Chapter 222

Thunder rumbles across the sky; the wind is rising, signaling a storm is about to break over the building.

Zhang Fan sat before his office desk, tilting his head to look out the window. A sheet of dark clouds pressed down; though it was only just past three in the afternoon, the sky had already grown dim, the light shifting abruptly as if the night had been draped over the world ahead of time.

"Is it going to rain soon?" Zhang Fan whispered to himself.

Winter thunderstorms were quite rare. He took out his phone and dialed Old Yu's number, but no one answered.

Opening his messaging app, he sent another message to the other party, asking where he was and when he would be back.

Before Bai He left, he had given instructions: in thundery weather, one must keep a close eye on Old Yu.

One had to know that in the summer, when thunderstorms were frequent, Old Yu had often requested long leaves; clearly, this kind of weather was not exactly friendly to him.

Zhang Fan had some faint suspicions in his heart.

"Are you driving?" Zhang Fan looked at the chat box with Old Yu, but there was still no response.

Subconsciously, he looked at the sky again, waiting patiently while idly scrolling through his social media feed.

"Huh!?"

Zhang Fan opened his feed, and the very first post made his brow twitch violently.

Five minutes ago, Lin Jianyue had updated her status with the following text:

Ten Beauty-Nourishing Pills! Top-tier ingredients, refined using ancient methods! Hot items, those who know their value inquire for the price, no haggling.

Below it was a rabbit sticker that read, "Besties, let's get beautiful together."

"She's selling pills on social media?" Zhang Fan was stunned.

Whoosh...

Just then, Lin Jianyue posted another update, with the text:

Sold out, please be earlier next time.

Below it was a rabbit sticker that read, "Closed for business."

Ten Beauty-Nourishing Pills sold out in five minutes; one had to admit this business was indeed easy to run—you could just stay home and count the money. However, at this moment, Zhang Fan was in no mood to calculate Lin Jianyue's business acumen and immediately sent her a message.

"You're selling pills on social media, are you crazy? Do you have the qualifications? Aren't you afraid of the Dao Alliance coming to investigate?"

"Are you that concerned about me?" Lin Jianyue replied.

"..."

"Don't worry, I'm not the only one selling them, there's a circle for it..."

Lin Jianyue continued: "Besides, you forgot what I do in real life."

Once these words were out, Zhang Fan finally remembered that Lin Jianyue was in the medicinal herb business in reality.

"Keep a low profile, you're still in Yujing City," Zhang Fan couldn't help but remind her.

Although the turmoil involving Mr. Nian and Yin Hu had passed, the nerves of the Jiangnan Province Dao Alliance remained tightly strung.

There was no helping it; it seemed that from a certain point on, troubles in Yujing City had begun to multiply, and the excitement had never ceased.

This gave Lou Hechuan quite a headache; he had already received reprimands from above several times, and not long ago, he had even been publicly criticized. One could imagine that at the year-end Dao Alliance meeting, his old face would be completely lost.

For this reason, Lou Hechuan was also quite depressed, not knowing which star of disaster he had offended.

"Do you want to buy something?" Lin Jianyue suddenly replied.

"You still want to do business with me?" Zhang Fan typed back rapidly.

He paused for a moment, then immediately sent another message: "Do you have any pills that can strengthen the Soul-Aspect?"

"Recall that immediately!"

Almost instantly, Lin Jianyue replied, accompanied by a warning rabbit sticker.

Zhang Fan was stunned for a moment, not understanding the meaning, but he still recalled the previous message.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't just casually mention those two words here; they will be monitored."

"Soul-Aspect?" Zhang Fan asked.

"Still mentioning it... recall it quickly."

"..."

Zhang Fan was helpless and could only recall it.

"Why?"

"It's just like how you men can't be direct when spending money to buy love online; prohibited words will get you targeted," Lin Jianyue gave a vivid analogy.

"..."

"Where did you hear such messy rumors?" Zhang Fan was speechless: "So how should I say it?"

"Soul-Seed!"

"Then do you have any pills that can strengthen the Soul-Seed?" Zhang Fan corrected himself.

"So you want to buy Soul-Strengthening Medicine!" Lin Jianyue's reply was accompanied by a snickering emoji.

"..."

Zhang Fan looked at the screen, his expression gradually becoming strange.

"Soul-Seeds are hard to refine, you should know that; the most effective method is to supplement form with form," Lin Jianyue replied without hiding anything.

"Wu Wei Sect!" Zhang Fan's gaze narrowed into a line.

Refining great pills in the sea of worldly sin, the six-day demon charms make one's hair stand on end. Directly forcing the Soul-Aspect into my belly, only to be an immortal, never a mortal.

Using the method of birth and destruction of the conditioned, seeking the Dao of longevity of the unconditioned, harvesting and supplementing the Soul-Aspects of all spirits to achieve Pure Yang Limitlessness—this was the Wu Wei Sect.

"Even if it is supplementing form with form, not everyone can become an immortal or a god," Lin Jianyue replied again.

There are ten million paths to immortality; perhaps harvesting and supplementing the Soul-Aspect is the most violent, the most direct, and the most unconventional method.

Even so, those who can glimpse that supreme realm are one in ten thousand, rare among predecessors.

"This of yours belongs to the crooked and evil paths," Zhang Fan typed back rapidly.

"Pretentious!"

Lin Jianyue replied with a disdainful rabbit sticker.

"Don't forget whose son you are; your mother is the leader of the man-eaters. Maybe she fed you Soul-Seeds when you were a child."

"I don't believe you've never swallowed a Soul-Seed."

Once these words were out, Zhang Fan remained silent. Of course he had swallowed them, and the taste was wonderful, beyond words.

He also knew that Heaven gives birth and Heaven kills—that is the principle of the Dao. But to be addicted to it is to enter the demonic path; a single thought's difference leads to eternal damnation.

Precisely because of this, Zhang Fan tried his best to restrain the desire rising in his heart, which was faintly difficult to suppress.

Desire is a god, and it is also a demon.

"Actually, there is another thing similar to Soul-Seeds, which is also a top-tier Soul-Strengthening Medicine."

Just then, Lin Jianyue's avatar flickered, and another message popped up.

"What?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but ask.

"Great Demon Inner Core!"

Zhang Fan raised an eyebrow, looking at those four words, a look of deep thought appearing on his face.

Lu Zu once said, "Cultivating nature without cultivating life is the first illness of cultivation. Cultivating life without cultivating nature, ten thousand eons of yin spirits will find it hard to become saints."

The so-called nature is the Soul-Aspect.

The so-called life is the true body.

The Daoist Inner Alchemy method is to cultivate the Soul-Aspect internally and refine the body-vessel externally.

The body is like a tripod furnace, harvesting and supplementing great medicines, refining the three treasures of essence, Qi, and spirit, and forging them into True Yang. True Yang circulates through the heavenly cycle, gradually liquefying—this is the cultivation of the High Merit Rank.

After True Yang liquefies, it forms an Inner Core in the Dantian. The Inner Core transforms into a Golden Core. At that time, the Soul-Aspect resides in the Golden Core, refining away all yin impurities to achieve Pure Yang—this is the so-called Yang Spirit.

The cultivation of demons is different from that of humans; the human body is naturally born with five hundred years more Dao-practice than beasts.

Therefore, when they possess a human body, they must condense the essence of their cultivation into an Inner Core, wrapping the Soul-Aspect, to possess a human body-vessel; otherwise, the rejection reaction will cause extremely serious damage to their Soul-Aspect.

This is why demons are rare.

Setting aside matters after the founding of the nation, even before the founding, existences like demons were not something one could just grab a handful of.

Even in deep mountains and old forests, many animals become spirits, but they cannot become demons just because they want to.

Because ordinary spirits cannot even condense an Inner Core, and naturally cannot possess a human body to become a demon.

Those who practice shamanism and those who are worshipped are all spirits; these spirits are eyeing the body-vessels of those shaman disciples. Once they can condense an Inner Core, they will seize their body-vessels.

Therefore, in the eyes of both Buddhism and Daoism, this category is purely a crooked and evil path.

In addition, those like Shi Shougong and Su Shiyu can only be called small demons, with strength at most equivalent to the fourth realm of the Nine Gates of the Daoist realm, which is the 【Spirit Commissioner】 rank. Their Inner Cores can only be counted as "spirit," but cannot be called "treasure," and their value is limited.

As for Great Demons, their strength is at least equivalent to the fifth realm of the Nine Gates of the Daoist realm, which is the 【High Merit】 rank.

Only the Inner Core of a Great Demon can be called a "treasure medicine," which is a sacred item for cultivation.

Especially the rarer the Great Demon's bloodline and the longer it has cultivated, the more precious its Inner Core is.

"That thing is much rarer than Soul-Seeds, where am I supposed to find it?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but reply.

After the founding of the nation, no one is allowed to become a demon.

This is an iron rule; it is rumored that this rule will not waver for a hundred years.

Now, the hundred-year deadline is still far off. Although there are a few who don't follow the rules, such as those who directly defected to the Wu Wei Sect like Shi Shougong and Su Shiyu, the number of demons is still decreasing year by year.

Previously, Zhang Fan had seen a set of data.

At the beginning of the founding of the nation, the first national demon census, not counting those "black households" hiding in deep mountains and great marshes or marvelous grotto-heavens, there were still about ninety thousand demon masses across the country.

!.

At the end of last year, the ninth national demon census, there were only over ten thousand left. Excluding those small demons that didn't amount to much, how many true Great Demons could there be?

Wanting to find a Great Demon Inner Core is lower than the probability of winning the lottery.

"You can even catch tigers, you can go to the dead-end realms of major mountain ranges to try your luck," Lin Jianyue teased.

"If that doesn't work, you can go to the demon village in Sichuan. I heard your mother caused such a ruckus there back then that Mount Qingcheng still feels an itch in its teeth when it dreams of it."

"..."

If he hadn't read that post about the thousand-year-old demon, Zhang Fan really wouldn't have known what Lin Jianyue was talking about.

Back then, Li Linglong hid her name and stole arts at Mount Qingcheng, learning the method of 【Demon Taming】, and later even subdued five Great Demons in the demon village, combining them into the Five Demon Great Demons.

"How come the Wu Wei Sect has a tradition of stealing arts from the Daoist sects?" Zhang Fan muttered to himself.

"Sichuan is the territory of Mount Qingcheng, which is one of the ten great Daoist mountain gates... I have always been kind to others, why would I actively invite trouble?"

Zhang Fan rejected Lin Jianyue's suggestion.

"Then just wait, I am currently refining a type of Soul-Strengthening Medicine, and after it's done, I can save a portion for you."

"Is it reliable?" Zhang Fan's heart stirred.

Mao Tu is an expert in refining medicine, and rabbits pounding medicine is also an ancestral craft, but Soul-Seeds are mystical, so he naturally had to ask clearly.

"Just be prepared with the money," Lin Jianyue replied quite confidently.

"How much money?" Zhang Fan was most concerned about the price.

"Wait until it's refined before talking; I have to calculate the cost."

Rumble...

Just then, a deafening clap of thunder erupted, pulling Zhang Fan's attention back.

He looked out the window; the sky had grown even darker, thick clouds rolling, a mountain rain about to fall.

On the messaging app, Old Yu still had no reply.

"Sister Wen, I'm going out for a bit."

Zhang Fan raised an eyebrow, stood up, and went straight out of the Night-Bright.

Yujing City.

An abandoned industrial park.

Black clouds pressed down, the Five-Spirit Wuling Hongguang drove swaying from afar, its speed getting slower and slower, finally stopping on the side of the road.

This was an industrial park about to be demolished, sparsely populated, and almost no one came here in broad daylight, let alone now that the weather had changed.

Whoosh...

Inside the car, Yu Fu lay on the steering wheel, panting heavily, his old face flushed red. He struggled to lift his head to look at the gloomy sky, one hand fumbling in his pocket.

Finally, he took out a small medicine bottle and opened the cap, but it was empty inside.

"Oh no..." Yu Fu's heart skipped a beat.

Winter rarely had thundery weather, and he hadn't used medicine for a long time; he hadn't expected the bottle to be empty.

Rumble...

In the sky, a bolt of lightning streaked across.

Yu Fu's breathing became increasingly rapid. He opened the car door and stumbled out. Looking down, a layer of fine, dense patterns had emerged on the back of his hand, looking exactly like the scales of an aquatic creature...

"Heaven is angry, thunder and rain cover the sky; this is truly the time for you monsters to reveal your true forms."

Just then, a cold, light laugh came from afar.

Yu Fu leaned against the car and looked up. Strong winds whipped up dust; at the end of the road, two Daoist priests walked slowly, one with fair skin, the other tall and thin.

"Daoist brats from Mount Qingcheng..."

Seeing the newcomers, a cold light flashed in Yu Fu's slightly sunken eyes.

"I am Daoist Xu Qinglai, this is my junior brother Lan Tingzhu." The fair-skinned Daoist held an oil-paper umbrella in his hand, polite and refined, a faint, elusive smile on his face.

"Senior brother, why say so much to this old fish demon?"

Lan Tingzhu snorted coldly, his gaze like a sword, locking onto Yu Fu: "Evil beast, you were lucky back then to escape Sichuan and survive in this Jiangnan land until now..."

"Now, that rebellious disciple of Mount Zhenwu is gone, who else can protect you?"

As he spoke, a purple copper bell at Lan Tingzhu's waist swayed gently, emitting a crisp, ethereal sound.

That sound was extremely penetrating even amidst the deafening thunder.

"Demon-Suppressing Bell!"

Yu Fu's expression changed abruptly. In his ears, the bell sound became increasingly rapid, and its frequency grew higher and higher.

His breathing also became heavier, his whole body trembling, the tiny scales on the back of his hands gradually becoming vivid and constantly spreading toward his limbs.

"Roar..."

Just then, Yu Fu let out a low roar, like a beast of the mountains and seas, not sounding like a human voice at all.

"Tsk tsk, you are indeed a beast from the water; this thundery weather is your dead end..." Xu Qinglai smiled slightly.

"Come back to Mount Qingcheng with me, and you might still keep a remnant of your life."

"Return to Mount Qingcheng? To be raised like a piglet?"

Long nails grew from Yu Fu's palms, gleaming with a chilling cold light, and they pierced deeply into the hood of the Five-Spirit Wuling Hongguang.

"You still want to fight back?" Xu Qinglai sneered.

"Little ghost, when Old Yu was overturning rivers and seas, you were still drinking milk."

Rumble...

As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Fu let out a long howl. A layer of pale red fine scales grew on his face. Strong winds surged, whipping up the moisture in the air, surging around his body and forming a mist tide.

The thunder in the sky became even more terrifying, black clouds pressing down, mountain rain about to fall.

A terrifying weather phenomenon soared into the sky.

"That is..."

Lan Tingzhu's expression changed slightly. He actually saw a black shadow in the mist tide around Yu Fu, a huge body coiled, horns sharp, like a dragon overturning rivers, like a Great Demon overturning seas.

"Walking dragon transforms into a dragon, wind and rain collapse the mountains!!!"

Xu Qinglai's gaze narrowed into a line, a look of solemnity appearing on his fair face.

"Evil obstacle, you dare to perform this demon art in Yujing City; between heaven and earth, there will be no place for you to stay. If I don't kill you, Heaven will punish you."

As he spoke, Xu Qinglai shook the oil-paper umbrella in his hand, and a sound of sword humming echoed between heaven and earth.

Seeing this, Lan Tingzhu sneered and slowly retreated to the side.

He knew that this evil obstacle in front of him was going to fight for his life, but if he dared to reveal his true form and perform demon arts in a human city, that was a major taboo and would surely be punished by the Daoist sects. Even if the King of Heaven came, he couldn't protect him.

Moreover, this evil obstacle might not be able to block his senior brother's "Umbrella Sword."

This was a dead-end situation with no way forward or back.

Rumble...

The mist tide around Yu Fu became even thicker, dark as ink, the wild tide surging, actually wrapping his entire figure inside.

"He has already invited his own death." Xu Qinglai sneered, holding the oil-paper umbrella, and took a step forward.

"Old Yu, you really shouldn't have come out in this weather."

Just then, a slow, indifferent voice came from afar.

Lightning tore through the sky; under the brilliant thunder, a figure rode a shared bike and drove slowly over. Who else could it be but Zhang Fan?

(End of Chapter)