No Money to Cultivate Immortality? - Chapter 808 (Patreon)

Chapter 808: Who Is Righteous, Who Is Demonic?

As his body shifted with a subtle change, Zhang Yu immediately sensed something after running this breathing method for a cycle: the speed at which he drew in spiritual essence slowed drastically, and it actually pulled some of the world’s stray, messy qi into his body.

“This effect is way too damn negative…”

So Zhang Yu chose to forget it again, re-entered the basics, and triggered a mutation once more.

This time, the breathing method changed differently. Zhang Yu felt that with each inhale and exhale, the spiritual essence between heaven and earth began to tremble.

Like a calm sea gradually being whipped into waves.

“Hm?”

Zhang Yu’s thoughts stirred. “Speeding up breathing by shaking the spiritual essence… that’s actually kind of interesting.”

After a moment’s thought, he simply raised his Basic Breathing Technique back up to level 50. In an instant, the trembling of heaven-and-earth spiritual essence became even more surging.

Anyway, he had already used up his allowed forget-count for basic techniques. Even if he wanted a different mutation effect, he wouldn’t get the chance for now.

“What a pity. I’ve extracted too little Immortal Dao technology from Immortal Sect techniques, and I still haven’t rolled the ‘Technique Forgetting’ reward. Otherwise I could try mutating an Immortal Sect technique again and see what happens.”

After this string of mutation tests, a conclusion quietly formed in Zhang Yu’s mind.

“Mutation is something you can only really play with if you have a ton of pull-count rewards from the Myriad Laws Immortal Clan.”

“You need enough ‘choose a technique to learn,’ ‘choose a technique level +1,’ ‘choose a technique forgetting,’ ‘choose a technique mutation’… only then can you mutate over and over until you finally land a good result.”

Zhang Yu thought, “Basic techniques are numerous, it’s easy to extract Immortal Dao technology, so you get more Myriad Laws Immortal Clan rewards, which makes this approach easier.”

“As for Immortal Sect techniques reaching that point… my current foundation still isn’t enough.”

“I need to learn more Immortal Sect techniques, extract more Immortal Dao technology from them, and only then can I reliably roll a good mutation.”

…

While Zhang Yu cultivated in silence, Qin Chuan, the head of the Youxin Department, was on a call with another deputy head, Jiang Xunyi.

Qin Chuan said, “Why haven’t you gone again these past two days?”

He meant: why Jiang Xunyi hadn’t gone to snatch yin qi again.

Jiang Xunyi sighed helplessly. “Minister, when I was grabbing yin qi, I got seriously injured by an expert.”

Qin Chuan startled. “Who injured you?”

Jiang Xunyi explained, “Someone won my dantian off me at a spirit-realm card table.”

“You—” Qin Chuan cursed. “When you’re working, why the hell are you gambling? Can gambling be something you do while distracted? How many times have I said it—don’t work while gambling, especially when you’re dueling experts. How many years of work will it take you to earn back what you lose at the table?”

After chewing Jiang Xunyi out, Qin Chuan continued, “Then send out your Divine Transformation.”

Jiang Xunyi said in surprise, “Minister, this Zhang Yu has been holed up in his room for over a month. He hasn’t stepped out once, and he can’t find anyone to help him. I think he’s been completely abandoned. Do we really still need to probe him?”

Qin Chuan said, “Do it.”

Jiang Xunyi finally showed his hand. “If I send out my Divine Transformation, the price isn’t the old price anymore.”

As a Divine Transformation cultivator, Jiang Xunyi understood perfectly: the efficiency of a Divine Transformation compared to a flesh body was far higher—if you calculated hourly pay, it was several times more.

Especially since Jiang Xunyi was paying off debts, his Divine Transformation had long been working at full load; every second was money.

With Divine Transformation speed, even doing deliveries made you a top-tier transporter.

Hearing Jiang Xunyi’s response, Qin Chuan said, “Relax. You won’t be shorted.”

So a short while later, on the far end of the Old Days Graveyard, a beam of divine light shot into the sky, already searching toward Zhang Yu’s direction.

That beam was Jiang Xunyi’s Divine Transformation.

As he rapidly neared the dormitory, he sighed inwardly. “I really admire the first person who ever gambled.”

“Because you might lose. You might be ruined.”

That had been Jiang Xunyi’s first thought when he encountered gambling.

“To risk your potential evaporating in an instant—putting the Immortal Dao potential you struggled to accumulate onto the table—requires supreme courage.”

“In that act is a kind of great bravery, great will: a person’s protest and charge against dissatisfaction with life and the unfairness of fate.”

“The moment we step onto the Immortal Path, we’re putting our entire life on the table.”

“It’s just that in the end, some win… and some lose.”

“And you…”

Arriving above the dormitory, Jiang Xunyi looked toward where Zhang Yu was and thought, “You’ve already lost.”

“Chose the wrong side. Your cultivation is nothing special. This round is a catastrophic loss.”

“Then you should pay the price.”

At the same time, spiritual essence whipped into a frenzy around Jiang Xunyi’s Divine Transformation. In an instant, like a whale swallowing, it tried to gulp down all the spiritual essence and yin qi inside and outside the dormitory in a single bite.

He was like a massive vortex between heaven and earth, trying to drain every trace of spiritual essence and yin qi within several hundred meters.

At the same moment, by the Divine Transformation Pool, Zhao Tianxing flickered as if unsteady. He felt the yin qi between heaven and earth abruptly vanish, and his whole body weakened.

Zhao Tianxing cried out, “What’s happening?!”

Zhang Yu lifted his head and looked toward Jiang Xunyi’s Divine Transformation. “Someone’s here to cause trouble.”

He sent a message directly to ask why.

Jiang Xunyi replied, “The review team is collecting yin qi for the next soul-cultivation experiment. They need a lot. I pulled a bit too hard—endure it.”

Watching the dormitory get drained dry in the blink of an eye, Jiang Xunyi thought, “This is the gap in strength. I just breathe normally and I can pin you down completely…”

But as he was thinking that, he suddenly sensed threads of spiritual essence surging toward Zhang Yu’s location.

Jiang Xunyi felt faintly surprised. “This kid… he dares to fight me head-on?”

He knew Zhang Yu had been Nascent Soul before, and should have only recently broken into Divine Transformation. In cultivation, foundation, and strength… how could he compare to an old hand like Jiang Xunyi?

Jiang Xunyi’s first reaction was that the other party was arrogant and clueless.

Circulating secret arts through his Divine Transformation, Jiang Xunyi snorted. “Today, you won’t take even a single wisp of spiritual essence or yin qi.”

But the next moment, Jiang Xunyi’s expression shifted. He felt Zhang Yu’s breathing efficiency climbing rapidly, and the spiritual essence between heaven and earth began to tremble.

“1, 2, 3, 4…”

As Zhang Yu silently ran his devouring-breath method inside his body, one aperture after another opened—apertures carved out by the Myriad Transformations Freedom Profound Art. One true clone after another appeared, and they all began cultivating and breathing at once.

Usually, with limited spiritual essence available, Zhang Yu only needed to open four or five clones. Any more would just short-circuit the many devices inside and outside the dormitory.

But facing Jiang Xunyi’s deliberate provocation, Zhang Yu no longer held back.

As thirty-two true clones simultaneously performed the breathing method, it was like thirty-two black holes detonating inside him, crazily swallowing spiritual essence from the surroundings.

And all thirty-two clones were running that mutated breathing method.

If a single clone running the mutated breathing method was like whipping up waves on the sea’s surface…

Then thirty-two clones running it together was like raising a world-shaking tsunami of spiritual essence and yin qi.

In that instant, Jiang Xunyi felt the once-obedient spiritual essence and yin qi go completely out of control—wild, violent—no longer listening to his command.

“How can this kid’s breathing be this terrifying?!”

Jiang Xunyi gave a low shout. Power surged from his Divine Transformation like solid matter, pressing down over the entire dormitory.

Since the spiritual essence and yin qi weren’t cooperating, he would use brute force to seize them.

He was confident that if it came down to raw power, a newcomer to Divine Transformation like Zhang Yu couldn’t possibly be his match.

But on the other side, Zhang Yu clasped his hands together. The Kunlun in the Palm he had just pushed to level 50 activated.

Not only him—every clone inside every aperture also clasped their hands together, also driving a level 50 Kunlun in the Palm.

At level 50, Kunlun in the Palm was vastly improved: faster to cast, wider in range, more severe in how it twisted space, and far more shocking in its ability to seize matter.

In a flash, as thirty-three layers of Kunlun in the Palm activated at once, it was like thirty-three overlapping sheets of space covering everything around them, forcibly yanking all that boiling spiritual essence and yin qi over.

At that moment, Zhang Yu looked like a god or buddha gripping heaven and earth in his palms, coldly watching Jiang Xunyi struggle in vain.

Jiang Xunyi was stunned again, disbelief flashing through him. “Where did this kid get so many Divine Transformation-grade spatial artifacts?”

As a sect-level cultivator, Jiang Xunyi hadn’t practiced spatial techniques himself, but he understood spatial technology well. He had once owned a few Divine Transformation spatial artifacts too—until someone won them off him at the card table.

In his perception, Zhang Yu had erupted with dozens of spatial forces in an instant. This was clearly the activation of many spatial artifacts, and every single one carried terrifying power—Divine Transformation level.

Jiang Xunyi’s scalp went numb. “So rich!”

Even though spatial Immortal Dao technology was widely used at the sect level, Divine Transformation-grade spatial artifacts were absolutely not cheap.

Dozens of them was an enormous fortune to Jiang Xunyi—enough to make anyone hesitate.

“How is this guy this rich?!”

“Avoid his edge!”

Instinct told Jiang Xunyi not to make an enemy of someone like this. It was far too easy to lose money.

But just as Jiang Xunyi was thinking that, another pressure descended from above, covering the entire dormitory: Qin Chuan’s Divine Transformation.

The divine light released by that Divine Transformation blanketed the whole scene in an instant.

At the same time, Qin Chuan’s stern voice reached them both.

“You two—the Youxin Department is not a place for your internal fighting.”

“Both of you are suspended for one month. Reflect properly.”

After saying this, Qin Chuan’s Divine Transformation flashed and vanished from the scene.

Soon, the news spread through the entire Youxin Department.

Yan Qianji, as Zhang Yu’s outsourced employee, was directly kicked out of the office building as well, forbidden from contacting work.

Yan Qianji thought, “Sigh… they’re using this to strike at us, pushing us out of the work system, banning us from touching the Youxin Department’s power.”

But Yan Qianji also knew: as a deputy head, Zhang Yu had no real way to resist Minister Qin Chuan’s suppression.

“Unless Bu Daojun helps…”

However, when Yan Qianji arrived at Zhang Yu’s dormitory, he saw Zhang Yu cultivating quietly with obvious contentment, as if being suspended for a month was a good thing.

On the other side, Jiang Xunyi went to Qin Chuan and voiced his doubt. “Minister, this Zhang Yu has quite a few spatial artifacts.”

Qin Chuan said, “Nothing more than what Bu Daojun used to reward him with.”

“But even now, no one has come looking. That means there really is no one behind him.”

“Let him sit for another month. Then we clean him up slowly.”

Jiang Xunyi understood: the minister was probing step by step, boiling a frog in warm water. As long as no one stood up for Zhang Yu, they would gradually crush him and suppress him completely within the Youxin Department.

Jiang Xunyi thought, “Even if Bu Daojun still remembers this nobody in his heart, if he never shows up… then in another year or two, he’ll probably forget Zhang Yu completely.”

…

Zhang Yu, meanwhile, didn’t care. He only wanted to use this free time to push his cultivation forward.

Even with thirty-two clones, he still had to refine his body daily, breathe spiritual essence, train martial arts, extract Immortal Dao technology step by step from techniques, and occasionally check on the Divine Transformation Pool…

Zhang Yu only felt his days were packed to the brim—endless things to do, and steady growth in strength every single day.

Yet even while improving daily, a worry lingered in his heart.

“My money’s almost gone.”

Not only were his original savings gone, even the two hundred thousand-plus he borrowed later was nearly used up.

“If this keeps up, I won’t be able to repay the loans. I need to find a way to make money.”

Whether it was running the Divine Transformation Pool every day, daily cultivation consumption, or monthly repayments… Zhang Yu spent at least several tens of thousands of immortal coins per month.

If he wanted to buy more Immortal Sect techniques—or even Immortal Sect artifacts—he would need even more.

To solve this deficit, Zhang Yu first thought of the Old Days Graveyard’s signature: exploring maze-realms.

In the Old Days Graveyard, more than half the region had been affected by the ancient Immortal war, falling into twisted, disordered space.

If Zhang Yu wanted to raise his Immortal Descendant, he needed to find ancestral corpses and fuse the inheritance space within them—the “cave-heavens” Ling Feng had mentioned.

And within the maze-realms of the Old Days Graveyard, Ying Xintian might have hidden such things.

Besides that, the maze-realms also contained huge amounts of lost items—corpse-components, equipment, products—left behind by many sects due to spatial disorder.

“Exploring maze-realms, finding things inside… you can submit them to the sect, or sell them to others. It’s one of the many ways people make money in the Old Days Graveyard.”

“And with Immortal Descendant… maybe I’ll have an advantage in maze-realm exploration.”

So not long after, a breeze swept past the dormitory building and flew toward the maze-realm.

That breeze was Zhang Yu’s true body after using the Blood Tide Essence Saint Visualization, transforming into a faint wind—drifting between heaven and earth in a way that was hard to detect.

His Divine Transformation, meanwhile, remained in the dormitory, continuing to soak in the Divine Transformation Pool.

He also left one clone behind to stand guard, making it look like he had stayed in his room the whole time.

With the transformation ability of the Blood Tide Essence Saint Visualization, plus the Feather Spirit Root’s innate concealment, plus the Anti-Monitoring Ritual and Fu Ji’s sensitivity to all kinds of spirit-realm surveillance…

Zhang Yu felt his stealth reach a peak.

Fu Ji: “Zhang Yu, don’t worry. With me here, I’ll sense every bit of spirit-realm surveillance for you, crystal clear.”

Zhang Yu: “Next month I’ll raise your pay.”

Fu Ji: “How much?”

Zhang Yu said grandly, “Double.”

As Zhang Yu leapt across the ghost city and reached a more remote outskirts area, a blurry, strange, kaleidoscopic boundary appeared on the horizon ahead.

That was the other half of the Old Days Graveyard: an important industrial park once formed by countless corpse-component factories, laboratories, and office buildings.

But now, from far away, all one could see were countless twisted, disordered spaces, chaotically stitching the old factories, labs, and office buildings together—like a gigantic glass labyrinth standing between heaven and earth.

Anyone who entered would have their sense of direction completely shredded, unable to identify bearings.

One moment you might be on a rooftop; after a few steps, you’d be underground. In this tangled, mutually-interfering, disordered space, you would become utterly lost.

This was the Old Days Graveyard’s maze-realm: a warped space that attracted countless cultivators to explore, yet caused countless others to vanish within—never to emerge again.

Zhang Yu had no intention of entering with others. He casually found a boundary point; the breeze shifted into a hand, and he gently reached forward.

At the same time, as Immortal Descendant activated, a spatial entrance opened in Zhang Yu’s palm.

The next moment, as his palm approached, the twisted, disordered space looked normal in Zhang Yu’s eyes, allowing the wind he had become to charge straight in.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, as expected.

“The Old Days Graveyard’s maze-realm was left behind by Ying Xintian.”

“And the power of Immortal Descendant really can help me explore this disordered space.”

But Zhang Yu could also feel that Immortal Descendant only helped him see the path clearly and explore more conveniently; it had no way to destroy or repair the warped space.

“This whole maze-realm… feels like it’s being continuously maintained by some force. Even if you repair or break part of it, that structure gradually twists back into the prior disordered state—maybe even more chaotic.”

At the same time, Zhang Yu felt waves of hunger-like yearning from Immortal Descendant, the same as when he had encountered Ling Feng’s corpse.

“More things hidden by Ying Xintian?”

Following Immortal Descendant’s sensing, Zhang Yu advanced deeper into the maze-realm.

Along the way, he saw how, under the warped spatial structure, countless abandoned buildings were like randomly stacked blocks—twisted and bizarrely stitched together.

Fortunately, with Immortal Descendant, as long as Zhang Yu approached, he could see the building’s original form and pass through the warped space to reach the correct positions inside.

As Zhang Yu searched through the maze-realm, he also found some items lost by various sects.

One category was corpse-components.

So-called corpse-components were materials, devices, and equipment processed from the human body as raw material.

Things like the Bone Ash and Śarīra Zhang Yu had used before—even certain law husks—could be counted among them.

At this moment, Zhang Yu looked at an eyeball he had found and tried storing it into his Immortal Space.

In the next instant, lines of text appeared within the Immortal Space.

This was the new ability gained when Immortal Descendant reached level 2: it could decode information through corpses, and corpse-components were within that decoding range as well.

“An unknown cultivator’s eye.”

“It is said that living beings in this world do not truly die—one day they will be born again. But those who can seek their eyes… no longer exist.”

Staring at the text, Zhang Yu froze slightly. “This is what you get when Immortal Space decodes an ordinary corpse-component…?”

It felt like the information was hinting at something, yet it was too fragmented and too vague to truly understand.

Zhang Yu continued exploring, collecting corpse-components, equipment, and materials while following Immortal Descendant’s sensing, trying to find whatever Ying Xintian had hidden.

Everything he obtained, he tossed into the Immortal Space, gaining quite a lot of decoded fragments.

Days passed in the blink of an eye, and Zhang Yu finally found a special corpse in an underground area.

It was tall, but covered in dense scars.

Across the entire body were countless marks like stitching lines, making Zhang Yu feel as if it had once been blasted into pieces and forcibly stitched back together.

Whether the stitching was simply crude, or the stitcher did it on purpose, the corpse’s face was hideously ugly.

“Not sure whose corpse this is.”

“Going by last time… maybe it’s another senior from the Myriad Laws Sect.”

Zhang Yu stepped up, activated Immortal Descendant, and reached out to touch it.

The next moment, when he drew the corpse into the Immortal Space, he felt his consciousness get pulled in—an extraordinary tide of rage flooded toward him.

…

Rage without end! Hatred without edge!

Layer upon layer of screams, as if trying to pierce the sky itself, thundered beside Zhang Yu’s ears.

Zhang Yu could feel it… a fury that not even the waters of rivers and seas could extinguish, making his heart pound with dread.

Zhang Yu thought, “What kind of memory… what kind of dream… could make someone this furious?”

In the next instant, light and shadow shifted, as if he had arrived in another world.

Fu Ji said, “Here we go again. More drama to watch.”

He saw a crimson array formation. Countless men, women, elders, and children trembled as cultivators cast spells around them, turning them into streaks of bloodlight that were siphoned away.

Zhang Yu frowned. “This is… refining mortals into something?”

Just then, bolts of lightning fell. Many demonic cultivators in the middle of casting were blasted into powder.

In the delighted gaze of countless mortals, several cultivators with immortal bearing and awe-inspiring might descended from the sky, rescuing them.

Among the rescued was a twelve-year-old boy named Huang Er. Just a farmer’s son, he stared at the scene as determination gradually filled his eyes.

From the day he was saved, Huang Er resolved to step onto the Immortal Path—to become an Immortal Dao cultivator.

He knelt before the immortal elder who had saved him, begging to take them as his master.

But after testing his bones and aptitude, the cultivator expressionlessly shook his head. “You have no spirit root. Your meridians are clogged. You have no Immortal Dao talent. Don’t waste your time.”

Huang Er kept kneeling, refusing to rise, but the cultivators stopped paying him any attention. They shot into the sky and vanished beyond the horizon.

Their rejection did not shake Huang Er’s resolve.

Ignoring friends and family urging him to stop, and disregarding others’ mockery, Huang Er set out to seek immortality.

He begged as he traveled, searching for sects, hoping that one day he could join one and cultivate the Immortal Dao.

In this era, the Immortal Dao flourished. Though righteous and demonic paths fought, both opened their gates wide and recruited broadly.

Yet Huang Er wandered the world and sought teachers everywhere, only to be rejected or deceived. In the blink of an eye, he was twenty-five—ragged clothes, filthy from head to toe, weathered like a man in his thirties or forties, easily bullied and driven off wherever he went.

When he grew disheartened and believed his life would never find the path, he happened upon an old woman who fell into a river.

In bone-piercing cold, he jumped in at the risk of death and struggled to save her. A monk from the Immortal Soldier Manor took notice, accepted him, and brought him into the sect as a menial disciple, granting him a basic breathing method.

After entering the menial courtyard of the Immortal Soldier Manor, Huang Er threw himself into everything—breathing cultivation, sweeping and cleaning, chanting scriptures, chopping firewood, hauling water—always first, always ahead.

If he could successfully reach Foundation Establishment, or earn the favor of a powerful elder, he could enter the inner sect. That had always been his goal.

But year after year passed. Some menial disciples entered the inner sect and received the next step of cultivation. Others couldn’t endure the hardship and left, descending the mountain.

Without realizing it, Huang Er became the oldest disciple in the menial courtyard.

“The Immortal Dao is hard to find…”

Even after entering a sect, the closer he got, the more he learned, the more Huang Er felt the distance between himself and the true Immortal Path—like he was drifting farther and farther away.

“Six, twelve, eighteen… those are the best ages to test aptitude. ‘Three tests decide a lifetime.’”

“If you have no spirit root at eighteen, you’ll have no hope in the Immortal Dao for life, trapped in the Qi Refinement realm.”

Huang Er was unwilling, yet helpless. He could only watch his age climb higher, his progress slow more and more, Foundation Establishment still impossibly distant.

Until one day, past fifty, Huang Er watched a young boy who had entered the inner sect and finally couldn’t take it anymore. He went to the managing daoist.

That daoist was about Huang Er’s age too, once cultivated alongside him in the menial courtyard, but entered the inner sect early. Now his Gold Core was complete, and he managed the outer sect on behalf of the elders.

Before a former fellow disciple, Huang Er saw not the slightest trace of fellowship—only endless unfamiliarity and distance.

He asked: that boy was vicious and unruly, injured people in the menial courtyard and left someone crippled. Why did he get to enter the inner sect?

The daoist looked at him and said blandly, “He is a Celestial Spirit Root.”

Huang Er said, “He loafs around all day, does nothing. In a month since joining, he hasn’t even completed a single full breathing cycle…”

Daoist: “He is a Celestial Spirit Root.”

Huang Er said unwillingly, “So because he is a Celestial Spirit Root, even if he kills and burns and commits every evil, you’ll still take him in?”

The moment he said it, Huang Er regretted it. He thought he would be scolded—yet the daoist replied, “He is a Celestial Spirit Root. If he kills and burns and commits evil, then it is even more necessary to take him in and discipline him strictly, so he won’t cause a catastrophe.”

“Huang Er, you’ve been here long enough to understand. Whether a person has Immortal fate is decided the moment they’re born.”

“Yes means yes. No means no.”

“You have no aptitude. Even if you toil ten more years, thirty more years—no matter how smart, how steadfast, how unyielding, how upright and generous—this lifetime, you will not step onto the Immortal Path.”

“Whether someone can walk the Immortal Dao… depends only on aptitude.”

The daoist looked down at him and said coldly, “That is reality. That is the heavenly dao.”

Huang Er stumbled backward, muttering, “Decided at birth? Decided at birth?!”

“Why?!”

Watching this, Zhang Yu sighed. “No matter what, Kunxu nowadays has at least given most people a chance to step onto the Immortal Path.”

True Lord Zhanxian suddenly said, “This Huang Er… I think I know who he is.”

Zhang Yu asked curiously, “Who?”

True Lord Zhanxian said, “We’ve both met him. Keep watching and you’ll see.”

Three years later in the dream, Huang Er watched the boy succeed in Foundation Establishment and get fought over by elders. Huang Er silently left the Immortal Soldier Manor.

Already in his fifties, he had completely despaired of the Immortal Dao. He gradually accepted that he could not keep moving forward, and prepared to return home and be buried among his roots.

But on the road back, Huang Er encountered a strange sect called the Tian Sect.

“No distinctions in teaching? Anyone can cultivate, no matter how talented?”

Hearing that, Huang Er immediately thought: scam.

He decided to pretend to join, go to their lair, expose their fraud, and wake up the deceived—so they wouldn’t be tricked like he had been.

Yet after entering their mountain gate, he discovered the Tian Sect was strange.

These people worked together, cultivated together, stayed together every day—sometimes you couldn’t even tell disciples from masters.

Their cultivation method claimed “mutual-aid cultivation,” “ascending together.”

“Everyone cultivates together, then transfers power to the oldest fellow disciple.”

“After that fellow breaks through, he leads everyone to cultivate together, then everyone pours their power into the second-oldest student.”

“And so on—supporting each other, brothers and sisters climbing the peak of the Immortal Dao together.”

At first, Huang Er didn’t believe it. But after living with them for a while, he found the Tian Sect truly loved each other like family.

Many, after joining, would call friends and relatives, bringing their loved ones to join the Tian Sect—to cultivate together, improve together.

And because Huang Er was already in his fifties, he quickly became a recipient of the group’s power transfusions. Day after day of cultivation later, he finally stepped into Foundation Establishment.

Decades of bitter cultivation, and at last Foundation Establishment—Huang Er wept until his face was soaked.

Then he went back to his hometown and brought his parents, his brothers and sisters, friends from the menial courtyard who could never enter the inner sect, old friends who had descended the mountain long ago…

Huang Er led them to join the Tian Sect—to cultivate in mutual aid, to ascend together.

From then on, Huang Er’s cultivation rose by leaps and bounds. His friends and family rose with him; each improved, each formally stepping onto the Immortal Path.

And only then did he learn the Tian Sect had another true name: the Heavenly Demon Sect.

But Huang Er did not believe the Heavenly Demon Sect was a demonic sect.

“When the righteous sects shut their gates to me, the Heavenly Demon Sect led us onto the Immortal Path, raised our cultivation, extended our lives.”

“When righteous disciples only looked at aptitude, the Heavenly Demon Sect made us love each other like family.”

“If a sect like this is called demonic… then I would rather cultivate demonic methods and walk the righteous way.”

Many years later, no one remembered Huang Er’s name.

As a prodigy of the Heavenly Demon Sect, he roamed the world, spread teachings across the land, guided countless mortals onto the Immortal Path, and became an object of worship for countless mortals. Some called him the Immortal Master of Transmission, some called him the Grand Master of Dharma, and some called him…

“The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince!”

The sky tore open, the earth twisted. Cataclysmic thunder—countless bolts—fell alongside roaring fury, ripping innumerable Heavenly Demon Sect disciples into dust.

The one who struck was a blue-faced, fanged monster. It wore sun and moon as a crown. Its vast body propped up the heavens. With a single breath it blew away mountains; with a wave of its hand, the world shattered.

That terrifying monster tore the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince’s disciples, friends, and kin into pieces one by one—using invincible, horrifying power to annihilate everyone connected to him, blasting them into slag.

The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince’s eyes went blood-red, fury in his heart enough to burn mountains and boil seas.

“Ying Xintian! You slaughter my friends and family, you kill my disciples—I will never share the sky with you!”

Boom!

The last thing Zhang Yu saw was the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince getting struck by a palm descending from the heavens, crushed into ash-like dust.

As the dream dissipated, Zhang Yu thought, “The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince? This corpse is the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince’s?”

He recalled the memory dream he had seen last time, from Ling Feng.

“So… Ying Xintian’s pursuit ended in success?”

“And the ancestral corpses he hid aren’t only his own people’s corpses—there are demonic experts too?”

As Zhang Yu pondered, the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince’s dream faded, and lines of text filled with domineering intent appeared before him.

Zhang Yu knew: it was a message left by Ying Xintian.

“When I found the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince and fought him, I discovered his friends and family had already been swallowed into his belly, their souls refined into a Heavenly Demon Banner.”

Zhang Yu thought, “Is that memory beautification? Painting the act of devouring friends and family as ‘cultivating together’?”

“And the final Ying Xintian, in the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince’s memory, was incomparably mighty, dignified, and terrifying…”

True Lord Zhanxian sighed. “That ‘training and circulating power together’ with friends and family was probably the cultivation method he used to digest them and refine their souls.”

While Zhang Yu was thinking, the text continued to appear.

“But whether the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince or those he devoured… none of them regretted it…”

As the message unfolded, Zhang Yu read it as if present in person, seeing Ying Xintian facing off against the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince.

“Eating people?” the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince roared. “I’m taking them with me to cultivate! Only after cultivating with me can they learn spells and gain longevity. Otherwise, they’d have turned to dust long ago!”

Within the Heavenly Demon Banner, ten thousand ghosts wailed: “Without the Immortal Master’s mercy, we would have long since vanished. How would we have today’s chance to comprehend the Immortal Dao?”

The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince shouted, “Ying Xintian, you only have Immortal Dao talent by birth. If you had no talent, you’d be the same as us—you’d have to rely on this method to cultivate the Immortal Dao. You’d eat people too, or be eaten.”

Ying Xintian asked coldly, “Every person you ate—were they all willing?”

The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince burst into mad laughter. “Ying Xintian, look into their eyes! Look at those mortals you saved. We let them see the Immortal Dao. Even if they aren’t willing now, once they get the chance, they’ll eat people too!”

“You saved mortals—so what? I’m a mortal too. Who in my Heavenly Demon Banner wasn’t once mortal? As long as there’s a thread of Immortal chance, we will still seek immortality!”

“In this world, only people like you—who truly have Immortal Dao talent—can afford to be lazy about eating people.”

“The rest—mortals, or low-aptitude cultivators—if they get the chance… if they can climb the peak of the Immortal Dao, chase longevity, live a few more years… they will eat people, or willingly be eaten.”

Ying Xintian said coldly, “You’ve gone insane.”

“Insane? I’ve never seen more clearly!” the Heavenly Demon Crown Prince shouted. “Without immortals, there would be no demons. It’s you righteous sects—your so-called famous orthodoxies—who showed us the Immortal Path, then shut us out. That’s what created mortals like us who will stop at nothing to seek it!”

“What is the demonic path? It’s only a dangerous side road we carved out to climb the Immortal Dao—and you still can’t tolerate it.”

“Righteous versus demonic? What righteousness, what demonic? It’s just you people who climb the Immortal Dao with talent by birth—you can’t tolerate mortals catching up to you. You can’t tolerate your birthright privilege being eroded by mortals like us, so you brand us ‘demonic.’”

“We’re willing—who are you to stop us?”

Ying Xintian said coldly, “Righteous and demonic cannot coexist.”

The Heavenly Demon Crown Prince smiled. “If all under heaven are willing to become demons… then who is righteous, and who is demonic?”

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