22: I've stumbled upon a demon empress! This is a huge win!

The Blood Fiend Sect was gone.

This cancer, which had lorded over the Eastern Wasteland for over a thousand years, was completely erased from the map by Li Daoxuan with a single tree branch.

By the time Li Daoxuan and his three Disciples had finished looting the Blood Fiend Sect's treasury (though there wasn't much good stuff) like a swarm of locusts, dawn was just beginning to break.

“Revered Master, we've hit the jackpot this time!”

Shi Tian excitedly carried a burlap sack larger than himself, filled with all sorts of glittering Spirit Stones and minerals, clinking and clanking as he ran.

Xiao Chen carried a large chest filled with Cultivation Techniques and Secret Manuals, unable to hide the joy on his face.

Only Leng Yanran remained cold and indifferent as ever, though there was a hint of an indescribable fervor in the way she looked at Li Daoxuan.

“What jackpot?”

Li Daoxuan curled his lips in a look of utter disdain.

“This pile of scrap metal isn't even enough for Da Huang to sharpen his teeth on.”

“A Sect with a thousand-year Legacy having only this much to its name... it deserved to be destroyed.”

Despite his verbal disdain, his body was very honest as he casually stuffed everything the Disciples had looted into the System space.

Even a mosquito's leg is meat, after all.

“Alright, back to the Sect.”

With a wave of his hand, Li Daoxuan summoned that broken wooden sword that looked like it would fall apart at any moment and flew back with everyone on board, wobbling through the air.

On the way back, to continue practicing 'The Way of Hiding', Li Daoxuan intentionally slowed down, flying even slower than a turtle.

As they passed over a deserted mass grave, he was just about to take a nap.

“Beep— Beep— Beep—!!!”

A piercing red alarm, like an air-raid siren, exploded in Li Daoxuan's mind without warning.

The sound was so loud it nearly jolted his Divine Soul right out of his body.

“Holy crap?!”

Li Daoxuan was so startled he nearly fell off the Flying Sword.

“System, what kind of crazy are you being now? Are you going to explode?”

The cold mechanical voice carried an unprecedented gravity as it issued an emergency prompt:

【Warning! Warning!】

【Detected an SSS-grade ultra-high potential target in the area directly below!】

【This target's Luck is so dense it far exceeds the sum of all the host's current Disciples!】

【The target is currently in a state of severe injury and near death. Life signs are rapidly fading. Estimated remaining survival time: fifteen minutes!】

【Strongly suggest the host immediately proceed with a rescue! Missing this Opportunity will result in a lifetime of regret for the host!】

SSS-grade?!

Even more impressive than Xiao Chen and Shi Tian combined?!

Li Daoxuan's eyes instantly lit up like two-thousand-watt lightbulbs.

All traces of sleepiness vanished in an instant.

“Stop, stop, stop!”

He slammed his hand onto the Flying Sword, causing it to brake so hard it nearly threw Shi Tian off its back.

“Revered Master, what happened?” Xiao Chen asked, looking bewildered.

Li Daoxuan didn't speak, he just stared intently at the eerie mass grave below. His eyes were like a wolf that hadn't eaten for three days spotting a fat sheep.

He took a deep breath and pinched his fingers together, feigning profoundness.

“As your Revered Master, I have observed the celestial portents and calculated with my fingers.”

“This place... holds a great Opportunity!”

With that, he steered the Flying Sword and landed directly on the foul-smelling mass grave.

“Revered Master, isn't this just a place for burying dead people? What kind of Opportunity could be here?” Shi Tian pinched his nose, looking disgusted.

Li Daoxuan ignored him, following the purplish-red light on the System radar until he stopped beside a newly dug pit.

Beside the pit was a haphazard pile of corpses, mostly refugees in tattered clothes.

“System, are you sure it's here?” Li Daoxuan asked internally. “The smell is way too strong.”

【The target is three feet beneath the pile of corpses!】

Li Daoxuan no longer hesitated.

He rolled up his sleeves and, bolstered by the power of an Emperor, his hands acted like an excavator as he began digging through the pile of corpses.

Xiao Chen and Shi Tian watched, dumbfounded.

Was Revered Master... digging up a grave?

Only Leng Yanran, watching her Revered Master's practiced movements, was lost in thought: It seems Revered Master is also a fellow traveler, quite well-versed in the process of destroying evidence and burying bodies.

“Found her!”

After tossing aside several corpses, Li Daoxuan's fingertips brushed against a patch of cold, soft fabric.

He gave a forceful tug.

A black figure covered in blood and filth was dragged out from the pile of dead bodies.

It was a woman.

Her black, tight-fitting night-suit was tattered and torn, her body covered in wounds deep enough to see bone, and she wore a broken silver half-mask on her face.

Despite her wretched state, one could tell from her exquisite figure and the perfect jawline visible beneath the mask that she was an absolute beauty.

“Tsk tsk tsk, how tragic.”

Li Daoxuan shook his head, but the excitement in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

【Target: Leng Yanran】

【Identity: Reincarnation of the Ancient Demon Empress (Severely injured and near death)】

【Potential Rating: SSS+】

Li Daoxuan's heart pounded wildly.

An Empress!

And from the Demon Realm!

If he could swindle a big shot Reincarnation of this level into becoming his Disciple, what kind of rewards would be returned?

Immortal Artifacts?

Or Divine Techniques?

“Massive profit! This wave is an absolute massive profit!”

Li Daoxuan suppressed his wild joy and, looking at Leng Yanran who was barely breathing, made a decisive choice.

Save her!

He had to save her!

He pulled a jade bottle from his robes and poured out a still-warm 'Nine-Turn Soul-Returning Pill' he had snatched from the Blood Fiend Sect's treasury.

While this thing couldn't compare to the divine medicines produced by the System, it could still bring someone back from the brink of death.

“Come on, open up, time for your medicine.”

Li Daoxuan pried open Leng Yanran's mouth, intending to stuff the Medicinal Pill inside.

However.

Just as his fingers were about to touch those cold lips.

A sudden change occurred!

“Swish!”

The woman, who should have been unconscious, snapped her eyes open!

What kind of eyes were those?

Cold, bloodthirsty, and devoid of any human emotion, as if a high-and-mighty god or demon were looking down upon an ant.

With a speed completely inconsistent with her heavily injured body, she raised her hand like a lightning bolt, her five fingers like hooks, dead-locking Li Daoxuan's wrist!

Her fingernails were as black as ink, clearly coated in lethal poison.

If Li Daoxuan dared to move an inch, that toxin would instantly invade his Meridians.

“Who... are you?”

Leng Yanran's voice was raspy, yet filled with a chilling killing intent.

She only had one last shred of strength left; this strike was her final attempt to take her enemy down with her.

Xiao Chen and Shi Tian were shocked by the sight and were about to step forward.

“Stay back.”

Li Daoxuan spoke calmly, stopping his two Disciples.

He looked down at the pale, weak hand gripping him tightly. Instead of panicking, he showed a playful smile.

His wrist didn't budge an inch.

Those poisonous nails, capable of piercing metal and stone, couldn't even scratch his skin.

“Miss.”

Li Daoxuan looked up, meeting those cold eyes, his tone as relaxed as if he were greeting an old friend.

“This isn't how you pull a scam, is it?”

“I haven't even fed you the medicine yet, and you're already trying to extort me?”