“What’s the difference?” Pei Qiyun didn’t believe him. “Even if my enemies are these Daoist sects and demonic sects, I absolutely won’t be afraid.”
The demonic cultivator seemed to let out a laugh from beneath his cloak.
Before Pei Qiyun could argue, he suddenly began to speak.
“From top to bottom, your Profound Spirit Dao Sect is filled with thieves, prostitutes, bullies, and womanizers. You even colluded with demonic cultivators. Your internal management was a complete mess, and countless elders and disciples collaborated with outside enemies. You brought this fate upon yourselves. Your deaths were well deserved.”
The moment Pei Qiyun heard this, she sprang to her feet, her face blazing with fury. “No one is allowed to insult my sect! Even if you did save me, I still absolutely—”
“That is why I said you are completely unsuited for revenge.” The demonic cultivator effortlessly deflected her attack. “Someone seeking revenge cannot be like you. You can’t even conceal the fury filling your heart.”
“Then what should someone seeking revenge be like?”
Ever since Pei Qiyun had joined the sect, her outstanding aptitude had made her the object of everyone’s hopes.
She had even once encountered an attack by demonic cultivators, only to happen upon Shu Xin, who had come to exterminate the demonic cave.
The greatest hardship she had ever suffered was nothing more than being stuck at the peak of the Dao Infant stage, unable to break through to the Grotto-Heaven realm.
There were countless people like her in the various sects and great clans of the cultivation world.
When the cultivation world was at peace, they were the core strength of their sects and the foundation of their future. But once their sects were shattered and they lost their support, they became lost. Their Dao hearts would be damaged, and they would have virtually no chance of advancing to a higher realm.
It was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to return from luxury to frugality.
The principle was the same everywhere.
“If you want revenge, you must forget who you are,” the demonic cultivator said calmly. “Change your name and identity, and pretend that none of it concerns you. When others discuss the Profound Spirit Dao Sect, you must participate as if nothing has happened, criticizing your former sect and master along with everyone else, and bowing and scraping before your enemies. You must abandon your entire past and all your emotions. You can no longer pursue anything you truly desire. Hide your preferences, and never allow anyone to seize upon even one of your weaknesses.”
“Hand over the secret order and leave this place far behind. Your master understood this better than you do. You have no talent for revenge. All you have is a heart full of fury.”
Pei Qiyun’s face flushed crimson. She was both embarrassed and enraged, yet she could not find a single word with which to refute him.
She suddenly realized that the determination to take revenge she had always been so proud of was nothing more than a joke in the eyes of another.
That was right. She could not even conceal her thoughts from this stranger. How could she possibly kill those who had destroyed her sect?
“This is the secret order.”
Pei Qiyun took out a blank jade slip, imprinted the secret order onto it with her divine sense, and handed it to the demonic cultivator.
The moment he received the jade slip, the demonic cultivator turned to leave.
“Wait.” Pei Qiyun could not help asking, “If I do everything you just described, will I really succeed in taking revenge?”
“No. It will only bring you a little closer to your enemies.”
The instant the demonic cultivator took the jade slip, all that remained before Pei Qiyun was an empty cloak. The person inside had vanished without a trace.
“An external incarnation?”
Pei Qiyun froze for a moment before realizing that the demonic cultivator before her had never been his true body. Yet she had failed to notice it all this time.
That meant that even this person’s external incarnation possessed cultivation far beyond her own.
Had someone like him still failed to take revenge?
Longevity Dao Sect.
Situ Jian withdrew his divine sense.
A jade slip rested in his hand.
After reading the secret order, Situ Jian destroyed the jade slip, ensuring that no one would ever know he had secretly obtained the thing everyone desired.
From the moment he had planted a spy in Busi Manor, he had kept the external incarnation he refined hidden inside the Profound Spirit Dao Sect. Only by doing so could he avoid being discovered before the other sects arrived at the Profound Spirit Dao Sect.
Infiltration required an immense amount of patience. Fortunately, patience was the one thing he had in abundance.
His external incarnation had always been hidden near the Profound Spirit Dao Sect, and therefore he had naturally seen the long-absent sword formation in the sky.
It seemed that Sister Shu had found another person she wanted to kill completely. Senior Sword Spirit was probably delighted as well.
Situ Jian still did not go forward to disturb them.
His external incarnation was a demonic cultivator. He absolutely could not have even the slightest connection to Shu Xin.
Situ Jian put those thoughts aside and began seriously observing the divine ability of the Profound Spirit Dao Sect.
He had to admit that the ancestor who created this divine ability truly deserved to be called a man of extraordinary vision.
The reason Earthly Immortals were so powerful was that they had already surpassed the current cultivation system. Their physical bodies, magical power, spiritual energy, and Dao hearts were all at the pinnacle. It was nearly impossible to find any weakness in them.
Yet precisely because they had achieved perfection in every aspect, they had been unable to ascend for so long. They could no longer find a direction in which to strive, and could only remain in the cultivation world, continuing to wreak havoc upon it.
The ancestor of the Profound Spirit Dao Sect understood that Mahayana cultivators were inferior to Earthly Immortals in every respect. That seemingly narrow gap, however, would require tens of thousands of years to make up.
Thus, he had created this divine ability, allowing two Mahayana cultivators of different origins and completely different aptitudes to cultivate it together.
For example, if one Mahayana cultivator possessed a Water Spiritual Root, the other had to possess either a Wood Spiritual Root or a Fire Spiritual Root—either one that complemented it or one that countered it.
The technique was based on the principle that “Heaven’s workings contain imperfections; only through complementarity can perfection be achieved.”
Therefore, successfully cultivating this divine ability placed great demands on the cultivators’ aptitude and opportunities. It also required the two Mahayana cultivators to maintain roughly the same progress in their cultivation of the technique.
In reality, however, Situ Jian had discovered another way to exploit the rules.
It was already exceedingly difficult to find two people whose hearts were in perfect accord and whose cultivation progressed at the same pace. But an external incarnation posed no such problem.
For ordinary cultivators, an external incarnation was merely a weaker version of the original self, and could never meet the technique’s requirement for “complementarity.”
But this restriction presented no obstacle to Situ Jian.
His true body cultivated orthodox Daoist techniques, while his incarnation was a pure demonic cultivator.
The two could be said to complement each other perfectly.
Of course, this carried immense danger—so much danger that if Shu Xin were here, she would certainly stop him.
But how could one obtain immense power without taking risks?
Should he, like Pei Qiyun, simply watch helplessly as his sect was destroyed by his enemies, then watch those enemies grow ever more prosperous?
Time waited for no one.
If his enemies died before he did, what meaning would revenge have?
To take revenge against an Earthly Immortal—no, even to avenge himself against a cultivator of the Immaculate realm—he needed power beyond his own.
“Master, Wen Jingshu had me bring you an extra cup of tea.”
The latest news came from Song Ping.
An extra cup of tea?
Aside from Fu Ge, who else could have made Wen Jingshu send an extra cup of tea at a time like this?
Situ Jian let out a soft laugh.
It seemed the moment was close.
He had kept those who had died waiting for far too long.
At the very least, he would send one person down to keep them company first.
Inquiry God Sect.
Xu Guan hurriedly piloted the flying vessel back to the Asking Gods Sect, then immediately headed straight for the Divine Fire Diagram Spirit Book. The rest of the arrangements were left to Yi Renjie and his other disciples.
Yi Renjie was already thoroughly familiar with matters like this. In addition, the former servants of the Asking Gods Sect who had been captured by Shu Xin were able to lend a hand. Settling these low-level teachers and the young male and female servants was not difficult.
Seeing how hurriedly their master had left, Cao Ru and the others wisely refrained from asking questions.
In the past, they would certainly have asked about their Second Senior Brother. But they had experienced too much by now and understood that many things could not be spoken of directly. When their master wanted to tell them, he would do so naturally.
Seeing how sensible his junior brothers and sisters had become, Yi Renjie felt greatly comforted.
As expected, nothing tempered a person like traveling abroad to gain experience.
He just wondered when their Eldest Senior Sister would return.
“Senior Book Spirit, these are all the cultivation techniques collected by the Profound Spirit Dao Sect. I ask that you sort through them, discard the inferior ones, and keep them safe for the time being.” Xu Guan clasped his hands and earnestly pleaded, “In addition, I will enter seclusion as soon as possible. I ask that Senior Book Spirit conceal me from the workings of Heaven and buy me some time.”
Breaking through to the Mahayana stage required time. It was not as simple as saying that, once a Mahayana cultivator died, a Wugou-realm cultivator could smoothly take their place.
In truth, none of the necessary advancement trials would be missing—not the Three Winds and Four Fires, nor the tribulation descending upon one’s body.
It was only that, without an available position, no matter how profound one’s cultivation in the Wugou realm was, one’s path forward would remain blocked, leading only to death and the dissolution of one’s cultivation. Now that a position had opened up, however, as long as one surpassed the other Wugou-realm cultivators and achieved better results in the trials, one could successfully advance.
Every sect that wished to increase the number of Mahayana cultivators, whether Daoist or demonic, would spare no effort at a time like this to divine and calculate. They would identify every Wugou-realm cultivator qualified to compete for a Mahayana position, then send people to interfere with them.
The Asking Gods Sect was so close to the Longevity Dao Sect, making the danger all the greater.
At the same time, having such a colossal force as the Longevity Dao Sect to draw the attention of the other sects would greatly increase Xu Guan’s safety as one of those hidden beneath the light. The prerequisite was that Senior Book Spirit could conceal him from heavenly divination and help him evade detection first.
[I can try to buy you thirty years.]
“That will be enough.” Xu Guan breathed a sigh of relief. “If I fail after thirty years, I will give up cultivation just as my master did and leave all my resources to nurture my disciples.”
Shu Xin would probably have a greater chance of advancing than he, her master, did.
“Master, within the Daoist sects, is it truly impossible for us to stand together and help one another?”
It was only after they had boarded the flying vessel of the Myriad Dao Sect, and after White Crane Dao Lord pressed him for an answer, that Qu Yougu finally asked this question.
White Crane Dao Lord was slightly taken aback. “Why would you ask that?”
“Before the sword formation appeared, Fellow Daoist Shu was driven into a desperate situation by Juechen of the Corpse Yin Demon Sect. Juechen brought more than a thousand corpse puppets, including over a dozen corpse puppets in the Grotto-Heaven realm and one in the Wugou realm. We all thought Fellow Daoist Shu was certain to die. But when Xianzhi and I asked the others for help, they chose to stand by and watch…” Qu Yougu carefully recounted everything that had happened.
When she heard that there had even been a Wugou-realm corpse puppet, White Crane Dao Lord nearly leaped from her seat.
No, wait. Was the issue not that the others had refused to save Shu Xin?
The real issue was that her strength far exceeded anything they could imagine.
No wonder an elder of the Corpse Yin Demon Sect had attacked Shu Xin in front of so many people. He was probably the person who understood Shu Xin’s strength most clearly.
But when she saw her disciple asking this question, White Crane Dao Lord still chose not to expose the truth.
Perhaps it was better if Qu Yougu never realized what she truly felt.
As long as Shu Xin’s future achievements continued to grow, this youthful infatuation would naturally fade away with the wind.
Most importantly, as an outsider, she could not see even the slightest trace of romantic feelings beyond the proper boundaries in Shu Xin’s attitude toward her foolish disciple. If there had been even the faintest hint of such feelings, she would have been willing to throw away her dignity and argue with the sect master. She would have explained how powerful Shu Xin was and how many benefits she could bring to the sect. Surely, she could have gotten the matter settled.
But there was nothing.
“Yougu, you became my disciple when you were still swaddled in infancy.” White Crane Dao Lord gently stroked Qu Yougu’s head. “To me, you are no different from my own child. When you were still nursing, I went everywhere asking female cultivators who had given birth how to care for you. At that time, the affairs of the Formless Lineage were overwhelming, and the only time I could truly relax was when I was taking care of you.”
“So, when it came to many matters, I always thought of you as still being young. You had the protection of everyone in the Formless Lineage, as well as the colossal sect behind you. There was nothing wrong with you remaining innocent and inexperienced. In fact, the more devoted you were to the sect, the more the sect would reward you. That was why I handled many of the dirty matters for you and kept them hidden from you.”
A look of deep affection filled White Crane Dao Lord’s eyes as she gazed at Qu Yougu. “Do you remember those senior disciples from your childhood? The ones who used to take you down the mountain to play?”
“I remember them vaguely, but didn’t they go out to gain experience?” Qu Yougu did not know why her master had brought them up, but he still tried hard to recall them.
“They never went down the mountain. They remained on Formless Mountain forever.” White Crane Dao Lord’s expression turned much colder. “I killed them myself.”
“As my disciples, they grew jealous of you, an ignorant child. They colluded with demonic cultivators and tried to sell you to a demonic sect to be used as a blood slave. That alone was a grave violation of the sect’s taboos. And that was not all—they had secretly contacted another lineage, intending to sell our Formless Lineage for the highest price they could get!”
White Crane Dao Lord’s voice was cold and hard. “I dealt with them privately, but that provoked an attack from cultivators of the opposing lineage. In that battle, several of your martial uncles and martial grand-uncles perished forever. Even so, I could not report the matter to the sect and ask them to give us justice.”
This was the first time Qu Yougu had heard of such a thing, and fury immediately surged through him.
But White Crane Dao Lord stopped him.
“From the sect’s perspective, they are happy to see the various lineages and mountain factions compete against one another. It is like raising venomous insects in a jar—the strongest will be the one to inherit the foundation of the Myriad Dao Sect. If we do not fight one another within the sect, then we will fight one another outside it. The Profound Spirit Dao Sect declined. Do you truly think it was because they colluded with demonic cultivators, because they mismanaged the sect, or because traitors kept appearing?”
“Neither. The fundamental reason for their downfall was that, despite having no Earthly Immortal backing them, they enjoyed everything that a sect with an Earthly Immortal had enjoyed throughout the ages! Meanwhile, the sects that had only Mahayana cultivators had to rely on their favor.” White Crane Dao Lord continued, “The Earthly Immortals could not tolerate the existence of any force capable of opposing them, while the Mahayana cultivators wanted to possess that same power. Therefore, the Xuanling Dao Sect was doomed to fail. In fact, I can tell you with certainty that with the Demonic Sects having infiltrated the Xuanling Dao Sect so deeply, many of those infiltrations were definitely orchestrated by other Daoist sects. Our sect most certainly played a substantial role as well.”
“Sects can never truly unite. At most, they can share common interests. The reason our Myriad Dao Sect has a more solid foundation than the Xuanling Dao Sect is not because we exercise better discipline over our disciples. It is simply because we have a genuine Earthly Immortal guarding the sect. That is all.”
“As long as the Earthly Immortal does not die, then no matter how many more people our sect loses, it will still be worth it.”
“So, don’t ask why Daoist sects cannot watch over and aid one another. You should be asking why Daoist sects can still maintain peace on the surface, and why our sect cannot unify all the Daoist sects.” White Crane Dao Lord spoke slowly. “Cultivation is a struggle against Heaven for a chance at life. Fighting with other people is only natural. If everyone became an immortal, how would that be any different from everyone being an ordinary mortal?”
Qu Yougu was struck as if by a bolt of lightning.
He had never expected his master to say such a thing.
Yet he understood even more clearly that this was the truth of the cultivation world.
Cultivation was meant to make oneself stronger, to stand above countless others.
It was not meant to stand above countless others and then shelter them.
That was the way of a saint, not a cultivator.
“Most things in this world are like this.” White Crane Dao Lord patted Qu Yougu on the head. “You were born into a sect and have enjoyed everything it provides. Every resource you possess and every step you have taken in cultivation was won for you through the lives of countless cultivators at the bottom. So, Yougu, do not question the sect’s decisions, and do not imagine that the sect should go around helping other people. In this cultivation world, merely being able to protect yourself is already an extraordinary accomplishment. If you wish to change the current state of affairs, you must first climb to the very top of the sect. Once you reach that height, the view before you—and the cultivation world in your eyes—will be entirely different.”
Such was the world. Even if cultivators possessed the ability to ascend to Heaven and descend into the earth, how could they defy the tide and use human strength to fight against Heaven?
Qu Yougu felt that there was one thing his master had gotten wrong.
At the very least, Shu Xin did not seem to be like that.
And at that very moment, Shu Xin—remembered by everyone—was enjoying herself aboard the Longevity Dao Sect as if she were the honored guest of an emperor.
This made quite a few Longevity Dao Sect disciples feel as though they had swallowed something foul.
Back when Shu Xin had been an outer sect elder, quite a few people had dealt with her before.
At the time, Shu Xin had lived by the principle that one did not strike someone who greeted them with a smile. She smiled at everyone, and she was smooth and accommodating in her dealings. Whenever an inner sect disciple or a clan heir with connections and potential came to her for help, Shu Xin would approve whatever she could. She barely reviewed anything at all.
It was fast, easy, and effortless.
But things were different now.
Shu Xin was an honored guest—and a formidable expert of the Grotto-Heaven realm at that. By contrast, those who had once acted arrogantly before her had either died, or were still struggling bitterly in the Dao Infant stage, destined never to glimpse the hope of reaching the Grotto-Heaven realm.
Those who had once stood high above everyone else had suddenly fallen to the bottom.
And Shu Xin, whom they had once looked down upon and deemed to have exhausted her potential—someone they had considered unworthy of becoming the principal wife of even a clan heir—had now become a mighty expert whom everyone could only look up to.
How could they not feel conflicted?
Shu Xin, however, was not unhappy in the slightest.
She even had enough leisure to visit those who had once looked down on her and flaunt her success right in front of them.
“Little Zheng, what are you standing around for? Pour me some tea.”
“Little Li, don’t just stand there like an idiot. Can’t you fan me?”
“Look at you, Little Wang. Why are you dressed so properly and seriously? Show me your abs, and wear something thinner. Didn’t your family once try to use a beauty trap to trick me into marrying into your clan?”
Shu Xin went down the line, commenting on each of these clan heirs until their faces burned with humiliation.
But Senior Sister Long Ling and the other elders had issued strict orders: they absolutely could not offend Shu Xin. On the contrary, they had to cultivate a good relationship with her.
If Shu Xin took a fancy to them, that would be their fortune. Even if she wanted to use them for dual cultivation, they would have to wash themselves clean and obediently wait for her.
These young masters from prominent clans were naturally the treasured golden eggs of their families, which was why Long Ling had brought them along. Yet in front of Shu Xin, they were no different from the male cultivators of the Hehuan Sect who flaunted themselves and struck alluring poses.
“Senior Shu, you are already a mighty expert of the Grotto-Heaven realm. Why make things difficult for Dao Infant cultivators like us?” Unable to hold back any longer, a handsome clan heir finally protested. “It is true that our family was blind back then, but that happened so long ago.”
“What an interesting thing to say.” Shu Xin spat out a piece of fruit peel and spoke lazily. “I worked so hard to cultivate and finally became a mighty expert. Can’t I enjoy showing off a little? If not, what was the point of all that effort? Was it so that after becoming a mighty expert, I would still have to bow and scrape before you just because of your family backgrounds? The fact that I haven’t made you kneel while speaking to me already proves how magnanimous I am.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make them kneel. It was just that these people already looked utterly humiliated while standing. If she made them kneel as well, how ugly would they become?
She didn’t care about anything else, but having something ugly assault her eyes would be unpleasant.
Besides, Shu Xin understood perfectly well the principle of stopping once one had gained enough.
This level of pressure was just right. Even if word got out, people would merely say, “Fellow Daoist Shu certainly knows how to have fun.” No particularly bad reputation would come of it.
In the face of cultivation and power, gender, family background, aptitude, and beauty were all merely bargaining chips. None of them were anything extraordinary.
The clan cultivators were rendered speechless by Shu Xin’s words. All they could do was seethe inwardly.
Heaven was truly unfair. Why had such excellent cultivation aptitude and opportunities fallen to Shu Xin of all people?
“Hahaha, the way they can’t stand you but still have to serve you is absolutely hilarious.” The Sword Spirit laughed heartily. Who would have thought that one day it would be so amusing to watch these young masters from prominent clans line up one by one, waiting for Shu Xin to pass judgment on them?
What a shame that they were currently aboard the Longevity Dao Sect’s flying vessel. Otherwise, the Sword Spirit would absolutely have let them experience what it meant to call for Heaven and have Heaven refuse to answer, or call for Earth and have Earth remain silent.
“It was only a little joke. What does it matter?” Shu Xin was in an especially good mood. “Long Ling is no pushover. She’s probably digging through the records I left behind when I was an outer sect elder of the Longevity Dao Sect, trying to stall for time and find some leverage to threaten me.”
After all, Shu Xin was now a cultivator of the Questioning God Sect, and she had just eliminated the archfiend of the Corpse Yin Demon Sect. Her reputation was at its peak. If Long Ling tried to harm her directly, it would be neither justified nor publicly defensible.
But if she began investigating everything Shu Xin had done back when she served as an outer sect elder of the Longevity Dao Sect, then any problems she uncovered could be dealt with as internal affairs of the Longevity Dao Sect.
By then, whether they wanted to strike a deal with Shu Xin or threaten her into doing something else, it would be a simple matter.
“Don’t you have several sets of accounts?” Sword Spirit asked, momentarily stunned. “She can’t find any leverage against you in that regard, can she?”
After all, Shu Xin had once sighed, “It’s wonderful that this world doesn’t have Tilanqiao.”
The accounts she kept were all about spreading the benefits around fairly.
Set after set, with truth and falsehood mixed together—no one’s hands were clean.
“That may not necessarily be true.” Shu Xin propped her chin up with one hand and opened her mouth to eat a spirit fruit offered by a young scion of a prestigious clan. “The trouble with the several sets of accounts I made back then is that I tied in many prominent families and factions within the sect. To investigate everything thoroughly, Long Ling would have to offend every one of them. If she really has the nerve to cut off her own arm to save herself, it’s not impossible for her to uncover something on me.”
Even Long Ling’s family had received plenty of kickbacks from Shu Xin back then. If Long Ling took the lead and started by investigating her own family, finding evidence against Shu Xin would be far too easy.
At that moment, Long Ling was in her own room, furious as she flung all the account-book jade slips onto the floor.
What in the world was all this?!
The more she investigated, the more incriminating evidence she found against Shu Xin—but her own family, the other prominent clans, and even the families behind the Nine Sons of Longevity had all been dragged into it as well. If the contents were truly exposed, Long Ling had no idea whether Shu Xin would die, but she herself would definitely be the first to go!
Just how many people had Shu Xin helped line their pockets within the sect?
