Seeking It in the Heart of Heaven

Su Ziji returned to his own boat and remained silent for a long while, his heart far from calm.

The ink-wash painting skills of the Liu School from Wei Eight's household, the advancement of the Crimson Palace True Inscription Elixir Method—those were all good things, but they still paled beside the Yin Temple Sect's secret.

"A Grotto-Heaven can actually keep inner disciples' souls from being seized by the Underworld, though the slots are limited."

"No wonder they distinguish between outer and inner disciples."

"That aside, it turns out that whether Grotto-Heavens or blessed lands, all have limited spiritual energy. Only by earning the qualifications of an inner disciple can one draw in a breath of spiritual energy—the so-called return from the Acquired Realm to the Innate Realm."

"To cultivate martial arts to that point, who knew how much tempering it would take?"

"That aside, it was the elixir cultivators and the Demon-Slaying Tower that truly startled me."

Su Ziji had, in fact, heard before that elixir cultivators tirelessly hunted Monsters. He had once thought it was because they hated evil as though it were an enemy, perhaps even somewhat extreme, killing even Monsters that had never eaten people.

Now it seemed they did it solely to kill Monsters, harvest their cores, and refine medicine.

"And that is merely individuals. The Yin Temple Sect went a step further, turning the slaughter of Monsters into the sect's benefit. Both Demon Cores and Demon Souls can become raw materials."

"The flourishing fate of the Yin Temple Sect has been built entirely atop the bones of the Demon Race."

"This has already become the sect's core interest. Regardless of good or evil, there is no persuading them otherwise. That is why the Yin Temple Sect and Liu Zhan hunt the Demon Race so relentlessly,