After Faking Her Death and Escaping, the Junior Sister Fell to the Demonic Path - Chapter 45

“Given the current situation, I’m afraid the Demon Race has not abandoned their intent to stage a comeback. Over these past few hundred years, it’s not just us who have been recuperating; the Demon Race has been doing the same.”

Inside the deliberation hall, only Shangguan Yu’s voice could be heard.

“In recent years, there have been frequent unsettling movements from the Demon Race, suggesting they might have harbored some improper intentions again. The Human Emperor fell twelve years ago, followed by the collapse of the Nether Ghost Realm, leaving only the Profound Heaven Realm… Standing alone, we are vulnerable to disaster.”

“I have already sent word to the major immortal sects; they will be sending people to the Sword Sect soon to discuss countermeasures. But for now—”

“We must hold out until that moment.”

Shangguan Yu gave the instruction in a solemn tone.

The elders were silent.

This was the most prudent plan for the current situation.

Perhaps the atmosphere was too quiet, and someone couldn’t help but speak: “With our Ancestral Master guarding the Sword Sect above, and promising new generation genius disciples below, why does the Sect Master speak so gravely?”

“It’s just a barrier meant to block the Demon Race. Is the current situation not being overly exaggerated?”

He was a young man who had only recently been promoted to elder, an ‘Immortal Second Generation’ who had grown up coddled, overly protected by his family. He only came to the Sword Sect to show off his abilities. Before this, he knew very little about the Demon Race and certainly didn’t take it to heart.

After all, his family had always taken care of everything before, and he never had to do a thing.

However, upon hearing this, Wen Qing Zhenren, who had been silent and standing beside Shangguan Yu, immediately shot a glare at him: “Silence!”

“As an elder of the sect, how can you be so shameless as to utter such reckless words, relying solely on the Ancestral Master above and the disciples below?!”

Her eyes were practically spitting fire.

A person who talks big without suffering the consequences!

The man was startled by her fury and took a step back. When he realized what had happened, he felt he had lost face, so he became indignant and confronted Wen Qing Zhenren with his neck stiff: “What did I say wrong?”

“The immortal sects and the Demon Race are currently at peace. If the seal is merely damaged, then reinforce the seal, send more people to guard it, and that should be the end of it. Why must we choose to fight?”

“Is it your goal to drag countless innocent people into the fray and ignite a war? Is it wrong for me to want peace and stability and not want to fight?!”

He spoke with righteous indignation, yet failed to notice that everyone around him had turned pale with fury.

“Begging for stability?”

“Is stability something you can beg for?!”

“If stability could truly be begged for, why would those predecessors a thousand years ago have to sacrifice themselves to the formation? Why would the Human Race have almost faced annihilation?!”

“If the Demon Race truly returns one day, people like you will probably immediately kneel and grovel like dogs, begging the Demon Race to spare your life!”

Wen Qing Zhenren’s words were sharp, hitting directly at the man’s core, and watching him gasp for breath, she sneered:

“Pity, I’m afraid the Demon Race wouldn’t even value a waste like you!”

The man’s eyes immediately turned bloodshot: “You?!”

Too enraged to offer a rebuttal, he drew his sword in a fit of anger, pointing the tip directly at Wen Qing Zhenren: “You’re bullying me too much!”

Seeing a fight was about to break out, Wen Qing Zhenren showed no panic. She didn’t even draw her sword accessory, instead taking out a jade flute, her slightly narrowed eyes filled with disdain:

“If you want to fight, I’ll gladly accompany you.”

The surrounding people saw the situation was going south and quickly became mediators, tacitly dividing into two groups to persuade the two sides to sit down and talk, saying that resorting to violence would harm harmony.

“Harmony my foot!”

Wen Qing Zhenren rarely swore.

She genuinely didn’t want to play these diplomatic games with these people now.

If Shangguan Yu hadn’t confided in her a few years ago when drunk, she would never have known:

It was these very people who had given the Ancestral Master ideas, forcing Zhou Zhixue onto the Path of Heartlessness. Shangguan Yu was pressured and, despite risking serious injury, couldn’t change the Ancestral Master’s mind, being forced to play the villain at the time.

And her senior disciple, as a result, was punished and severely injured, leaving the Sword Sect and not returning for ten years!

It was at this moment that Qin Qingyi pushed the door open and entered.

“Master?”

As soon as she entered, she immediately looked for Wen Qing Zhenren.

The moment she spoke, the chaotic deliberation hall came to a sudden halt.

A profound silence descended, and all eyes turned towards her.

Qin Qingyi felt the scrutiny of so many eyes make her nervous.

Just as she was about to ask Wen Qing Zhenren for help, seeing the unspent anger on Wen Qing Zhenren’s face, her hand gripping the door frame retracted slightly.

“Did I… come at a bad time?”

Qin Qingyi asked tentatively.

As she spoke, she wanted to quietly retreat, pretending she had never come.

No one told her the situation inside was like this when she came.

Qin Qingyi grumbled.

But Shangguan Yu and Wen Qing Zhenren’s voices rang out in the next moment:

“Since you are here, come in.”

“Why are you leaving? Come over to Master’s side!”

Qin Qingyi shuddered at the two statements.

But she had no choice but to enter. Helplessly, Qin Qingyi had to brace herself and walk in.

She stopped beside Wen Qing Zhenren and quietly greeted the people around her.

“Hello, Master.”

“Hello, Senior Master.”

Then she lowered her gaze, pretending to be a non-entity.

Wen Qing Zhenren slapped the back of her head: “Now you decide to come back?”

Qin Qingyi smiled awkwardly, not daring to argue.

“Pouting for ten years, you really outdid yourself!” Wen Qing Zhenren’s voice rose in pitch again.

This was deliberately said for the others to hear.

After all, among the elders present, few were truly innocent. Every single one of them had a hand in the matter of Zhou Zhixue cultivating the Path of Heartlessness back then.

A bunch of cowardly, life-fearing individuals!

Wen Qing Zhenren’s face was stern, and Qin Qingyi was even more timid, wishing she could bury her head in the ground.

No one spoke, but the atmosphere was more unsettling than if they had.

It’s here, it’s here, that feeling of being intensely scrutinized is back.

Qin Qingyi sighed, completely overwhelmed by the current situation.

Fortunately, Shangguan Yu spoke, gently advising Wen Qing Zhenren: “Enough, since Qingyi has returned, let bygones be bygones.”

“The priority now is to thoroughly discuss how to respond to the Demon Race’s potential attacks.”

“The number of Demon Race members who have snuck in through the barrier cracks over the years, hiding their identities and causing trouble in the Profound Heaven Realm, has only increased. We cannot delay any longer.”

Shangguan Yu became serious, redirecting the conversation.

Qin Qingyi’s ears twitched.

It was just as her Mother Emperor had predicted; the Profound Heaven Realm was now riddled with holes.

Even the Demon Race had hidden Demons among them, let alone the already mixed population of the Profound Heaven Realm.

The surrounding discussions gradually became chaotic, mostly advocating for war this time.

The Sword Sect must be in complete agreement before they can demand cooperation from the other immortal sects. If their own people are not united, how can they ask others to go all out?

Qin Qingyi wasn’t really listening to these old clichés. The hearts of the Demon Race were far more united than those of the Human Race. Long ago, the previous, previous, previous Demon Emperor had established the rule—the Demon Race and the Demon Race are to fight until death!

All Demons agreed with this, and the act of killing Demons was etched into their very bones.

She recalled the records she had seen in the Sword Sect’s library and the Demon Race’s chronicles concerning the Demon Race.

It was a very, very long time ago.

Or rather, not that long ago, perhaps about two thousand years.

At that time, the Profound Heaven Realm, the Mortal Realm, and the Nether Ghost Realm were in a three-way stalemate.

The world was peaceful, and all under heaven was harmonious.

Until—

The extraterrestrial Demon Race, whose origins were unknown, descended from the sky.

From that day on, everything changed.

Initially, those Demons claimed to have lost their homeland and only wished for a place here to survive.

The people of the three realms believed them, pitied them for losing their homes, and gave them everything they had, not complaining in the slightest about them taking up the already scarce cultivation resources.

They forgot the principle: If they are not of my race, their hearts must be different.

Later, the Demon Race revealed its fangs and personally shattered the glorious prosperity.

The Demon Sovereign, the ruler of all extraterrestrial Demons, that hypocritical bastard, finally mastered the use of spiritual energy and rapidly increased his power to the Ascension Realm. Yet, he did not ascend.

Because the Demon Race was an outsider, they were not recognized by the Heavenly Dao’s laws. As long as the Heavenly Dao’s laws did not recognize the Demon Race, he could not ascend.

The Demon Sovereign’s ambition rapidly swelled during this daily grind of being unable to ascend, until—

He developed a crazy idea.

If all sentient beings in the three realms were completely slaughtered, and only the Demon Race remained on this land, would the Heavenly Dao’s laws recognize the Demon Race?

So, he manipulated the Demon Race to launch an indiscriminate massacre against the three realms, intending to slaughter them all.

And then,

To let the Demon Race become the true masters of this land.

The blazing karma fire burned for seven hundred years, plundering all spiritual energy in the world. Scorching heat and flying snow, all things withered; the three realms ushered in their longest winter.

All of this came too quickly and unexpectedly. Neither the Profound Heaven Realm nor the other two realms had guarded against the Demon Race.

In fact, before the war broke out, the three realms and the Demon Race had been all smiles. They thought that the Demon Race was only different in appearance, but otherwise had no differences.

At that time, the Demon Race had been peaceful for a thousand years, recuperating on a piece of land allocated to them by the leaders of the three realms. Many Demon Race members walked within the three realms, engaging in frequent trade with the locals, and no one suspected anything.

Until that day, when the Demon Race launched a night raid on the hundred immortal sects. Half of the immortal sects were annihilated overnight, disappearing without a trace.

The remaining major sects, after losing nearly half of their existing strength, finally reacted and began to band together to resist the Demon Race.

This sudden war caught the hundred immortal sects completely off guard. Every day brought news of numerous immortal deaths.

The battle lasted for a very, very long time, staining half the sky with blood.

Until the very end, the three realms were on their last legs, while the Demon Race’s morale was high.

The Demon Race’s territory expanded step by step, while the Human Race became homeless dogs, with no place left to stand.

The Human Race was on the verge of extinction.

Finally, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Mystery Sect, together with her remaining disciples, cast the final divination. That divination exhausted her and all the life force of the Heavenly Mystery Sect. All who participated in the deduction turned completely white-haired in an instant, and within ten breaths, their life force was depleted, and their souls scattered.

And the Sect Master of the Heavenly Mystery Sect, in the last moments of her life, pointed toward the Mount of No Desire.

That was the Dao field of the Immortal Venerable of No Desire, who entered the Dao through slaughter and killed millions of people in the world upon his ascension.

At the same time, it also held the incomplete—

Killing Formation of No Desire—left behind after the Immortal Venerable of No Desire ascended.

Coincidentally, the Demon Race was stationed at its edge.

And the Demon Sovereign also had the intention of having the final decisive battle with the Human Race.

The location for the great battle was chosen to be the Mount of No Desire.

It had the right timing, the right terrain, and the right people.

Now, the Human Race only had the right terrain.

But if things continued like this, the annihilation of the Human Race was only a matter of time.

Thus, the Human Emperor, carrying the accumulated luck of the Human Race over a hundred years, along with the cultivators above the Soul Transformation Realm of the Immortal Realm, the Seven Hall Kings of Hell from the Nether Ghost Realm, and the various tribes of the Demon Race, a total of 17,631 people, without resentment or regret, in a manner of harming the enemy by a thousand and losing eight hundred of their own—

Used their very lives to fight the Heavenly Dao for the last sliver of hope for the Human Race!

Seventeen thousand six hundred and thirty-one people!

They sacrificed themselves to the formation to slay the Demon Sovereign!

That great battle, historically known as the World-Ending War, saw the sky stained blood-red, with rivers of blood flowing.

The Human, Immortal, and Ghost Realms suffered heavy casualties. The Human Race was nearly wiped out, their luck depleted, unable to recover for a hundred years. Cultivators above the Soul Transformation Realm in the Immortal Realm were almost completely wiped out, resulting in a talent gap. Only three of the Ten Hall Kings of Hell remained in the Nether Ghost Realm, leaving the cycle of reincarnation incomplete.

The darkest hour was upon them.

However, the Demon Race did not disappear.

The Demon Sovereign was too powerful. Even though the Human Race paid such a heavy price, they only managed to suppress him.

The ancient killing formation was already incomplete. Even with so many people filling the formation with their lives, it could not exert its full power.

The Demon Sovereign’s body and soul were cleaved into several pieces by the killing formation.

And to prevent the Demon Sovereign’s resurrection, those immortals who filled the formation, after having nearly all their life force snatched away by the formation, used their last breath to scatter in different directions, carrying the pieces of the Demon Sovereign’s corpse with them.

No one knows where they went, only that in their final moments, those who left looked lovingly at their descendants, telling them to recuperate well from then on.

The Demon Race was also severely injured, with less than three-tenths of their strength remaining, no longer possessing their former arrogance.

Finally, the three realms and the Demon Race divided the land. With the Yan Yun Sixteen Prefectures of the Mortal Realm, the Cliff Mountain Array of the Profound Heaven Realm, and the Yellow Spring Ferry River of the Nether Ghost Realm as boundaries, they each occupied a region, no longer invading each other.

From then on, the three realms enjoyed stability.