Borrowing a Sheep's Gut Path to Climb the Mountain

By the time Liu Dongqing returned to the bedroom in the small courtyard, the rage that had nearly sent him into a frenzy moments ago had been forcibly suppressed again, accompanied by several deep breaths.

All anger that could not solve a problem was more or less impotent rage.

Aside from wasting time and clouding one's judgment at critical moments, such emotions were utterly useless.

After several more deep breaths, once Liu Dongqing had fully caught his breath, his thoughts finally pulled free of the frenzy of anger and began to stir again.

Half of my present circumstances are something I brought upon myself.

Back then, I stumbled into a stroke of outrageous luck. When I woke up after the world had turned upside down, I had become an orphan in a mountain market town of the Southern Border. My Rogue Cultivator parents had long since died in the wilderness.

At the time, I wanted nothing more than to leave the market town. That line of thought had been right.

It was a place where true Rogue Cultivators gathered, with all manner of vicious figures from every walk of life.

Had I left any later, I probably would not even have kept my life.

But of all things, I should never have chosen to join the Innate Sacred Sect!

Back then, quite a few sects came one after another to the mountain market towns, searching for promising seedlings who could cultivate and taking them back to their gates. Among all those sect names, only the Innate Sacred Sect sounded truly righteous. I had also heard it was supposedly a holy land and great sect, a cut above the others.

So without thinking too much, in a burst of hotheadedness, I entered the Sacred Sect.

The sect's foundations truly are profound. It calls itself the foremost sect of the Southern Border.

But only after entering did I learn that the Innate Sacred Sect is the foremost demonic sect of the Southern Border! They call themselves the Sacred Sect, but once outside the Southern Border, others contemptuously call them the Innate Demon Cult!

You are a perfectly good demon sect—why call yourselves sacred? Isn't that hanging a sheep's head while selling dog meat?

Damn Innate Sacred Sect!

But even having come this far, even if I entered the wrong sect, it still should not have been a dead end.

After all, the demon sect's shifting schemes, savage cruelty, and perilous malice had always been hidden deep within the cloud-shrouded mountains, surrounding those disciples with truly exceptional cultivation.

An outer disciple like me is merely the lowest of the low in the Sacred Sect. I would never have caught the eye of those plotters.

Yet I myself could not stay content. The moment I obtained a cultivation method, my mind began to wander...

In my previous life, I loved tending flowers and plants. By chance, I used grafting to improve the Jade Cloud Fruit plants, thinking it would open up a splendid future.

But I was too naive back then.

This is the Sacred Sect! A demon sect!

Those who are useful have only one path: to be used until they die!

Low-level disciples may be far removed from the demon sect's bloody slaughter and treacherous schemes, but they must endure layer upon layer of exploitation from above, along with the most merciless, most extreme squeezing dry!

When I still knew little about cultivation, Manager Hou deceived me into learning the Mirror-Illuminating Cloud-Birthing Purple Rain Art. Then, every single time, he found new ways to force me to cultivate Jade Cloud Fruit.

One step into the mud pit, and from then on, I was trapped in the predicament of years of cultivation remaining stagnant or even declining!

Damn Manager Hou!

By now, Liu Dongqing had calmed further and slowly made his way to the bedroom window. His gaze rested darkly on the two plots of earth tilled in the courtyard beyond the wide-open window.

Working for Manager Hou—or rather, for the people above him in the Sacred Sect—will never bring me any benefit that helps my cultivation.

I must not hold the slightest expectation of it.

In the face of repeated facts, every lingering hope is irresponsibility toward my own future.

All those praises from senior brothers, junior brothers, senior sisters, and junior sisters?

They were not praising me. They were praising Manager Hou!

But...

I cannot truly shirk this matter. Otherwise, if any blame really comes down, then judging by the vicious look on Manager Hou's face in the end, I fear even he would be unable to bear it.

As for breaking out of this cage, breaking free of this nest...

The moment that final thought surfaced, Liu Dongqing abruptly shook his head.

What a joke. Liu Dongqing had joined a demon sect that was a foremost holy land and great sect of the Southern Border!

When he entered the sect, a thread of his body and soul aura had already fused with the sect's fortune. It sounded mysterious beyond measure, but at the very least, over the years, Liu Dongqing had seen those who tried to flee the Sacred Sect's mountain gates. Not a single one had met a good end.

The fates of some were so tragic that they had fallen beyond the bounds of humanity.

Once a member of the Sacred Sect, a member of the Sacred Sect for life.

There is no escape.

Everything must be faced head-on.

Then the primary contradiction I need to confront is this: for at least the next half year, my cultivation will decline because of the Mirror-Illuminating Cloud-Birthing Purple Rain Art; and I have only a little over one year left before the final ultimatum—I must advance to the late stage of Qi Refining.

Within this existing cage and nest, the cultivation decline brought by the former is already impossible to resist.

Then, with all the objective conditions laid out so clearly, it seems there is only one way to break the deadlock—

Find a way, while the Mirror-Illuminating Cloud-Birthing Purple Rain Art causes my cultivation to decline, to seek another method that can let the <Bright Candle Sun-Scene Lesser Azure Light Incantation> continue to advance.

This continued advancement must still allow me to rise to the late stage of Qi Refining before the deadline, even after offsetting the portion lost to the decline in cultivation!

There is still time to consider this now. Delay another half year... no! Delay another month or two, and it will truly be beyond saving!

"This isn't a predicament! This is a death trap!"

"And if I keep progressing at this rate, the ordinary proper cultivation methods I know of within the Holy Cult will already be useless..."

"I'll have to use forbidden arts! Forbidden arts even the Holy Cult deems forbidden!"

"This is also the only solution to break this deadlock!"

At that thought, a certain resolve in Liu Dongqing's heart became utterly firm.

He raised his head to glance at the sky, then turned his hand and withdrew a paper crane from his sleeve.

Liu Dongqing lifted the paper crane and gently pressed it to his brow. Flashes of azure light flickered, and the paper crane suddenly began to flap its wings on its own.

For the first few breaths, the lively paper crane still bobbed and leaped before Liu Dongqing. Then it gave a sudden flicker. By the time Liu Dongqing looked again, it had already vanished from his broad field of vision.

Wait until I break this deadlock!

Manager Hou, and all those senior and junior brothers and sisters—once I, Liu Dongqing, break out of this trap, I'll settle our accounts with you one by one!

Late at night.

Outside Sunward Dao Academy.

At the foot of Departure Peak, in the last patch of shadow concealed by lush, verdant growth.

Liu Dongqing's tall, slender figure stood silently there, almost blending into the shadow cast by an ancient tree trunk.

The mountain was utterly silent.

Then, all at once.

A distinct yet faint rustling sounded from behind Liu Dongqing, followed by a somewhat teasing voice.

"Senior Brother Liu, you cultivate the firelight of heaven. A method that shines upon all things is truly unsuited to hiding your tracks."

Hearing this, Liu Dongqing was not surprised. He merely turned around calmly.

"Hiding? Whether Bing Fire or Ding Fire, those of us who cultivate Departure Peak's Dao lineage either blaze like the scorching sun or blow out the lamp and snuff the candle. Hiding has never been our path."

From the depths of the shadows, a youth slowly emerged. Standing beneath the bright moonlight, he looked at Liu Dongqing with a smiling face.

"Oh? From the sound of it, Senior Brother, have you changed your mind about this little brother's previous invitation?"

Liu Dongqing neither confirmed nor denied it.

"First, give me a straight answer—do you truly have news of depraved cultivators from the Demon Refining Mystic Sect, or, more precisely, news of the Demon Refining Mystic Sect's inheritance?"