Scourge Messenger

Chapter 465 Persuading Jiang Shi
“Fairy of Treasures, are you perhaps messengers of the Secret Party?” Deng Jin asked seriously.

"Secret party?"

"What secret party? They're nothing but a swarm of locusts." Wei Bai sneered, staring intently at Yan Qing, his eyes revealing a chilling glint. "These people infiltrate various forces to gather intelligence on secret realms, and when the time is right, they gather together to destroy the secret realms and seize the karmic power of natural disasters, just like... you."

Once you reach the Foundation Establishment level, the karma of natural disasters is no longer a secret.

Even Deng Jin himself possessed a certain amount of calamity power, but its intensity was extremely low, so low that it had almost no lethality unless it hit a very delicate vital point like the eyeball. Many people possess calamity karma, but those who can truly cultivate it to the point of being lethal are extremely rare in the entire world—a truly rare and vicious individual.

It's very simple. If you want to cultivate the power of natural disasters, you must destroy secret realms. Destroying a secret realm for mortals will affect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of mortals in the vicinity. What about destroying a Foundation Establishment secret realm? Perhaps some people will say that there are also wild and undeveloped secret realms. Wouldn't it be better for the successor of the natural disasters to destroy these secret realms?

But even the unexplored secret realms are beyond the reach of the Calamity Heirs!
Moreover, these kinds of wild secret realms are often located in remote mountainous areas or are so difficult that no one is willing to develop them. In contrast, the secret realms that various sects and families have fully developed have complete strategies and may even have explored specific methods to destroy the realm. Any normal person would know which one to choose.

The karmic power of natural disasters is generally ineffective in conquering secret realms, except in battles between messengers. Therefore, messengers determined to follow the path of the Calamity's successors are often driven by a thirst for combat and are cold-blooded and ruthless. They have no patience to develop secret realms from scratch. Their modus operandi is to steal or even plunder the strategy manuals of other factions, then gather together to destroy the secret realm and flee, like locusts swarming and devouring all resources!
No one knows whether the name 'Secret Party' is the self-designation of the descendants of the natural disaster or what outsiders call them, but the name has been used ever since.

“If I’m not mistaken, the ‘Great Illumination Tathagata Talisman’ should be the key to destroying the secret realm,” Deng Jin asked. “Only by using attacks of a specific nature can the demons be permanently annihilated, and the karmic force of natural disasters be drawn from their corpses.”

"To be precise, it's liberation," Yan Qing said calmly. "Liberating these endless sinners, like the Demon King, from eternity."

"Liberation? I understand what you mean. If demons have self-awareness, this world is indeed an endless torment for them." Deng Jin laughed. "When I was young, I did an experiment—I rented out a secret realm and spent three years chatting and talking with the demons inside, fantasizing about becoming friends with them one day."

Everyone couldn't help but glance at Deng Jin. In fact, everyone had thought about the meaning of the existence of demons to some extent. Even in fantasy works, there are works like "The Demon's Solo Journey" that tell about demons awakening their intelligence. But for someone like Deng Jin to spend so much time verifying his conjecture, he would be a first-rate eccentric even in the Four Desolate Realms.

"How is the result?"

"There were no results, but I think it was because the time frame wasn't long enough. If it had been extended to ten, fifty, or a hundred years, perhaps there would have been new developments." Deng Jin smiled and said, "It's just that the financial resources at the time didn't allow me to be so extravagant. After achieving some success, I didn't continue this experiment."

"Why?" Shang Xinlei asked curiously.

“It’s such a waste.” Deng Jin shook his head: “Secret realms belong to all the people of the world… Don’t look at me like that. I know that most secret realms are occupied by forces in various places, but it is precisely because fishermen occupy fishing grounds that there are fishmongers in the market. Even if a secret realm is occupied, as long as it is developed, it is a righteous path, because resources will continue to be produced.”

"On the contrary, abandoning or destroying secret realms is the demonic path. The secret party messengers are the most demonic of the demonic paths."

The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Yao Shiyuan and Ying Rushi gripped their weapons tightly, while Deng Jin and Wei Bai stood together, subtly forming a standoff with the thieves. Ning Xiaoxiao stepped aside, not daring to participate in the conflict. "We are not messengers of the Secret Party," Yan Qing said, exchanging glances with Deng Jin, "but you are right, our goal here is indeed to destroy the Blissful Immortal Palace and obtain the karmic power of the natural disaster."

"Why bother?" Deng Jin looked at Jiang Shi: "Fairy Jubao, you have no shortage of immortal resources, and no one in the world dares to mistreat you. There is no need for fighting and killing, so why bother with natural disasters and karma?"

"What if someone mistreats her?" the Pharmacist said coldly. "What if she encounters danger? What if a powerful force plots against her? You might as well continue to stick to your theory of good versus evil, rather than spouting this nonsense—it's only natural for messengers to seek power, and you can't just say they don't need it."

Deng Jin sighed, “My words were inappropriate, but what I meant was that Fairy Jubao is destined to become a very important figure. Sooner or later, she will be able to gather a huge force and have enough power. She is destined to be an emperor, destined to command thousands of troops and control the wind and thunder. Now she is pursuing weapons such as plague and poison, which will not help her much and will also greatly affect her reputation. It is really losing the big picture for the small thing.”

"The Secret Clan is wicked and rebellious; the whole world should condemn them." Deng Jin said earnestly, "The Fairy of Treasure Gathering connects the world, which is a great act of kindness; destroying the Secret Realm is a great act of evil. Great kindness is a protective charm, while great evil is a death warrant. I sincerely hope you will consider this carefully. I also possess the karmic power of natural disasters, so I know very well that a small amount of karmic power is unlikely to be the deciding factor. Is it really necessary to defy the world for such a small amount of power?"

“A small amount of karmic retribution for natural disasters is of little significance, but what about a large amount?” Yan Qing said with a smile.

"But that means you'll have to destroy countless secret realms." Wei Bai's body was already half-frozen as he spoke: "Enough to make the world boil, enough to make people see you as enemies! From now on, there will be no place for you in this vast world!"

Destroying a secret realm doesn't just mean destroying the realm itself.

A Foundation Establishment secret realm can affect the survival of a Foundation Establishment power. Losing a secret realm is equivalent to losing the means of production, becoming a rootless duckweed. What will they do next? Will they search for an unfamiliar secret realm and start from scratch, or will they try to compete with other powers for secret realms? Or will they join another power and change the balance of power in the region?
This is why the Secret Party is hated and killed by the whole world. Even if they don't provoke us, if they destroy our neighbor's Foundation Establishment Secret Realm, it's equivalent to instantly creating a large number of 'unemployed Foundation Establishment' people, which will inevitably lead to an increase in regional instability.

Although the number of secret realms in a region is fixed, and a new secret realm will soon be created when the old one is gone, let's not even talk about how much time, manpower, and resources it takes to develop a new secret realm. What if the secret realm spawns in another faction's territory? What if no one finds the new secret realm?

The Foundation Establishment forces that have lost their homes cannot wait a moment longer. The three calamities from the outside world are corroding their Dao foundation every second, and every bit of True Spirit Jade they use is gone! Beasts at the end of their rope have absolutely no shortage of courage to fight to the death!
Therefore, the surrounding forces either have to painfully cede territory to them or fight them. But once war breaks out, many things become uncontrollable, and death will exacerbate all conflicts to the extreme.

Such things have happened before: after the Secret Party destroyed a secret realm, it triggered a series of wars, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators and the expulsion of several factions. Apart from the Secret Party, everyone else was a loser.

Therefore, the Secret Party is not the demonic path. After all, the demonic path only plunders and does not engage in production, while the Secret Party drains the pond to catch all the fish and uses its eternal foundation to support itself. This is not just not engaging in production; it is practically destroying production!

The Secret Party is a wicked and rebellious force that far surpasses the demonic path; it is a natural disaster spawned by the messenger group!

"I have indeed taken your advice to heart," Yan Qing said calmly. "But what if we insist on going our own way?"

(End of this chapter)