Cult Chat

The three little ones went on their way in high spirits. … It certainly wasn't that Yue Wen let them go because he was afraid of his knees popping... though perhaps just a tiny bit afraid. Mainly, he had quickly seen them for what they were: they had neither the courage to do evil in a human city, nor the wits to tell a lie that fooled anyone but themselves. They were nothing more than a few pitiful little demons living in the city's shadows. The wasteland zone was dangerous for them, and so was the city. Only that Cult Master could shelter them for now, and so they had no choice but to obey orders. Still, before letting them go, Yue Wen had given them a warning: whatever plans their Meow Meow Cult might have, they were absolutely not to come make trouble at the East City Cemetery again within the next two days. Once those two days were past, whatever happened would be none of his business. Going by his impression of the three little ones, Yue Wen felt their Cult Master wasn't necessarily any sort of villain... would a true villain have taken in these few useless stray cats? After that, it was back to happily farming Lantern Wraiths until dawn. Early in the morning, Old Man Huang came puttering up to the cemetery on his little yellow electric scooter once more. At the sight of the big pits that had been gouged out of the ground, the old man stood staring blankly for a while. "A few demons came to cause trouble last night. The fighting got rather intense," Yue Wen said. "Fortunately, I drove them all off single-handedly." "Huh?" Old Man Huang said in astonishment. "Demons have never once come to East City Cemetery before!" "I don't know what came over them either," Yue Wen said. "But once I'm gone, you'd best stay careful too, Uncle. If you hear anything strange, report it to the Supernatural Management Bureau right away — don't go poking around on your own." "Ah, I know how it is." Old Man Huang chuckled. "When it gets deep into the night, I stay in my room and give my books my full attention. No matter what noises come from outside, I don't set foot out the door." Yue Wen glanced at the bookshelf over there and couldn't help offering a reminder: "Mind your health." With Old Man Huang there to take over the shift, it was time for Yue Wen to head back. He had toiled through the better part of the night and cleared out more than half of the Lantern Wraiths; one more night of clearing tonight and the job would be just about done. If the three little ones hadn't come stirring up trouble, he might have finished the whole job in a single night. Still, they had also given him information on the mysterious magic implement, so the trip hadn't been for nothing. It was just that Vermilion Bird Peak truly was a bit dangerous. He planned to wait until he had broken through to the Gang Realm before going to scout out the wasteland zone. Cultivators had nine great realms in all. The lower three realms were, in order, the Outer Realm, the Inner Realm, and the Union Realm. Through these three stages, one first trained the muscles, bones, and skin without; then cultivated true primal qi within; and at last fused essence, qi, and spirit into one. Once that union reached a certain depth, one could smelt gang with a great blaze, hastening the birth of gang qi bound to the primal spirits of heaven and earth. That was the Gang Realm. The threshold of the Gang Realm stopped at least seventy percent of all cultivators — a true chasm, an unbridgeable gulf. Only by leaving the lower three realms behind could one be called a true expert, able to walk the wasteland zone with reasonable confidence. At his current strength, entering the wasteland zone was still far too risky. Back at the agency, there were still no commissions. Yue Wen went straight up to the little bed on the second floor, meaning to sleep for a while. True, once cultivators reached the Union Realm they could use cultivation to replenish their spirit and could, in theory, go without sleep or rest. But ample sleep could still restore the spirit, like adding oil to a lamp. Short of extreme circumstances, there was no need to burn that oil dry. Of course, cultivators still had one essential step before sleep — playing on their phones. He picked up his phone and tapped into an app called Cult Chat, opened the search bar first, and typed in "Meow Meow Cult." Zero results. Cult Chat had begun as a forum under its full name, "Cultivation Chat Room," and had since grown into a vast community used by cultivators everywhere, covering the whole range of content — industry news, trade information, chatting and friend-making, same-city lesson bookings, and more. If an organization couldn't even be found on Cult Chat, that meant it was either an extremely secretive great power hidden fathoms deep, or a no-account little outfit with no reputation whatsoever. Yue Wen figured the Meow Meow Cult was most likely the latter. With the search a dead end, he went on to browse the trending news on Cult Chat. … The number-one headline: Venerable Muyang of the ancient immortal sect, the Taiji Eight Desolations Sect, had stormed the Whale-Devouring Demon Sea and returned with half a dragon corpse in hand! The deadliest places in the wasteland zone were designated "forbidden zones." Among the world's many forbidden zones, a few were perilous to the extreme — veritable death grounds of the mortal world — yet because they concealed vast numbers of immortal treasures, countless cultivators still hurled themselves at them, wave upon wave. These were the four great "Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands." The Whale-Devouring Demon Sea ranked among them. It was a storm that rampaged across the four seas like some ghostly phantom; once it appeared, giant whale or mountain demon alike, however massive the body, all would be sucked into its whirlpool with no hope of survival. Among the four Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands, it was the one with the lowest survival rate. Yet Venerable Muyang had not only escaped it — he had brought back half of a colossal dragon corpse worth a fortune. Simply staggering. As it happened, someone had photographed him hauling the dragon across the sea. The face couldn't be made out clearly, but the sheer spectacle of that ancient skeleton blotting out the sky was stunning even through a screen. Others speculated that the Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands held countless rare treasures; since he had come back alive, perhaps his gains went far beyond this. Beneath this explosive news sat a batch of insider rumors of dubious truth — the hottest comment was one such. [Born With the Sacred Sphincter Physique, Snapped the Golden-Hooped Rod in Half at Five: I have a friend who's an inner-sect disciple of the Taiji Eight Desolations Sect. He says the reason Venerable Muyang paraded the dragon corpse about town so openly is that there is one colossal treasure that won't fit into a storage magic implement, and he had no choice but to stash it inside the dragon corpse to hide it. As for what it is — he'll only tell me tonight, when I go to his room...] A pile of replies sat waiting beneath this comment, plenty of people urging him on: a whole night had gone by — why hadn't he come out with the scoop yet? Looking at that absurd username, Yue Wen reckoned this person's word wasn't necessarily to be trusted. In second place was a kill order issued by another ancient immortal sect, the Tianyou Earth Mother Cult. The one being hunted was a man named Gu Nanchao. That name was one every cultivator knew. Immortal Nanchao, the greatest thief under heaven. The treasures he had stolen over the years were past counting, and his victims included more than a few top-ranking immortal sects. The result: kill orders on his head from at least a few dozen immortal sects, great and small. But never mind catching Gu Nanchao — to this day, not one photo of his true face had ever leaked. Even the Supernatural Management Bureau had mounted large-scale manhunts for him and remained helpless. The final verdict was that his cultivation level was top-tier and he carried some manner of immortal implement on him, making a successful capture very difficult. Now he had gone and enraged the Tianyou Earth Mother Cult. No telling what heavy treasure he had stolen this time — again, and again, and yet again. The third-ranked trending item was probably pushed with paid promotion: a missing-person notice placed by the Zhao family of Tianfu. Not that they were asking Cult Chat's users to help look. The Zhao family's eldest daughter had run away from home, and no one could get in touch with her. The Zhao family head had made the message public, apologizing to his daughter and hoping she would come home soon. As one of Tianfu's famous cultivation clans, the Zhao family enjoyed high prestige in the southwest cultivation world — yet even a great family like this couldn't manage the problem of raising its own child. The hot comments below held not a shred of sympathy or help — nothing but shameless netizens stirring up trouble. [The Rainy Night My Ex-Boyfriend Battled Five Black Men to Smelt Gang Qi: Father! If Big Sister truly won't come home, then I'm willing to look after you in your old age!] … Yue Wen smiled as he read, scrolled through a little more news, and once he felt the drowsiness had finished brewing, he put the phone away and got ready to catch up on sleep. But at just that moment, a knock sounded from outside. "Who comes at an hour like this?" he muttered, climbed out of bed, dressed again, and hurried downstairs, calling as he went: "Coming! Who is it?" By the time he reached the foot of the stairs, his expression had already gone from overcast to clear skies. Standing at the door was a young woman in a slim white dress of thin, fine cloth, cut close to her figure. She was tall and well-proportioned, about 1.75 meters by the look of her. Her black hair was pinned up a little at the sides and bound smooth and sleek behind her; her face was fair and luminous, as though it wore a layer of soft light. Her brows and eyes were gentle, her lovely gaze clear and bright, a faint smile resting on her lips. The long dress was paired with a cardigan; her hands rested lightly behind her back. Standing there, she was like a pure, graceful white flower. "Hello." Only when she saw Yue Wen coming downstairs did the young woman push the door open and step inside. She dipped her head in a slight nod and asked softly, "Excuse me — is this the place hiring an assistant? I've come to apply."