Demon Flame Sect

The ebony sword swept up the silver-robed man's corpse. Qin Sang rose upon a cloud and swept away before those onlookers could react. The presences emerging in the mountain range hesitated for a moment. A few exchanged words, then shrank back one after another. For one, the battle had concluded far too quickly; by the time they realized what was happening, Qin Sang was already long gone. For another, the commotion of the ebony sword slaying the silver-robed man was truly astonishing. Unable to gauge Qin Sang's depth, they dared not make enemies recklessly. Once Qin Sang confirmed no one was tailing him, he landed in a secluded spot. His footing faltered slightly. Turning his inner vision upon his sea of qi, he found his spiritual power virtually depleted. Evidently, wielding two magic treasures in succession had taken a heavy toll on him. Fortunately, he had driven the two magic treasures only for brief moments. Moreover, the ebony sword was his life spirit sword, attuned to his very mind, allowing him to control it with exceptional precision. As long as he exercised proper restraint and chose to unleash only a fraction of the ebony sword's might, the drain was not as terrifying as that of the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. Naturally, bringing out the ebony sword's full might would have to wait until he formed his core. Qin Sang retrieved a jade vial and swallowed a pill prepared beforehand to nourish essence blood. Then he sat cross-legged. Once his sea of qi recovered, he opened his eyes and looked at the silver-robed man's corpse. False Core stage cultivators were first-rate in spell-fighting skill, combat experience, and decisiveness alike. Anyone capable of reaching this realm was unquestionably among the elite of immortal cultivators. Killing one might not be hard, but capturing one alive demanded not just meticulous scheming, but the alignment of favorable timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony. Seeing that capturing him alive was hopeless, Qin Sang had had no choice but to slay him. Even so, Qin Sang felt little regret, for whether he killed the silver-robed man or not, the outcome would likely have been the same. "The fourth." Qin Sang squatted down, pressed his spiritual power against the wound on the silver-robed man's chest, and murmured quietly. The silver-robed man was the fourth remnant of the Kuiyin Sect he had killed over these years. Ever since learning information about the Kuiyin Sect remnants from Yu Hua, Qin Sang had been quietly investigating their background. By now, he understood quite a bit about the sect they disguised themselves as, the "Demon Flame Sect." The Demon Flame Sect was not weak, but its members were few. With the Yuanzhao Sect eyeing them like a tiger watching its prey, they dared not openly recruit disciples on a grand scale. The sect master was Daoist Jiupao, who went by the alias Demon Flame. This was likely related to the Nine Nether Demon Flame of his magic treasure. Beneath Daoist Jiupao were four major disciples, collectively known as the Four Demon Flame Emissaries. The silver-robed man was one of them, using the alias Silver Flame. Of these Four Demon Flame Emissaries, two were in the False Core stage, while the other two were not far behind. Three of them, including the silver-robed man, were Kuiyin Sect remnants. However, among these three, only the silver-robed man was of Daoist Jiupao's direct lineage; the other two were disciples of Yi Tiannie and the other Core Formation cultivator, respectively. Sifted by the waves of time, those capable of surviving the Yuanzhao Sect's relentless manhunt were all top-tier experts. As for the last one, Qin Sang did not recognize him. After some investigation, he suspected the man was a disciple who joined after the Demon Flame Sect was founded, rising through the ranks to become one of the Four Demon Flame Emissaries. As to whether this person knew the sect's true face, Qin Sang had no idea. All four disciples lived in seclusion and seldom went out. Although Qin Sang knew their identities, finding an opportunity when they were alone was exceedingly difficult. The three people he had killed previously were all ordinary disciples beneath the Demon Flame Emissaries. Naturally, those three had also been meticulously chosen by Qin Sang, with considerable intervals between them. His goal was to silently sever Daoist Jiupao's limbs and stall his recovery. His discovery of Silver Flame's trail this time was not unrelated to the Blood Essence. In recent years, with changes in the situation of the Lesser Cold Domain, the Yuanzhao Sect was no longer so aggressively overbearing. The Demon Flame Sect gained breathing room and became active in secret, with disciples across the sect dedicated to finding spirit medicines for healing injuries. With the emergence of a holy healing medicine like Blood Essence, they certainly would not miss it. Qin Sang had been active around Qingyang City recently. When he noticed unusual movements from Silver Flame and connected them with news of the Blood Essence auction at Tianyou City, he devised this ambush plan. This also indirectly proved that Daoist Jiupao's injuries had yet to heal—the best possible news for Qin Sang. What excited Qin Sang even more was that the one who came out to purchase the Blood Essence was actually Silver Flame. With Silver Flame eliminated, more than half of his task was accomplished. Among the Four Demon Flame Emissaries, only Silver Flame was most favored by Daoist Jiupao and fiercely loyal to him. Killing Silver Flame was no different from severing an arm from Daoist Jiupao. Still, across the four ambushes, using the Heart-Devouring Insect gu as bait had worked for the first time. Evidently, disciples proficient in poisonous gu arts within the Kuiyin Sect were actually very few. Unlike Silver Flame, the previous three had been captured alive. Yet the moment Qin Sang attempted to seal their origin souls, without exception, all of them inexplicably suffered soul decay. In the blink of an eye, their origin souls perished and they died; Qin Sang had no time to cast the Soul-Snatching Incantation, nor any power to stop it. One might have been an accident. Three in a row could not possibly be a coincidence. There was only one explanation: Daoist Jiupao had planted restrictions in their origin souls to prevent soul searching from exposing his hiding place. After confirming this, Qin Sang was astonished. Yu Hua not only knew the Heart-Devouring Insect gu, but despite how cautious Daoist Jiupao was, he had known the movements of Daoist Jiupao and the other Kuiyin Sect remnants like the back of his hand. His identity was certainly far from merely being a Yuanzhao Sect traitor. That man had coveted the Nine-Illusion Heavenly Orchid and also schemed against Daoist Jiupao, harboring immense ambitions. But with Yu Hua reduced to a vessel for a living corpse, none of it mattered anymore. Qin Sang could not be certain whether the Four Demon Flame Emissaries had such restrictions on them, but given Daoist Jiupao's caution, even without restrictions, he would surely use other means to constrain them. For precisely this reason, Qin Sang dared not act rashly and proceeded with extreme caution. Other disciples were manageable, but before ambushing one of the Four Demon Flame Emissaries, he had to plan meticulously and lay out his traps carefully, finding a natural and logical pretext to avoid arousing Daoist Jiupao's suspicion. If he startled the snake in the grass and alerted Daoist Jiupao into changing his hiding spot, tracking him down again would be exceedingly difficult. That was why Qin Sang had adopted such an aggressive posture at the auction earlier: his goal had been to forge a public grievance with the silver-robed man in front of the crowd. When the silver-robed man vanished and "Demon Flame" came to investigate, they would find a reasonable explanation. The cultivation world was fraught with perils; unexpected accidents were only natural. Qin Sang placed a mask over Silver Flame's corpse, prepared Silver Flame as a vessel for a baleful corpse so he could refine it into a refined corpse upon returning, and then pulled out his mustard seed bag. Inside the mustard seed bag, the Blood Essence was the most eye-catching. This item would be difficult to sell off safely, so he could keep it for his own use. With the situation in the Yuncang Great Marsh growing increasingly tense, healing spirit medicine was an absolute necessity. Even after spending fifteen thousand low-grade spirit stones to buy the Blood Essence, Silver Flame still had nearly ten thousand spirit stones on him. Daoist Jiupao had truly spared no expense for the Blood Essence. When Daoist Jiupao learned that his most trusted disciple had been ambushed and slain, and the Blood Essence plundered, just how furious and exasperated would he be?