Thousand-Faced Possession

"Besides the daily mission, you have another independent mission."

"What mission?"

"One of your senior apostles is conducting a dangerous test related to the Heavenly Demon in the Abyss. If it succeeds, its value will be no less than finding a complete Dragon Bone."

"What do I need to do?"

"Go take a look and make sure the experiment is safe."

"Where exactly?"

"...A sect that vanished three years ago, called the Seeking Demon Sect."

"How am I supposed to find a vanished sect?"

"If I knew that, would I still need to send you?"

"..."

The recording ended.

Chen Gongxing's Butterfly Effect recording let Jiang Chen witness the ugly faces of those gifted bastards.

Fortunately, he had the system and could also see the sights that only the strong could see.

So his transmigration had not been for nothing.

Unfortunately, the recordings in the Butterfly Effect section were unlike simulated storylines: he could not move the camera, zoom in, fast-forward, rewind, improve the resolution of his five senses, and so on... He could not determine the location of the Liyue Branch.

Jiang Chen then opened the second recording in the [Butterfly Effect] section: Tian Mingye's Ambition.

The scene shifted to the Heavenly Demon Sect.

Before Jiang Chen stood the Heavenly Demon Sect's iconic gigantic Ginseng Fruit Tree at its very center.

To the southwest of the Ginseng Fruit Tree stood a towering structure, like a watchtower.

The lotus-shaped palace supported at its peak was Tian Mingye's residence, the Heavenly Nether Palace.

The Heavenly Nether Palace took the shape of a nine-petaled lotus. Its eaves stood several zhang lower than the crown of the Ginseng Fruit Tree; from above, one could reach out and pluck leaves, while below, one could overlook the entire Heavenly Demon Sect.

A ring-shaped blood pool encircled the outer perimeter, while clusters of black-stone palaces stood at the center.

In the previous third ending, Jiang Chen had been in a room in the Heavenly Nether Palace, where demonic women of various appearances, alluring and wicked, had taken turns experimenting on him.

In the previous third ending, Jiang Chen had been tested in one of the Heavenly Nether Palace's rooms by waves of bewitching, wicked demonesses of every shape and appearance.

There had not been much pleasure, yet it had left him with an indelible psychological scar too unbearable to recall.

Tian Mingye and the demon child emerged from its mouth.

As far as the eye could see, the Heavenly Demon Sect was tranquil, as though nothing had happened.

As far as the eye could see, the Heavenly Demon Sect was tranquil, as though nothing had happened.

She had thought it would be effortless. She had not even notified a third demon attendant; she had merely brought a timekeeper and charged into the Azure Mist Sect.

Yet she had encountered the Form-Returning Formation and that old dog Chen Gongxing, who had actually forced her into the form of a married woman...

"This is the first time I've encountered a Liyue Walker who isn't even an apostle, yet I couldn't do anything to him!"

Tian Mingye's chest heaved with anger, and amid her fury, the Demonic Flame recovered its surging force.

Tian Mingye's chest trembled with rage as surging Demonic Flame reignited amid her fury.

The demon child reminded her quietly from the side:

"He was no ordinary Liyue Walker. He was at the mid-stage Spirit Severing realm, and with his Resonance Sword Technique, which had a respectable level of mastery, he possessed the standard combat strength of a Liyue apostle. Meanwhile, Your Excellency was only at the initial Nascent Soul realm..."

"The Stone-Carved Bell recorded it this way."

Jiang Chen was utterly impressed by the Stone-Carved Bell.

Jiang Chen was impressed by that Stone-Carved Bell.

Tian Mingye nodded, then suddenly furrowed her heavily painted, dark purple-black brows.

"On the formation, besides Chen Gongxing and that old man Gui Qi, did you see anyone else?"

"Up on the formation, aside from Chen Gongxing and that old fool Guiqi, did you see anyone else?"

"Anyone else... what did you mean?"

"Most of my demonic qi was transformed into spiritual power by the Form-Returning Formation and devoured by that old fool Guiqi. Yet a tiny portion was directly absorbed. It seemed so weak that it only had Qi Refining cultivation, so it could not have been that old man."

Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.

Of course, his body contained the original demonic qi of the Heavenly Demon from that demoness, so it was understandable that she had detected it.

Of course, he carried the original Heavenly Demon demonic qi of that demoness within his body, so it was understandable that she had noticed.

"Other than Liu Ruyan's illusion technique, this subordinate did not see anyone else."

"This subordinate merely did not expect that Liu Ruyan, who had cast the illusion, was actually a fox demon."

"Within or around Fireburn Kingdom, there was only one fox demon with such attainments in illusion arts: the Thousand-Faced Fox."

Tian Mingye seemed to have noticed this long ago.

"That was merely one of the humans she possessed."

Jiang Chen froze. It was not a human clone?

If Tian Mingye spoke the truth, then the woman who had been ambiguously intimate with him these past few days was the Thousand-Faced Fox possessing Liu Ruyan.

Jiang Chen had read in several cultivation manuals that possession differed from body seizure.

Body seizure required the soul of an expert with at least Spirit Severing cultivation. Through violence or secret techniques, they forcibly destroyed the soul of a lower-level cultivator and seized their body.

Possession, however, usually required the possessed person to be utterly despairing and to have lost the will to live, or for their soul to be under attack and on the verge of destruction. Only then could a soul-art expert possibly possess them remotely.

Body seizure could only be performed on one person at a time.

Possession, however, could affect multiple people simultaneously.

During possession, the soul was usually in a fused state between the original host and the possessor.

So this was the Thousand-Faced Fox's method!

For some reason, learning this news made Jiang Chen feel slightly relieved.

It meant the Thousand-Faced Fox was not necessarily the murderer who had killed Senior Sister Liu.

And Senior Sister Liu was not entirely the Thousand-Faced Fox either; she still retained a trace of her original personality, habits, likes, and dislikes.

The demon child held the Stone-Carved Bell in her arms, frowned, and sighed in confusion:

"I never expected that thousand-year-old fox to lurk in the Azure Mist Sect for years just for a Return-Form Method!"

Tian Mingye merely said:

"That woman could predict opportunities. Before seeing the Form-Returning Formation, how could she have known that this method was completely useless against demons and devils?"

The demon child asked again:

"But I heard the Thousand-Faced Fox never left empty-handed. How could she have come for nothing? Perhaps that tiny Azure Mist Sect hid some other opportunity..."

Tian Mingye suddenly recalled something.

"That little Qi Refining cultivator who secretly absorbed my demonic qi—without the Thousand-Faced Fox's illusion technique, I would certainly have seen his true appearance!"

Jiang Chen felt a chill run down his spine and subconsciously checked whether he was at the Spirit Spring Inn in Xiyang City.

Fortunately, he had hidden in the Burial Ground at the time...

"But none of that concerns me. My qi sea is too vast, causing my advancement to be slow. I need to find a Dragon Bone to help me control the Heavenly Demon body. It could raise my cultivation and allow me to stand above all living beings."

Tian Mingye said this.

You're looking for a Dragon Bone too?

Jiang Chen thought, what a coincidence. I'm a descendant of the dragon!

The demon child nodded.

"My brother set off ten days ago to search for the Dragon Bone."

Tian Mingye frowned and said:

"Your brother is too obsessed with swordsmanship. I fear he may delay my great undertaking."

The demon child giggled and patted her still undeveloped chest.

"Now that Elder Qu Yang has been killed, our sect can no longer find anyone stronger than Your Excellency... Besides, my brother keeps a low profile, but he is stronger than Elder Qu Yang."

"Keeping a low profile? Suppressing his cultivation just to show off his swordsmanship counts as keeping a low profile?"

Tian Mingye snorted, then raised her head and sighed.

"My Heavenly Demon Sect... is still far too weak!"

Jiang Chen opened the third recording: Thousand-Faced Fox.

Inside the boudoir of a wealthy noble family.

An elegant, richly dressed beautiful woman with a faint touch of weathering on her face sat before a bronze mirror, arranging her makeup.

The bronze mirror reflected snow-white hair and an exquisite face that was cold and pure, yet alluring as a fox's.

The young woman's gaze in the mirror happened to be directed at the center of the recording's view, staring straight at Jiang Chen.

"Someone is peeping at us."