“Devil?”
“What is a devil? I see only power, longevity, and the hope of advancing further!!”
Fang Xiu suddenly burst into a fit of wild laughter.
But his laughter abruptly stopped as his crimson-tinged, dark pupils swept over the pale faces of the surrounding cultivators, finally locking onto Su Bai, who remained calm and composed.
With resentment in his voice, Fang Xiu growled, “Senior Brother Su, you have Grade B talent—of course your cultivation progresses smoothly. You’ll never understand the pain of stagnation!”
“I was born the legitimate son of the Fang family. Since childhood, my parents told me I was the hope of our family’s rise to a prestigious cultivation clan. But do you know what kind of looks I received the day it was revealed I had Grade C talent? Disappointment, pity, resentment… even schadenfreude. The brighter I once shone, the more humiliating my fall became!”
“But now… I’m no longer the same!”
He stretched his arms wide, embracing the heavens.
No longer hiding his cultivation, a fierce and torrential aura exploded from his body and surged into the skies.
“Family? Kin? They’re all burdens! Better to turn them all into nourishment for my path. From this day forward, I am the Fang family! The Fang family is me!”
“If one prospers, all prosper with him… If I alone reach Foundation Establishment, then the entire Fang family reaches Foundation Establishment; if I alone become Grade A, then the entire Fang family becomes… Grade A!”
At this moment, his aura was fully unleashed—it was Foundation Establishment, early stage, with Grade A talent!
***
“Tsk~”
A mocking voice rang out.
“Quite the motivational backstory, I’ll give you that. But what does any of it have to do with me?”
The words had barely left his mouth when a majestic sword light came crashing down from the heavens, enveloping Fang Xiu in an instant.
Fang Xiu was blasted away like a severed kite, sent flying a hundred meters before slamming heavily into the ground, his body drenched in blood.
Su Bai took a single step forward, and his aura began to surge—
From early-stage Foundation Establishment, to mid-stage…
From mid-stage, to late-stage…
From late-stage… all the way to Foundation Establishment Perfection!
His momentum exploded like a raging tide, revealing a cultivation at the peak of Foundation Establishment.
The sheer force of his spiritual power made the surrounding air tremble violently!
“Master is amazing!” Su Xiaohei cheered excitedly from behind, pumping his fists in the air.
“Su Elder… he’s actually at Foundation Establishment Perfection…” Bai Jiuyi and the others stood dumbfounded, unable to believe their eyes.
The elder long regarded as the most reclusive in the sect turned out to possess such terrifying strength—just one step away from reaching the Golden Core stage.
Fang Xiu lay broken on the ground, his body covered in wounds.
He struggled to rise, black pupils fixed on Su Bai with a gaze that looked as if it could pierce into his soul.
“It seems Senior Brother Su has had his own stroke of fortune over the years. But if you think this is enough to keep me here today—”
As he spoke, Fang Xiu pressed both hands to the ground.
The blood flowing from his wounds began to writhe and twist.
He muttered under his breath, “Eightfold Dread… Homeland of the Nine Hells!”
Suddenly, a wave of blood-soaked demonic energy surged from beneath the earth.
Hundreds of desiccated corpses nearby sank into the ground, and a grotesque, chewing noise echoed ominously.
***
In the next moment, hundreds of monstrous abominations emerged before the crowd.
Twisted and terrifying, their bodies pulsed with crimson light, enveloped in a deadly aura of bloodlust.
These beasts were blood-red from head to toe, their eyes gleaming with feral hunger.
Blood mist coiled around their bodies, striking fear into the hearts of all who saw them.
They opened their gaping maws lined with razor-sharp teeth, letting out savage roars as they lunged toward Su Bai.
“This is… a Bone Yaksha?” Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
Facing the incoming monster, he showed no fear.
With a flick of his longsword, a sharp burst of sword energy shot out, slashing directly toward the Bone Yaksha.
One of the creatures let out a furious roar, blood-colored mist surging around its body as it tried to block the attack.
However, the sword light passed through like a blade through tofu—without resistance, slicing it cleanly in two.
The momentum didn’t stop there; it continued to sweep forward, cutting down dozens more in a flash.
Blood sprayed into the air, staining the ground beneath Su Bai’s feet until a pool of blood had formed around him.
“…What the—”
Su Bai frowned deeply.
‘Too weak. Way too weak. This isn’t what a Bone Yaksha should be like at all.’
As if realizing something, he suddenly turned to look in the direction where Fang Xiu had been.
“Hahaha! Brother Su, we’ll meet again someday—if fate allows!”
Fang Xiu’s voice rang out as he burst into laughter, his body dissolving into a puddle of blood that seeped into the ground.
What had been left here was nothing more than a blood shadow—his real body had long since vanished.
In the next moment, hundreds of sword lights swept through the remaining Yakshas, beheading them all in one devastating barrage.
Grotesque, blood-soaked heads were flung into the air, tracing crimson arcs before crashing to the ground at everyone’s feet.
The stench of blood saturated the entire mountain stronghold.
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances, no one daring to speak.
Su Xiaohei, however, was as carefree as ever, still waving his fists and loudly praising his master.
“Master is invincible!”
His cheer was cut short when a large hand came crashing down on his head.
Suddenly, Su Bai’s gaze fell on one of the blood puddles.
‘That is…’
With a sweep of his robe, he stowed the object away.
***
[You, still groggy from being knocked out by your own pet’s slap, were awakened only to be dragged into a fierce battle.]
[Though you made no real contribution to the fight and ended up letting the enemy escape, you did manage to pick something up—a scroll.]
[No, to be more precise, it was something Fang Xiu intentionally left behind for you.]
[As night falls and your group prepares to spend the night in the mountain stronghold, you casually pick a room and take out the object.]
[The scroll is not made of paper, but of a material both tough and oddly warm to the touch—almost like human skin.]
[It’s written in blood, bearing over a thousand strange characters. At a glance, you recognize its name: Eightfold Terror: Visualization Method of the Blood Sea.]
[There are three major conditions for a cultivator to form a Golden Core: First, reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment. Second, grasping the laws of Heaven and Earth. And third—obtaining a Golden Core secret method.]
[The first two depend on one’s resources and talent. But the third requires connections and background.]
[Why does the Three Mountains Sect have ten Foundation Establishment cultivators but only one Golden Core expert, who’s already near the end of his lifespan?]
[Because the Immortal Alliance strictly controls all Golden Core methods. To break through, one must either pay an astronomical price or pledge their life to serve the Immortal Alliance.]
[And now, Fang Xiu has placed a Golden Core method right in front of you. The message behind this is unmistakable.]
[In some ways, Golden Core methods are considered “cheap,” because anyone can cultivate them. There’s no restriction like with unique immortal techniques.]
[Yet because of the Immortal Alliance, they are also absurdly out of reach. Countless cultivators have lived and died as laborers under their thumb, never gaining access.]
[In your own sect alone, there are several Foundation Establishment cultivators who’ve spent their entire lives begging for such a method—only to end up as glorified workers.]
[Eightfold Terror, born from the Nine Nether Homelands.]
[You have a vague sense that you’ve brushed against something massive—an undercurrent of unimaginable scale is surging beneath the surface.]
***
“Master.”
Just then, a familiar voice called out.
Su Bai looked up and saw a boy of about sixteen or seventeen standing in the doorway.
The young man was handsome, his expression respectful and full of admiration.
His eyes gleamed with joy as he looked at Su Bai—his gaze full of awe and longing.
“What is it?” Su Bai casually slipped the Golden Core scroll into his storage pouch, making no effort to hide it from the boy.
“Master, about earlier today…”
Su Xiaohei hesitantly glanced at Su Bai’s left cheek.
Earlier, when they had found Su Bai unconscious among the crowd, the man had been sleeping soundly.
And in order to wake him up, Su Xiaohei had… resorted to a few methods that weren’t exactly respectful.
Sure enough, as soon as the words left his mouth, Su Bai’s expression darkened.
‘This brat… always knows how to push the wrong buttons.’