Chapter 659 - Divided Struggle

Esteemed Lan Yue ran away from home many years ago because of his disagreement with the prophet family, and he never returned to the prophet family again for many years. However, he still maintained friendship with the family’s disciples and juniors. The prophet family also regretted the decision it made back then and even hoped Esteemed Lan Yue could return to the family. Therefore, when Esteemed Lan Yue invited the prophet family, the current family head agreed to it without any hesitation and even came in person.

The elder who divined fate and foretold that the first heir would be born in the Xuan clan back in the old days had already died, and many Yin family disciples who protected him during that divination were still in closed-door cultivation as they tried to neutralize the backlash they suffered back then. The prophet family was nowhere near as powerful as before. Besides Esteemed Lan Yue, the strongest in the clan was the current family head, Yin Changque. But it was rumored that Yin Changque wasn’t truly a member of the Yin family; he was merely adopted by the family and didn’t know any divination. However, he was very accomplished with Daoist techniques and could fight very well.

That they chose Yin Changque as family head showed that the Yin family severely lacked talents and was now in a state of decline. In such a situation, it didn’t matter whether the family head knew how to divine someone’s fate.

The most important thing was to protect the Yin family’s foundations and roots.

When Lin Xuanzhi arrived, he stood at the door and heard a voice that could be called cold. It was neither servile nor overbearing as it argued strongly, “…obstinately defending the astrology platform to the death and refusing to use it. The astrology platform is only an item. It exists in the world because it has value in being used. Its value is for our prophet family to activate it to divine the celestial bodies in the sky to see the future of the Nine Lands for the sake of the people’s well-being.”

“But every time the astrology platform is activated, it will waste manpower and resources. Who can afford to spend ten thousand pounds of spirit stones? And who would be willing to lose half of their entire cultivation in order to divine fate?”

The speaker was an elder who managed the astrology platform. He continued angrily, “Besides, the last time you activated the astrology platform, you caused turmoil in the Nine Lands. What bullshit first heir? Until now, did that one in the East Land’s Xuan clan even have an egg, let alone a son?”

Lin Xuanzhi, “…”

Seriously, the actions your prophet family took weren’t entirely good. If I was Sovereign Xuan, I would’ve sent troops to destroy your prophet family a long time ago.

“The Nine Lands are very peaceful right now. There’s no need for your prophet family to be a hindrance here at all!”

Hai Kuanglang pushed open the door.

Lin Xuanzhi then went in, and the originally noisy voices suddenly fell silent. Many pairs of eyes all turned towards the door.

Lin Xuanzhi swept past, but his heart was full of joy. Fuyao Sect’s Sect Master and all of its core disciples were here, while several respectable elders from the prophet family also came. As for Myriad Dao Academy’s side, besides the three Hall Masters, elders, and four courtyard deans, even the First Elder, who was in seclusion and never came out, also sat here today.

The people allied with Myriad Dao Academy and Esteemed Lan Yue sat on opposite sides, separated by a wide long walkway in the middle. The situation was tense, as if they were about to draw their swords at any second.

When he saw Lin Xuanzhi, Sword Saint Tianshu got up first and looked like they’d been saved. He said, “Hall Master has finally returned. I’m not good at this. It’s better for the Hall Master to make a decision on behalf of my Sword God Hall.”

Before Lin Xuanzhi had time to respond, he heard Wan Yitong slap the table and say, “Decide what? Huarong Sword Immortal is part of our Fuyao Sect, so he should be on our side!”

Yuheng blinked. “How can you say that? Since when did Huarong Sword Immortal have anything to do with your Fuyao Sect?”

Wan Yitong gave a Hmph. “Lin Huarong is one of my Fuyao Sect’s elders, and before he came to your Myriad Dao Academy, he was already part of Fuyao Sect. Everything is on a first come, first serve basis.”

Tianshu coughed lightly. “We’ll talk about this matter later. Huarong Sword Immortal, long time no see. Is everything alright?”

Lin Xuanzhi finally got a chance to speak and came forward, bowing to Myriad Dao Academy’s First Elder and Fuyao Sect’s Esteemed Lan Yue respectively. “When Huarong rushed over from the Royal Heavenly Capital, he saw an evil spirit flying out of the ground. The evil spirit looks like a human being, and its cultivation is extremely high. I couldn’t catch up to it, even with my fastest speed. I wonder if Esteemed Lan Yue came for this matter?”

When Esteemed Lan Yue heard this, his eyes sank. “The events in the Royal Heavenly Capital have become known all over the world now. However, besides the Royal Heavenly Capital, evil Qi and demonic Qi also appeared in the ruins of Youshan. On that day, I had already tried to divine it, but I found that evil Qi had gathered from the Northeast Land. When I attempted to find out where that evil Qi was going, I suddenly sensed a feeling of my divination being countered — if an evil Qi cultivator really did appear, then his cultivation would surely be above mine.”

As soon as these words came out, there was a moment of silence in the hall. Then Tianshu frowned. “How can the appearance of an evil Qi cultivator counter your divination? Esteemed Lan Yue, why didn’t you mention this before?”

Esteemed Lan Yue said nonchalantly, “Don’t tell me that I’ll be allowed to activate the astrology platform if I say this? Since you all are determined to wait until Huarong Sword Immortal returns before making a decision, why should I waste my breath before he comes back?”

Lin Xuanzhi, however, could hear that Esteemed Lan Yue was annoyed by Myriad Dao Academy’s strong refusal to activate the astrology platform these days, so although he sounded polite, his words contained thorns and he did not give face. However, Esteemed Lan Yue had this right.

Just from the fact that he could judge that the evil spirit that appeared was very likely to be an evil Qi cultivator, this showed that the secrets of heaven he’d mastered were far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Lin Xuanzhi calmed down and added, “In my opinion, it is indeed an evil Qi cultivator.”

Someone gasped.

This gasp was particularly prominent in the whole hall, where even a pin drop could be heard. Several pairs of eyes uniformly fell on the face of Esteemed Fu Ye, the elder in charge of the astrology platform. He was very old, and he was one of the few remaining guardian elders in Myriad Dao Academy.

The so-called guardian elders naturally didn’t manage ordinary affairs. They would only come out and take charge when the sect faced a life and death crisis. The status of guardian elders was much higher than that of anyone in the three halls and four courtyards. Nobody knew how high their Dao attainments were, but everyone knew that as long as Myriad Dao Academy’s guardian elders still existed, the sect would never die.

After Esteemed Fu Ye’s gasp, his face wrinkled into a chrysanthemum, with a clear solemn expression. He took a deep breath and asked gravely, “Lan Yue, Huarong, how sure are you that the evil spirit is an evil Qi cultivator?”

“Nine times out of ten.”

“I’m absolutely certain; there’s no doubt about it.”

The two spoke at the same time.

Esteemed Lan Yue’s words still had some reservations, but Lin Xuanzhi basically guaranteed it. Even so, it was already enough to help Esteemed Fu Ye realize exactly what kind of thing had emerged from the ground.

Esteemed Fu Ye’s face paled, and his beard trembled a few times.

The people in the hall couldn’t help feeling a little surprised when they saw his terrible expression. At the same time, they also felt somewhat apprehensive. What was an evil Qi cultivator?

Looking at Esteemed Fu Ye’s expression, it seemed to be a terrifying thing.

The atmosphere was inexplicably tense.

A moment later, Esteemed Fu Ye said slowly, “Do you know what evil Qi cultivators signify to the Nine Lands? Do you have any evidence? You can’t talk nonsense about this, otherwise there will be chaos.”

Lin Xuanzhi understood something.

Esteemed Fu Ye’s attitude had already shown that he indeed knew a lot about evil Qi cultivators and understood what made them so terrifying, which made things easier. Otherwise, Myriad Dao Academy probably wouldn’t be willing to activate the astrology platform.

Esteemed Lan Yue said, “When divining, the spiritual light will flash once and disappear. Naturally, it will leave a clear, cloudless sky and won’t leave any traces. If you want to keep the evidence, I’m afraid that isn’t possible. However, I have never told a single lie in my life, and I never joke about important events that concern the survival of the Nine Lands. Please trust me. If it is not necessary, I am also unwilling to damage my own Dao attainments for this.”

Esteemed Fu Ye once again became lost in thought.

A moment later, someone couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly is an evil Qi cultivator? I only know about evil spirits, evil Qi, and Fiends, but I didn’t know that there’s actually something called ‘evil Qi cultivator’ in this world.”

Wan Miantang lowered his eyes and speculated, “The difference between spiritual Qi cultivators and demonic Qi cultivators lies only in the different Qi refined inside the body. If you infer from this, then evil Qi cultivators should be those who cultivate using evil Qi.”

Lin Xuanzhi was still impartially standing on the wide walkway in the middle, as he had always been neutral.

“Dean Wan is right.” Lin Xuanzhi explained, “Evil Qi cultivators’ essence is that of a cultivator, but it’s normal for everyone to be unaware of them, since it’s extremely rare to encounter them in the Nine Lands. Evil Qi cultivators are far more powerful than evil spirits. They are nourished by evil Qi and can absorb other evil spirits’ evil Qi and cultivation in order to consolidate their own cultivation, which is why everywhere they go, vegetation will wither, the land will become uninhabitable, beasts will let out mournful wails until death, and human beings will shed tears of sorrow. These humans will hate and grieve for a long time, and they may even descend into madness.”

It was extremely difficult to become an evil Qi cultivator, but once such a being appears, they would become an unstoppable monster capable of destroying gods, demons, and humans. For example, Youshan Lingyu back then was definitely the psychological shadow of all the cultivators of that era.

Lin Xuanzhi’s description inevitably made people feel terrified. However, Sword Saint Yaoguang thought that the words were a little exaggerated and funny. He couldn’t help laughing and saying, “If what you say is true, then won’t evil Qi cultivators be able to control the emotions of all living beings? But the human heart is clearly the hardest to control. Besides terrible curses and medicinal pills, I haven’t heard of any way to control the human heart.”

Lin Xuanzhi said, “It’s just like how you’ve never heard of evil Qi cultivators before.”

“But how can someone cultivate evil Qi?” Wan Miantang was also puzzled. “Evil Qi is the most filthy and vile existence in the world. It’s impossible for anyone to cultivate it.”

“In this world, someone has indeed dual-cultivated demonic Qi and evil Qi.” Lin Xuanzhi looked at Wan Miantang. “The Great Immortal-Demon War ten thousand years ago was caused by him.”

Everyone was shocked.

This was getting more and more unbelievable.

Everyone here had heard of the Great Immortal-Demon War and had read many records and scripts about it. They admired those ancient powerhouses and sighed with emotion at the war that almost destroyed mountains and rivers and sank the sun and moon. However, those gods fell to the demon clan. When were evil Qi cultivators ever mentioned?

“Huarong Sword Immortal, I’ve lived for a long time and have heard my clan members mention the Great Immortal-Demon War ever since I was young. But I only know that all the evil originated from the Demon Emperor Youshan. Where were evil Qi cultivators mentioned?” An elder who grew up in an aristocratic family asked.

Sword Saint Tianshu, however, looked around with heavy eyes. He slowly replied, “All the records you’ve read so far about the Great Immortal-Demon War, be they official records or legends, all originated from my Rong family’s records.”