Hiding Your Strength in the Demonic Sect? Be Careful You Don't Bury Yourself Alive!

Hiding your abilities in a Demonic Sect? Be careful you don't hide yourself to death! Zhao Hao put the thousand spirit stones into his storage pouch.

Not the slightest ripple stirred in his heart.

This was no gift.

This was a desperate gamble in which Lu Gui had staked his entire fortune.

It was also the first bit of startup capital with which he would pry open the future.

"Senior Brother Lu, many thanks." Zhao Hao nodded to him.

"Senior Brother, you're too polite! Far too polite!" Lu Gui hurriedly waved his hands, bending his waist even lower.

Zhao Hao went straight to the point. "I just arrived and want to raise my strength as quickly as possible. Aside from the Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art, are there any other cultivation methods or spells?"

He needed more "enhancement materials" to enhance the Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art.

Only then could his cultivation speed truly be worthy of the identity of a "Heavenly Spiritual Root."

"Senior Brother, you've asked the right person!"

Lu Gui leaned closer, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"For us in the Qi Refining stage, strength mainly comes down to two things: cultivation level, and methods for magical combat."

"Generally, once someone reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, they have to master five basic spells."

"Although you're only at the first level of Qi Refining right now, with the speed of your Heavenly Spiritual Root, reaching the middle stage of Qi Refining is only a matter of a blink."

"Which five?" Zhao Hao asked.

"One attack spell, one defense spell, one movement spell, plus a breath-concealment art and the Qi Gazing Art."

Lu Gui explained, "Attack spells are the foundation of magical combat. Defense and movement are for preserving your life, so there's no need to say much about those."

"The key lies in the last two!" Lu Gui's expression darkened.

"A breath-concealment art is the protective talisman for us Demonic Sect disciples when we're out and about! The sect's Mysterious Yin Breath Concealment Art is no ordinary thing. It can disguise your spiritual energy aura—even pretending to be a righteous-path cultivator is possible!"

"The Qi Gazing Art is even more important! When you're outside, if you can't see through another person's depth and you charge headfirst into some old monster pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger, you won't even know how you died!"

At this point, Lu Gui's voice turned somewhat gloomy, as if he had remembered something.

"Senior Brother Zhao, this junior brother will say one extra thing. You must remember it."

"This breath-concealment art—within the sect, unless you absolutely have no choice, you must never use it to hide your abilities!"

"Why?" Zhao Hao raised a brow.

Lu Gui sighed, his voice lowered until it was like a mosquito's hum.

"It happened just last year."

"There was an inner-sect senior brother from the Soul Refining lineage. He had three spiritual roots, was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, only one step away from Foundation Establishment, and could be considered a genius."

"But who knows which storybook he read it in—he always felt he was the Son of Destiny, and spent every day pondering how to pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger."

"He cultivated his breath-concealment art to great accomplishment, forcibly suppressing his cultivation to the early stage of Qi Refining, and spent all day wandering around the sect. Even Foundation Establishment elders couldn't see through him."

Zhao Hao's eyelid twitched.

"And the result?"

"The result." A chill seeped through Lu Gui's voice. "A Foundation Establishment Realm elder from the Corpse Refining Lineage happened to need to refine a high-quality 'living corpse,' and had some requirements regarding aptitude."

"While patrolling the mountain, he happened to see him."

"The elder took one look: early-stage Qi Refining, bone age almost twenty, poor aptitude, not worth cultivating. Keeping him in the sect was purely a waste of resources."

"So the elder used 'cleaning up the household and making use of waste' as his reason, and refined him on the spot."

Lu Gui spread his hands, the corner of his mouth tugging into a mocking curve.

"According to sect rules, Foundation Establishment elders indeed cannot kill disciples of the sect without cause."

"But he hid his own abilities and got labeled as 'trash.' If he died, he died for nothing."

"By the time that elder realized something was wrong, the man was already finished. He could only become a walking corpse that knew how to hop around."

"Afterward, that elder from the Corpse Refining Lineage compensated the Soul Refining lineage with some resources, but that elder didn't lose out either. A high-quality refined corpse at the ninth level of Qi Refining was worth far more than those little resources."

After finishing the story, Lu Gui stared fixedly at Zhao Hao, emphasizing each word.

"Senior Brother Zhao, you have a Heavenly Spiritual Root. You are the sect's treasure! You must never imitate that kind of fool!"

"In our Extreme Yin Sect, value is everything!"

"The greater the value you display, the steadier your position!"

"If you have no value, you're trash!"

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"Trash only deserves to be taken away and refined into corpses or souls!"

That final sentence nearly froze Zhao Hao's blood.

He thought of the greed in Jia Ren's eyes.

He thought of that "weak" low-grade fire spiritual root inside his body.

If he hid his brilliance, he would be treated as trash and cleared away—dead.

If he did not hide his brilliance, Jia Ren would fatten him up like a pig, waiting for some future day to seize his body, or refine him into an even higher-grade living corpse—still dead.

Death lay to the left and right!

The only path to life was to grow at a speed even more terrifying than a true Heavenly Spiritual Root!

Then, carefully, he would hide only that portion of his strength that exceeded the scope of a "Heavenly Spiritual Root"!

Until he could grow to the point where Jia Ren dared not act, and could not act!

And besides Jia Ren, he also could not rule out whether there were others in the sect who had designs on him, this "Heavenly Spiritual Root."

Zhao Hao's chest felt stifled. He sincerely thanked Lu Gui. "Many thanks for your guidance, Senior Brother. I'll remember it."

To Zhao Hao, this news was worth far more than a thousand spirit stones.

"Then where do I learn these cultivation arts and spells?"

"The Scripture Repository!" Lu Gui pointed at an even more ancient-looking black four-story building not far away. "Senior Brother, you are an inner sect disciple. The Qi Refining-stage texts on the first floor can be read for free. You only need spirit stones or contribution points if you want to copy a jade slip and take it away."

After bidding farewell to Lu Gui, Zhao Hao went straight to the Scripture Repository.

The disciple guarding the repository checked his inner sect token, then let him enter.

The first floor of the Scripture Repository was extremely spacious. Near the entrance, behind the counter, sat a black-robed elder with no aura at all.

When Zhao Hao walked past him, it felt as if he were walking past a cold stone, yet that stone seemed to have grown eyes, making all the hairs on his back stand on end.

He did not dare look too long and quickly headed deeper inside.

The first floor was divided into several sections, including cultivation arts, spells, and the hundred arts of immortal cultivation. Rows of black jade bookshelves were stacked with jade slips one after another.

Zhao Hao's goal was clear.

He wanted to scrape together every cultivation art and spell he could use and treat them as "enhancement materials."

His spiritual sense was like a great net, sweeping over the bookshelves with precision.

Very soon, he found seventeen different Qi Refining-stage cultivation arts inside the Scripture Repository.

After spending two hours gaining a preliminary understanding of these cultivation arts, a long string of names appeared on the system panel.

[Detected cultivation art: Earth Origin Art (Beginner 0/100)]

[Detected cultivation art: Blood Baleful Art (Beginner 0/100)]

He did not linger and instead turned toward the spell section. After spending four hours there—

The first-floor spell section had a total of thirty-two Qi Refining-stage spells. He did not miss a single one, recording all of them with the system.

Among them, a few caught his special attention.

Evil Light Art, an offensive spell. Its strength lay in its extremely fast casting and attack speed, but its shortcomings were also obvious: its attack power was inferior to offensive spells such as Explosive Flame Art.

Spirit Shield Art, basic defense, simple and practical.

Light Body Art, basic movement technique, essential for travel and combat.

Mysterious Yin Breath Concealment Art, the method Lu Gui had specifically mentioned for concealing the aura of a demonic cultivator and hiding one's cultivation level.

Qi Gazing Art, an essential method for probing the true state of other cultivators.

Earth Escape Art, burrowing through the earth, an excellent choice for ambushes and running away.

Apart from these, there was also a spell with extremely distinctive demonic-path characteristics.

Blood Escape Art, burning blood essence in exchange for extreme speed, used to flee for one's life.

After "downloading" every usable cultivation art and spell, Zhao Hao turned and left without the slightest reluctance.

He returned to his cave abode.

Rumble!

The stone door closed, and the restrictions activated, cutting off the inside from the outside.

Zhao Hao sat cross-legged on the cold stone bed and called up the system panel.

Looking at the system panel packed full of names, his heart, which had been hanging in the air all this time, finally settled back into place.

His consciousness moved back and forth between the two options, [Spiritual Root] and [Cultivation Art].