I saved the entire sect by playing idly by letting things fall apart.

Ye Qiao was the biggest surprise.

"..." What a damn reasonable statement, they couldn't even refute it.

Elder Duan agreed wholeheartedly: "If we truly entrust the future of the cultivation world to her, then we can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

At least the development of the cultivation world is traceable. When the righteous and evil paths go to war, there are only two possible outcomes: either they win, or the demons win.

However, after Ye Qiao joined, the unpredictable developments left them somewhat baffled.

"..."

Alright, case solved. From the elders to the senior uncles, not one in the Changming Sect is without a sharp tongue.

Xia Qing kept sighing, "Poor Changming Sect." So even Ye Qiao doesn't have much face to speak of. But in the case of the Wenjian Sect…

"With her unruly and disobedient behavior, Ye Qiao would have been beaten up if she were in the Sword Inquiry Sect."

"If she were to leave our Yueqing Sect, she would be treated like royalty." Putting aside everything else, Yunhen is definitely someone who dotes on his disciples, especially when that disciple can bring him face.

Looking at it this way, it's clear that each religion has its own unique educational methods.

Mingxuan asked with great interest, "Do you think that if the Demon Lord truly unified the cultivation world, and we knelt properly, he would spare us?"

They did consider this possibility. In fact, they weren't particularly interested in whether the righteous path would continue to dominate the cultivation world or the demon lord would dominate it. However, the concept of eliminating demons and protecting the righteous path, which they had been instilled with since childhood, was deeply ingrained in them.

At most, I'll feel a little uncomfortable and unwell.

I didn't have many feelings about it.

They only wanted to protect their respective sects, which were, after all, no less important than their families.

"If the Demon Lord truly unifies the cultivation world, the first targets will be the sects, but he probably won't carry out massacres again."

After all, if a massacre were to actually occur, the other powerful beings wouldn't be able to sit still.

In terms of sheer strength, even a Demon Lord in the Tribulation Transcending stage would be overwhelmed if a group of veterans were involved, and the fight went down to the death.

One of the close associates casually remarked, "It's nothing more than the righteous path's rule of thousands of years being replaced by the demon race's world."

Hearing their jokes, Xie Chuxue lowered her voice slightly, "Have you considered letting the demon race rule the cultivation world?"

Mu Chongxi shuddered: "Unbelievable."

Xie Chuxue thought for a moment and didn't continue the topic. "Anyway, things are temporarily over. Shall we go explore the nearby cities?"

They actually wanted to sleep more than explore the city, but the junior master's imposing presence was so strong that no one dared to argue, and they meekly said, "Okay."

The group wandered aimlessly into the city. They had recently witnessed a massacre that had ravaged half of the city. Fortunately, the casualties were not many, so although the atmosphere inside the city was oppressive, it was not exactly deserted.

Mu Chongxi pouted, "What did Junior Uncle send us here for?"

"I don't know."

They are very tired.

Because of their distinctive sect attire, the group was immediately surrounded by onlookers upon entering. However, the cultivators were of excellent manners and none of them approached rashly; their attitudes were also very friendly.

Scattered lights twinkled within the city walls, and various familiar stalls were set up outside, making it quite lively at first glance. The items on the stalls were mostly low-grade pills and talismans, which they weren't interested in, so they glanced at them and then looked away.

A few children pushed and shoved each other for a while, then came up and tugged at Mu Chongxi, their eyes sparkling as they told him that they had liked him for a long time.

The child's innocent words made Mu Chongxi a little embarrassed.

Whether in the mortal realm or the cultivation world, he had never had close contact with ordinary children.

The kid is different from those who constantly shout that they're his fans of ten years; the other person's attitude is very sincere.

Suddenly surrounded by children, out of curiosity, Qin Huai peered around and said, "None of them have practiced Qi yet." They were just a group of very ordinary children.

Surrounded by a group of children, Mingxuan was equally dejected: "Ugh, why did Junior Uncle make us come into contact with these people?"

Zhu You smiled wryly, pondering for a long time, "Perhaps she wants us to understand that we are not only protecting our own sects, but also the lights of countless homes behind us?"

No matter what you say, they will come. It is their mission and the concept they have been instilled with since they became disciples.

After she said that, the others fell silent to varying degrees.

Do these smart people like to do things in a roundabout way, making it difficult for others to understand?

In this perilous world of cultivation, it's better to be a bit aloof, at least you won't feel sad about the passing of a stranger.

But occasionally, they also need some motivation to move forward. Think about it, if the cultivation world were truly ruled by demonic cultivators for a thousand years, it would be the ordinary people who would suffer first.

The cultivators in this city were very friendly; some even shyly greeted us at close range.

After Zhu You finished speaking, she curiously began to explore the city. "Anyway, didn't your senior uncle say we could play around here? Maybe we'll have some opportunities to gain enlightenment."

People who practice cultivation all day long are going to go crazy.

Not all disciples are so disciplined and never go down the mountain to have fun. This specifically refers to those few sneaky ones from the Changming Sect. They often sneak down the mountain and aren't particularly surprised by the things in the city. The others, however, are seeing them for the first time.

For a while, I wanted to grab a few of everything that looked fun.

The atmosphere was unusually pleasant, and Mu Chongxi, caught in the middle, seized the opportunity to ask, "Does anyone want to go to the Cloud and Mist Secret Realm?"

"Why do you want to go?"

The Great Secret Realm is also fraught with danger. Unless they particularly need the treasures inside, they usually only organize teams to enter the Great Secret Realm depending on the circumstances, such as lacking certain refining materials or wanting a spiritual weapon that suits them.

"Give me a reason?"

"As Ye Qiao said, the few of us are preparing to enter the Cloud and Mist Secret Realm."

"What?!" A close associate stared blankly for a few seconds before asking, "Has she become mentally disabled?"

Why would you go into a secret realm for no reason? Entering a secret realm is very risky, especially the Cloud and Mist Secret Realm, where you can completely disappear without a trace once you enter.

amount.

Shen Ziwei cautiously asked, "As far as I know, Ye Qiao shouldn't be associated with intellectual disability?"

She must have had some special message to pass on to them, but that idiot Mu Chongxi didn't tell them the whole story Ye Qiao had received.

"You're talking nonsense." Mu Chongxi's first reaction wasn't to refute, but after thinking for a long time, he declared firmly, "Even if my junior sister is mentally challenged, she's the best mentally challenged person in the world!"

That shout almost made the other disciples go numb.

"..."

Upon hearing his remark about "the best idiot," one of the cultivators paused for a moment before saying, "The Changming Sect truly lives up to its reputation."

The people inside are all monsters and demons.

*

These past few days, Ye Qiao has been frequenting the demon clan's library whenever she has free time. As her understanding deepens, she has gained a general understanding of the demon beast groups of each demon clan.

This was the first time the demon race had seen such a studious demon queen. Moreover, she had never appeared in front of any demon beasts, just like an invisible person. With her harmless demeanor and lack of the cruelty of the previous demon queen, Ye Qiao had unwittingly won the favor of the demon beasts.

After all, who wouldn't like a demon emperor who doesn't cause trouble?

The demon race's class oppression meant they couldn't disobey orders, so some mindless demons simply hoped that the next ruler would be gentler.

Surrounded by demonic beasts, Ye Qiao didn't dare linger and always left in a hurry.

However, this did not prevent her from incurring the resentment of some powerful demons, some of whom had their eyes on the position of Demon Emperor. In the end, she was snatched away by an unknown little demon, and they were all furious. They formed a group to cause her trouble. This trouble did not mean that she was beaten up, but rather that she was threatened and tripped up in various ways.

What could Ye Qiao do? She could only forgive them. Her easygoing nature caused a group of onlookers, including demons, to sympathize with her.

So pitiful.

As the Demon Emperor, he truly had no face whatsoever.

Poor Ye Qiao: "..."

This is the first time in my life I've been pitied, and it's by a monster.

One accusation after another followed. Seeing that Ye Qiao remained silent and showed no intention of refuting, they became even more aggressive. Ye Qiao had to worry about being assassinated whenever she went out in the demon realm. Fortunately, her movement technique was fast enough, otherwise, she would have been reduced to a beggar after going out and coming back.

That's so incredibly frustrating.

Ye Qiao could only transform into a ninja turtle and endure without making a move.

To avoid trouble, she simply immersed herself in the library, frantically flipping through books, trying to find the correct way for cultivators to use demon cores.

"Could you find something like this in the demon realm? The demon realm wouldn't possibly write a book about the correct way to use demon cores for cultivators, would they?" That's too perverse.

Ye Qiao: "Junior Uncle asked me to look through it; I suspect there are clues in the library."

It wasn't just doubt; she was convinced it definitely existed.

Xie Chuxue and his group must have met some of the senior uncles and even the grandmaster of the Changming Sect. He knows far more than they do, and he has been to many places where Ye Qiao and his group have trained.

There's no reason to say that the demon race never came here.

Even if Xie Chuxue never came here, perhaps other patriarchs did.

Since they had been here, they must have left some traces. Ye Qiao could only focus on the books and try to find out if there were any books they had left about how to use demon cores for cultivators. Even if there weren't any, any other clues would be helpful.

Ye Qiao spent three days flipping through books, and all sorts of books came into view, dazzling the sword spirits. They were also dragged out by Ye Qiao to do hard labor, but the four sword spirits were all hopelessly illiterate.

They looked at each other, none of them able to read.

"Don't rush, don't rush, Qiaoqiao." Bujianjun's voice was a little soft. After thinking for a long time, he blurted out a sentence: "Don't you cultivators have a saying? It's called 'Heaven rewards diligence'."

"Oh yeah," Jun said. "These are words I heard from the Demon Lord. I don't understand them, but I think they must be very profound."

"That's one way of saying it. But besides the idea that hard work pays off, there's another one: that heaven only favors geniuses."

Ye Qiao's head was filled with all sorts of messy content. The books in the demon clan's library were truly abundant, with all kinds of types. "In the end, everything depends on opportunity and the preferences of the Heavenly Dao. What does this mean? It can only mean that the Heavenly Dao is a... idiot."

Before he could utter any outrageous words, KFC and the little prince suddenly hugged each other.

A bolt of lightning suddenly swept across the sky, startling the entire demon race into scattering in terror.

The two children trembled. "Don't say anything more, Ye Qiao. We're scared."

Ye Qiao immediately shut down. She had searched for three whole days but couldn't find a single trace left by the ancestors, so she had to shift her focus and start researching the demon race's system. "Does anyone know the principle behind how the demon race controls demon beasts to self-destruct?"

She couldn't quite understand it. Self-destruction was an extremely cruel act, leaving not even a soul behind. It could only be done voluntarily, not by force. So even if a group of demonic beasts weren't very intelligent, they shouldn't have been so foolish as to choose to self-destruct.

All the artifact spirits were released. Among all the artifacts, the Dark Book, the Bright Moon Arrow, and the Tower Spirit were the three that had existed the longest.

Of course, the spirit swords have existed for quite some time, but they have too many masters. As the masters changed, their memories were also sealed away, making them typically clueless when asked questions.

"I don't know." The Dark Book, this troll, was even more unaware. It was born to be a chaotic evil that did nothing but stir up trouble in the cultivation world out of boredom, and had no understanding of the situation of the demon race.

The remaining tower spirits and the Moon Arrows are left.

Mingyue Jian shook her head. "I know nothing about the demon race." She was invincible in breaking formations, but she didn't need to break formations to deal with the demon race, so Mingyue Jian rarely dealt with them.

Ye Qiao expressed her understanding.

The tower spirit drooped its wings. Seeing that Ye Qiao had focused her attention on it, it snorted, "Is it so hard to understand the self-destruction of the demon race? Their rule is to determine the demon emperor based on strength."

"The demon race has a class consciousness. Unless you become powerful enough to gain the recognition of all demons, there are absolutely no shortcuts."

"It's a Greater Rift. If you need to do anything, you'd better do it before they return."

"In their rules, only the strong are worthy of becoming the Demon Emperor. You're just getting lucky. Your strength isn't recognized by the demons, so the beasts naturally won't listen to your orders. But there's one advantage: you're at least the nominal Demon Emperor, having gained the recognition of the demon kings, even if it's fake. But the beasts are stupid; they don't know you're a fake."

"If you demonstrate the strength befitting a Demon Emperor, then the demon horde will obey your commands."

"It's that simple."

Want to control these demonic beasts? You'll have to undergo tribulation first.

"So, aside from the Demon King ignoring me, the demon beast horde will still obey my commands?" Ye Qiao became interested. "Because I'm outwardly recognized by the great demons? Then if my identity is exposed, will they still follow my orders?"

"How could demonic beasts understand these things?" the tower spirit explained. "As long as you have the aura of a demon on you, demonic beasts won't treat you as an enemy."

She carries the Demon Emperor's inner core. If she swallows the inner core, her aura will be very deceptive, making it easy to fool a group of well-developed demon beasts.

The premise is that she truly possesses the strength to transcend tribulation.

As far as we know, there are only three cultivators in the cultivation world who have transcended tribulation.

With the death of a demon emperor, the forces of good and evil are now in balance.

Ye Qiao considered swallowing the demon core, gambling that the Heavenly Dao would side with her. However, after calming down, she realized that the Heavenly Dao was only good at recruiting people and occasionally giving them some benefits at each realm, and had no other use. So she could only continue to immerse herself in the book pavilion and flip through the books.

I'll have to rely on myself.

The tower spirit landed on her shoulder. "You don't know whether the Demon Lord or the sect leader of the Sword Inquiry Sect is stronger, do you? Right now, the two cultivators from the righteous and evil paths are locked in a fierce battle during their tribulations. If you lose, the only cultivator from the righteous path will also be eliminated. For the next hundred years, the cultivation world will probably be ruled by the Demon Lord."

"Whether he wants to ascend to immortality or stay in the cultivation world and do whatever he wants, no one can stop him."

Merging and transcending tribulation are truly two different concepts.

Those elders in the Integration Stage really couldn't deal with the Demon Lord.

Ye Qiao was even less confident. One reason she could deal with the Demon Emperor was that he couldn't break through her domain and didn't know where its weaknesses were. Throughout the Demon Lord's reign, there had been demon cultivators with domains, so breaking through her domain would be easy for him.

Secondly, the Demon Emperor controlled countless demon beasts to self-destruct in one go, which also imposed many limitations on himself.

That demon emperor was simply courting death, insisting on controlling so many demon beasts to self-destruct, and was tricked into becoming a fool by the demon lord and pushed out to his death.

Ye Qiao imagined that if the cultivation world were truly ruled by the Demon Lord, the Five Sects would be the first to be affected.

The Flying Immortal Sword and the Startling Swan Sword landed beside her, one on the left and one on the right. The two of them lay down and flipped through the book, trying to find any useful clues for Ye Qiao.

The Changming Sect's logo is still quite recognizable.

Despite the efforts of a group of sword spirits in searching, they still found no clues. The Soaring Swan Sword offered a suggestion: "Qiaoqiao, why don't you extract a little demonic energy from the demon core and see if your spiritual root can be transformed?"

In the cultivation world, there are many people with special physiques, such as the innate glass body and the innate sword bone; each physique is unique. Furthermore, the Heavenly Spiritual Root absorbs spiritual energy twice as fast as a high-grade spiritual root, and its spiritual root grows slowly as its cultivation level increases.

So if she really wants to devour this demon core, then the only way is to improve her cultivation level, allow her spiritual root to grow rapidly, and try to use her spiritual root to convert the demonic energy within the demon core.

Her spiritual root has remained stagnant for a long time since her last transformation into a deity.

There is absolutely no sign that it will continue to grow.

"How about we set a small goal first?" Since we're already here, Ye Qiao is prepared to search through the entire library. She has a fast memory and can read everything in the library in five days at most. In five days, those great demons who went to the Cloud and Mist Secret Realm still won't be able to return.

There is still plenty of time.

"A small goal?" KFC stared at her with his big, bright eyes, looking bewildered. "What small goal?"

"For example, overcoming tribulation within a year?"

"Wow—" The little girl was stunned for a moment, then her voice rose and fell in cadence: "That's quite an amazing little goal!"

It has to be said that KFC's emotional reading made her feel like the other person was mocking her.

"You always need to have a goal." Ye Qiao asked curiously, "Are there any young people in our cultivation world who have transcended tribulation?"

"Yes, a thousand years ago, the cultivation world was teeming with geniuses, and powerful cultivators were everywhere." This time, Lueying answered her casually, "The founding patriarchs of your various sects all underwent tribulations at a young age, right?"

The young man undergoing tribulation deserves the title of being unparalleled in this world.

To establish a school of thought, one must be a genius among geniuses.

Ye Qiao's talent was already quite high, but these few, as spirit swords who had lived for thousands of years, had all had geniuses as their sword masters. It was no exaggeration to say that they had seen far too many people with such extraordinary talent. In fact, there were even more geniuses among geniuses; she was not the only one.

She stayed in the library for two more days with several sword spirits, during which time she was completely cut off from the outside world.

Behind Ye Qiao, beneath the books in a library, she found a mark. The one who found that book was the bored and uninformed Jun. He couldn't read books and was a hopeless illiterate, but he recognized the symbol of the Changming Sect and excitedly pulled Ye Qiao over to see his discovery.

Ye Qiao moved the book aside, stroked it, and sure enough, she saw the familiar golden patterns on it. Her eyes lit up. "Could it be that some patriarch once visited this place?"

"So what's the use of this mark?"

Ye Qiao really didn't know. She even tried to smear it with blood, but the mark didn't react. The Dark Book got so excited that it almost pounced on her. Ye Qiao disgustedly threw the book away.

Continue searching through the books surrounding the mark.

This search did yield some useful information; it contained accounts of what some senior had seen and heard in the demon realm.

As for why it's placed in the bookcase?

It's probably because no demonic beasts would enter the library. Only a bored cultivator would patiently search for so long.

Ye Qiao planned to take the book with her first. She had a strange feeling that she was being watched while reading this book left by some senior in the library.

Her senses were always very sharp, and she rarely made mistakes. The moment she picked up the book, Ye Qiao felt its weight. She was quite strong, but the weight of the book almost broke her wrist.

Ye Qiao quickly released her grip, and the book fell to the ground with a thud.

"What's wrong?"

The Flying Immortal Sword was startled by the sudden commotion. She bent down to approach the book, and just as she touched it, the pages automatically turned, startling the sword spirit.

Ye Qiao looked at the book and tentatively asked, "Senior?"

"The founding master?"

"Ancestor?"

She was an atheist, but since he was cultivating immortality, Ye Qiao had no choice but to believe him. She reached out and touched the book, and found that it was indeed very heavy.

Ye Qiao couldn't lift it at all.

If there really is a wisp of the patriarch's soul inside, what is he doing if he stays inside instead of coming out?

Seeing the stunned expression on the disciple's face, the soul of an ancestor in the book found it quite interesting. Every ancestor who ascended to immortality would have a wisp of remnant soul left over from the things they came into contact with the most, which could be considered a faint consciousness.

It was a bit of a perverse pleasure for him to have something buried in the library for hundreds of years suddenly unearthed by a disciple, especially one from his own sect.

After all, most of the disciples of a sect are well-behaved boys, and it's quite amusing to see their bewildered and helpless expressions.

Ye Qiao couldn't figure out what the patriarch was thinking either. She was genuinely bored; she had finally found a book, but couldn't even take it with her. She had been in this book pavilion for five days and was almost going crazy.

For a sword cultivator, it was more painful than killing her.

The master continued to observe her and found that this disciple was quite well-behaved.

He didn't get angry or frustrated; he had a pretty good attitude.

Seniors always look at juniors with appreciation, especially when the junior is a direct descendant of their own clan.

But soon, he stopped appreciating it.

"Why."

Ye Qiao sighed and walked inside, drawing out her words, "I really want to get beaten up."

—I really want to get beaten up~

She was going crazy from being cooped up in the library. Not only was the Grandmaster not showing up, but he also wouldn't let her take the books with her.

Ye Qiao's thought was so genuine that the patriarch in the book almost thought he had misheard.

Shortly after Ye Qiao finished her boastful remarks, a curved blade suddenly solidified in mid-air, grazing past her head. Ye Qiao quickly pressed down and kicked the illusory sword energy away.

What she just said was pure nonsense.

As it turned out, the patriarch really intended to grant her wish.

Ye Qiao stepped on the wall to dodge the blades shooting from all directions. If she couldn't dodge them, she picked up the Flying Immortal Sword to parry. The gentle spirit sword greatly reduced the illusory sword shadows. With the Flying Immortal Sword, no real harm was caused.

That patriarch just wanted to test her a little.

As a result, it was discovered that this disciple was from both the Dragon Clan and the Changming Sect, and familiar figures from all sorts of places could be seen in her.

"Whose descendant are you?"