ILDV Chapter 34

The speed at which the First Venerable absorbed Jiuyou Court exceeded everyone’s imagination.

Although Jiuyou Court still retained its original name and didn’t directly announce that they had already submitted to the First Venerable’s command, their decline was completely reversed overnight—they regrouped and even forcefully repelled the Second Venerable’s offensive. Only a fool would believe there wasn’t someone backing them from behind.

No one wanted to try their hand at a head-on collision with the Demonic Path’s First Venerable. In the several thousand years since the Demon Lord’s fall, apart from being unable to forcibly command the other nine Venerables, the First Venerable’s status was no different from the Demon Lord’s. He dominated the center of the Northern Demon Territory, his strength unfathomably deep.

It wasn’t just Chao Liang who was enraged—all the Demon Venerables except the First Venerable suffered heavy blows from Jiuyou Court’s sudden unexpected maneuver.

‘White Impermanence’ Li Sun rarely restrained his smile, his face dark as water. Chaotic messages from all directions flashed rapidly before his eyes through his subordinates, slowly organizing into clear, logical networks in his divine consciousness.

“What happened to Qi Zheng?”

“Reporting to daren, all the latest news from Jiuyou City is here.”

“…Has the Young Venerable come out of seclusion yet?”

“Not yet.”

Li Sun rubbed his brow and waved his hand to put away the portion of affairs he’d finished handling.

The Venerable had gone somewhere unknown, the Young Venerable was still struggling in the Thirteenth Hell, the Eighteenth Hell had no one at the helm, and such a major incident had erupted at this critical juncture.

Seven days ago, Ah Zheng had taken his men to Jiuyou City, thinking it would be easy pickings to fish in troubled waters. Who could have predicted that the First Venerable, who had always held himself above others and was unwilling to be mentioned in the same breath as the rest, would suddenly interfere?

Jiuyou Court’s sphere of influence didn’t border much with the Supreme Palace—Wu Mantuo’s territory was sandwiched in between. For the First Venerable to forcibly swallow Jiuyou Court was equivalent to opening up new territory from scratch—deploying defenses, reorganizing, ruling… Where did he get so many manpower from? 

Moreover, just recently they’d heard that the First Venerable had found some clues about that matter from years ago and had dispatched his most capable subordinates to secretly investigate. What was this sudden move supposed to mean now?

This matter had been spreading throughout the Northern Demon Territory for hundreds of years. Everyone knew he’d suffered a great loss, but no one knew exactly what major plan had been ruined that could make a Demon Venerable at the peak of the Tribulation stage so furious he nearly tore apart the entire Northern Demon Territory.

Now that he’d found clues, the mastermind behind it all would probably be caught within the next few years.

Li Sun flipped through the messages on the desk, thinking absentmindedly: Who knows what fate that audacious unlucky bastard will meet—given the First Venerable’s level of fury, being dismembered into seventy or eighty pieces probably isn’t impossible…

A tremendous noise suddenly came from the direction of the Seventeenth Hell.

Soon after, the hall doors were smashed open with a loud crash. A fellow in tattered clothes with a blood-covered face—whose identity would be completely unrecognizable if he didn’t speak—burst in and immediately asked, “Is Master alright?!”

Li Sun remained unmoved as a mountain, casting him a puzzled look.

Qin Xun rushed to the desk in three steps that should have taken two. “As soon as I came out, I heard that Jiuyou Court submitted to the First Venerable. Where did the Supreme Palace pull out the manpower from? Could it be that Master’s behind-the-scenes dirty work from back then has been exposed?”

Li Sun didn’t react at first, instinctively saying, “The Supreme Palace’s manpower was sent to capture that audacious madman. This subordinate was also pondering why the Jiuyou Court matter evolved into this situation… But what does this have to do with the Venerable?”

Qin Xun stared at Li Sun in shock.

Li Sun looked back in bewilderment.

“……”

Li Sun looked up and took a deep breath.

“Young Venerable, please tell this subordinate the truth so this subordinate can prepare countermeasures in advance.”

He pulled out a polite smile. “The one who defeated the First Venerable’s conspiracy back then and prevented him from successfully bringing disaster to all living beings under heaven—could it have been the Venerable himself?”

His word choice was full of the will to survive.

“…So you didn’t know either.”

Knowing he wasn’t the only trusted confidant kept in the dark, Qin Xun suddenly felt balanced.

He asked, “I remember that before I entered the Thirteenth Hell, Qi Zheng had already gone to Jiuyou Court. With this great upheaval, how is he doing? Can he handle it?”

Li Sun raised his hand and passed him a jade slip, being concise. “The Venerable’s foresight is divine.”

That was the last message Qi Zheng had sent back. The gist was that with the Taihua Immortal Sect disciple identity token given by Yin Lang in hand, they’d easily infiltrated the immortal sect’s base hidden in Jiuyou City and were lying low to observe further developments.

Earlier, because Qi and Li had made preparations in advance, when the battle at Ming City was at its most intense, they successfully intercepted Yan Guihe’s subordinates who came to provide support in the rear.

With the calculating side holding the advantage over the unsuspecting, Qi and Li successfully detained this wave of would-be ambushers. Using their identities, they instead became the most comfortable group among the outside forces that had infiltrated Jiuyou City. Fortunately they’d barely managed to mix into Jiuyou Court’s inner circle with well-informed intelligence and sharp instincts, which allowed them to escape unscathed when the incident occurred.

“Since the Young Venerable has come out of seclusion, will you take over this Hell’s affairs? If you don’t mind, let this subordinate assist from the side.”

Qin Xun glanced at Li Sun’s completely unmoved rear end and said irritably, “Master isn’t even here, who are you putting on a show for?”

Although Qin Xun’s cultivation was lower than Qi and Li’s, as long as Yin Lang called him Young Venerable for even a day, Li Sun would absolutely never dare overstep by an inch. He knew very well in his heart that though they all said they were trusted confidants, compared to the disciple he’d personally raised, the two of them carried far less weight.

——Of course, if the Young Venerable voluntarily didn’t want to manage affairs, then it wouldn’t be him overstepping.

Qin Xun also had plenty of self-awareness. He was fine with fighting in battle, and could also grasp and control the general direction of simple matters, but as for other things…

He casually pulled out one of the jade slips Li Sun hadn’t had time to look through yet. His divine consciousness swept over it and his entire person froze on the spot.

“What’s wrong?” Li Sun asked in confusion, taking it to look. “Oh, why is the immortal sect also having internal strife? They actually locked Sword Master Tianji in the Heavenly Punishment Ravine?”

“The charge is… unprovoked assault on a high-ranking sect member, huh?” Li Sun raised his long, slender eyebrows. Though he didn’t directly comment, his expression changes already revealed everything.

However, no matter what, it was still the immortal sect’s business. White Impermanence, already tormented to the point of splitting headaches by the recent upheavals in the Northern Demon Territory, had absolutely no desire to care about what mess Taihua Immortal Sect had stirred up now.

Suddenly there was a crackling commotion beside him. Jade slips were swept to the ground like a violent wind passing through. The Qin Xun beside him had thrown some kind of tantrum and in the blink of an eye had vanished without a trace, leaving only a furiously echoing response from far away——

“This Young Venerable is going out to travel! Handle matters yourself!”

****

The Heavenly Punishment Ravine was about a thousand meters deep. Looking up from the deepest point, clouds and mist obscured everything, making it difficult to see daylight.

Yin Lang hung his head, leaning against the cold stone wall. The slightly protruding stone wall above blocked the only sliver of skylight. Accumulated water beside him dripped along the inverted stone spikes, shattering into several delicate, crystalline fragments when it hit the ground.

He had neither chains on his body nor magic treasures suppressing his cultivation. His snow-white robes and ink-black hair remained as he lazily leaned against the wall. Ignoring the surrounding environment, at first glance he looked no different from when he was at Tianji Peak.

Yuan Daozhu, who had just come down from above, saw this and all the prepared piles of heart-warming comfort died in the womb.

Just one feeling: cardiac arrest.

Yin Lang casually raised his hand, counting it as a greeting.

Yuan Daozhu coughed lightly and stood with his hands behind his back. “How have these past few days been?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized something was wrong, but couldn’t bring himself to lower his dignity, so he could only forcibly maintain his composure. Fortunately, Tianji was as sensible as he remembered, smiling as he answered, “Nothing bad about it. This place is quiet and cool with unique scenery. Having grown tired of Tianji Peak, occasionally changing locations is quite nice.”

Yuan Daozhu carefully sensed the fluctuations of his soul when he spoke. Seeing with his own eyes convinced him that Tianji truly harbored no resentment about being imprisoned for no reason.

Worthy of being an Immortal Sword Master—his loyalty to the sect was unmatched by anyone.

Since his grand-disciples had given him plenty of face, Yuan Daozhu wasn’t stingy about saying a few soft words.

“No matter what, Jin Yue is Baisu’s direct line. For you to humiliate him like this in front of her face really makes her lose too much face. Baisu complained all the way to me, and this old ancestor can’t pretend he didn’t see it. You just stay here for a few days, and soon I’ll find an opportunity to let you out.”

Yin Lang listened to these words casually, not taking them to heart at all.

If we really wanted to discuss it, Jin Yue, who knew Xu Rong was his personal disciple yet still wanted to bully and suppress him—wasn’t that also throwing Shen Muxuan’s face?

So he just smiled perfunctorily. “Muxuan understands and certainly won’t put Daozhu in a difficult position.”

It wasn’t until Yuan Daozhu left satisfied that Yin Lang’s smiling face disappeared with a ‘swish.’

He snorted lightly. “This grudge-holding old thing.”

What Li Baisu going to complain—that woman wasn’t so capricious. It was just casually finding an excuse to vent the embarrassment of being humiliated to her face by Shen Muxuan on the day he came out of seclusion.

He found himself a relatively comfortable angle and closed his eyes, leaning back to rest for the time being.

The Heavenly Punishment Ravine, being used as a place of punishment, though not as terrifying as the Northern Demon Territory’s Eighteen Hells, still had multiple layers of arrays for spirit prohibition, heavy pressure, imprisonment, and more. Except for the last one not being activated, which counted as leaving him a bit of face, they hadn’t held back at all. 

Yin Lang reached out to rub his knee, mentally making a note of that backstabbing villain.

When he found out who had framed him to this degree, if he didn’t let them experience what the real Eighteen Hells were like, they’d really think Venerable Yin’s ruthless cruelty was just talk.

It’s just… he always felt like he’d forgotten something……

Qin Xun rushed back overnight to Taihua Immortal Sect located in Zhongzhou. Without time to change clothes, travel-worn and dusty, he went straight to Huayuan Hall to request an audience with the Sect Master.

“Sect Master Martial Uncle!”

He hurriedly bowed once. His breathing hadn’t even settled before he rapidly recounted how the Demonic Path had been surging with wind and clouds recently, making everyone in the hall change their expressions.

Taihua Immortal Sect’s key surveillance target, the Third Venerable Yan Guihe—suspected mastermind behind the demonic qi explosion at Tianji Peak—was severely injured and missing. The various Demon Venerables took the opportunity to divide up Jiuyou Court. When this great pool of water in the Northern Demon Territory was about to get muddy, the First Venerable, who usually sat in the center paying little attention to worldly affairs, suddenly emerged and forcefully brought all of Jiuyou Court under his command. Now it looked like the other Demon Venerables were showing signs of joining forces to resist the First Venerable…

In just one short month, the Demonic Path’s situation had changed so dramatically!

Tu Feng offered a few words of comfort and let Feng Lan go down to rest first. 

The information he brought back directly disrupted Tu Feng’s plans for the next several decades. His mind was now in complete chaos and he needed to be alone to think things through properly.

It’s just that he left too quickly, like fleeing in panic, giving Qin Xun no opportunity to ask about his own master’s situation.

Qin Xun felt even more certain there was a problem here and decided to first return to Tianji Peak to check on the situation.

At the foot of the mountain, he ran head-on into a young man who looked a tiny bit familiar.

Xu Rong was walking absentmindedly down the mountain path, not watching where he was going and directly crashed solidly into someone.

“Sorry…”

He staggered back two steps. When he looked up, his half-spoken words suddenly stopped, his expression thoughtful.

“This senior brother, haven’t we met before?”