Chapter 799

The third Mirage Demon did not hold out for long. Just three days after Wei Yuan left, the True Person Chuhe sent word again, saying that this Mirage Demon was prepared to surrender but wanted to talk to Wei Yuan first.

Although it was a creature of the grotto-heaven, it was at least at the mid-stage Master Yu Jing, and after manifesting, it could hold its own against those who had just entered the Master Yu Jing in this realm. Thus, Wei Yuan gave it sufficient respect and rushed over as soon as he received the message.

Seeing the True Person Chuhe, Wei Yuan asked, "What methods did you use that he submitted so quickly? What does he want to talk to me about?"

The True Person Chuhe laughed: "Of the three Mirage Demons, the two that surrendered first were female, and this one is male, said to be wild-born. Since this male refused to surrender, I let the two females deal with him. The methods—tsk tsk, even I, an old Daoist, had my eyes opened! It's only been a little over a day, and he's already submitted."

Now that he had hundreds of thousands of Mirage Demons under his command, Wei Yuan had learned quite a bit about their customs. Mirage Demons hold females in high regard and are particularly particular about lineage. The number of male demons in the tribe is scarce, their strength is average, and they basically only serve as tools for reproduction. For this male demon to be able to cultivate to the mid-stage Master Yu Jing is definitely an anomaly.

Wei Yuan became interested in him and said to Chuhe, "Take me to see him."

At this time, the male demon was locked in a separate pond. He had shed his outer shell and was kneeling in the shallow pool, his long hair disheveled, his face truly beautiful beyond description. It was just that from a human perspective, it was hard to distinguish his gender.

Seeing Wei Yuan, a flash of resentment crossed his eyes, and he gritted his teeth: "What a ruthless method!"

Wei Yuan stood still by the pool and said, "The ruthless one is not me, but your own tribesmen."

A twisted expression that did not belong to a human appeared on the male demon's face, and he shouted, "They are not demons! They are not worthy! I, I..."

"Do you want to take revenge?" Wei Yuan asked.

The male demon's expression shifted, and after a moment, he said, "Forget it."

"You said you wanted to talk to me. I am here now. What do you want to talk about?"

The male demon was silent for a moment before saying, "According to Mirage Demon tradition, I am wild-born. We were all born of the same father and mother, conceived at the same time. Half of my other brothers and sisters took human form innately, and the other half took human form before their time limit. Only I exceeded the limit for developing intelligence and taking human form by three days. My parents thought I disgraced the family name, so they abandoned me in the wild.

Later, my sister secretly found me and gave me cultivation techniques. We male demons have no status whatsoever, and even more so since I was wild-born, so the days that followed were mostly... difficult.

To protect me, my sister suffered many humiliations herself, and even... even was mocked by other male demons! Later on, I broke through the limits of my family's talent and achieved success in cultivation, so I killed the enemies of the past one by one."

Wei Yuan listened quietly, feeling nothing for this tragic story. There are too many tragic creatures in the world. Wei Yuan feels that only when the creatures under his command live tragically is it worth paying attention to.

The male demon rambled on for a long time, nothing more than how he was bullied in various ways by female demons and other male demons. Many of these methods were truly unimaginable; even the old Daoist felt his eyes were opened. If written into a storybook, it would surely be all the rage for a time.

Finally, the male demon put forward his own request: if his sister could be found, she must be brought over so they could be reunited.

Wei Yuan said, "No problem! Name, address, appearance, Primordial Spirit aura."

An image of a female demon appeared before the male demon, also born extremely beautiful, and equally difficult to distinguish by gender.

"My name is Shuqing, and my sister is Shuyan, a late-stage Dharma Form."

Wei Yuan recorded the Primordial Spirit aura and then took out a blood contract and an oath template, saying, "If you have no other requests, let's get the paperwork done."

Shuqing said, "I have one more request! In the future, if I am unwilling, those two guys cannot touch me!"

"No problem."

Only then did Shuqing sign his name on the blood contract and leave his Primordial Spirit aura. Immediately, an eight-legged blood spider jumped out of the blood contract and pounced into Shuqing's brow.

Shuqing was greatly astonished, not expecting this blood contract to have such a high status; once violated, the backlash would definitely cost him his life. As for the oath, it was all a unified template, full of obligations and breach of contract responsibilities, with no rights.

Having had the experience of fighting against the Holy Heart, Wei Yuan had particularly little confidence in the binding power of oaths. Since he was dealing with Master Yu Jing Mirage Demons, Wei Yuan did not dare to be careless and specially took several leaves of the Red Lotus Bodhi covered in karmic debt to make the blood contract paper, and the effectiveness was indeed exceptionally terrifying.

If Shuqing dared to break his oath, that blood spider could at least gnaw away most of his Mind-Reflection World. Having subdued Shuqing, Wei Yuan immediately saw a wisp of faint aura emerge from Shuqing's body and then merge into his own. As this invisible aura entered his body, the Human Realm's mortal world vibrated slightly, and its vitality rose a notch.

Wei Yuan did not expect this male demon's contribution to be so great, almost catching up to the sum of hundreds of thousands of Mirage Demons. It seems that among the Mirage Demon tribe, this one is also a bona fide Son of Fortune.

Wild-born, and a male demon at that—this start was as bad as it could get. If it were a human, it would be like being born in a ruined temple with nothing but a broken bowl in hand.

Mirage Demons are completely different from the tribe of Silver Blade and Lei Ling.

Silver Blade and Lei Ling were transformed from the immortal power of immortals, born from the grotto-heaven's own gestation; in fact, their lives and deaths were controlled by the immortal's single thought, much like those creatures in the Human Realm's mortal world that had not developed spiritual intelligence, or the next generation bred by mortals.

Mirage Demons, however, are creatures that already existed in the world, originally possessing flesh and blood, later suppressed and subdued by immortals, their flesh and blood refined with immortal arts, and cast into the grotto-heaven to be raised.

The fundamental difference between the two is that Lei Ling was achieved because the grotto-heaven's status reached that level. Star Forest, however, became a golden grotto-heaven because it had Mirage Demons.

Therefore, Wei Yuan subduing the Mirage Demons is equivalent to gaining an extra portion of tribal fortune, making the Human Realm's mortal world even more complete.

Correspondingly, whatever Wei Yuan gained, the Left Xianwang lost. Moreover, Wei Yuan also spread a virus targeting Mirage Demons in the Star Forest, almost wiping out the Mirage Demon tribe, which is equivalent to digging a large chunk out of the Left Xianwang's fortune.

Looking back now, Yanshi did not pick the Mirage Demons on a whim, and the Mysterious Yellow Bell immortal technique he gave was not chosen at random; otherwise, why didn't he give the Heaven-Opening Axe, the Three Pure Swords, or the Chaos Spear?

And all this planning and layout started several years ago?

Having subdued the three Master Yu Jing Mirage Demons, Wei Yuan was overjoyed. From now on, his combat power had risen to another level, and he could already wrestle with ordinary Imperial Views.

Wei Yuan was pondering how to settle these Mirage Demons when a chirping sound from the little rooster rang in his consciousness: "Where are you? Quickly, come and help this seat up!"

Wei Yuan immediately entered the Human Realm's mortal world, and with a sweep of his spiritual sense, he saw the little rooster lying on a small island overseas.

This island was scorched black, and in the center, there was actually geothermal magma flowing. Seawater would occasionally splash onto the island, immediately raising a cloud of steam.

In the center of the island grew a fire-red immortal herb about a zhang tall, its leaves burning with faint flames. This was the Flame God Herb; Wei Yuan had specially built a volcanic island to transplant it so it could grow conveniently.

At this time, the little rooster was sprawled under the Flame God Herb, its chicken feet facing the sky, with a leaf pressed against its belly.

That leaf looked light and airy, yet it pressed the little rooster so it couldn't move.

Wei Yuan was slightly startled. He went over, brushed the leaf aside, and picked up the little rooster without any difficulty. That leaf clearly didn't weigh even two taels, yet this little rooster was like a paralyzed creature, unable to break free.

"What is going on?"

The little rooster looked at the Flame God Herb, still shaken: "It's too terrifying, too terrifying! Why didn't you say there was a Flame God Herb here? Don't talk about making a nest; even if a single leaf covers my body, it's so comfortable I want to die! If you hadn't come, this seat could have lain here until the end of time, and my immortal path would have been ruined!"

Wei Yuan was both annoyed and amused, saying, "Then shall we change places?"

"No, I can't stay here anymore. Send me out, or I'll come back here to lie down again."

Wei Yuan hadn't expected the little rooster to have such perseverance, so he carried it out of the Human Realm's mortal world, came to the medicinal garden, set it down, and said, "This is the medicinal garden. It's very large inside, and you can play as you like. Pick whatever you want to eat, but you must tell me if you leave the garden."

The little rooster looked around and was very satisfied with the surroundings, saying, "This place is quite good, a backwater, just right for exercising one's will and polishing one's bones. As for those mediocre medicinal herbs of yours, this seat doesn't care for them; just bring some spirit rice to satisfy my cravings. Cultivation does not rely on external objects; what one cultivates oneself is the true skill!"

Wei Yuan could not agree with this statement.

The founding ancestor of the Creation View had long pointed out that Dao power is Dao power; what one swallows oneself and what is given by pills are no different. Instead, high-grade pills have various other effects besides spiritual energy, which cannot be obtained by individual swallowing. All cultivators who accuse external objects of being useless only do so because they cannot afford them.

(End of chapter)