Chapter 49: Demon Sect

Who would write to a tiger demon? Hasn't this beast been hiding from cultivators all along, keeping its whereabouts a secret?

The three of them were utterly perplexed; given the tiger demon's cautious nature, no outsider from beyond the mountains should have known of its existence.

Niannian, what is written in the letter?

Meng Jingzhou cleared his throat and read aloud in an emotive voice, "Brother Tiger, it has been many days since we last met. How have you been lately?"

"Brother Tiger acts with utmost caution, unwilling to show your face and let the orthodox cultivators know of your existence, choosing only to prey upon mortals. Such a step-by-step strategy for cultivation commands this younger brother's deepest admiration, yet cultivating this way is, after all, too slow. Now that a grand era is approaching and heroes are rising everywhere, various factions are eyeing the Central Continent with greed. Is Brother Tiger not also seizing this opportunity, leaving your homeland behind, breaking away from the Qiongqi lineage, and sneaking from the Demon Domain into Mount Song?"

"Cautious... Stop crowding me, you two, can't I just read it to you?" Lu Yang and Mangu squeezed Meng Jingzhou between them, looking directly at the contents of the letter.

"You read too slowly."

"I'll read faster, you two move aside."

Meng Jingzhou pushed them away and continued reading, "While being cautious is certainly no great mistake, in this reviving grand era, only by being bold can one seize opportunity, stake everything on a single throw, purify one's lineage, transform into a pure-blooded Qiongqi, and gain a foothold in this grand era."

"This younger brother ventures to suggest that Brother Tiger and your esteemed spouse join my Yanjiang Helm, using cultivators as prey to plot great deeds together!"

"Enclosed in the letter is this younger brother's token. Brother Tiger may bring this token directly to the Yanjiang Helm to find me, and I can directly recommend Brother Tiger to become a Deacon."

"Respectfully submitted by your younger brother, Qin Yuanhao."

The letter was not long, but it revealed a wealth of information.

Lu Yang analyzed, "The letter says the tiger demon does not let orthodox cultivators know. This does not conform to standard speech habits; ordinary speech would not directly refer to 'orthodox cultivators' unless the author of the letter stands in opposition to them. Is this Qin Yuanhao a demonic cultivator?"

This would also explain why a cultivator knew about the tiger demon's situation yet had not reported it.

In the Central Continent, the orthodox path held an absolute advantage, making demons, fiends, and ghosts natural allies. Take the tiger demon as an example: it did not strike directly when harming people, but instead used its ghost slaves to lure them over.

The tiger demon possessed the Qiongqi lineage and was undeniably at the Golden Core stage, so it was only natural for a demonic cultivator to win it over.

"So, is the Yanjiang Helm a stronghold of a demonic cult?"

Meng Jingzhou nodded, "Demonic cults like to use geographical names for their strongholds, but we just don't know which demonic cult this Yanjiang Helm belongs to."

Just as orthodox cultivators had their Five Great Immortal Sects, demonic cultivators also had their own organizations, known as the Four Great Demonic Cults.

A demonic cult was a religion rather than a sect, the greatest difference being whether they worshipped a certain powerful entity.

The beliefs of the Four Great Demonic Cults were not entirely the same; some said their beliefs represented four immortals, while others claimed the four beliefs were merely four incarnations of a single immortal, with opinions varying widely.

The demonic cults revealed extremely little information to the outside world, and their movements were elusive. The Great Xia Dynasty and the Five Great Immortal Sects had joined forces many times to search for them, yet failed to find the demonic cults' headquarters.

Whenever orthodox cultivators uprooted a large cluster of demonic strongholds, the cult members would sprout up like bamboo shoots after rain, seemingly impossible to exterminate completely.

Though the demonic cults were spoken of as mysterious, bizarre in their methods, ruthless, and terrifying, it was actually because the orthodox path was too strong, causing the demonic cults to fear showing their faces and dare only to employ schemes in the dark.

If anyone could ever locate the demonic cults' old lair, the Five Great Immortal Sects wouldn't even need to act; the Great Xia Dynasty could dispatch its troops and turn the demonic cults upside down in five days, uprooting all their dens within a month.

This was the confidence of the orthodox path.

The demonic path, after all, was something that could never be brought into the light.

Lu Yang shook the envelope, and out slid a bone token. It bore a unique trace of true qi, a method left behind by that cult member named Qin Yuanhao, which outsiders could not replicate.

Mangu said, "Can we use this token to join the demonic cult?"

Discovering a demonic cult stronghold was a massive achievement, far more valuable than eliminating two tiger demons.

Lu Yang shook his head, "No, if we take his token to join the Yanjiang Helm, Qin Yuanhao will definitely find out."

"Furthermore, we don't even know the location of the Yanjiang Helm, so how would we join?"

"Then what should we do?" Mangu asked.

"Since it's called the Yanjiang Helm, it should be in Yanjiang County. We can go to Yanjiang County to ask around if there is anyone named Qin Yuanhao, track him to find the Yanjiang Helm. Since he dared to call himself a younger brother before the tiger demon, his cultivation won't be higher than the tiger demon's. We can kill him, and that way we can use the token directly, claiming we are old acquaintances of Qin Yuanhao who came to seek his protection, only to find he had died."

"A fine idea." Meng Jingzhou and Mangu's eyes lit up.

"Rummage through it again, let's see if we can find any other good things." Lu Yang urged Meng Jingzhou to work with great enthusiasm.

Meng Jingzhou turned up a stalk of grass as fresh and red as blood, about the size of a palm, bearing a somewhat sinister aura.

"Bixue Grass, why are the veins red?" Meng Jingzhou was somewhat bewildered. The primary effect of Bixue Grass was detoxification, and its leaf veins usually had blue-green lines like rivers flowing across the ground. Why was this one red?

Lu Yang squatted down to identify it, then said, "You forgot, the primary effect of Bixue Grass for the human race is as a main ingredient for detoxification pills, but it is not so for the demon race."

"Bixue Grass has the effect of purifying bloodlines. It is possible the tiger demon continuously used blood to water and mature the Bixue Grass, making it adapt to the Qiongqi lineage. Looking at this, in a few more months when the Bixue Grass is fully mature, once the tiger demon consumes it, its Qiongqi lineage will become a fraction purer, and it can ride that momentum to form its core."

The word 'blood' in Bixue Grass was derived precisely from this.

Lu Yang had learned this knowledge about Bixue Grass from the Little Medicine King.

"Now, this stalk of Bixue Grass can no longer be refined into detoxification pills; it can only be consumed by the demon race to purify their bloodline," Lu Yang said.

"In that case, you two take it and put it up for sale at the sect's market on the fifteenth of every month; it should fetch a good price." Meng Jingzhou handed the herb to Lu Yang and Mangu.

Many people in the sect raised spirit beasts, so herbs capable of enhancing bloodlines had quite a market in the No-Why Sect.

Lu Yang and Mangu politely declined back and forth, but in the end, Mangu was no match for Lu Yang's insistence and accepted the Bixue Grass.

Meng Jingzhou reminded Mangu, "Don't you go eating the Bixue Grass. The ancient barbarian race is a branch of the human race; Bixue Grass is useless to your bloodline."

Mangu let out a disappointed sigh.

Legend had it that the ancient barbarian race originated from a romantic marriage proposal. In ancient times, the human race still lived scattered in the form of tribes, and the strongest in a tribe was called a warrior.

One day, two tribes met. A male warrior from one tribe took a liking to the female warrior opposite him, so he proposed to her, "Give me a smile, girl, and if I'm happy, I'll marry you."

The female warrior chuckled, raised a boulder, and swung it right back. The two grappled together, and in the end, the female warrior gained the upper hand, dragged the male warrior into the hut, and stayed awake all night.

Ten months later, the first barbarian warrior was born.