Chapter 249: They Are Fodder

"Xishan, it truly is a beautiful place with magnificent scenery!"

After basically confirming the location of the Hehuan Sect, Shen Yu headed straight for Xishan and found the valley mentioned by the Black-Clad Guard.

The valley was like spring all year round, with hundreds of flowers in full bloom; it was indeed a good place. If one observed carefully, one could still see some traces of Mechanisms here.

These Mechanisms were arranged quite ingeniously, hidden within the natural environment; ordinary people would never notice them, but they could not deceive Shen Yu, who possessed the skill of a Master of Mechanisms.

After studying these Mechanisms for a moment and roughly figuring out the situation, Shen Yu directly turned the Mechanism. Accompanied by a slight sound, a giant rock shifted its position, revealing a passage inside.

Before the people inside could react, Shen Yu easily executed the disciples guarding the gate, and then walked inside in a grand manner.

In any case, he was here to kill, so he did not care if he was exposed. Even if the people of the Hehuan Sect realized he had come, so what? At worst, he would just kill his way in.

Even if he had to kill from beginning to end, it would be nothing more than a bit of effort. The only thing to worry about was if the Hehuan Sect had other secret passages; if one or two managed to escape, that would not be ideal.

However, Shen Yu seemed to be a bit overly cautious. As he walked all the way in, apart from the disciples guarding the gate, he did not encounter anyone else, nor did anyone realize that a stranger had already arrived on their turf.

Crossing the passage, a wide-open view appeared before his eyes. This valley actually contained another world; inside was the true base of the Hehuan Sect.

In here, Shen Yu also saw many people coming and going. How should he put it? The scene inside was different from what he had imagined.

In his mind, the men here would surely be effeminate, and the women bewitching. But in reality, the female disciples walking about did not have the slightest hint of seductiveness; instead, they appeared to have a sense of pure, flawless innocence.

This aura was just like that of the Suxin Pavilion disciples he had seen before. It was the kind of feeling that made one's heart skip a beat at a single glance.

With such temperament, they would be top-tier beauties anywhere; it was no wonder they could make the Prefect Jiang He and the Hundred-Household of the Black-Clad Guard unable to stop themselves and obey every word.

And the men here also looked tall and upright, full of masculinity at first glance, yet their faces did not lack delicacy. How to put it? They were the standard faces that women liked.

Walking further in, Shen Yu also saw a large number of famine victims kept together, but the situation here was again different from what he had imagined.

In his mind, these famine victims would surely suffer inhuman torture once they arrived here. But now, it looked like these people were being served good food and drink, showing no signs of being abused at all.

Moreover, looking at these famine victims, some even seemed reluctant to leave, or even addicted to it, their faces filled with happiness.

If he were to say he had come to save them now, they might even rise up and resist. After all, if anyone touched their wonderful life, they would fight for their lives!

However, there were a large number of Hehuan Sect disciples guarding these famine victims; it was no wonder their defenses seemed so weak. With so many disciples dispatched here, how could they have the energy to care about anything else?

"Senior Brother, these people are just a group of famine victims. I really don't know why we have to feed them so well. Even we don't get to eat these Medicinal Meals usually!"

"And those highly nourishing Spirit Medicines they use daily—we rarely get them issued to us, yet these one or two thousand famine victims get to eat them every day. Aren't they afraid of being nourished to death?"

"Just to keep these famine victims alive, the daily consumption of Spirit Medicine alone is an astronomical figure. Is our Hehuan Sect really that rich?"

While distributing the day's meals to everyone, one of them spoke with extreme dissatisfaction, his face full of impatience.

As a disciple of the Hehuan Sect, he found that what he ate and used was not as good as these famine victims brought from outside; the psychological gap was easy to imagine.

These Medicinal Meals, these pills—he wanted them too. Without a way to go out and perform Harvesting Techniques, these were the good things for him to improve quickly!

"What do you know? If we don't nourish them, how can they be of use to me!"

With a soft snort, the older Senior Brother beside him said indifferently: "What do you think these people were caught for? You're still envying them?"

"To tell you the truth, in a month at most, out of these one or two thousand people, at most ten or so will successfully survive!"

"Ten or so? Why?" Looking at these famine victims eating heartily with happy expressions, he found it hard to understand why, after spending so many resources to support them, only ten or so would survive in the end.

"Still don't get it? Why are you so stupid? Have you heard of Gu Raising?" Looking toward the direction of the famine victims, the Senior Brother's face was full of sarcasm. "This is Gu Raising!"

"These people were carefully selected from hundreds of thousands of famine victims for their aptitude. Besides feeding them these nourishing medicines every day, there are people teaching them Harvesting Techniques so they can harvest each other!"

"Our Cultivation Method, Harvesting Yin to Replenish Yang, Harvesting Yang to Replenish Yin—whoever can harvest the other survives. And those who survive are the strongest!"

"Hmph!" With a cold laugh, the older Senior Brother revealed a cruel smile, completely ruining the face that still looked somewhat handsome.

"Within a month, these people will harvest each other until only ten or so remain. These are the ones the Sect Master truly needs!"

"Nourished daily with supplements, then harvesting each other with Harvesting Techniques... this, this..." As if he suddenly understood the meaning behind it, it had to be said, this plan was too crazy.

"Senior Brother, this isn't right. Making them harvest each other and kill each other within a month—the time is too short!"

"This can indeed select the strongest disciples with the best aptitude. But the rapid increase in strength will inevitably lead to an unstable foundation; their future achievements will likely be limited!"

"Achievements? What achievements do they need?"

"Aren't they the disciples we are finally selecting from these nearly two thousand people?"

"Disciples? Hahaha, you think too highly of them!" As if he had heard some joke, the older Senior Brother couldn't help but laugh out loud, his laughter full of mockery.

"Our Hehuan Sect has never had a plan to select disciples. They are not disciples; they are fodder—the Sect Master's fodder!"

"Do you know that the Sect Master has reached a bottleneck and needs a large amount of fodder to break through? And they are the fodder that our Hehuan Sect has poured everything into cultivating, to be used for the Sect Master's breakthrough!"

"Fodder?" His expression froze, and then, as if he suddenly understood everything, he realized this was the sect's true intention.

With their Cultivation Method, harvesting other experts was not something that could be done overnight. Every expert possessed extremely strong essence, Qi, and spirit, and none were easy to deal with.

Harvesting them would inevitably leave behind certain residues of essence, Qi, and spirit in the harvested power, which required time to refine before it could be used for oneself.

And for the Sect Master to break through the bottleneck, he needed to acquire the strongest and most abundant fodder in the shortest possible time. Harvesting those famous experts was clearly the worst strategy. Not only did it require time to refine, but one never knew who might be offended.

But these people were different. As famine victims, they had no foundation whatsoever, and the Cultivation Method taught by the Hehuan Sect was of the same root and origin as their own.

Moreover, because these people improved rapidly, their foundations were unstable, and they had not yet formed their own momentum or their own powerful spirit. If they were harvested, there would be no worries at all.

And he also knew clearly that the number of famine victims kept by the sect was far more than just this. In this way, one could easily obtain a large amount of power and thus successfully break through the bottleneck.

Sure enough, the higher-ups in the sect were smarter than him; no wonder he was still a low-level disciple!