The Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Character Captured the Villainous Demon Venerable - Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Entering the Inner Sect

Yun Wushang was momentarily stunned. After realizing Mo Xun had stolen a kiss, she first looked up and glared at Mo Xun, then helplessly curved her lips: “Since that’s the case, I’ll accept this bracelet.”

As she spoke, she immediately put the black jade bracelet, which Mo Xun had named the “Infinite Evasion Bracelet,” onto her left wrist.

She followed up by saying, “It’s only fifth-grade, at most it will serve as decoration.”

Hearing this, Mo Xun was not discouraged; instead, she smiled proudly: “I knew you would say that. Regardless, you accepted it and put it on, which means you’re satisfied with it. I will continue to work hard and strive to refine a ninth-grade magic treasure as soon as possible to help you with your revenge.”

“Are you going into seclusion again?” Yun Wushang asked, her tone calm, but her eyes instantly dimmed considerably.

Sensing her dejection, Mo Xun felt a pang in her chest, a little uncomfortable, but ultimately made her choice: “Yes. Refining a fifth-grade magic treasure allows me to enter the Inner Sect of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate to cultivate. Relying solely on myself, I’m not confident I can properly use the high-grade materials you found for me, so I want to first explore the Inner Sect. I might not go into immediate seclusion, but… forging artifacts always requires time.”

Yun Wushang said, “Alright,” with no discernible emotion on her face. After a while, she added, “Then wait a few days; a batch of forging materials is on the way.”

“Oh?” Mo Xun raised an eyebrow.

Yun Wushang looked outside the cave, pretending to say nonchalantly, “I suddenly remembered that as a Demon Venerable, I don’t need to personally collect forging materials.”

Mo Xun instantly understood what she meant and couldn’t help but chuckle: “Makes sense. Hard work for Meiyan.”

Before entering the Inner Sect, Mo Xun’s primordial spirit traveled out, surveying every corner of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate’s Outer Sect, but failed to find the yellow-robed female cultivator who had targeted the blood of the Nether Phoenix.

She asked Chu Jiuchu, who said that after joining the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate, she had been careful, but the female cultivator never appeared.

The Outer Sect Elder heard about it and said that this person was one of the Inner Sect Elders of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate. In recent years, she had reached a cultivation bottleneck and was obsessed with nurturing artifact spirits, believing that only by successfully nurturing an artifact spirit could she achieve the Void Refinement stage.

The Outer Sect Elder mentioned that Chu Jiuchu possessed an eighth-grade spiritual fire and had high potential. If that Soul Transformation stage artifact forger made a move against Chu Jiuchu again, the elder would protect Chu Jiuchu at all costs.

However, Mo Xun was still uneasy and tentatively asked Yun Wushang if she had seen a lavishly dressed female cultivator at the Soul Transformation stage entering or exiting the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate.

Yun Wushang’s response was: “Why ask me? I’m not watching the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate all the time.”

Mo Xun: “True.”

Mo Xun: Strange, for an Inner Sect Elder of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate, she hasn’t returned to the immortal sect. I wonder where she is and what she’s doing.

Mo Xun had originally thought the warning from the Pavilion Master of the Heaven’s Secret Pavilion was related to this female cultivator. Could she have guessed wrong? Was there an issue within the Inner Sect of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate itself?

But with Yun Wushang, a Great Ascension stage Demon Venerable, keeping an eye on things, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

Thinking this, Mo Xun decided to stay at the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate, at least until she had entered the Inner Sect and checked things out.

However, she ultimately dismissed that idea.

She didn’t dare imagine how Yun Wushang would react if she spent several months in seclusion just to refine a pair of gloves.

Furthermore, at the current stage, besides the ninth-grade magic treasure she promised to refine for Yun Wushang, she also wanted to refine a powerful offensive magic treasure for herself to compensate for her lack of attack power.

A few days later, Meiyan arrived outside the cave dwelling where Yun Wushang was temporarily staying.

Mo Xun walked out of the cave with Yun Wushang, only to see Meiyan holding a storage brocade pouch with both hands, bowing respectfully toward Yun Wushang: “Demon Venerable, the items you instructed me to get.”

Yun Wushang accepted the storage brocade pouch with demonic energy, tossed it to Mo Xun without a glance, and said indifferently, “See what else is needed?”

Mo Xun caught the pouch with both hands, momentarily unsure whether to praise her ‘client’ or her ‘wife’.

Yun Wushang claimed she collected these materials to help her refine a ninth-grade magic treasure sooner, but both the materials Yun Wushang collected herself and those she had her subordinates gather were not just ninth-grade.

They ranged from sixth-grade to ninth-grade, from claws to back armor—everything imaginable.

Yun Wushang had never once said she loved Mo Xun, but Mo Xun could feel that she was different to Yun Wushang.

She was just unsure what kind of “different” this was.

After checking the materials in the storage brocade pouch, Mo Xun said, “I don’t need anything else for now. These are enough for me to forge for quite a while.”

“That’s good.” Yun Wushang flicked her sleeve and turned around. “You may leave.”

“Yes.” Meiyan respectfully departed.

“Yes.” Mo Xun also prepared to leave.

However, just as she took a step, Yun Wushang used demonic energy to wrap around her waist and pull her back: “Who told you to leave? Set up a Demon Gathering Array here for me, and then go refine your artifacts and enter your seclusion.”

“Alrighty.”

Setting up a Demon Gathering Array was simple enough.

Mo Xun quickly helped Yun Wushang set up a Demon Gathering Array on the bed, then reminded her: “Remember to replenish the demon crystals. As long as the supply of demon crystals is constant, this array can be maintained until I come out of seclusion.”

Yun Wushang acknowledged this with an “En” and said nothing more.

After leaving, Meiyan did not return to the Demon Realm but instead arrived at a deserted mountain. As soon as she landed, she stomped her foot on the mountain, scaring away all the birds in the forest.

She was furious!

Half a month ago, Meiyan cultivated to the Great Perfection stage of Void Refinement and felt she could break through, so she went into seclusion deep beneath the Palace of Spirits and Ghosts to ascend. However, Yun Wushang, to summon her to collect high-grade forging materials, actually stomped and collapsed the floor of the Palace of Spirits and Ghosts, dragging her out from underground!

Her breakthrough was interrupted, her xinxing (state of mind/spiritual nature) was damaged and suffered a backlash, and her cultivation retreated. Meiyan was so angry that she slaughtered half of the demons in her Palace of Spirits and Ghosts.

However, her xinxing revolved around lust; killing would not restore her lost cultivation. It would only deepen the sha (killing intent/malevolent energy) on her, making it harder to capture prey for her to practice dual cultivation with.

So she was currently in a state of impotent rage.

“I knew she wouldn’t let me off!” Meiyan roared, furiously stomping the barren mountain beneath her feet. “Yes! I instigated Chi Mo to start the war between immortals and demons! So what! What kind of demon doesn’t hate immortals? What kind of demon doesn’t want to sow chaos throughout the entire cultivation world!”

“But you, Yun Wushang! As the Demon Venerable, the ruler of the Demon Realm, you’re constantly mixed up with an immortal cultivator. You are utterly unfit to be the Master of Ten Thousand Demons!”

She finished venting, took a deep breath, and then showed a playful smile: “It wasn’t for nothing that I searched near the Heaven’s Secret Pavilion for five whole days. I want to see how much longer you can hold onto that seat of Demon Venerable.”

She finished muttering to herself, leaving several deep footprints, and flew to an empty area near the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate.

She hovered in mid-air facing the direction of the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate, took out a white jade whistle from her clothes, and blew it, producing a clear bird call.

Not long after, a woman in a light-gold robe with all her hair pulled up into a cloud bun appeared above her, coldly looking down with narrow eyes and speaking in an icy voice: “What is it?”

This outfit was the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate’s sectarian robe. The woman who appeared above Meiyan was clearly a cultivator from the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate.

“Greetings, Immortal Venerable Baosheng. Meiyan has an important matter to report.” Meiyan bowed delicately toward the cultivator.

The female cultivator, whom she called Immortal Venerable Baosheng, looked down at her expressionlessly and remained silent.

Meiyan continued: “The Demon Venerable Yun Wushang recently enslaved an immortal cultivator at the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate, forcing her to refine pills and artifacts for her, and… and even forced her to engage in indecent acts with her. Meiyan couldn’t stand it and specially came to report this to the Immortal Venerable.”

In truth, Meiyan had no evidence that Yun Wushang forced Mo Xun into indecent acts, but it was true that Yun Wushang forced Mo Xun to refine pills and artifacts for her. If so, what harm was there in exaggerating the story?

However, Immortal Venerable Baosheng’s expression remained unchanged upon hearing this.

Meiyan had to continue: “Also, she killed a Soul Transformation stage artifact forger! This is the evidence!”

Saying this, she took out fragments of clothing and magic treasures from her storage brocade pouch. The clothing fragments were pale yellow with vibrant orange flowers embroidered on them. The magic treasure was destroyed, but some characteristics of the sixth-grade material were still visible.

Both the clothing and magic treasure fragments bore remnants of icy demonic energy, clearly the work of Yun Wushang.

After a moment, she spoke to Meiyan in a cold voice: “Yun Wushang is a greedy, cowardly person, skilled at escaping, like a rat in a ditch, extremely difficult to capture. This Venerable is going into seclusion to refine a ninth-grade magic treasure to capture her in one fell swoop. In the meantime, you continue to monitor her. When I come out of seclusion, tell me her location.”

“Yes!” Meiyan bowed, her lips unable to restrain a subtle lift.

After leaving Yun Wushang’s temporary dwelling, Mo Xun returned to the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate and was led into the Inner Sect by the Outer Sect Elder.

The Inner Sect of the Artifact Forging Immortal Gate was located within a tall tower.

The Outer Sect Elder led Mo Xun to the heavy door leading into the tower and said to her, “Little Friend Mo Xun, I can only bring you this far. Whether you can gain the Inner Sect Elders’ recognition is up to you.”

Mo Xun bowed to her: “Thank you, Senior.”

Bidding farewell to the Outer Sect Elder, Mo Xun stepped forward and approached the tower’s heavy door. It was black, with a metallic, cold, and hard texture.

Soon, a majestic female voice came from behind the door: “Where is the fifth-grade magic treasure?”

Mo Xun was glad she hadn’t yet given the jade bracelet she planned to present to the Sect Master, Bai Muqing, to her. She quickly took it out of her storage brocade pouch and displayed it to the door: “Here.”

“It is indeed fifth-grade.”

When the door fully opened, Mo Xun saw several large, strangely shaped stones on both sides of the corridor, carved with what looked like array patterns.

Mo Xun stepped forward and onto the corridor. The heavy metal door slowly closed behind her, blocking the last ray of light.

There was no one in the room. Apart from the four massive stones, two on each side, there was only a stone door at the end of the corridor.

The same majestic female voice spoke from the room, making it impossible to tell the exact direction it came from, giving a sense of omnipresence: “Artifact forging, from fifth-grade to sixth-grade, is a significant leap. To refine a sixth-grade artifact, in addition to more stringent requirements for materials and spiritual fire, how to carve the array pattern is also key.”

Mo Xun listened attentively.

The female voice continued: “The array patterns of many high-grade artifacts are difficult to replicate, even with a blueprint. The reason is that the artifact forgers attempting to replicate them only imitate the form without truly understanding the function of each stroke.”

“Therefore, to become a high-grade artifact forger, one must collect array patterns, interpret array patterns, and creatively apply array patterns.”

“Mo Xun, if you can interpret any single array pattern here, you may enter the Inner Sect.”

The words concluded, and the echo lingered in the room.

Mo Xun curiously asked, “Is there a time limit?”

Silence was her answer.

Mo Xun: Alright, I’ll treat it as though there is… System, can I cheat?

System: How does the Host plan to cheat?

Mo Xun: For example, you just tell me the answer.

System: I’m afraid I cannot understand them.

Mo Xun: Useless.

System: …

However, Mo Xun was not surprised by this. She was surprised the system didn’t fob her off with “this is unrelated to courting Yun Wushang,” suggesting the system might genuinely be clueless about array patterns.

Mo Xun calmed down and first scanned all four array patterns roughly. After prioritizing them by complexity, she approached the array pattern that looked the simplest.

She called it the simplest because this array pattern was carved in a straight line on a flat surface, unlike the others which were carved intersectionally, nested, or three-dimensionally… Although, before seeing this, Mo Xun truly hadn’t known array patterns could be carved so “freely.”

She once told Yun Wushang that array patterns were similar to the incantations on talismans. Now it seemed she had been naive. The incantations on talismans, no matter how complex, were drawn on the same plane, while array patterns could actually be carved three-dimensionally.

Goodness, isn’t this the first three stages of the Sword Riding Technique!

Mo Xun tried to state the answer: “This array pattern should be carved on a sword blade, or other sharp magic artifact, to serve as a blood trough. It allows the artifact to automatically lock onto targets during combat and launch continuous attacks, an effect comparable to the first three stages of the Sword Riding Technique.”

“Correct.” The majestic female voice responded. “The existence of this array pattern gives artifact forgers a chance against sword cultivators, but the fragile body and clumsy movement techniques are still a fatal weakness for artifact forgers. This alone is not enough for an artifact forger to defeat a sword cultivator in a battle of the same realm. Continue.”

Mo Xun immediately felt less pressure and moved relaxed to the second array pattern. She found this one even more familiar than the previous one because she had carved a similar one before.

This array pattern corresponded to a defense array. However, unlike the Black Tortoise array pattern she carved, this pattern was not carved linearly or arcuately on a plane but carved to represent a spatial dimension: up, down, left, right, front, and back.

Mo Xun couldn’t help but exclaim, “If only I had seen this earlier… So this is how you can strengthen the defense effect.”

…She wondered if she should keep the name “shield-type magic treasure” when she eventually refined higher-grade shield-type magic treasures.

While she was still contemplating, the majestic female voice sounded again: “Indeed, this is an array pattern carved on a defensive magic artifact. It can protect the artifact forger’s physical body and enhance the artifact forger’s survival ability in combat. Continue.”

Mo Xun approached the third array pattern. This one was somewhat complex.

No, rather than “one pattern,” it was more of a “set.” This set of array patterns consisted of several patterns.

One of them had an extremely strong presence, like a skeleton, while the other patterns filled the gaps of this pattern, like flesh and blood.

Mo Xun recognized patterns for spirit gathering, speed boosting, and water resistance among them.

There were a few patterns she couldn’t interpret, but she re-examined the overall shape of this set of patterns. Could it be…

“Wind-Controlling Boots?” Mo Xun spontaneously named the magic treasure that would use this set of array patterns.

“Hahahaha!” A loud laugh echoed in the room, not the previous female voice. “Sounds like someone hasn’t been sparing on Wind-Controlling Pills!”

Mo Xun: ?

Then the majestic female voice, the one from before, spoke: “Your guess is not wrong. This array pattern was initially carved onto a pair of shoes, but it is called the Thousand Mile Cloud Treading Boots. Continue.”

“Still continuing?” The lively female voice, who had teased Mo Xun about the Wind-Controlling Pills, said, “Since the beginning of the tower trial, only Senior Xunji has been able to interpret more than three array patterns. She can’t possibly interpret the fourth one.”

“What’s the harm in trying?”

“Isn’t that just a waste of time? For us artifact forgers, time is the most precious thing!”

“Silence.”

While the two spoke, Mo Xun had already arrived at the fourth set of array patterns.

Only Senior Ancestor Xunji could interpret the fourth set of array patterns? Then she absolutely had to interpret it!

Mo Xun didn’t know where this inexplicable competitive spirit came from, perhaps because she shared too many similarities with Senior Ancestor Xunji, and she didn’t want to be anyone’s low-grade version.

Even if every step she took was behind Senior Ancestor Xunji, at the moment she reached the finish line, she would take one step further!

Thinking this, she carefully examined the array patterns before her. After examining them for a short while, she had a subtle sense of déjà vu.

She suddenly felt that array patterns were like instructions. To make an artifact do something, you give it certain instructions. Different instructions could be stacked according to certain rules. Wasn’t this just…

Isn’t this code!

So that’s it.

Array patterns are code, and the array formation is the final effect presented by the code. Compressing the array formation into the form of code for the magic treasure, granting the magic treasure the power of the array formation…

Mo Xun closed her eyes, mentally spreading the cluster of spatially distributed array patterns before her into an array formation.

Each array pattern expanded into an array formation. Different array formations stacked together, and a space imbued with various effects gradually took shape.

This is…

Half an hour later, just as the two Inner Sect Elders were arguing over whether Mo Xun was asleep or in meditation, Mo Xun opened her eyes and stated the answer: “Space.”

The moment these two words were uttered, the arguments in the room stopped, and a hush fell.

Mo Xun paid no mind and continued on her own: “Temperature, humidity, air, spiritual energy… This is a spatial magic treasure, and furthermore, it is a spatial magic treasure that can hold living things, and even cultivate spiritual plants and rear spiritual beasts.”

The room remained silent. After a long while, a female voice, the majestic one, spoke: “How did you figure that out?”

“I guessed.” Mo Xun responded. “This set of array patterns is very complex, composed of at least twenty array patterns working together. But precisely because it contains so many array patterns, I successfully interpreted a few of them. Based on those few array patterns, I judged that this set of array patterns was not carved onto a combat artifact, so it must be for storage. And storing ordinary items doesn’t require such stringent conditions.”

“Indeed.” The majestic female voice said. “You guessed correctly. This set of array patterns is indeed carved onto a seventh-grade spatial magic treasure, but it is not used to rear spiritual beasts. It is used to imprison demon cultivators below the Void Refinement stage. It is called the Demon Suppressing Pagoda.”

Mo Xun was stunned for a moment, then pursed her lips slightly and remained silent.

The other, less serious female voice exclaimed, “A seventh-grade magic treasure, how wonderful. I also want to refine a seventh-grade magic treasure. Speaking of which, the cultivator who refined this artifact hasn’t ascended, but hasn’t perished either.”

“Who is it?” Mo Xun asked softly.

The other party replied, “You’ve really asked the right question. Do you know which are the three major immortal sects? She is in the leading Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate, in charge of all the sect-protecting magic treasures there. She can now refine an eighth-grade magic treasure every three years. Even the Sect Master of the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Gate, Yun Qianchong, holds her in respect.”

“You don’t need to know these things.” The majestic female voice interjected. “Since you’ve interpreted all the array patterns, go into seclusion and cultivate properly. The fourth room on the third floor is yours.”

As she finished speaking, the stone door leading to the upper levels of the tower opened upwards.

“Good.” Mo Xun bowed towards the open stone door. “Thank you to the two Elders for your guidance and answers. Mo Xun will definitely refine a ninth-grade magic treasure within three years.”

The two Elders: ?