Chapter 24: Legends Hidden Within the Sect

According to ancient texts, it is said that a newly born Devourer of Demons only knows to eat whenever it feels hunger. However, due to its weakness, it cannot fully digest the flesh and bones of living beings and can only do so entirely once it has matured. A truly powerful Devourer of Demons is a being capable of melting even magical artifacts; even a whole city cannot withstand its dissolving power once it opens its maw to feed.

In primordial times, if a Devourer of Demons wished to unleash evil, it could lay waste to thousands of miles of wilderness without difficulty. It was not until the ancient era, when the cultivation world rose in strength, that the human race allied with a hundred other races to lay down the Heaven-Enshrouding Formation, encircling and eradicating the Devourers of Demons, gradually driving them to extinction.

Yet, this extermination was never permanent. Heaven and earth hold both yin and yang; pure qi rises, turbid qi sinks. As long as darkness exists, so too will demons be born, endlessly and inexhaustibly. This is a facet allowed by the natural order itself.

Thus, back then, the human race studied the Heaven-Enshrouding Formation to seal off the perception of the natural order, effectively creating a world of their own through formation techniques. This world was jointly controlled by those who participated in the formation, relying on the lead of the formation master and the unique abilities of the hundred races within, to trap and slaughter the Devourers of Demons within.

However, demons are indeed a part of the natural order; they can be dissipated or suppressed, but their emergence can never truly be stopped. In that age of unmatched talent, the human race managed to slow their emergence through the power of formations, but only to delay it. Whether it took ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million years, demons—being an aspect of the natural order—would always exist and eventually reappear.

When that time comes, there will always be one or several individuals born with extraordinary fate and power, who will rise to prominence in astonishing fashion, leading the masses to quell the demonic disaster and restore peace to the cultivation world.

This story made Ji Yao’s temple throb. Why did every cultivation world have such bizarre setups? Wasn’t this plotline far too familiar?

As Ling Ru finished recounting the legend, the first thing Ji Yao thought of was Dongfang Shun.

A few days prior, when Ji Yao had run into Dongfang Shun at the Hall of Preaching for outer disciples, the boy was already at the fifth level of Qi Refinement. Back when she herself reached the fifth level, it had taken her two and a half whole years—two and a half years! Ji Yao almost wanted to cough blood from frustration. Even considering the meager spiritual energy in the Northern Wastes, this kid’s progress was infuriating!

From Dongfang Shun’s modest-sounding yet self-congratulatory narrative, she learned that half a month ago, he had a sudden epiphany: upon awakening, his cultivation had leapt from the second to the fifth level of Qi Refinement. Over the past fifteen days, Dongfang Shun had been stabilizing his cultivation, and only now, with his foundation firm, had he come out to move about.

Though he had advanced by only three levels, the tone of his voice revealed his dissatisfaction and regret.

What did he have to regret! If Ji Yao could have experienced such an epiphany in the Qi Refinement stage, even if it had only improved her by one level, she would have laughed in her sleep.

An epiphany at the Qi Refinement stage signified exceptional perception and talent in cultivation—a rare genius, one in ten thousand.

Moreover, Dongfang Shun was now in no hurry to cultivate further, fearing that advancing too quickly would leave his state of mind lagging behind. Thus, he began studying the four arts of cultivation, and had already achieved minor success in all.

To call it “minor success” was perhaps an exaggeration, but Dongfang Shun could now successfully refine first-grade pills, tools, talismans, and formations.

Truly, comparing goods will break your heart, and comparing people will kill you! What else could Ji Yao say? This fellow was the very picture of a child of destiny!

Even before cultivating, he had already bonded with a soul-bound treasure; at the start of Qi Refinement, he attained sudden enlightenment; the four arts of cultivation came to him with ease. Ji Yao was convinced that the so-called treasure of Dongfang Shun must house some ancient being—either an immortal expert or a primeval artifact spirit.

No, that was harsh; she shouldn’t speak ill of the elderly. After all, she too had such a presence on her person, didn’t she? Though not entirely reliable, it was, at least, an upper-realm Immortal Sovereign. Sigh! Best not to bring that up.

In short, behind Dongfang Shun, there must surely be some venerable and erudite figure guiding him; nothing else could explain it.

Just look at her—she had studied formation jade slips for ages and still had no clue.

What’s more, Dongfang Shun didn’t seem to care if Ji Yao learned his secret; he even asked if she wanted to study with him, offering to give her some pointers.

Ji Yao had always been interested in formations, and when Dongfang Shun mentioned it, she did feel a twinge of temptation.

Now, having heard the tale of the Devourer of Demons and thinking of Dongfang Shun, Ji Yao shivered. She had a premonition that the coming plot would see Dongfang Shun slapping the faces of those who once scorned him, thus attracting the attention of some beauty.

Imagining this possibility, Ji Yao abruptly braced herself. No, she shouldn’t hope for Dongfang Shun to stay away from her now; rather, she should do her utmost to avoid him.

Seeing Ji Yao frown in deep thought after her explanation, Ling Ru assumed she had grasped some crucial detail and refrained from interrupting. Instead, she took out a set of pale jade tea ware and quietly began to brew tea at her side.

Ji Yao drew her wandering thoughts back, watching Ling Ru brew tea as she asked, “Where did you read all this?”

“At the Celestial Vault Pavilion,” Ling Ru replied, not even lifting her head, fully absorbed in the art of tea.

Well, that was the privilege of the upper echelons. Ji Yao could only sigh helplessly; she had no hope of setting foot in that pavilion for now.

The Celestial Vault Pavilion was the most important library of the Cloudrise Sect, located on the main peak, Tianmu Peak, which belonged to the sect leader’s line. It housed all the sect’s manuals and historical texts.

Legend had it that the Celestial Vault Pavilion itself was a treasure weapon, almost an immortal artifact, personally forged by the sect’s founding ancestor, and it even possessed an artifact spirit.

The original form of the Celestial Vault Pavilion was the shell of a Black Earth Tortoise with the bloodline of the Xuanwu, a spirit beast picked up by the founding ancestor’s own master and given to him as the sect’s guardian beast.

Later, when the ancestor was undergoing tribulation outside the sect, an enemy took the opportunity to attack. In order to protect the newly founded sect, the Black Earth Tortoise lured the enemy into the range of the heavenly tribulation, sacrificing itself. The enemy was annihilated, but the tortoise, having entered the tribulation, was left on the verge of death, its soul nearly scattered.

Out of gratitude, the ancestor could not bear for it to dissipate into nothingness. He forged its broken shell into a library pavilion and gathered its soul, sealing it inside the shell-turned archive.

When the ancestor ascended, he had intended to take the tortoise with him; but the tortoise, unwilling to leave the sect, was left behind by the ancestor, who named the structure Celestial Vault Pavilion and charged it with guarding the sect’s manuals and records.

As a treasure weapon with its most compatible artifact spirit, the Celestial Vault Pavilion was naturally impregnable, requiring no human guards within the sect.

The minimum requirement to enter the Celestial Vault Pavilion was to be an inner disciple. The more secret and advanced texts were accessible only to personal or true disciples.

What Ling Ru could read in the Celestial Vault Pavilion was worlds apart from what Ji Yao could find in the Outer Sect Library.

“So, you mean you judged this was the work of a Devourer of Demons just from those few corpses?” As Ji Yao asked, she thought of the enormous black maw inside the little cauldron from that time.

“Not just that,” Ling Ru added, “for there was still a trace of pure demonic energy left on them.”

Ji Yao guessed, “Couldn’t it be the work of some evil or demonic cultivator?”

Ling Ru poured a cup of the freshly brewed tea and handed it to Ji Yao before explaining, “The demonic energy of a demonic cultivator is different from that of a Devourer of Demons.”

“Demonic cultivators are mortals with spiritual roots who train by harnessing demonic energy, which is in essence spiritual energy tainted with demonic qi. The Devourer of Demons, on the other hand, is pure demonic energy, born from the darkest depths of shadow.”

“Oh, I get it!” Ji Yao blurted out. “Demonic cultivator energy is more like a violent spiritual energy that sometimes manifests as a chilly blackness?”

“You’ve seen it? When? Was it on the day we suspect the Devourer of Demons might have appeared?”