Demon Emperor Hide

"Hello, sir. This is the Seventh City branch of Treasure Forest Immortal Goods Shop. Regarding your recent inquiry about the rare Purple Jade Branch, we have confirmed that our main city store does indeed have one in stock. However, it has already been designated as one of the lots for the Treasure Forest Grand Auction a week from now, so we regret that we cannot transfer it directly to fill an order." "Our firm's annual Double Eleven Grand Auction will be hosted at the Seventh City branch this year. If you remain interested in purchasing this Purple Jade Branch, we look forward to welcoming you then." "We apologize for any disappointment this may cause. As a gesture of our regret, should you place the winning bid on the Purple Jade Branch, our shop will offer a ten percent discount off the final hammer price." "Have a wonderful day, and thank you." "..." Early that morning, a phone call from Treasure Forest shattered Yue Wen's peace of mind. He had previously asked about the Purple Jade Branch at that immortal goods shop, and the main city branch really did have one. But according to the caller, they couldn't just sell it over the counter. An auction? Yue Wen ruffled his hair, feeling a headache coming on. Every year on Double Eleven, Treasure Forest rotated its auction among its various branches across Jiangcheng City as a fixed celebration, something he had heard about before. But the very word 'auction' had an exclusive ring to it. How could an ordinary rogue cultivator like him have ever attended one? He'd heard that admission alone was exorbitant. Any treasure qualified to go under the hammer was a handpicked gem collected by Treasure Forest throughout the year. Once run through an auction, something originally worth a hundred thousand yuan could easily double, triple, or inflate to the high hundreds of thousands before someone finally claimed it. The Purple Jade Branch would naturally be no exception. If they simply gave him a clear price tag, he might manage to scrape the funds together after saving for a while. But put on an auction block, the sky was the limit. To the vast majority of people, a top-tier fire-igniting spiritual object like that was entirely unnecessary. Yet for someone cultivating a pinnacle method, it was an indispensable material to break through to the Gang Realm. If real competitors showed up on the day, things would get ugly. After all, there probably weren't many people like him who cultivated a top-tier method yet were dirt-poor. Typical heirs to pinnacle cultivation methods were backed by formidable resources, their staggering wealth practically a given. He had neither their backing nor their deep pockets... Was he supposed to flip the table at the auction and say if things were that difficult, nobody should do it at all? Money. The word circled Yue Wen's mind over and over as he felt the full agony of poverty. Never mind that he had slashed his prices to the bone just to snatch up exorcism gigs, leaving him with little savings. Even if he had charged premium rates like other cultivators, the evil-suppressing coins he earned would have been far fewer, and the cash saved would still fall laughably short of the gang-refining materials. The Blazing Flame Powder went for five hundred thousand, and that was already the cheapest among them. According to his earlier searches, the Purple Jade Branch started at a million at least—and that was standard market rate, not an auction bid. Gathering all four gang-refining materials would run several million, enough to buy an apartment in the main city. For so many people, that was the ultimate ambition of an entire lifetime. And that was only for a single breakthrough attempt. If it failed, he would have to start from scratch. In the end, it was because the materials demanded by the True Dragon Dao Method were all top-tier rarities, exorbitantly priced. When other rogue cultivators broke through, they used ordinary materials that cost less than a tenth of that amount. Of course, the resulting tier of gang qi and the strength of true qi after breaking through were in completely different leagues. You win some, you lose some, he supposed. Gain money, and you lose pain... The auction was next week. In just seven days, short of going out every day to get hit by a luxury car or making five hundred sperm donations at two thousand yuan a pop, Yue Wen couldn't think of any realistic way to earn enough for the Purple Jade Branch. Even if he sold off all the immortal goods he owned, their combined value wouldn't come close. The most valuable thing in his possession was probably the first three scrolls of the True Dragon Dao Method, but while the visualization diagrams resided in his mind, he lacked the power to imprint them into physical form. He could only cultivate them himself, not sell them. After some thought, he decided to ask Qi Dian later. As an immortal sect disciple, the man might have access to high-paying missions, so perhaps he could take Yue Wen along. Still, the chances were slim. If he truly couldn't scrape together the money, his only hope was that the Purple Jade Branch would go unsold, or that he could track down another one later after saving enough. "Sigh." Yue Wen let out a deep, wistful breath at the sheer lack of avenues to sudden wealth. ... Rich or poor, life went on. After brooding for a short while, Yue Wen closed his eyes again and resumed comprehending the visualization diagram in his mind. Sinking his divine sense inwards, he arrived in a purple ocean teeming with demonic shadows. Viscous, foul-smelling liquid surrounded him on all sides. As he took in this bizarre purple sea, everything boiling and churning within it was pure darkness and evil. Yue Wen had never personally encountered a demon. From what he heard, they were far more difficult to handle than beasts or wraiths. Demonic beasts were dim-witted; even after hundreds or thousands of years of cultivation, discerning subtle Dao methods remained beyond them, and beasts that seemed cunning in the mountains appeared rather naive before humanity. Wraiths were fragmentary, almost always bound by the rules of lingering obsessions, which made them manageable once their patterns were deduced. Demons, however, possessed brilliant intellects and far superior means of disguising themselves as humans. It was said that pureblood demons had snow-white skin and could alter their skin tone to match humans at will, rendering them utterly indistinguishable by appearance alone. They also cultivated followers within the human realm, infusing humans with demon blood to turn them into lackeys of the demon race. Following the failure of their large-scale realm invasion, these demons and their cultists had shifted to lurking in the shadows—spreading plagues, stoking civil unrest, and bewitching hearts so the human realm knew no peace. By now, no one knew how many demons had infiltrated the great cities of the human realm, including not a few in high-ranking positions. Calling them humanity's most terrifying enemy was not an exaggeration in the slightest. The sheer depth of marvels contained in this single hide was proof enough. Over the past two days of contemplation, Yue Wen had gradually begun to see the Dao rhyme hidden within this purple sea—a madness concealed beneath an outward order. Put simply, a visualization diagram was a world constructed on the foundation of Dao rhyme; it was an outer manifestation. The process of comprehension meant working backward from the outer manifestation to uncover the underlying code that constructed this world and mastering it, which marked successful cultivation. The reason imprinting a visualization diagram was so difficult was that mastery alone was insufficient; one also needed the ability to replicate that world using the Dao rhyme. That demanded not only understanding the underlying code, but also a sufficient foundation of true essence. As Yue Wen immersed himself deeper in the Dao rhyme of this visualization diagram, the thoughts in his mind grew increasingly violent and evil. He wanted to rob banks—eighteen in a row—and toss all the looted cash into the slums for people to scoop up. He wanted to kill people, stringing every unscrupulous capitalist up from lampposts. He wanted to indulge his desires, rounding up twenty gorgeous female cultivators and forcing them to eat an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet with him... So wicked. He was shocked by his own wicked impulses. These were thoughts he would never normally harbor; even if a seed of evil ever sprouted, morality would swiftly suppress it. But immersed in this ocean of the demonic path, those seeds burst out with unchecked fury. As he leaned into the malice, the demonic figures before him grew sharper, until finally, purple-gold bridges rose across the sea's surface. "Found it," Yue Wen murmured. He had finally uncovered the profound Dao rhyme that constructed this world. Everything clicked into place! ... When he opened his eyes, his mind had already returned to calm, freed from the visualization diagram's influence, his emotions steady once more. A faint thrill surged within him. It worked. He had mastered the curse-breaking method Da Long provided, meaning the information on the demon hide was no longer a secret. It had taken two extra days, but he had pulled it off. Drawing out the purple hide, he spread it flat in his hands. Then, executing the newly mastered incantation, his right hand traced several arcane runes in midair. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—* Like unlocking a mechanism, the runes sank onto the blank purple hide, and golden characters abruptly flared to life across the surface. The words were not written in ink, but floated atop the purple hide in dancing flames, shifting as if alive. [Purple Throne: This demon emperor hide and the Snake Mountain bronze cauldron represent our sincerity. Please accept them.] [The demon emperor hide can be used to contact us, while the bronze cauldron conceals the greatest gift we can offer, and the key that can lead you into Tiger Mound.] [I know achieving all this is difficult, but rest assured, we will never disappoint you.]