Fragments

The seasoned old demons, who ordinarily commanded wind and cloud, now trembled with fear, not daring even to breathe loudly. Nascent Soul eccentrics, rarely seen even once in several years, had not only appeared, but two had shown up all at once. "This medallion is yours, right?" Lu Yang twirled the cord of the medallion around his finger, asking casually. "It is... No, no, no, it belongs to you, My Lord!" "I heard this medallion can unlock a treasure vault. Is that true or fake? What did you hide in there?" Meng Jingzhou asked curiously. With such a massive commotion, surely there had to be good stuff. "It's true! Inside the vault are cultivation insights written by this humble one, along with materials for my next attempt at breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage." Ever since losing the medallion, Ancestor Baitan had secretly spread rumors and used the promise of benefits to lure others into searching for it on his behalf. "That's it?" Cultivation insights for the half-step Nascent Soul stage filled several bookshelves in the Dao Seeking Sect's Scripture Pavilion for anyone to read at leisure. Half-baked cultivation notes from someone like Ancestor Baitan wouldn't even qualify for a spot on those shelves. As for the materials to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, they cared even less. Why would anyone need materials to shatter the core and form the nascent soul? The Dao Seeking Sect had no such tradition. "M-My Lord, this humble one truly did not know your esteemed identities! Had I known, even if given ten thousand times the courage, I wouldn't have dared do this!" Ancestor Baitan wished he were already dead. He kowtowed violently, thumping his head against the ground so hard he looked ready to smash his own skull off. The other old demons followed suit, kowtowing to display their loyalty. To be honest, since setting out into the world, the two of them had never experienced such a scene. It felt genuinely satisfying. The Immortal Fairy popped up, seizing the opportunity to broaden Lu Yang's horizons. "Hah, this is nothing. Back when this immortal traveled in disguise, I ran into things like this all the time. "Usually, the other side would see that I wasn't easy to push around, so they'd haul out their backer, boasting about how powerful that backer was. Once I thrashed the backer, they'd haul out the backer's backer, back and forth like that. By the time the ultimate backer showed up, onlookers would whisper that he was a subordinate of a subordinate to someone like Immortal Ying Tian, wielding monstrous influence with direct access to an immortal. "Then, the moment that ultimate backer saw me, he'd stammer, 'I-It's you!' 'This lowly one had eyes but failed to see, I beg the immortal for mercy!' 'Spare this humble servant just this once!' and so forth. He'd slap his own face repeatedly while banging his head against the ground, looking like he wanted to shatter the very planet. Sometimes he'd even execute his own kin for righteousness' sake, slaughtering the troublemaker on the spot. "Once the ultimate backer started kowtowing, everyone else followed, dropping down in droves like an ocean of heads. It was truly magnificent. "In the end, I would hand out punishments depending on the gravity of their crimes. Sometimes I wiped them out directly, sometimes I severed their cultivation foundations, or gave out other penalties. "What a shame—your cultivation isn't high enough yet, so you can't experience scenes like that." The Immortal Fairy clicked her tongue, feeling sorry for Lu Yang. That was a privilege reserved exclusively for immortals. Lu Yang looked at his spiritual space, which had been turned into a tropical rainforest, feeling utterly helpless. After arriving in the Demon Domain, the Immortal Fairy had fittingly transformed the previously pink spiritual space. Enormous trees now rose from the ground, lush with luxuriant foliage. She often slept stretched out across the branches and never fell off. Right now, she had set up a swing and was swinging back and forth in stirrup socks, her small, translucent feet swaying gently. "Then Fairy, what happened when you ran into troublemakers before you became an immortal?" "Back then, things usually developed in one of two ways." "Which two ways?" "First, if the opponent had higher cultivation than me and I couldn't beat them for the moment, my only choice was to run. "Second, even if their cultivation was lower than mine, through some twist of fate I'd still end up getting hunted down. "Sometimes, when too many people joined the chase, they'd often start fighting among themselves. This immortal ran into that two or three times. They had me surrounded, blocking every direction, leaving no way of escape. But then a dispute broke out over who had the right to land the killing blow on me. They began brawling with one another, and this immortal slipped away in the chaos." Lu Yang: "..." *Fairy, your past experiences are bizarre enough.* "What should we do with this bunch of old demons?" Meng Jingzhou asked in a low voice. These old demons acted ruthlessly and definitely had blood on their hands. Under Great Xia law, all of them would face execution. However, this was the Demon Domain, and this was simply the prevailing culture here. They couldn't extend jurisdiction across borders and forcibly impose Great Xia law upon them; that wasn't how an immortal sect's enforcement authority was meant to be used. Furthermore, if they slaughtered them all, the territories under their control would fall into utter chaos, inevitably sparking warfare and killing countless innocent demons. Suddenly, the exquisite serpent marking on Ancestor Baitan's forehead flashed, projecting a manifestation of divine sense. The projection trembled with force, knocking unconscious every demon present except Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou. A lavishly adorned white serpent materialized. It appeared far younger than Ancestor Baitan, brimming with much more vibrant vitality. "Who are you?" "I am Bai Gu of the White Snake Clan. Greetings, fellow daoists. This Baitan is an avatar of mine. Originally, once he broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, I intended to reclaim this avatar to aid my breakthrough into the Soul Formation stage. It seems Baitan encountered a mortal threat, which triggered the imprint I left behind. "I ask that you spare Baitan's life, fellow daoists. In return, I will present this fragment to you!" Lu Yang had heard of this method of cultivation. One refined an avatar, and all the cultivation gains of the avatar fed back into the true body. Female cultivators practicing dual-cultivation arts sometimes used this method to pose as twins, which heightened the pleasure and accelerated their cultivation speed. "What is this?" "Legend has it that there are three of these fragments in total, and piecing them together forms the key to a secret realm. Alas, I have never been able to find the other two. Seeing that both fellow daoists are blessed with profound fortune, you are destined for great accomplishments and will surely find the remaining two fragments." Before Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou could respond, an imprint flashed on the forehead of the blue-faced tiger as well, projecting another manifestation of divine sense. A winged, striped tiger emerged. Seeing the blue-faced tiger lying unconscious, his face contorted in terror as though scared out of his wits, the striped tiger glanced around, taking in the sight of Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and Bai Gu, before cupping his fists. "I am a deacon of the Qiongqi Clan, and this is my unfilial son. I do not know how this unfilial child has offended you two, but I ask that you show mercy and spare his life. "In return, this fragment shall be gifted to you. "Legend has it that this fragment is the key to unlocking a Soul Formation-grade secret realm. Unfortunately, over so many years, I have never found the remaining fragments. May I exchange this fragment for my son's life?" The flame marking on the Raging Flame Lion's forehead flickered. An old lion whose eyelids drooped so heavily he could barely keep his eyes open saw the most outstanding descendant of his clan lying unconscious, and he immediately deduced that the two youths were responsible. He was the ancestor of the Raging Lion Clan. The Raging Flame Lion was the junior he favored most, which was why he had supported him in becoming clan patriarch. He could not stand by and watch the Raging Flame Lion be killed. The old lion retrieved a fragment. "This is a fragment I obtained by chance. Gathering all three fragments allows one to form the key to a Soul Formation-grade secret realm. I wonder if it can be exchanged for his life?" Lu Yang: "..." Meng Jingzhou: "..." "Why don't the three of you check whether the fragments in your hands fit together?"