A villain so thoroughly rotten that they made enemies of the entire world wasn’t actually that great a threat.
The Saint Sect would need very little effort to eliminate someone like that.
That was because even the Demonic Sect couldn’t stand such beings and would secretly pass information to the Saint Sect, hoping to borrow their blade.
The Saint Sect was happy to act as that blade, anyway.
Since such scum would need to be dealt with eventually, having the Demonic Sect cooperate even slightly was a nice bonus.
Over the years, plenty of Demonic Sect Heavenly Talents had been purged for exactly this reason.
But a villain with charisma, one who cared for subordinates and won people’s hearts—that was a true bane to the Right Path.
Let someone like that develop, and they might just become a ruler of the Magic Path, elevating it once more to a height where it could stand toe-to-toe with the Right Path.
“But such demonic figures are rare, so rare that to this day, only a handful of Demonic Sect leaders have ever achieved it.”
Linglong began counting on her fingers, reciting the names of those infamous Magic Path rulers who had left their marks on history.
Hua Jian didn’t recognize most of them, but she’d heard a few of their epithets.
Many popular novels these days liked to use them as background material.
Like the inheritance left behind by the Sun-Devouring Demon Lord, or the weapon once wielded by the Sky-Shrouding Demon Saint…
“And then there’s one more I’m not quite sure how to classify. She’s the only one among them who ever unified all of the Magic Path under her command, yet the Demonic Cultivators refuse to acknowledge her as one of their great rulers.”
Linglong hesitated before adding those final words.
“When she was still alive, Demonic Cultivators had to stay quietly within the territory she’d demarcated. They couldn’t roam freely to plunder. Many said she was a traitor to the Magic Path, that she was groveling before the Right Path.”
Hua Jian shook her head. Why did that sound so familiar?
Hadn’t she heard a similar story before?
Right, it was about that legendary shared ancestor of Jade Pool and Wanhuagu—the supreme Grand Elder of the Qian Family in the Northern Territory!
“But she did govern the Magic Path for a very long time. No matter how much the Demonic Cultivators want to deny it, they can’t erase the traces of history.”
“So what was that Ancestor really thinking?” Hua Jian asked, puzzled.
Surely she couldn’t have genuinely wanted evil people to turn over a new leaf.
As far as Hua Jian was concerned, the way to deal with these magic cultivators was to show no mercy and kill them all.
“I’m not sure. Perhaps the Ancestor foresaw an imminent crisis and tried to reduce the internal strife between the Right and Magic Paths, so that everyone could join hands against the Demon invasion later.”
The Ancestor’s contributions absolutely couldn’t be ignored when it came to the Right Path and Magic Path joining forces against the Demon invasion.
Without her years of effort, the two sides would probably still be fighting each other when the Demons came.
And there would have been even more traitors among the Human Clan.
“When you become an immortal later, you can go ask the Ancestor yourself. She’d probably answer your question.” Linglong smiled and offered Hua Jian a suggestion.
It wasn’t like the Ancestor was dead. She was still up there in the heavens watching over her descendants.
Hua Jian might not be a descendant of Jade Pool, but she was the Saintess of Wanhuagu, which technically made her a successor of that Ancestor too.
She figured the Ancestor wouldn’t mind answering a small question from a junior.
“Eh, I’ll pass…” Hua Jian shook her head vigorously. How long would it take for her to become an immortal? At least a few hundred years, right?
A few hundred years from now, she definitely wouldn’t be bothered by such questions anymore.
“They’ve got the corpse crystal. So next, they’ll go pull the gate. But they don’t have enough time anymore.”
Hua Jian steered the topic back to Tianmomen. After a hard-fought battle, Youye had smoothly claimed the Demon Corpse Crystal.
At the same time, the eyes watching the gate point outside sent Hua Jian news that two Tianmomen cultivators were attempting to pull the gate.
Except… those two Tianmomen cultivators trying to pull the gate ran into an unexpectedly fierce assault.
It was those five despairing Demonic Cultivators. They had interrupted the Tianmomen cultivators’ progress on pulling the gate.
Just as two people could interrupt five people’s gate-pulling, five people could just as easily interrupt two Tianmomen cultivators’.
Through all the skirmishes these past days, those five Demonic Cultivators’ hostility toward Tianmomen had sunk deep into their bones.
Now that they saw Tianmomen disciples trying to pull the gate and leave, how could they just stand there watching like idiots?
You want us dead? Then how can we just watch you dust yourselves off and waltz away?
Either way, we’re dying. We might as well fight you bastards to the end!
And this directly caused a major problem for Tianmomen’s gate-pulling plan. Two people genuinely couldn’t fend off attacks from five.
Helpless, they had no choice but to request Youye to bring the main force over for support.
But all that back-and-forth time silently drained away the remaining duration of Mechanism No. 1.
When one of the two indicator lights beside the third mechanism went out, the Tianmomen cultivators began to panic.
They deeply regretted not being more decisive and killing those five rats outright.
Granted, they’d tried before and found they couldn’t break through, so they’d left the five rats alone.
But that didn’t stop them from feeling remorse and anger now.
With Mechanism No. 1 dead, they’d have to go re-pull the gate, wasting a huge amount of time again.
A vague sense of foreboding lingered in their hearts. Turning to look at the sky already half-devoured by the Colored Foliage, a thought surfaced unbidden.
Was there really still time?
Even at the fastest speed, they’d still need over two days to get out of the Secret Realm after activating the mechanisms.
But the Secret Realm’s duration was looking seriously insufficient.
“Where’s all that confidence from earlier? Laugh again! Look down on us again!”
The five Demonic Cultivators, knowing full well they had no hope of escape, had completely let loose.
So what if they died? Dying was no big deal.
If they could drag these Demonic Sect cultivators down with them, they wouldn’t die at a loss!
“Since you bullies gang up on us and refuse to spare our lives, we’ll drag you all to hell with us!”
“Bastards! Once our boss gets here, she’ll cut you into a thousand pieces!”
The two Tianmomen cultivators were furious, but there was nothing they could do for the moment.
The numerical gap was too large. They’d relied on outnumbering their enemies to break through the Secret Realm; now the enemy had more numbers.
The two of them could only defend, not attack.
All they could do was wait for the main force to arrive and surround them.
The five Demonic Cultivators were clever, too. After confirming that the third mechanism was useless even if activated, they left without any hesitation.
The two cultivators didn’t even need to guess what they were planning.
With the third mechanism no longer worth defending, they were definitely heading off to set up ambushes at the other mechanism points.
Either way, they certainly weren’t going to do anything good.
Enemies who wanted to live were scary enough. But enemies who didn’t care about living, who only wanted to drag you down with them—those were terrifying.
And now, Tianmomen was facing exactly that kind of enemy.
The root cause? Those Demonic Cultivators’ paranoid, contemptuous attitude.
They mocked everyone they met, kept stabbing verbal knives into their hearts, and dripped with scorn in every word.
Like they were saying: you garbage should just stay rotting in the trash bin where you belong.
We Demonic Cultivators are the real elites, so we should annihilate you without mercy.
And now? The little rats had discovered that these lofty Demonic Sect cultivators also needed to beg them for a way out of the Secret Realm.
Fine. You look down on us? Then let’s just burn it all down. They’d love to see how long it took the Tianmomen cultivators to wipe them out.
As long as they stalled until the moment this Saintess cultivator started her final move, they could easily earn these Demonic Cultivators’ trust and get them to cooperate.
Whether to backstab them later was a problem for later. At least it wouldn’t be as awkward as this, right?
Of course, the two Tianmomen cultivators wouldn’t tell Youye any of that.
In their account, it was all those five Demonic Cultivators’ fault—they showed no sincerity for cooperation whatsoever.
Blustering and mocking to their faces?
Never happened!
We’re senior Spirit Kings of Tianmomen. Why would we ever stoop to such a degrading act?
During that time, we said everything there was to say—sweet words and harsh ones—but the other side just wouldn’t listen.
They kept trying to pull the gate and leave no matter what, so we had no choice but to stop them.
And stopping them made them fly into a rage, swearing to fight us to the death.
That’s why, when we later tried to pull the gate, they blocked us with the intent of mutual destruction.
Every single mistake was those people’s fault. We two had nothing to do with any of it!
Youye didn’t overthink this explanation. She knew there wasn’t much truth in it, but she didn’t care whether there were more lies than truths.
She just needed to know there were still five enemies inside the Secret Realm.
Those five enemies weren’t strong—they could only trade blows with her Demonic Cultivators.
The squads she commanded would easily deal with them.
“You take two people and go directly to Mechanism Point Four to reset all the mechanisms. I’ll lead the main force to Mechanism Point One.” Youye quickly divided her forces.
She still had some strength left. Splitting into two groups—one heading to Mechanism Point Four, one charging toward Mechanism Point One—would save the most time.
By the time the fourth point’s mechanisms were activated, they’d be at the first point and could activate it immediately.
If they could wipe out those five rats at the fourth point, then one of the two cultivators originally at the third point could split off to the second point and pull the gate without pressure.
Mechanisms one through four seamlessly activated—that was the best gate-pulling plan!
Youye was confident in this plan. Even against fierce resistance, she was certain she could activate all the Secret Realm’s mechanisms within a day.
And the transmission gate would open no later than the thirteenth day of the Secret Realm’s opening.
Wanhuagu said the Secret Realm would be open for fifteen days. I’m leaving on day thirteen—nice and safe, right?
But she probably never imagined that a certain Wanhua Saintess would blow up the gate points ahead of time.
Soon, the Tianmomen squad charging toward Gate Point One encountered an ambush in a spot that looked utterly unsuitable for an ambush.
The five Demonic Cultivators went berserk, unleashing their firepower wildly. They weren’t just using Spirit Tools—they were using their very lives.
“These lunatics are burning their Origin Essence?!” Youye hadn’t expected this. In that instant, the Tianmomen squad was pinned in place, unable to move.
In terms of raw strength, Tianmomen had nothing to fear from these five Rogue Cultivators. But who could have guessed these maniacs would pull out Heaven and Earth Same Longevity the moment they met?
When burning Origin Essence, a cultivator’s combat power jumped up an entire tier, allowing a mid-stage Spirit King to briefly contend with a late-stage Spirit King.
But the cost was astronomical.
Burn it for a little while, and your cultivation permanently dropped. Burn it longer, and you turned to ash.
Compared to self-destructing, burning Origin Essence didn’t have the same instantaneous burst power, but since the cultivator could still use Spirit Tools and Spirit Techniques during the process, the total damage dealt was far greater than a single self-destruct blast.
It was ultimately a life-or-death gambit. No normal cultivator would ever casually use such a move, let alone at the very start of a fight.
“Die! You’re all dying! You’re coming with us to the grave! Hahahaha!”
The five Demonic Cultivators frantically hurled every Spirit Technique they had at the Tianmomen cultivators—techniques they normally treasured and would never waste.
But now, they just wanted to throw them all with abandon.
They were going to die anyway. What was wrong with having one last thrill?
Not enough mana? No problem. Their HP was their mana.
When the mana ran out, they’d die—but at least it was more peaceful than being killed by someone else.
The Tianmomen cultivators naturally had no idea why they were so frenzied. Because what Tianmomen saw was the valley that had already been swallowed whole.
After leaving Gate Point Three, those five cultivators had rushed back to Gate Point One, planning to ambush the Tianmomen cultivators there and stop those bastards from pulling the gate and leaving.
But they never needed to lift a finger—Gate Point One had already been blown to pieces. There was no way to activate it at all.
The five Demonic Cultivators saw death coming.
But they’d never planned to leave this Secret Realm alive anyway.
So after confirming Gate Point One couldn’t be restored, they immediately made their decision: fight Tianmomen to the very last breath. Mutual destruction!
Cough, not self-destruction—self-immolation. The result was similar, but the latter would disgust the Tianmomen cultivators far more.
Think about it. You struggle through hell and finally kill five enemies who wanted to drag you into suicide.
Overjoyed, you think you can finally pull the gate and leave in peace.
Then you turn around—and boom. The gate point is gone.
The path out of the Secret Realm is completely severed.
Sure. You won. You survived to the end. But what does that get you?
You still can’t get out. That’s the true horror of this Secret Realm.
Surviving to the end doesn’t make you the victor.
Only those who walk out alive are the victors.
This was a game where no one could win and everyone was trapped.
In the final frenzy of those five Demonic Cultivators, several more Tianmomen cultivators were wounded.
Fortunately, their defense held, and no one died.
After the commotion of those five Demonic Cultivators burning themselves out had mostly dealt with the lunatics blocking their path, Youye immediately commanded her Demonic Cultivator subordinates to move out and finish off all those madmen blocking the way.
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