"Hmm?" Old Man Ju suddenly sensed something and sharply looked up at the sky.
Two streaks of light arrived in the blink of an eye, landing beside Liang Yi.
One stream was a slowly revolving Sword Qi, the other a massive Bodhi chant.
Liang Yi and Su Youyi were both taken aback for a moment. The Sword Qi was most likely a reply from the Sword Cleanse Heavenly Pool, but what was with this Bodhi?
One in each hand, Liang Yi crushed the Sword Qi first.
Ding! "Alliance with the Super Force[Sword Cleanse Heavenly Pool]successful!"
Sure enough, this was a message sent by the senior Zhou Yuzhi earlier. Once they identified the information within, the successful alliance notification automatically appeared on their info panel.
At this moment, the forum was truly filled with ecstasy from players of multiple factions. Now, what players did every day was eat, sleep, and beat up the Devouring Spirit Sect.
The Devouring Spirit Sect had their people planted everywhere across the continent, a stage set over thousands of years, all waiting for the right moment to rise up in rebellion.
Although now forced to work in the shadows due to the appearance of players, the vastness of the continent meant that even the Devouring Spirit Sect couldn’t complete their relocation quickly. At this time, all players who joined the Purple Cloud Sect, as well as all factions allied with the Purple Cloud Sect, had nothing but hatred toward the Devouring Spirit Sect.
You wouldn’t know until you looked, but once you did, it was quite startling.
The Devouring Spirit Sect not only contributed field BOSSes, but also provided plenty of missions involving undercover investigations in the cities.
Nearly every faction and every capital city would employ a large number of Abnormal People to help search the whole area to see if there were any remnants of the Devouring Spirit Sect.
Who wouldn’t love such low-difficulty, high-reward missions?
And these missions greatly reduced the time players couldn’t disengage with high-level NPCs, significantly increasing the chances of some rare hidden missions appearing.
Previously, it would take players a long time to gain the trust of the native inhabitants of the Mystical Mechanism Continent, but the emergence of the Devouring Spirit Sect significantly shortened this time.
However, these missions had a goodwill requirement for acceptance; if your goodwill with the Devouring Spirit Sect wasn’t at least at the level of disgust or hatred, you couldn’t take on the mission.
This created an interesting paradox on the forum!
Player A: "I’m looking for red-named Devouring Spirit mobs!"
Player B: "Then go take on a mission!"
Player A: "But my hatred level isn’t high enough for the Devouring Spirit Sect!"
Player B: "Then go kill a few red-named Devouring Spirit mobs!"
Player A: "But I can’t find any red-named Devouring Spirit mobs!"
Player B: "Then go take on a mission!"
A nested doll within a doll!
And if you want to avoid entering this weird cycle, joining a faction hostile to the Devouring Spirit Sect is the most direct and best way to do that. Then even if you can’t handle the fight, you could just call for reinforcements directly at the sect.
Thus, the extremely player-friendly Purple Cloud Sect became the top choice for players, as the recent events were simply too enticing.
Those red-named Devouring Spirit mobs, ranging from small fries at levels one or two to BOSSes at levels three or four. After killing them, they would explode with Magical Treasures, Cultivation Techniques, and Daoist Skills as if they were just giving them away.
Although the pathways and quantities of producing Cultivation Techniques and Daoist Skills have significantly increased nowadays, they are still insufficient when compared to the rapid growth of players’ numbers.
Whenever a Cultivation Technique appears in Wind God Commerce’s auction house, it is instantly snatched up, mainly because players recently discovered that only the original inhabitants can only learn one Cultivation Technique, but players are not subject to this limitation.
As long as you have experience, you can learn any Cultivation Technique or Daoist Skill, except for naturally opposing ones. Although the attribute boost from a second Cultivation Technique onward greatly decreases, it’s still a pathway to becoming stronger.
Ordinary players don’t have the money and experience reserves, but wealthy and Whale players do.
So those competing with ordinary players for Cultivation Techniques include not only the ever-increasing number of new players but also the covetous wealthy and Whale players.
That’s why Cultivation Techniques are now considered the most valuable things among player groups. Getting one is a huge profit, which is why players are keen to keep killing the minor monsters of the Devouring Spirit Sect.
Liang Yi isn’t quite sure himself how attractive their Purple Cloud Sect is to the new players, but now he has crushed the Bodhi in his right hand.
After learning the information contained within, Liang Yi’s expression turned somewhat strange.
"What’s wrong, senior brother?" Su Youyi noticed the sudden change in her senior brother’s expression and asked with some confusion.
"It’s a message from Master. Master has asked the Zen abbot, Master Bodhi, to send us this message."
"Why didn’t Master say it himself, meow?" Mr. Orange came over, taking his time with deliberate cat steps.
"Master is presently alone, blocking the crack of the Abyss with a single sword, preventing the remnants trapped in the Abyss from stirring, buying us time."
Liang Yi spoke seriously, briefly describing the situation at the seal of the Zen sect in Desert North, as conveyed in the message.
Devouring Spirit Sect was already playing a game of feinting in one direction and attacking another. Their plan was perfect; they had already diverted the attention of the Zen sect elsewhere. Just a bit more time and they would be able to completely unseal the Abyss.
And what is required to lift the seal is the Soul of Ten Thousand Spirits; the Devouring Spirit Sect has been hidden for many years, slowly gathering Divine Souls bit by bit. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on ɴovelfire.net
Whether commoners or Cultivators, the Devouring Spirit Sect isn’t choosy; they need quantity, and as long as it’s large enough, that’s what matters.
Of course, the higher the quality on top of the quantity, the better.
This plan would have taken a considerable amount of time, but with the emergence of Tian Anyu, who improved the inheritance Cultivation Technique previously known as Demon Spirit, the stealthiness of the Devouring Spirit Sect greatly increased.
The previous Demon Spirit Sect had been too arrogant, which led to a coalition of most Super Forces dealing a devastating blow to them, significantly slowing their collection of Divine Souls.
Over the years Tian Anyu became the Sect Hierarch, he changed the previous aggressive strategy, instead slowing down, gradually accumulating power, and spreading the influence of the Devouring Spirit Sect all over Mystical Mechanism Continent.
Such a strategy almost made the Devouring Spirit Sect disappear from notice, but in reality, it significantly sped up the collection of Divine Souls and went undetected by anyone.
Now they have quietly infiltrated the Zen sect in Desert North, carrying the already collected Divine Souls.
With the East striking West plan causing considerable sacrifice, they managed to divert a major part of Zen sect’s attention elsewhere.
Then the Devouring Spirit Sect, using the Law that erases their presence, slipped undetected into the core area of the seal.
But what Tian Anyu and Gao Wojiu didn’t expect was a sword to halt them.
Liang Yi happened to be asked by Bodhi to entrust Chen Hua to temporarily guard the seal just in case, but did not expect to encounter two big fish.
At this point, Mr. Orange, raising a paw, looked somewhat confused.
"Surely two Cultivators from the Eighth Realm cannot be a match for the Banished Immortal?" Mr. Orange, once a part of the Heavenly Dao, was all too aware of how terrifying the man known as Banished Immortal was.
"How could those two possibly repel Master, it’s the Abyss that took action..." Liang Yi let out a long, profound sigh, and revealed the truth.