Stone Demon Sect.

The Sect Leader’s cultivation cave.

Ever since Shi Tianpo became the Sect Leader, the best cultivation spot in the sect had been his.

An urgent knock on the door interrupted his cultivation.

"Come in."

"Reporting... Reporting to the Sect Leader..."

"What is it? Why are you so flustered? You are a Sect Elder; you must act with composure, understand?"

"...I understand."

"Speak. What is it?"

"Vice Sect Leader Xia’s Demon Jar has shattered."

"What?!" Shi Tianpo’s eyes widened.

Every Sect Leader and Vice Sect Leader of the Stone Demon Sect possessed a Demon Jar within the sect.

If the Demon Jar shattered, its owner’s body and soul were annihilated!

His right-hand man was dead. To die at this time... it could only have happened on the territory of the Spirit Refiner Zeng Family.

’What in the world had happened?’

Without enough information, Shi Tianpo couldn’t figure it out.

All he knew was that according to their plan, the Vice Sect Leader was not supposed to launch a full-scale assault on the Zeng Family. He was meant to return around the time reinforcements from the Foundation Establishment Shen Family arrived. At that point, they would contact the Celestial Demon Sect.

"You are dismissed."

"Yes, Sect Leader."

The Stone Demon Sect Elder glanced at Shi Tianpo before slowly retreating.

Not long after the Stone Demon Sect Elder left, a dark red talisman appeared in Shi Tianpo’s hand.

’I have to contact the Celestial Demon Sect now.’

The only silver lining to the death of the Stone Demon Sect’s Vice Sect Leader was that the Celestial Demon Sect would surely not be suspicious when he delivered the message.

The Celestial Demon Sect had only lost Qi Refining Demon Cultivators, but the Stone Demon Sect had lost a Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator.

He gave a rough report of the situation, explaining the circumstances of the Stone Demon Sect Vice Sect Leader’s death.

After sending the message, Shi Tianpo felt a sense of helplessness.

He had been able to rule with an iron fist as the Sect Leader of the Stone Demon Sect, but without the strong backing of his Vice Sect Leader, it would be difficult to remain as dominant as before.

After all, when he vied for the position of Sect Leader, his victory had been narrow, not decisive.

If his own power had far surpassed that of the former Stone Demon Sect Leader, then the current situation wouldn’t affect him much.

...

Celestial Cloud Sect’s Earth Realm.

The Zeng Family’s ancestral land, Celestial Gift Mountain.

Moonlight bathed the mountain.

Inside a guest room, Fang Yun, who was sitting cross-legged, had just finished refining and absorbing an Upper Grade Qi Enhancement Pill.

It was now the beginning of the ninth month. In five more days, he would complete his Guardian mission and return to the Celestial Cloud Sect.

Finishing his cultivation, Fang Yun immediately opened the light screen to check last month’s Talent Point settlement. He was especially interested to see how many Talent Points he would get for killing a Demon in the early Foundation Establishment stage.

——

Killed 1x early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon, Talent Points +50,000

...

Sect Influence: 43%

Talent Point Bonus: 249%

Settlement: Talent Points +231,928

——

Looking at the Talent Points gained from killing the early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon, Fang Yun nodded in satisfaction.

’Not bad. Fifty thousand Talent Points even before the bonus.’

He had estimated around thirty thousand points, so this was more than sixty percent higher than he’d expected.

From the time he killed the early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon until now, his Sect Influence had increased by a total of two percentage points.

Evidently, many Elders within the sect already knew that he had killed a Foundation Establishment Demon.

After the Shen Family Elders returned, the Sect Elder assigned as Guardian to the Shen Family would definitely learn of this information.

Once they learned of it, they would typically report it back to the sect quickly. Therefore, the Elders of Battle Peak should all know by now that he had killed a Foundation Establishment Demon.

This two-point increase in influence was likely more of an acknowledgment of his strength.

He switched to the Life interface.

Fang Yun began to draw for Life Talents. He had 2,319 draws available.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he used them all. This time, his Life Talent draws yielded 775 Alchemy Talent fragments and 775 Planting Talent fragments. The rest were Artifact Refining Talent fragments.

After so many draws, the probability for each of the three approached one-third.

This month’s Life Talent draws would allow him to upgrade his five-star Life Talent to six-star at least half a year ahead of schedule.

After closing the light screen, Fang Yun took another Upper Grade Qi Enhancement Pill and continued to refine and absorb it to improve his Cultivation.

Five days passed in a flash.

Nothing of note had happened in the past few days.

Having completed his Guardian mission, Fang Yun left the Zeng Family’s ancestral land and returned to the Celestial Cloud Sect.

On his way back to the sect, Fang Yun put on his Light Wind Boots to speed up his journey and save some time.

Upon returning to the sect, Fang Yun first went to Artifact Casting Peak to report to his master, Xiong Xingfeng.

Xiong Xingfeng knew that he had accepted a Guardian mission.

The one mission he hadn’t directly told his master about was his trip to the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm.

When Fang Yun arrived at his master Xiong Xingfeng’s cave abode, he found another Sect Elder was present.

He had met some of the Sect Elders once during his discipleship ceremony.

But he had never seen this particular Sect Elder before.

"Master."

"Hm, you’re back." Xiong Xingfeng smiled and nodded at Fang Yun, then made an introduction. "This is Elder Wei of the Evil Extermination Hall."

"Greetings, Elder Wei," Fang Yun said respectfully.

The moment Xiong Xingfeng mentioned the elder’s surname and affiliation, Fang Yun had a rough idea of who he was.

This Elder Wei Tiexin’s status in the Evil Extermination Hall was comparable to Xiong Xingfeng’s status on Artifact Casting Peak.

"Mm." Wei Tiexin also nodded at Fang Yun before turning to Xiong Xingfeng. "Elder Xiong, you’ve truly taken on a fine disciple."

Hearing this, the smile on Xiong Xingfeng’s face grew even wider.

"To be able to kill a Foundation Establishment Demon while still in the Qi Refining Stage... Fang Yun, you are the first in our Celestial Cloud Sect to do so," Wei Tiexin said with genuine admiration as Fang Yun walked over to stand beside Xiong Xingfeng.