I, who was turned into a woman by the Jade Maiden Master, want to rebel against the Heavenly Gang.

The surface of the massive tree roots is covered with a dense network of bright red blood vessels. The wispy, thread-like things are indistinguishable as either mycelium or hair.

The bright red fuzz resembles either sea anemone tentacles or a strange mushroom. Spreading in patches, it's hard to tell whether it's a fungal carpet or a fleshy wall.

The enormous flower bud throbbed incessantly, its petals exhibiting a fleshy texture that was unsettling.

Blood-red clouds filled the sky, and swarms of ticks and bees buzzed and whimpered everywhere. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Qin Rufeng still had Li Qingshi light the Purple Gold Incense Burner.

The group continued their descent and finally landed on the ground.

This place is a village... or at least it used to be.

However, the wooden walls of the village houses are now covered with proliferating blood vessels. The thatched roofs are blooming with succulent flowers, their centers spewing out silken threads streaked with barbs...

Where the blood vessels converge, there are heart-like sarcomas that throb continuously.

Qin Rufeng recognized this thing; he'd seen it in Liu Family Village. This heart-like object burst open to reveal a swarm of insects inside. Just thinking about it gave him goosebumps.

Qin Rufeng carefully walked around it. At that moment, she sensed that something in her storage space had changed.

He quickly took it out and looked at it... It was a jade pendant that was shimmering with light.

What is this? Qin Rufeng had no recollection of it.

While searching for elixirs in the Crimson Moon Prison, she killed many Crimson Moon Blood Slaves and plundered a considerable amount of their belongings. However, since most of these people were rogue cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage, they naturally didn't carry any treasures.

I vaguely remember this jade pendant, but I really can't recall it.

Moreover, apart from containing spiritual energy, this jade pendant does not seem to be imbued with any magic.

Wait, a jade pendant without any magic...

Qin Rufeng seemed to remember. He had previously discovered the remains of a senior cultivator, Li Zhongma, and her Daoist partner in a secret passage cave in a cell of the Crimson Moon Prison.

This jade pendant appears to be the one Senior Li was wearing, but I don't know why it's glowing now.

Chapter 179 The Root of Corruption

With his fox ears, Qin Rufeng listened carefully to the sounds around him...

Everywhere there were rustling and buzzing insects. There were also the sounds of heartbeats and the "plop" of sticky substances.

Qin Rufeng also heard people approaching from ahead. Among them were those with heavy steps, like the thud of horses' hooves.

It's Horse-Faced Demon! The Crimson Moon Cult!

As they spoke, a dark mist began to spread and approach. Qin Rufeng gently touched Feng Hua's wings. Feng Hua immediately took to the air and began to circle. As long as Rufeng gave the order, she could attack in her strongest form.

However, a light flashed in the darkness ahead, its frequency matching that of the jade pendant in Qin Rufeng's hand.

Just then, a deep, gentle female voice said, "Is the person who came here Sect Leader Liu?"

Qin Rufeng was somewhat surprised. Apart from her own people and a few others like Ye Qingyun, most of the sect members she invited to Qingyuefang never addressed her as Sect Leader Liu.

Qin Rufeng replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Indeed! You are the Crimson Moon Saintess, aren't you?"

A moment later, two women, their bodies bound with leather belts, appeared in the darkness.

Their heads were almost wrapped up like balls, their senses completely obscured. Only the bits of food were in their mouths, and dog tags hung around their necks.

Its arms and legs were bent, its limbs folded and tightly bound by a leather strap. Its hands and feet were half the length of its body, forcing it to crawl on its knees and elbows. Behind it was a fluffy dog ​​tail.

The Crimson Moon Dog Slave pulled the sedan chair out...

From the darkness, first emerged a pair of magnificent breasts covered by nine layers of golden lotus armor. The golden snowballs trembled and dazzled the eyes. Then came a large belly inlaid with rubies and imprinted with swirling runes. Only then did her snow-white shoulders and neck and her full black lips appear.

A blindfolded woman wearing a cow-horn headdress emerged from the black mist, seated in a sedan chair...

Two horse-faced men stood on the left and right, while the Yin-Yang Envoy stood to the side.

The woman slowly said, "The Crimson Moon Saintess is subordinate to me. I am a priest of the Crimson Blood Branch Altar of the Divine Sect."

"Sect Leader Liu, please don't misunderstand. I'm not here to fight you."

"There is something I don't understand, and I would like to ask Sect Leader Liu for guidance."

Although Qin Rufeng possessed elegance and talent, the Crimson Moon Priestess's strength had already reached the Flowing Cloud Realm. She was no ordinary person.

In reality, for these Crimson Moon female cultivators who cultivate the Nascent Soul stage, the standard of the Golden Core realm or above is no longer an accurate measure of their cultivation level. After all, no one knows the extent to which their Nascent Souls have been refined into Gu.

Qin Rufeng had important business to attend to today and didn't want to get bogged down in the details. So he said, "What is it? Tell me."

The priestess asked, "Where did Sect Leader Liu get that jade pendant?"

Although he couldn't see the priestess's eyes, he could still hear that her tone was very serious.

Qin Rufeng remembered that Senior Li Zhongma seemed to have a Daoist partner who escaped from that cave.

Her name seems to be Li Jinglan. She lost all sense of morality in her pursuit of cultivating the Xuan Ying realm, killing her own sisters and Senior Li.

Could it be that she eventually escaped from the Crimson Moon Prison, joined the Crimson Moon Cult, and became the Crimson Blood Altar priestess standing before us now?

Qin Rufeng wanted to confirm this, so he deliberately said, "Why should I tell you?"

I expected the priestess to be angry, but to my surprise, there was a hint of sadness in her tone. "To be honest, your jade pendant is a pair with the one I have. May I ask where you obtained them?"

Qin Rufeng said, "It's a senior surnamed Li. What does that have to do with you?"

The priestess sighed and said, "To be honest, that man was my husband before I converted to Christianity. My original name was Li Jinglan."

"Master Liu has come out of the Crimson Moon Prison, so he must have gone there."

"Husband?" Qin Rufeng sneered. "It's unbelievable that you can still call him that. Didn't you kill Senior Li and her twelve Daoist partners?"

"It's not entirely my fault." Xu Jinglan chuckled self-deprecatingly. "There's no need to bring up the past. Let's talk about Sect Leader Liu instead."

Qin Rufeng said coldly, "If you want to fight, then fight. I have no interest in or time for verbal arguments."

Xu Jinglan shook her head: "I am indeed not here to fight with Sect Leader Liu."

"Previously, there were many misunderstandings between Sect Leader Liu and the Divine Sect, all because some people acted recklessly for their own selfish interests."

"If I were in charge of the Crimson Moon Heavenly Prison, I would never have made things so difficult for Sect Leader Liu."

As they were talking, the Yin-Yang Envoy came over and presented a letter.

Qin Rufeng nodded slightly, and Xia Jinghong immediately stepped forward to take it. Upon opening it, she saw that it was a contract of servitude from Yuan Mengli, in which Qin Rufeng had been sold to the Crimson Moon Sect.

Qin Rufeng glanced at Xu Jinglan and asked, "What exactly do you want?"

Xu Jinglan: "I have offended Sect Leader Liu with many misunderstandings in the past. But none of those were my doing."

"I do not recognize this contract of servitude. That Yuan Mengli... has already been transformed into a furnace capable of simultaneously nurturing six Xuan Nascent Souls."

"Sect Leader Liu chose Golden Jade Valley to establish his sect," Xu Jinglan said. "Others may not know this, but I know that the root of Golden Jade Valley's problems lies in the lower realm."

"I anticipated that Sect Leader Liu would come. Therefore, I am here to invite Sect Leader Liu to join the Crimson Moon Divine Sect."

"What are you thinking?" Qin Rufeng frowned, his anger immediately showing.

Xu Jinglan smiled and said, "Sect Leader, please don't misunderstand. Crimson Moon is a religion, not a sect. Believing in a religion does not mean you have to join Crimson Moon."

“Look at the various temples in the lower realm, they have a wide number of believers, but there are very few people who are ordained and practice within those temples.”

"The sect leader is still the sect leader of the Xuan Nu Sect, but it's alright if you believe in the Crimson Moon Cultivation and cultivate the Profound Infant. Even if you don't cultivate the Profound Infant, there are other cultivation methods that can help the sect leader and the sect grow stronger."

"The reason you were captured and used as a furnace vessel was entirely due to the priestess of the Blood Abyss Altar for her own selfish reasons."

"She was unwilling to accept that you escaped from the Crimson Moon Prison and were taken advantage of by Yuan Mengli. She also knew that you had an exceptional physique and talent and were a peerless beauty. She was worried that if you joined the sect, your status would rise rapidly and pose a threat to her. That's why the sect leader had so many misunderstandings about the Divine Sect."

“However, I am different from her.” Xu Jinglan paused for a moment before saying, “I… also fought my way out of the Crimson Moon Prison. I have climbed to my current position step by step.”

"Shut up!" Qin Rufeng felt a surge of anger at the thought of the Crimson Moon Prison. "You don't need to say anything more. If you want to fight, I'm happy to oblige."

The Yin-Yang Envoy and Horse-Face were already eager to try their luck. However, Xu Jinglan smiled and said, "Since that's the case, I'll give Sect Leader Liu another piece of advice."

"The root of the corruption of this place's spiritual veins is that a saintess from the Blood Abyss Altar wanted to use the Golden Jade Spiritual Root (the one without spiritual roots) to aid her cultivation."

"She used the Golden Jade Root to propagate many items blessed by Blood Cloud. She also spread rumors that the [Blood Vermilion Fruit] could help cultivation to attract ignorant people in the lower realms, so that she could capture them as hosts or as furnaces to breed Xuan Nascent Souls."

"By borrowing the roots of the Tongtian, one can cultivate quickly even in the spiritually sparse Zhongping Realm."

"Unfortunately, those who play with fire will surely perish," Xu Jinglan said with a sneer. "How can she so easily abuse divine grace?"

"Her insatiable greed for too much divine favor ultimately drove her and her followers to madness. Now, no one knows what they've become."

Xu Jinglan said, "I have said all I need to say. I hope this has been helpful to Sect Leader Liu. Sect Leader Liu has a deep misunderstanding of the Divine Sect, so I will not bother you any longer. Farewell."

After Xu Jinglan finished speaking, she turned and left, disappearing into the darkness.

Chapter 180 This "Senior Sister," Your Hairstyle is Dangerous

After listening carefully and confirming that Xu Jinglan had left, Qin Rufeng asked Feng Hua, "If we had made a move just now, what were our chances of winning?"

"I don't know," Feng Hua said. "Judging from her apparent cultivation level, plus the two horse-faced demons and the hermaphrodite, we have a 70% chance of winning."

“But I can’t see through the mysterious infant in the priestess’s belly. She definitely hasn’t revealed her true strength.”

"The concept of the Profound Infant can no longer be measured using the realms we are familiar with."

Qin Rufeng thought to himself, the most annoying opponent is one whose head is full of "question marks"... But now is not the time to think about Xu Jinglan, let's take care of business first.

Qin Rufeng then entered the deserted village. It bore some resemblance to Liu Family Village, but it was even more severely eroded.

The sky was thick with dark, blood-red clouds, making it impossible to distinguish between day and night. The pervasive, blood-red cloud formations further enhanced the feeling of being in a living hell.

At this moment, Qin Rufeng heard someone approaching again, walking slowly and unsteadily. They seemed like a walking corpse, a puppet.

More people came from behind. About five or six, their steps light and quick. They were clearly alive.

Moreover, Qin Rufeng could hear the conversations of the people behind him...

"Senior sister, you said you came to find the Blood Vermilion Fruit, is this the kind of place you're looking for?"

"What are all these things? It seems like some kind of mutation has occurred everywhere."

"The more precious the treasure, the more dangerous the place. It is in such places that the Crimson Fruit grows."

"I heard from Lu's father (nine) Wu Ba Ling Si Wu that a fairy bestowed the Vermilion Fruit, but it doesn't seem like something you can just pick on your own, right?"

"Hey, you little fish, did you lose your mind again last night? Did you blow your brain out? What disgusting thing has corrupted this whole village? Where did this fairy come from?"

"Speaking of which, are we not going to get infected too?"

"Of course not, Senior Sister, I've been here several times and I've always been safe and sound."

"Can this Blood Vermilion Fruit really improve cultivation?"

"Of course, would I lie to you when I've experienced it myself?"

"Even if you don't eat it yourselves, you can sell it."

“At the previous Tianji Pavilion auction, a single Blood Vermilion Fruit could sell for a full thirty mid-grade spirit stones.”

Thirty mid-grade spirit stones? Qin Rufeng thought to himself, what kind of trash is this worthless? Is the Crimson Moon Saintess using this to test cultivators?

However, they did mention "Blood Vermilion Fruit," so it seems that what Xu Jinglan said was true.

According to one of the women in the group, who was presumably a "senior sister," she had increased her cultivation by consuming the Blood Vermilion Fruit. This time, she brought her companions with her.

Well... maybe she's familiar with the situation here.

Since the Blood Vermilion Fruit is the "bait" used by the Crimson Moon Saintess to fish, can we turn the tables and find the root of the problem by following the bait and the fishing line?

Thinking about this, Qin Rufeng felt it necessary to make contact with these people. So she immediately put away her fox-like appearance.

Having cultivated to the Golden Core stage, Ru Feng could now control her fox demon form at will. However, she still preferred to keep her ears perked up and maintain a tail.

The reason is simple: the fox's ears provide superior hearing, more useful than many spells. Its tail helps maintain balance, which is also highly beneficial for her, given her proficiency in both cat and snake forms.

They're used to using their tails to maintain balance, and suddenly not having them makes them feel insecure.

However, here they can only hide the ears and tail. After all, they're dealing with some low-level cultivators from the lower realms who have little experience; who knows how they'll react to seeing a fox demon. So it's better to remain normal.

A moment later, a figure walked out onto the dimly lit street ahead; it seemed the monster had shown itself first.

That looks like a person... let's just say it has a human form.

He was ragged and walked with a limp. His body was bloated and twisted, covered with many things that looked like hair or fungal hyphae. He resembled a mutated and moldy infected host.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the infected person had extensive ulceration all over their body. The wounds were covered with blood-red, wriggling filaments that resembled both hair and fungal hyphae.

Just then, a woman's voice suddenly came from behind, "Fellow Daoist, be careful! This host is very dangerous; you are no match for him."

Qin Rufeng turned his head and saw that the speaker was a woman dressed in yellow. She was quite beautiful and had a graceful figure.

Her bright eyes sparkled, and her lips were as red as jade. However, her long, black hair was tied into a side ponytail and draped over her shoulder, a hairstyle that looked extremely dangerous.

Her yellow dress was open with the collar crossed, and a silver chain adorned her collarbone like a clear stream under the moon, buried in the deep, undulating white snow.