“Senior Sister won’t be in any danger, will she?”
The few junior disciples hiding in a safe place couldn’t help but worry.
Although they were hiding there, they could still sense the violent fluctuations of spiritual energy coming from the distance.
That place was probably already as chaotic as Senior Sister had warned them it would be. Any Core Formation cultivator who entered would only end up as cannon fodder.
“Relax. Senior Sister escaped from the Longevity Dao Sect alone and came out safely. Could those people really be more troublesome than the people from the Longevity Dao Sect?” Cao Ru encouraged everyone. “We have to work hard at our cultivation from now on. We can’t keep holding Senior Sister back.”
“That’s right.” Meng Wenrui rarely offered his opinion without being prompted. “This trip has shown us how complicated the world beyond the mountains is. Who would have thought that even a simple escort mission could become entangled in so many matters? I wonder how Master managed to complete so many missions and keep us fed all these years.”
Remembering the trouble caused by this escort mission, and their master, who had supported them by taking on escort jobs, the disciples couldn’t help but admire him.
Meanwhile, far away at the mountain gate of the Questioning God Sect, Xu Guan simply sneezed.
Hmm. His disciples must be missing him while they were away.
At least they had some filial piety.
On the battlefield, everyone’s attention had gathered on Shu Xin.
Now that Qu Yougu had exposed her true identity, Shu Xin could no longer remain inconspicuous.
After Shu Xin broke through to the Grotto-Heaven Realm at the Questioning God Sect and sent the Lin family ancestor away in a fit of rage, the Lin family had gone to considerable lengths to sing her praises.
They claimed that she was a prodigy whose talent had been buried, a genius who had taught herself everything. They said that because her natural talent was simply too extraordinary, no one within the Longevity Dao Sect had objected to her departure; everyone had merely been optimistic about her future. Some even claimed that she had been possessed by a powerful cultivator who was rebuilding his cultivation and that she was aiming for an even higher realm this time.
There were also people who ranked her as the foremost genius among the Nine Sects and Ten Schools.
Their reasoning was that she had spent a hundred years as an outer sect elder of the Longevity Dao Sect without any interest in cultivation, yet after finally settling down and entering seclusion, she had crossed the Three Winds and Four Fires and become a Grotto-Heaven cultivator within a single month. How could such talent not be considered extraordinary?
Naturally, some well-informed people understood that this was the Lin family’s method of elevating someone only to destroy them. But for the Lin family to employ such a tactic, it was obvious that they believed it would work.
Quite a few cultivators who knew nothing of the truth really went to the Questioning God Sect to seek Shu Xin out and challenge her, wanting to see whether she truly deserved her reputation. But every time they asked, they were told that she was away, and they could only return empty-handed.
There was never any shortage of geniuses in the cultivation world.
But while swift horses were common, discerning talent was rare. If a genius wished to advance further, they needed enough fame to attract the attention of cultivators at a higher level and persuade them to take them as disciples.
After all, cultivators in the Immaculate Realm and above were themselves geniuses among geniuses. Anyone they deemed worthy of notice was naturally extraordinary.
With a powerful master came a powerful backer.
Take True Person Rongyun, for example. Even after committing such a serious mistake within the sect, he had received nothing more than a few superficial punishments. If he had lacked the support of a powerful patron, the grass on his grave would probably already be several feet tall.
Without a sufficiently powerful master, young geniuses were likely to attract the covetous attention or suppression of various factions. Even if they wanted to enter seclusion and cultivate, it would be difficult for them to obtain high-level techniques and the resources to match.
The higher one climbed in cultivation, the more strictly cultivation methods were monopolized.
Thus, becoming famous was an essential step toward finding a good master.
After all, masters took disciples not out of obligation, but because of their own personal interests and preferences.
If these great cultivators happened to meet within their own small circles and began introducing their disciples to one another—one disciple famous throughout the world, another completely unknown—it went without saying whose master would lose face.
Great cultivators lived extraordinarily long lives. Because of the existence of the Three Winds and Four Fires, they could not spend too much time traveling outside. If they lost even this small pleasure, where would they find the patience to teach disciples?
Even when the sect required it, whether these great cultivators accepted disciples, and whom they accepted, was ultimately up to them.
Once a cultivator reached a certain level, they possessed the absolute freedom to choose.
As the youngest Dao-seed of the Myriad Daos Sect, Qu Yougu likewise needed sufficient fame to impress the truly powerful figures in his sect and persuade them to take him under their wing.
Since he placed great importance on reputation, he had naturally heard of Shu Xin. He had also seen her appearance through recording stones and recognized the two swords that never left her side.
More importantly, there were only a handful of people in the Questioning God Sect, and he knew exactly what its disciples looked like.
Thus, no matter how determined Shu Xin was to disguise herself, the moment she appeared with those Questioning God Sect disciples, she was recognized.
A young female cultivator, two swords, a Grotto-Heaven cultivation base, and three male and two female Core Formation cultivators at her side—there could be no one else but Shu Xin.
How could a simple denial from Shu Xin change the facts?
Following Qu Yougu’s words, quite a few people on the scene turned their gazes toward Shu Xin.
Even those who had not known about Shu Xin at first could now understand how formidable she was from the looks and expressions of those around them.
True Person Rongyun and Yuan Xinmei, standing nearby, both felt rather numb.
True Person Rongyun thought the situation had become even more chaotic and regretted staying to watch the spectacle. Yuan Xinmei, on the other hand, kept studying Shu Xin with curiosity and scrutiny.
They were both female cultivators of the Grotto-Heaven Realm. Shu Xin’s reputation had been exaggerated to almost mythical proportions. Just how badly had she offended the Lin family for them to promote her in such a destructive manner?
As for Fan Jia'an, his face had already gone deathly pale as he wondered how he could escape.
When the uncles and elders beside him asked him what had happened, he remained completely silent.
If his family found out that he had offended Shu Xin—and had even previously tried to kill disciples of the Questioning God Sect—they might not protect him at all.
[Give it up. You’re already famous now.] The Sword Spirit sneered. [As my master, you were destined to have your name passed down through the ages.]
“It’s mainly because my aura is too distinctive. I stand out like a crane among chickens, so there’s no way to conceal my peerless elegance.” Shu Xin pretended to be modest. “Sometimes, I’m troubled by how outstanding I am—so outstanding that I seem completely out of place in this world.”
The Sword Spirit felt like throwing up.
“Fellow Daoist Shu, there’s no need to be modest.” Qu Yougu looked at Shu Xin. “As a disciple of the Questioning God Sect, you are naturally also a fellow disciple of the immortal path. Now that the Ten-Thousand-Bone Spirit-Eating Vine has appeared, there must be a demonic sect mastermind stirring up trouble behind the scenes. I ask that you lend us your aid.”
“I can help.” Shu Xin saw that she could no longer conceal her identity and simply admitted it. “But the demonic cultivator I encountered earlier still hasn’t shown himself. You’d better not let him get away. Also, if you capture him, let me question him first.”
“Agreed.” Qu Yougu accepted without the slightest hesitation.
Immediately afterward, Qu Yougu turned to True Person Rongyun.
“I understand, I understand.” True Person Rongyun raised his hand. “I’ll help you.”
Their utterly unconcerned attitude finally infuriated Elder Hu De.
“Do you really think you’ve already secured the victory?” Elder Hu De sneered. “And you rogue cultivators—you were hired by us long ago. Do you truly think these sect disciples will let you off? My Hu family may be ruthless in our dealings, but compared to these sects, we’re amateurs. The moment my family falls, they’ll certainly kill you all to eliminate future trouble. They already have the perfect excuse: colluding with demonic cultivators.”
At those words, many of the cultivators hired by the Hu family began to waver.
He was right.
The disciples of these supposedly righteous sects had never regarded their lives as worth anything.
Seeing the crowd hesitate, Elder Hu De continued to incite them. “If you kill these people, all the resources, cultivation manuals, and spirit stones on their bodies will be yours. You’ve been oppressed by these sect disciples for so long. Don’t you want to pay them back properly?”
Having spent so much time around the disciples of the Spirit-Devouring Demon Sect, Hu De had naturally learned quite a few ways to manipulate people.
At that moment, his words seemed to carry an alluring power, making everyone involuntarily imagine the future he described.
That was true.
These sect disciples stood high above them, each possessing the support of top-tier resources they could never obtain. And now they were expected to keep acting as their dogs, only to be kicked aside in the end?
“There is another option.” Shu Xin cut in at just the right moment. “You can leave now and help neither side. Do you really think we’ll go out of our way to hunt you down? After all, we don’t even know your names.”
Shu Xin raised a hand and pointed into the distance. “That opening over there is the one I cut through earlier. Leave now, and no one will stop you. The same goes for the Hu family servants and guards. The only reason you haven’t fled is because you’re afraid the Hu family will come after you, but whether they’ll still exist after today is uncertain. Why throw your lives away for nothing?”
Compared with Elder Hu De’s words, Shu Xin’s suggestion struck directly at what these people truly wanted.
Yes, what did the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths have to do with rogue cultivators like them?
Whenever there were benefits, they received none of them. There was no reason to risk their lives here.
“I will not stop anyone.” Qu Yougu also keenly sensed the shift in the atmosphere and immediately gave them his word.
The crowd wavered even more.
As a result, quite a few cultivators began to retreat, rushing in a swarm toward the opening Shu Xin had cut through earlier.
“You don’t even know how to escape? Spread out!” Shu Xin froze for a moment before shouting.
But who could listen to her at a time like this?
The demonic vines, which had shown little movement before, suddenly seemed to be stimulated. In an instant, they spread outward and sealed the opening once more.
The rogue cultivators who rushed forward shoved and jostled one another, each desperate to be the first to get out. Some even began attacking each other.
“Down you go!”
“Let me out first!”
“So you want to fight me for it? I knew you’d been planning to kill me all along!”
They were already at the brink of life and death, yet they still had the leisure to compete with one another and drag each other down?
Shu Xin felt utterly exhausted.
They were hopeless. There was simply no helping them.
The idiots of the cultivation world were like chives in a field, growing back in batches one after another. It made her wonder whether they had survived this long through nothing but sheer luck.
“Not everyone possesses the courage to remain calm in the face of danger,” the Sword Spirit remarked.
Especially at a time like this. Extreme circumstances could give rise to extreme emotions.
These people had already been influenced without realizing it.
And then, at precisely that moment, the demonic vines moved.
One after another, the sound of bodies being pierced rang out.
The demonic cultivators drained the flesh and blood from the fleeing cultivators, growing even more powerful.
At the same time, Elder Hu De made a new move.
“Not a single one of you is getting away!” Elder Hu De continuously formed hand seals. He took dozens of cultivators’ corpses from his storage ring and fed them all to the demonic vines beside him. The vines’ twisted growth suddenly accelerated, and before long, they had completely enveloped the entire area.
“Very well. I’d like to see whether the flesh and blood of you sect disciples tastes better than that of ordinary cultivators.”
With that, Elder Hu De summoned every magical treasure he possessed. He also ordered the members of the Hu family present to stand at different positions, faintly forming the shape of an array.
Within this array, everyone could feel wave after wave of pressure, as though a heavy stone had lodged itself in their chests, leaving them stifled and uncomfortable.
It was demonic aura.
And not just any demonic aura—it was incredibly pure, capable of disrupting people’s minds and emotions.
That demonic cultivator had appeared!
Chaotic, dense demonic aura filled the entire battlefield in the blink of an eye, yet in such a disorderly scene, it was extremely difficult to locate the demonic cultivator’s true hiding place.
“Be careful. If he really is a disciple of the Spirit-Devouring Demon Sect, he should be hiding inside someone present.” Yuan Xinmei spoke up to warn them. “Guard your minds carefully and don’t give the enemy an opportunity. Even if he is an inner disciple of the Spirit-Devouring Demon Sect, possessing another person in such a short time would still be far from easy.”
As a sect that had been rejected by both the righteous and demonic paths among the Nine Sects and Ten Schools, the Spirit-Devouring Demon Sect’s methods had nevertheless been studied quite thoroughly.
“Kill them! Once they’re dead, everything will be over!”
At Elder Hu De’s command, countless members of the Hu family, along with the cultivators hired by them, charged into battle.
The first target was Shu Xin.
“Me?” Enraged, Elder Hu De attacked Shu Xin first. Clearly, in his eyes, the woman who had deceived him and uncovered the Hu family’s secrets was even more detestable than Qu Yougu.
Good heavens. Although Shu Xin had previously relied on the Sword Spirit’s abilities to injure cultivators of the Immaculate Realm, this was her first time fighting a genuine cultivator of the Grotto-Heaven Realm.
She could not even remember the last time she had fought someone at her own level.
“You spend all day bullying weaklings, and now look what’s happened—you’ve lost your experience,” the Sword Spirit said irritably. “Want me to help?”
“Qu Yougu, True Person Rongyun, and the others are watching. Behave yourself,” Shu Xin replied at once.
That was what she said, but at the same time, Shu Xin drew both Wait and Hold.
She gripped one sword in each hand. One was for close combat, while the other hovered around her, ready to strike at any moment.
One sword for direct engagement, the other for ambushes.
It was an exceptionally formidable arrangement.
Qu Yougu, True Person Rongyun, Yuan Xinmei, and the others, who were watching from the side, were secretly astonished as well. They had not expected Shu Xin to be such a capable fighter.
She must have fought people frequently to possess such outstanding combat experience.
The only troublesome part was that Shu Xin had to split her attention, but the Sword Spirit could make up for that.
Before long, however, they no longer had the time or inclination to waste on Shu Xin.
The formation created by the Hu family not only boosted their overall combat strength, but also concealed several Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivators who would occasionally launch surprise attacks.
Yuan Xinmei had originally intended to protect Qu Yougu so that she could accumulate merit afterward, but she had never expected to be completely blocked off.
The person standing in her way was none other than the senior fellow disciple who had come to the Hu family with her.
“Senior Brother, you…” Yuan Xinmei stared in astonishment at the senior brother standing in front of her, her whole body trembling slightly.
The senior brother before her had dull, lifeless eyes. He had clearly become a puppet under someone else’s command.
Unlike Yuan Xinmei, who had to leave from time to time, her senior brother had remained there all along, devoting himself to guarding the spirit herbs.
Naturally, that made it easier for someone to tamper with him without anyone outside knowing.
“Hahaha!” Elder Hu De laughed loudly as he fought Shu Xin. “Did you really think we hadn’t made any preparations?”
There were likewise Grotto-Heaven cultivators blocking Qu Yougu and True Person Rongyun.
Who knew where the Hu family had dredged up so many Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivators, enough to throw them all into this battle at once?
Judging from the twisted expression on Elder Hu De’s face, these were probably all the Hu family’s elites.
As for the Hu family’s main stronghold, it was likely little more than an empty shell by now.
“Elder Hu, it’s obvious that your family was tricked by the people from the Myriad Daos Sect. What does that have to do with me?” Shu Xin said as she deftly parried all of Elder Hu De’s attacks with her sword. “You shouldn’t be coming after me. Go find Qu Yougu instead.”
Elder Hu De’s eyes were bloodshot. Unlike Shu Xin, who fought with effortless ease, he was battling her with everything he had.
He had been a Grotto-Heaven cultivator for many years and had long since reached the mid-stage of the realm. Shu Xin, on the other hand, was merely a young cultivator who had only recently entered the advanced Grotto-Heaven realm. Yet she was able to fight him evenly—or rather, she was doing so with even greater ease than he was.
The sword techniques Shu Xin used appeared simple and plain, yet they contained profound subtleties.
Even more terrifying was the flying sword hovering beside her. Every so often, it would stab at him, forcing Elder Hu De to divide his attention and remain on guard.
Fighting Shu Xin was like opposing a renowned grandmaster. It was as if all his techniques and divine abilities had suddenly become useless.
Elder Hu De repeatedly changed his divine abilities and spells, but those techniques seemed as flimsy as paper in front of Shu Xin’s sword, utterly insignificant.
What kind of cultivation technique and divine abilities were these?
The longer Elder Hu De fought, the more alarmed he became, and the more questions arose in his mind. His Dao heart was beginning to collapse.
Why?
Why could this young female cultivator see through every move he made?
Why were his divine abilities completely ineffective?
If the Sword Spirit could hear Elder Hu De’s thoughts, it would only laugh uproariously.
Shu Xin was its master. Could anyone really believe that she was only good at talking and using underhanded schemes?
The technique it had taught Shu Xin to cultivate was the Primordial Universe Great Sword Scripture, a method that its former masters had spent their entire lives constantly deducing and perfecting. It was powerful enough to carry Shu Xin all the way to ascension.
But the technique was also extremely demanding. Not only did it require exceptional aptitude, it also required the cultivator to possess a crystal-clear Dao heart. The clearer one’s Dao heart, the better one could perceive the flow of spiritual energy while cultivating this technique and glimpse the Great Dao in the tiniest details.
Yet once one’s Dao heart was damaged, the technique could display less than one-tenth of its full power.
It was an extremely extreme cultivation method.
In the past, its successive masters had lived longer and longer, killed more and more demons, monsters, and earthly immortals, and consequently suffered increasingly severe damage to their Dao hearts. Their endings were often far from good. Because of this, they had been forced to use every possible method to preserve their Dao hearts, trying to understand the world they lived in.
But Shu Xin was different.
Her way of keeping her Dao heart clear was simple: she basically never lost a fight. Or, more accurately, whenever she encountered a battle she could not win, she immediately ran away. As long as she ran fast enough, it did not count as losing.
Besides, Shu Xin had always held this world in contempt.
Understand it? Heal it?
No. She would only sneer at it and then stomp on it for good measure.
And yet, this method produced astonishingly good results.
Sometimes, even the Sword Spirit wondered what kind of person it had entered into a contract with.
But if Shu Xin had truly been capable of relying only on it, it would have changed masters long ago.
By now, more and more wounds had appeared on Elder Hu De’s body. Even the circulation of spiritual energy within him had grown frantic. His entire being was like a car speeding down the road with broken brakes, unable to stop no matter what.
A strange excitement and madness filled his expression.
“I’m going to kill you! I’ll definitely kill you!”
He failed to notice that his eyes had already turned completely red, and that his entire body was transforming in an irreversible direction.
The same condition had naturally appeared in the other members of the Hu family.
Even among the hired cultivators, similar symptoms had begun to emerge to one degree or another.
Yuan Xinmei’s senior brother was a Grotto-Heaven cultivator, yet he had still been turned into a puppet. The members of the Hu family had spent so much time together with the demonic cultivators of the Spirit Possession Demon Sect—how could they possibly have escaped being tampered with?
When one conspires with a tiger, one must be prepared to be devoured.
Shu Xin could have cut off Elder Hu De’s arm with a single backhanded stroke, but at the critical moment, she altered her move. Her sword merely grazed his body, leaving behind a shallow wound.
Elder Hu De seized the opportunity to counterattack, leaving a wound of his own on Shu Xin—not deep, but not shallow either.
“Hiss, that actually hurt a little.” Shu Xin could not help complaining to the Sword Spirit. “See? I went easy on him, and he still treated me like this?”
[You went far too easy on him.] The Sword Spirit exploded. [He’s just a minor character with an unstable foundation. On top of that, he’s been eroded by demonic energy. A mid-stage Grotto-Heaven cultivator like him can’t even display the strength of an early-stage cultivator. What’s there for you to fight?]
“If I finish him off too quickly, I’ll just have to fight someone new. It’s better to keep fighting him,” Shu Xin said, unconvinced. “Besides, one should always leave some room to maneuver. If we slow down a little, the people from the Myriad Daos Sect and the Carefree Dao Sect can put on a good show first. Otherwise, I’ll steal all the attention. How am I supposed to survive after that?”
Shu Xin always had her own peculiar logic.
“They’re not even paying me, and those demonic cultivators from the Spirit Possession Demon Sect are still hiding without showing themselves. If I attract attention at a time like this, how is that any different from courting death?”
Whenever she encountered a problem that could be solved, Shu Xin’s first response was to employ the “drag it out” strategy. Unless the absolute deadline had arrived, she would never report the matter to her superiors.
Even after arriving in the cultivation world, she had not changed this principle.
How easy it was to fight Elder Hu De.
He could not defeat her, but he was annoyingly persistent.
As long as she put on a convincing performance, she could make it seem as though they were locked in a fierce, evenly matched battle. To outsiders, she would still appear to be an outstanding cultivator capable of contending with a mid-stage Grotto-Heaven cultivator.
There were simply no drawbacks.
