Chapter 128: This Woman Truly Grows Stronger with Every Setback

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Recently, every player who had met an untimely death had fallen victim to an ambush by their sect...

And this was still the relatively safe period after joining a sect.

Once their cultivation had matured and they began completing sect missions, the struggles between sects, the battles for supremacy, and the competition over cultivation resources would usher in the period with the highest mortality rate.

If they were lucky enough to survive that stage, even more crises would await them in succession.

The sects’ exploitation was without end.

From this, it was clear that pursuing the immortal path was even harder than crossing the Road to Shu.

Su Ji’an pulled his thoughts back. Judging by the timing, the Old Demon of Black Mountain should already have reached his destination.

Yet no mission results had been reported. It seemed things had not gone entirely smoothly.

At this moment, the people of the Demonic Path must already be on their way to the place where they were to meet the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.

By that reasoning, the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had most likely already passed the relevant information to the Righteous Alliance in secret.

Su Ji’an shook his head, not particularly optimistic about the matter.

If this had been the real Shen Lianxiang, she would not have been negligent.

But the current Shen Lianxiang was an impostor controlled by the mastermind behind the scenes. The other party probably would not take the matter seriously.

Having the Demonic Path dragged into this would bring him benefits and no harm.

“Should I simply give things a little push?”

After a brief moment of thought, Su Ji’an decided it seemed feasible.

But letting the Old Demon of Black Mountain take action would be far too convenient for the Righteous Alliance.

An idea suddenly struck him, and he quickly came up with a plan.

This was precisely where the Blue Star players he had scattered throughout the world could prove useful.

Su Ji’an selected five of them. Each belonged to a different immortal sect, and each had already secured a modest foothold within their respective sects.

[Seek an audience with your sect master and inform him that Zhao Jiang, vice sect master of the Demonic Path’s Fallen Immortal Sect, will be meeting with the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion in Far Mountain City to plot in secret. They intend to join forces and launch a surprise attack on the Azure Cloud Sect, thereby gradually dismantling the Righteous Alliance.]

[Helpful reminder: If the sect master asks how you learned of this, you may claim that you and four fellow villagers were gathering in the mountains when you personally overheard the Third Elder of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion plotting with several others. You had arrived in the area beforehand, and after sensing someone approaching, you immediately concealed yourselves. That was why the people from the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion failed to notice you.]

[Mission reward: Five Yellow Essence Pills.]

[Mission penalty: Fifty years of life deducted.]

This would ensure that all five of them gave the same account.

Although the story sounded somewhat clumsy, the Righteous Alliance certainly would not remain unmoved.

Once the report was passed upward through the various levels, the number of people who knew about it would only increase.

If other high-ranking members of the Righteous Alliance had also learned of the information secretly transmitted by the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, the two accounts would conveniently corroborate each other.

Su Ji’an let out a soft sigh. For the sake of these foolish players, he had practically exhausted himself.

From here on, he could only leave everything to fate.

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During this period, some of the players who had joined immortal sects had already shed their status as outer disciples.

With the player trading platform and the rewards gained from occasional missions, their resources naturally far exceeded those of ordinary natives.

With such a rate of cultivation, they were naturally highly valued within their respective sects.

...

[Within a single day, the Old Demon of Black Mountain plundered every branch of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion within a radius of five hundred miles—a total of twenty-three. Every person guarding those branches was refined into a spirit soldier.]

That fast?

He had completed the mission beyond all expectations.

Su Ji’an thought to himself, “The Old Demon of Black Mountain is most likely in the Void-Returning Realm. Otherwise, even with the enhancement provided by the Divine Movement Talisman, someone at the Spirit Severing Realm could not possibly have traveled to twenty-one cities in a single day.”

The people of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had not even been spared in death.

This expenditure of fifty thousand spiritual energy points had certainly been worth it.

[The Old Demon of Black Mountain soon arrived at Far Mountain City and easily located the Third Elder of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.]

[The Old Demon of Black Mountain gave a contemptuous laugh before decisively launching a surprise attack on the Third Elder. The Third Elder employed every method at his disposal, but under the might of the Old Demon of Black Mountain’s late Void-Returning cultivation, he was still beaten into retreat.]

[With a grim expression, the Old Demon of Black Mountain immediately unleashed a Soul-Seizing Cord. It restrained the Third Elder’s primordial spirit as he attempted to flee, erased his consciousness, and refined him into a spirit general.]

[The Third Elder of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion is dead.]

[As the two engaged in fierce combat, all of Far Mountain City became a living hell. Countless civilians were killed or wounded, most of them dying beneath the terrifying pressure of the two Void-Returning cultivators’ spiritual power.]

[Seeing this, the Old Demon of Black Mountain felt not the slightest remorse. Instead, he revealed a sinister smile.]

[At that moment, the yin energy within Far Mountain City reached unprecedented heights. The Old Demon of Black Mountain directly revealed his true form and suppressed the yin energy of the region. Countless spirits began converging upon Black Mountain, forming an entire spirit domain in the blink of an eye.]

[The Old Demon of Black Mountain decided to make this place his permanent stronghold and began developing his own power.]

Su Ji’an: “...”

There had not been many twists or turns, but the process had been rather complicated.

Among all the players from the myriad realms he had summoned so far, the Old Demon of Black Mountain possessed the deepest malice.

Su Ji’an had no comment on that.

This old demon seemed to harbor a strange obsession with building his own power.

However, that approach probably would not work well in this world.

Most likely, someone would soon step forward to purge evil and uphold the righteous path.

Even though Black Mountain possessed the cultivation of the late Void-Returning Realm, it was not as though Great-Ascension cultivators did not exist in this world.

It was simply that too many secrets were involved, and Su Ji’an did not know much about them.

After thinking for a moment, Su Ji’an directly summoned one hundred Blue Star players.

[Remaining spiritual energy points: 6,535]

There was no special reason for summoning these players. He merely intended to continue expanding into the Demonic Path and the Great Qian Empire.

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He needed to take the long view. Limiting himself to the Great Jin Empire was far from enough.

The Blue Star players needed time to mature. Matters like this were better arranged sooner rather than later.

Immediately afterward, Su Ji’an began assigning missions to the one hundred Blue Star players.

Fifty would be sent to the Demonic Path, and fifty to the Great Qian Empire.

His spiritual energy points were now almost depleted.

However, he had accumulated quite a number of spirit stones.

The spirit stones obtained from Qiao Wanchuan and the others the previous day alone amounted to several hundred.

Su Ji’an made a rough calculation and found that he had more than sixteen thousand in total.

He kept five thousand and converted all the rest.

[Remaining spiritual energy points: 243,585]

...

Zhao Qianxue was becoming restless, and soon brought up the matter of traveling to Cold Mountain City with Su Ji’an.

Su Ji’an raised an eyebrow. “That woman really does grow more courageous with every setback.”

There was no need to rush the reopening of the Immortal Guest Tower.

Moreover, since opening its doors, the Immortal Guest Tower had hardly earned any spirit stones.

At times, Su Ji’an even wondered whether he should simply give up on running the shop.

Nothing had gone smoothly. One trouble after another kept arriving at his doorstep.

The effort he was putting in was also somewhat disproportionate to the returns.

Yet he was unwilling to let go. In the long run, his current line of thought was not wrong.

The end of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was approaching, while the Blue Star players’ growth would certainly be slower than the pavilion’s destruction.

For the time being, he would not have any stable source of spiritual energy points.

Nor was the method by which the Blue Star players earned profits through price differences as optimistic as he had imagined.

Therefore, it was still necessary to continue running the shop.

That way, he would be able to replace the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion at the first possible opportunity. Otherwise, it would be too late to open a shop after the fact.

By then, countless competitors would inevitably appear.

Autumn Moon, Everlasting Radiance

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