Chapter 10: Each Harboring Their Own Hidden Agendas, Both Calculating Against Each Other

Having been taught various Dharma techniques and supernatural powers, along with the various heavenly materials and earthly treasures needed for cultivation, Fang Longye took his leave of the mansion and returned to the Jinsha River.

Within the belly of the mountain, deep inside the Green Snake Demon Mansion.

The dim light was profound, and all around was silent.

Qingshe Niangniang emerged from the reception hall and returned to the quiet chamber where she usually cultivated.

Her expression was casual, her feet did not stop, and she walked straight through the winding, twisting corridor.

Walking along the path, descending step by step, the earth Qi churned.

The stone colors were misty on both sides, hanging above like drooping lotus flowers, implicitly forming the appearance of a canopy.

Jade lamps were held high on the walls, shaped like lotus flowers, with crystalline light intersecting and rippling in gold from above, illuminating the surroundings.

The stone bones were craggy, clear, and bright.

Sitting cross-legged on a cloud bed, she toyed with the emerald hairpin in her hand, closing her eyes to meditate.

She, of course, had not told anyone the truth.

Looking back a thousand years, she was still just a tiny Primordial Spirit Realm snake demon in Beiju Luzhou, and during an escape from enemies, she had inadvertently fallen into this Small World.

She was ecstatic.

The cases of inadvertently entering a Secret Realm Grotto-Heaven, obtaining the inheritance and relics left behind by predecessors, and ultimately soaring to become a powerhouse—these were stories she naturally knew by heart, passed down by word of mouth among the demon cultivators of Beiju Luzhou.

It was just that she had not expected that one day she would become the protagonist of such a legend.

She had indeed obtained the opportunity she wanted, but this opportunity was the pair of demon immortal companions suppressed within Hulu Mountain.

In order to have her help them escape, that pair of demon immortal companions acknowledged her as their younger sister, taught her various immortal scriptures and precious canons, artifact-refining methods, and supernatural arts, and even bestowed upon her a Spirit Treasure, the 'Hundred Treasure Brocade Pouch'. Because of this, she had ascended over these past thousand-plus years to become a Yuan Immortal demon immortal.

There was no 'Secret Key' to open the portal of the Small World; as long as one probed the barriers of the Small World carefully with divine sense, one could discover a point of disharmony and subsequently escape.

But if one did not know this point and did not probe for the gaps in the Small World's barrier, one could not get out even if one ascended to the True Immortal Realm.

She could go out directly right now. It was just that she had a premonition that once she left this Small World, she would never have a second chance to enter again.

She was not reconciled, because she had not yet obtained even a fraction of the true opportunities within this Small World! The Mind-Bewitching Mirror, the Yin-Yang Hard-Soft Sword, the Jade Ruyi, and even that Spirit Root Treasure Seed! She did not believe that in such a vast Small World, these were all there was. Just as she treated the subordinates and helpers she intended to cultivate, she did not believe that the pair of demon immortals would teach her everything they knew without reservation.

Moreover, the identities of that pair of True Immortal Realm demon cultivator companions were the same as hers; they were also outsiders, not creatures born of the Small World. According to her observations over the past millennium, the origins of the creatures in the Small World were mostly like her—having stumbled in by mistake and subsequently developed and grown.

Just as the first time she confirmed this situation was when she happened to run into the Crocodile Commander, who had stumbled in before having opened his spiritual intelligence.

It was just that some of these intruders were cultivators or demons, some were mortals, and others were creatures of fur, scale, feather, or shell that had not yet attained intelligence.

The former either met with calamities or managed to escape. The latter two reproduced over the long years, and among them, some low-level cultivators and demon spirits emerged; aside from their realms, their relationships were much the same as the outside world.

She did not care about these; the key was that, calculated this way, the true opportunities and fortunes in this Small World should mostly be with that pair of demon immortal companions who were the predecessors. There were more Spirit Treasures she did not know of, more powerful Dharma techniques and supernatural powers, and other rare treasures besides that Spirit Root Treasure Seed.

To this day, she had never once attempted to rescue the pair of demon immortals; anyway, when she took her oath, she had promised to save them after her own cultivation achieved success, without specifying a time.

She certainly had to save them; if she didn't, under the suppression and restrictions of Hulu Mountain, how could she obtain that Spirit Root Treasure Seed that she could clearly see but could not reach? How could she force them to reveal the opportunities and fortunes in their minds that they had not told her about?

She was waiting, waiting for her cultivation to be sufficient to rival and crush these fellow Daoists, waiting for herself to cultivate enough helpers, and waiting for the mysterious power in this Small World to reveal its traces.

She knew that since these two True Immortals could be suppressed, this Small World must have other powers. This was also normal; which Secret Realm's opportunities and fortunes were easy to obtain?

Snakes never lack patience when hunting prey. She had only been cultivating for about 1,700 years, and with the 129,600-year lifespan of a single Yuan cycle in the Yuan Immortal realm, she had enough time to plot for the true opportunities and fortunes in this Small World...

Inside the Jinsha River palace, Fang Longye's gaze was deep, like a bottomless cold abyss.

"She didn't tell the truth. But that's normal; let alone in the cultivation world, even in my past life, who would easily confide in others without reservation?" Fang Longye chuckled, talking to himself in his heart.

Although in this real world, the memory information from his past life was no longer entirely trustworthy, it could still serve as a reference to sort out a thread of logic.

Fang Longye did not know if Qingshe was now clear about that gourd seed and the 'Seven-Star Pill', whether the 'Secret Key' Qingshe spoke of was true or false, or what her real calculations were.

But if his expectations were correct, she would ultimately miscalculate in the end.

The content of the contract signed by both parties flowed through his mind. The contract oath stipulated that within the Small World, he must unconditionally help her surround and kill the Snake and Scorpion Demons suppressed under Hulu Mountain, as well as the oath proposed by Qingshe Niangniang herself that neither party could take action against the other.

"Truly cautious!" The immortal scriptures and wonderful techniques Fang Longye had been taught could be cultivated to the Loose Immortal realm; according to his experience of keeping an ace up his sleeve, Qingshe was at least in the Yuan Immortal realm.

He did not know to what realm Qingshe intended to cultivate him in the end, but according to his own thinking, for the sake of safety, one must at least maintain a cultivation level one realm higher than these collaborators.

With such a gap in cultivation, she still took the initiative to add a non-aggression clause to the contract oath. This made Fang Longye have to marvel at the other party's caution.

"Is it because of the suppression of snake demon cultivators by the Dragon Clan bloodline?" Fang Longye could only think so.

"It's just that these things can't restrict me!" If the plot continued to develop, before Qingshe could move to surround and kill the Snake and Scorpion Demons, the Huluwa would jump out and do it for her.

Afterwards... she also followed in the footsteps of the two demons due to her greed for the Seven-Star Pill.

As for the second clause, under the condition that both sides cannot attack each other, it didn't restrict me from seizing treasures!

That's right, without considering the benefits brought by the Golden Finger, I could never surpass her strength. Naturally, there is no need to worry about me seizing the treasures she values.

Of course, even without this second oath restriction, given the grace of imparting the Dao, I would at least not actively harm others! "Is this the so-called 'treating people with grace and benefit is better than forcing them with power and influence'?" Fang Longye reacted at this moment, recalling the conversation with Qingshe after signing the contract just now.

"Niangniang, actually I still don't quite understand; with your cultivation, you could clearly have directly set restrictions on our primordial spirits; wouldn't that also be able to drive us to help you fight the enemy?"

"Treating people with grace and benefit is far better than forcing them with power and influence. According to your method, you would harbor hatred in your hearts, and while fighting the enemy, you would be thinking about how to put me to death, and I would also have to guard against you breaking free from control. How could such a situation compare to the current one?"

Fang Longye thought about how he had considered, once his strength surpassed hers, how he would treat her, and the worst-case scenario he envisioned would not involve harming her life. He could not help but sigh at her mastery of human affairs.

"Learned~"

Actually, little did he know, the reason Qingshe chose to enter into a contract oath with them instead of directly taking control was because Beiju Luzhou was the world of the Demon Clan, and most were unruly and rebellious.

Some immortal mounts that broke free from primordial spirit restrictions and directly backlashed against their masters to regain their freedom often fled to this place. It was truly the most favored paradise for the Demon Clan.

Influenced by what she saw and heard, Qingshe Niangniang would not think that the means of planting primordial spirit restrictions or directly forcing the other party to swear eternal allegiance to oneself were very clever.

Furthermore, in her view, she was currently in a Small World known as a place of opportunity and fortune. In a place of opportunity, it was normal for it to be full of crises. Don't look at how she had stayed for over a thousand years without anything happening; this very normality was the biggest abnormality.

Heaven knows if the helpers she recruited and cultivated would obtain the opportunities and fortunes in the Small World and soar to the sky.

She was cultivating helpers, not cultivating enemies, so it was better to enter into a mutually beneficial contract, with ensuring her own life as the bottom line.

A newbie asking for follow-up reads and collections~

(End of chapter)