Chapter Thirty: Taking Stock of the Fortune

After Yang Nan left, Yi Leng approached and said to Ai Muyun, who was lost in thought, “Senior brother, since Yang Nan is from the Daoist sect, how can we continue to associate with him?”

The Daoist and Demonic sects had always been mortal enemies, like water and fire. When disciples of the two sects met, if they didn’t draw swords, they would at least never greet each other with a smile.

Ai Muyun turned back with a smile. “Is that what you all think?”

Xuan Sha let out a sigh. “The Demonic and Daoist sects have forever been sworn foes. In the future, Yang Nan will surely become our adversary. All under heaven, Daoist sects hunt and slaughter our kind. Though Yang Nan is worth befriending, he cannot possibly surpass the head of Kunlun, can he?” As soon as these words were spoken, the other disciples all nodded in agreement and voiced their support.

Ai Muyun sneered, “The Daoist sects under heaven? Aren’t they as rife with conflict as our own Demonic sect? Otherwise, how would there be the disputes between the Arts of War and Law, or so many sects for formations, artifacts, and pills? I’ve been to the Kunlun Sect—Kunlun has always acted with overbearing force. Back then, the Sword Saint of Qingya carved out Kunlun’s territory and drove out the other sects, thus establishing their dominance for thousands of years. Would those sects have accepted that willingly?”

He paused before continuing, “The world is already in chaos—kings contend for supremacy, demons and monsters run rampant. From now on, every sect must look to its own affairs. What difference remains between Daoists and Demonics? What of the so-called Top Ten Daoist Masters? Don’t they slaughter each other just as our Twelve Demonics do? I see that Yang Nan, at such a young age, is already extraordinary. Three years ago, he was but a new initiate among the Daoists; three years later, he’s a master of the martial path and rules a mountain! If you do not befriend such a man, what allies will you ever find?”

Xuan Sha nodded, deeply impressed. “Brother, your foresight is brilliant. When the time comes for the Twelve Demonic sects to clash, we can draw Yang Nan in as an ally. I don’t believe he holds any ill will toward our sect—he’ll surely agree when the time comes.”

Ai Muyun shook his head gravely. “He is not one to take advantage of others. I meant to do him a favor by gifting him the Soul Control Secret Art, but he instead gave me the Supreme Monster Body Technique. In the end, I was the one who benefited. Such a person would never help another lightly without a worthy reward. We’ll discuss this matter another time.”

Seeing his senior brother held Yang Nan in such high regard, Yi Leng suggested, “Since you taught him the Soul Condensing and Transmuting Art, he’ll need to find a passage to the Netherworld or a Yin Mansion to practice. We can take him to harvest fierce souls, and that would be a favor to him.”

Ai Muyun broke into laughter. “You’re clever. I’d already considered that. Let’s return first and discuss it with our master.”

The disciples, realizing their senior brother had already made his move, admired him greatly and responded in unison, “As you command!”

Ai Muyun summoned a black radiance, leading his junior brothers as they soared into the firmament.

Meanwhile, Yang Nan’s Divine Light Incantation transported him a thousand miles in what seemed the blink of an eye. Spiritual brilliance coursed over the Celestial Talisman, the runes glowing with a blue radiance. After such a leap, he had to pause and recover before he could use it again. Though the spell was miraculous, it consumed an enormous amount of energy—once was Yang Nan’s limit.

Amazed by the power of the incantation, Yang Nan found himself even more attached to the Celestial Talisman. With it, he could vanish in an instant—apart from a grandmaster demon like the Roc King, who could ever hope to catch him?

He stopped atop a peak in the Spirit Beast Mountains and carefully examined the two arts he had exchanged with Ai Muyun. The Soul Control Secret was similar to Kunlun’s Soul Stone, but while the Soul Stone was used merely to confirm whether disciples lived or died, the Soul Control Secret was insidious, domineering, and ruthlessly cruel. It was created to control powerful demons—no matter how mighty, once captured and subjected to this art, they would submit, helpless, no matter their divine power.

To subdue a monster, one must first extract a soul and a spirit and seal them in a magical artifact. After this, the monster would become half-witted and obey the wielder of the artifact. If it resisted, the wielder could annihilate the spirit, erasing its soul for eternity—a truly vicious method.

Having read the Soul Control Secret, Yang Nan was shaken. Fortunately, it only worked on demons or monsters; if it could be used on humans, who knew how many cultivators would become puppets for others?

By comparison, the Soul Condensing and Transmuting Art was much gentler—a technique for gathering souls and refining blood essence. It was excellent for creating powerful spirit entities, but also required a magical artifact as its vessel.

Comparing the demonic arts with Daoist ones, Yang Nan felt a growing wariness toward the sinister and domineering nature of the demonic path. With a method for controlling monsters, there surely existed arts for controlling humans. If he ever fell into the hands of a demonic disciple, it would be a fate worse than death.

When he returned to the Tiger Demon Valley, he saw that the little monsters had already cleared the countless corpses littering the valley. Demons needed blood to increase their power; though many demon soldiers had died, it was not a problem—in fact, the survivors were delighted at a feast. The little demons cleaned the battlefield with cheerful faces.

Yang Nan asked one of the little monsters and learned that Chiyang and the others had already returned to Jade Purity Peak.

At that moment, Jade Purity Peak was bustling with activity. The Flower Demon King, the Tree Demon King, and the Monkey Demon King were tallying the spoils with Yang Nan’s subordinates. Chiyang and the three fish maidens helped as well. The hall was filled with radiant light and spiritual energy, piles of spirit stones, spirit iron, medicinal herbs, and other materials stacked high. The little demons stared in awe, their jaws dropping.

Old Crab, who had followed Yang Nan for so long, finally felt vindicated. He laughed heartily at the mountain of treasures, “We’ve struck it rich! This time, my master has truly made a fortune!”

“What’s this about striking it rich?” As the demons laughed and joked, Yang Nan entered the hall, smiling.

Seeing their master arrive, the little demons hastily bowed in a noisy chorus. Yang Nan surveyed them; everyone’s face shone with happiness. After their victory, morale was high and their fighting spirit soared. Now that the four demon lords had been vanquished, the seventy-two valleys were his domain. Of course the demons were pleased—who wouldn’t look forward to good days ahead with such a master?

The Flower Demon King respectfully presented the registry, reporting the types and numbers of all the demon soldiers in the valleys. Every item seized was carefully cataloged under her charge. The four valleys surrendered over thirty thousand spirit stones, more than twenty thousand pieces of spirit iron, and countless varieties of medicinal herbs.

Thousands of little demons had perished in the battle; their corpses were gathered for blood feasts, and their demon cores could be refined into magical tools. Though the cores of such low-level demons were not of high grade, they were still valuable materials.

The greatest prize was the White-striped Golden-eyed Tiger Demon. Its soul had been captured by the Flower Demon with the Soul Capturing Pearl, and its demon core extracted. The body had been well preserved for Yang Nan to deal with. The tiger’s Earth Ritual Pearl and Mountain Shaker Stone were rare treasures; even lying on the case, they exuded a marvelous aura.

Though the Spirit Beast Mountains produced many spiritual materials, none were the divine iron Yang Nan required. Otherwise, his king-grade divine weapon could be elevated yet again. Still, refining his magical weapons with these spirit stones and iron would enhance their power.

Yang Nan seated himself in the main hall and idly flipped through the registry. The leader-class demons lined up in two rows—his old subordinates to the right, the newly surrendered valley monsters to the left. Noting their respectful demeanor, Yang Nan nodded inwardly; after all his efforts, he had finally settled the seventy-two demon valleys of the Spirit Beast Mountains.

Conquering the valleys brought Yang Nan no direct benefit to his cultivation, but it provided him a secure place to train—that was the greatest advantage. The demon soldiers and materials were only external aids; for a cultivator, personal strength was paramount. However useful the Supreme Monster Body Technique, it could never surpass the power of a true grandmaster.

Yang Nan had always practiced austerely, rarely relying on even medicinal pills. All he wanted now was for the Spirit Beast Mountains to become a secluded sanctuary for his cultivation. If he could master the twelve divine arts of the Nether Soldier Devouring Heaven Record, his power would soar. Everything else was an unexpected bonus, barely worth his attention.

Among the seventy-two valleys, there were countless types of spirits and monsters. Each demon king commanded thousands of soldiers—together, more than ten thousand in all. The numbers were impressive, but most were of middling strength, unlikely to stir up real trouble.

With more than ten thousand demon soldiers, plus the old, the weak, the women and children, and all the spiritual beasts in the mountains, the numbers were truly vast.

Now, apart from the four demon kings, there was no one to govern the multitude of monsters in the valleys. Yang Nan pondered and established a new order in the Jade Purity Hall: from this day forth, the title of Demon King would be abolished in the seventy-two valleys. Jade Purity Hall was the seat of the Kunlun orthodox path—how could monsters dare to call themselves kings before a true grandmaster?

The Monkey Demon King, Flower Demon King, Tree Demon King, and the Goldfish Spirit he had recently accepted became the four chief commanders, directly subordinate to Jade Purity Hall. They were each assigned to oversee a category: birds, beasts, flowers and trees, and insects and fish.

He took four command tokens, imbued them with his unique Yin fiendish energy, and inscribed the titles of the four commanders upon them. With these, the four could classify the demon soldiers for easier management.

The Monkey Demon King was renamed Hou Jiu and put in charge of beasts; the Flower Demon King became Haitang, responsible for flowers and birds; the Tree Demon King took the name Su Shu and managed plant spirits; and the Goldfish King, renamed Jin Yu, oversaw insects and fish. The weakest monsters were always the insects, but they were most numerous. Though there were five categories and only four commanders, Yang Nan had few powerful monsters available. For now, this arrangement would suffice.