"Old Ba, in your younger days... did you ever provoke the Demon Domain?"
"No way. I'm as honest as they come. At most, I just helped out and ran errands for the others. I wasn't the one doing the main bad deeds."
"I heard that both the Dragon Clan and Phoenix Clan belong to the pro-human faction. It should be fine to visit them, right?"
Lu Yang remembered meeting members of the Phoenix Clan selling their blood to make Phoenix Blood Stones back in Li Haoran's hometown. After they had introduced themselves, those Phoenix Clan members had been quite warm and welcoming.
"You can go, sure, provided certain minor matters haven't come to light."
"What minor matters?"
"As the saying goes, 'dragon and phoenix bring auspiciousness'—they are symbols of good fortune. When getting married, wealthy families like to put up paper cutouts of a dragon and phoenix.
"Ninth Brother pondered it and said that marriage was just a couple announcing to everyone that they were heading into the bridal chamber to consummate that night, so the dragon and phoenix in the paper cutouts ought to carry that meaning too. It was just that ordinary folk never had the chance to witness a dragon and phoenix mating, which was why their paper cutouts weren't realistic.
"Ninth Brother dared to be a pioneer. He secretly found a dragon and phoenix couple, watched their mating process, took detailed notes, and compiled that firsthand material into a book called Dragon Phoenix Transformation to leave behind a reference for future generations. Not sure if you two have heard of it."
Lu Yang: "..."
Could he not have heard of it? On his very first day in the Scripture Pavilion, the book he found hidden in a corner was Dragon Phoenix Transformation! When he found it, he had even thought he had stumbled upon a grand opportunity.
Back then, the senior brother on duty in the Scripture Pavilion had wondered aloud why there was a copy in the pavilion at all, given that Dragon Phoenix Transformation was a banned book impossible to find anywhere on the continent.
Turns out it was Master who wrote it all along!
Judging from the reaction of the Dragon and Phoenix Clans, they probably still didn't know his master was the culprit, but there was no telling about the future.
"What about the Baize Clan?" Lu Yang had heard that the Baize Clan was neutral; whenever conflicts broke out between demon clans, they often called on the Baize Clan to mediate and bear witness.
"The Baize Clan isn't too big of a problem. It's just that back then, we brothers caused a bit of a stir in the Demon Domain and were hunted down ruthlessly. In our desperation, we disguised ourselves as the Baize Clan and escaped danger. Unfortunately, we were later caught by an actual Baize who insisted on hauling us back. In a flash of wit, Old Eighth asked him: 'Since the Baize Clan knows everything, do you know what it is that you don't know?'
"While he was busy thinking about that, the few of us managed to escape. I heard the Baize whom Old Eighth questioned has already become clan leader.
"The Baize Clan is just and benevolent, with plenty of affairs to manage. They probably forgot all about us long ago."
"A bit of a stir?" Lu Yang figured that "stir" couldn't have been small.
"It really wasn't a big deal. It just so happened that while we were in the Demon Domain, a mystic realm that opens once every five years became accessible. The few of us went inside to try our luck and see if we could get some good stuff. The entry requirement was pretty strict—you had to be pure-blooded. Fortunately, all of us were pure-blooded humans, so we got in without any issue.
"Who would've thought that once inside, the demons would turn hostile? Even the mystic realm let us in, yet those demons insisted on targeting our band of brothers—ostracizing us, tripping us up, playing dirty tricks, and some even tried to kill us. We saw that and thought, how could we let this stand? There was no way we'd let them bully us like that.
"So I blocked the mystic realm entrance with stones, and Sixth Junior Sister used an illusion beside it to create a fake entrance. Then we shouted to everyone that something had gone wrong with the entrance and we couldn't get out.
"Naturally, the demons didn't believe us, so one walked into the fake entrance. Upon stepping through, he found that instead of the outside world, it was an unknown space. He hurried back, suspecting they had run into spatial turbulence and couldn't leave.
"The fake entrance was linked to a Beast Taming Sect storage ring—a specially crafted one that can hold living creatures. He had walked straight into a storage ring, so of course it was an unknown space."
Ordinary storage rings could only hold inanimate objects.
"When that one demon's attempt didn't convince them, several demons of high status entered the fake entrance, all arriving at the same conclusion: they had run into spatial turbulence.
"The mystic realm entrance was only open for ten days total. At the end of the tenth day, we left the mystic realm and told the people outside that it had been perilous and all the demons were dead. And just like that, those demons were trapped in there by us for five years. When they finally came out, they searched the entire world for us.
"Tell me, why bother? Wouldn't it have been better if everyone just competed for opportunities with their own abilities? They just had to play dirty and scheme against us."
Lu Yang: "..."
Meng Jingzhou: "..."
"As for the Taowu Clan... forget it. They hate humans anyway, so whether you provoked them or not makes no difference."
Old Ba nodded in deep agreement. "That's true. The Taowu Clan's hatred for humans doesn't have much to do with the Dao Seeking Sect. Eldest Brother was merely in a scholarly mood and paid a visit to the Taowu Clan's ancestral tombs, only to be discovered in the end."
After questioning Old Ba, the two went on to question the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Elders thoroughly.
The two had the good fortune of discovering that Old Ba had lied—the Nine Scions of the Dao Seeking Sect had provoked the demon race far more times than Old Ba let on.
"That warning wasn't about not saying we're from the Dao Seeking Sect. It was practically telling us not to go to the Demon Domain at all!"
Lu Yang felt that the road ahead was fraught with danger and bristling with murderous peril.
"It should be fine. Look at Third Senior Sister—isn't she doing great in the Demon Domain? She even has the chance to research ancient history. Seeking refuge with her will definitely be safe."
"I just wonder if portraits of the two of us have circulated to the Demon Domain."
"Probably not. We've never heard the names of any Demon Domain geniuses, so looking at it the other way, the Demon Domain shouldn't be familiar with Great Xia's top talents either. At most, they might know a name."
"Makes sense."
The two discussed it and decided to head to the Demon Domain anyway.
How could cultivators cower before a challenge?
The two went on a massive shopping spree, focusing heavily on life-saving items, packed them into their identity jade pendants, and set out light, taking a flying boat to their old stomping grounds—Demon Quelling Pass.
Back then, it was Eldest Senior Sister who had dumped them here.
The once-booming wig industry at Demon Quelling Pass was now past its prime; without Lu Yang stirring up trouble, wigs were no longer in demand.
They no longer needed mosquito-repelling pills either. With their Golden Core stage auras released, no insect dared come near.
A dense forest lay between Demon Quelling Pass and the Demon Domain, and it was in that very forest that Lu Yang had advanced to the Golden Core stage.
"Back then, those Golden Core stage demon beasts posed quite a threat to us, and we had to run for our lives whenever we ran into a Nascent Soul stage beast. Looking at it now, they're nothing to write home about." The two eighth-tier Golden Core "ancestors" chatted and laughed merrily in the dense forest.
Towering trees blocked out the sunlight, and in the gloomy underbrush, pairs of eerie green eyes stared at the two of them, their gazes greedy and bloodthirsty, rife with killing intent.
But when the two "ancestors" casually dispatched an early Nascent Soul stage demon beast, the lurking demon beasts recognized the danger and quietly retreated, acting as though nothing had happened.
Even when they entered the territory of Nascent Soul stage demon beasts, those beasts—despite their fiercely territorial nature—dared not show their heads, pretending not to see the two and silently praying that nothing would happen.
Any beast that managed to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage was no fool. They had a clear assessment of themselves: they were merely mixed-blood demon beasts with mediocre combat strength, while these two possessed combat power on par with the demon race's top prodigies. How could they dare provoke them?
The dense forest no longer posed any threat to Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.
Before officially entering the Demon Domain, the two seized every second to flaunt their might.
Chapter 560