He hesitated a moment, then continued anyway. “By rights, with Great Qian having received Xuanguang Cave’s help, I shouldn’t be speaking ill of them behind their backs — but I’ll say a few words more all the same.”

He suspected that once he reached the War Temple, he’d have little chance of seeing Shen Yi again.

Jiang Yuanhua carefully organized his thoughts, hoping to lay out everything that needed saying. “The three-sect alliance stands together against the Thousand Demon Den. Back when the arrangement was first struck, each power agreed to take a five-hundred-year turn as the main bulwark, rotating through in sequence, so each side would have time to rest and recover.”

“And by ‘main bulwark,’ they mean fielding Spirit-Transformation-tier cultivators.”

He sighed. “Great Qian’s own Spirit-Transformation cultivators have all fallen, one after another, and the one Ancestor left alive has a damaged divine spirit besides. Wutong Mountain stepped in afterward and set new terms — until the War Temple’s Ancestor recovers, the other two sects each send a Spirit-Transformation cultivator to stand in for the War Temple against the demons. Counts as quite the act of mercy, really.”

At that, Shen Yi finally gained a clearer picture of how things stood beyond Qingzhou’s borders.

He just couldn’t quite tell why the General was bringing all this up.

Jiang Yuanhua let out a helpless sigh. “But once the others are supplying the Spirit-Transformation cultivators, the War Temple’s in no position to fight for command authority either. So for these five hundred years, every Mixed Origin Grandmaster across the whole of Great Qian has been pulled away and put under the immortal sects’ orders entirely… reasonable enough, on the face of it.”

“But that’s exactly where the trouble lies. If it’s Wutong Mountain, it’s not so bad — those Perfected Masters run cold and standoffish, and won’t bother much with outsiders, but they won’t go out of their way to target you either. Do what they ask of you, and they leave the rest alone — much like our own demon-hunters.”

At this point in the conversation, Jiang Qiulan slowly opened her eyes and turned her gaze toward the empty space beside her.

“Xuanguang Cave…” Jiang Yuanhua noticed the shift in her expression and gave a bitter smile. “Unlike Wutong Mountain looking down from on high, Xuanguang Cave and Great Qian have been old rivals for years now, fighting over that second-place spot in every way, open and hidden alike. They send their Spirit-Transformation cultivators to help, sure — but when it comes to our Mixed Origin Grandmasters, they really do work them half to death. I remember last time, thirteen of our Mixed Origin Grandmasters went out, and only seven came back.”

“…”

Shen Yi listened in silence, and finally understood why Jiang Qiulan had warned him before against the idea of joining the immortal sects.

From the sound of it, one looked down its nose at outsiders, and the other was an outright rival.

“If at all possible, it’s best you don’t show your full strength… standing together against the demons is a matter of greater principle, sure, but you should hold onto your freedom as much as you can. No need to let yourself be thrown about and chewed up like that.”

With that, Jiang Yuanhua turned and left the courtyard.

Shen Yi sat down on the stone bench across from her. He hadn’t answered out loud, but inwardly, he agreed entirely with the General’s advice.

Playing fetch dog for someone back at the Threshold realm was one thing — still playing fetch dog at Mixed Origin would mean all that cultivation had been for nothing.

It was true he needed to kill demons — but Shen Yi was far more accustomed to using other people as the bait, not the other way around.

Besides, this lined up neatly with his own plan to slip into the War Temple and borrow a bit of accumulated faith for himself.

From what Lady Qinghua had told him, even the Blood-Transmuting Demon Emperor only ranked somewhere near the twentieth spot within the Thousand Demon Den.

Which meant there were far more demon emperors out there than he’d ever imagined.

Without some Spirit-Transformation-tier strength to fall back on, Shen Yi genuinely felt a little uneasy about it all.

Trying to break through directly from Mixed Origin — right now, he had neither the technique for it nor the resources.

Whereas for a Martial Immortal to reach Spirit-Transformation, all that was needed, really, was accumulated faith, a proper technique, and a great deal of time.

The War Temple had the first two in spades; the third, demons had plenty to offer.

It might as well have been a shortcut tailor-made for him — one he could complete without ever leaving the Nine Provinces.

By the time he left Great Qian with a golden dharma form of his own in tow, whatever demon he ran into, he’d have the strength to protect himself.

And he could put that golden form to use, too, scouring up whatever else he needed for his next breakthrough.

As for Jiang Qiulan’s claim that the immortal sects had nothing he wanted — Shen Yi wasn’t about to take that at face value without rifling through their storage treasures himself.

To pull this off, he obviously couldn’t walk into the War Temple as a known Mixed Origin Grandmaster… and as for getting found out later, by then, with any luck, he’d already have his golden dharma form fully condensed.

“Are you planning to head to the imperial capital?”

Jiang Qiulan rose and moved over, settling down beside him.

“Might as well take a look.”

Shen Yi wasn’t especially worried. His own arsenal now included a black cloak besides, and with his strength having taken such a massive leap forward, at least within Great Qian’s borders, there shouldn’t be anyone capable of forcing his hand.

At that, Jiang Qiulan gave a small nod. Privately, she thought both the General and Shen Yi were overthinking this somewhat.

She’d once seen, with her own eyes, the sheer urgency in Commander Wu’s gaze when he’d extended his invitation in person.

With an attitude like that… there was no chance at all of anyone tossing Shen Yi over to Xuanguang Cave to be chewed up and wasted.

“Take care of yourself.” Jiang Qiulan set her snow-pale hand down on the stone table and looked over at the young man, a touch of anticipation in her eyes.

“Heading off, are you?” Shen Yi glanced sideways at her. He still remembered what she’d said back when they’d set out to ambush the Junior Demon King — leaving this place was something this girl had wanted to do for a long time now.

“Mm. Once I’ve healed up, I’ll be on my way.”

Jiang Qiulan nodded, docile as ever. Both of them were young and prodigiously gifted, Mixed Origin cultivators in their own right — whatever Shen Yi had no wish to do, she naturally had no wish to do either.

Slaying demons and clearing out evil was simply part of the job — but being driven around like some servant at another’s beck and call was a joke, plain and simple.

Compared to all those Mixed Origin Grandmasters with great clans and vast holdings to their names, she had almost nothing tying her down in Great Qian.

Shen Yi nodded, drew a longbow from his waist, and set it into her hands. “Return this to General You for me.”

“…”

Jiang Qiulan blinked, pressing her lips together slightly. “Alright.”

She sighed inwardly, and was just about to draw her hand back when she noticed the young man pulling out something else. “And this one’s yours back.”

“I—”

Jiang Qiulan looked at the precious inner core, still stained with blood, a flicker of confusion rising in her eyes.

If this was meant to settle the dozen-odd demon cores she’d given him before, surely Lady Qinghua’s core was far too extravagant a repayment. And if it was meant as some keepsake, given to her as a token of memory — well, a thing this bloody made for a rather strange one.

“Take care.”

A demon core, for Shen Yi as he stood now, really only served as a tonic of sorts, or a way to pick up some demonic talent or other — and as it happened, he’d already wrung the Blood-Transmuting Demon Bull dry of everything it had to offer.

“Thank you.”

Jiang Qiulan carefully wiped the blood from the core with her sleeve, tucked it away with care, and a bright, unguarded smile suddenly broke across her face.

No one would dare actually use a thing like this, and there was no trading it for anything else either — not unless one wanted the Blood-Transmuting Demon Emperor to learn whose hands his wife had died in. By any practical measure, it was worth nothing at all.

But thinking back on how practiced, how routine, Shen Yi’s motions had always been when killing demons and claiming their cores — in his eyes, perhaps a demon core really was the most precious thing there was.

And now, he’d given one to her.

“I want to ask you something.” Jiang Qiulan’s breathing shifted, almost imperceptibly.

“Mm?” Shen Yi had never seen her wear an expression this nervous before.

“That… you and Junior Sister Lin… are you two fairly close?” The moment Jiang Qiulan finished asking, she rose to her feet.

“I’d call us friends.”

Shen Yi rose as well, asking offhandedly, “Why do you ask?”

“No reason. I just wondered whether I should let her know you’re heading to the capital.” Jiang Qiulan said softly.

“No need to trouble yourself over it. If you happen to see her, just say goodbye on my behalf.”

Shen Yi gave a small nod. Given his current speed, the distance between the capital and Qingzhou amounted to a matter of just a few days — there was really no need to make such a production out of it.

(End of Chapter)