The Scheme

"When Heaven unleashes killing intent, the stars shift and constellations move; When Earth unleashes killing intent, dragons and serpents rise from the land; When Man unleashes killing intent, Heaven and Earth are overturned." The so-called Killing Intent of Man was profoundly mysterious. The cultivators of the Sin Abyss came to understand that the Killing Intent of Man had to be sought among mortals. For this reason, contrary to their usual conduct, the righteous and demonic sects dispatched their low-level disciples into the mortal realm to take control of mortal kingdoms, stirring up troubles and inciting conflicts. From then on, the Sin Abyss was plagued by ceaseless warfare. Bodies littered the wilderness, blood flowed deep enough to float pestles, nine out of ten homes stood deserted across the mortal realm, and countless families were torn apart, their lives destroyed. Enduring endless suffering, the mortals still prayed to the immortal masters, begging the immortals for protection. To their deaths, these mortals never learned the truth: the immortal masters they revered were the masterminds pulling the strings behind everything. Lofty and aloof, the immortal masters looked on coldly as the mortals slaughtered one another, as though watching swine raised for slaughter. And their purpose was merely to harvest the Killing Intent of Man to refine pills. Such conduct bordered on the demonic path. Yet the high and mighty who claimed to walk the righteous path, including Old Man Tianzheng and Daoist Canghong, turned a blind eye to it. The demonic cultivators needed no explanation; they harvested souls with boundless glee, collecting enough to refine several types of sinister arts. They succeeded in collecting the Killing Intent of Man. However, they discovered that gathering it this way was far too slow, and for reasons unknown, the Killing Intent of Man was excessively impure and mixed. Wars between mortals were limited in scale; even fighting to the point of annihilating whole nations did not yield much, nowhere near enough to satisfy the needs of a whole host of Nascent Soul cultivators. Back when they hunted down the demon, most of the Sin Abyss's Nascent Soul cultivators had been present and made contributions. Naturally, they all wanted a share of the spoils. Everyone had to receive a portion of the Withered Yuan Pills, or else the Sin Abyss could easily fall apart on the spot. The first Withered Yuan Pills produced were tested on candidates selected from juniors at the peak of the Golden Core stage—those who had failed to form a Nascent Soul, whose lifespans were nearing their ends, and who had no hope left of reaching the Nascent Soul realm. Astonishingly, after consuming the Withered Yuan Pill, someone actually succeeded in forming a Nascent Soul! What was more, everything appeared completely normal after their breakthrough, with no visible hidden flaws. Having verified the miraculous efficacy of the Withered Yuan Pill, they were even less willing to abandon it. Next, they turned their sights to cultivators. Perhaps the Killing Intent of Man could be sought among themselves. Cultivators were, after all, merely humans wielding immense power! They deliberately provoked the Celestial Alliance on the steppes, ultimately confirming that this plan was feasible. Cultivators possessed strength far surpassing mortals, and the intensity of their warfare was beyond anything mortals could produce; the Killing Intent of Man harvested from them was vastly purer. A consensus was reached within the Sin Abyss. Experts from both the righteous and demonic factions gathered at the Xingheng Sect, forged an alliance, and decided to launch a war of invasion against the Celestial Alliance on their own initiative! Of course, ostensibly, the war was not fought to refine pills. The low-level disciples of the Sin Abyss suddenly transformed from players at the chessboard into mere pawns. "Perhaps there were ambitious figures who dreamed of conquest and hegemony. But for the majority, the purpose of launching this war was never about dominance. The stalemate the war fell into earlier was actually their deliberate doing." Hearing Qu Huan's explanation, everyone understood the truth, and fury flared within them. Only now did they learn the true objective of the Sin Abyss's leadership—they had all been played by the Sin Abyss! If the Sin Abyss had been exhausted of resources and fighting for survival, they wouldn't have been so enraged. "Refining pills with the Killing Intent of Man, using a pill formula obtained by soul searching a demon—they actually dared ingest them!" Demon Monarch Tongyou snorted coldly. The origin and refinement method of the Withered Yuan Pill clearly marked it as nothing benign. "The memory fragments obtained from soul searching confirmed both the secret of the Blood Lake and the passage between the two palaces, which implicitly lent credibility to the Withered Yuan Pill. Even so, they were very cautious and did not ingest them blindly. Over the past century or more, each sect selected Golden Core disciples to consume the Withered Yuan Pills. As a result, the number of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Sin Abyss surged, allowing them to contend comfortably with the two domains single-handedly. The newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators knew nothing of the pill's origin; they were, in truth, guinea pigs. Those old eccentrics were constantly observing them for any changes after taking the pills..." Pausing, Qu Huan added with lingering vexation, "Of course, there were also those who couldn't resist the temptation of the Withered Yuan Pill and secretly took it to break through. Quite a few did so. Old Monster Feng was one of them, and he paid a bitter price for it." The war between the three domains had lasted over a hundred years. In all that time, everyone who had consumed the Withered Yuan Pill appeared completely normal, showing no signs of hidden repercussions. No matter how patient the Sin Abyss's Nascent Soul cultivators were, some could no longer hold back. A wave of lingering fear washed over Qu Huan; he had almost succumbed to the temptation himself. "What was the price?" Qin Sang recalled his senior martial sister's words just now. "So many died at Old Demon Ye's hands—that was because of the Withered Yuan Pill, wasn't it?" "Indeed!" Qu Huan gave a slight nod. "This morning, all of the Sin Abyss's Nascent Soul cultivators gathered in Yucheng to discuss major affairs. Old Demon Ye suddenly struck, and the hidden affliction erupted simultaneously in everyone who had taken a Withered Yuan Pill. In the blink of an eye, Old Monster Feng and the others saw their physical vital energy drain away, their cultivation plunge, and their primordial spirits wither—the three decays of essence, qi, and spirit!" "Hiss!" Qin Sang and the others drew in a sharp breath of cold air. Essence, qi, and spirit were the bedrock of a cultivator; trouble with any single one was difficult to handle, but the simultaneous decay of all three was utterly incurable! "The most pitiful were the newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators. Barely any of them had formed a Nascent Soul through their own ability; all the rest relied on the power of the Withered Yuan Pill. Their nascent souls threatened to collapse on the spot, leaving them completely defenseless before Old Demon Ye. The old eccentrics fared somewhat better, but those who had taken too many Withered Yuan Pills didn't have much power to resist either. Old Demon Ye captured their nascent souls alive on the spot..." Recalling the scene at that moment, Qu Huan still wore a look of dread. Old Demon Ye had bared his fangs and, before everyone's eyes, cut down half of the Nascent Soul cultivators in an instant, as easily as chopping melons and vegetables. The rest were still frozen in shock, and by the time they reacted, Old Demon Ye had already succeeded; there had been no time to stop him. "Looking back now, there were already signs. Old Demon Ye falling into an ambush and getting wounded six months ago was definitely deliberate. Ever since then, the Sin Abyss suffered defeat after defeat and had no choice but to retreat to Yucheng, giving the Nascent Soul cultivators the occasion to gather there. "In my view, ancient cultivators probably used the Withered Yuan Pill in battle formations. It could instantly boost their side's strength to crush the enemy by surprise, but the lingering repercussions were boundless. "Old Demon Ye must have used some secret art to delay the eruption of those hidden flaws until today, when the dagger was finally revealed! "It likely has something to do with the Nether Crystal Pagoda as well. When he fled, Old Demon Ye not only destroyed the Nether Crystal Pagoda, but also seized all the crystals at its summit. "From the demon's appearance hundreds of years ago to this very day, it was all a scheme laid by Old Demon Ye!" Qu Huan's words laid bare the brutal truth of the cultivation world. Low-level cultivators descended into the mortal realm, stirring up mortal greed and driving mortals to slaughter one another. Before long, they themselves were tossed onto the battlefield of cultivators by the Nascent Soul patriarchs, reduced to test subjects for the Withered Yuan Pill. Yet those Nascent Soul patriarchs were nothing more than pawns in Old Demon Ye's hands, ultimately harvested by him. Believing themselves to be players at the board, they were all caught inside the game. How many of them were truly innocent? Through this upheaval, not only had half of their Nascent Soul cultivators been lost, but the surviving patriarchs who had consumed the Withered Yuan Pill were also crippled by the hidden affliction. Their strength had dropped drastically, and they could barely suppress it for now, with no telling what their ultimate fate would be. It was precisely because Qu Huan saw that the Sin Abyss's days were numbered that he had completely defected to the Two Domains Alliance.