Venerable One

Xie Xuanyi wouldn't believe a single word coming from Xu You's mouth.

Sitting in the vice city lord's seat of Taian City, working for the Demon Realm...

Xu You's heart had long rotted through.

Every word, every syllable he uttered, was likely a lie.

If he chose to believe, he would undoubtedly be led in a false and deadly direction.

Therefore, Xie Xuanyi chose to use "Soul Searching."

Special times, special people, special measures.

There was no room for even a shred of pity.

Amidst a painful scream, Xie Xuanyi slowly and resolutely merged his spirit into the depths of Xu You's Purple Mansion Mind Lake.

The difference between their spirits was too vast. Xu You, long since drained of energy, had become a lamb to the slaughter. He resisted desperately, but no matter how he struggled, it was futile. He could only wail as Xie Xuanyi perused his filthy and sordid "life."

Xie Xuanyi stood with his hands behind his back, his spirit form suspended above Xu You's Purple Mansion Mind Lake.

Countless scenes floated before him, ready to be viewed with a mere flick of the wrist.

Xu You possessed decent talent. At the age of fourteen, he obtained an opportunity to sense the Primordial Qi of heaven and earth through visualization. He then spent a year gradually igniting his acupoints, becoming a cultivator who embarked on the right path at a young age and gaining the favor of the Great Chu Dynasty... That year, the Northern Border Guardian had not yet been dismissed, and Xu You became a disciple of Zhong Du, the guardian of Jiayong Pass.

It coincided with the most brutal "Poisoned Blood War" in nearly a century.

The Demon Realm attacked the Northern Territory for ten years, with Jiayong Pass bearing the brunt. The entire battle line stretched for nearly a thousand miles—

The ferocity of this war was unprecedented in the last sixty years. More than half of the one hundred and eight guardians responsible for guarding the Northern Territory were killed or injured, but Great Chu stubbornly defended the Northern Territory. In the final battle, the Great Chu National Teacher personally laid a trap and killed the Demon Realm Grand Venerate "Mo Zhen" on the spot!

With the death of Mo Zhen, the mastermind behind the war, the Demon Realm's ambition to invade southward instantly vanished.

This protracted and brutal war came to an end in an absurd and dramatic fashion.

A great victory!

On the borders of the Northern Prefecture, a thousand miles of red earth were soaked in the blood of Mo Zhen, bringing peace!

This is why the battle was called the "Poisoned Blood War."

In this battle, Xu You delivered top-secret intelligence to Guardian Zhong Du several times, making great contributions. As a result, he was granted a title, dispatched to Taian City after the war, and then promoted year after year!

But in the "Soul Searching" images, Xie Xuanyi saw the truth behind the conferral.

Xu You failed in his first mission to deliver intelligence... On his way out of the pass, he was discovered and directly intercepted by a major figure from the Demon Realm.

In this situation, death was the only option.

Xu You didn't immediately kill himself. Instead, he knelt down and begged for mercy, weeping and pleading for his life to be spared.

That major figure from the Demon Realm forced Xu You to swear an oath on his soul, turning him into a pawn of the Demon Realm.

After that.

Xu You had another identity.

He worked for Great Chu, but even more so for the Demon Realm.

The intelligence was eventually delivered on time to another guardian. The Demon Realm deliberately let things slide, and a series of battles were won... Xu You became Zhong Du's confidant, and in the final battle, the false intelligence he sent led to the demise of the Jiayong Pass guardian.

Zhong Du died on the day the Poisoned Blood War ended.

But the Northern Territory war was over.

For everyone, it was a great victory.

Xu You, who was originally regarded as a "discarded pawn" by the Demon Realm, survived in a daze and received rewards that did not belong to him. The war was too brutal, too many people died. After the victory, everyone felt as if they had been granted amnesty. Perhaps it was a joke of fate, or perhaps destiny was mocking justice. From beginning to end, no one connected the death of Guardian Zhong Du with Xu You. When a useless pawn landed in a key position, it was worth paying attention to again.

So Xu You was valued by the demons. He was responsible for taking root in Taian City, waiting for the call from the north to come again one day.

He was admired by thousands.

The citizens of Taian City regarded him as a hero.

The Great Chu imperial court paid him a salary.

For forty years, Xu You lived a life of "luxury and debauchery," except that his cultivation speed was a bit slow...

Forty years passed, and he was still stuck in the Qi Guiding Realm.

With his reputation and the military exploits he achieved in the Northern Territory war, as long as he stepped into the Grotto-Heaven Realm, he would officially become the new city lord of Taian City.

Over the years, Xu You had laid the groundwork for "becoming the city lord."

He eliminated bandits, solved floods, brought disaster relief grain to Taian City, and even cultivated an adopted son...

Everyone thought he was a hero.

But ironically, everything he did was just to become the city lord and better serve the Demon Realm.

How absurd!

A Demon Realm spy was actually only a little bit away from sitting on the throne of a human city lord.

Once Xu You succeeds...

The damage from his betrayal one day would be immeasurably heavy.

"What an actor, what a performer."

"He deceived his subordinates, deceived his adopted son, even deceived the 'Primal Chaos Monitor'..."

Xie Xuanyi suddenly understood at this moment why Xu You had put on such a lavish and heroic display at the Taian City night banquet.

There were many ways to resolve the Azure Origin Pill issue.

Xu You deliberately chose the most troublesome, yet most glamorous, method.

Because he had long been accustomed to "deception."

For so many years, he had always packaged himself as a righteous and loyal person. The despicable shadow of kneeling in the snow in the Northern Territory and selling out his country for personal gain had long been buried in the deepest part of his heart.

"I just wonder, if you've deceived so many people, can you deceive yourself?"

Xie Xuanyi sneered.

He no longer looked at this dirty and wretched life—

Deep within his heart, there were several fragments of his soul, shrouded in forbidden black evil Qi!

These images had been protected by special means!

This was what Xie Xuanyi wanted to see from his "Soul Search." He stretched out his palm and grabbed a piece of the black fragment!

With a bang.

When the black evil Qi sensed the external tremor, it instantly turned ferocious, transforming into a savage beast and rushing towards Xie Xuanyi!

Obviously.

The important figure responsible for contacting Xu You knew the "importance" of these memory fragments. After giving instructions for the mission, he included a wisp of his own spiritual power as a bonus.

Xie Xuanyi was expressionless and waved his sleeve.

His hand fell.

Landing on Xu You's heart, it was a giant hand almost hundreds of feet in size!

The demonic beast formed from the rolling black Qi was instantly grabbed by Xie Xuanyi!

During this special period, the Great Chu Dynasty's inspection of demonic Qi was extremely strict.

Although this great demon figure had been cautious, he dared not be too presumptuous. In order to avoid exposing Xu You's hidden identity, the spiritual power he left behind was only an extremely weak trace!

In Xie Xuanyi's view, this trace of divine soul power was not worth mentioning.

He seized this memory fragment and forced it to project!

A dark, long shadow fell in front of him.

"The intelligence from Qing Province has been passed to the Great Venerable for the second time!"

The figure was very tall and thin.

From a distance, it looked like a section of dead wood.

The shadow's voice was very stern:

"The Great Venerable has used sacred arts to ascertain that there are indeed violent Primordial Qi fluctuations in Carp Tide City. If the intelligence provided by Qing Province is true, this secret realm belongs to relics left behind by Great Sage Bai Ze... then this time, no matter the cost, we must bring the relics in the secret realm back to the Northern Territory!"

"Prepare yourself in the next few days. The token to verify the authenticity of the secret realm is already on its way."

"Once the token confirms that it can enter the country, I will tell you the next task."

Crack.

Upon viewing this, the memory fragment suddenly burst into a large number of cracks!

This meant that Xu You's soul could no longer withstand the pressure of the Soul Search and was on the verge of collapse. It was no longer possible to view this memory again.

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes.

The information in this conversation was a bit much.

The dark shadow who contacted Xu You and said he was assigning a task... should be a Venerable within the Demon Realm.

Based on the Demon Realm's hierarchical order.

Above the Venerable is the Great Venerable.

"Great Sage Bai Ze's secret realm is about to appear in Carp Tide City? The Demon Realm's Great Venerable obtained intelligence from Qing Province?"

Xie Xuanyi carefully recalled this passage, and the more he thought about it, the more palpitations he felt.

News of an ancient sage's secret realm was definitely top-level classified information!

If there really was a secret realm about to emerge in Carp Tide City, then those who knew the inside story should only be a handful of people, including but not limited to King Youhai, who was in charge of a province, and the great cultivators of the ancient families and ancient sects who were seated in Qing Province and were familiar with the surrounding territory.

Generally speaking, those who knew this kind of intelligence would strictly keep it confidential.

Once a secret realm appeared, the aristocratic families and sects would explore it first and benefit first!

But the Demon Realm's Great Venerable knew in advance...

This suggests someone is leaking information to the Demon Realm!

A high-level cultivator defecting to the demons is far more terrifying than Xu You!

Cold sweat trickled down Xie Xuanyi's back. Without hesitation, he reached for the second memory fragment.

The familiar reflection reappeared.

This conversation likely occurred sometime after the first scene.

"Rank Three, the token is on its way."

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will arrive in Taian City within seven days. The delivery person will contact you by letter."

"Once you receive the item and verify its authenticity, take your identification and proceed immediately to Carp Tide City… Ensure the second handover is completed before the Sage's Secret Realm opens to the world."

"The following are the token's characteristics and relevant information."

Xie Xuanyi's expression was grave. The amount of information gleaned from this soul-searching was significant.

Rank Three.

The black-robed Venerable's designation for Xu You was intriguing… If he wasn't mistaken, the Demon Realm had cast a vast spy network across the Northern Prefecture and Qing Province. Xu You wasn't the only cultivator who betrayed Great Chu during the Mo Zhen War.

And the Demon Realm possessed a complete list, with each traitor assigned their own designation.

Rank Three was Xu You's designation.

What made this designation interesting was that, based on Xie Xuanyi's understanding of the Demon Realm's operational style, the black-robed Venerable responsible for assigning tasks likely didn't know Xu You's position, name, or specific identity.

Hence the later instruction to "bring your identification"—

Great Chu possessed absolute control over its territory.

A single order.

Qing Province enacted an Eight Hundred Li Forbidden Zone overnight.

Demon Realm spies had to be extremely careful and discreet to conceal their identities.

The higher-ups manipulating the spy network were the same.

Each handover was a gamble. The higher the task's precision and the less each party knew about the other, the greater the likelihood of a successful handover… Even if one link in the chain failed, it wouldn't necessarily lead to the entire spy network collapsing, being uprooted, and destroyed.

Xie Xuanyi carefully examined the task information left behind by the black-robed Venerable.

What he was truly curious about was…

What exactly was the token… that finger bone?

He unlocked the final memory fragment.

Xie Xuanyi obtained the answer he sought.

"This finger bone of Great Sage Bai Ze only requires the infusion of Primordial Qi to activate the Demon Sage's bloodline power."

"With this token, you can enter the Secret Realm…"

"Activating the bloodline power will verify its authenticity!"