As the battle across the heavens gradually stabilized, Wei Yuan recovered from his initial fury. His divine sense swept repeatedly across the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World; rooting out the inner demon that had snuck in was paramount. With this inner demon present, it was like continuously transmitting beacon coordinates to the extraterrestrial fiends, and Wei Yuan's mindscape world would suffer unending erosion.
For other cultivators at this stage, their mindscape worlds were only newly formed—small and barren, like a tiny courtyard where not a blade of grass grew. Even if an inner demon managed to sneak in, it would have nowhere to hide, and the two sides would immediately clash head-on.
Wei Yuan, however, was different. The present state of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was already no different from that of many late Scenery Command cultivators. The late Scenery Command stage was known as Autonomous Generation of Realms, requiring two grotto-heavens to achieve perfection. Furthermore, countless living beings populated the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, including nearly two million mortals alone. An inner demon slipping into such a place was like a drop of water vanishing into the ocean—there was simply no way to track it down.
Having recognized the reality of the situation, Wei Yuan shifted his train of thought and went first to check on Maiden Yin-Yang. Yin-Yang still stood quietly within her array. This formation was naturally formed by heaven, aligning inherently with the Great Dao of heaven and earth, far more formidable than the vast majority of deliberately designed arrays. Apart from Wei Yuan, no living being could enter it.
Wei Yuan circled Yin-Yang several times. Only after confirming she was unharmed did he let out a breath of relief. He then ordered her to remain within the array and not step out at will, lest she be corrupted by the inner demon.
To his surprise, a faint wisp of thought transmitted over, conveying that she was naturally immune to all evil and held no fear of inner demons. This intent was both faint and intermittent, lacking any articulated words—just a hazy notion.
Wei Yuan looked around before confirming that the thought had indeed come from Maiden Yin-Yang. He felt a touch bewildered. It seemed that after the immortal plants took human form, every single one of them was shrewd as a ghost. So why did Yin-Yang, the central nexus of the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, still act as though her sapience had barely awakened?
Yet with the situation pressing, Wei Yuan had no time to examine things closely; he could only take her word for it. Given Maiden Yin-Yang's exalted status, it was indeed virtually impossible for an inner demon to corrupt her without leaving a trace.
Still, for safety's sake, Wei Yuan decided to conduct one final check. The moment that thought crossed his mind, all the clothes on Maiden Yin-Yang slipped off and tumbled down around her feet.
Wei Yuan stared in surprise, then gave a wry smile. After checking thoroughly to confirm there were no signs of inner demon intrusion, he finally set his mind at ease. But as she stood there motionlessly, the clothes would not put themselves back on. Wei Yuan had no choice but to do it for her.
Having finally restored her to her proper state, Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. If the inner demon had shown up right then, Wei Yuan figured she would have been fine, but he himself would have been in deep trouble.
Outside the formation, hordes of mortals scurried back and forth, dealing with the intrusion of the extraterrestrial fiends. All of them were blind to the array right beside them. Yet deep within the ear canal of one of them, an eye suddenly snapped open and cast a regretful look at the array. It had sensed a massive vulnerability emerge in Wei Yuan's state of mind, but blocked by the heaven-formed array, it was unable to draw near. It could only watch helplessly as a heaven-sent opportunity slipped away.
A moment later, Wei Yuan led Maiden Yin-Yang out of the array, straight out of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and stepped into the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
The small temple remained tranquil. Little Monk Honglian was still sweeping about, while the Lotus Lamp leaned against the doorway, spacing out. Seeing Wei Yuan walk in, the Lotus Lamp leapt up at once, hurrying forward to greet him with a bow: "The Realm Lord's elegance surpasses even days gone by."
Wei Yuan felt quite helpless about the Lotus Lamp's posturing. "These are extraordinary times with an inner demon invading. Will this place be affected?"
The Lotus Lamp replied with a beam, "With us here, should any inner demon come, it would merely be throwing itself into a trap."
Wei Yuan relaxed slightly. He beckoned to Honglian, the incarnation of the Bodhi, saying, "Come with me."
To his surprise, the Lotus Lamp chimed in, "If he leaves, this place won't be secure."
Only then did Wei Yuan realize that when the Lotus Lamp said 'us,' the emphasis had been entirely on the rest of the group. More specifically, the Red Lotus Bodhi was the real linchpin. Having listened to Buddhist scriptures before the Buddha for over a century, this Lotus Lamp was truly a smooth talker.
The Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss could brook no mishaps, so Wei Yuan instructed Honglian to stay put. He then asked about the state of the other two grotto-heavens.
The Lotus Lamp said, "The Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven is a realm of Nether Soil and reincarnation; with no living beings there, the inner demon will not venture into it. As for the Wutu Grotto-Heaven... though the Mirage Demons there are sentient beings, they do not count as humans. Corrupting them serves no purpose for an inner demon."
Though slick and slippery, the Lotus Lamp was an immortal artifact spirit after all, and having listened to scriptures before the Buddha, it possessed vast knowledge and experience. Its judgment was bound to be sound.
An inner demon's primary goal was to corrupt Wei Yuan's soul and supplant him on a spiritual level. Its secondary goal was to invade his sea of consciousness, using the destruction of his cultivation foundation as leverage to force a compromise. However, the inner demon tribulation of a heavenly tribulation differed slightly: destroying the cultivation foundation was just as vital as replacing Wei Yuan. Thus, corrupting Mirage Demons was pointless.
Having confirmed that the grotto-heavens were safe, Wei Yuan went in search of the maiden with crimson eyebrows. It went quite smoothly this time; he soon found her beneath the celestial laurel tree.
The maiden was clearly bewildered, gazing blankly at Wei Yuan as though unaware of who he was. Wei Yuan communicated with her for a while and gained a general grasp of her abilities. They consisted mainly of various Daoist arts of the Lunar Moon Splendor lineage, along with the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi.
Considering that the girl had only just assumed human form and likely lacked full sapience, Wei Yuan said no more and brought her along directly to seek out the Bingli Divine Wood.
The Bingli Divine Wood stood quietly. Nothing existed within several tens of zhang around it; all the believers stood guard around the perimeter, forbidding anyone from approaching—the Creation Immortal Venerable being no exception.
Wei Yuan naturally would not indulge them. With a flick of his divine thought, he hurled all several hundred believers straight into the sea, letting them soak and clear their heads first.
The Bingli Divine Wood had sealed itself within a massive block of deep-blue ice, while the maiden slept beneath the tree. As Wei Yuan inspected her condition, he communicated with Zhang Sheng, Ji Liuli, and the others outside, quickly confirming the reason for her slumber.
After the inner demon invaded, a large portion of Wei Yuan's own divine thought and spirituality was pinned down and suppressed by it. This resulted in insufficient spiritual nourishment for all the immortal plants living within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. To protect themselves, they had no choice but to fall into a deep sleep. To put it more vividly, it was like a heavy chariot originally driven by a four-cylinder engine; when the cultivators in two of the cylinders had accidents and could no longer generate power, the entire vehicle naturally stalled.
Knowing the cause, a solution naturally followed. Wei Yuan placed his hand against the ice, melting the deep frost to awaken the Bingli Divine Maiden. From then on, as long as the crimson-eyebrowed laurel maiden stayed by her side and Wei Yuan kept a strand of divine sense accompanying them at all times, they had nothing to fear from the inner demon. Should the inner demon dare draw near, Wei Yuan would detect it immediately and confront it head-on.
Following the same method, Wei Yuan awakened all the dormant immortal plants and spiritual beings one by one, then relocated them to the vicinity of Central City. The entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World fully revived, and Wei Yuan's abilities were completely restored.
With the immortal plants revived and the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World rebooted, an action plan was quickly drawn up: filter out over a thousand of the most important figures from among all the mortals and inspect them first to see if they had been corrupted by the inner demon. These thousand-plus individuals were all people upon whom heaven and earth had bestowed names; they could be called the chosen ones within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
Looking at this roster, Wei Yuan was momentarily taken aback. Without realizing it, there were already so many chosen ones in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Back when the very first one, Long Wushuang, had appeared, Wei Yuan had been thrilled for days. Yet now Long Wushuang had already been supplanted by Lei Ling. Truly, the first of everything was fated to be sacrificed to heaven.
Beyond the chosen ones were over thirty thousand mortals holding vital posts. In addition, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World recommended appointing tens of thousands of minor officials, each assigned to oversee several dozen people and closely monitor their every word and action.
This method naturally could not pinpoint the inner demon directly, but it could confine its scope of activity to small pockets of a few dozen people. Given enough time, the inner demon would inevitably grow impatient and make a move. The moment it acted, clues would emerge, and the various immortal plants could strike with full force to annihilate it.
The Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words not only delivered mortal souls, but was also a potent weapon against inner demons. Thus, with the Red Lotus Bodhi present, a decisive battle against the inner demon was virtually unwinnable for the demon—provided Wei Yuan himself was not targeted first.
Right now, the greatest flaw in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was the Creation Immortal Venerable himself.
Chapter 950