Two weeks of forced stillness finally came to an end as the throbbing aches in Airan’s bones faded and their meridians cleared.
Fully recovered, Airan and Lux slipped back into their daily routine of refinement and low-profile survival.
But the relative peace of Zone C was abruptly shattered when Max dropped by with a piece of dark, unsettling news over a quiet cup of tea.
A human demonic cultivator—not a mindless beast, but a rogue human practitioner walking the dark path of blood and slaughter—had completely wiped out a nearby rural settlement of one million souls, draining every drop of life force to fuel their twisted technique.
Airan frowned, the grim reality of the world tightening his chest.
“A million people wiped out right in the sect’s backyard, and the Violet Sect is just sitting on their hands? Why aren’t they sending out enforcement squads to hunt the monster down?” Follow the newest chapters on novelping(.)com.
Max shook his head, leaning in to keep his voice low.
“It doesn’t work like that, Airan. If a rogue Qi-stage demonic cultivator goes on a rampage in the outer territories, the sect won’t just dispatch outer disciples to deal with it. They look at the math. You can’t farm 3-spirit-root cultivators on trees; they are the backbone of the sect’s future. All outer disciples are 3-root or 4-root talents, while only those with upper-grade roots rise to inner status. Servants and rogue city cultivators are expected to handle low-tier Qi demonic threats on their own.”
Airan digested the cold, calculated reasoning.
To a massive hegemon like the Violet Sect, human lives in the outer villages were expendable resources, whereas talented disciples were capital that couldn’t be wasted on dangerous, unpredictable attrition battles against desperate rogue cultivators.
“So what happens if the demonic cultivator escalates?” Airan asked quietly.
“What if they send someone at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher?”
Max’s expression darkened further.
“If a demonic cultivator crosses that line, the sect moves immediately, but not out of mercy. They will send an equal number of Foundation-stage enforcers—absolute powerhouses who outclass rogue cultivators of the same rank in combat technique and battle gear. They’ll wipe them out as fast as possible to minimize collateral damage to the sect’s tax-paying territory and population.” New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Max tapped his finger on the wooden table, emphasizing the warning.
“The sect’s core grounds sit right in the dead center of a fifteen-hundred-kilometer radius territory, with our city and the surrounding towns and villages scattered about five hundred kilometers out. We are right in that outer buffer zone. Keep your head down, Airan. When the wolves start hunting in the dark, the small fish are the first ones swallowed.”
Author’s Note: Thanks for reading Chapter 22!
Airan’s journey from a penniless herb collector to a spirit distiller starts here.