Chapter 410 - 391: Look, Isn’t That Someone Hanging Up There?

Chapter 410: Chapter 391: Look, Isn’t That Someone Hanging Up There?

Thanks to the "help" of a cute rabbit, the grand plan to scare everyone off at the Spirit Beast Garden was a total failure.

Su Ling’er felt utterly exhausted.

With no other choice, she could only continue to lead the three hundred-odd people behind her on an aimless tour of the sect.

According to the standard orientation procedure, she was still contemplating whether to take these people to places like the Demon-Locking Tower and the Asking Dao Ladder.

But!

’No! Absolutely not! The illusions of the great demons imprisoned in the Demon-Locking Tower are terrifying, but they can’t actually kill anyone, and you even get rewarded with Spirit Stones. Wouldn’t that just make our sect look even more powerful?’

’And the Asking Dao Ladder can directly increase one’s cultivation! If this group gets a taste of that, their Dao hearts will be instantly corrupted. They’ll all be crying and screaming, begging to stay. Wouldn’t that just drag them deeper into the mire, making it impossible to pull them back out?’

’Wouldn’t my grand mission of purification be doomed to fail from the very beginning?!’

’I can’t give these lost lambs any chance to fall in love with this demon’s den! One careless slip and people could die!’

And so, Su Ling’er once again employed her whimsical style of guidance, leading the group to detour around all the buildings that looked grand and impressive.

As they passed the Hundred Herbs Garden, the sight before her made even Su Ling’er herself freeze for a moment.

This was no longer the merely strange herb garden from her memory. The Hundred Herbs Garden before her had completely metamorphosed into an... indescribable, twisted jungle.

Massive trees formed the main body of this jungle. Some were hundreds of feet tall, their trunks as black as charcoal and covered in twisted burls. Their bare branches reached for the sky like ghostly claws.

Yet right beside one such tree grew a spirit tree, crystalline as jade, that radiated a soft white light. The sacred power of moonlight essence intertwined with the deathly aura emanating from the withered trunk, forming a bizarre force field where light and darkness perpetually collided.

On the ground, it was utter chaos. Vines as thick as bowls coiled and spread across the earth. On these deathly pale vines grew fruits the size of a baby’s fist, which even pulsed faintly.

And yet, in the crevices between these demonic vines, clusters of shimmering Strengthening and Nourishing Grass grew tenaciously.

Intertwined among these plants were the skeletal remains of demon beasts, buried there as fertilizer.

Spirit Plants and demonic plants, sanctity and malevolence, life and death... All these contradictory and opposing existences were forcefully kneaded together in this Hundred Herbs Garden, creating an ecosystem of extreme, twisted chaos.

’Wait, how long has it been? Hundred Herbs Garden, you’ve evolved already? But you look even creepier than before!’

’Hmph, this should do it, right? Spirit Plants and demonic plants growing together, skeletons coexisting with spiritual soil! Surely a scene that blasphemes life, twists nature, and inverts yin and yang will awaken their yearning for the righteous path and their fear of the demonic one, right?’

She stopped, pointed at the spectacular yet bizarre garden, and said in a sinister tone, "This is our sect’s Hundred Herbs Garden. Look, every Spirit Plant here grows so... vibrantly."

However, the three hundred-plus people behind her once again proved her wrong with their reactions.

They gazed at the twisted jungle, their eyes filled with shock and wonder.

"Heavens! What is that tree? It looks like a human face! And it’s moving!"

"Look at that! The grass over there is gold! Is that an immortal’s Spirit Grass? It’s more dazzling than a rich man’s gold!"

"Some of the plants look a little scary, but others look so serene. Is this the Great Dao of yin-yang balance... But don’t you all think... this is magnificent? It’s just like the ’Dragon Liver Phoenix Marrow Garden’ from the storybooks! This is the true work of immortals!"

"Yeah! I have a feeling that being tricked into coming here... might actually be a huge stroke of luck! It’s way better than going to that so-called Wind Sword Sect!"

"That’s for sure. The Hundred Herbs Hall I was supposed to go to... I bet their entire sect isn’t as good as this one Hundred Herbs Garden."

As for the undercover agents from both the righteous and demonic sects, they felt a shock that struck them to their very souls.

The righteous-path agents were all dumbfounded, their Divine Senses frantically scanning the Spirit Plants, their minds buzzing.

’The Guixi Sect’s foundation... it’s terrifying!’

’Not only do they have vast quantities of demonic plants, but they can also make them coexist with Spirit Plants?! Such methods are unheard of!’

The demonic-path agents were even more thrilled, trembling all over and practically drooling.

’I’ve struck gold! Struck gold! This is practically a paradise for demonic Cultivators!’

’Mom! I want to go home! No, wait, I don’t want to go home anymore! This is my home now!’

’Sigh! To think I had to fight my fellow disciples to the death just for a few stalks of Yin Soul Grass. And look at this place... they grow demonic plants like they’re common weeds! That wicked Ghost Spirit Sect really held me back!’

’If the Sect Leader hadn’t planted a Soul-Locking Gu in me, which would probably obliterate my soul if I betrayed him, I’d fucking get on my knees right now and start shouting, "Long live the Guixi Sect! Glory to the Sect Leader! Glory to the Senior Brother! Glory to Miss Su!"’

’Can someone please just go and annihilate the Ghost Spirit Sect so I can be free?!’

Along the way, they also saw group after group of identical Mr. Qians. Some were staring at the sky, some were teaching classes, and some were on patrol...

The mortals looked at these "multiples," their minds filled with fantasies about the methods of immortals.

’Wow! So many immortal elders who look exactly the same! Is their whole family identical?’

’Or is it the technique from the stories, ’Body of a Thousand Manifestations’?’

The undercover agents, however, thought deeper, and their hearts filled with even greater awe.

’A cloning Divine Technique?! And so many clones?! Just how terrifying must the real Mr. Qian’s cultivation be?!’

’Although these clones look a bit sluggish... that only proves how powerful the original is! To be able to create so many clones, even if only a sliver of consciousness is given to each, the main body’s soul must be at the Divinity Transformation realm or above! Maybe even higher!!’

’It’s over. Compared to the Guixi Sect, my old sect is just a bunch of country bumpkins... Damn my old sect, hurry up and release the shackles on me so I can pledge my allegiance to the Guixi Sect and strive for its rise to glory!’

Su Ling’er led this group of people, each lost in their own thoughts, down a small path in the sect. She felt like she was leading a group of "Mrs. Lius" through the Grand View Garden.

But these "Mrs. Lius," far from being frightened, had shining eyes and looked like they were ready to kowtow on the spot and become part of the Guixi Sect.

’This script... is completely wrong!’

’Are... are you all blind?! Can’t you sense the thick, suffocating aura of malevolence?!’

’Seeing skeletons used as fertilizer, you don’t find it cruel, but instead think it’s ’making the most of things’?—That’s the mentality of a demonic overlord who sees all life as disposable!’

’Seeing Spirit Plants and demonic plants growing together, you don’t think it’s an inversion of yin and yang that violates natural harmony, but instead find it ’magnificent’? This is a classic case of being unable to tell good from evil, of a clouded Dao heart!’

’And Mr. Qian! Can’t you see that’s some kind of incredibly vicious puppet sorcery? Can’t you see the pain of having one’s soul ripped out behind those vacant eyes? Your minds have been bewitched by the demonic path’s superficial glamour!’

The more Su Ling’er thought about it, the more horrified she became, a chill creeping up her spine.

She looked at the three hundred-odd faces behind her—excited, greedy, full of yearning—and felt she was watching a group of fools dancing on the edge of a cliff, thinking they were about to ascend to immortality.

’No! I absolutely cannot let these three hundred people willingly jump into this pit of fire!’

’The more mesmerized they seem now, the more it proves their demonic nature has been thoroughly aroused! As the guide hand-picked by Senior Brother, as the sole beacon of righteousness in this demon’s den, I must find a way... to show them the true evil of the demonic path, an evil that will make them feel fear in the depths of their souls!’

’I must shatter their unrealistic fantasies! I have to make them understand that if they stay in the Guixi Sect without Senior Brother’s protection, like I had, the only outcome is to become the next batch of flower fertilizer or a Human Essence Elixir!’

...

And so they walked on, shocked every step of the way. Following behind Su Ling’er, the three hundred-odd newcomers felt like their entire worldview was being repeatedly crushed and remolded.

This was especially true for the undercover agents from other sects, whose hearts were now filled with immense confusion.

’I don’t get it... I really don’t get it!’

’From the tip of the iceberg that the Guixi Sect has revealed—be it the twisted Hundred Herbs Garden or the mass-produced Mr. Qians—it’s more than enough to prove how profound their foundation is!’

’But... why bother?!’

’If they just openly recruited disciples and revealed even a fraction of this power, wouldn’t the greatest talents in the world come flocking to them?’

’Why resort to such underhanded methods like intercepting and ’asking for directions’ from disciples who haven’t even started cultivating? Is there any need for that? With your resources, even the worst disciples you could recruit openly would have far better aptitude than the ones you’ve intercepted!’

’This style of operation... it’s too contradictory! It completely lacks the magnanimity a major sect should have! What in the world are they plotting?’

Just as the group was about to leave the Hundred Herbs Garden that had so shaken them—

"HISSSSSSS———!!!"

A roar echoed from the twisted jungle ahead!

Immediately after, the ground began to tremble!

"BOOM! CRACK!"

Row after row of demonic tree trunks came crashing down!

A terrifying black figure was rampaging through the jungle, heading straight for them!

It was a monster the likes of which the mortals had never seen!

Its body was pitch-black, covered in a streamlined exoskeleton that glinted with the bizarre sheen of fused metal and organic tissue.

It had a smooth, elongated head, from the back of which extended a magnificent, fan-shaped crest, signifying its noble "Queen" status.

A long, spur-covered tail was raised high behind it, each lash creating a sonic boom that tore through the air!

The most terrifying thing was its open maw, which contained a set of inner jaws that could shoot out in an instant!

"Why is there a demon beast roaming around freely here? Aaaah!!"

"Mon... monster! Aaaah!!"

"Help!!"

"Did a demon beast escape from the Spirit Beast Garden? Shouldn’t we get back there right away? Aaaah!"

"Look, is that a person on its back? Did a disciple from the Beast Taming House lose control of their demon beast?"

The crowd noticed a figure on the terrifying monster’s back, holding a set of reins!!

Su Ling’er: ’Junior Brother! Perfect timing!!!’