181: Chapter 181 Five Years in a Flash, the Calamity of Demonic Cultivators!

...

In the blink of an eye, another five years have passed.

Life in the White Cloud Temple is so dull that it makes people drowsy...

The Sword Cultivator Disciples of the Guiyuan Sword Tomb practice their sword techniques every morning and meditate at sunset.

In the Yun Valley, Disciples inhale the mist and exhale the essence of the sun and moon.

By the lakeside, some Disciples fish while dozing, some inhale the water Qi, some Cultivate in the lake, and others row boats upon it.

In the Valley of Fire Clouds, Disciples inhale the fire Qi and spar with one another. Red fire rages everywhere, controlling the clouds of fire to command the surroundings...

In the various halls of the Southern Mountain Range.

Many Disciples Cultivate various techniques in an orderly fashion, refining all kinds of Medicinal Pills, Formations, and Talismans daily...

These are the cornerstones that maintain the Sect. A significant portion of the annual revenue comes from the various spiritual items produced by the Disciples of these four halls.

The Northern Mountain Range is even more peaceful.

The Five Bear Lineages occupy their respective peaks, cultivating and reproducing as they should.

The four Thunder Bear generals have become accustomed to "mooching off the lightning" beneath the Thunder Pool every few days. Although they are always rolled their eyes by the overflowing pressure from Shi Jian, it truly helps with their cultivation progress.

Kuang Dou's Chijiang Pool is growing daily, with the fire Dao Spiritual Qi rising unceasingly.

That Black Dog is now stable at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage. Every day, besides soaking in the fire pulp to Cultivate, he just counts Spirit Stones...

The Black Dog Clan's small business of selling puppies has grown larger and larger, and their reputation has even spread to the neighboring province, attracting countless Cultivators who come for their fame.

Elder Rat's Wind Path blessed land has seen the wind pillar grow to a length of one zhang and two chi.

Although it still seems a bit meager compared to the Thunder Pool, the growth rate is stable. The first batch of "Wind Mouse" cubs in the clan has also grown up, beginning a new round of reproduction...

Shi Jian's Mid-stage Golden Core cultivation is also becoming increasingly stable.

The purple-gold lightning of the Thunder Pool becomes more refined, and every few months, heavenly lightning strikes down upon him, which is painfully satisfying.

Life just goes on like this.

It is so comfortable that even Shi Jian has started to feel a bit bored...

Until—an urgent order from the Ming Prefecture Protectorate broke this tranquility.

...

"Urgent report from the provincial government!"

Sun Mao, holding a communication Jade Slip, hurried to the Meeting Hall with an ugly expression.

Daoist Yun Du was in the hall reviewing the monthly reports of the various halls. Seeing Sun Mao's appearance, he put down the bamboo slips in his hand and asked, "What happened?"

"A demonic calamity."

Sun Mao handed over the Jade Slip, speaking the two words short and heavy.

Daoist Yun Du took it and immersed his Divine Sense—his expression changed drastically.

...

The cause of the matter must be traced back to the Jin State.

In the years following the end of the Qingcang Kingdom war, although there was peace on the surface, secretly, the Qingcang Kingdom never stopped pressuring the remaining demonic forces in the Jin State.

The Xuanqing Sect and the Taiqing Sect joined forces to deploy heavy troops on the Jin-Wei border, which, although it restrained part of the Shangqing Sect's energy, could not change the situation of the Qingcang Kingdom blockading the Jin State's borders.

Under the three-sided encirclement, the lives of the demonic Sects in the Jin State, such as the Blood Bone Demon Sect, the Wandu Sect, and the Hehuan Valley, were getting worse by the day.

The high-level Nascent Soul demon lords could still linger on their last breaths by relying on their cultivation and foundations.

But the low-to-mid-level demonic Cultivators—those Loose Devils at the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining stages—were already unable to survive. The main reason was that there were too many people and too little land.

Resource allocation was extremely uneven.

Even the Spiritual Veins had been cut off and dug away by the Shangqing Sect back then, markets had been destroyed, and even the various resources needed to refine evil items were in short supply.

Staying in the Jin State was practically waiting for death.

Therefore, over the years, a large number of low-to-mid-level demonic Cultivators began to break up into small groups and sneak into the Qingcang Kingdom...

Some mixed into Mortal towns and lived under assumed names.

Some hid in deep mountains and old forests, barely surviving.

Some even bolder ones directly pretended to be Loose Cultivators, mixed into various markets, started black market businesses, and even killed people everywhere to Cultivate.

These people were scattered across the six provinces of the Qingcang Kingdom.

There were not many of them, and they could not make much of a splash.

The various Protectorates would occasionally purge a batch, but the Qingcang Kingdom was too vast, and it was inevitable that some would slip through the net.

The Nascent Soul Old Ancestors above did not care—they were just a few ants.

But no one expected that among these few "ants," one had actually become a spirit!

...

South of Di Province, the Di Province South Protectorate.

Five months ago.

A Loose Cultivator using the pseudonym "Zhou Yuan" forcibly attempted to break through to Core Formation in an abandoned spiritual mine outside Wuzhou City...

And then, he actually succeeded!

Without heaven and earth qi, he forcibly formed a Golden Core.

Theoretically, this was almost impossible to succeed. For a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to rush to Golden Core without heaven and earth qi was a ten-death-no-life situation; even those with Dual Spiritual Root would only have a glimmer of survival...

But this "Zhou Yuan" did not use a Righteous Path method.

He used a forbidden technique of the Blood Path.

Using the blood sacrifice of a million people as a guide, he forcibly refined a wisp of sinister Qi from the heaven and earth qi mechanism!

To be precise, that was not orthodox heaven and earth qi, but a "Blood Fiend Pseudo-Qi" condensed from the essence and blood of countless living beings!

The quality was inferior, and the sequelae were endless.

Forming a Golden Core with this method meant, firstly, that among those at the same level, he belonged to the weaker batch, and secondly, his future potential...

He would be locked within the Golden Core stage for the rest of his life.

Even wanting to break through again would be as difficult as ascending to heaven...

But, this was enough!

It was enough for him to condense a dirty False Core—though that was not accurate; it could be considered a True Core, but of the lowest quality.

A blood-colored Golden Core cast at the cost of millions of lives!

When the news spread, all forces in the Qingcang Kingdom were shocked.

The Di Province South Protectorate immediately dispatched Golden Core Cultivators to hunt him down, but they came up empty.

After this "Zhou Yuan" formed his Core, his whereabouts were elusive, coming and going like the wind. Relying on his Blood Path evil arts, his escape speed was extremely fast, and he had actually managed to evade three encirclements in a row.

This person's combat power was not strong, but he was just able to escape, slippery as an eel.

And the first thing he did after escaping was not to flee the Qingcang Kingdom, but to contact various parties...

He used some kind of secret method to contact thousands of low-level demonic Cultivators scattered throughout the Qingcang Kingdom, and there were no fewer than several hundred Foundation Establishment demonic Cultivators!

And then, he launched an unprecedentedly crazy blood sacrifice.

It was not one place.

It was more than a dozen places! Launched simultaneously!

Several provinces across the entire Qingcang Kingdom were implicated by this blood sacrifice, causing countless deaths and turning thousands of miles of territory into a desolate ghost realm!

Suddenly, there was an uproar throughout the country.

The various Protectorates were in a panic, and the situation gradually became turbulent.

...