’With the Yin Yang Demon Refining Furnace, I can concoct the Starlight Jade Liquid and the Crystal Condensation Opening Pill myself. But this Thousand-Year Soul Nourishing Wood... it’s a Tier Three Spiritual Plant. I’ll have to go to the Sect’s Contribution Hall to trade for it.’

Qin Xuan took out his Identity Jade Order from his robes and looked up the price on the black market.

He would have been better off not looking. One glance was enough to give him a huge shock.

’Have these Altar Masters gone mad for money? It’s just a Tier Three Spiritual Plant, how can it cost ten thousand Merit Points!’

Qin Xuan couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

Ten thousand Merit Points was the equivalent of one hundred million Contribution Points.

Unless an event like Chen Xuanba’s Golden Core breakthrough happened again, Qin Xuan couldn’t afford it even if he sold himself.

’I have to find a way to get my hands on more money, or I’ll never feel secure.’

With just the Merit Points he earned from farming, it would take Qin Xuan a hundred years to save up enough.

He finally understood why the Purple Mansion Altar Masters of the Holy Sect who lacked powerful backers all looked to be several hundred years old.

It turned out they had squandered vast amounts of time trying to forge the strongest possible Star Mansion.

Just then, a majestic and indifferent demonic voice suddenly pierced through the dense, poisonous miasma, reaching Qin Xuan’s ears through his Identity Jade Order.

"Valley Master of Heart Rot Valley, Qin Xuan, hear my command! You are to arrive at Ten Thousand Poison Peak in three days and await the Peak Master’s orders. Failure is not an option!"

Qin Xuan’s expression grew stern.

’The Peak Master is summoning me?’

Jiaang Xiaofeng, the Peak Master of Ten Thousand Poison Peak and the Purple Mansion Altar Master of the Plague Poison Altar.

Back when Qin Xuan first started serving under the Plague Gu Daoist, he’d heard that this Master Jiaang possessed a cultivation at the Purple Mansion Ninth Level.

Furthermore, he commanded the six great branch altars: the Rotting Heart, Plague Bone, Withered Marrow, Yin Leech, Defeated Blood, and Soul-Devouring Altars!

Although Qin Xuan was, in name, an Incense Master of the Plague Bone Altar, he had never actually met the mysterious Master Jiaang, Jiaang Xiaofeng.

"I accept your command."

Once he replied, the faint glow on the Identity Jade Order faded away.

...

Three days later, Qin Xuan returned to the familiar Ten Thousand Poison Peak.

A sickening, greenish miasma filled the air, and a vast, multicolored, and lethally poisonous swamp spread out before him.

By now, however, aside from the effects of the Illusion Array, the poison in the miasma no longer had any effect on him.

Just as Qin Xuan found himself lost within the toxic fog, unable to get his bearings—

WHOOSH!

A sudden, blood-scented demonic wind surged, blowing away all the fog and miasma to reveal a scene that looked just like a rustic countryside hamlet.

The land was level and expansive, dotted with two or three thatched-roof cottages.

A gray-robed elder who looked just like an old farmer was working the soil, his hoe rising and falling as sweat poured down his face like rain. His skin was dark, his face a crosshatch of deep-set wrinkles.

"Qin Xiaoyou, you’re here?"

Catching sight of Qin Xuan, Jiaang Xiaofeng thumped his aching back and straightened up.

He handed the Spiritual Hoe to a middle-aged, scar-faced Foundation Establishment Cultivator beside him and waved to Qin Xuan with a hearty chuckle.

Qin Xuan gave an awkward smile and cautiously stepped forward.

"Don’t be afraid. Come closer, I don’t bite. And you, Qin Xiaoyou... so young, yet your future is limitless!"

Jiaang Xiaofeng took a jade-tipped pipe from his robes, patted the earthen ridge beside him, and gestured for Qin Xuan to come sit.

How could Qin Xuan dare to sit? He kept his gaze lowered.

"This subordinate is apprehensive. I do not know why the Altar Master has summoned me. I beg for your guidance..."

"No rush, Qin Xiaoyou," Jiaang Xiaofeng said with a chuckle. "Not everyone is here yet."

He sat there on the ridge, a mighty Purple Mansion True Demon, yet with no airs about him whatsoever. He lifted a foot clad in a black cloth shoe, tapped the bowl of his pipe against its muddy sole, then took a long, deep drag, exhaling a contented cloud of smoke.

Qin Xuan knew his place and stood silently to the side, his head bowed, perfectly still and not saying another word.

「A short while later.」

Aside from the scar-faced, middle-aged man holding Jiaang Xiaofeng’s hoe, a man and a woman arrived.

"Gan Tang, Incense Master of the Defeated Blood Altar, pays her respects to the Altar Master!"

The young female cultivator, Gan Tang, said softly.

Gan Tang was slender and beautiful, but her face had a pallor that spoke of a long time spent away from the sun, as if she had lost too much blood.

She wore the same coarse linen clothes as Jiaang Xiaofeng, giving her a capable air, yet her slender body, hidden beneath the cloth, trembled slightly in fear.

"Xu Wenchang, Incense Master of the Yin Leech Altar, greets the Altar Master."

Compared to Gan Tang, Xu Wenchang was far older. He was short and withered, with a severely hunched back. His face was a mass of deep wrinkles and age spots, and he had a sparse, yellowed goatee.

He was draped in an oversized, ill-fitting black burial shroud and exuded an aura of decay. He looked even older than Jiaang Xiaofeng, as if he had just crawled out of a coffin.

"Rotting Heart, Plague Bone, Withered Marrow... their Incense Masters are all dead. Fortunately, we have Qin Xiaoyou to fill one of the vacancies. My Plague Poison Altar now has four Incense Masters."

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Jiaang Xiaofeng remained seated on the earthen ridge and began to speak in an unhurried tone.

"I’ve called you all here for nothing important, really. Just so you can get acquainted."

"Soul-Devouring, come over here."

Jiaang Xiaofeng beckoned to the scar-faced middle-aged cultivator again. "Let me introduce you," he said with a chuckle. "This is Qin Xiaoyou."

"You are all my finest soldiers. I don’t want you meeting outside and coming to blows, making a laughingstock of us for outsiders."

Qin Xuan had never seen any of these people before.

They were completely different from the Lord Yin Hei and Defeated Blood Daoist he had known previously!

’Could it be... they died as well?’

Qin Xuan kept his gaze lowered and cupped his hands. "I am Qin Xuan. Greetings, Senior Brothers."

The scar-faced, middle-aged cultivator laughed. "Senior Brother Qin, you’re too kind. It is I who should be calling you Senior Brother. By the way, my name is Ma Jingchuan, and I am the Soul-Devouring Altar Master."

Gan Tang concealed her fear and said in a low voice, "Greetings, Junior Brother Qin."

Xu Wenchang’s eyes crinkled into a smile, squeezing the age spots on his face together. "I have long heard of Junior Brother Qin’s fame. Seeing you today, I can say you truly live up to your reputation."

The group exchanged a few pleasantries.

And so, Qin Xuan finally learned the details about these individuals.