There was no way Shu Xin and Wen Jingzhi could simply sit around and wait for Jiang Gui to emerge.
A few days ago, they had obediently played their respective roles. But after seeing that the Nine Heavens Dao Sect showed no sign of relaxing its guard, they decided they would have to rely on themselves.
After discussing it, the two still decided to split up and cover for each other.
Wen Jingzhi chose to investigate the demon cultivators first.
The Spiritbinding Demon Sect had caused such a huge disturbance within the Nine Heavens Dao Sect. There was no reason for the other demon sects not to know about it. If they truly were unaware, that would make it even more convenient for him to take action.
As for Shu Xin, he had originally wanted to go out and look around as well. Unfortunately, the sword spirit drooled over the demon cultivators here every day and refused to leave no matter what. It was mainly worried that Shu Xin would refuse to come back once it left. Thus, Shu Xin could only begin by investigating matters within the Nine Heavens Dao Sect.
Wen Jingzhi quickly created a clone, fully releasing the aura of a demonic cultivator. He then controlled the clone as it swaggered toward the area where the demon cultivators gathered.
He did not bother with any preliminaries. He immediately produced over ten thousand spirit stones and posted a bounty in the demon cultivators’ gathering place.
“I’m looking for disciples of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect. As long as someone captures a Spiritbinding Demon Sect cultivator above the Dao Infant stage and brings them to me, I’ll give them these ten thousand spirit stones.”
Wen Jingzhi’s approach was simple: throw money at the problem. If money could solve it, then it was no problem at all.
A demon cultivator with an unfamiliar face had appeared and acted so extravagantly from the outset, even specifically offering a bounty for disciples of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect. Naturally, this caused quite a stir among the demon cultivators.
Even the cultivators of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect secretly memorized Wen Jingzhi’s appearance and reported it to their sect.
“Disciples of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect are notoriously difficult to find.” A demon cultivator who clearly thought highly of his own abilities sneered. “Ten thousand spirit stones won’t be enough.”
“If ten thousand isn’t enough, then make it twenty thousand. If twenty thousand isn’t enough, then thirty thousand.” Wen Jingzhi replied calmly. “Everyone has a price. As long as you think the price is right, that’s enough. If you can’t capture a Spiritbinding Demon Sect cultivator, you can simply tell me where one is. I’ll go capture them myself. However, in that case, the bounty I offer will be cut in half.”
Seeing this, some of the demon cultivators felt tempted to teach Wen Jingzhi a lesson.
Wouldn’t robbing him be faster than completing some bounty?
Wen Jingzhi noticed the murderous intent in their eyes.
Excellent.
If they did not come after him, he would have found the commotion insufficient.
After Yin Rushi and the others returned, they were naturally cursed out by the Blood Demon Ancestor until they were thoroughly shaken.
The Blood Demon Ancestor’s main concern was whether they had seen the Slaying Immortals Sword and its wielder. As for Xu Guan and Shu Xin, those matters could all be put aside for later.
This left Yin Rushi, Cui Yuhua, and the others completely dumbfounded.
What Slaying Immortals Sword? They had no idea what he was talking about!
“Useless trash.” The Blood Demon Ancestor knew he could not truly expect these people to know the whereabouts of the Slaying Immortals Sword. But he was an Ancestor, a terrestrial immortal. Taking out his frustration on others was only natural. They should be kneeling and thanking him for the honor of being subjected to his anger.
“Please calm your anger, Ancestor.”
“It was this disciple’s incompetence.”
Seeing one disciple after another kneeling and kowtowing, the Blood Demon Ancestor finally sneered. “That’s enough. You’ll never damage the floor no matter how hard you kowtow, and you won’t even scratch your own skin.”
With these cultivators’ physical strength, how could a few kowtows possibly injure them?
“In any case, you must find the whereabouts of the Slaying Immortals Sword by every means possible.” The Blood Demon Ancestor issued his orders directly. “The emergence of the Slaying Immortals Sword is certain to have been accompanied by unusual phenomena. For this period of time, keep a close eye on every disturbance throughout the various regions. Don’t overlook a single one. But if you come bothering me over every trivial matter, you know what the consequences will be.”
Yin Rushi, Cui Yuhua, and the others left with grim expressions.
“The Ancestor wants us to gather every bit of news, yet he forbids us from reporting anything trivial. Just what counts as trivial and what doesn’t?” one elder could not help asking.
“Naturally, that’s for the Ancestor to decide.” Yin Rushi sighed. “If you want to survive in the Blood Demon Sect, the first thing you must learn is never to show the slightest dissatisfaction with the Ancestor’s decisions. Anyone who was dissatisfied has already become part of his Blood Sea. I assume none of you want to become part of it too.”
The Ancestor was simply unreasonable. What could they possibly do about it?
They still had to get to work.
Everyone went off to handle their own tasks.
Not long after Yin Rushi returned to his cave residence, several of his subordinates came running in, practically rolling and scrambling as they reported that someone was causing trouble—and had already wrecked several demon cultivator markets in succession.
These demon cultivator markets were all secretly supported by different demon sects. The sects established them by providing support at the beginning and letting the cultivators see that there was profit to be made. Once the markets had grown sufficiently, they would swallow everything up in one stroke. It was a business with enormous returns and virtually no investment.
The demon cultivators knew this game as well. Their gamble was simply that they would not be among the final group to be devoured.
Now that he heard several demon cultivator markets had been wrecked, Yin Rushi instinctively frowned.
“Useless trash! Can’t you tell who you can afford to provoke and who you can’t?” Yin Rushi kicked one of them. “He’s already wrecked several of our operations. Isn’t it obvious that you can’t afford to offend him? Couldn’t you apologize and make amends?”
“We did apologize.” His subordinate wore a miserable expression. “The demon cultivators who tried to surround him earlier were crushed with one hand. We realized something was wrong and went up to tell him that this was territory belonging to the Blood Demon Sect. We said that since he had killed people and vented his anger, he could leave it at that. We wouldn’t take our usual cut, and he could take whatever he wanted. But he refused. He insisted that we accept his bounty.”
“What bounty?”
“He wants to place a bounty on a disciple of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect above the Dao Infant stage. As long as they’re a Dao Infant cultivator and a disciple of the Spiritbinding Demon Sect, that’s enough. He seems to have some grudge against them,” the subordinate said helplessly.
If he had a grudge against the Spiritbinding Demon Sect, why had he come to cause trouble on the Blood Demon Sect’s territory?
“I’ll go take a look.” Normally, Yin Rushi would not personally concern himself with such a minor matter. But remembering the Blood Demon Ancestor’s orders, he decided to investigate.
Someone had inexplicably come to their territory to target the Spiritbinding Demon Sect. There might be more to this than met the eye.
By the time Yin Rushi arrived with his subordinates, all he saw was a ground covered in wailing figures.
Not only had the demon cultivators’ cores been crippled, but their hands and feet had also been broken. They could only writhe about in agony on the ground.
For a demonic cultivator, having their limbs and cultivation crippled was far more painful than death.
Which of these demon cultivators did not have the lives of hundreds or even thousands of people on their hands? Once their enemies learned that they had been reduced to this state, they would likely be tortured until they were less than human.
“I’ve been trying to do good deeds lately, so I decided to spare your lives.” Wen Jingzhi even felt that he had been rather benevolent.
The main reason was that killing all of them would increase the demonic aura around him. He would then have to suppress it again, which was too troublesome. Better to let them live.
He would consider it an act of great mercy.
“This is clearly a Devil Cultivator at the Grotto-Heaven Realm. His cultivation is probably not much lower than mine.” Yin Rushi couldn’t help glaring at his subordinate. “If those eyeballs of yours are useless, go ahead and dig them out.”
The subordinate looked utterly miserable.
A Grotto-Heaven Realm Devil Cultivator had come to a marketplace for Devil Cultivators for no apparent reason. Wasn’t he obviously here to cause trouble?
“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Yin Rushi of the Blood Demon Sect. May I ask your name, fellow Daoist?” Yin Rushi immediately put on a friendly smile. “These are nothing more than low-level Devil Cultivators, worthless rabble. If they have offended you, fellow Daoist, you could simply kill them. Why get so angry?”
Wen Jingzhi turned around and quietly looked at Yin Rushi, as well as the blood-red demonic robes he wore.
Back when he had still been a lowly blood slave in the Blood Demon Kingdom, he had once seen cultivators from the Blood Demon Sect dressed like this. They were the heavens of the Blood Demon Kingdom—immortal beings whom no one in the Blood Demon Kingdom could afford to offend.
In reality, the Blood Demon Sect cultivators sent to the Blood Demon Kingdom to find sacrifices were merely the lowest-ranking cultivators of the sect.
Compared with a favored prodigy like Yin Rushi, they were worlds apart.
Although Wen Jingzhi knew that Yin Rushi had nothing to do with him, he still had no goodwill toward the Blood Demon Sect.
“Wen Jingzhi.”
“So you’re Fellow Daoist Wen.” Yin Rushi thought carefully. He had never heard of that name before. It was possible the man had made it up, but he didn’t particularly care.
“They provoked me first,” Wen Jingzhi said calmly. “If you intend to stand up for them, then make your move.”
“Fellow Daoist Wen, there’s no need to get angry over a few ants.” Yin Rushi smiled. “How about this? Allow me to treat you. Tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll help you find it. In this place, if I can’t help you, then no one else can.”
“Fine.” Wen Jingzhi accepted.
Meanwhile, Shu Xin’s side was much more relaxed.
“Come one, come all! Big or small, it all depends on luck! This treasure blocks divine sense completely!” Shu Xin picked up a dice cup. A crowd of outer disciples and servant disciples from the Nine Heavens Daoist Sect had gathered around her.
The inner sect had currently been sealed off, preventing anyone from leaving. In practice, however, the cultivation and daily needs of the many inner-sect elders and disciples still had to be supplied by the outer sect. It was simply not easy to extract information from those disciples.
“Everyone, feel free to inspect it. I’m not even taking a seat at the table—I’m only collecting a commission. Come on, just look at the materials used to make this treasure. You can tell that it blocks divine sense and is worth a fortune. Unfortunately, it has no offensive or defensive capabilities and can only be used for entertainment. My Daoist companion and I went into heavy debt to get it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have come to the Nine Heavens Daoist Sect to make a living.”
Shu Xin invented a vivid and thrilling backstory for herself. She then went on at length about how difficult life was for rogue cultivators, doing her best to make everyone empathize with her. Soon afterward, she launched into gambling and boastful chatter, completely closing the distance between herself and the crowd.
These outer disciples and servant disciples received plenty of emotional gratification from Shu Xin’s fabricated lies. Once she drew them into gambling, they naturally became hooked at once.
Gambling, alcohol, and drugs truly had a corrupting influence. Even the cultivation world was no exception!
Shu Xin skillfully manipulated the dice, allowing some people to win more than ten rounds in a row before making them lose everything in a single throw. Others would lose most of their money before she let them win once. Little by little, she lured them deeper and deeper until their eyes were red with gambling fever.
Only when their emotions had peaked and their minds were nearly clouded did Shu Xin pretend to ask casually, “You’re all disciples of the Nine Heavens Daoist Sect, yet it seems your daily lives are strictly regulated. Have you really never played with things like this before?” Shu Xin put on an expression of admiration. “With such perseverance, how could you fail to become inner disciples someday? If you strike it rich, don’t forget us.”
“That’s right, if you strike it rich, don’t forget us.”
“I think Fellow Daoist Li becoming an inner disciple is only a matter of time.”
“Exactly. Fellow Daoist Li’s cultivation is advancing rapidly, and he’s already helped several inner-sect elders with various tasks. If even Fellow Daoist Li can’t become an inner disciple, then who can?”
Shu Xin had merely opened the conversation, but the others immediately began chiming in one after another.
The so-called Fellow Daoist Li, who was being praised by everyone, looked rather helpless.
“What do you know? Becoming an inner disciple isn’t easy. If you ask me, it’s better not to become one at all.”
“That’s a bit much, Fellow Daoist Li. Do you think we don’t want to become inner disciples? It’s just that no one thinks highly of us. If I were better-looking, I wouldn’t even mind if an elder were several hundred years older than me.”
“Alas, I once swore that I would never sell myself out, that I had to keep my dignity and couldn’t take shortcuts. But after my cultivation stalled and I had to risk my life for a few spirit stones, I finally decided to take a shortcut—only to discover that the entire road ahead was already packed with people. I didn’t even qualify to take one.”
“Who wouldn’t want to become an inner disciple? Who would willingly remain an outer disciple? We outer disciples are nothing more than things to be picked up and discarded at will. There’s barely any difference between us and servant disciples. Only after becoming an inner disciple can you be considered somewhat human.”
Shu Xin noticed that Fellow Daoist Li seemed displeased, yet he still refused to say anything.
She brought out some spirit wine and distributed it among the group.
After the alcohol had taken effect and the people around him began egging him on, Fellow Daoist Li finally seemed to release years of pent-up frustration. He opened his mouth and said, “If you can avoid becoming an inner disciple, then do so. The things I’m about to tell you may mean that none of you will live to see tomorrow.”
Some of the people beside him were unconvinced. “Fellow Daoist Li, who are you trying to scare? Even among Devil Cultivators, inner disciples only have a higher rate of casualties.”
“That’s right. You’re only an outer disciple, Fellow Daoist Li. Could you really have come into contact with some earth-shattering secret?”
Clearly, no one believed him.
Under normal circumstances, hearing someone say something like that would have made them cautious. They would have known that the secrets of the cultivation world could not be listened to casually. But now they were drunk on gambling and had spirit wine in their veins. How could they possibly remain rational?
“It’s true that I haven’t come into contact with many great secrets, but I do know this: the inner sect of the Nine Heavens Daoist Sect is absolutely not a place anyone should go!” Fellow Daoist Li seemed either to have gotten carried away or to have finally unleashed years of suppressed emotions.
“I’ve always liked my senior sister. She entered the sect twenty years before I did, and among all the disciples who joined the sect in our generation, she was the gentlest. Whenever I encountered something I didn’t understand in my cultivation, I would go to her for advice. She never looked down on my low cultivation and always explained everything to me patiently.”
“A lot of people liked her. What was I, compared with them? All I wanted was for her to live a better life. I knew I wasn’t worthy of her.”
“Later, I heard that an inner-sect elder had taken a liking to her, and that she was going to become the first among the outer disciples of our generation to successfully enter the inner sect. I was truly happy for her. I thought it was wonderful. At last, she would have the right to choose her own path.”
“But it wasn’t long before I heard that her reputation in the inner sect had taken a turn for the worse. Everyone said she toyed with people’s feelings, but I knew she wasn’t that kind of person! I worked so hard to save up a great many spirit stones out in the world. I wanted to see her just once, to tell her how I felt.”
“I did see her—but she wasn’t my senior sister.”
“You all think I’m crazy. My friends keep saying that I failed to see through her true nature, that I was deceived. But tell me this: when I was only a newly initiated outer-sect disciple with nothing to my name, what could she possibly have wanted from me? She taught me how to cultivate and gave me spirit stones to help me through hard times. She told me that her ideal was to slay demons and exterminate devils, because her entire family had been killed by demonic cultivators.”
“She isn’t my senior sister. She isn’t!”
Fellow Daoist Li took several more gulps of spirit wine.
“I think Fellow Daoist Li has been dumped.”
“Fellow Daoist Li, getting deceived is nothing unusual, but you’re making yourself look terribly undignified.”
“She’s just a woman, isn’t she? I’ll find you a few more.”
“You don’t understand!” Fellow Daoist Li smashed his wine bottle and shouted angrily. “My senior sister never liked bright colors. Her favorite color was white. And she never liked wearing so many hairpins and ornaments. Most of all, she loved fluffy, adorable spirit beasts. I’ve seen her more than once go to extraordinary lengths just to pet the young spirit beasts in the sect’s rear mountains. A person’s temperament may change, but the things they like and dislike won’t.”
“It’s not just her. Ask yourselves honestly: those people around you who entered the inner sect—didn’t they all undergo drastic changes not long afterward? What kind of magic does that inner sect possess? How can it make so many people turn into completely different versions of themselves?”
“No matter how much a person changes, can they really become utterly unlike the person they used to be?”
“Hahaha, you’re all merely pretending not to know. You just assume they were changed by power and status.”
“Can’t it be that they’re no longer the people you knew?” Fellow Daoist Li laughed wildly. “The Nine Heavens Dao Sect is obviously a demonic lair!”
The expressions of everyone present changed at once.
“Fellow Daoist Li, watch what you say!”
“Fellow Daoist Li is truly drunk. He’s talking complete nonsense.”
“Once someone enters the inner sect, they’re no longer the same as us. Isn’t it normal for them to change?”
…
Everyone’s mood was completely ruined, and no one wanted to remain there any longer. As though afraid of attracting trouble, they each came up with some flimsy excuse and hurried away.
Only Fellow Daoist Li and Shu Xin remained, facing the mess scattered across the floor.
“Do you also think I’m lying?” Fellow Daoist Li asked, his eyes glazed with drunkenness. “My senior sister is already dead. She can never come back. But I don’t have the ability to avenge her, and everyone thinks she isn’t dead.”
“No. What you said is true.” Shu Xin bent down and looked at him seriously. “So please take me to find the senior sister you mentioned.”
The Nine Heavens Dao Sect had not become what it was overnight.
There had to be people within the sect who had noticed that something was wrong long ago. Naturally, there would also be some means of fighting back.
Shu Xin had stayed here precisely to find such people.
The power of the masses was always formidable.
…
Yin Rushi brought Wen Jingzhi to a restaurant he often visited.
The Blood Demon Sect was the undisputed local power here. The moment the restaurant staff saw Yin Rushi arrive, they immediately cleared out all the other customers, leaving the entire establishment to him.
It was also for the customers’ own safety. Otherwise, if the Blood Demon Sect’s killing intent flared up and they refined everyone in the restaurant, what would they do?
The customers had long grown accustomed to the Blood Demon Sect’s domineering ways. They obediently left, believing that it was better to avoid trouble whenever possible.
Here, the Blood Demon Sect was the unquestioned sovereign.
Life and death, reward and punishment—all were in their hands.
“Please sit, Fellow Daoist Wen. The food here is quite good, and it has a distinctive local flavor.” Yin Rushi smiled. “On my way here, I heard from one of my useless subordinates that Fellow Daoist Wen came to cause trouble for the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect?”
“That’s right.” Wen Jingzhi nodded. “I have something very important to do. I must find the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect.”
“Speaking of which, our Blood Demon Sect has some grievances with the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect as well.” Yin Rushi thought for a moment before continuing. “The sect master of the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect, Xuan Wu, has remained in the Great Ascension Realm for many years. He has always wanted to become an Earthly Immortal. The best way to accomplish that would be to slowly possess an Earthly Immortal and completely replace them. That way, he wouldn’t have to violate the limit of only nine Earthly Immortals existing in the world, while still being able to increase his own power. Back then, the person he most wanted to approach was our Blood Demon Ancestor.”
At the time, rumors had circulated that the Blood Demon Ancestor had been gravely wounded by the Immortal-Slaying Sword and would not live much longer.
Xuan Wu had believed those rumors and actually came to trouble the Blood Demon Ancestor. However, before he could even get close, the Blood Demon Ancestor discovered him. Xuan Wu only managed to escape by sacrificing one of his clones.
The upper echelons of both the Daoist and demonic factions knew exactly why Xuan Wu of the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect was so dangerous. Despite possessing only Great Ascension cultivation, he was genuinely capable of threatening the safety of Earthly Immortals. What made him even more difficult to guard against was the nature of his methods. As a result, both factions had joined forces to hunt him down.
Unfortunately, cultivators of the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect were simply too difficult to capture, and the Blood Demon Sect had no particularly effective way of dealing with them.
“The Blood Demon Sect is a vast and powerful organization. Yet over all these years, it seems you haven’t managed to capture many cultivators from the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect.” Wen Jingzhi’s expression was cold. “You believe the threat they pose is limited and that they’re incapable of causing any major upheaval.”
“We can’t help it. Our ancestor likes killing people. Whenever he feels that a cultivator is suspicious, he kills them outright. No matter how many times a cultivator from the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect tries to probe him, they won’t survive more than a few days.” Yin Rushi nodded, essentially confirming Wen Jingzhi’s assessment.
“From the looks of it, the Blood Demon Sect’s reputation as the foremost power of the demonic path is nothing special after all.” Wen Jingzhi rose to his feet and spoke slowly. “I have reliable information that the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect has moved its headquarters from the demonic path to the Nine Heavens Dao Sect. Nearly the entire Nine Heavens Dao Sect, from top to bottom, has been infiltrated by the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect. And you people here probably haven’t received even the slightest hint of it.”
The smile on Yin Rushi’s face gradually stiffened.
What?
The Nine Heavens Dao Sect had been infiltrated by the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect?
Yin Rushi truly had not received any news of this.
His first thought was: were the Earthly Immortals of the Nine Heavens Dao Sect completely useless? Even a demonic sect like theirs, riddled with weaknesses, had managed to withstand the corrosive infiltration of the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect. The Nine Heavens Dao Sect had a long-standing foundation and was a prestigious orthodox sect, to say the least.
However, Wen Jingzhi did not give Yin Rushi any chance to continue clinging to wishful thinking.
“Once the Great Ascension cultivator of the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect successfully possesses Patriarch Yuanzhou, the Earthly Immortal of the Nine Heavens Dao Sect, and truly reaches the Earthly Immortal Realm, tell me: by then, which sect will be considered the foremost power of the demonic path—the Blood Demon Sect, or the Spirit Parasite Demon Sect?”
