Tantai Qingrun

A long table stood in the room, with an incense burner atop it. Wisps of sandalwood smoke curled upward from within.

A woman sat cross-legged behind the table, while the middle-aged man from earlier stood silently behind her with utmost respect.

Lu Qingshan took a light breath of the faint sandalwood fragrance hanging in the air, and a cool sensation immediately rushed into his mind.

His mind cleared, his spirit refreshed, and the distracting thoughts in his head gradually scattered.

This was Calming Incense!

An exceptional treasure for assisting cultivation, it could help cultivators enter their cultivation state more quickly while increasing their cultivation efficiency.

Even the most ordinary stick of Calming Incense started at one Third-grade Spirit Stone on the market. Anyone who used Calming Incense to aid cultivation was either wealthy or noble.

But given the identity of the woman before him, it was perfectly normal for her to use Calming Incense in cultivation.

The master of Zhishou Tower's branch in the commandery city was a Golden Core cultivator.

Among the first four realms of cultivation—Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul—every advancement was a qualitative leap in strength.

In Yuanshan City, Golden Core cultivators already counted as the highest level of combat power.

The master of Yuanshan Tower appeared to be a woman of around twenty-four or twenty-five.

Dressed in white, pure as snow, her brows and eyes were sharp, yet her features were exquisitely delicate. The longer one looked, the more pleasing she became.

But since she was a Golden Core cultivator, her age could not be judged so simply by her appearance.

For all he knew, she might even be someone from his great-grandmother's generation.

Lu Qingshan secretly pondered.

If he remembered correctly, this body was only fifteen years old—a fresh young piece of cultivator meat.

The woman looked Lu Qingshan up and down. Her expression was calm as still water, and her voice indifferent. "Where did you hear the name Underworld?"

Lu Qingshan answered neither humbly nor arrogantly, "By chance."

"By chance?" The woman's tone rose slightly.

"My name is Lu Qingshan, a descendant of the Lu Family of Zhenjiang Prefecture in Azure Province." Lu Qingshan did not directly answer her question. Instead, he said again, "May I know the Tower Master's name?"

The Lu Family was one of the thirty-six great cultivation lineages of Zhenjiang Prefecture.

Though such influence was nothing that Zhishou Tower would take seriously, Lu Qingshan did not mind giving himself a background to stand on.

"Tantai Qingrun." The woman frowned, yet she answered cleanly and decisively, without any pretense or hesitation.

"Tower Master Tantai." Lu Qingshan nodded. "The Underworld is a Devil Race organization that has long lurked among humanity. Its influence stretches across the seven domains and is extraordinarily vast.

"In the beginning, the Underworld was formed by Devil Race members skilled in disguise and infiltration. They slipped into humanity's seven domains and drew in a large number of cultivators through temptation or coercion.

"Nourished by profit and desire, the Underworld's power grew ever greater. They treated human lives like blades of grass and committed every evil imaginable.

"During the great war twenty thousand years ago, although Dao Ancestor Xia led the human cultivators in repelling the Devil Race and severely crippling the Underworld's forces, then established the Great Xia Imperial Family to protect humanity, the Underworld never vanished. Instead, it stubbornly endured.

"The Underworld silently concealed itself among humanity and began rebuilding its strength. Like a malignant tumor, it spread unchecked throughout humanity's lands."

Lu Qingshan calmly laid out what he knew about the Underworld.

The world of "Nine Heavens" was vast beyond measure.

"Nine Heavens" was called Nine Heavens because this world contained a total of nine worlds.

Yet even before his transmigration, Lu Qingshan had known the names of only two of them.

One was the current world controlled by humanity, where players first appeared: the Firmament!

The other was the world inhabited by the Devil Race: the Abyss!

The Abyss and the Firmament were neighboring worlds. To seize resources and strengthen their race, the Devil Race of the Abyss had always sought to conquer the Firmament and turn humanity into their vassals and slaves.

Twenty thousand years ago, during the all-out holy war of invasion launched by the Devil Race, the human cultivation world was divided into sects and further split between righteous and evil paths. They fought separately and were beaten into utter disarray by the Devil Race, leaving the living beings of the Firmament's seven domains to suffer devastation.

Just as the Firmament was about to fall and humanity was about to become slaves of the Devil Race, Dao Ancestor Xia survived the Nine Heavens Tribulation and became a Dao Ancestor. With the power of a Dao Ancestor, he turned the tide and propped up a mansion on the verge of collapse, driving back the Devil Race.

After driving the Devil Race back into the Abyss and rebuilding humanity, Dao Ancestor Xia learned from the lesson. While preserving the independence of the sects, he established the Great Xia Imperial Family, unifying and sheltering humanity.

That was why an imperial family still existed in a world of immortal cultivation.

There was no other reason: the Dao Ancestor's bloodline was imperial, and none dared show it disrespect!

After Dao Ancestor Xia repelled the Devil Race, he built a great human city, Tianhe City, where the Firmament and the Abyss met.

With Tianhe City as the frontline base, humanity kept the Devil Race outside the Firmament. Coupled with the deterrence of the Dao Ancestor, humanity had been able to recuperate in peace over the past twenty thousand years and gradually grow stronger.

But the Underworld, as a force of the Devil Race, remained hidden within humanity's territory like a bomb that could explode at any time.

Therefore, eliminating the Underworld's forces had always been a shared objective among humanity's major powers.

Tantai Qingrun raised her slender brows slightly. "That is all correct, but it is not something a Qi Refining Second Layer cultivator like you should know. Much less how you managed to find our Zhishou Tower."

Tantai Qingrun's gaze turned cold.

In an instant, a heavy pressure descended upon Lu Qingshan.

Spiritual Sense released!

The pressure released by a Golden Core cultivator's Spiritual Sense alone was enough to render a Qi Refining Second Layer cultivator like Lu Qingshan unable to move.

Lu Qingshan painfully tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Zhishou Tower exists to oppose the Underworld. Are you sure... you don't want to hear me out?"

"Tower Master." The middle-aged male cultivator, who had remained silent at the side, suddenly spoke in persuasion. "Why not hear what he has to say?"

Tantai Qingrun frowned, her beautiful brows knitting together. After pondering for a moment, she finally nodded. "Continue."

Lu Qingshan felt his entire body relax.

The suffocating pressure had already dissipated.

One played the villain, the other played the hero. A classic old routine, worn so thin it had become cliché.

Lu Qingshan chuckled. Then he suddenly said, "Demon Cultivator, Blood Corpse True Person. Current location: Yuanshan City. Strength: Foundation Establishment realm. Appearance: a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. He is accompanied by a female disciple at the fourth layer of Qi Refining."

Tantai Qingrun fell silent for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"First, I'll give you a small gift. Then we can discuss what comes next."

"The matter of the Underworld is of great importance. Better to believe it exists than believe it does not," the middle-aged male cultivator said to Tantai Qingrun.

A sharp gleam flashed through Tantai Qingrun's eyes. She nodded. "Then I'll have to trouble you to make the trip, Uncle Rong."

The middle-aged male cultivator gave Lu Qingshan a meaningful look, then turned and left the room.

After the middle-aged male cultivator left, only Lu Qingshan and Tantai Qingrun remained in the room.

For a time, the atmosphere seemed somewhat strange.

"Tower Master Tantai is a Sword Cultivator, isn't she?"