Watching Shu Xin suddenly appear, not only was the female elder stunned—Qu Yougu was completely dumbfounded as well.
Shu… Fellow Daoist Shu feels completely different from before.
Could it be that she had also been possessed or had her body taken over?
“You aren’t pregnant?” The female elder glanced at Shu Xin’s stomach, unable to hide her surprise. “I thought the bloodline forbidden art would kill you too.”
Although Fan Xiang had tried his best to conceal the matter, even going so far as to use the rumors about his relationship with Shu Xin to protect the unborn child, how could she, the person behind the Fan family, possibly remain unaware?
“Pfft. Sorry.” Shu Xin laughed, shrugging casually. “I just ate too much that day and had some trouble digesting it, so I was rubbing my stomach. As for what you people thought, that has nothing to do with me.”
“Besides, you should really use your brains. You actually thought Fan Jia’an’s character could fool me?” Seeing the reaction on the female elder’s face, Shu Xin could no longer suppress her smile. “Wait, you don’t have the memories of the original body, do you? If you did, you definitely wouldn’t be speaking to me like this.”
After all, Wei Yiming, the original body of the demonic cultivator, could more or less be said to have been killed by her.
If she possessed the original body’s memories, then as an external incarnation, she would certainly have come to kill Shu Xin.
The female elder had already sensed that something was wrong.
She looked at the completely unruffled Shu Xin before her, then glanced at the two flying swords circling around her. A chill crept down her back.
The original body was already dead, and the divine sense currently residing in this body could not hold out for much longer.
She could not afford to fight a peak Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivator head-on at a time like this.
“Fellow Daoist Shu, I admit defeat in this battle. I never expected you to be hiding even more deeply than I was.” Fear had already begun to take root in the female elder’s heart. “I’ll withdraw now. As for the Fan family’s belongings, you may take them all. Otherwise, once the people from the Myriad Dao Sect arrive, you won’t get anything.”
“Fellow Daoist Shu, don’t believe her. I stake my reputation on this: as long as you eliminate this demon, you may take anything from the Fan family.” The moment Qu Yougu heard this, he was unwilling to let the demon escape.
If this demon returned to the Spirit-Possession Demon Sect, rebuilt her divine sense, and regained her freedom, then everything they had done before would become a complete joke.
“The reputation of a Daoist heir should always be worth more than that of a demon, don’t you think?” Shu Xin crooked a finger, and the two flying swords shot toward the female elder like lightning.
She was striking when her opponent least expected it.
An ambush still counted as taking the first move.
“You really think I’m afraid of you?!” The female elder had not expected Shu Xin to attack without warning. Furious, she immediately summoned her own magical treasure and engaged Shu Xin.
Shu Xin let out a light laugh. “All right. Let me see what you’re capable of.”
Although the female elder lacked the original body’s memories, she possessed considerable knowledge of the cultivation world.
This female elder of the Fan family was already at the mid-stage of the Grotto-Heaven realm. She had originally been the concubine of one of the Fan family’s disciples. No one had expected her constitution to be so special that she would kill her nominal husband instead. Because of her outstanding abilities, she was taken in as a disciple by the Fan family’s ancestor. She later changed her name and identity, eventually becoming a true elder with authority over the Fan family.
To possess this female elder’s body, Wei Yiming had gone to unimaginable lengths and spent countless years refining it into his external incarnation.
No one could have imagined that the original body and its external incarnation would be hidden within two opposing clans.
Unfortunately, they had run into someone as unconventional as Shu Xin.
Yet that was not even the most devastating part. What truly drove the female elder to despair was the cultivation and skill Shu Xin displayed in battle. She far surpassed ordinary Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivators.
Even many of the female elder’s techniques seemed completely transparent to her.
“You… How are you so familiar with my sect’s techniques?” Cultivators of the Spirit-Possession Demon Sect had never excelled at combat. They were much more skilled at possession, body snatching, and refining external incarnations. Though their fighting power was not especially high, they were among the most difficult kinds of demonic cultivators to kill.
As a result, the combat techniques of Spirit-Possession Demon Sect cultivators were quite limited.
Fortunately, Spirit-Possession Demon Cultivators rarely fought others and seldom appeared in public. Thus, even with so few combat divine abilities, they had always found them sufficient.
But before Shu Xin, everything the female elder unleashed looked like a child’s game.
Shu Xin merely smiled. “Is that all you can do? Use a few more techniques.”
【Hahaha! Did she think she was facing the first Spirit-Possession Demon Cultivator we ever encountered?】
【We killed at least seven or eight Spirit-Possession Demon Cultivators just to find Clear Mirror Divine Water for that kid. It’s a pity their cultivation was too low, and none of them qualified to possess Clear Mirror Divine Water.】
The sword spirit laughed wildly. It had once looked down on Shu Xin for pretending to be a weak novice so she could bully weaker opponents, but it had to admit that there was something quite entertaining about seeing her read her opponent’s techniques perfectly in battle and savoring the look of despair and pain on her enemy’s face.
The fear in the female elder’s heart grew stronger and stronger.
She could not die here.
With that thought, she gritted her teeth and prepared to use a forbidden technique to escape. She had to get away from this terrifying woman’s sight.
“Not good, Fellow Daoist Shu! She’s trying to escape!” Qu Yougu shouted desperately from the ground.
He had watched the entire battle between Shu Xin and the demonic cultivator. He was filled with shock at the combat strength Shu Xin had displayed.
No wonder some people in the Everlasting Dao Sect regarded her as the foremost disciple of the current generation. He had originally thought it was merely exaggerated praise, but it turned out to be true?
No wonder Xu Guan would rather make an enemy of the Everlasting Dao Sect than take Shu Xin into his own sect.
Clearly, he had his eyes on Shu Xin’s extraordinary aptitude!
Qu Yougu had no idea that every step of his reasoning was wrong, but he could tell that the demonic cultivator’s defeat was only a matter of time.
When the demonic cultivator began forming hand seals, Qu Yougu recognized it as an escape forbidden art of the Spirit-Possession Demon Sect.
A Spirit-Possession Demon Cultivator could abandon their original body and flee with only their primordial spirit remaining. At that point, unless a cultivator of the Immaculate realm pursued them, it would be extremely difficult to catch up.
Back at the Hu family, Qu Yougu had been worried that Wei Yiming would do the same, which was why he had hurriedly asked an Immaculate-realm elder to intervene.
Shu Xin, however, remained unhurried, as though she had not heard Qu Yougu’s warning.
“If I don’t make my opponent desperate, how will she honestly tell me where the Clear Mirror Divine Water is?” Shu Xin clicked her tongue twice. “I’ll leave it to you.”
【Relax. Can the primordial spirit of a mere Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivator escape my lock-on?】 the sword spirit said disdainfully.
As the female elder’s body approached Shu Xin, it suddenly exploded. A tiny primordial spirit took advantage of the opportunity and fled.
The power released by the self-destruction of a Grotto-Heaven-realm cultivator was naturally immense.
Even from some distance away, Qu Yougu had no choice but to activate all his defensive treasures.
F-Fellow Daoist Shu?
She was so close to the explosion. Could she be all right?
Qu Yougu struggled to his feet.
He wanted to go see what had happened.
But when the smoke from the explosion cleared, all Qu Yougu saw was Shu Xin slowly descending while holding a certain primordial spirit in her hand.
“You should keep resting. That woman blew herself up. What an idiot.” Shu Xin landed on the ground and looked at Qu Yougu in surprise. “Why did you get up when you’re fine?”
“I... I was worried about you... Never mind, Fellow Daoist Shu. So long as you’re unharmed.”
Qu Yougu felt his face grow hot. He had never expected Shu Xin not only to remain uninjured after the other party’s self-destruction, but even to seize his soul directly.
It made his concern seem rather insulting to her abilities.
“Oh? You thought something this pathetic could kill me?” Since she had already revealed her strength in front of Qu Yougu, Shu Xin saw no reason to keep pretending. “Didn’t your Myriad Dao Sect conduct a thorough investigation into me? I caused quite a commotion in the Eternal Life Dao Sect, yet I was still able to switch over to another sect without a hitch.”
Qu Yougu could only sigh helplessly. “Fellow Daoist Shu, I devote myself entirely to cultivation and pay little attention to worldly affairs.”
The struggle over the Daoist heir involved the future of the lineage behind him, as well as that of the other lineages. Why would he concern himself with what happened in other sects?
Besides, the information sent from the Eternal Life Dao Sect was a mixture of truth and falsehood. Who would bother sorting it all out?
“Good. Looks like I can keep a low profile for a while longer.” Shu Xin stroked her chin. “You should continue resting. I’m going to interrogate this soul properly. There were some questions I couldn’t get answers to from his true body, but I should be able to ask them here.”
“It was all thanks to Fellow Daoist Shu that we managed to capture this demon cultivator. Do as you please,” Qu Yougu replied.
With that, he sat down cross-legged and continued tending to his injuries.
“I know that, of course.” Shu Xin shook the soul in her hand, then squatted down in a corner. “Tell me. Where is the Bright Mirror Divine Water?”
With his soul in Shu Xin’s grasp, Wei Yiming’s appearance reverted to its ordinary, pale self. He looked even weaker than his true body.
“The Bright Mirror Divine Water was used up long ago. If you let me go, I’ll tell you the formula.”
“Haha, you spirit-hosting demon cultivators are really something.” Shu Xin smiled sweetly, but increased the pressure of her grip until Wei Yiming’s soul let out a piercing shriek.
“The spirit-hosting demon cultivator I captured before said the same thing. He claimed that the Bright Mirror Divine Water lost its efficacy soon after being prepared, so there was no finished product—only the formula. As long as I released him, he would give me the formula.”
Shu Xin shook her head repeatedly. “But you know what your sect disciples are like. There’s no way they would tell me the truth. Isn’t that right, Wei Yiming, Third Senior Brother?”
Shu Xin smiled and revealed a few more names. “I remember killing someone named Wu Lingyun, another named Zhou Jia, and there was one more... What was his name again? Oh, right. His surname was Shangguan.”
“...They haven’t returned to the sect all these years. They actually died at your hands?” Wei Yiming grew even more terrified. “Do you have some grudge against our sect?”
“Not necessarily.” Shu Xin thought for a moment. “It’s just that your junior brothers and sisters weren’t honest. So, in order to verify the formula for the Bright Mirror Divine Water, I told them this: if the formula given by the first person differed from that given by the second in even a single detail, I would kill them both and then ask a third person. Unfortunately, your junior brothers and sisters were all very dishonest, so I killed every last one of them in one go.”
“Still, I don’t think you’ll be heartbroken over it. Your sect clearly doesn’t have anything as tiresome as fraternal affection. Your true body also gave me a formula, but I’m not sure whether it’s genuine. If what you tell me differs from his answer, I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t kill you. Instead, I’ll sell you to another demon cultivator and send you into a Myriad Souls Banner, where you can reunite with your junior brothers and sisters and become sectmates all over again. How does that sound?”
The smile on Shu Xin’s face grew brighter.
But to Wei Yiming, that smile was more terrifying than anything a demon cultivator could produce.
Being sent into a Myriad Souls Banner would be worse than death!
“I... I’ll talk...” Wei Yiming repeated the formula for the Bright Mirror Divine Water.
“Ah, it’s different again.” Shu Xin sighed and crushed his soul without the slightest hesitation.
“What I said is the real—”
Wei Yiming’s soul still tried to protest, but before he could finish, Shu Xin had already crushed it.
[The formula was the same all three times. It looks like it’s genuine.] The sword spirit could not help asking, [Now you can be certain. Are you going to tell Situ Jian?]
The sword spirit also found it rather strange.
When Shu Xin had first captured a spirit-hosting demon cultivator several decades ago, she had already obtained the formula for the Bright Mirror Divine Water. She simply hadn’t been certain that it was genuine, so she had kept it to herself.
Now, after confirming it with a third person, there was no doubt that the formula was real.
“I didn’t tell him before because I was afraid he would become too eager for quick results and delay his cultivation. But now I can.” Shu Xin stood silently for a while, looking somewhat melancholy. “Judging by the time, he should have already killed the Lin family ancestor. He can probably bypass the Three Winds and Four Fires and reach the Grotto-Heaven realm—or even the Immaculate realm—directly.”
[There was no other way. His hatred runs too deep, and unlike you, he doesn’t have me suppressing his karmic fate. Without relying on this shortcut, he would never have been able to pass the Three Winds and Four Fires.] The sword spirit had some feelings for people other than Shu Xin, but not many. [Besides, without you, his natural talent would never have been enough for him to set foot on the path of cultivation.]
Not everyone was like Shu Xin, able to regard the Three Winds and Four Fires as nothing.
She could do so because she had no attachment to this world and had formed very little karma within it.
Situ Jian was different. He had been born in this world and was driven by hatred, while his enemies remained high above him. The fact that he had not gone mad after all these years was already quite an achievement.
Shu Xin naturally knew that the sword spirit’s words made sense.
It was just that even she, relying on the sword spirit’s assistance, could do nothing but flee when faced with an Earthly Immortal.
What hope did Situ Jian have?
“I’ll write him a message. Help me deliver it. Now that we have the formula for the Bright Mirror Divine Water, it will be much easier for him to find the ingredients in the Eternal Life Dao Sect than outside.” Shu Xin took out a jade slip and engraved the entire formula onto it. “While you’re at it, take a look at what realm he’s reached and what his current situation is.”
[It’s me again.] The sword spirit was somewhat irritated, but could only hang the jade slip from the other half of its hilt and prepare to deliver the message once more.
Hmph.
Qu Yougu mistakenly assumed that Shu Xin was sending a message to Xu Guan. Only then did he remember that he ought to report this matter to the sect as well.
“Fellow Daoist Shu, we owe you thanks for eliminating this demon cultivator.” Qu Yougu had recovered sufficiently. Seeing that Shu Xin had cleanly crushed the demon cultivator’s soul, he finally allowed himself to relax.
As for what Shu Xin and the demon cultivator’s soul had discussed, he had not listened in.
“It was nothing.” Shu Xin patted the hilt of Hold On, urging it to set off quickly instead of wasting time here.
The sword spirit cast a glance at Qu Yougu and, despite its reluctance, sent the other half of itself off to deliver the message.
“Fellow Daoist Shu, how about we split the Fan family’s belongings fifty-fifty?” Qu Yougu asked, a little embarrassed, though he still voiced the proposal. “Although it was ultimately thanks to you that we succeeded in eliminating the demon, I did expend the life-saving jade talisman given to me by the sect. I can’t return empty-handed. But don’t worry, Fellow Daoist Shu. Once this matter is settled, I’ll convert my half of the Fan family’s assets into spirit stones and pay you back privately.”
“It was supposed to be split evenly from the beginning.” Although Shu Xin was always eager to make money, she wasn’t so unreasonable as to take everything. “If you hadn’t killed Fan Xiang and the others, I might not have had the chance to benefit from the aftermath.”
Besides, it was still worth building a connection with the Myriad Dao Sect.
If she ran into trouble in the future, she could always use their name to intimidate people.
It would actually be troublesome if Qu Yougu gave her everything belonging to the Fan family. That would mean their cause and effect had been settled between them. Wouldn’t that make all her efforts pointless?
In this day and age, what people called favors were nothing more than debts owed to one another, exchanged back and forth. Once there were enough of them, friendship and karmic ties naturally followed.
“Fellow Daoist Qu, you should contact your sect first. I also need to inform my junior brothers and sisters.” Shu Xin smiled.
Qu Yougu nodded.
Only then did Shu Xin notify Cao Ru and the others to come over.
“Senior Sister, it’s so good to see that you’re all right. We were worried sick!”
“Yeah. The fighting here was so intense that we didn’t dare come over. We were afraid we’d only hold you back.”
“What was that huge explosion about? And that golden handprint—we were practically scared to death watching it from the side.”
“The outside world is terrifying! Master lied to us. He said it would be relatively safe for us to travel outside the sect with our level of cultivation!”
…
Aside from expressing their concern for their senior sister, the junior brothers and sisters spent most of their time complaining about their master.
The world beyond the sect was terrifying, all right.
There were Grotto-Heaven-realm demons appearing at the drop of a hat, and even Mahayana cultivators striking from tens of thousands of miles away?
They were merely Core Formation cultivators. Were battles of this level really something they should be getting involved in?
“All right, all right. It’s over now.” Shu Xin smiled and patted them on the head. “How about we return to the sect tomorrow?”
There were things she needed to do next, and she couldn’t bring them along.
“Really? We’re going back tomorrow?”
“Wonderful! I really miss Master and Second Senior Brother.”
“Fantastic! It’s finally over. I swear I won’t leave the mountain again until I’ve broken through to the Dao Nascent realm!”
The world outside was far too frightening. They felt that they needed to at least reach the Dao Nascent realm before they could travel with any peace of mind.
Watching Shu Xin interact so harmoniously with her junior brothers and sisters, Qu Yougu felt a rare pang of envy.
His own senior brothers and sisters treated him well too, but they weren’t as close as this group.
“Fellow Daoist Qu, you still seem to have quite a few questions. Don’t hesitate—I have time now, so I can answer them for you.” Shu Xin gestured for Qu Yougu to ask whatever he wanted.
Qu Yougu thought carefully before asking, “With your strength, you entered the Hu family from the very beginning, and then took Fan Jia’an’s remains from me before entering the Fan family. Had you already predicted that the Possession Spirit Demon Cultivator was hiding in one of those two places?”
This was the question that intrigued Qu Yougu the most.
The Possession Spirit Demon Cultivator’s whereabouts were extremely difficult to track down. Even the Myriad Dao Sect had only managed to investigate the Hu family because of its suspicious behavior. Yet the information Shu Xin had obtained seemed to be far more detailed than theirs. It even seemed as though everything that had happened along the way had been within her grasp.
Qu Yougu found it difficult to believe that all of this had been orchestrated by Shu Xin alone.
“I merely happened to capture one of that demon cultivator’s fellow disciples some time ago and learned a few things by questioning him.” Shu Xin answered vaguely. “As for the Hu family, that was purely a coincidence. I originally only wanted to bring my junior brothers and sisters here for some experience. Who could have expected us to discover traces of the Possession Spirit Demon Cultivator aboard the Hu family’s flying vessel? As for Fan Jia’an’s corpse, I was originally planning to return it to the Fan family and find a temporary place for us to rest while we were there. I didn’t expect the Fan family to be harboring so much corruption, or for them to trap us inside. If you hadn’t arrived in time, Fellow Daoist Qu, it would probably have taken us quite a bit of effort to get out.”
Shu Xin’s words sounded sincere. In truth, they couldn’t really be considered lies. She had merely left out certain details.
She understood that no one wanted to be friends with someone who was too calculating and seemed to have everything planned out.
Now that she had finally established a favor-based relationship with Qu Yougu, she was determined to maintain it!
Hearing this, Qu Yougu relaxed somewhat.
The Everlasting Dao Sect.
Situ Jian’s sudden rise to become Gong Changshou’s disciple had become the hottest topic throughout the sect.
With the Lin family ancestor dead and the Lin family in decline, the only powerful connection they could cling to was Situ Jian. They had to hold tightly to his coattails, or risk being driven out of the Everlasting Dao Sect by the other great families.
As someone who had once had a “conflict” with Situ Jian, Lin Youwei was bound and delivered directly before him.
“Ancestor Situ, our Lin family sincerely wishes to submit to you. For the sake of our many clansmen, we beg you to grant us a place to stand.” The Lin family elders knelt in unison outside Situ Jian’s cave dwelling, not daring to rise.
After their ancestor’s death, the other families had pounced on them like tigers that had smelled blood. Not only had they divided up the Lin family’s spirit mountains in a matter of days, they had even begun targeting the family’s businesses.
Every Lin family elder who had gone to handle matters at one of the family’s shops had disappeared without a trace.
Even worse, all the evil deeds the Lin family had committed in the past by defying the sect’s rules had been exposed.
The Punishment Hall had also swiftly issued its verdict: the Lin family would be expelled from the sect and left to fend for itself.
The Lin family members knew all too well that their sky had collapsed completely the moment their ancestor died. Yet they had never imagined that they would even lose the identity of being disciples of the Everlasting Dao Sect.
At the same time, some of the Lin family elders who knew the truth had developed an intense hatred for the Lin family ancestor.
If the ancestor hadn’t constantly absorbed the cultivation of the Lin family’s members to practice his own techniques, how could the Lin family have become so weak and depleted? How could they have been unable to produce a single person capable of taking charge after his death?
In the end, the only person they could turn to was an outsider—Situ Jian!
Lin Youwei had never expected this. She had foreseen that the Lin family might collapse, which was why she had exhausted her potential to force her way into the Dao Nascent realm, hoping to escape as quickly as possible. Yet she had still ended up being captured.
She had heard that Situ Jian had broken through to the Grotto-Heaven realm in a mere half month. He now even had one of the Nine Sons of Longevity as his master. The difference between them was already as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.
How could the fortunes of life change so drastically in such a short time?
For a moment, Lin Youwei’s heart turned to ash.
Situ Jian never gave them so much as a word in response.
Instead, Situ Jian’s subordinates finally stepped forward one after another, officially taking the stage. They dragged the members of the Lin family down the mountain by force, refusing to let them disturb their master’s cultivation.
Lin Youwei was naturally among those driven away.
However, halfway down the mountain, the Lin family was once again attacked by a group of cultivators whose faces could not be made out.
With her cultivation sealed, Lin Youwei could do nothing but stand by and watch the one-sided slaughter unfold.
In the past, the Lin family had thrown its weight around and offended far too many people. Now that the family had fallen apart and been driven out of the sect, they were no longer considered disciples of the Everlasting Dao Sect. No one else needed to hold back from attacking them out of respect for the sect’s rules.
Lin Youwei’s face was deathly pale. She could only wait for these cultivators to deliver the final blow.
Born into the Lin family, and now dying alongside it—perhaps that was only right.
“You’re Lin Youwei?” a voice called out.
Lin Youwei raised her head, only to find that the cultivators who had been slaughtering the Lin family had disappeared.
In their place stood another group of cultivators.
One of them looked vaguely familiar. He seemed to be one of the people who had driven them away from Situ Jian’s cave dwelling earlier.
“Leave. And from now on, don’t use the surname Lin,” the familiar-looking cultivator said. “The ancestor says the scenery beneath the mountain is beautiful too.”
Lin Youwei stood rooted to the spot. Then, as realization dawned on her, she turned toward the cave dwelling where Situ Jian was and kowtowed more than ten times before finally rising and leaving.
Indeed, she had been a cultivator of an aristocratic clan for far too long. It was time to see the world beyond it.
At that very moment, Situ Jian was looking at the sword hovering before him. He removed the jade slip attached to it and quickly memorized the formula for the Divine Water of the Bright Mirror before destroying the slip.
“Thank you, Sister Shu. I’ve successfully become a disciple of one of the Nine Sons of Longevity. Now…” Situ Jian had not yet finished speaking when he saw the sword that had come to deliver the message begin scratching a long line of characters into the wall of his cave dwelling.
“Myriad Dao Sect, Qu Yougu?”
