"Ke ke ke."
Yan Mingxu suddenly let out a sinister laugh, and a trace of black mist appeared in his eyes.
No one would have expected that the patriarch of the Chu Kingdom's foremost immortal clan was, in fact, a long-hidden demonic cultivator and a senior member of the Demon Lair.
Yan Mingxu had secretly joined the Demon Lair in his youth. Relying on demonic cultivation, his progress had been rapid, and he had already reached the pseudo-Golden Core stage, making him the third most powerful demon in the Demon Lair.
To conceal his identity, he masked his aura with righteous cultivation techniques, presenting himself as a ninth-level Purple Mansion cultivator.
Grinning cruelly, Yan Mingxu said, "I knew he would spare no effort to acquire the Creation Cloud Pill Pills, so I tampered with them in advance."
"Now, no matter where he flees, he cannot escape the palm of my hand."
Demon Hong and the female demon cultivator immediately prostrated themselves, exclaiming, "Congratulations, Master! With the tribulation treasures you gain this time, you will surely break through to the Golden Core stage and dominate the Six Nations of Ji Continent!"
"Hahaha!"
Yan Mingxu laughed heartily, a gleeful expression on his face.
Although his talent for righteous cultivation was mediocre, his aptitude for demonic cultivation was extraordinary.
Unlike Ling Changkong, another pseudo-Golden Core cultivator whose chances of breaking through remained slim, Yan Mingxu had been confident in his ability to form a Golden Core for decades. However, demonic cultivators faced harsher tribulations, with lightning strikes far more powerful than those faced by righteous cultivators, and demonic treasures were especially vulnerable to heavenly thunder.
While the Demon Lair possessed fourth-rank demonic treasures, the selfish nature of demonic cultivators meant that no one would risk damaging such treasures by lending them out for tribulation.
Over the years, Yan Mingxu had painstakingly collected tribulation treasures and was now more prepared than ever. With two clan treasures newly acquired, his confidence had grown significantly.
"Let's wait a little longer. Once I gather a few more high-grade third-rank treasures, I will be fully prepared to withstand the tribulation."
"When I break through, the Demon Lair will have three Golden Core cultivators, matching the strength of the Celestial Sky Sword Sect. At that point, we will no longer fear them. We can, like the Bone Elder, invade Chu Kingdom to conduct mass blood sacrifices, rapidly increasing our cultivation and forging demonic treasures."
Yan Mingxu's eyes gleamed coldly as he spoke.
Meanwhile, Yang Yuanhe had left the Cangqiong Market, flying his sword stealthily across 400,000 miles until he reached Ling County.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, three figures appeared in front of him. He was horrified to discover that the Creation Cloud Pill Pills he had purchased contained a hidden soul-chasing token.
Following the token's guidance, the three demons intercepted him before he could reach Ling County. Against a pseudo-Golden Core demon and two mid-stage Purple Mansion demon cultivators, Yang Yuanhe had no chance to escape and was quickly slain.
Yan Mingxu used his cruel methods to refine Yang Yuanhe's soul into the Seven Souls Demon Banner, his life-bound demonic treasure, making Yang Yuanhe one of the banner's main spirits.
"Heh heh."
"As expected of a Purple Mansion cultivator. My Seven Souls Demon Banner is now even stronger."
The Seven Souls Demon Banner was a sinister and powerful demonic treasure. When unleashed, it sent seven demonic spirits to attack, capable of tearing even a late-stage Purple Mansion cultivator to shreds if caught off guard.
After killing Yang Yuanhe and seizing his treasures, the trio decided to go further and attacked the Yang Clan itself. Upon learning that Yang Yuanhe's soul lamp had extinguished, the Yang Clan quickly sent messages to the major clans of Bianzhou and Tianxu Mountain for help.
But it was too late. Without a Purple Mansion cultivator to guard it, the Yang Clan's third-rank defensive formation was easily breached by the three demons. Within a single night, the clan's millions of mortals were sacrificed, thousands of cultivators were slaughtered, and its two third-rank spiritual veins were plundered.
This atrocity shocked the entire Chu Kingdom. Within a day, Tianxu Mountain responded.
Jiang Linglong personally arrived in Ling County, only to find that Yan Mingxu had already fled.
The Celestial Sky Sword Sect and Purple Abyss Sect soon joined the hunt, dispatching two Golden Core cultivators from the Celestial Sky Sword Sect, along with Yan Ziji and the newly advanced Golden Core cultivator Lingji Fairy from the Purple Abyss Sect.
More than fifty Purple Mansion clans across the Chu Kingdom could not tolerate such heinous acts and began searching for traces of the demons.
With so many high-level cultivators involved, it didn't take long to locate Yan Mingxu. Lingji Fairy, who was closest, pursued him for 130,000 miles, wounding him severely before he managed to escape.
Four days later, the Celestial Sky Sword Sect used a secret technique to track down another demon—this time, the female demon cultivator. The Celestial Sky Sword Sect's Golden Core cultivators showed no mercy, killing her on the outskirts of Yang Region.
Five days after that, Jiang Linglong used a secret method to find Yan Mingxu's trail again, pursuing him for over 200,000 miles. She nearly succeeded in killing him, but by the time she caught up, Yan Mingxu had reached the edge of the Celestial Sky Sword Sect's territory.
There, two Golden Core demons from the Demon Lair appeared to assist him, holding off Jiang Linglong and Celestial Sky Sword Sect's leader, Master Zhang. Yan Mingxu was successfully rescued and taken back to the Demon Lair.
With the demons now outside Chu Kingdom's borders and under the protection of the Demon Lair, the pursuit was finally called off.
Although Yan Mingxu escaped, the campaign was not without results. Several dozen Foundation Establishment demons hidden within Chu Kingdom were eliminated, and one Purple Mansion female demon was slain.
Additionally, the Celestial Sky Sword Sect's demon-vanquishing treasure, the Sky Sword, had recorded Yan Mingxu's demonic aura. Should he enter within 100,000 miles of the sword again, it would sense him immediately.
For now, with the demons beyond Chu Kingdom's reach, the righteous cultivators abandoned the chase.
At Lingyuan Mountain, the Yang Clan's ancestral land, which had a mid-grade third-rank spiritual vein, several Purple Mansion cultivators sat grimly around a table. Among them were Elian, Xu Qianyang, Pan Boyuan, and the Patriarch.
"See for yourselves," said Pan Boyuan, handing out a ledger with a somber expression.
"Most of the Yang Clan's cultivators are dead, millions of mortals were sacrificed, and the spiritual herbs from their mountain fields were completely looted," he said.
Elian glanced through the ledger, his face growing cold. The demons' actions were utterly despicable. The Yang Clan had been almost entirely wiped out.
Even the mountain's spiritual herb fields had been devastated in retribution. Herbs were harvested regardless of maturity, with roots destroyed to prevent regrowth.
The spiritual veins had been severely damaged—the mountain's spiritual vein degraded to low-grade third rank, while the vein in the mortal city had been so polluted by blood that it became unusable for righteous cultivators.
Such atrocities, which defied both humanity and the heavens, were acts that righteous cultivators rarely committed. Even when Jiang Linglong conquered Sky Python Lake, she refrained from destroying its resources, as such destruction would disrupt the natural balance and leave a wasteland for millennia.
"All demonic cultivators must die," Elian said coldly.
For days, he had traversed hundreds of thousands of miles, slaying numerous demonic cultivators, though he had not encountered any Purple Mansion-level demonic cultivators.
Xu Qianyang sighed and said, "Let us discuss how to deal with these spiritual veins."
"There are three surviving Foundation Establishment members of the Yang Clan. If we are to claim these veins, we must also determine how to compensate them."
...
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I need POWAAA! Gimme Power Stones :D