The crowd on the Sword Testing Platform grew alert when they saw the demon suddenly move, each preparing for a potential life-or-death battle.
However, Gu Jiang didn't even glance their way, taking the female disciple from Cloud Scripture Sect and flying directly toward the mountain gate.
"Should we stop him?" someone asked.
After a moment of silence, someone responded, "Could we even if we tried?"
Following another poignant silence, Yan Yi sighed, "So far, Gu Jiang hasn't killed any innocents. On the contrary, he single-handedly withstood the mountain-protecting sword formation and saved many disciples who hadn't managed to retreat. We'd better not provoke him."
"Amitabha, Elder Yan speaks wisely," Master Yuanming clasped his hands together, gazing at the distant pair. "It seems the female disciple from your sect has transformed Gu Jiang with genuine human emotion, causing the demon to lay down his blade and achieve enlightenment—truly a blessing."
Compared to Gu Jiang, the current Cloud Scripture Sect leader Sang Wumian and his successor Meng Jin were more biased in their actions, straying from the right path without realizing it, which led to this calamity.
The three Supreme Elders of Cloud Scripture Sect bowed to the elders of various sects, "This incident arose from our sect leader's improper conduct. Cloud Scripture Sect has failed the entire cultivation world."
"Please inform all major immortal sects that Gu Jiang has left Cloud Scripture Sect. Keep watch over his movements and prepare for battle. If things become irreconcilable, Cloud Scripture Sect will lead the charge and fight with all our might, without retreat."
The three Supreme Elders outranked everyone present, and with such a sincere statement, even the straightforward Liu Hua couldn't say anything more.
"The Elders speak too seriously. Destroying evil and subduing demons is the duty of all righteous immortal sects."
-
Meanwhile, Nie Yinzhi, who had transformed the demon with human emotion, was perched on the demon's shoulder, gazing at the vast Sword Testing Platform of Cloud Scripture Sect while muttering, "They tried everything to imprison you on Pill-Forming Peak before, but now they're just letting us leave. There must be some plot."
The gathering of sect elders seemed suspiciously peaceful, and who knew what they were planning together.
Nie Yinzhi couldn't help but think negatively: "Could it be that all the major sects of the cultivation world have gathered outside Cloud Scripture Sect, waiting for us to lower our guard thinking we've escaped, only to annihilate you in one strike?"
Seeing that Gu Jiang wasn't responding, Nie Yinzhi began fidgeting, raising her fingers resting on his shoulder to pinch his earlobe. "That would be so devious and cunning. Brother, don't you want to strike first and kill a powerful cultivator to intimidate them?"
Gu Jiang silently sighed, feeling as if mosquitoes were buzzing endlessly around his ears. "There's no cultivation world army outside."
"Then there must be some demon-slaying formation, just waiting for you to step into it and be reduced to ashes." The more Nie Yinzhi spoke, the more convinced she became of this possibility. She immediately sat up straight, "Gu Jiang, wait a moment. If there's a formation, there must be signs in the spiritual energy fluctuations around us. I'm quite sensitive to these things, let me first..."
Gu Jiang swayed from her sudden movement, "Cloud Scripture Sect's mountain-protecting formation just collapsed. The spiritual energy is chaotic now. Any nearby formations would necessarily be affected."
His reasoning was sound, leaving Nie Yinzhi speechless as she relaxed and softly leaned back against his shoulder.
After a moment of quiet, she suddenly perked up again, "What if there's some hidden formation? You know nothing about curse formations and arrays. You fell for Xiang Sijue's symbiotic formation before, how can you be so careless?"
Gu Jiang clarified for himself, "That was because your blood distracted me."
Even the head of the cursing arts family Ruan couldn't successfully curse him, let alone a half-baked practitioner like Xiang Sijue. He fell for the curse because Nie Yinzhi's blood scent momentarily distracted him.
This series of movements was so fluid that Nie Yinzhi was stunned.
She jumped down from the Red Leaf sword and helped pick up his scattered clothes to hang them properly, sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning over to look at him, "Ancestor, you only missed one night's sleep, are you really this tired?"
The ancestor ignored her.
Nie Yinzhi brushed aside the messy hair on his face, couldn't resist touching his fair face, and grumbled disapprovingly, "You haven't even bathed yet, how can you just get into bed?"
She cast a cleaning spell that swept over Gu Jiang, who frowned impatiently, rolled over to the inner side of the bed, and burrowed into the bedding.
Nie Yinzhi: "..." She pressed her lips together in a slight smile, stood up and went out the door, heading downstairs to find the innkeeper to properly rent the room.
This was the largest city outside the Cloud Scripture Sect's immortal mountain territory, called Approaching Immortals City. The spiritual energy fluctuations from Cloud Scripture Sect only created some unusually beautiful clouds here, while the city remained peaceful.
Nie Yinzhi estimated that the great demon would sleep until evening, so she ordered many delicious dishes to be prepared and sent up at dinner time, and asked the innkeeper to send hot water to the room later.
The innkeeper was quite bewildered, and through this incident discovered a security vulnerability in the inn, deciding that all doors and windows would need to be thoroughly checked in the future.
Nie Yinzhi turned to go upstairs when she felt a slight chill on her fingertip. Looking down, she caught sight of a thread-like black shadow slipping out from her sleeve, drifting toward the doorway like a strand of hair - something easily missed without careful observation.
Neither the inn's patrons nor even a cultivator crossing the threshold noticed its presence.
It was demonic energy, and moreover, it was the kind Nie Yinzhi had grown familiar with, which explained why she had let her guard down enough for it to get so close.
Nie Yinzhi clutched her pricked fingertip and glanced upstairs. Gu Jiang couldn't possibly be awake, and even if he were looking for her, he wouldn't resort to such furtive, sneaking methods.
That wisp of demonic energy hung on the inn's threshold, seemingly waiting for her.
Aliali: 674b774dc4f3f33ac4a2eda0
Nie Yinzhi cast it a cold glance and turned to head upstairs.
She wasn't foolish enough to follow suspicious things around - curiosity killed the cat, after all. Even if this demonic energy shared its origin with Gu Jiang, she could go upstairs and cuddle with the demon lord himself; why would she be lured away by a mere strand of energy?
The wisp of demonic energy watched helplessly as she walked further away, not daring to follow. It had only ventured to float down as a thin thread while the people upstairs were asleep, not daring to get too close.
The hair-like strand retreated from the inn's doorway, weaving through the crowd until it reached a restaurant kitchen one street away, where a large cart of Flame Rabbits had just arrived from Northwest Fortress City the previous night.
A plump grey rabbit, stuck between the cage bars with its head poking out, continuously moved its three-petaled mouth, swallowing the strand of demonic energy.
Meanwhile, Nie Yinzhi returned to her room, lowered all the curtains, and enjoyed a comfortable bath behind the screen. She dried her hair with spiritual energy, dressed thoroughly in her inner robes, tied her belt, and lifted the bed curtains to climb onto the bed.
She knelt beside Gu Jiang, looking left and right for a suitable sleeping position. The demon lord's sleeping posture was remarkably uninhibited, completely unrestricted - despite the spacious bed, there seemed to be no room for her.
Nie Yinzhi considered waking him but thought better of it. After sitting still for a moment, she felt his chest experimentally, and satisfied with the texture, arranged his arm and directly used him as a pillow.
Inside the bed curtains, it was very dark and quiet. Nie Yinzhi listened to her own breathing and heartbeat, feeling something wasn't quite right. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly jolted awake.
Why could she only hear one person's breathing and heartbeat?