74: Chapter 74 Encountering a Demonic Cultivator

Yun Ming raised an eyebrow and began flipping through it.

Everything recorded in the book was about Yao Beasts.

Which types of Yao Beasts could be tamed as spirit pets, and which were naturally too fierce to be tamed; which Yao Beasts' blood could be used in medicine, and which of their bones could be used for Artifact Refining; which Yao Beasts preferred deep mountains, and which hid in marshes; which Yao Beasts' eggs were edible, and which cubs were worth a fortune...

It went on for hundreds of pages.

The level of detail was so extensive that Yun Ming, who knew very little about Yao Beasts, was filled with wonder.

"Quite interesting." He closed the book and tucked it into his robes.

This might come in handy in the future.

He stood up, glanced at the pile of ashes, and turned to step onto the taiqing wanderer.

The cloud rose leisurely and floated back the way he had come.

The return journey was much slower than the trip there.

Yun Ming was in no hurry, simply lying on the cloud, flipping through the ten thousand demons manual while letting the taiqing wanderer fly on its own.

Moonlight cascaded down, and the night breeze was cool.

The records in the book were diverse, making him occasionally raise an eyebrow or chuckle. It turned out that the scales of that Golden Core snake demon could be refined into protective soft armor, and its gallbladder could be used as medicine to create precious pills for increasing cultivation—had he known earlier, he would have asked for a higher price when he sold them.

While engrossed in reading, Yun Ming suddenly sensed something and looked up from the book.

Below, there was some activity.

He parted the clouds and looked down.

Under the moonlight, a village was engulfed in a sea of flames.

Cries, screams, and pleas for mercy merged together, tearing through the silence of the night. Fires had broken out in many parts of the village, the flames turning half the sky red as thick smoke billowed upward. Dark figures darted through the village, killing anyone they saw and burning every house.

They were Demonic Cultivators.

Yun Ming frowned slightly.

He had seen many such things in Da Qian. Demonic Cultivators committing atrocities, slaughtering commoners, and refining living souls—after that catastrophe, he had long since become numb to such events.

He withdrew his gaze, prepared to continue his journey.

However, at that moment, his peripheral vision caught a figure in the midst of the frantic slaughter, and he suddenly froze.

That Demonic Cultivator's Cultivation Technique...

Yun Ming sat up abruptly, focusing his gaze to look closely.

Although they were hundreds of zhang apart, and the person was only at the Qi Refinement Late Stage, the Aura of the Cultivation Technique as it circulated, the faint blood-red light surrounding them during the slaughter, and the Aura that grew slightly stronger with every person killed—

It was all too familiar.

It was almost identical to the Wanling Guixu Scroll.

A cold light flashed in Yun Ming's eyes.

He lowered the cloud, and the taiqing wanderer dove down like a streak of light, landing steadily in the center of the village.

The firelight illuminated his face.

The Demonic Cultivator was chasing a woman holding a child. Just as he was about to catch up, he suddenly sensed something was wrong and whipped his head around—

A young man riding a white cloud had descended from the sky, standing three zhang behind him.

The moonlight, firelight, and cloud-light intertwined, shining on the young man and outlining his silhouette with sharp clarity.

The Demonic Cultivator's Divine Sense instinctively swept over—

Then his expression changed.

Unfathomable.

That Aura was like an abyss. When his Divine Sense probed in, it found nothing but a deep, profound void. This was definitely not Qi Refinement, nor even Foundation Establishment Early Stage—it was at least Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, or perhaps even higher.

The Demonic Cultivator's legs went weak, and he nearly fell to his knees.

A member of the Righteous Path?

Here to slay demons?

Without a word, he turned and ran.

The other Demonic Cultivators still rampaging in the village were blasted into dust by several bolts of Purple Heaven Divine Thunder from Yun Ming's hand.

Seeing this, the surviving villagers fell to their knees one after another, kowtowing to him incessantly. Some banged their foreheads against the gravel until they bled, yet they refused to stop. The woman holding the child knelt at the very front, holding the child above her head, murmuring something.

"Immortal... Immortal, save us..."

"We beg the Immortal to save us..."

"Immortal, have mercy..."

Yun Ming glanced indifferently and said nothing.

He lifted his foot and took a step forward.

The taiqing wanderer followed him like a shadow, lifting him up as he floated away, turning into a streak of light. In the blink of an eye, he caught up with the Demonic Cultivator who had fled dozens of zhang.

The Demonic Cultivator only felt a blur before his eyes, and the cloud-riding figure was already blocking his path.

He shrieked and turned to flee again—

A hand pressed down on his shoulder.

With a gentle press of that hand, the Demonic Cultivator felt as if a great mountain was weighing on his shoulder. He couldn't move at all and fell to his knees with a thud.

"Senior, have mercy! Senior, have mercy!"

Tears and snot streaming down his face, the Demonic Cultivator pleaded desperately, "This lowly one was blind and offended Senior! Senior, please spare my life!"

Yun Ming looked down at him.

"Who are you? Who is your master? What Cultivation Technique do you practice?"

The Demonic Cultivator froze, then like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he spilled everything: "This lowly one is called Wang Er, a hunter from Qingshi Town three hundred li away! I have no master, no master! This Cultivation Technique... this Cultivation Technique was something I found in a cave while hunting in the mountains last year! Truly, truly! I wouldn't dare lie!"

Yun Ming raised an eyebrow slightly.

"You found it?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I just found it!" The Demonic Cultivator nodded repeatedly. "There was a skeleton in that cave, and the Cultivation Technique was right beside it. I didn't know what kind of technique it was, so I just practiced it accordingly..."

As he spoke, he suddenly realized something and added, "At first, I only killed wild beasts, but... but it was too slow, my cultivation wouldn't go up. Later... later..."

His voice grew lower and lower, a complex look flashing in his eyes.

"What happened later?" Yun Ming asked.

The Demonic Cultivator lowered his head, silent for a moment, then suddenly grinned.

That smile held a hint of madness, a hint of self-mockery, and an indescribable sense of relief.

"Later, I couldn't help myself and killed my wife and son."

Yun Ming's gaze shifted slightly.

The Demonic Cultivator continued, "After killing them, my cultivation soared. I then killed the entire village—Qingshi Town—and after that, I broke through to the Qi Refinement Late Stage."

As he spoke, he looked up at Yun Ming, his smile becoming increasingly eerie.

"Senior, don't you think this Cultivation Technique is very interesting? The more you kill, the faster it grows. Kill your relatives, and it grows even faster. Kill a whole village, and you can turn from a Mortal into a Cultivator. Senior, do you think there's a more profitable deal in this world?"

Yun Ming did not answer.

He just quietly looked at this Demonic Cultivator, looking at those eyes that no longer seemed human.

Then he reached out and pressed his hand on the Demonic Cultivator's head.

Soul Search.

The Demonic Cultivator's body trembled violently, his eyes rolled back, and he foamed at the mouth. Countless images flooded into Yun Ming's Sea of Consciousness like a flowing stream—a mountain hunter, sitting with his wife and child, the cave found by chance, the withered bones, the Cultivation Technique, the hesitation when killing a beast for the first time, the trembling when killing a person for the first time, the madness when slaughtering his wife and child, the numbness when bathing the village in blood...

The images came to an abrupt halt.

Yun Ming withdrew his hand. This Demonic Cultivator hadn't lied to him; such an honest Demonic Cultivator was quite rare.

The Demonic Cultivator slumped to the ground, bleeding from his seven orifices, his breath completely gone.

He looked down, performed a hand seal, and a flame fell, incinerating the corpse into ashes.

From behind came the villagers' kowtowing, crying, and thanking. Yun Ming did not look back, stepped onto the taiqing wanderer, and floated up.

He looked down at the location from the Demonic Cultivator's memory.

Three hundred li away, in the mountains near Qingshi Town.

The cave where the Wanling Guixu Scroll was found.

Yun Ming's gaze darkened slightly.

Why would this Cultivation Technique appear here?

He steered the cloud and floated off in that direction.