Cultivating by picking up attributes, I accumulate my strength!

84  Chapter 73: Unknown Sorrows, Meeting an Old Acquaintance in a Foreign Place, Seeing Prefect Liang Again

Han Ye and Wang Da Niu and the others, looking at the quiet and voiceless courtyard littered with corpses, shook all the coagulated blood off their Profound Thunder Blade and Spirit Sword Flame.

Swinging the burning Ferocious Fire Gang Qi in his hand, a fierce fire started, burning all the bodies in the place to ashes.

He roughly counted the number of people.

a total of a hundred and thirteen.

Among the demon cultivators present, most of them were disciples who had just stepped on the demon path, with only one-third having high cultivation levels.

"Why do I feel like I am the demon cultivator?"

Han Ye muttered quietly and silently gathered all the storage rings together.

With his cultivation, breaking these taboos was relatively simple.

From the ring, he took out one transparent blood-red bead after another.

Upon inspecting the object, Han Ye immediately recognized it: "This is... a Soul Gathering Bead?"

The Soul Gathering Bead is a demonic artifact specially used to house living souls.

You should know that the demon path also has categories, some demon cultivators rely on refining souls to increase their cultivation, while others rely on blood sacrifice.

The practice of the demon path, in general, cannot be separated from people. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In the eyes of these demons, people are just expendable commodities.

He took out a white jade vial and sucked the leftover demon Qi and souls from the demon cultivators into the vial, which represented their assessment points.

Reflecting on this situation, Han Ye felt a bit sentimental, that actually, orthodox cultivators are not much different from demon cultivators in their actions.

It's just a difference in position. Killing demon cultivators, on the one hand, symbolizes merit, on the other hand, it's the source of reputation.

Talking about upholding justice, it's actually not the case, he felt that interests and gains are the root of everything.

Without assessment points and rewards, there wouldn't be so many disciples coming down from the sect to exorcise demons.

If it weren't for the fact that their elders went missing and that harmed the interests of the Dragon Sparrow Sect, these demon cultivators hidden among the people would not have been rooted out.

11:57

In the end, the Ghoul Sect deserved to be wiped out because they offended someone they shouldn't have.

Considering this, Han Ye couldn't help but wonder.

If one day in the future.

Would the Dragon Sparrow Sect end up like the Ghoul Sect, offending a major power, and then being completely wiped out?

Today's Ghoul Sect could be tomorrow's Dragon Sparrow Sect.

This world is far greater than he could ever imagine.

What kind of existence is able to trample down the entire Dragon Sparrow Sect?

It should not be possible. After all, the Dragon Sparrow Sect is also a top-grade blessed land, ranking among the best. In another thousand years, it could become a new generation of the Immortal Gate.

The face-off between the two sects would likely end with the Dragon Sparrow Sect's complete victory.

"Brother Han, Brother Han."

"What's wrong?"

Han Ye looked towards Da Niu who was calling him from the side.

Wang Da Niu pointed at the Jade Token and asked:

"A distress signal was sent from the Jade Token, saying that a powerful demon cultivator was encountered in a nearby prefecture. A team of disciples couldn't match up to him, and several disciples have already died in battle."

"No one is going there for now. The place is quite near to us, should we go there?"

"Should we go, Brother Han?"

Lin Shihuang looked at Han Ye and asked.

After all, it was Han Ye who led their team.

Everything had to listen to him.

"No."

Han Ye didn't even think about it. Without any hesitation, he refused.

"Remember, you mustn't do dangerous things. Even if there's an inner sect disciple leading the way, it's not safe, which means it's very dangerous. Why should we muddy ourselves in this matter?"

"We already have one hundred and thirteen demon cultivators in hand. Each Qi Cultivator is worth fifty points, and the weaker ones are worth ten points. Total is two thousand five hundred assessment points, isn't that enough?"

Lin Shihuang nodded slightly, feeling that Han Ye made a lot of sense. He asked in confusion:

"It's just weird. Brother Pei told us that most of the demon cultivators scattered among the people were ordinary demon cultivators in the Qi Cultivation and Foundation Establishment stages. Those real elders and elites of the demonic sect were locked down by Elder Jiang of our Heavenly Mystery Peak using the art of compass divination, and hunted down with the elders and true inheritances. It's impossible for us to encounter them, right?"

"Maybe… this group of demon cultivators is not common."

Han Ye pondered slightly.

"Could you elaborate?"

Han Ye analysed: "Didn't you notice? The group of demon cultivators were talking about something called the Demonic Sect's Supreme Treasure."

"Supreme Treasure of the Demonic Sect, I have an impression of that. So, Brother Han, are you saying that the reason the Ghoul Sect took this great unethical risk to come to Qingyun State was because of this Supreme Treasure of the Demonic Sect?"

Lin Shihuang tentatively asked.

"Yes."

Han Ye nodded lightly.

"There must be information we're not aware of, which the elders have kept hidden from us."

"Let's go take a look around town, see if there are any stragglers from the Demon Path."

Having finished speaking, Han Ye led the crowd to the street.

The group wandered aimlessly around the streets, watching for any suspicious characters.

Through his "Fox Pupils Connect Spirit" ability, Han Ye indeed found no trace of any other Demon Cultivators.

He finally let out a sigh of relief.

"I wonder how my senior sister is doing."

Han Ye remembered Elder Yu's words. His senior sister was trapped deep within Huangquan Valley, and numerous elders had set out to rescue her. He hoped they would be successful.

"Go!"

At that moment, a lavish glass horse carriage hurried into the inner city. A flag bearing the word "Xiangnan Prefecture" was hung on the curtain. Startled, the horse almost bumped into Han Ye. Luckily, he was agile and jumped out of the way. The horse continued its journey, heading for the City Lord Mansion.

Upon a single glance, Lin Shihuang recognized the origin of the carriage.

"That's the prefect's ceremonial carriage. It's not usually used casually. Why would the official banner of Xiangnan Prefecture appear here?"

As the prince of Great Zhou, Lin Shihuang was thoroughly acquainted with all the internal regulations of Great Zhou. Han Ye did not doubt whatever Lin deduced. He simply murmured, interested:

"Xiangnan Prefecture?"

Upon hearing the familiar name, he looked at Wang Da Niu and quickly asked.

"How far is Langlang Village from here, Da Niu?"

Wang Da Niu earnestly pulled out an intricate map. After inspecting it for a while, he confirmed: "I estimated it's less than a thousand miles. We're actually very close to Xiangnan Prefecture, even closer than Langlang Village."

"That's good."

Relieved, Han Ye breathed a sigh, then thought for a moment and asked another question.

"When exactly did you receive that distress signal?"

Wang Da Niu counted on his fingers as he calculated: "It seems like about half an hour ago."

Upon hearing this, Han Ye got a feeling of foreboding. He yelled, "Come on, follow me to the City Lord Mansion."

...

Meanwhile, outside the City Lord Mansion.

The carriage came to a slow stop, and a scribe helped a middle-aged man dressed in a crimson official robe descend.

He handed over some official documents and a seal to the soldiers at the gate.

"Please wait here, I'll go inform the prefect immediately."

The soldier instructed, then skittered off towards the mansion.

The man in the official robe looked out over the peaceful scene of Hongzhou Prefecture and sighed in relief, "At least Hongzhou hasn't fallen yet."

However, the scribe was less optimistic, his face filled with worry: "Prefect Liang, the demon cultivators are running rampant. Even if we've come here, it doesn't help. Even the disciples of the Dragon Sparrow Sect are powerless. Let alone Hongzhou Prefecture."

The middle-aged man sighed, "I'm well aware. As the head of the prefecture, I don't have any solutions to the havoc the Demons are causing. But before the disciple of the Dragon Sparrow Sect died, he gave me this."

He produced a grandly illustrated ink treasure map. On the corner of the scroll, a black ink dragon moved as though it were alive and breathing.

"The demon cultivators are clearly after this item. Why not just discard it?"

"But the disciple said..."

The middle-aged man trailed off, looking uncertain.

Just then, an excited shout rang out from beside his ear.

"Prefect Liang!"

Liang Lian turned and saw a tall and familiar youth standing before him.

A year-old memory surfaced in his mind, and uncertain, he tentatively asked,

"Are you... Han Ye?"

"It's me."

Han Ye said with a faint smile, walking over to greet him. Wang Da Niu and the other disciples also gathered around.

"What are you doing here?"

"And them...?"

Prefect Liang was clearly also pleased to see Han Ye in this place. There are said to be three happy events in life: a wedding night, passing the imperial exam, and meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

But he felt that Han Ye's status seemed to have changed from before.

"That's a long story."

Han Ye spoke with a deep sense of nostalgia.

His experiences over the last year, there was so much he could share.

...