Within the cavernous discussion hall, mortal corpses lay peacefully, and the crowd remained in a deathly silence.
Elder Yu Ji stared fiercely at Sun Qing, who was trapped within the formation, bleeding from his seven facial orifices—a wretched death. It seemed as though his anger had yet to be satiated.
Seeing that matters had come to this, Xiao Yu raised his hand and spoke, “This man was secretly subjected to the sorcery of a demonic cultivator. The situation is urgent; we must seize the time to ferret out that demon.”
Before the elders could agree on a counter-strategy, another disciple rushed in frantically, even tripping over the threshold.
“No! This is bad! Sect Leader… Elder Xiao…”
“All three hundred and twenty residents of Jiaoyan Town suddenly perished overnight!”
Hearing the disciple’s words, Yu Ji’s eyes bulged.
“What of the formation! Why was no abnormality reported to the sect? Do you know the penalty for false or mistaken reporting!”
He glared at the head formation-cultivator disciple standing nearby. The man bowed stiffly and spoke with trepidation, “Master, the formation at Jiaoyan Town is still intact. At the very least, the demon did not attack from the outside.”
“Then why…”
The hall broke into a flurry of whispers. A terrifying, eerie atmosphere shrouded these cultivators, who were otherwise capable of “turning the clouds and summoning the rain.”
No matter how high one’s cultivation or how great their divine powers, once something falls outside the realm of their understanding, even cultivators will panic and lose their way.
Seated at the head was a majestic young woman of great beauty. Bai Muli, the Sect Leader of the Haiqian Sect, possessed profound cultivation. She practiced the art of eternal youth, and the spiritual energy around her seemed to form a faint mist, making it impossible to gauge the depths of her power.
Throughout this farce, Bai Muli had sat with her eyes half-closed, like a silent figurehead. It was only now that she finally spoke.
Her cold, clear voice smoothed over the disciples’ panic like falling snow.
“Jiaoyan Town lies at the southernmost point of our Pine Mountain, far from the borders of the Demon Realm. Between them lies the descent of Mount Wangyue.”
Reacting swiftly, Xiao Yu rose and cupped his hands. “I shall immediately assemble the disciples and slay those at Wangyue Mountain.”
Amidst the chaos, many disciples from Bishui Peak who were out searching or on missions were urgently recalled. Those already within the sect who possessed sufficient skill were screened out to form a vanguard for the journey to Wangyue Mountain.
Among them were Song Shenshi and Lu Xiangyu.
Even though Song Shenshi’s realm had fallen, her spiritual veins were blocked, and her spiritual power was withered—rendering her unable to use magic and making sword-flight difficult—she still possessed the body of a true immortal.
There was a world of difference between her and the flesh-and-blood bodies of ordinary cultivators.
Furthermore, Xiao Yu, as a master, truly treated the female lead differently. On the night before their departure—the same night as the assembly in the hall—Xiao Yu summoned her secretly at midnight and surreptitiously gave her a brocade pouch.
Lu Xiangyu asked, “What did the Master give you?”
Song Shenshi replied perfunctorily, “Just some pills to restore spiritual energy.”
“Tch~”
Lu Xiangyu didn’t believe her for a second. However, as the sky brightened at dawn, the people of Bishui Peak were ready to set out.
The Haiqian Sect had other medical and formation cultivators, but the sword-cultivators’ flight was faster and more mobile. Even so, flying through the night to reach Wangyue Mountain would take two days and one night, consuming a vast amount of spiritual power.
Before departing, Lu Xiangyu and the other disciples were each issued five large bags of spirit stones, totaling nearly fifty stones.
Song Shenshi gave her portion to Lu Xiangyu. Since the female lead could not use her spiritual power, she had to hitch a ride on Lu Xiangyu’s “rookie car.”
A few tactless “simps” stepped forward to shamelessly offer themselves as her escort, but they were coldly and heartlessly rejected by the female lead.
Lu Xiangyu took count. Among those departing were the Du brothers she knew, Ruo Zhiwei, and Nan Ji. Half of the other nine were inner disciples who had just entered the sect, along with a few senior brothers who had returned early. To her surprise, Li Wenran had not been sent out.
Lu Xiangyu shook her head inwardly. This mission was the result of Yu Jue’s pressure on Xiao Yu. If they truly encountered demonic cultivators, reinforcements would follow, but if they actually ran into them now, this group of vanguard rookies might not even leave behind intact corpses.
Of course, the female lead was the exception.
Therefore, Lu Xiangyu wasn’t as excited as the other newcomers. Furthermore, with Song Shenshi behind her, she pretended to be unskilled at sword-flight, trailing far behind the crowd at the very back. In truth, she really couldn’t fly that fast anyway.
Song Shenshi seemed to see through Lu Xiangyu’s little scheme, but she said nothing.
The flight speeds varied, and the group gradually split. The Du brothers and most of the senior brothers took the lead; the middle group consisted of Ruo Zhiwei and Nan Ji’s party, who looked after the new disciples; and at the very end were the “slackers,” Lu Xiangyu and Song Shenshi.
Since the direction was fixed, no one would get lost despite the distance between them.
As they neared Jiaoyan Town, several more disciples arriving from that direction joined them. The group performed a brief aerial survey of the town’s situation.
It had happened almost overnight; everyone seemed to have died in their sleep. Only in front of one or two houses were there obvious bloodstains.
The formation at Jiaoyan Town had been deactivated. A few scavengers wandered the town, collecting the wealth that the demons had not taken.
According to the senior brothers who had arrived from the vicinity, the direction of the demonic energy in Jiaoyan Town was indeed toward Wangyue Mountain. The group continued their flight in that direction.
Though Jiaoyan Town and Canglang Town both bordered the Demon Realm, they were very different.
The Demon Realm border at Pine Mountain Province featured the Zichong Mountain Range, which blocked most of the demonic energy. Canglang Town and its nearby villages still had signs of life. However, at Jiaoyan Town, the mountain range was cut off. The town was located dozens of kilometers away from the Demon Realm, and the vast area between them was a desolate Gobi-like terrain—uninhabited, with sparse vegetation and jagged rocks—where most living things struggled to survive.
The group flew above for a long time, feeling a growing sense of oppression as the spiritual energy grew thin. Behind them, in the far distance, sunlight fell through the clouds, but before them was only a hazy blackness, like a bottomless abyss.
For a moment, it made them wonder if they had taken a wrong turn and had already entered the Demon Realm.
“Wangyue Mountain!”
Ruo Zhiwei’s cry snapped most of the disciples out of their daze, and they immediately followed her sword.
Wangyue Mountain did not look large; it was a small hill dotted with sparse, withered tree trunks. Reaching the foot of the mountain, they could indeed see the Zichong Mountains of the Demon Realm from here, as well as a tiny, thumbnail-sized red moon nestled between the peaks.
Behind them, in the distant clouds, the sun had only just begun to set.
Since they were uncertain of the dangers on the mountain, and because the group had been flying on their swords for two consecutive days, they decided to rest at the foot of the mountain for the night and ascend together the following morning.
The group found a patch of dry, open ground and gathered a pile of withered branches to start a fire. The others settled down nearby to rest.
Lu Xiangyu pulled out her dry rations and began to eat.
Song Shenshi was never one for conversation. Ever since news of her fallen cultivation realm had spread, she no longer received the “center of the crowd” treatment she once enjoyed wherever she went. She found a spot beneath a large rock and curled up to meditate. Seeing this, Du Yifeng also began to meditate to regulate his breathing.
Lu Xiangyu liked to observe the commotion. She noticed that the other disciples who, like her, had just joined the inner sect were huddling together, chirping away as they spoke to Ruo Zhiwei.
Lu Xiangyu had met this Senior Sister Ruo before and had exchanged a few words with her. Ruo Zhiwei caught Lu Xiangyu’s eye and gave her a small smile as a greeting.
Ruo Zhiwei was plain-looking—not to say she was unattractive, but despite having met and spoken to her twice, Lu Xiangyu found that while she remembered the name, she could never quite recall her face.
Now, watching this Senior Sister tend to the fire in the middle of the crowd, Lu Xiangyu carefully memorized Ruo Zhiwei’s features. She then closed her eyes. Ruo Zhiwei’s smiling face appeared behind her eyelids for a moment, but before long, the image faded away.
How strange… But soon enough, even that sense of strangeness vanished from Lu Xiangyu’s mind.
Seeing how enthusiastically the others were chatting with Ruo Zhiwei, she leaned in to join the conversation.
“Senior Sister, do you think there are really demons on Wangyue Mountain?”
Most of those gathered here were new inner disciples who had grown up within the Haiqian Sect. Disciples from prominent clans like Du Yuxi were rare in the sect.
Generally, disciples from clans friendly with Haiqian—such as Senior Brother Li Wenran—were rarely sent out on such dangerous missions. However, while Xiao Yu could protect Li Wenran, he could only let Song Shenshi, whose realm had yet to recover, go out and take the risk.
“Based on the current clues, the demonic cultivator who massacred Jiaoyan Town is hiding on Wangyue Mountain,” Ruo Zhiwei said.
“Really! Then if we catch them, won’t we have achieved a great feat?” The newcomers were all eager to prove themselves.
One disciple, who was more timid, asked, “But Senior Sister, aren’t demonic cultivators terrifying? Even though there are many of us—and I’m not doubting the strength of the seniors—I’ve just never encountered one… Can we really defeat a demon?”
Hearing this, Ruo Zhiwei smiled faintly. She poked the fire with a piece of wood, sending a flurry of sparks drifting into the air.
“Demonic cultivators…” Ruo Zhiwei began in a detached, storytelling tone, as if the matter had nothing to do with her. “They certainly come in varying degrees of strength.”
“For those who view human life as grass, knowing only slaughter and madness, they are not actually that powerful.”
“We cultivators, if we reach the Immortal Forging realm, will be guided by the Immortal Shrines to the Astral Realm. But demonic cultivators cannot go.”
“Many ‘True Demons’ have fallen from the Astral Realm and lost their original hearts; that is why they kill indiscriminately in the mortal world, becoming a walking calamity.”
“When I was very, very young, I heard a story. The layout of Pine Mountain Province wasn’t always like this. To the west, on the border of Kuangda Province, there was once a small kingdom. Its territory was half the size of current Pine Mountain.”
“But a hundred years ago, shortly after the Haiqian Sect was founded, a True Demon appeared in the skies above that kingdom. It slaughtered its way through, leaving corpses everywhere and turning the land into a sea of blood…”
“Nearly all the founding ancestors of the Haiqian Sect perished in that battle. In the end, it took the combined effort of three Immortal Shrines—Lingxi, Qinghe, and Fushou—to subdue that demon. The Qinghe Shrine, whose fate was tied to that small kingdom, fell shortly thereafter.”
“Are… are demonic cultivators all that strong?” the timid disciple asked, his face pale.
She’s not wrong about that… Lu Xiangyu thought to herself. Most cultivators who pass the Immortal Forging stage become cold and detached with stable “Dao Hearts,” whereas demonic cultivators skip the step of removing the “human soul.” Once they become True Demons, most of them go insane.
A mad immortal is, of course, a catastrophe for this world.
Ruo Zhiwei shook her head again.
“The slaughter brought by a True Demon is one thing, but its will to survive is incredibly intense. All demons are like that.”
“When faced with death, a demonic cultivator will explode with immense potential. This is the exact opposite of righteous cultivators, who might embrace death to take their enemy with them. To stay alive, a demon has countless methods…”
“They might abandon their demonic body, their demonic soul, or their blood and bone—even mutating into other weak animals. If they truly survive, but cannot restrain the murderous nature in their instinct, they will once again be hunted by the righteous path.”
“Killed once, twice, three times… perhaps hundreds or thousands of times. Maybe it is only when they have turned themselves into dust that they are truly considered dead.”
“This… this…” The disciples, who had never fought a demon, were stunned.
“However… no matter how powerful a True Demon is, they are rare after all. The one currently active in Pine Mountain might have already been ‘killed’ hundreds of times. You can rest easy.”
“That’s right! We have so many powerful Senior Brothers and Sisters with us!” They quickly regained their optimism.
Lu Xiangyu, however, stared at Ruo Zhiwei’s unchanging smile and felt an inexplicable chill.