Chapter 31

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Chapter 31

Zhong Wei suddenly looked up, "Of course, I want to be a person!"

She found it strange that her master asked her this question; she only wanted to take revenge and recover what belonged to her, not to lose her human identity and become part of the demon race.

I have to say, Hu Xiao Bai’s contemptuous remark about being half-demon did affect Zhong Wei to some extent. She had not encountered many demons, and because she didn’t like Hu Xiao Bai, she didn’t want to become one.

Besides, if all demons were like her mother, then that was that. It could be said that Zhong Wei was indifferent, as she truly had no feelings for that rumored mother.

Her father was undoubtedly a terrible person, and her stepmother was also a vicious and cruel woman, but at least she cared deeply for her two children.

As for her mother, despite having powerful abilities, she was deceived by a man like her father. Demons do not follow ethical rules; they are not raised with such foolishness.

After learning the "truth," Zhong Wei even maliciously speculated that perhaps Hu Xiao Bai had lied, and that fox demon never intended to leave anything for her.

After all, during those times of suffering, her worthless father and stepmother firmly refused to admit that the things were stolen; they kept insisting that it was her choice, and deservedly the fox was foolish.

"Are you sure?"

The wind on the mountain seemed to have calmed down a bit. Zhong Wei rubbed her cold hands; the previous wind had been too strong. She was a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, and even she found it hard to bear such cold. Her mind felt a bit frozen by the chill, and her tone was more determined than before, "I am sure!"

Because of her tangled thoughts and worries, Zhong Wei had hesitated before asking her master for help. But now that she was on the mountain, under this pressure, all the chaotic thoughts in her mind were blown away by the biting frost wind.

Her heart became steady, "I will take revenge myself. This is my own fate, no need to trouble my master."

Xie Fuzhi’s tone softened a little. He had asked Zhong Wei many times, but she still chose to become a demon, becoming a cruel evil spirit. Her vicious nature and terrible methods were not any better than Danchenzi’s miserable character.

However, this time, there was an unexpected presence, and Qingxu Sect had changed a lot. At least now, Zhong Wei wanted to be human.

He said, "About Danchenzi, I know a little about him. He is a cultivator from the Beast Control Sect and is now in the early stage of the Golden Core Stage. Your elder sister is currently a direct disciple under the famous Water Smoke of the Beast Control Sect."

Of course, Xie Fuzhi wasn’t all-knowing, but this was related to fate, so he already knew, "He is quite skilled in formations and is now a seventh-level Formation Master, studying under Ding Xu of the Beast Control Sect."

He paused, "Water Smoke is at the peak of the Astral Projection Stage, just half a step away from the Soul Changing Stage, while Ding Xu is only at the early stage of Astral Projection, but he is still a fourth-level Formation Master, quite valued by the sect."

Zhong Wei went out today to gather news, but she didn’t find much. However, she did not doubt the truth of what Xie Fuzhi said. Her master is over three hundred years old and has been in the cultivation world for so many years, so it is normal for him to know more than her.

Her face turned pale, "Beast Control Sect… but is that the Beast Control Sect ranked fourth among the hundred sects?"

The Beast Control Sect is truly a very big sect, far beyond their small Qingxu Sect. Even if a disciple from the sect makes a mistake, being reckless in seeking revenge would mean hurting the small ones and attracting the wrath of the big ones.

Although the Beast Control Sect is an honorable sect, if they really wanted to destroy the Qingxu Sect, no other sect would come to their aid. In the cultivation world, it is survival of the fittest; all the rules bind the weak, while the strong have the privilege to make and change the rules.

She is currently only at the Foundation Establishment Stage, while her master is a Nascent Soul cultivator. Facing these two is quite difficult, "My master was unhappy with me just now, but it’s because I caused too much trouble."

The girl felt a chill all over and trembled. She nervously bit her lip, and her previously pale lips were bitten until they bled by her sharp canine teeth.

In times of great danger, even loving couples may abandon each other, and even close relatives can be easily forsaken.

She is just a disciple who is not highly favored, yet she has provoked such a powerful enemy, bringing a crisis of destruction to the sect. It’s normal for her master to be unhappy with her.

The girl kneeled down and bowed to Xie Fuzhi three times, "Thank you, Master, for saving my life these past few years. I will take care of my own grudges. From now on, Zhong Wei will no longer be a disciple of Qingxu Sect, and I absolutely won’t drag the sect into any trouble!"

It does not matter that the master and senior brother have died, but Elder Martial Sister has been truly good to me; I cannot involve her in this.

Furthermore, if I really bring disaster to the sect, even if Elder Martial Sister and I are the last to survive, won’t she resent me?

Even though Elder Martial Sister is very kind to me, Zhong Wei knows very well that my bond with her cannot compare to that of the master and Elder Martial Sister.

Zhong Wei admits she is a coward; she does not want to see a look of hatred on Elder Martial Sister’s face.

But revenge must be taken; if I do not take this revenge, the resentment in my heart will become an internal demon on my path of cultivation.

Xie Fuzhi laughed loudly, sneering as he said, "You, a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, who left Qingxu Sect to be a lone wanderer, probably won’t survive until the Golden Core Stage; how can you talk about revenge? It’s truly ridiculous."

He laughed purely because he heard a joke that was too out of touch to ignore.

Zhong Wei felt very embarrassed by the mockery; although it was the truth, the master’s words were too harsh. No wonder Elder Martial Sister is so kind; sometimes she can’t help but call him by his name.

The ice and snow froze Zhong Wei in her tracks, "What a fool! I haven’t said anything yet, and you want to leave the sect, wasting all the resources Qingxu Sect has spent on you these years."

Zhong Wei stubbornly lowered her head. No, she didn’t even dare to lift it because she couldn’t find the words to return the resources. It was so hard to be alone. Leaving the Qingxu Sect without power and without spirit stones really left her with no hope for revenge, so she could only lower her head and pretend to be foolish for now.

After Xie Fuzhi finished laughing, he said, "I don’t want to hear such foolish words again. I, Xie Fuzhi, do not have traitorous disciples with wicked hearts."

Zhong Wei finally lifted her head, not willing to back down, "I am not a traitor; I just don’t want to involve the sect."

"You’re such a fool. Who told you to seek revenge now? That’s not revenge; that’s seeking death," Xie Fuzhi scoffed. "But out of our master-disciple bond, I will help you kill Danchenzi and your older sister and bury their ashes with you."

Zhong Wei was not foolish at all; in fact, she was quite clever. It was clever people who thought deeply, "Master, do you mean you are not afraid of retaliation from the Beast Control Sect?"

The position of a direct disciple is very important. For example, if something happens to me, the master would risk his life and seek revenge for his senior martial sister.

Danchenzi is at the Golden Core Stage, and her older sister is not much older than her, having only joined the sect six years ago, one year more than Zhong Wei. Even with excellent talent, she should only be at the Foundation Establishment Stage now.

The master is a nascent soul cultivator and should be able to kill those two, but the Astral Projection Stage cultivator behind them and the Beast Control Sect will not let it go easily.

Xie Fuzhi spoke disdainfully, "What is a small Beast Control Sect?"

Finally, Zhong Wei felt that the master might be drunk or perhaps has gone mad, losing his senses. What is the Beast Control Sect? It is the fourth largest sect!

Not only is the cultivator in charge very powerful, but the sect has also contracted many spirit beasts with high cultivation levels, and there are even Mythical Beasts!

The worried look on her face made Xie Fuzhi stop his "nonsense."

The moment Xie Fuzhi heard Zhong Wei say she wanted to leave the sect, he felt a surge of anger, wanting to clean up the situation. But he quickly realized that Zhong Wei was different now; what she said wasn’t truly about leaving the sect, but rather to save the Qingxu Sect.

His little disciple had really changed. Before, Zhong Wei would never have felt guilty about involving others; now she was even willing to compromise for the sect.

Xie Fuzhi was not moved by Zhong Wei’s actions; instead, he thought of his senior disciple. These changes were all brought by Chuyou; it was Chuyou’s credit.

He closed his eyes and thought, well, since Chuyou cares for this younger martial sister, he also hopes to help her take revenge, "If a true disciple dies, the Soul Lamp can trace back to find the enemy who killed them, but that is only limited to the spiritual world."

His little disciple’s skills were clumsy; even if she managed to take revenge through underhanded means, he would still have to clean up afterward. However, Xie Fuzhi did not want to get involved in these matters as he had his own issues with a few of his younger disciples.

Xie Fuzhi advised, "If someone dies in the secret realm, it is their own inadequacy. The elders of the Beast Control Sect will not enter the secret realm to seek revenge for a disciple."

Zhong Wei’s eyes lit up, "I understand what Master means."

No wonder Duan Shijie told her not to talk to too many people. In matters of hatred, being careless and loud can lead to trouble. If something happens to that person, their family will definitely come to settle the score with you.

No matter if you are right or wrong, if the other side wants to vent their emotions and can’t find a tough target, they will certainly look for an easy one to pick on.

Danchenzi can do such crazy things, so he must have many enemies in private. If someone took the chance to get rid of him in the secret realm, it wouldn’t affect Qingxu Sect at all.

Master did not plan to give up on her because of the trouble she brought. His earlier teasing was probably because she mentioned betraying the sect, which upset him.

Zhong Wei rarely felt a bit guilty. She was really foolish. Senior Martial Sister sent her to find Master because she believed that he wouldn’t abandon her. But she was used to being abandoned, so she didn’t believe that Master would be willing to take the risk to help her.

Zhong Wei’s cheeks turned red, "I made a mistake, Master."

"Enough, I don’t want to hear you apologize. As long as you can take revenge with your own skills, that is enough." Besides Chuyou, none of his other disciples are good. They lie easily, and apologies are worthless.

Xie Fuzhi said, "The Sword Tomb Secret Realm will soon appear. At that time, you all will have a chance to enter the secret realm. Until then, just stay at Qingxu Sect and cultivate."

This time Zhong Wei willingly said, "Thank you, Master. I promise I will not let you down."

Xie Fuzhi turned away, giving his young disciple a cold and proud back, "Go on, next time let your Elder Martial Sister bring me food. I do not like eating food brought by others."

Hearing "Sword Tomb Secret Realm" from Zhong Wei, Yun Chuyou was a bit stunned. Could it be that the story cannot be changed, and the disciples of Qingxu Sect would still get entangled with the original female protagonist as before?

No, that won’t happen, Yun Chuyou thought. The younger martial sister’s journey is for revenge, so she surely won’t become the lovesick character from the original book.

Moreover, in the original story, they had met before, so she would stay at Qingxu Sect and enter the secret realm on the last day. Details can be changed, and the ending can definitely be changed as well.

Besides, she can’t back down just because she fears the story. Cultivating is about going against the odds. Retreating in the face of difficulties is what cowards do. The original female protagonist, although very popular, had a charming personality; she was a kind-hearted girl, strong-willed, and favored by fate—worthy of being the protagonist of a small world.

It is the evil villain’s own twisted character that always plots against and harms the female protagonist, which is why the main characters deal with her and fate turns against her.

"Elder Martial Sister, you seem a bit unhappy?"

Zhong Wei was very attentive, especially sensitive to the emotions of those she cared for. She could sense that something was wrong with Yun Chuyou today; at least since coming down from the mountain, things felt unusual.

"It’s okay, I was just thinking about something. The Sword Tomb Secret Realm is a great opportunity. The master said we should go, so we cannot leave anyone behind," Yun Chuyou’s voice gradually became firm.

"Younger martial sister, you need to gain experience in the secret realm, but your skills are still not enough! Starting today, the three of you must double your training time!"

The eight hours of sleep at night will be canceled. Starting tomorrow, everyone in the sect must rally around her! She will keep a close watch on her younger martial brothers and sisters to ensure they do not make mistakes!

To prepare for the Sword Tomb Secret Realm, the original plan for going down the mountain for training has been canceled. After all, the sect has received a huge amount of resources, and they can provide for themselves.

With the support of those talented resources, the sect disciples’ skills improved quickly. Yun Chuyou dedicated some of her focus to strengthen Qingxu Sect’s influence. She had Yu Jiu bring in those four people to recruit new disciples and start training them according to the new sect rules.

After all, she had a sect system, and the more disciples she recruited, the more resources the system could provide. Some of these resources were not available in the cultivation world and could serve as her secret assets.

Once the number of newly recruited disciples reached a certain amount, Yun Chuyou’s often unpredictable system began to trigger tasks and achievements continuously.

"[The number of sect disciples exceeds 100, achieving the small sect milestone, reward: 24-hour use of the sect’s great formation (invincible version), unlock disciple loyalty.]

The sect’s great formation is better than nothing, but 24 hours is really too short. The disciple loyalty is different; it is a very powerful feature that can easily root out spies and eliminate bad disciples.

[If there are more than 10 Qi Refining disciples in the sect, they will be rewarded with 20 sets of disciple robes, beginner wooden swords, and 20 Building Foundation Pills.]

[If there are more than 3 Golden Core Stage disciples in the sect, they will be rewarded…]

With her great wealth, Yun Chuyou could afford to hire a nascent soul cultivator to oversee the sect.

However, she did not do this because the Qingxu Sect lacked high-level fighters. If guest elders stayed for personal gain, they could harm the foundation of the Qingxu Sect. She preferred to train ordinary disciples instead; at least these cultivators would have a stronger sense of belonging to the Qingxu Sect.

As for the unpleasantness with Xie Fuzhi the other day, it quickly passed. The next day at noon, Yun Chuyou brought lunch to Xie Fuzhi.

Xie Fuzhi looked at her and asked, "Are you not angry with me anymore?"

Yun Chuyou shook her head, "I wasn’t really angry with you, Master." She only felt that her master seemed distant yesterday, which made her a bit unsettled and even scared.

Perhaps it was because the weather was bad last night and she was affected by Zhong Wei’s situation that she felt this way.

Today, looking at Xie Fuzhi, he was still the kind, older brother-like master she knew. No matter how youthful and handsome his face was, she could not feel any fear at all.

Everyone has their own secrets, and so does the master. Since he doesn’t want to talk, she doesn’t need to pry.

"Really?"

"Of course it’s true." Yun Chuyou opened the overflowing food box. Since the master wouldn’t come down, she went up to him.

"The master wasn’t here yesterday, so today the disciple will eat with the master, just the two of us, like before."

Xie Fuzhi smiled sincerely, and his smile was so warm that it could melt the snow that stays on the mountain all year.

Yun Chuyou was so dazzled by such stunning beauty that she couldn’t feel angry at all.

Not only did she eat with the master, but she also spent her precious training time fishing with Xie Fuzhi to make the beautiful master happy.

The generous beauty was pleased and loosened her grip, giving Yun Chuyou a whole bunch of things, "Chuyou, you love alchemy and crafting, and these are the materials the master tidied up all night last night. See if you can use any of them."

These materials instantly lit up the dull advanced diagrams in the system’s alchemy notebook, and Yun Chuyou couldn’t bear to say no.

"These are useful, all of them are useful. Can I have them?"

Xie Fuzhi smiled and said, "You are my most valued disciple and the leader of the Qingxu Sect. If I can’t give them to you, who else would I give them to?"

He really smiled many times today, and Yun Chuyou felt very guilty. Last night, she felt she had been terrible to such a good master.

The master was so generous! Yun Chuyou received a lot of precious materials for alchemy and crafting from her master, which were very rare and hard to buy, even with spirit stones.

Yun Chuyou was already a fifth-grade Pill Master and Alchemy Master. After a few years of development, she had established her own supply channels. She took out some less precious high-quality materials to exchange for what she needed to upgrade from fourth-grade to third-grade.

While her younger martial brothers and sisters were diligently cultivating and meditating, she spent all day refining pills and crafting items, even giving up her eight hours of sleep. To prepare for the secret realm journey in a year, Yun Chuyou practiced for enough ten hours each day.

Not only that, she also hired a Food Cultivator at a high price to create special spirit food recipes just for them.

In just one year, some people, who only appeared to be at the Golden Core Stage, were actually fourth-grade Alchemy Masters who were welcomed by both the crafting and alchemy associations.

This was still not enough time. If she had enough time and materials, she could surely advance smoothly to third-grade and second-grade.

None of the pills and spirit tools made were sold outside by Yun Chuyou because their quality was too high, and she couldn’t establish a legal way to sell them.

Moreover, some pills sold now aren’t that valuable. Once news of the secret realm is out, many items will increase in price.

With a wave of her hand, Yun Chuyou boosted the benefits for several core disciples within the sect.

The new disciples had good welfare, but since they arrived a bit late, Yun Chuyou wasn’t overly generous. Therefore, ordinary disciples received resources as usual, but they could exchange for better items once they met contribution standards. The rewards for successfully reaching Foundation Establishment also quietly increased.

By nurturing such high-quality treasures, Yun Chuyou’s cultivation level rose to the late Golden Core stage within just a year. This was despite her intentionally holding back her progress; if she weren’t worried about not being able to enter the Sword Tomb Secret Realm after reaching Nascent Soul, she could have reached that stage by now.

Younger martial sister Zhong Wei worked even harder, training furiously and benefiting from the secret aid from senior martial sister. In just one year, she advanced from early Foundation Establishment to the perfection of Foundation Establishment. If given a little more time, she could break through and successfully condense her core.

Yun Chuyou knew Zhong Wei was eager for revenge, so she advised her not to be too hasty, "Younger martial sister, your mindset isn’t quite ready yet; your cultivation is a bit unstable. It’s better to hold off on condensing your core for now."

During this year, they couldn’t go out to train but battled against demon beasts in the Congyun Mountains. The sect’s protective array expanded by double, and a special low-level demon beast area was cleared for the low-level disciples to practice and earn contribution points.

However, the new disciples had quite average talents, and none had reached Foundation Establishment within the year. Thus, Yun Chuyou planned not to bring them along, letting them stay in Qingxu Sect to maintain the basic operations of the sect.

Spring passes and autumn comes; a year has quickly gone by. Just like in the original story, the Sword Tomb Secret Realm appears in the spiritual world, causing the Grand Competition of the Hundred Sects to be postponed.

Only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage and above, but below the Nascent Soul Stage, can enter the Sword Tomb Secret Realm. Even if someone uses secret methods to suppress their real level to Golden Core, if they use their true power inside, they will be immediately rejected by the secret realm.

Yun Chuyou, who has obtained the passage token, is in charge of leading the team into the secret realm. She takes a deep breath and waits until the other sect disciples have entered the secret realm on the first day before she steps through the barrier with her younger martial brothers and sisters.

Xie Fuzhi, who originally could not enter the secret realm, watched as the youngest disciple disappeared behind the barrier. He divided a part of his spirit and transformed into a young cultivator in a black cloak, entering as well.

In countless cycles, Xie Fuzhi did not care about the other three; anyway, they would not die.

But Yun Chuyou is different; she is a variable. He does not want to care about others and doesn’t bother, but Chuyou absolutely cannot be in danger!