Chapter 32

The terrain here was steeper than the mountain range she had visited before. The moment Su Jiu entered Verdant Mountain, she felt deeply uneasy, especially about the southwest. She kept feeling that something was there.

Yet when Su Jiu probed with her Divine Sense, she found nothing.

Shu Bai was the first to notice something was wrong with Su Jiu.

"What is it?" He had noticed Su Jiu repeatedly looking southwest ever since they entered the mountain. He had probed with his Divine Sense too, but there was nothing there.

Su Jiu smiled. "I have another mission here on Verdant Mountain, and it happens to be in that direction." That much was no lie. The Mushroom Beast she needed to kill was indeed in the southwest of Verdant Mountain.

Zhou Xing said, "What a coincidence! Perfect. Once we kill the Two-Headed Python, we can go with you."

Su Jiu shook her head. "There's no need. This Mushroom Beast should be about as strong as a Civet Beast, so I can handle it alone. Besides this team mission, you must have taken other missions too, right?"

Su Jiu guessed as much because these people seemed experienced at carrying out missions. If they were taking missions, they would surely take the full three at once and do them together.

Zhou Xing rubbed his nose, stole a glance at Shu Bai, and smiled awkwardly.

"It really doesn't matter. Our other two missions are both herb-gathering jobs. We can go with you first."

"It's fine. You three go gather herbs. I'll go with her." No one had expected those words to come from Mo Yan, the boy who had remained so quiet.

Shu Bai nodded. "That works too. Once we've gathered enough herbs, we'll come find you."

Mo Yan nodded.

Su Jiu felt helpless. She truly did not need this.

Still, in the end, she did not turn down the boy's kindness.

"Yu Yin, do you actually know what you're doing? I remember Mushroom Beasts liking sunlight and water. It's so dry and cold here. This doesn't look anything like a Mushroom Beast's habitat." A girl who looked seventeen or eighteen surveyed their surroundings doubtfully.

Yu Yin had said she needed materials from a Mushroom Beast and offered them twice the price listed on the Mission Token to kill one for her. They had set off in such a hurry because she feared the other party would kill the Mushroom Beast first, leaving them with nothing. That was the explanation Yu Yin had given, and they had believed her.

Seeing that they had gone far enough, Yu Yin turned and looked at Yun Qiqi with a bright smile. "What's the rush? We're here, aren't we?"

Only then did everyone notice that something seemed wrong with Yu Yin's expression. The dark red gleam in her eyes stood out ever more clearly in the darkness.

"Qiqi, don't go any farther." A middle-aged man grabbed Yun Qiqi. Behind his back, his right hand signaled for the other three to retreat at once.

The others saw his signal and understood immediately. They hurried to withdraw from the cave, while Yu Yin simply stood there, unhurried. At last, they saw the light at the cave entrance, but just as joy surged through them, a stone door suddenly dropped in front of them.

The cave entrance was sealed tight.

Even the composed middle-aged man could not help paling now. "Yu Yin, why exactly did you trick us into coming here?"

Yu Yin smiled. "Oh, why so serious?"

The middle-aged man, whose cultivation was the highest among them, finally sensed the Demonic Qi around them growing denser.

Before long, the cave's appearance changed drastically. The entire cavern filled with an unbearable reek of blood, coming from a large vat in its center. The vat was filled with fresh blood, and several corpses lay strewn beside it. Judging by their clothing, they seemed to be rogue cultivators. There was also a pill furnace, pitch-black all over. Demonic Qi had long since saturated it, turning it into a demonic artifact.

An old man with one foot in the grave stood before the vat. His appearance was horrifying, and the Demonic Qi swirling around him alone made it easy to guess that he was a demonic cultivator.

Yun Qiqi's eyes nearly split with fury as she roared, "Yu Yin, how dare you collude with a demonic cultivator! Do you have a death wish?"

"Gagaga! Little girl, mind your tongue." The old man suddenly blinked across the space and clamped a hand around Yun Qiqi's throat.

Yun Qiqi's four companions immediately brought out their weapons, ready to fight.

The old man studied the cultivators before him and nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. This batch is quite good, much better than the one you brought before."

The middle-aged man finally realized that this was not Yu Yin's first offense.

A fight was unavoidable. Even so, he tried speaking.

"Senior, whatever you need, we can do our best to find it for you. Qiqi is still young and ignorant. Please forgive her."

The old man did not release Yun Qiqi's throat. He merely turned to regard the middle-aged man with interest and gave a sinister smile. "I want the souls of Qi Refining cultivators. I wonder whether you can provide them."

Veins bulged on the middle-aged man's sword hand, but with Yun Qiqi in the demonic cultivator's grasp, he dared not move.

He forced a stiff smile. "Senior, why demand the impossible?"

The demonic cultivator's expression turned cold. "Hmph. Then all of you can stay and become my food."

As he spoke, streams of black energy rose around him, seeking to bind the entire group. But how could they submit meekly? Almost simultaneously, all four sprang into action.

The middle-aged man tried to rescue Yun Qiqi, while the other three aimed their swords at the demonic cultivator.

The demonic cultivator remained unruffled. He formed a hand seal, and the four streams of Demonic Qi immediately changed direction. One pierced straight through a man's body.

The man let out a scream and collapsed, his fate unknown.

"Third Brother!"

"Third Brother!"

The other two cried out in anguish, their attacks growing fiercer, every strike aimed to kill.

But how could a few cultivators at the mid Qi Refining stage possibly match a demonic cultivator at the late Qi Refining stage? Before long, he defeated them one by one.

Aside from the man lying on the ground, whose fate remained unknown, all four survivors were bound inside the cave.

The demonic cultivator was in no hurry to deal with them. Instead, he took out a black gourd, walked over to the fallen man, and tapped the space between his brows with his index and middle fingers. Soon, a wisp of pale smoke drifted from that spot.

Excitedly, the old man opened the gourd and guided the smoke inside.

One young man could not help roaring, "What did you do to Third Brother?"

The middle-aged leader seemed to understand something. His face flushed crimson with fury. "You're extracting the souls of living people! Aren't you afraid of heaven's punishment?"

Yun Qiqi and the others turned toward their leader, disbelief written on their faces.

Watching from the side, Yu Yin merely found their expressions wonderfully entertaining.

The old man cackled. "Heaven's punishment? If I were afraid of that, why would I cultivate the demonic path?"

Indeed, those who cultivated the Dao sought to become immortals, while those who cultivated the demonic path naturally sought to become demons.

Yu Yin held out her hand to the old man. "Pay up for this batch of goods first."

The old man was not stingy. He handed Yu Yin a bag of spirit stones directly.

As Yu Yin accepted the spirit stones, the old man took out another bag.

Yu Yin stared at that bag of spirit stones and licked her lips, her eyes brightening. "Go on. What else do you want me to do?"

"There are five more cultivators at the mid Qi Refining stage on this mountain. Their aptitude is far better than these five's. Well? Interested?"

Yu Yin's gaze darkened. "The usual arrangement? I trick them into coming here?"

"Do as you please, as long as they come."

Just as Yu Yin was about to turn away, the old man's voice drifted out again. "Yu Yin, won't you truly consider becoming a demonic cultivator? Your ruthlessness surpasses even mine."

Yu Yin stopped, her vicious aura surging. "You look down on me too? I'll attain the Great Dao and prove it to all of you."

The demonic cultivator said nothing more, but disdain filled his eyes. Attain the Great Dao? The demonic Dao, more like.

The last thing she heard was Yun Qiqi's furious roar.

"Yu Yin! You've harmed your fellow disciples! You'll die a wretched death!"

Yu Yin did not look back. Step by step, she walked out of the cave.

Even if I die a wretched death, you'll certainly die before me!