"Ji Continent, the Six Heavenly Demon Paths."
"No wonder the Bare Body Sect rebels could never be wiped out, no matter how often they were attacked, and instead kept gaining momentum. A great demonic sect from another continent was meddling."
The maps Zhou Yi had obtained from demon memories covered more than just Great Qian. Many bird demons that had cultivated for centuries also had a vague understanding of the surrounding continents.
These continents were entirely different from the sixteen prefectures under Great Qian. The origins of their names and who had drawn their boundaries were lost to history.
Great Qian had unified the nations of Cloud Continent, suppressed the Daoist, Buddhist, and demonic powers within its borders, and granted titles to gods. Its strength was by no means inferior to that of the surrounding continents, but it was the only divine empire of the human path that Zhou Yi knew of.
Cloud Continent and Ji Continent seemed to border each other to the south and north, but their actual boundaries were vague, with countless mountains and rivers stretching between them.
Great Qian's enemy on its northern frontier was the barbarian Northern Rong, which repeatedly raided its borders, leading to years of war. Farther north lay glaciers and lofty mountains, utterly uninhabited. Thus, not one of the thousands of demons he had slain knew that the Bare Body Sect was one of the Six Heavenly Demon Paths. Probably few people in the Great Qian court knew either.
After Saintess Jialan died, a longsword appeared in Zhou Yi's hand. It was three feet seven inches long, with a dragon-shaped hilt and a purple body, forged from refined Taibai essence.
Its precious radiance shimmered, driving all evil before it!
Reward obtained: Ziying Immortal Sword!
"An immortal sword! What a treasure!"
Zhou Yi poured his magical power into it, and the Purple Ying Sword became a streak of purple lightning, its Sword Qi radiance stretching more than a dozen yards.
Return!
With a thought, the immortal sword became a speck of light the size of a grain of rice and settled into Zhou Yi's dantian.
Zhou Yi nurtured quite a few magical artifacts in his dantian, including three swords. One was a reward for slaying a fiend in the Earth-Class Prison. Named Evil-Banisher, it was immensely powerful and particularly effective against the demon race.
The moment the Purple Ying Sword arrived, it pushed all the other magical artifacts aside and occupied the very center of his dantian.
The other blades, swords, talismans, pearls, bottles, seals, cauldrons, and banners all kept far from the Purple Ying Sword's edge, huddling at the outskirts of his dantian's sea of qi.
Zhou Yi continuously circulated his magical power to refine the Purple Ying Sword and leave his own imprint on it. Fully refining it and unleashing the immortal sword's might would take at least several months.
"Hm? What's this?"
While Zhou Yi was examining the Purple Ying Sword with delight, he discovered a patch of blood-red on his back. Had his senses not been so keen, he would have mistaken it for blood he had accidentally brushed against.
The blood-red mark had appeared after he slew Saintess Jialan. Without even guessing, he knew it was some sort of demonic spell, either an evil curse or a mark for tracking him down to exact revenge.
"According to Jialan's memories, the Blood Shadow Demon Art came from the Blood Demon Path. It's also the key to the Lord of the Six Paths' plan to undermine Great Qian. In all likelihood, this blood-red mark is a secret technique from the Blood Shadow Demon Art."
Zhou Yi circulated his magical power, sending it surging like mighty rivers to scour the location of the mark with brute force.
Whatever kind of curse mark it was, it could not exist without a spell sustaining it.
The mark was the surface; the spell was the root.
It was like germs and symptoms. Eliminate the germs, and the symptoms would lose their support and disappear without treatment.
Under the scouring of his vast magical power, the blood-red mark steadily faded. The thread of blood at its very core resisted stubbornly for several hours before finally collapsing beneath his boundless power.
Zhou Yi's method of breaking the curse seemed simple and brutal, yet few people could actually carry it out.
When ordinary cultivators were cursed, they either waited for the curse to take effect and adapted as necessary, or sought a way to break it and prescribed the right remedy.
They were all opening combination locks. Others tried one combination after another; Zhou Yi simply split the lock with an axe.
"Eight months left, and I'm still twenty-five hundred years of Dao Attainment short of my little target. I need to cultivate more diligently!"
Zhou Yi had experienced the benefits of immense magical power. No matter how exquisite your secret techniques or wondrous your Daoist arts, he would break them with inexhaustible power.
"Legend speaks of breaking all arts with strength and attaining the Dao through sheer might. My method of breaking all arts with qi achieves the same marvel by a different tune!"
The Yellow Springs Sacred Realm.
Blue skies, white clouds, and drifting immortal qi painted a scene of perfect harmony.
Under the gathering power of a massive spirit-gathering formation, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth became multicolored clouds. Once enough accumulated, spiritual rain would fall.
The Yellow Springs Sacred Realm was the power behind the dozens of demon nations of Ji Continent, and the secluded cultivation grounds of the leader of the great demonic sect, the Six Heavenly Demon Paths.
An ethereal streak of light descended into the sacred realm and transformed into a young man.
The man was graceful, handsome, and imposing. His long hair hung loosely over his shoulders, and he wore a dark-blue scholar's robe while holding the folding fan Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains. Had he walked down a street, who knew how many young ladies from wealthy households he would have enchanted?
"Senior Brother Sect Leader, what did you summon me for?"
A white-haired old man abruptly appeared on the previously empty throne, his voice calm and cold.
"Heart Demon, Jialan is dead. Go to Great Qian and investigate in person."
The handsome young man was Heart Demon of the Six Heavenly Demon Paths, whose very name made people tremble with terror. He inspired even greater fear than the Lord of the Six Paths.
"Sect Leader, Great Qian is full of underworld gods, and its local officials also cultivate techniques drawing on the fortune of the human path. Those are especially effective at countering my possession."
Heart Demon frowned slightly. "Why not send Blood Demon? He's long wanted to go to Great Qian and refine three thousand Blood God Spawn to perfect his Blood Shadow Demon Art."
The Six Heavenly Demon Paths had originally been six demonic sects. Two thousand years ago, a peerless fiend emerged from the Heavenly Devil Palace, swept across Ji Continent without an equal, and forcibly molded the six sects into one. Yet the six paths' techniques differed, and some of their cultivation principles were diametrically opposed. Even after all these years, they had never fully merged.
The master of the Heavenly Demon Path generally also served as the Lord of the Six Paths, but the other five paths retained autonomy. Thus, Heart Demon could refuse if he did not wish to wade into Great Qian's muddy waters.
"Ten Heavenly Demon Pearls."
The white-haired old man was the current Lord of the Six Paths. "You need only discover how Jialan died. I will send someone else to the Demon-Slaying Bureau afterward."
"Just what treasure does the Demon-Slaying Bureau possess that you've been thinking about it for centuries, Senior Brother Sect Leader?"
Heart Demon waited a long time without receiving an answer, then nodded his agreement. "I need to refine a Heart Demon avatar. Could you give me the Heavenly Demon Pearls in advance?"
The Lord of the Six Paths waved a hand, and ten purple pearls landed in Heart Demon's hands. He then dissolved into smoke and vanished.
"Heart Demon, if I learn you've been muddling through this task, the hells of the Yellow Springs will be your final resting place!"
"He who takes his lord's pay serves his lord faithfully. Rest assured, Senior Brother Sect Leader!"
Heart Demon secretly glanced at the throne, greed flashing in his eyes, before becoming a streak of light and flying toward the horizon.
Eight months passed in the blink of an eye.
Zhou Yi completed ten years in the Punishment Office, and his indenture contract automatically expired.
No one dared obstruct a matter settled by the Demon-Slaying Bureau Commander, especially since Zhou Yi was a friend of Master Fahai of the Buddhist School.
That morning, he received his final two assignments from Captain Lu, along with his indenture contract and a document appointing him as a bookkeeping clerk under the Ministry of Works' chief clerk.
After slaying two demons, Zhou Yi took the document to the Ministry of Works to report for duty.
The Ministry of Works was also underground. If the Demon-Slaying Bureau's prison was the second basement level, then the Ministry of Works was the first, right beside the underground exit.
The chief clerk's surname was Chen, and his given name was Shao. Zhou Yi examined him with his spiritual sight and discovered that he was actually a Daoist cultivator of considerable strength.
Chief Clerk Chen inspected the document, entered Zhou Yi into the Ministry of Works' register, and asked, "Can you read?"
"Yes, though my calligraphy is only so-so."
"Good. As long as you can read."
Chief Clerk Chen summoned an old man. "Old Zhang, he'll be working with you from now on, keeping the five-viscera ledgers."
Old Zhang clapped his hands and laughed delightedly. "Good, good, good! Finally, someone's here! So much gets sent over every day now that an old man like me can't keep track of it all."
"Drink less. You spend half the day drunk. What could you possibly do properly?"
Chief Clerk Chen turned and offered Zhou Yi a few words of encouragement, mostly telling him to learn Old Zhang's good habits rather than his drinking, work hard, and expect a generous bonus at the end of the year.
Zhou Yi nodded repeatedly. Once Old Zhang came over, he concealed the aura of his spells.
The slovenly Old Zhang, who got drunk every day, was actually an upper third grade Spirit Refining expert, no weaker than Fahai.
Could this be the legendary sweeping monk?
No, the bookkeeping monk!
Before you continue