Venerable

Xie Xuanyi would not believe a single word that came from Xu You's mouth.

Sitting in the position of Taian City's deputy city lord, serving the Demon Kingdom...

Xu You's heart had long since rotted through.

Every sentence he spoke, every word, could very well be a lie.

The moment Xie Xuanyi chose to believe him, he would inevitably be led down the wrong and fatal path.

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

Special times, special people, special methods.

There could not be the slightest mercy.

Amid a bout of agonized screams, Xie Xuanyi slowly yet resolutely merged his divine soul into Xu You's Heart Lake within his Purple Palace.

The gap between their divine souls was simply too vast. Xu You, who had long been at the end of his rope, had already become a lamb awaiting slaughter. He fought desperately, but no matter how he struggled, it was of no use. He could only howl as Xie Xuanyi rifled through his filthy, sordid "life."

With his hands behind his back, Xie Xuanyi hovered above Xu You's Heart Lake within the Purple Palace in the form of a divine soul.

Countless scenes floated before him. With a casual flick, he could view them.

Xu You had decent talent. At fourteen, he encountered a fortuitous opportunity and sensed the world's primal energy through visualization. He then spent a year lighting his acupoints one after another, becoming a cultivator who had set foot on the proper path at a young age. He was also valued by the Great Chu Dynasty... That year, the Northern Border Guardian had not yet been dismissed from office, and Xu You became a disciple of Zhong Du, the Garrison Envoy of Jiayong Pass.

It happened to be the most brutal Poisoned Drink War of the past century.

The Demon Kingdom attacked the northern border for ten full years. Jiayong Pass bore the first impact, and the entire battlefront stretched for nearly a thousand li—

The brutality of that war was unprecedented for several sixty-year cycles. Of the one hundred and eight Garrison Envoys responsible for defending the northern border, more than half were killed or wounded. Yet Great Chu forcibly held the northern border. In the final battle, the Great Chu State Preceptor personally laid the trap and slew Grandmaster Mozhen of the Demon Kingdom on the spot!

Grandmaster Mozhen, mastermind of the war, perished body and soul. The Demon Kingdom's ambitions of marching south vanished in an instant.

This long and brutal war came to its curtain call in an absurdly dramatic fashion, ending just like that.

It was a resounding victory!

Along the thousand-li red earth of the Northern Prefecture frontier, all drank Mozhen's blood and found peace!

That was why this battle came to be known as the Poisoned Drink War.

During that battle, Xu You had repeatedly delivered top-secret intelligence for Garrison Envoy Zhong Du and earned tremendous military merit. Thus, he received a title and was sent to Taian City after the war, where he rose through the ranks year after year!

But within the scenes revealed by Soul Searching, Xie Xuanyi saw the truth behind that title.

Xu You had failed on his very first intelligence-delivery mission... On his way out of the pass, he was discovered and intercepted by an important figure from the Demon Kingdom.

In such a situation, there was only one word: death.

Xu You had not killed himself at once. Instead, he knelt and begged for mercy, weeping bitter tears as he pleaded for the other party to spare his life.

That important figure from the Demon Kingdom forced Xu You to swear a divine soul oath and turned him into a pawn of the Demon Kingdom.

After that.

Xu You gained another identity.

He served Great Chu, but he also served the Demon Kingdom.

That intelligence was ultimately delivered on time to the command of another Garrison Envoy. The Demon Kingdom deliberately went easy on them, and several battles in succession ended in great victories... Xu You became Zhong Du's trusted right-hand man. In the final battle, the false intelligence he delivered also sent the Garrison Envoy of Jiayong Pass down a dead end.

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

But the northern border war had ended.

To everyone, it was a great victory.

Xu You, whom the Demon Kingdom had originally intended to discard as an "abandoned pawn," muddled through and survived, even receiving honors that did not belong to him. The war had been too brutal; too many had died. When victory finally arrived, everyone felt as though they had been granted amnesty. Perhaps it was a joke played by heaven, or perhaps fate was toying with justice. From beginning to end, no one linked the death of Garrison Envoy Zhong Du to Xu You. When an abandoned pawn that had lost its use landed in a crucial position, it became worthy of attention once more.

Thus, Xu You gained the Demon Race's favor. He was tasked with taking deep root in Taian City, waiting for the day when the call from the north came again.

He was revered by tens of thousands.

The people of Taian City regarded him as a hero.

The Great Chu Imperial City allotted him a salary.

For a full forty years, Xu You lived a life of "dazzling paper and intoxicating gold," aside from his somewhat slow cultivation progress...

Forty years had passed, yet he remained in the Qi Guiding Realm.

With his prestige and the military merit he had earned in the northern border war, once he entered the Grotto-Heaven Realm, he would officially become Taian City's new city lord.

Over the years, Xu You had laid every possible foundation for his "promotion to city lord."

He purged bandits for Taian City, resolved flood disasters, brought in relief grain, and even raised an adopted son...

Everyone believed he was a hero.

But the irony was that everything he did was only to become city lord, so that he could better repay the Demon Kingdom.

How absurd!

A Demon Kingdom spy had actually come within a hair's breadth of taking the position of a human city lord.

If Xu You succeeded.

Then one day, the damage brought by his stab in the back would be immeasurably grave.

"What an actor. What a damned actor."

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

At that moment, Xie Xuanyi suddenly understood why Xu You had put on such a lavish and bold display at Taian City's night banquet.

There were many ways to resolve the matter of the Azure Origin Pill.

Yet Xu You had deliberately chosen the most troublesome, but also the most glamorous, method.

Because he had long grown accustomed to "deception."

For all these years, he had packaged himself as a righteous man loyal to his friends. The vile shadow of him kneeling in the northern border snow, selling out his country for glory, had long been buried in the deepest part of his Heart Lake.

"I just wonder, after deceiving so many people, can you deceive yourself?"

Xie Xuanyi sneered.

He no longer looked upon that filthy, sordid life—

Deep within the Heart Lake were several fragments of divine soul shrouded in forbidden black Killing Intent!

Someone had used special methods to protect these scenes!

This was what Xie Xuanyi wanted to see through Soul Searching. He stretched out a hand and grabbed at one of the black fragments!

With a boom.

The instant the black Killing Intent sensed the tremor from outside, it turned savage, transforming into a ferocious beast that charged at Xie Xuanyi!

Clearly.

The important figure responsible for liaising with Xu You knew the "importance" of these memory fragments. After giving his mission instructions, he had additionally left behind a wisp of his mental power.

Xie Xuanyi remained expressionless and flicked his sleeve.

One hand descended.

Upon Xu You's Heart Lake, it became a gigantic hand nearly several hundred zhang wide!

The demon beast formed from roiling black mist was instantly seized by Xie Xuanyi!

At this special time, the Great Chu Dynasty's inspection of demon energy had become strict to the extreme.

Although that important figure of the Demon Race had exercised caution, he did not dare act too brazenly. To prevent Xu You's identity as a hidden piece from being exposed, the mental power he left behind was only an exceedingly faint trace!

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

He gripped the memory fragment and forcibly made it project!

A long, pitch-black figure appeared before him.

"The intelligence from Azure Prefecture has already reached Grandmaster's ears for the second time!"

That figure was tall and thin.

From afar, he resembled a section of deadwood.

The shadow's voice was extremely stern:

"Grandmaster has already used a sacred art to verify it. Carp Tide City indeed has violent primal energy fluctuations. If the intelligence provided by Azure Prefecture is true, and this secret realm is an artifact left behind by Great Sage Bai Ze... then this time, no matter the price, we must bring the relics within the secret realm back to the northern lands!"

"Make your preparations over the next few days. The token for verifying whether the secret realm is real is already on the way."

"Once the token is confirmed able to enter the border, I will tell you your next task."

Crack.

At this point, the memory fragment suddenly burst with a mass of cracks!

This meant Xu You's divine soul could no longer withstand the pressure of Soul Searching and was on the verge of collapse. It was already impossible to view this memory again.

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes.

This conversation contained quite a lot of information.

That black shadow who had contacted Xu You and said he would assign him a mission... should be some Venerable within the Demon Kingdom.

Within the Demon Kingdom's hierarchy.

Only above Venerables were Grandmasters.

"Great Sage Bai Ze's secret realm is about to emerge in Carp Tide City? A Grandmaster of the Demon Kingdom received intelligence from Azure Prefecture?"

Xie Xuanyi carefully recalled those words. The more he considered them, the more his heart palpitated.

News of an ancient sage's secret realm absolutely belonged to the highest level of secrecy!

If Carp Tide City truly had a secret realm about to emerge, then only a scant few should know the inside information, including but not limited to King Youhai, who governed a prefecture, as well as those great cultivators from ancient aristocratic clans and ancient sects stationed in Azure Prefecture, who knew the surrounding lands like the backs of their hands.

Generally speaking, those who knew such intelligence would keep it strictly confidential.

Once the secret realm emerged, aristocratic clans and sects would be the first to explore it, and the first to profit!

Yet a Grandmaster of the Demon Kingdom knew in advance...

That meant someone had leaked the secret to the Demon Kingdom!

A great cultivator of this level defecting to the demons was far more terrifying than Xu You!

Cold sweat had already seeped down Xie Xuanyi's back. Without hesitation, he immediately grabbed for the second memory fragment.

The familiar reflection appeared once more.

This conversation should have taken place some time after the first scene.

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

"Barring any mishap, this token will arrive in Taian City within seven days. The courier will write to contact you."

"Once you receive the item and verify that it is correct, bring your identity credentials and immediately proceed to Carp Tide City... You must complete the second handoff before the sage's secret realm emerges."

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

Xie Xuanyi's expression was grave. The information revealed by this Soul Searching was still immense.

Rank Three.

The way this Black Shirt Venerable addressed Xu You was interesting... If Xie Xuanyi's guess was correct, the Demon Race had spread an enormous spy network throughout Northern Prefecture and Azure Prefecture. Xu You was far from the only cultivator who had betrayed Great Chu during the Poisoned Drink War.

And the Demon Kingdom possessed a complete list, with every traitor having his 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 Race's manner of doing things, this Black Shirt Venerable responsible for assigning tasks most likely did not know Xu You's position, name, or specific identity either.

That was why there was the later instruction to "bring your identity credentials"—

Great Chu possessed absolute control over the land within its borders.

With a single order.

Azure Prefecture could be placed under an Eight Hundred Li Forbidden Zone overnight.

For Demon Race spies to conceal their identities, they had to be sufficiently careful and sufficiently prudent.

The superiors controlling the spy network had to do the same.

Every handoff was a game of strategy. The more precise the task, the less each side knew about the other, and the greater the likelihood that the handoff would succeed... Even if one link in the chain went wrong, it would not cause the entire spy network to come to nothing, be uprooted entirely, and collapse on the spot.

Xie Xuanyi carefully examined the mission information left behind by that Black Shirt Venerable.

What he was truly curious about.

Was the so-called token... What exactly was that section of Finger Bone?

Opening the final memory fragment.

Xie Xuanyi obtained the answer he wanted.

"This Finger Bone of Great Sage Bai Ze need only be infused with primal energy to activate the power of the demon sage's bloodline."

"With this token, enter the secret realm's territory..."

"Awaken the bloodline power, and you can verify whether it is genuine!"

z!