Imperial Cultivation

Chapter 1261 - 1257: A Solution

He snorted, "It must be the work of those evil demons!"

Chu Zhiyuan nodded.

No matter how the news spread, its root must be the evil demons.

It was a collaboration with the Undying Evil Venerable.

Huang Zhengyang frowned, "These evil demons are sending so many people there, do they want the statue to control more experts?"

He turned his head, "Brother Chu, what do you think?"

"I’m afraid it’s worse than that."

"Worse? Do they want to kill these experts?"

"The Undying Evil Venerable statues we’ve seen usually have only two actions: one is controlling people through illusion techniques, and the other is killing people through illusion techniques."

"Right, exactly!" Huang Zhengyang agreed, "Could it be the second situation?"

"It’s very likely the second, even if it’s the first, the ultimate goal might still be the second. In any case, the descent of the Undying Evil Venerable is always accompanied by death and slaughter, nothing else."

"Damn it! They deserve to die!" Huang Zhengyang said hatefully, "How many innocent people have died at their hands!"

"We still need to eliminate it from the root, unfortunately..." Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

Huang Zhengyang sighed.

Unfortunately, the Court restricts the secret techniques, feeling uneasy about Chu Zhiyuan, making it impossible to truly threaten the Undying Evil Venerable.

If this continues, the Undying Evil Venerable won’t hold back but will instead become even more rampant.

Chu Zhiyuan said, "The Court must have noticed this trend, right? More and more Undying Evil Venerables are descending, and they are getting stronger."

"Yes."

"...Now we need to stop these experts from heading there. We have to mobilize a lot of experts from the Court, just afraid that even more experts might not be able to do it."

Chu Zhiyuan was too lazy to say more.

The more he said, the more it seemed he wanted something, making the Court more suspicious and uneasy, less willing to give.

"I will mobilize the Evil Extermination Department, guarding a radius of fifty li, and let the City Guards of Dongning City guard the city gates, allowing no entry or exit!"

"Brother Huang, doing so will put a lot of pressure, the Evil Extermination Department can’t handle it."

"Desperate times require desperate measures!"

"Besides Dongning City, shall the towns and villages within fifty li also be sealed off?"

"Yes, all sealed, no entry or exit!"

Chu Zhiyuan said, "How many people will it take to make it work?"

"I will have the City Guards and the Demon Hunting Bureau help together, absolutely not allowing anyone to approach the statue!"

Chu Zhiyuan slowly nodded, "It’s not easy, it must be done quickly."

"I’ll go at once!" Huang Zhengyang said, "Brother Chu, don’t hurry over, wait until I’ve set the people up and observed the situation, then it won’t be too late to go."

"Very well." Chu Zhiyuan nodded.

Huang Zhengyang cupped his hands and left.

He turned and walked away briskly.

The handsome young man hurried to follow.

Chu Zhiyuan escorted him to the gate of the Heavenly Sword Branch and watched him leave surrounded by a few experts.

Feeling heavy-hearted.

...

Zhu Lingyun, fifty li away from the Undying Evil Venerable Statue, felt a chill down his spine, eager to leave.

He concentrated, operating the Wanxiang Cliff Heart Method, the Wanxiang Returning to God Technique, his mind gradually calming like a lake.

As the Wanxiang Returning to God Technique operated, it absorbed the strange aura in the air, different from the spiritual energy absorbed by True Yuan.

Through the memories of the Undying Evil Venerables, he knew that the strange aura of Biyuan Heaven was too thin and unsuitable for the Evil Venerables’ cultivation.

The gap was like that between Little Outer Heaven and Outer Heaven’s spiritual energy.

After an Evil Venerable descends, they bring power with them, so he doesn’t have to start cultivating from scratch.

But the power brought by the Evil Venerables is only a part, not the whole.

Thus, his current power has the quality of the Evil Venerable realm, but not the quantity of an Evil Venerable.

It needs to be slowly recovered bit by bit, to achieve Evil Venerable Perfection, and then breakthrough to enter the Undying Evil Venerable.

To step into the Undying Evil Venerable, cultivating in Biyuan Heaven won’t do, it requires entering You Meng Heaven to cultivate.

The Wanxiang Returning to God Technique he practiced is the Miracle Technique of Wanxiang Cliff, directly pointing to the Undying Divine Venerable.

But reaching the Divine Venerable Realm, wanting to go higher is truly as difficult as climbing to the sky, with each realm being extremely difficult.

Evil Venerables were originally called Divine Venerables; Evil Venerables is what they are called in Biyuan Heaven.

The ones that descend can indeed be called Evil Venerables because they use a Quick Method, which is also an Evil Technique.

In the Nine Grades of Divine Venerable, each grade is extremely hard, cultivating steadily requires a long time of focused hard work, far from being as swift as an Evil Technique.

These descending Evil Venerables, some are greedy for speed, others are desperate to move up, and can only abandon the right path to take the evil path.

The Wanxiang Returning to God Technique itself is not an Evil Technique, but if shortcuts are taken, then it becomes an Evil Technique.

——

Chu Zhiyuan appeared in Li Hongzhao’s small courtyard.

Li Hongzhao came out of the house, dressed in a red robe, with a jade-face and vermilion lips, incomparably beautiful.

She smiled sweetly, "You finally came over, I was just about to look for you."

Chu Zhiyuan sat at the stone table, took the tea she handed over, "What’s the matter?"

Li Hongzhao appraised him, "You don’t look well, ran into trouble?"

Chu Zhiyuan took a sip of the tea, frowned, and shook his head, "Another tricky Undying Evil Venerable has descended, quite troublesome."

Li Hongzhao, "Is there a fatal threat? ...The descending Undying Evil Venerables are getting stronger, a bit strange indeed."

Chu Zhiyuan slowly nodded.

Li Hongzhao said, "What is the origin of this Undying Evil Venerable?"

"Haven’t figured it out yet," Chu Zhiyuan said, "let’s wait and see, the Court is currently deploying manpower to surround it, preventing anyone from going to wake him."

"Oh, this time you’re not taking direct action!" Li Hongzhao smiled with bright eyes, "The Court might suspect you’re deliberately being arrogant, retaliating because they didn’t give you the secret technique."

Chu Zhiyuan chuckled lightly, shaking his head, "Let them think what they will."

Li Hongzhao said, "Do you know who strongly advocated not giving you the secret technique?"

"Prince Zhuang?" Chu Zhiyuan said.

"How did you guess?"

"The one who understands me best is likely to be Prince Zhuang," Chu Zhiyuan laughed, "the one who wants to avoid suspicion is naturally Prince Zhuang."

"Prince Zhuang is the one closest to the Heavenly Sword Sect, yet he’s the one opposing giving you the secret technique the most, otherwise, you’d almost have it."

"Which two princes support?" Chu Zhiyuan sipped the tea leisurely.

"Prince Su and Prince Ying both support, only Prince Cheng opposes," Li Hongzhao said, "Prince Su is close to the Guanghan Palace, and Prince Ying is close to the Fuyun Sect."

"So there’s this kind of secret." Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

"In any case, if you can persuade Prince Zhuang, you can get the Court’s secret technique." Li Hongzhao said, "If you don’t contribute this time, there may be changes, they won’t accept coercion."

"If they take it as coercion, there’s nothing I can do."

"Is this Undying Evil Venerable very dangerous?"

"The most dangerous one," Chu Zhiyuan said, "probably coming for me, unavoidable."

That was his instinct when it first emerged.

If not, he wouldn’t be thinking of going forward, would hide in Heavenly Sword Peak, claim to be in closed cultivation, and avoid this calamity.

Li Hongzhao said, "I’ll ask my master for help!"

"No." Chu Zhiyuan waved his hand.

Li Hongzhao frowned, "Why, master can’t stop him?"

"Hmm, it seems difficult." Chu Zhiyuan slowly said, "The blow from a higher realm might not be blocked by Senior Song."

"What to do then?" Li Hongzhao said, "You can’t just go to your death, right?"

Chu Zhiyuan said, "Let’s probe his capabilities first, we can figure out a way."

Li Hongzhao gazed at him, her eyes sparkling, then smiled, "It seems you have a trump card."

She knew Chu Zhiyuan’s character well, how cautious he was.

If he wasn’t confident of preserving himself, he wouldn’t be this calm.

Therefore, it shows that the Undying Evil Venerable poses a threat to him, but it’s just a threat, he has a trump card that can counter it.

Chu Zhiyuan tapped the Golden Sword hanging at his waist, "It’s my assurance."

Li Hongzhao said, "I can obtain a secret technique, though it takes some means, desperate times call for action."

Chu Zhiyuan frowned, "Obtained from Senior Song’s place?"

"Master is allowed to read these secret techniques." Li Hongzhao said.