Great Qian, Star Province.
Inside Changjun City.
Seven figures flashed through the crowds like streaks of light.
It was obvious that the seven belonged to two opposing camps: six pursuing one.
"Rumors say that Ancient Demon Gu has been acting strangely these past few months, likely because something went wrong with his cultivation. Now it seems the rumors are true. Despite possessing Spirit Refining cultivation, he can't even bring out the strength of a Core Former. Every attack worsens his injuries! Today is the day we, the Six Sons of Zhengyi, punish evil, promote justice, eliminate demons, and uphold the righteous path!"
One of the six pursuers shouted a reminder: "He wants to use the chaos of Changjun City's crowds to escape. Don't let him succeed. Remember, the one in the red robe is Ancient Demon Gu!"
The fleeing figure ahead shuddered. Taking advantage of a corner, he swiftly tore off his robe and threw it away.
Even so, one of his pursuers quickly recognized him again. "Over there! The one wearing a hairband and keeping his hair long is Ancient Demon Gu!"
The fugitive ahead trembled again.
Seeing a market ahead, he plunged into the crowd, quickly discarded his hairband, and used his sword to cut off his long hair, leaving himself in an utterly disheveled state.
As he fled, he raged, "This isn't fair! They were trying to kill me, so I only killed them in self-defense! And you still stacked my Karma Buff? They're allowed to kill me, but I'm not allowed to kill them!?"
He wasn't complaining about any person.
He was complaining about a Green Lotus in his spiritual world.
Because a projection resembling an immortal-hero world had appeared on Blue Star, immortal-hero games and films had become wildly popular, and related figurines had appeared everywhere.
When Gu Jinlai passed an abandoned construction site, he picked up a Green Lotus figurine.
He thought it was beautiful, so he brought it home and carefully washed it.
During the cleaning, he accidentally cut his finger on a lotus leaf...
The next moment, chaotic, pure light dazzling to the extreme filled his vision.
When he awoke, he had already become this Demonic Sect elder, who shared his exact name.
In his spiritual world, a Green Lotus bloomed, and his consciousness sat atop it.
When he killed someone whose crimes were monstrous—in other words, someone with Bright Red Karma—he could obtain pure light and pour it into the Green Lotus, assisting comprehension and increasing his cultivation.
If he attacked righteous cultivators, however, karma would entangle him, and all kinds of revenge and dangers would come one after another.
As mentioned earlier, he had transmigrated into the body of a Demonic Sect elder.
That elder had directly died when he went berserk cultivating, his soul destroyed. Yet apparently even death hadn't been enough. He had also left behind nine layers of Karma Buff!
A deep Red Name.
Terrified out of his wits, Gu Jinlai immediately abandoned evil and embraced righteousness.
Unfortunately, "Gu Jinlai" had originally requested a transfer to Changjun City to avoid an enemy from his own sect. When he suddenly and inexplicably wanted to turn over a new leaf, it immediately attracted countless probes from that enemy.
In just one month, provocations and attacks had been innumerable.
He endured them all and gave way.
Yet his patience seemed to confirm his enemy's suspicions.
Thus, rumors spread everywhere, eventually leading to the scene of Orthodox One Sect disciples surrounding and attacking him.
He had wanted to explain, but the Orthodox One Sect disciples immediately attacked with murderous intent. When he narrowly escaped death, his ferocity was provoked, and he killed one of them in retaliation. The result...
His Karma Buff stacked directly to ten layers!
The consequence was that no matter how he hid, Orthodox One Sect disciples would always "accidentally" discover him, and the pursuit never stopped.
"Ancient Demon Gu, you can't escape!"
Outside Changjun City.
Gu Jinlai was finally cornered by the Six Sons of Zhengyi.
Six immortal-sect true disciples, their white robes fluttering and their bearing heroic, surrounded him with swords in hand.
It was a grand scene of slaying demons and eliminating monsters.
Gu Jinlai took a deep breath. "I was abducted when I was six and entered the Purgatory Demon Sect. It took me sixty years to reach Spirit Refining. In my old age, I realized that my sins were as vast as the heavens, so I dispersed all my demonic cultivation..."
"Demon, what are you trying to say!?"
The leader of the Six Sons of Zhengyi stepped forward and barked.
He was Ding Buqi, one of the top ten true disciples of Orthodox One Sect. He had opened all his meridians and reached Qi Refining Perfection. He was only one step away from condensing qi into a sword, exhaling swords, and killing people within ten steps.
"Give me a chance."
Gu Jinlai spoke in a deep voice.
"How are we supposed to give you a chance?"
"Before, I had no choice. Now, I want to be a good person."
"Fine. Go tell the Headmaster of Orthodox One Sect and see whether he'll let you be a good person."
"Then you're telling me to die."
"Sorry, I'm a righteous..."
"Hiss!"
Before Ding Buqi could finish, a sword flash bloomed like a red lotus and transformed into more than a dozen Sword Qi that shot in every direction.
Ding Buqi bore the brunt. Though he protected himself with true qi at the first moment, the Sword Qi still cut through him, leaving several sword marks.
The other five had weaker cultivation. Those who dodged too slowly were pierced through by the Sword Qi.
Amid the explosive Sword Qi, Gu Jinlai leaped into the air, skimmed across the ground, and shot toward the distant mountain forest like an arrow loosed from a bow.
"Shameless! You actually launched a sneak attack!"
"Junior Sister Li!"
"Quick, send a signal and notify the other disciples to surround and kill the Old Devil! Everyone, charge together! Against a demonic giant like this, there's no need to talk about honor!"
In the mountain forest, Gu Jinlai was still fleeing wildly.
That outburst had injured the Six Sons of Zhengyi, but since none of them had a deep Red Name, he hadn't dared to kill a single one. This made the Orthodox One Sect disciples believe even more firmly that he was at the end of his strength.
Orthodox One Sect elders and cultivators who considered themselves only slightly weaker than the Six Sons of Zhengyi joined the pursuit in groups. By now, dozens or even hundreds of Orthodox One Sect people had entered the mountain forest.
If they weren't worried about a trap, even the Headmaster would have been unable to resist coming out to claim the bounty.
It was no exaggeration to say the entire sect had mobilized.
"Luckily nobody died just now. Otherwise, if I stacked another layer of karma, when would I have had a chance to catch my breath?"
Gu Jinlai wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly recovered.
"The Six Sons of Zhengyi are bold beyond belief. Even Qi-Refining newbies dare to chase a Spirit Refining big shot!"
He hadn't received Ancient Demon Gu's memories, but after more than a month in this world, he had still figured out its cultivation system.
First, one tempered the flesh, passing through the three stages of Body Tempering, Organ Refining, and Blood Changing, before entering the Qi Refining realm.
Only after completing Qi Refining, Gang Condensing, and Core Forming could one become a Spirit Refining True Person.
Figures of this level were elder-level figures even in the top sects. They already stood at the upper levels of the cultivation world and were known as giants.
"What these self-proclaimed righteous cultivators do is no different from the Demonic Dao. Yet their karma is inferior to mine. At most, they're at the Yellow Name or Light Red Name level!"
Gu Jinlai panted. "Can't some weak demonic giant come after me and send me a few streams of pure light?"
But he also knew that if someone was weak, how could they become a demonic giant?
They would have been exterminated long ago by those righteous cultivators under the banner of acting on Heaven's behalf.
"I can't rest. The Karma Buff hasn't disappeared yet. Next, 'Gu Jinlai's' enemies and the cultivators drawn by the Bounty Board will all come. If I were strong enough, I could turn them into ashes, but now... one mistake and I'll die before accomplishing anything."
Gu Jinlai forced his exhausted body upright and continued running deeper into the forest.
He hadn't inherited Ancient Demon Gu's memories. Every technique he knew had been learned through frantic study during the month since he transmigrated. He had unleashed the renowned Red Lotus Sword Qi of the Core Forming level, yet hadn't killed a single one of the Six Sons of Zhengyi.
He hadn't dared to kill them, mainly, but his half-baked skill was also partly to blame.
At this level, if he were caught by a Core Forming elder of Orthodox One Sect, he wouldn't have any chance of escaping.
One day, three days, six days...
Gu Jinlai fled through the mountain forest for ten days.
He had barely enough food to fill his stomach and barely enough clothing to cover his body.
Worse, he had to endure immense mental pressure, never knowing whether he would see the sun of the next day.
The mental pressure alone was bad enough. Whenever he encountered pursuers, he couldn't even kill them in retaliation.
Otherwise, his Karma Buff would grow thicker and thicker, and the people hunting him would become more numerous and more powerful.
It was unbearably stifling.
"I'm almost at my limit. Three days ago, the pursuers who 'accidentally' ran into me were still a few Qi Refiners mixed with one or two Gang Condensers. Yesterday, I actually encountered the Four Evils of Star Province. Those were four Gang Condensers. The next step is Core Forming!?"
Core Forming!
Gu Jinlai's body trembled.
After ten days of fleeing and repeatedly narrowly escaping death, he had only barely begun cultivating the Core Forming sword art Red Lotus Sword Qi. As for the rest...
Movement techniques? Didn't know any!
Secret arts? Didn't know any!
Spells? Didn't know any!
Killing moves? Had none!
Combat experience? Practically zero!
Under these circumstances, let alone Core Forming, he might not even be able to defeat the Four Evils of Star Province, four Gang Condensers whose karma had previously exceeded his own.
Those he could kill, he couldn't beat. Those he could beat, he couldn't kill.
A tragedy written in giant letters!
"Even Blood-Changing Martial Artists are coming after me! Am I, a dignified Spirit Refining giant, really this lacking in prestige? Aren't you afraid I'm cunningly pretending to be weak to deceive the enemy?"
Gu Jinlai held his breath in frustration.
But as he looked at his own miserable state, clothes shredded and half his body exposed to the wind...
He really was this lacking in prestige.
This transmigration was worse than going back to Blue Star.
The Underworld Cultivation World could keep itself.
At that moment, his sharp ears caught something.
Someone!?
He jolted and scrambled up, about to flee.
But soon, he heard clearly.
Two groups were fighting. They weren't coming for him.
He had truly become a frightened man seeing shadows in a cup.
"Could one side be people from the Demonic Dao?"
Gu Jinlai took a deep breath. "I have to kill a Red Name and obtain pure light to wash away this Karma Buff!"
After thinking it over, he crept closer.
At that moment, on a path beneath the mountain forest, a group of more than a dozen people guarded three carriages.
Outside them stood four figures.
There were clearly only four people, yet they seemed to have surrounded the caravan of more than a dozen, preventing anyone from fighting their way out.
The strongest person in the caravan was an old man. He was fighting desperately, true qi bursting from his body.
His opponent was a middle-aged man in a blood-red robe with a sinister expression. His cultivation had already reached Qi Refining Perfection. If he hadn't been wary of the old man fighting to the death, he would have already slain him with his sword.
"Blood Demon Ancestor! In order to cultivate the Blood Demon Art, you slaughtered three villages in just one month! You still dare appear outside Lingxiao City!?"
The old man fought without fear of death, attacking without defending.
"Hahaha, so what? Today, not only will all of you die, but the 263 members of your Li Family have also been promised to me. Once I blood-refine all 263 members of your Li Family, my cultivation will surely reach great accomplishment. I'll condense qi into gang, and when that happens, where in this vast world will I be unable to go!?"
The man fighting the old man laughed wildly. His voice carried a power that disturbed the mind, filling the dozen-odd guards with panic.
"You... you really are someone hired by the Three Great Families!"
On one of the carriages, a young man in his twenties, dressed in plain clothes, shouted angrily, "The Wang Family, Zhao Family, and Fang Family colluded with the Crimson Blood Demonic Gate, using Lingxiao City as a transfer point. They took advantage of the Demonic Beasts' unrest to abduct civilians and let those demons cultivate their demonic arts, causing countless families to be torn apart. After my father discovered this, you even framed him... Retribution will come for you!"
"Retribution? The wails of defeated dogs. The trash from those three villages said the same thing back then. And what happened? I'm still alive and well, with ever-higher cultivation, while the more than two thousand people in those three villages have all been slaughtered by me!"
The Blood Demon Ancestor laughed loudly. The powerful sound waves struck out, throwing the old man's breath into disarray.
"You demon!"
The young man glared furiously.
"Hahaha! Shout! Curse me! I love watching you hate me to the bone while being powerless to do anything!"
"Hahahahaha!"
At that moment, a great laugh that seemed to have been suppressed for a long time before suddenly being released rolled out from the nearby forest.
The laughter boomed like thunder, brimming with exhilaration, joy, madness, and even...
A rebirth from certain death!
"Hahahaha, what did I find!? A deep Red Name! His sins are actually greater than this old man's! Good! Good! This is truly wonderful!"
"Who's there!?"
The Blood Demon Ancestor's expression changed.
The next moment, a figure shot over like a streak of light. Before anyone could react, a blood-red sword flash carrying an edge that could tear through everything descended and enveloped the Blood Demon Ancestor.
"Die for me!"
Before you continue