Chapter 1492: Only the Daoist
https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/153586979/1e3f247906024648b3cb62e574ffbd6c/eyJ3Ijo2MjB9/1.png?token-hash=ilA2S84auXdIvwZBjhoHr3a2YyRfTtO5vLcojwmtb4w%3D&token-time=1787356800
Chapter 1490: Only the Daoist
Deep within the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, in a hidden Joyous-Union incense hall.
At the high altar of the incense hall, a massive painting of a beautiful woman was enshrined. The woman in the painting possessed an exquisite silhouette, her hazy form breathtakingly captivating.
Yet, it was veiled by a thin gauze curtain, not a single inch of skin revealed.
Throughout the entire Joyous-Union Sect, no one dared to gaze directly upon this painting of the beauty.
What they did was reverently establish incense halls, enshrining this peerless beauty. They allowed this painting to feed upon the sensual desires between men and women.
At this moment, the Joyous-Union Sect’s Incense Master, Huā Yīnkè, was in secluded cultivation within this incense hall, relying on the Incense Offering blessings of the beauty painting to repair his Yin-Yang Hehuan Body.
Currently, Huā Yīnkè had once again split into two bodies—one male and one female—entwined together.
However, his male-like Yang Body had already withered considerably. The injuries from the Boundless Water Heart-Slaying Sword remained, the Sword Intent fused with the boundless water, mingling within his blood, circulating through his veins, poisoning his vitality.
Even if this Yang Body were preserved, restoring it to its former peak strength in the future would require ‘consuming’ an unknown number of men and absorbing vast amounts of Yang energy.
With Huā Yīnkè’s cultivation level, he could have gradually explored the long-cherished realm of Feathered Ascension soaring to the heavens.
Once achieving Feathered Ascension, one could transcend the mundane world, gaining the qualification to establish a sect and gather disciples.
By slowly developing Demonic Path influence and then breaking through to the Profound-Hollow-Void realm, one could proclaim oneself an Ancestor, becoming a major Demonic Path magnate.
But now, having suffered such a heavy setback, this ideal had become distant once more.
Huā Yīnkè hated Yu Cangming to the core, and he also despised the Demon Suppression Division.
“Sooner or later, I will slaughter the Dao Court Division and the Demon Suppression Division until not a single piece of armor remains. I will drain all of you, men and women alike, to replenish my Dao cultivation,” Huā Yīnkè said viciously.
Suddenly, a sharp, intense pain struck, the injury in his Joyous-Union Yang Body acting up. Huā Yīnkè let out a painful howl, his face as pale as paper, cold sweat continuously beading on his forehead. He dared not hesitate any longer, immediately swallowing a series of blood-red pills, drinking a full basin of umbilical cord blood, and consuming Yang pills refined from the genitals of oxen, sheep, and humans.
These pills and medicines would be considered filthy and defiled by ordinary cultivators.
But the demonic cultivators of the Joyous-Union Sect relished them, treating them as great tonics.
With the tonics and the blessings of the beauty painting, before long, Huā Yīnkè’s injuries actually eased.
Huā Yīnkè knelt on the ground, devoutly kowtowing toward the tall painting of the beauty high above, veiled in thin gauze, its silhouette beautiful and illusory, yet its true appearance unseen: “Thank you, Heavenly Maiden, for bestowing blessings, preserving my desires between men and women, preserving my Hehuan Dao Foundation.”
The beauty painting remained utterly calm, without a single ripple.
In Huā Yīnkè’s heart, there was a trace of disappointment, but there was nothing he could do.
Not everyone was qualified to receive the Heavenly Maiden’s pity.
Huā Yīnkè dared not raise his head to look, lest the Heavenly Maiden stir his desires and reduce him to a puppet. He only dared to kowtow three times, then slowly retreated, sealing the incense hall with a Hehuan Formation to prevent others from spying.
Outside the incense hall, there was another secret chamber. The chamber was spacious, with a large bed placed in the center, silver hooks gently holding up cloud-like gauze and brocade curtains.
Huā Yīnkè lay down on the bed, shedding the humility and caution he had shown while making offerings to the Heavenly Maiden. His voice was lazy as he said: “Come in.”
Miao Niángzi, who had been waiting at the door for a long time, then respectfully entered, gracefully performing a salute: “Incense Master.”
Huā Yīnkè asked: “What about Archive Officer Piao?”
Miao Niángzi replied: “He has returned to the Dao Court Division.”
Huā Yīnkè gave a soft “Mm” and said, “Tell him to rest assured. From top to bottom in the Dao Court Division, who hasn’t slept with the girls of my Jade Fragrance Pavilion? Those surnamed Gu wouldn’t dare move against him recklessly.”
Miao Niángzi replied softly, “Yes.”
Huā Yīnkè looked up at Miao Niángzi, patted the bed beside him, and said gently, “Come here.”
Miao Niángzi trembled but forced a smile, “Yes, Hall Master.”
She slowly walked to Huā Yīnkè’s bedside and stopped.
Huā Yīnkè pulled Miao Niángzi onto the bed, pressed her down, and began to whisper intimately against her ear.
Miao Niángzi felt resistance in her heart, but her Hehuan Cultivation Method had been passed down to her by Huā Yīnkè. Once the method was stirred, she couldn’t help but feel desire rising within her.
After a while of such intimacy, their passion grew intense.
Huā Yīnkè then removed Miao Niángzi’s clothes. As his hands caressed her, he reached to test her body, only to find it cold to the touch. Enraged, he slapped Miao Niángzi across the face and cursed: “Where is the Yang Essence you harvested?”
Five bright red finger marks appeared on Miao Niángzi’s fair face. She covered her cheek and trembled as she spoke: “Hall Master… this servant…”
Huā Yīnkè shrieked angrily, “You wretched woman, still daring to lie to me? Did you steal and consume it all?”
Miao Niángzi’s face turned pale. “Hall Master, this servant wouldn’t dare. These past days, there truly hasn’t been any…”
Huā Yīnkè grew even more furious and grabbed Miao Niángzi by the neck: “What use are you, this waste? I bestowed this inheritance upon you and protected you so you could absorb Yang Essence and supply it to me. You only consume without providing—how selfish! How greedy!”
“If everyone were like you, when would our Joyous-Union Sacred Sect ever flourish and become a great sect of the Demonic Path?”
Miao Niángzi, choked and unable to struggle, turned red in the face.
Seeing her in agony, Huā Yīnkè remembered that he needed her for the time being and slowly released his grip.
Gasping for breath after narrowly escaping death, Miao Niángzi hurriedly said: “Hall Master, please forgive me. The Dao Court Division has been investigating strictly, and no good prospects have come by. That’s why… I couldn’t harvest any Yang Essence. With Archive Officer Piao, it was only a pretense. Please grant me some more time, Hall Master. I will surely gather enough Yang Essence and offer it to you.”
Only then did Huā Yīnkè’s expression soften slightly. He patted Miao Niángzi’s cheek and said, “Don’t disappoint me.”
Miao Niángzi replied humbly, “Yes, yes.”
Huā Yīnkè glanced at Miao Niángzi’s body again.
As a Hall Master of the Joyous-Union Sect, he had experienced countless such affairs between men and women and had long grown numb to them.
Though Miao Niángzi was beautiful, without Yang Essence to harvest, it ultimately felt somewhat dull.
But if he didn’t ‘punish’ this little wretch, she might not learn fear next time and would likely cut corners again.
Huā Yīnkè’s gaze gradually turned sinister.
Miao Niángzi’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly said, “Hall Master, this servant has something to report.”
Huā Yīnkè looked somewhat surprised. “What is it?”
Miao Niángzi trembled as she spoke, “It’s related to… that Young Master Mo.”
Upon hearing this, Huā Yīnkè’s expression immediately turned grave, the image of that inhumanly handsome face flashing through his mind.
He said solemnly, “Speak.”
Miao Niángzi said, “Earlier, this Young Master Mo was on the roof beam, intimately engaged with his beloved companion, their passion intense. I couldn’t see through his concealment, but I caught the scent of that desire.”
“But upon reflection afterward, there seems to be something odd about it.”
Huā Yīnkè frowned. “What oddity?”
Miao Niángzi whispered, “This humble servant seems to have sensed… the aura of some Joyous-Union treasure from this Young Master Mo.”
Huā Yīnkè’s pupils contracted sharply. “A treasure?”
Miao Niángzi nodded. “This servant isn’t certain either, but at the time, it faintly seemed as if… some supreme treasure of the Joyous-Union lineage stirred this Young Master Mo’s desires, allowing this concubine to detect his presence.”
“Otherwise, given his temperament and concealment methods, such a slip-up wouldn’t have occurred.”
Huā Yīnkè asked, “Do you know what supreme treasure it is?”
Miao Niángzi smiled bitterly. “This concubine’s knowledge is shallow; I don’t know what ancient treasures our Joyous-Union Sect truly possesses. Based on intuition alone, it should be a treasure capable of influencing human desires.”
“Influencing… human desires…” Huā Yīnkè’s heart thumped fiercely.
All flesh, blood, Spiritual Power, and Magical Treasures are tangible, but tangibility often falls short of the highest order.
Truly superior methods play with the intangible—human hearts and desires.
This is especially true for the Joyous-Union Sect. Anything related to the ‘human heart’ is, without exception, a marvelous treasure or lineage.
However, in today’s Joyous-Union Sect, flesh and appearance dominate, dealing only with the tangible aspects of male-female allure.
Most lineages related to the ‘heart’ have been lost.
Asking the current sect’s cultivators, whose minds are filled with carnal pleasures, to comprehend the human heart is no different from asking an ox to play the zither.
Huā Yīnkè remained expressionless. “I understand… Have you told anyone else about this?”
Miao Niángzi hurriedly replied, “This servant wouldn’t dare speak out of turn. I only dared to inform you, Lord Incense Master.”
Huā Yīnkè nodded, gently stroking Miao Niángzi’s cheek and praising, “You’ve done well. Next time you have such clues, tell me immediately, but keep your mouth shut around others. Otherwise…”
Huā Yīnkè’s gaze turned cold, and the grip tightened slightly.
Miao Niángzi immediately grew tense. “Yes, this servant’s Cultivation Method was passed down by you, Lord Incense Master. Everything this servant has belongs to you. Your great kindness and virtue, this servant will never forget. This servant will strive diligently to harvest Yang Essence for you, Lord Incense Master, so that you may achieve Feathered Ascension early and attain immortality.”
Hearing this, Huā Yīnkè felt both body and mind soothed. Looking at Miao Niángzi, he said, “You little minx, full of schemes, but your words are quite pretty. Go now, get to work.”
Miao Niángzi sighed in relief and immediately said, “This servant takes her leave.”
Huā Yīnkè personally helped Miao Niángzi put on her clothes.
Overwhelmed by the favor, Miao Niángzi hurriedly forced a smile. “Thank you for your great kindness, Lord Incense Master.”
“Go on,” Huā Yīnkè said.
After Miao Niángzi left, the room was empty. Huā Yīnkè lay alone on the bed, severely depleted of Yang energy, yet his mind remained restless.
“Mo Hua… Young Master Mo… Joyous-Union supreme treasure…”
“How could this Young Master Mo possess a supreme treasure of our Joyous-Union Sect?”
“And what exactly is the origin of this treasure?”
Huā Yīnkè’s gaze grew solemn.
…
And at this very moment, Huā Yīnkè wasn’t the only one thinking of Mo Hua.
In a certain bloody underground demon lair, the Bloody Flood Dragon Mountain Lord tore apart three Yāo Cultivators with his bare hands and drank three large jars of blood, yet still couldn’t quell the fury in his heart.
“Where did this little bastard come from, daring to insult this Mountain Lord’s dignity? Truly deserves death, deserves death!”
Under the Bloody Flood Dragon Mountain Lord’s violent rage, the other tall Yāo Cultivators of the Ten-Thousand Demons Mountain all fell silent, not daring to utter a word.
Bloody Flood Dragon Mountain Lord took another full gulp of blood, yet still felt his heart burning with thirst, finding no relief at all. He cursed: “Go investigate!”
“Find out everything about this Mo Hua. If that brat is just putting on a false front, I will devour him alive and whole, no…”
“I will skin him and use his hide to soak in blood wine, drinking it for eighty-one full days.”
Bloody Flood Dragon Mountain Lord’s eyes gleamed with ferocity.
The Yāo Cultivators hurriedly replied, “Yes, Mountain Lord.”
…
Elsewhere, in a cemetery shrouded in Yin Qi, a hall of white bones had been erected.
Kugu Sanren, seated at the center of the hall, remained calm and composed.
Demon-Beast (Yāo) Cultivators were bloodthirsty, cannibalistic, strong-limbed but weak-minded, and among the most brutal, with the heaviest killing intent.
But Kugu Sanren, with most of his body reduced to bones and devoid of Blood Qi, was relatively more composed.
The events at Jade Fragrance Pavilion resurfaced in his mind.
Now, a trace of suspicion and paranoia flickered in Kugu Sanren’s hollow eyes:
“Lady Rui… and that Green Corpse Master—they are, after all, two great Demonic Path figures. Why are they so afraid of this Mo Hua?”
“They didn’t even attempt to test him and fled immediately?”
“Could it be that during the Dragon Pool incident back then, this brat truly killed Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord, Silver Corpse Elder, and Ghost-Child Wanderer?”
“But how… is that possible? Unless it’s a daydream, how could an Early Golden Core Stage cultivator kill a Late Golden Core Stage one?”
Kugu Sanren racked his brains but couldn’t figure it out.
Fortunately, he was mostly just a skull now, with little brain left to rack.
Besides that, there was another matter.
When Lady Rui and Green Corpse Master were directly intimidated into retreat by Mo Hua, Kugu Sanren had also withdrawn immediately. Aside from his cautious and suspicious nature, there was another reason.
Kugu Sanren frowned, “Why do I feel that this Young Master Mo carries more killing karma than I do?”
“The vengeful ghosts entangled in his Fate Pattern seem to outnumber mine?”
The aura of these fierce ghosts and vengeful spirits was hidden within the Fate Pattern, perhaps undetectable to others.
But as a major ghost cultivator from the Skull Cave, Kugu Sanren was extremely sensitive to such things.
“Could this Young Master Mo also be a ‘great Demonic Path figure’—a ruthless killer, steeped in evil, with countless vengeful ghosts under his command?”
(TN: LMAO😂)
Isn’t he a righteous cultivator?
How could an Early Golden Core Stage cultivator have killed so many people? And how could he withstand the Backlash of such immense Karmic Evil Balefulness?
Kugu Sanren grew increasingly suspicious and alarmed.
Unfortunately, during the Great Wilderness Strange Transformation back then, not only did the righteous path suffer heavy losses, but Strange Daoist showed no mercy to their Demonic Path comrades either.
After that calamity, the surviving Demonic Path cultivators all kept their mouths shut, not daring to recklessly discuss the events of the Royal Court and the Strange Dao.
Because the cause and effect of those events were intricately tangled, all connected to that Strange Daoist who descended with his own Dao.
The slightest careless word, touching upon something terrifying, could easily pollute one’s mind with the Strange Dao.
Thus, aside from the surface-level events like the Strange Dao descending upon the Great Wilderness calamity, few dared to discuss what exactly happened within the Royal Court and Dragon Pool back then.
“Brother Ghost-Child… who exactly did he die at the hands of?”
“And who exactly is this Mo Hua?”
Kugu Sanren’s gaze was hollow and lifeless, filled with doubt.
…
In another area, at the center of an endless cemetery, a massive coffin made of green jade hung suspended.
Inside the coffin lay a corpse, none other than the Demonic Path heavyweight, Green Corpse Master.
At this moment, Green Corpse Master was lying still with his eyes closed, nurturing his Corpse Qi.
The path of corpse cultivation encompasses numerous schools. Some control corpses with human will, others control humans with corpse will, and there are those who merge human and corpse into one. Yet regardless of the corpse cultivation school, all rely on coffins, on the land, on Yin Qi and Earth Qi.
With these various constraints, especially within the territories of the righteous path, corpse cultivators find it difficult to venture out freely.
And each time they leave, separating from their coffins and corpse-nurturing grounds, even without engaging in combat, their own Corpse Qi will inevitably deplete, requiring the essence blood of living humans to replenish.
But the current situation is not yet ripe.
The righteous path is still in its period of strength, the transformation between righteousness and demonic paths is not yet complete, and it is far from the stage where one can slaughter indiscriminately everywhere, relying on devouring humans and absorbing flesh and blood to replenish Corpse Qi.
Because they cannot arbitrarily violate the prohibition against killing or use living humans to feed, after Green Corpse Master made his journey, he could only return to the corpse-nurturing ground as quickly as possible, relying on the green jade coffin to nourish his Corpse Qi.
Within the green jade coffin, jade-like Corpse Poison flowed.
Green Corpse Master lay motionless in the green jade coffin like a dead corpse, yet his thoughts continuously shifted.
Regarding the events of the Great Wilderness back then, the one with the clearest internal understanding was the Yin Corpse Valley.
Because the one who protected the demonic path prodigies during Core Formation and achieved Feathered Ascension was their Gold Corpse True-Person from Yin Corpse Valley.
Precisely because of this, apart from Lady Rui, the direct witness, Green Corpse Master also knew, to some extent, the name “Mo Hua.”
He had heard of the deeds of this youth named “Mo Hua” during the Dragon Pool incident back then.
Not only that, but Yin Corpse Valley’s Gold Corpse True-Person had also warned him:
“This child Mo Hua has inferior bone structure, but he is different from ordinary prodigies. He cannot be judged by common sense, nor even viewed as human. Either keep a respectful distance and avoid conflict. Once conflict arises, you must strike to kill, sever all cause and effect, and leave no thread of life, otherwise it will lead to great disaster. Remember this, remember this.”
When Green Corpse Master heard this back then, he felt these words were too alarmist.
Seeing him today, this Mo Hua did not seem as terrifyingly inhuman as Gold Corpse True-Person had described.
It was only due to the current situation and not wanting to cause trouble that Green Corpse Master cautiously followed Gold Corpse True-Person’s teachings and silently withdrew.
But what truly puzzled Green Corpse Master greatly was, according to Gold Corpse True-Person’s account, this Mo Hua was deeply trapped in the Great Wilderness back then, even to the point of being deeply mired in the Endless Abyss Marsh, that was the territory of that Daoist.
Given that, how was he able to escape from the hands of ‘Strange Daoist’?
This was actually the truly inconceivable matter.
Did he escape from Strange Daoist’s hands, or was he deliberately released by Strange Daoist?
If he escaped, what divine abilities did he possess to flee from Strange Daoist’s grasp?
If he was released, why did Strange Daoist not pursue and kill him?
What exactly is his relationship with Strange Daoist?
The more he thought about these matters, the more bizarre they seemed.
Moreover, concerning “Strange Daoist,” Green Corpse Master had to take it seriously.
The world truly does not understand the terror of Daoists, because it has been a very, very long time since a true “Daoist” has appeared in this world.
Strange Daoist is a newly ascended “Daoist,” with too shallow a history, yet even so, he alone could cause the immense strange upheaval in the Great Wilderness.
“The power of a Daoist is too terrifying… the position of Daoist is also too important…”
“If one wishes to plunder the Heavenly Dao, control all living beings, and seek immortal opportunities in the coming upheaval of heaven and earth… one must revere one’s own Daoist…”
“In this world, there are far more than just one Daoist.”
“Only a Daoist can counterbalance a Daoist.”
Green Corpse Master lay dormant within the jade coffin, seemingly resonating with some ancient presence. In the depths of his gaze, there lingered a trace of ancient decay.