The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 676 - 382 Too Kind-hearted_2
"All three of you are quite exceptional, and you will surely shine at the Martial Arts Competition in a month." She chuckled with Ning Xiaoxian for a moment, but as she had many things in hand, she quickly transformed back into a Green Bird and flew away.
Following that, Xi Yan took her to Qingming Hall to go through the initiation process. The Hall Master of Qingming Hall disapproved of his impromptu initiation test. However, after Xi Yan grabbed him and gave him several hard pats on the back as if showing affection, the slender-looking Bird Demon nearly had his breath knocked out of him. He dared not express any further objections and had to order his people to expedite the procedures.
Then came the arrangement of lodgings. Ning Xiaoxian had hoped that her residence could be closer to Tu Jin and Qi Zai, but this wish was not fulfilled. It seemed that Hidden Stream did not wish for its members to form cliques. Therefore, she was arranged to live between two great monster territories; on one side was the tall and burly Lion Demon, and her other neighbor, amusingly, was the Black Wolf who was defeated by her in the test. She suspected this arrangement was intentional.
"Of course, it’s intentional. Hidden Stream wants the rivalry and sparring among its members to be ongoing," Changtian said.
"Why?"
"In ancient times, Hidden Stream honed its fangs on the flesh and blood of the Barbarians. Now that they’re confined within the Ba Snake Mountain Range all the time and don’t make contact with the outside world, if there is no internal competition, I’m afraid they’ll just grow increasingly fat and dull! They owe a debt of gratitude for growing up with the help of Ba Snake, and they would not dare harm my True Body. Since that is the case, what’s the harm in letting them fight each other?" Changtian spoke as if lecturing, "Hidden Stream has not experienced warfare for so long; they even avoided the Middle Ages War thousands of years ago by hiding away. How strong could the combat strength of this force be? If even the individual prowess of the demons weakens, what use will I have for Hidden Stream?"
"As someone who also practices cultivating Gu, you should know that the most common Cultivating Gu Technique involves placing poisonous insects in a jar, letting them tear at each other until a King Insect is born. The demons I let roam in the Ba Snake Mountain Range are the same. I do not demand that they slaughter each other until only one remains, but I do wish that those who can firmly stand their ground here are truly powerful demons. Therefore, all the resources that Hidden Stream provides to the demons are allocated according to their own abilities. If they want better elixirs, Magic Artifacts, territories, status, or even mates, they have to fight for it themselves."
A chill ran through her heart. Changtian’s heart was cold; using the power of Yimu, he lured the demons here, trapped them, and then left them to struggle against each other. The vast Ba Snake Mountain Range was actually a jar, a jar for sorting out the survival of the fittest.
Changtian’s plans were far-reaching; he wanted Hidden Stream, which had become a Demon Sect’s army, to continue surviving robustly, maintaining a tenacious combat strength, waiting for his return and summoning.
Also, as a modern person, she had heard a widely circulated maxim countless times: Absolute power leads to absolute corruption. Without Changtian’s Hidden Stream, led only by a single leader, it might not be long before they consolidate into a single block, and a life of aimless weary defense is most likely to lead to degeneracy. Considering this, he simply established a multi-leader system, letting everyone fight each other gleefully. Although such an approach led to Internal Consumption, it maintained a competitive stance within Hidden Stream and gave these extremely bored demons a way to vent their frustration and loneliness.
Every approach has its drawbacks, and the biggest problem with this method is that Hidden Stream’s demon crowd has significant internal conflicts and the leaders engage in endless cutthroat competition. However, Changtian only needs to achieve his goal, and all other issues can be sorted out when he returns.
The days that followed were uneventful. As newcomers, the three of them were not yet assigned guard duty and therefore had plenty of free time. On the tenth day after she moved in, she got a new neighbor for the reason that she killed the Lion.
Among the original two neighbors, Black Wolf was usually absent during the day, her whereabouts unknown; the Lion Demon at the Peak of Refining God, on the other hand, didn’t know what got into him, but upon seeing a delicate girl move in, he harassed her every few days. Ning Xiaoxian was a newcomer and didn’t want to deal with it, so she just set up a Barrier and ignored his presence.
One evening, she suddenly woke from meditation, a sense of alarm in her heart—the Barrier had been forcibly broken.
Someone was attacking at night.
"I bet a Returning Void Pill it’s that lustful Lion!" Qiongqi shouted.
Changtian cast it a glance, then told Ning Xiaoxian: "Do not hold back, kill it! Kindness invites exploitation, and this Lion has crossed her limits."
The outcome was the toughest battle she ever fought. The Lion might have had lustful intentions, but he was far from incompetent. This Lion Demon, skilled in both wind and fire, cast several Fire Dragon tornadoes with the complementary powers of wind and fire, their might no less powerful than the talisman master under Luo’s command; she narrowly missed being hit, and the ends of her hair were burned off.
Furthermore, despite his rough exterior, the Lion was very cautious. After realizing Ning Xiaoxian’s agility was astonishing, he summoned a full-body Molten Lava Armor which even covered the weak spot at the back of his head, making his defenses as good as a turtle’s. And the Molten Lava Armor, oozing like scorching tar, continuously dripped and made several holes in the floor of her treehouse. Ning Xiaoxian realized frustratingly that if she didn’t deal with this guy quickly, her house would be burned down.
The intensity of the Molten Lava Armor could not withstand the sharpness of the Tusk, but the Tusk was too short and the lava too thick. Even if hit at vital parts, it was only a superficial wound. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendation tickets and Monthly Tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
