Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 10 – The great Dao is emotionless

Before Baili Qingmiao, the fastest to achieve Core Formation in Shangqing Sect had been Hè Wenzhao, who after reaching Foundation Establishment at eighteen, formed a golden core in a mere three years. Cultivation was the way of stealing from heaven, more difficult the further you advanced. Qi Gathering and Qi Refinement were simple enough, and people of Wulin with good aptitudes could accomplish them, but Foundation Establishment was the threshold to the cultivation world, and it was a high threshold which blocked countless people aspiring to seek the Dao, who could never advance a single step further.

And you couldn’t fly all the way to the top just by reaching Foundation Establishment.

There were many people who stalled at Foundation Establishment for fifty or a hundred years, unable to form a golden core until their spiritual energy ran out and their lifespans were up. Qi Gathering was absorbing the energy of the cosmos into one’s body, Qi Refinement was refining it for one’s own use, and Foundation Establishment was using the qi of the cosmos to force out acquired impurities in the human body, gaining a primordial body. The golden core was formed out of spiritual essence within the dantian. For the first time, one’s spiritual awareness could see within one’s own body, and the Violet Palace[1] first appeared within the dantian. The inside of one’s body would form its own contained cosmos, and this would be a person’s first step toward transforming their body into an immortal’s.

Hè Wenzhao taking three years was already exceptional, but as for Baili Qingmiao, she had established her foundation when she’d just turned eighteen, and before the year was out, before her master even had time to teach the core formation methods to her, she had inexplicably formed a core.

Elder Qingyue checked Baili Qingmiao over at the administration hall and confirmed that her qi was pure and orderly and she had cultivated perfectly by Shangqing Sect’s methods, somehow comprehending the core formation methods by her own ability.

This kind of gift was unprecedented in Shangqing Sect.

Elder Qingyue nodded with approval and smiled slightly. After offering incense to the sect founder, he rang the sect’s Moon Pool Bell.

The Moon Pool Bell was one of Shangqing Sect’s three great immortal artifacts, supporting the wards around their mountain for years. If it was rung, anyone in the sect could hear it unless they were on the brink of death. Ordinarily, forming a golden core wouldn’t be worth the administration hall elder announcing it to the entire sect. Even Hè Wenzhao’s three years hadn’t been worth such treatment. Baili Qingmiao’s situation was truly unique, and after deep consideration, Elder Qingyue decided to ring the bell.

When it sounded, Hè Wenzhao who was in bed with Shu Yanyan also heard.

After three rings, Elder Qingyue’s voice was transmitted to each person’s ears. “Baili Qingmiao of Rising Clouds Peak, under Elder Qingrong, has formed her golden core in one year.”

Hè Wenzhao froze, dumbfounded.

Shu Yanyan also heard the ringing of the bell, but she wasn’t a disciple of Shangqing Sect and couldn’t hear Elder Qingyue’s transmission. She acted as if she hadn’t noticed anything and wrapped her arms around Hè Wenzhao’s neck, saying, “Dear Hè, don’t be cruel, hurry…”

Impeccable acting skills, worthy of the Xuanyuan Sect’s Right Protector!

But Hè Wenzhao wasn’t in the mood and hurriedly got up, using a purification spell to rid his body of any smells. Shu Yanyan turned over, her eyes hazy. “My dear?”

“I just remembered urgent business I must return to the sect for,” Hè Wenzhao said coldly. “I might not be able to see you for the next few days. Be good and wait for me.”

Then he turned around and left. Shu Yanyan sprawled over the bed, propping her chin on her elbow. “Once they have their clothes on they’ll act like they don’t know you. No-good swine, pah!”

“Baili Qingmiao has returned,” a voice came from the window. Shu Yanyan jumped, and when she looked over, she found Wenren È and Yin Hanjiang had entered through the window at some point.

“Oh, it’s you, Venerable, you nearly scared your subordinate to death. I thought that my cultivation had dropped and my awareness had gotten so bad that I didn’t even notice intruders coming in.” Shu Yanyan had no clothes and no blanket covering her body, looking unruffled at the two.

Wenren È and Yin Hanjiang acted like they were blind to the state of Shu Yanyan’s body. Yin Hanjiang used a spell to clean a desk and chair inside the room, opened a window and cleared the smell out of the air with a wind charm, and only afterward, invited the Venerable to sit.

Shu Yanyan: …

She grimaced and waved a hand, having the clothes on the floor put themselves on her body. She respectfully greeted Wenren È, then glanced at Yin Hanjiang, and her face stiffened. “Protector Yin, you’re already at the top level of Body Unity?”

Shu Yanyan felt alarm in her heart. She and Yin Hanjiang were both the Venerable’s Protectors, but the Left Protector had been favored by the Venerable from the beginning. Before, Shu Yanyan would console herself that Yin Hanjiang was only Body Unity stage, and though the demonic sword was powerful, using it harmed his body and soul and could not be sustained for too long, or he would be corrupted by it. If they really went at it, she had the upper hand. But in a mere six months, Yin Hanjiang had managed to rise from the first level of Body Unity to the ninth. Wasn’t he about to break through to Void Boundary stage any day now?

The Right Protector felt quite threatened.

However, the Venerable shook his head, seeming displeased. “Only the ninth level of Body Unity. There’s still far to go.”

This wasn’t right! Shu Yanyan felt like she’d caught a whiff of something odd. She looked back and forth between Wenren È and Yin Hanjiang several times. Yin Hanjiang was the same, silently loyal as always, and the Venerable was as cold and overbearing as he always was, and nothing about their interaction had changed. The only thing was…

Shu Yanyan squinted and found that Protector Yin was standing a bit closer behind the Venerable than before, and with Yin Hanjiang protecting his back, Wenren È’s posture was also slightly more relaxed.

Just slightly, but it gave off a completely different feeling.

Alarm bells sounded in her mind and she hurried to report. “Venerable, for this past half year, this subordinate has offered herself to Hè Wenzhao, helping him reach Nascent Soul stage, giving him the chance to participate in important matters of his sect. I have found out the location the Nascent Soul disciples will be setting up their array. The five great forces of Shangqing Sect, Tianjian Sect, Jiuxing Sect, Biluo Sect, and Wuxiang Temple, as well as several smaller sects, will be sending out their Nascent Soul disciples to form a giant array north and south of Xuanyuan Sect in order to temporarily sever the spiritual veins[2], so that we won’t have access to natural spiritual energy as we fight.”

Shu Yanyan reported everything she had done over the past months and all the information she had gotten, trying to vie with Protector Yin. She needed to show him just kissing up to the Venerable wasn’t enough, you had to accomplish things!

Abusive Romance had described the Great Sect War from Baili Qingmiao’s point of view. She was just a Core Formation disciple and didn’t get to know much. For ten years it was basically missing her shixiong, worrying for him, and being concerned for him, all while she saved people here and there, showing off her kind nature as the female lead. Thus, Wenren È hadn’t known exactly what plans the righteous sects were making. With Shu Yanyan’s information, their schemes were starting to come into shape.

“This subordinate believes that we should send two able fighters to the locations ahead of time and have them take the best positions to break the array, and subsequently exterminate all those Nascent Soul disciples!” Shu Yanyan looked up, and the seductive warmth in her eyes had vanished, only leaving ruthlessness.

In her white robe, she seemed like a blooming spider lily, softly beckoning, leading the lost to the next shore[3].

Cold-hearted and merciless, willing to use any means toward a goal—this was the true nature of the Right Protector of Xuanyuan Sect, Shu Yanyan. As she spoke, Dubhe[4] appeared in the night sky, giving off dazzling radiance.

The leader of Shangqing Sect was currently with the leaders of several other major sects, observing star signs to predict the ways of heaven. The Jiuxing Sect Leader looked at the night sky, his expression grave. “Polis, Alkaid, and Dubhe are all shining, resonating with each other. It is an ill omen!”

“How could this be?” said the leader of Biluo Valley. “Several months ago, we made our calculations, that Dubhe would vanish, subdued by lightning; Alkaid had demonic signs, showing the color of blood, and the possibility of self-destruction would be high; and Polis had signs of peach blossoms and would meet with a tribulation of love. The three stars all had signs of decline—it was a perfect opportunity for the righteous sects to wipe out the demonic. How did fortune suddenly take such a turn?”

The Tianjian Sect Leader glared at the sky. “Six months ago, Polis’s love tribulation vanished, his protector Alkaid shook off demonic temptation, and Dubhe brightened. Everything suddenly changed, and the source is Polis.”

The Shangqing Sect Leader said, “Polis represents Xuanyuan Sect’s Wenren È. This man took the world by storm a hundred years ago, with a demonic sword wielder behind him, and unified the demonic sects in just a few decades. The balance of power shifted, and the righteous sects have been gradually weakening. If we do not eliminate Wenren È, that one man will suppress the righteous sects for a thousand years.”

“We had originally planned for Shangqing Sect alone to deal with him, but it seems now that will not be enough,” said the master of Biluo Valley. “We must send more high-level experts and immortal artifacts to surround and eliminate Wenren È.”

The Jiuxing Sect Master said, “The will of heaven is hard to fathom. My sect reads the signs earnestly, trying to glean heavenly mysteries, and are rarely mistaken. Why is it that in this past half year, destinies have changed so quickly? Do the heavens not wish for us to see the outcome of the great war?”

The abbot of Wuxiang Temple, while reciting a Buddha’s name, set down the rosary in his hand, and a monk’s staff appeared in his palm. He opened his eyes, and all shades of compassion faded from them, replaced with furious light. He resembled the ferocious law-protectors placed before statues of the Buddha.

“Abbot, you will act personally?” The Shangqing Sect Master was filled with glee. “With you there, we can do twice the work in half the time, and victory will be within our grasp.”

During the great sect leaders’ secret meeting, they set down the time of attack and one by one returned to their own sects. The Shangqing Sect Master left the secret room, arriving at the administration hall and asking Elder Qingyue, “Baili Qingmiao has risen to Core Formation stage?”

Elder Qingyue explained everything to him, and the Sect Master smiled, gratified. “With Qingmiao and Wenzhao, the Shangqing Sect has promising successors. We can freely focus on this war. Qingyue-shidi, stay at the sect, protect the Moon Pool Bell, and maintain the Shangqing Sect’s strength.”

Qingyue knew this battle was unavoidable. He said, “But these two children are currently squabbling with each other.”

“Baili Qingmiao is throwing another tantrum?” The Sect Master chuckled. “Young girls can be moody. After she reaches Nascent Soul, she won’t be like this anymore.”

Qingyue and the Sect Master didn’t take the two’s fight very seriously, but Hè Wenzhao was doing everything he could to win over Baili Qingmiao.

The reason was that when Baili Qingmiao returned, she immediately went to the administration hall to check her shixiong’s patrol records. This was her first time being away from her shixiong for so long, and she had just personally witnessed a clash between a wandering immortal and a Mahayana-level expert in the Ice Plains. Feeling lucky to be alive, she naturally missed her shixiong and wanted to know what he had been doing while she wasn’t around.

The administration hall’s records were publicly available. Baili Qingmiao was at first happy for her shixiong for reaching Nascent Soul, but she felt something was off the more she looked. Hè Wenzhao was heading down the mountain once every two days or so—that was way too often!

Baili Qingmiao used to be just about joined at the hip with Hè Wenzhao, and she would follow nearly every time he left the mountain, so she knew well that he left about once a month. Just at that moment, Yao Wendan happened to come to the administration hall to retrieve materials for the medicinal pavilion and found Baili Qingmiao spacing out in front of the jade slip records, so went over to congratulate her for reaching Core Formation.

“Yao-shixiong,” Baili Qingmiao said, “have you seen head shixiong? I saw the task rotations, and he’s supposed to patrol the mountain today, so why isn’t he around?”

“He probably left. He’s been heading down the mountain all the time lately and even bought a house for Miss Shu, probably out of guilt.” Yao Wendan was a straightforward person and blurted this out without thinking. He immediately regretted it and slapped himself on the cheek.

The jade slip in Baili Qingmiao’s hand clattered to the floor. “What did you say? Shixiong bought a house for Miss Shu?”

Hè Wenzhao got back in that moment, just in time to hear Baili Qingmiao’s tearful words, and his vision went dark for a moment. He grabbed Baili Qingmiao and said soulfully, “Shimei, you’ve finally returned. I’ve been so worried about you these past days. I’ve missed you so much.”

Yao Wendan knew he had misspoken and ran off with his head down, leaving Hè Wenzhao and Baili Qingmiao to figure things out themselves.

After Baili Qingmiao interrogated Hè Wenzhao, she charged down the mountain to find Shu Yanyan and question her on her relationship to him, with Hè Wenzhao following close behind her.

After she left the mountain’s wards, Shu Yanyan’s group could detect her movements. “Venerable, what should this subordinate do?” Shu Yanyan asked.

“Don’t reveal your identity before the Great Sect War. Everything else is up to you,” Wenren È said.

“Great!” Shu Yanyan said with a clap. “I’ve had enough. I want to get out of here and go back to my cute subordinates, boo-hoo…”

She really did tear up. Ever since she had started cultivating, she had never been with one man for this long. She had already gotten enough of the lightning spiritual root and that mysterious power, and risen to the ninth level of Void Boundary. She’d long since gotten sick of Hè Wenzhao too, and wouldn’t have forced herself to endure this much if it weren’t for getting information.

Wenren È shared a glance with Yin Hanjiang, then left the room and cast a monitoring spell in the adjoining one, to see events unfold.

Wenren È was curious what kind of choice Baili Qingmiao would make this time, after knowing Hè Wenzhao’s actions.

The other room in Shu Yanyan’s house was a servant’s room, but since she didn’t have any, it stayed empty, with only one small bed placed in it. After Wenren È sat down on it, Yin Hanjiang couldn’t stand behind his back anymore, so stood at his side. Wenren È tugged him down. “Sit.”

Yin Hanjiang, seemingly overwhelmed, sat shoulder-to-shoulder with the Venerable on that small bed, his throat bobbing slightly, his eyes downcast. He didn’t dare to look at their shoulders, which were barely half an inch apart.

They waited for a while, but Hè Wenzhao and Baili Qingmiao still hadn’t arrived, probably arguing with each other on the way. Wenren È sensed Yin Hanjiang by his side open his lips slightly, as if he had something to say, and said, “Just say it.”

Yin Hanjiang, hearing an order from the Venerable, no longer dared to hide it and after some hesitation, spoke, “The Venerable’s Path of Slaughter is for the purpose of preventing deaths and protecting living beings, so why start the Great Sect War and bring chaos to the common people?”

He wasn’t any sort of good person and hadn’t minded earlier when Shu Yanyan had spoken of exterminating all those righteous sect disciples. No matter what the Venerable wanted him to do, he had no objections.

But, there was a hint of confusion within his heart, and he didn’t understand why the Venerable was doing this. If he already knew about the Great Sect War, couldn’t he avoid it? This didn’t seem like the Venerable’s Dao.

Ordinarily Yin Hanjiang would never take the initiative to speak up, but now the Venerable had asked him first, and his position was also slightly different from before. Alkaid should not question Polis, so Yin Hanjiang decided to confide in the Venerable, and allow him to clear his doubts.

Wenren È didn’t answer his question, instead asking, “Protector Yin, what do you think cultivators are?”

Yin Hanjiang thought for a moment. “The elite?”

He had never considered this type of question before. He just knew that ordinary people would call cultivators “esteemed immortal”, and cultivators would also think of themselves highly, separating the cultivation world from the secular world, when they clearly both existed in the mortal realm.

“Wrong,” Wenren È said emotionlessly. “You, I, and the thousands of other cultivators whether righteous or demonic, are all a pack of petty thieves who steal opportunities from other lives.”

Yin Hanjiang never realized that Wenren È had this judgment of cultivators.

“Look at the location of Shangqing Sect,” Wenren È said, pointing to the distant mountains. “How many living beings could be nurtured by this mountain abundant in spiritual energy and protected for millennia from natural disasters? If human beings built a city in this area, many millions of people could be born in it in a thousand years. But Shangqing Sect has less than a hundred Core Formation and above disciples.”

“The great Dao is emotionless,” Yin Hanjiang said. “The lives and deaths of mortals are nothing to it.” He pressed his lips together, thinking back to his slaughtered village. He had spoken of his thoughts toward the heavenly Dao for the first time.

“That’s true, but the laws of heaven will not allow cultivators to steal opportunities granted by heaven. If cultivators had no internal strife, and everyone focused on cultivating in seclusion without disrupting one another, then after several thousand years, all the spiritual energy in the world would be completely consumed and not a blade of grass would be able to grow. There would be no more life in this world,” Wenren È said.

The purpose of the Great Sect War was not for the righteous sects to slay the demonic, or the demonic sects to slaughter the righteous, but it was that both sides had found through analyzing signs that another heavenly calamity was imminent, and if they didn’t relieve pressure through infighting, many more cultivators would die in heaven’s judgment, until the world had no more cultivators, and no more human beings.

Stealing from heaven, deceiving heaven, robbing heaven, that was the true nature of cultivators. They tried to maintain balance with the laws of heaven, seeking a way of survival.

“Whether or not this Venerable dies in this battle, my spiritual energy would still belong to this world. If I died and all my cultivation was lost, the place where I was buried would nurture countless lives in a hundred years,” Wenren È said.

He looked calm and indifferent, unconcerned about life or death.

Yin Hanjiang felt a pang of pain in his heart, however, and clutched the demon sword. “This subordinate will not let the Venerable die.”

“This Venerable knows.”

In the book, Yin Hanjiang had proven his loyalty to Wenren È with his life.

Wenren È patted the back of his hand, and his voice held a rare warm tone. “If this Venerable is gone, you can follow me.”

Don’t be like in the book, living half a life on the order of the Lord of Demons.

Yin Hanjiang, hearing these words from Wenren È, unintentionally showed a look of relief and said solemnly, “Thank you, Venerable.”