritically rebuked Wen Jingzhi a couple of times. “How could you fail to tell the difference? Sorry, everyone—my friend here isn’t quite right in the head. Did he hurt any of you? Sigh, Jingzhi thought you kept pestering me because you meant me harm. His cultivation is higher than mine, so I couldn’t stop him.”
The cultivators who had confessed to Shu Xin knew perfectly well that she was lying, but they could not expose her in public. They could only return home with their stomachs full of resentment.
Between being angry herself and making other people angry, Shu Xin would much rather choose the latter.
“Nicely done.” Shu Xin was in an excellent mood now.
Sure enough, when it came to doing bad things, it was best to have a lackey at one’s side. Doing everything herself meant having far too many things to worry about.
“But, Jingzhi, how far along is your recovery lately?” Shu Xin abruptly changed the subject. She circled Wen Jingzhi twice, examining him closely. “I feel like you’ve been looking better and better recently, and you’ve become more proactive too. You must be almost fully recovered by now, right?”
Wen Jingzhi remained still, allowing Shu Xin to inspect him.
[I think he’s nearly recovered as well,] the Sword Spirit chimed in from the side. [If he still doesn’t get better, I’ll help you take a proper look through this kid’s divine consciousness.]
“That works too.” After giving it some thought, Shu Xin agreed with the Sword Spirit.
It would not do for Wen Jingzhi to remain unwell forever.
Meanwhile, even before the demonic cultivator sects formally arrived at the Divine Inquiry Sect, they had already quietly spread rumors: Xu Guan was about to attempt a breakthrough into the Mahayana stage; the Divine Inquiry Sect was about to repeat the fate of the Profound Spirit Dao Sect; Xu Guan and Shu Xin had both been seriously injured; and so on.
As they spread these rumors, the demonic cultivators carefully studied the appearances of the Divine Inquiry Sect’s disciples. If they spotted anyone who seemed to fit the description, they would seize them at once.
The sect had now issued a mission: anyone who captured a disciple of the Divine Inquiry Sect would be promoted directly to the inner sect, no conditions attached, and would also receive abundant cultivation resources.
Even merely providing relevant clues could earn a considerable reward once the information was verified.
The highest cultivation among these Divine Inquiry Sect disciples was only at the Nascent Soul stage. They were young, without any particularly powerful family backing—exactly the sort of soft targets that were easy to bully.
As a result, many demonic cultivators eagerly accepted the mission.
They had even posted missions among the independent cultivators: anyone who captured a disciple of the Wenshen Sect or provided a useful lead could join a sect in return, or exchange the information for cultivation resources.
It was a straightforward tactic of overwhelming numbers.
Meanwhile, Yi Renjie, Yuan Dawei, Cao Ru, Qi Feiyang, Li Qinghe, Meng Wenrui, and the others had already disguised themselves and assumed new identities, scattering to every corner of the cultivation world.
Yi Renjie was steady and cautious by nature. After leaving the Wenshen Sect, he had found a way to join a small group of independent cultivators. With his Core Formation cultivation, he had smoothly become the group’s leader.
He had even taken the initiative to accept the mission to search for Wenshen Sect disciples, haggling with the demonic cultivator who had posted it alongside his newly recruited underlings.
“As long as you capture one of them, you can choose whichever of the major demonic sects you wish to join. If you don’t want to enter a sect, there is an equivalent reward in spirit stones.”
“And what if we capture all of them?” Yi Renjie asked with a fawning smile. “I’ve got quite a few brothers under me. I have to think about their futures too.”
“If you can capture every last one of them, bringing all your brothers into a sect is not impossible.” The demonic cultivator glanced at the group of independent cultivators waiting for Yi Renjie in the distance. There were barely any Core Formation cultivators among them. With that level of strength, they wanted to capture disciples of the Wenshen Sect?
“Well, there’s always a chance,” Yi Renjie said. Seeing that he could not coax any more information out of the demonic cultivator, he left with the mission in disappointment.
“Boss, what does it say?”
“Are we really going to capture disciples of the Wenshen Sect?”
“What did they do to stir up such an enormous bounty?”
“Didn’t you hear what they said just now? Their master is about to attempt a breakthrough into the Great Ascension stage. A small sect trying to snatch a share of the resources from those major sects is bound to get crushed.”
“Exactly. If the Wenshen Sect produces a Great Ascension cultivator too, they’ll become a first-rate sect. Then they’ll definitely compete with the other sects for resources. Who would be willing to allow that?”
“These great sects don’t seem so different from us. We fight to the death over scraps of resources, and they do exactly the same.”
“They’ve always been the same.”
When Yi Renjie returned, the independent cultivators immediately began talking over one another in an effort to dissuade him.
“Boss, don’t do anything foolish. Those disciples are all at the Nascent Soul stage. We can’t afford to provoke even one of them.”
“Yeah, yeah, Boss. There are so few of us.”
“Not necessarily. If we catch even one of them, won’t we strike it rich? It has to be better than remaining independent cultivators forever, right?”
Yi Renjie merely smiled at their words. “What are you worried about? Every independent cultivator and demonic cultivator out there is searching for them right now. If I had the ability to find them, would I still be here acting as your boss? But it wouldn’t look good if we refused the mission outright. We’d stand out too much. When you go out from now on, remember not to go alone. If some demonic cultivators secretly capture you and disguise you as Wenshen Sect disciples to claim the bounty, that’s entirely possible too.”
Impersonating others to collect bounties was a common occurrence among independent cultivators.
A few people always managed to obtain rewards through fraud by sheer luck, so there were always those who believed they would be the exception.
Not long after Yi Renjie had left the Wenshen Sect, he had encountered precisely such a scheme.
If his cultivation had not been high enough for him to kill his attackers instead, who knew what would have become of him?
No wonder Master was always saying that when you went down the mountain to gain experience, nothing mattered more than being able to fight and run.
As long as you ran fast enough that no one could catch you, any plot or scheme could be thwarted.
“Got it, got it. Don’t worry, Boss—we understand.”
“First, we should figure out how to fleece a few fat sheep.” Yi Renjie stroked his chin. “How about we plant some ambiguous clues and lure in those cultivators who are desperate for quick success? If they get conned by us, at most they’ll lose a few spirit stones. If they get conned by someone else, they might lose their lives. You could say we’re doing a good deed.”
“What brilliant plan do you have, Big Brother?”
“Relax. I may not know much else, but I’m an absolute expert at running pig-butchering scams.” Yi Renjie’s face lit up with a cheerful smile.
He had learned so much from Eldest Senior Sister, and now that they were out in the world, how was he supposed to keep his junior brothers and sisters safe?
Naturally, by spreading all sorts of false rumors and throwing their enemies off the trail.
Master and Eldest Senior Sister were both so formidable, and they even had Senior Book Spirit helping them. If they had still been seriously injured despite all that, what use would there be in him rushing back alone?
Besides, the news was spreading far too quickly. His instincts told him it was probably a decoy.
He only hoped his junior brothers and sisters would not fall for the trick and return only to make themselves targets.
“Pah! Eldest Senior Sister and Master, seriously injured? Who are they trying to fool?” Yuan Dawei grumbled under his breath, yet continued acting as though nothing had happened, serving as a retainer for a remote minor clan.
His flattery of Eldest Senior Sister had honed his tongue into one capable of pouring out the sweetest compliments, and his cultivation was not bad either. He specifically picked these remote places, where he could swagger around and throw his weight about.
After all, cultivators with high cultivation and a smooth tongue were welcome anywhere.
These minor clans and small sects were all trying to keep him around, tempting him with their finest resources and most beautiful women.
But while Yuan Dawei appeared carefree and boisterous, he was actually extremely meticulous.
He noticed that these minor clans harbored some suspicion toward a cultivator who had arrived from afar. Without revealing anything, he merely pretended to go out and let them “accidentally” discover the clan token on his person.
That clan token, incidentally, was something he had casually picked up when he had been at the Fan family estate with Eldest Senior Sister.
With that token, his identity became obvious at once.
“So he’s a member of the Fan family who escaped. No wonder his cultivation is so high, and no wonder he’s so picky about the things we offer him.”
Naturally, these minor clans knew what sort of people came from the great clans. They also knew how the Fan and Hu families—two mighty clans that had once seemed poised to join the ranks of the foremost Daoist sects—had been wiped out overnight.
...
Once drawn into conflicts among Daoist sects, one either soared to great heights or collapsed completely.
Clearly, those two clans had met the latter fate.
“Patriarch, then how can we persuade him to stay?”
“No rush. My daughter will soon return from her sect after completing her studies. She is beautiful and highly accomplished in cultivation. When the time comes, we’ll arrange for the two of them to meet. I refuse to believe the boy won’t be tempted!”
Compared with people like Yuan Dawei and Yi Renjie, who gathered companions wherever they went, Qi Feiyang was rather more straightforward.
He had always followed the path of the blade, so he simply chose a sect devoted to blade cultivators, built himself a hut nearby, and began selling goods.
Qi Feiyang did not have many valuable possessions on him, but as a lone cultivator traveling abroad, he had encountered far too many cultivators who wanted to harm him. Naturally, he had acquired quite a few good things by robbing those who had tried to rob him.
Because his prices were fair and he never passed off inferior goods as quality merchandise, he gradually gained a small reputation in the area.
However, Qi Feiyang understood well that cutting off someone’s livelihood was no different from killing their parents. After selling one batch of goods, he stopped selling altogether. Then he spent the spirit stones he had earned from those resources in the shops of this saber cultivator sect, even running up a small debt with them. Thus, the schemes that had been prepared against him quietly vanished before they could take shape.
Next, Qi Feiyang intended to get close to one of the core disciples of this saber cultivator sect, and he was still looking for the right opportunity.
As for those rumors?
Of course he had heard them.
Compared with Eldest Senior Sister’s methods, these tricks were far too crude.
If the Divine Sect truly fell one day, he would do everything he could to become stronger and kill every one of their enemies.
Cao Ru had infiltrated the ranks of the formation masters.
She fabricated an identity for herself as the legitimate daughter of a formation-art aristocratic family, traveling abroad to gain experience. She dressed as ostentatiously as possible, gathered a crowd of flatterers around her, and swaggered into gatherings of formation masters, boldly spouting grand claims. Then, by throwing around money, she found herself a fairly capable formation teacher. She even promised that her family had more than a dozen beautiful unmarried sisters who had yet to take husbands into the family, each with a generous dowry.
Every day, different male formation masters came to her door voluntarily, asking to exchange pointers on formation arts.
After all, formation masters were a profession that could only advance by constantly pouring resources into it.
At first, these formation masters had long enjoyed the steady support of aristocratic families and sects, and their lives had naturally been comfortable. But things were different now. The major sects were almost all making urgent preparations for war, and resources were in short supply. The formation masters were only assigned tasks such as protecting their sects and inscribing grand formations, with every resource carefully accounted for. Using those supplies to test formations of their own design was absolutely out of the question.
Therefore, they had no choice but to develop side businesses and find ways to save up resources themselves.
And what could be faster or easier than marrying into an aristocratic family as a live-in son-in-law?
So, even though Cao Ru’s temper was outrageous and she opened her mouth asking for the formation insights they had accumulated over many years, each of them still taught her a little. Cao Ru, meanwhile, absorbed and integrated it all, and her mastery of formations improved at an astonishing pace.
She had already planned it all out.
First, she would work her way up. If something really happened to the sect in the future, she would secretly sabotage all the formations of their enemy sects.
And if nothing happened to the sect, then its defensive grand formation would have to rely on her in the future.
When she returned from her training and Eldest Senior Sister inspected her achievements, she was determined to be the brightest star of them all!
Meng Wenrui and Li Qinghe were famously earnest and straightforward people within the sect.
That was why the two of them had set out together.
At first, when they heard the rumors, they worried for quite a while. But in the end, their trust in Eldest Senior Sister and their master prevailed.
They had said it before: no matter what kind of rumors they heard, they must not believe them.
If Eldest Senior Sister wanted them to train outside for a certain length of time, then they had to remain away for that long.
They were not allowed to return until they had become cultivators of the Dongtian Realm.
After discussing it for a while, the two concluded that one could not catch the tiger cub without entering the tiger’s den.
They simply joined one of the sects affiliated with the Longevity Dao Sect under the guise of being brother and sister.
They had thought it through carefully.
There, they could quickly learn what was happening within the sect. And if anything went wrong, they could send word to their senior sisters and master.
More importantly, there were plenty of cultivation resources to be had.
The only thing they needed to worry about was the schemes people might devise against the two of them.
But they had already made ample preparations for that.
Aside from each other, they trusted no one.
No matter what rumors outsiders spread, they only needed to continue living their own lives.
Knowing that they were not particularly shrewd and could not outmaneuver those people, they might as well cultivate honestly. Perhaps they would even be the first to break through.
Within the Asking God Sect—
Under the protection of the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book, Xu Guan’s cultivation had begun to loosen.
He had always been exceptionally gifted, with a clear and unwavering Dao Heart. Over the years, everyone had believed that he had neglected his cultivation for the sake of his disciples. Yet Xu Guan himself felt that it was precisely because of those disciples that he had been able to temper his Dao Heart again and again, steadily strengthening his state of mind.
In this cultivation world, things of true purity were exceedingly difficult to find.
Back then, Qin Rushan—like Xu Guan, born a mortal and brought into the cultivation world by their master—had soon been dazzled by this world. He abandoned his master’s kindness, betrayed his sect, and defected to the Longevity Dao Sect. Yet because his Dao Heart lacked conviction, he had never been able to stabilize his Stainless Realm. He could only treat Xu Guan as an imagined rival, believing that killing Xu Guan would rid him of his inner demons.
Little did he know that such actions would only make his cultivation fall apart all the faster.
The last time Xu Guan had seen Qin Rushan, Qin’s Stainless Realm had already been on the verge of collapse. Xu Guan, on the other hand, had continued refining himself and could now even attempt to break through into the Mahayana Realm.
Back then, Qin Rushan had betrayed the sect, its spiritual vein had been sealed, and their master had depleted himself for the sake of cultivation. With the Longevity Dao Sect watching them like a tiger stalking its prey, their master had no choice, before his death, but to summon the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book and have it protect the Asking God Sect for another three hundred years.
The Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book could no longer endure. It had remained dormant for long periods; once it awakened, it would have only a few hundred years of life remaining.
This was also the main reason their master had never told Qin Rushan the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book’s secret.
Once that venerable elder emerged into the world again, it meant that the Asking God Sect had already reached the brink of ruin.
But in order to protect Xu Guan, their master had no other choice.
With the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book appearing in the world, their master was finally able to depart in peace.
And Xu Guan was able to devote himself to steady cultivation, eventually becoming a legend—the cultivator who reached the Stainless Realm at merely three hundred years old.
Xu Guan had also wanted to storm the Longevity Dao Sect and kill that treacherous wretch who had betrayed both master and sect.
But his realm was unstable, and his mind lacked steadfastness.
The Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book required him to follow in their master’s footsteps: to seek disciples in the mortal world and temper his character.
Xu Guan had been too young when he was still a mortal, and had already forgotten many things.
Yet when he returned to the mortal world and saw those people living humble, numb lives, many things finally became clear to him.
Qin Rushan was older than him. He had spent longer as a mortal, and those memories ran deeper. What he feared was nothing more than being forced back into the life he had once lived.
A mortal’s life was far too bitter.
Xu Guan had rescued Yi Renjie, still an infant in swaddling clothes, from the hands of a demonic cultivator.
He had also taken Yuan Dawei in from human traffickers.
And there had been many, many others.
Yet among all those children, only six had become disciples he truly deemed worthy.
It was not that the others were lacking. Rather, compared to spiritual roots and natural talent, he valued one’s character more.
If someone of poor character entered the path of cultivation, they would only bring greater and deeper disasters upon ordinary people.
While raising these children, Xu Guan had no choice but to travel everywhere, taking on assignments to support them. His footsteps had crossed nearly every corner of the cultivation world.
He had seen more, and learned more.
There were countless people more wicked than Qin Rushan.
All living beings suffered.
Perhaps only those who did not care whether others lived or died could live more easily.
Everyone believed he had slowed his pace for the sake of his disciples. They did not know that it was precisely because of these disciples that he had become less bitter toward the world—and had not turned into another Qin Rushan.
Without realizing it, by the time he stood before the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book once more, his Dao heart had become utterly clear. He no longer needed the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book to stabilize his cultivation realm.
Now that this heaven-sent opportunity had arrived, with Shu Xin outside standing guard for him, there were naturally few obstacles left as he charged toward the Mahayana Realm.
The tribulation of the Three Winds and Four Fires was also quietly descending.
The Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book looked toward the back mountain, enlarged its true form, and tightly concealed Xu Guan’s aura.
Whether the Asking God Sect could rise again depended entirely on this attempt.
It hasn’t been easy. I never imagined reaching twenty thousand bookmarks would be this difficult.
I said Master would undergo his tribulation this week, and so he is.
