Fat Sheep

The outer perimeter of Lei Marsh still has some forests, land, hills, and rivers, but the further in you go, the more it resembles a tropical rainforest. The ground is completely covered by trees like banyan trees, turning it into a green swamp. The canopies of the trees are like a layer of low clouds, obscuring the water below. The mud and swamps completely submerge the tree roots, leaving almost no place to stand. The tree trunks are also teeming with snakes and insects, and fish and crocodiles roam beneath them. The air is thick with miasma, and there is no sign of human habitation.

Even a Golden Core cultivator like Li Fan, who flew here alone on his sword, could only pause briefly on the treetops. Let alone gathering resources, it was difficult to even find a safe spiritual cave free of poisonous miasma to recuperate. No wonder only Nascent Soul Realm cultivators dared to venture deep into this rainforest. Without vehicles like flying boats or palaces, even human Golden Core cultivators would probably find it difficult to survive in such a rainforest.

However, this forest ecosystem is a paradise for many demonic beasts. As Li Fan flew through the sky, he saw demonic energy overflowing below, and occasionally there were giant beasts at the Nascent Soul Stage level, such as Si Niu and three-headed lions, fighting and causing waves in the rainforest, with howls and screams that shook the heavens and the earth.

However, these are all giant beasts Central Plains to the jungle, which only transformed into monsters with demon cores due to the favorable weather and terrain; they did not actively imitate human cultivation. Even if a species is lucky enough or lives long enough to evolve into a Nascent Soul Stage level monster and awaken a trace of intelligence, its strength is still limited. These native creatures of the Lei Marsh Swamp are more like wild beasts, relying solely on their size to hunt with brute force, and they do not possess any supernatural abilities or magic. To outside cultivators and monsters, they are merely prey.

Li Fan had just eaten three lions and wasn't hungry. Moreover, his Storage Jade was limited and couldn't hold that much meat. Killing them would only improve his mood, and disposing of the corpses was time-consuming, laborious, and inefficient, so he wasn't in a hurry to hunt these giant beasts.

Besides the local demonic beasts, there were also many demonic cultivators from other places. These demonic cultivators were probably monsters from various mountains and caves in the Ten-thousand-mountains Mountains. Many of them had formed demon cores and were half-human and half-demon. Compared to human Golden Cores, demon Golden Core had more advantages in the Lei Marsh environment. They could reveal their true forms to hunt and gather in the Lei Marsh. Compared to the local creatures that could only use brute force, these foreign demonic beasts also had magical treasures and demonic arts to rely on, giving them an even greater advantage.

Therefore, the treasure vault that Lei Marsh opens once a year is more about nurturing the numerous demon cultivators of the Ten-thousand-mountains. If they are allowed to cultivate and grow here without being stopped, who knows how many Nascent Soul Stage Divine Transformation level demons will emerge in the future.

Therefore, if Li Fan Divine Sense detects a demonic beast during flight, he usually doesn't bother with it. However, if he discovers a demonic cultivator riding the clouds nearby performing magic, hunting giant Lei Marsh beasts, or vying for opportunities and materials, he won't be polite. He will definitely fly over with a sword from beyond the sky, casually kill the demonic cultivator, and then collect the demon core and Storage Jade.

You know what, robbery is a shortcut to getting rich. The profits from killing demon cultivators are much greater than those from hunting demon beasts. Not only are the demon cores they cultivate more refined and have fewer impurities, but you can also occasionally find some decent materials in their Storage Jade. These are probably materials that the demon cultivators have painstakingly collected themselves. It's like opening a lucky bag. You'll never know what kind of random stuff it contains unless you kill the demon you encounter and open its Storage Jade.

However, given how favorable the environment of Lei Marsh is to the Demon Race, the number of naturally born inner core demon beasts in its heartland far exceeds that of demon cultivators from outside. One can often see Nascent Soul Stage level demon beasts. So why haven't we seen organized and systematic demon cultivation groups like the Jade Toad Granny of the Ten-thousand-mountains?

Moreover, the Lei Marsh Swamp Demon Palace instance he went to check out this time should have originally been a place where powerful demons had established Lei Marsh and organizations, right? Why did it disappear without a trace, turning into a primeval jungle, instead of being passed down like the demon cultivators of the Ten-thousand-mountains?

"The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, of course the Immortal Palace should eliminate it. To be fair, the Immortal Palace has made great contributions to the Human Race."

Back in the era when the Immortal Venerable ascended to immortality, the Demon God Palace of the eight Six Combinations were swept away one by one. For countless millennia, countless demon gods and demon emperors have been bound by the generals of the four directions throughout the ages, escorted to the Demon Slayer's Tablet for execution, and beheaded. If you ever go to the Central Plains, you can visit there; there are many heads hanging on the walls of the Three Walls.

Only through such bloodshed could the territories of the Three Enclosures Twelve Countries of the Immortal Palace be carved out, and the position of the Human Race as the leader of all beings be reclaimed. Do you really think the Central Plains were given away by those pedantic scholars and demons through reasoning and persuasion?

The Demon God Palace in this Lei Marsh was probably a place that was leveled and suppressed in ancient times. It might have originally been one of the ancient barriers that the Nangong Family was responsible for suppressing and guarding. Only after the Nangong Family's immortal soldiers withdrew from the Ten-thousand-mountains did these demons have the opportunity to stir up trouble.

However, the Immortal Palace is indeed in decline. First, it was dealt a heavy blow by the Xuanmen Sect, then it exhausted its vitality through internal strife, and later it was almost destroyed by the Divine Sect. Now it is dead but not dead. It is already powerless to deal with the Demon Race outside.

The Ink Bamboo Mountain in the south is currently at the height of its power, so it's time to take over the administration of this kind of restriction. There are many such places in the Central Plains, and the Nine Great Xuan Sects are helping to suppress them.

So that's how it is... But if the Immortal Palace has the merit of suppressing all the Demon Race in the world, why did the Profound Maiden challenge the Celestial Emperor with her sword and lead the Mystic Sect in rebellion against the Celestial Immortal Palace back then?

"The Profound Heaven Sword Intent is different from the Dao. The monsters in the Central Plains were almost wiped out. Back then, the land was not as prosperous as it is now under the False Moon. The resources of heaven and earth were also very limited. So they began to fight and kill each other. This has been the case throughout history."

However, excessive suppression of independent cultivators will eventually backfire. The Xuanmen produced a Profound Maiden, while the Immortal Palace did not have a second Immortal Venerable, so naturally it declined. At least our Xuanmen still acknowledges that the Immortal Palace has protected the Human Race, after all, it did not completely wipe out the Three Realms back then.

However, the Divine Cult is different. The Divine Lord was indeed mistreated by the Immortal Palace, which is why he was determined to eradicate the lineage of the Three Immortal Venerables. His later seizure of the Xuanmen Heavenly Book was also to avenge the Immortal Palace, which is why the Divine Cult is still being resisted by the Immortal Palace and Xuanmen. Therefore, the Divine Cult's grudges are mainly against the Immortal Palace and Xuanmen, and it doesn't have as much dissatisfaction with demons.

In the future, with the Three Great Sects fighting Kun Country, it's possible that some demonic forces might take advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to grow stronger. Given the Divine Sect's clear-cut system of rewards and punishments regardless of birth, it's not impossible that they might start recruiting demonic forces to join them and then turn against the Central Plains. At that time Ink Bamboo Mountain would likely be the first to bear the brunt, becoming a bridgehead in the battle against the Demon Race.

Besides the Three Great Sects fighting tooth and nail, and the ever-growing Ink Bamboo Mountain, the troublesome Tai Su Dao Ancestor, and the resurgent and rising Demon Race... this is so troublesome. It seems that peacefully staying at home and cultivating immortality won't be so easy... He just wants to roam the world and seek a carefree life...

"The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, 'Hmph, carefree? Living means getting caught up in all sorts of things; where does carefree life come from? Hey, there's trouble ahead again.'"

Li Fan also discovered that there was another conflict ahead. After flying into the heart of Lei Marsh Swamp for a while, he finally encountered the first group of human cultivators, only to be besieged by a group of demon cultivators.

Li Fan concealed his figure and the Sword Light, approaching the battlefield from high above, and surveyed the battle from a distance, hiding high in the clouds.

This is a flying boat whose mast was destroyed, and it has crashed and run aground in the rainforest swamp below, unable to move. However, judging from the shape of the boat, it is obviously not a mechanical design from Ink Bamboo Mountain. It should be a magical artifact made from a sailboat, mainly relying on the sails with inscribed talismans to float in the air. It does not have the mechanical pivot transmission and propeller characteristic of Tiangong.

Near and far, Li Fan counted twenty-four demonic energies, all of them demons at the Golden Core stage, who had cultivated human forms but still sported wolf, dog, and raccoon heads—half-demons—using magical artifacts and demonic arts to besiege and bombard some kind of defensive array around the flying boat. Seeing the defensive array's light gradually dimming and its precarious appearance, it seemed the people inside wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

Twenty-four demons aren't the real problem; the main issue is that they're not clustered together. There are eight inside, ten outside, and six more lurking in the shadows, spread out in all directions and quite far apart. One sword strike certainly won't be enough to wipe them all out. And judging by this ambush-like formation, these demons might even be organized. If they escape...

No, perhaps it's good that they escaped.

Li Fan's eyes darted around, and a plan formed in his mind. He then boldly released the Fagui Sword, and with a flick of his finger, a dark gold sword shadow descended from the sky, striking the ground and cleaving down from the top of the head. He first picked out the monster that didn't like him and killed it with a single blow.

Then, wielding the Fagui Sword Ruyi Sword Scripture- Slaying Sword, thrusting and slashing with the sword. Taking advantage of the sword's sharpness, he successively killed three demons, catching them completely off guard.

However, the remaining monsters also reacted. The four remaining in the inner layer scattered in all directions to dodge the flying swords, while the ten outside and the six hidden in the shadows immediately searched around and locked onto the black-clad Daoist priest who was attacking from the sky with his sword.

Thus, the ten demons made a great show of their power, while six others concealed their presence and crept in from the shadows, all rushing to attack Li Fan, who had deliberately revealed himself.

Li Fan didn't linger in the fight. He withdrew his Ghost-Slaying Protection and turned to flee in a flash.

Although the cultivators in the flying boat saw the unexpected turn of events, Li Fan attacked and ran away, so they didn't dare to remove the formation and come out to help.

The monsters then split into two groups, five openly and three secretly, to continue pursuing Li Fan, while the rest continued to besiege the flying boat.

Li Fan fled for a while, then activated the Gui Xu Dao Yi return. He brushed past the pursuers without making a move, but instead went to the flying boat and used the same trick again, flying into the air to reveal himself. He brought down the Fagui Sword and beheaded three more demons. Then, without lingering in battle, he turned and left.

The demons were startled, wondering how Li Fan could be so powerful, killing all his brothers in the blink of an eye. They hesitated for a moment. The lead wolf demon howled, and the demon cultivators who had chased after him also responded. Only then did they realize that Li Fan had simply used some kind of escape technique to return by detour, and they temporarily regained their composure.

The pursuers quickly returned and regrouped. After some discussion, the monsters decided that the six who were hiding would remain hidden, while the remaining twelve would split into two groups, one inside and one outside, to prevent the people in the flying boat from breaking through.

Seeing that the monsters still wouldn't leave, Li Fan didn't hold back and tried a third time. He concealed himself and sneaked back, slaying two of the demons' heads before revealing himself and escaping to lure them into pursuit.

Not going to pursue it? Then let's continue...

In fact, he could have remained invisible the entire time, killing all the monsters until they fled in terror. However, if the difference in strength was too great, they wouldn't have the courage to continue fighting Li Fan. Now, by slowly wearing him down and constantly harassing him, and with the Fagui Sword not being particularly fast, he's giving the monsters the illusion that this swordsman is just being arrogant, but if they're careful, they can escape.

Moreover, since Li Fan always killed two people and left, the monsters hiding in the shadows had the illusion that they hadn't been discovered yet, that they still had a chance to fight back, and that they might even be able to turn the tables.

So, he stole the heads one by one twice more. The remaining monsters, seeing that Li Fan had evaded the lurking demons in all four of his sneak attacks, finally realized what was happening.

Ten of them died in no time. Well, I was just teasing them, just playing around.

So the remaining fourteen monsters stopped arguing and scattered. Li Fan changed his sword and used Pitian to draw streaks of silver light across the sky, charging left and right, killing seven monsters in an instant, including the still-hidden fools, before the remaining half could escape far away.

Li Fan didn't give chase. Instead, as if seeing someone off, he tossed a fire talisman into the sky, drawing a large Vermilion Bird before flying down to collect the corpse.

In that short time, witnessing the scene of the sword immortal single-handedly annihilating most of the group of monsters outside, the cultivators in the wrecked flying boat dared not remove the magic array for a moment, as if they were afraid that Li Fan also had ulterior motives and would take the opportunity to wipe them out as well.

It wasn't until Li Fan finished collecting the group of monster corpses and was about to leave, without any intention of speaking to them, that the cultivators on the flying boat realized who was asking whom for a favor.

Your ship is destroyed, and you can't even handle a few monsters. You're going to die sooner or later anyway, so what's there to worry about?

The spaceship's protective barrier was then activated, and a female voice spoke up, "Senior, please wait! Thank you for saving my life. I am willing to offer you 100,000 strings of cash to express my gratitude."

"Ten thousand strings of cash?"

Li Fan did indeed stop. Well, there was nothing he could do; after all, it was 100,000 strings of cash—quite a generous offer...

Then he turned his head and took a closer look, and wow, it was amazing...

Three men and two women emerged from the flying boat. All of them were fair-skinned, beautiful, and had extraordinary appearances. They had oval faces, peach blossom eyes, and long, moth-like eyebrows, clearly indicating that they were blood relatives of the same clan. However, these eyebrows, when placed on women, would add to their delicate and charming appearance, while on men, they would appear somewhat frivolous and weak.

The woman who spoke to him first, Shi Wanguan, was adorned with pearl and floral ornaments on her brow, eyes, and lips. Her hair was held in place by a jade crown, and adorned with four seasonal flowers—a peach, a lotus, a chrysanthemum, and a plum blossom—made of gold, silver, agate, and jade, strung together with gold and silver threads. These were not merely simple decorations; the flowers were also enchanted to bloom according to the different seasons of the year. Therefore, this crown was also called 'The Year's Scenery'.

The Heavenly Clothes also has such a 'treasured item,' though the materials and the colors of the flowers are slightly inferior. Last time Li Fan bought an immortal garment, he wanted to get one to curry favor with Fu Fuling. He asked the price, but the shopkeeper only gave him a brief introduction and then smiled without saying anything more, so Li Fan didn't mention it again...

The gold-plated bridge hairpin and the silver-gilt filigree hair ornaments on his bald head, along with the hat on his head, must have been worth at least 100,000 strings of cash. He must not have been lying to the person.

Looking further down, one could see the noblewoman wearing an indigo-blue sash-draped fairy robe over a frosty-colored pleated skirt with a slender waist. A pale pink brocade handkerchief adorned her bodice, and a string of large, full, and lustrous pearls hung prominently on her body, their beauty accentuated by her slightly full and shapely curves. As the beautiful woman curtsied, her body trembled slightly. "This humble servant is Xiao Yushi. Thank you for saving me, Master."

The beauty beside the 'Ten Thousand Strings' also bowed and softly called out, "This humble servant is Xiao Hanzhen, thank you for your rescue, benefactor."

These two sisters, who seemed to be noblewomen, were also quite voluptuous and charming. However, they wore light sandalwood-colored makeup, with a simple five-petaled gold plum blossom on their foreheads, subtly highlighting the hierarchy between them.

Of course, she was dressed equally extravagantly, wearing a gold crown adorned with flowers, only slightly different in that it was strung with a single gold chrysanthemum. Her clothes were also a combination of gold and red, with a strapless pomegranate-colored skirt underneath, draped with a red sash and gold thread, and a red gauze shawl covering her, revealing her beautiful shoulders and collarbones beneath the gauze.

The three men seemed to speak as well, but Li Fan didn't pay any attention. He cupped his hands to the two noble ladies and said, "You're too kind. We're just wandering cultivators from the mountains, doing this to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path. It's nothing more than a small thing. Please don't take it to heart, Madam."

Xiao Yushi also glanced at Li Fan with a smile. With her low level of cultivation, she naturally couldn't see through Li Fan's background, but someone who could single-handedly chase and kill a group of demons was no ordinary person, so she politely made friends with him.

"We are from Lanling in Zhen. We came to Lei Marsh for travel, and if it weren't for our master's rescue, we would probably have been harmed by the Demon Race. We would like to offer you a small drink to express our gratitude, and we hope that our master will do us the honor."

Li Fan originally wanted to say, "Stop bothering me, why are you still drinking? Just give me the 100,000 strings of cash and that'll be fine," but Jian Yi was startled.

'The Profound Heaven Sword Intent, holy crap! The Xiao Clan of Lanling!'

What's wrong? People with the surname Xiao are quite common in the cultivation world, aren't they?

"Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, 'What are you saying! You don't even know the Xiao Clan! I was wondering why you looked familiar; this family is the most prestigious clan in the Central Plains!'"

Pshaw, what's so great about those cultivation clans? They even begged me to be Li Country emperor!

"Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, 'You bumpkin! The Xiao family has served as tutors to Immortal Venerables since their ancestors, and the family head has held the position of one of the Three Dukes. Every Immortal Emperor has chosen an empress from their family. Moreover, the Lanling Xiao Clan is the main branch of the royal family of Zhen Country, the wealthiest of the Twelve Countries! The Three Palaces Immortal Palace is supported by their taxes!'"

Damn, that's it? They've got some serious hype, I thought they'd produced a Dou Di...

"Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, 'What do you know! A tremendous opportunity has fallen into your lap! Test the backgrounds of these juniors. If they are direct descendants, kidnap them and call the Xiao Family to ransom them! Don't worry, I have plenty of experience. This family is easy to talk to. Hehehe! We in the Xuan Sect call them Xiao Fat Sheep!'"

... They've kidnapped so many people they're practically familiar with each other... But it sounds like the Xiao Family, this fat sheep, is still a top-tier family in the Central Plains even after being fleeced by the Xuanmen. They're quite capable, aren't they...?