The Immortal Lord and the Demon Venerable Are Both My Vests - Chapter 8

He truly couldn’t help but suspect there was some connection between the Heavenly Dao and Xu Rong.

The incident outside Dieyun City where Xu Rong approached him undetected was secondary. What puzzled Yin Lang most was why he was so stubbornly insistent on becoming his disciple, even repeatedly refusing Li Baisu and embarrassing her in front of everyone?

To avoid being too conspicuous, Yin Lang had always kept ‘Shen Muxuan’s’ cultivation at the Mahayana stage. Anyone with even a bit of understanding of the cultivation world should know the gap between the Mahayana stage and Tribulation stage, right? Not to mention Li Baisu was an Enforcement Elder with real power, while ‘Shen Muxuan’ had a reputation throughout the entire cultivation world for not pursuing power and preferring to travel.

Under these circumstances, Xu Rong still stubbornly insisted on entering his tutelage—this was already highly suspicious. After the story book “Defying Heaven” appeared, the fact that Yin Lang hadn’t killed this boy on the spot was already out of consideration for the Heavenly Dao.

As for things like ‘villain’ and ‘protagonist,’ Yin Lang actually didn’t care as much as Qin Xun imagined. He was the leader of demonic cultivators to begin with—he’d heard every kind of insult over hundreds of years. Did one more story book matter?

And that villains were destined to fall at the protagonist’s feet?

Heh, if he didn’t even have that much confidence, what immortality would he cultivate, what Dao would he seek!

What angered him was never that failed ending, but rather the pathetically moronic performance of ‘Yin Lang’ in the story book.

Clumsy schemes full of holes, awkward framing attempts, unable even to maintain his Immortal Lord disguise, easily defeated by a mere junior disciple… Yin Lang truly wished he could burst into the book and personally teach that ‘Yin Lang’ how to be a proper final boss villain!

A sudden change occurred.

Yin Lang’s expression suddenly changed amid his anger, and he immediately reached for the storage ring on his finger.

Nothing. Completely empty.

He refused to believe it and checked everything in the storage ring, but still couldn’t find the Primordial Jade fragment he had just placed in a separately designated space.

This familiar scene immediately reminded Yin Lang of the Heaven-Concealing Stone he hadn’t yet retrieved.

The exact same method of disappearance… What exactly was the Heavenly Dao trying to do?!

Ji Chang’an was ‘invited’ before Yin Lang by Qin Xun in a manner that seemed polite but was actually violent.

After being ‘enthusiastically’ pressed onto a stone bench, ‘courteously’ handed a tea cup, and seated across from the ‘amiable’ Daojun, she could barely maintain the stiff smile on her face.

Tianji Daojun smiled at her, his attitude no different from usual, allowing Ji Chang’an to relax slightly. She boldly asked, “Martial Uncle, you’re looking for me…?” What can I do for you?

He said cheerfully, “Ah, isn’t it because Ah Lan has returned? The sect recently has a batch of secret realms of various grades opening. Since you’re both at the Out-of-Body stage, you might as well go together as companions.”

“……”

Com-panions? Who wants to go to secret realms as companions with that Spirit Transformation stage little demon!

Ji Chang’an pressed down her twitching eye corner and said tactfully, “Martial Uncle, this disciple has recently gained some insights and was preparing to enter closed-door cultivation.”

So don’t target me, quickly let me go back to find my dear master!

“That’s truly unfortunate.” His face was full of regret. “By my count, you martial disciples haven’t properly spent time together for a full three years.”

Ji Chang’an’s face was cold: Thank you, but I never want the chance to ‘properly spend time’ with the Young Venerable in this lifetime.

Don’t think she didn’t know what kind of person Qin Xun was just because the original work didn’t describe him much—except for being a loyal dog before the Demon Venerable, everywhere else he was a mad dog ready to bite at any moment.

Back in her naive youth, she and her best friend even shipped this master-disciple pair’s age-gap CP. Since transmigrating and seeing the real people, all those fantasies of a seemingly refined but truly sinister and vicious master X outwardly mad dog but inwardly loyal dog disciple… all vanished along with those innocent years, never to return.

Alright, to speak plainly.

Ever since witnessing the looks in this master-disciple pair’s eyes when they gazed at each other, she felt that shipping this CP was truly a desecration of their pure master-disciple relationship.

“…In that case, I’ll have to troubleXiao Chang’an with Xu Rong.” Coming back from her wandering thoughts, Ji Chang’an only caught the last half sentence.

The familiar name made her not even think about the abnormal fact that she had somehow managed to openly space out in front of the villain. Her mind was instantly filled completely with the two characters ‘Xu Rong.’

……

…………

………………

What the hell did you just say?? Who???

Ji Chang’an, her usefulness thoroughly exploited, was ruthlessly thrown off the mountain. With a desolate expression, she stood before the protagonist.

She looked numbly at the youth whose face showed rising hope, and spoke without any energy, “Tianji Martial Uncle says you don’t need to kneel anymore.”

Before Xu Rong could refuse her advice, Ji Chang’an continued, “Martial Uncle sees your sincerity and doesn’t want to waste your talent. He’s willing to make an exception and give you one chance.”

As if… Who knows what scheme the villain is plotting now.

With her conscience, she couldn’t help advising once more. “Junior Brother, I really think you don’t need to be so fixated on Tianji Martial Uncle. The Enforcement Elder has always believed your bone structure is excellent.”

Don’t get tricked by the villain, go find the female lead quickly!!!

In the original work, even when you were consciously vigilant you got tricked so miserably. Why are you foolish enough to deliver yourself now!

However, one look at his expression showed that the male lead had completely ignored the latter half of her words.

The youth’s eyes lit up instantly. “Really!” He said eagerly, “What does the Daojun need me to do!”

Ji Chang’an: “……” Damn it, he’s beyond saving.

On Tianji Peak.

“Master, Ji Chang’an definitely has a problem! Even if she doesn’t know for certain, she must have sensed something.” The moment the figure in riding attire disappeared, killing intent already appeared in Qin Xun’s eyes.

In the eyes of two master-level figures who had long mingled in the demonic path with their scheming skills, Ji Chang’an’s acting was as good as nothing.

Previously, Qin Xun had only vaguely felt that Martial Sister Chang’an’s behavior was slightly different from others—it felt a bit strange but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange. After “Defying Heaven” appeared and thinking back on her various odd behaviors, how could he not see the problem?

He looked at Yin Lang, waiting for his decision.

Things even he could see, his master couldn’t possibly fail to notice.

“I know.”

Yin Lang gazed distantly at the mountain foot blocked by the bamboo sea, and suddenly said, “The Primordial Jade fragment has disappeared.”

Qin Xun was greatly alarmed. “What!”

Yin Lang possessed an extremely rare Spirit-Demon Body constitution. This secret was known to only the two of them on the entire Lantian Continent.

Spirit-Demon Body, as the name suggested, meant possessing both Immortal Spiritual Roots and Demonic Spiritual Roots simultaneously. One must cultivate both spiritual qi and demonic qi in parallel, and both cultivation levels must be at equal realms before breaking through to the next realm.

This constitution determined that Yin Lang’s strength would inevitably be twice that of others at the same realm, but it also firmly restricted him to this plane.

Because the Lantian Continent connected to more than one upper realm. The Immortal Realm only accepted cultivators with Immortal Spiritual Roots, while the Demon Realm likewise only accepted those with Demonic Spiritual Roots. The two sides were as incompatible as fire and water, causing the righteous path and demonic path in the lower realm to fight in a you-or-me, kill-or-be-killed manner.

For Yin Lang, ascension was a path to certain death. Unless he found a way to remove one of his spiritual roots, even if he reached the realm capable of ascending, he would have to damage his own cultivation and remain in the Lantian Continent.

The Primordial Jade was the opportunity he had found.

Legend had it that an ancient divine being created myriad realms, and when their weapon shattered, it scattered into countless small worlds, transforming into treasures of different shapes. The Primordial Jade was the portion that fell into the Lantian Realm. Using it as a token, one could make a request to that divine being, and as long as the deity could fulfill it, they would definitely agree.

This legend was naturally known to more than just Yin Lang. Especially after the ascension path was severed, the mighty beings of the Lantian Realm who desired to take shortcuts to ascension became even more fervent about the Primordial Jade.

Over a thousand years ago, when news of the Primordial Jade’s appearance spread, numerous Dao Integration semi-immortal level experts from the Lantian Realm rushed to compete for it, suffering heavy casualties. The Primordial Jade also shattered into seven pieces during their struggle, scattering into the hands of different people.

For Yin Lang to obtain the complete Primordial Jade, he could only snatch them one by one from these Dao Integration semi-immortal level mighty beings.

This was no easy goal.

According to his many years of investigation, of the seven fragments: Yuan Daozhu of Taihua Immortal Sect, Wu Daozhu of Jietian Dao Sect, and Chan Daozhu of Tiantai Buddhist Sect should each possess one piece.

The Demon Lord died from severe injuries, and the two pieces he seized had a ninety percent chance of falling into the hands of several powerful Demon Venerables in the demonic path at the time, though it was unclear which two exactly.

The Demon Lord monopolized the remaining two pieces, but soon after came news that he was ambushed, severely injured, and near death. The fragments basically couldn’t still be in his possession.

Yin Lang was 589 years old this year, with cultivation at the Tribulation stage, seemingly just one step away from Dao Integration. But when he achieved the Tribulation stage, it was one hundred and fifty years ago.

One hundred and fifty years, without any progress whatsoever.

A thousand years ago, the entire Lantian Realm had only six at the Dao Integration stage. A thousand years later, not a single new Daozhu had emerged.

Yin Lang guessed that the Primordial Jade fragment the Heavenly Dao used to make a deal with him probably wasn’t taken from the three Dao Integration experts or the two Demon Venerables. Otherwise, the Lantian Realm wouldn’t be completely without any disturbance right now.

Yin Lang didn’t want to explain too much of this matter to Qin Xun, only saying, “I need to run a test.” To test where the Heavenly Dao’s bottom line was.

If in the future, merely having the slightest displeasure toward Xu Rong would be judged by the Heavenly Dao as a failed transaction, resulting in the Primordial Jade fragment being taken back, forcing him to serve that ‘protagonist’ like serving an ancestor from then on… then everyone should just perish together.

Turning back to see his disciple’s eyes full of confusion, Yin Lang waved his hand. “Go do your business, don’t stand here being an eyesore. Master has everything under control.”

Compared to the problem with Xu Rong, whether Ji Chang’an knew the ‘plot’ was really quite obvious. However, his convenient martial niece was still very useful. For the sake of Senior Brother Gu and her sensible discretion these years, with the seal’s restrictions in place, sparing her life wasn’t a big deal.

Moreover…

Ah, a little girl like Xiao Chang’an who was so interesting, so sensible and observant, and whose cooking suited his taste—how wasteful it would be to kill her.

Making full use of resources was the right path. Look, didn’t she just come in handy?

The ‘protagonist’ representing justice and his various harem beauties… this story book wasn’t entirely uninteresting after all.

If he remembered correctly, this so-called harem also included the young Miss Lin from Jihe Alliance, didn’t it?

“The Mission Hall has updated the Heaven-rank bounty board again!”

Someone shouted, and all the sword cultivators in Taihua Immortal Sect mobilized at the news, swarming toward the mountain peak where the Mission Hall was located.

Ji Chang’an was escorting Xu Rong back to the inner sect, originally troubled about how to tell the male lead about the villain’s assigned task while preventing him from doing it. Hearing that shout from afar, her eyes lit up, and all those messy worries were tossed aside.

She suddenly reached out to grab Xu Rong’s collar from behind and took off running toward the Mission Hall.

Caught unprepared, Xu Rong had his throat of destiny seized. Under the Out-of-Body stage sword cultivator’s full-speed sprint, he felt dizzy and disoriented, his face turning green, nearly vomiting on the spot.

He barely maintained his persona, shouting in the wind, “Senior Sister, what are you doing?”

“Grabbing provisions!” Ji Chang’an roared back.

Xu Rong: ???

Ji Chang’an and another Out-of-Body stage sword cultivator came face to face at the Mission Hall entrance.

The other said discontentedly, “Senior Sister Ji, you’re a direct disciple—do you really lack these few coins? You should at least leave the inner sect brothers a way to survive.”

Ji Chang’an smiled without mirth. “What joke are you making, Junior Brother? We sword cultivators all know each other—direct disciples don’t have surplus grain at home either.”

A sword cultivator took advantage of their standoff to slip inside. Before long, wails of despair came from within the Mission Hall.

“Ah! Why is it the Seventh Venerable again!”

“Damn it, doesn’t he need to cultivate or go into closed-door training? Why is he involved in everything that goes wrong!”

“Please give this child a way to survive, wu wu wu. My (precious) sword hasn’t had a full set of Baibao Pavilion’s tempering fluid maintenance treatment for three months…”

The person facing off with Ji Chang’an instantly darkened his face, grinding his teeth no less than the ordinary disciples inside.

——The Heaven-rank bounty board already updated extremely infrequently, but completing one mission was worth enough contribution points to keep their swords well-fed for half a year!

Suffused with frustration, he sheathed his sword, turned, and left.

The great villain?

Ji Chang’an thought of something and quickly abandoned Xu Rong to rush inside.

The Heaven-rank bounty board hung in the center of the Mission Hall directly facing the main entrance, visible the moment one looked up after entering.

Ji Chang’an followed the direction where the sword cultivators gathered in anguished wails and immediately saw that very familiar name.

Seventh Venerable of the Demonic Path, Yin Lang.

Demon Venerable Yu Ye led a surprise night attack on Jihe Alliance. Of all 1,317 people in Jihe Alliance, except for Lin Xinqiao who was away seeking a master, not one was spared—all perished.

“Father——! Mother——!”

At the Mission Hall entrance, a young girl in a goose-yellow dress screamed and silently collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The girl who came with her quickly took her to Qingnang Peak.

Ji Chang’an watched Lin Xinqiao’s departing figure, suddenly feeling cold all over.