novelraw Chapter 262 : So There Was an Inside Traitor!
Chapter 262 : So There Was an Inside Traitor!
"This happened so many years ago, how could I remember so clearly." Though he said this, Yan Wangxing leaned against a tree trunk, muttering to himself, his gaze closely following that familiar figure moving down the mountain.
It was clear that Xiao Yan 3.0 wasn't part of this demon race group. He hadn't even changed into demon race attire, nor was he mixed in with the disguised demon soldiers and generals. His furtive movements were more similar to the three of them trailing behind.
As a new heavenly demon who had just emerged from the netherworld, and having offended many of the demon race's old guard right after coming out, Xiao Yan 3.0's reputation in the demon race wasn't very good at this time. The demon race naturally wouldn't include him in major plans. He had most likely secretly followed, wanting to see what commotion the demon race was stirring up.
Unfortunately, this action of his would be in vain, otherwise Yan Wangxing wouldn't be rubbing his chin with a confused face now, knowing nothing when asked.
"Wait, I seem to... remember now. About twenty years ago, didn't a major event occur in your cultivation world? The Mo family, first among the Four Great Sword Cultivation Families, was massacred by the demon race. This incident not only caused waves in the cultivation world but was also widely circulated in the demon realm."
After all, those self-proclaimed righteous sword cultivators of the cultivation world families were most incompatible with demon cultivators, like fire and water. Conflicts often occurred between cultivators of both sides. The Mo family was a great sword cultivation family that had been passed down for a thousand years in the cultivation world. Though called one of the Four Great Sword Cultivation Families, the Mo family actually dominated alone, suppressing the other three. It was said that the ancestral sword of the Mo family had slain a full ten thousand demon cultivators. Demon cultivators deeply hated it. The fall of the Mo family was definitely the best possible news for demon cultivators.
Back then, he had originally planned to challenge the Demon Sovereign, but unexpectedly received news midway that the Mo family was under large-scale night attack by demon cultivators. Curious, he rushed over that night to investigate.
Unfortunately, Yan Wangxing arrived too late. The Mo family had been massacred, with no survivors.
When he arrived, the Eight Great Immortal Sects of the cultivation world were urgently sending people to support the Mo family, but everything was too late to reverse the Mo family's tragedy.
The current time point was probably when the demon cultivators, urgently hiding their identities from the sects' search, were about to withdraw from the cultivation world.
"Is tonight... the night of the double blood moons?"
Chu Sang looked up at the night sky, blinking her slightly sore eyes, and suddenly asked, "Fourth Senior Brother, did you notice, when we came out of the previous door, it was just the beginning of the hour of the Dog, as night was falling, and the sky was already slightly reddish then."
"Mm, I saw it, but it wasn't the fiery clouds of sunset, it was the glow of blood moons."
"That blood moon had just appeared in the sky, half visible and half hidden. I only glanced at it briefly then, not seeing it very clearly, but I can be certain it was a full moon. But when we questioned the demon cultivators earlier, it wasn't the time of the full moon." As if burned by the eerie red light, Chu Sang lowered her head and averted her gaze again. "The strange thing is, there wasn't just one blood moon, but two."
"The night wasn't deep then, and the second blood moon had just appeared. I only caught a glimpse of a faint red shadow... I'm sure I didn't see wrong, there were two blood moons, and tonight there are also two blood moons."
Double blood moons, such a strange celestial phenomenon had never appeared before. The only clear record of it was twenty years ago, when the Mo family was massacred.
This event was so significant, and it happened to coincide with the appearance of double blood moons. The celestial anomaly of that night was specially recorded in the thick history book of the cultivation world. From then on, double moons and blood days were listed as inauspicious.
Chu Sang had accidentally come across this history book in the library years ago and had read it through completely. She was certain that apart from that one time twenty years ago, such a celestial anomaly had never appeared again in the cultivation world.
"Are there any records of such a celestial phenomenon in the demon realm?"
Yan Wangxing answered quickly, "It only appeared once."
"That is, tonight."
The cultivation world and the demon realm both experienced double blood moons on this night.
"This is quite a coincidence then. It shows that the world behind the first door and the world behind the second door are at the same time point. We've entered the same night twice." After connecting the two threads in her sea of consciousness, Chu Sang quickly realized something was amiss. "Tonight is the night the Mo family was massacred. Rumors say the Mo family was exterminated by the old Demon Sovereign seeking revenge, but didn't the demon cultivator in the previous door say that the old Demon Sovereign is currently in seclusion?"
Could it be that the old Demon Sovereign was using seclusion as a cover to secretly attack the cultivation world?
This seemed too cunning.
It didn't seem like something a Demon Sovereign would do.
"That shouldn't be the case. I followed out of curiosity back then and, finding nothing happening, returned to the cultivation world to challenge the old Demon Sovereign. The old Demon Sovereign was indeed in seclusion at that time, had been for a while. This is true. Moreover, I later stayed by the old Demon Sovereign's side for many years and understood his nature. He was one of the rare peace advocates in the demon realm. During his hundred years in power, he rarely actively attacked the cultivation world."
Seeing the two didn't believe him, Yan Wangxing threw out evidence, "It's true! I specially gathered a lot of information back then. I heard the Demon Sovereign went into seclusion because the woman he capt... ahem, rescued from the cultivation world seemed to be pregnant with a demon child. Human-demon mixed blood isn't easy to survive. There was a high chance of dying in the womb, taking two lives. The old Demon Sovereign was anxiously refining pills to save that woman's life back then. He had no mind to attack the cultivation world!"
He raised his chin slightly, turning his eyes to look at the silent Mo Baizhou, grinning as he said, "If you don't believe what I say, you can ask your Fourth Senior Brother. He knows better than anyone how difficult it is for human-demon mixed blood to survive. If the old Demon Sovereign had really stood by and done nothing back then, he wouldn't have grown up safe and sound."
"Really? Fourth Senior Brother, wasn't that adoptive father of yours a scumbag? So he was actually deeply in love?"
Chu Sang had eaten up this gossip. Could her dramatic storylines be false? But according to the information she got from the original story, that old Demon Sovereign indeed didn't seem like a positive character.
This speech from Yan Wangxing, however, reversed her understanding of the old Demon Sovereign. Could it be that she had misunderstood?
"I..." Mo Baizhou was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I don't know."
He had been abandoned by the old Demon Sovereign when he was very young, later accidentally ending up in exile in the cultivation world, where he was picked up by the sect leader of the Lingqing Sect. His impression of the old Demon Sovereign was faint and unknowing. Later, when Mo Baizhou grew a bit older, he gradually learned about his background, knowing that he was a mixed-blood child abandoned by the Demon Sovereign, his existence difficult to accept in both the demon race and the cultivation world.
The cause of all these evil consequences was that the Demon Sovereign had abducted a pitiful female cultivator. She had died early due to demonic energy backlash during childbirth, leaving behind this mixed-blood child in the world.
Mo Baizhou's thoughts about the old Demon Sovereign were not much different from Chu Sang's. He was simply not a good person, unworthy of being a father.
The biggest grievance in his heart from childhood to adulthood was wanting to ask that only surviving relative in the world why he had abandoned him, never caring from beginning to end... Mo Baizhou actually had an answer in his heart long ago. For the Demon Sovereign, a mixed-blood child born of a cultivation world woman wasn't worth lingering over. For him, it was rather a great stain. That he hadn't strangled him on the spot was perhaps the last bit of kindness remaining in him as a member of the demon race.
But Mo Baizhou still felt some unwillingness. He wanted to stand before the old Demon Sovereign again after becoming strong, to prove that he was no worse than anyone, to make the other regret deeply.
But when he broke into the demon palace that night and saw that weakened, aged Demon Sovereign, his first thought wasn't anger and hatred, but surprise.
A demon cultivator who had cultivated to late Great Perfection stage had a long lifespan of several thousand years, but the old Demon Sovereign was only a little over seven hundred years old. For a Great Perfection stage expert, this should be the prime of life. How could he be so aged and decrepit, looking so old?
It was said the Demon Sovereign had suffered serious injuries and hadn't recovered for a long time... But what kind of power could make a late Great Perfection stage demon cultivator become like this?
On the night the old Demon Sovereign died, the demon race spread the message that he had harbored resentment and assassinated him. Only Mo Baizhou knew clearly in his heart that he hadn't made a move that night. The old Demon Sovereign was at death's door himself.
Mo Baizhou still remembered the look in the old Demon Sovereign's eyes before he died. Was that... how a father looked at his child?
He had never seen it before, so he wasn't sure. It felt very unfamiliar. He only knew that when the old Demon Sovereign had only one last breath, he gave him all the inheritance of half his life. Later, that ancient demon sword recognized him as its master so easily, which must have also been the old Demon Sovereign's intention.
So, after that night, Mo Baizhou's feelings towards the old Demon Sovereign became extremely complicated.
He had never been quite clear about why, until today when he heard Yan Wangxing talk about this. The old Demon Sovereign's seclusion back then was actually for him and his mother?
So, the old Demon Sovereign cared a lot about the two of them. But if he really considered him his child, why did he abandon him for many years without care?
Mo Baizhou didn't know the reason, feeling an inexplicable sadness.
It was far more puzzling than simple hatred.
"Let's make a bold guess. Nine out of ten neighborhood rumors in the demon race are probably false. The extermination of the Mo family wasn't planned single-handedly by the old Demon Sovereign. It's clear he must have had feelings for that Mo family woman. If so, it's even more unlikely that he would exterminate her entire family at such a critical time when she was pregnant. The culprit might be someone else." Chu Sang said, "Actually, there's one point that's been very suspicious from the beginning: how did the demon race enter the city tonight?"
There were many sword cultivation families in the main city, and the city was occasionally attacked by demon cultivators seeking revenge. Having fought with demon cultivators for hundreds or thousands of years, the families were very clear about the nature of these demon cultivators. For the safety of the city's residents and family members, there must have been considerable precautions. The fact that the main city had stood for hundreds of years without falling was enough to show the solidity of the city and the strictness of the cultivators inside the city in guarding against demon cultivators.
It would be very difficult for the demon race to break through into the city.
Not to mention a large-scale movement of demon cultivators together, which would be too easy to discover.
Demon cultivators didn't have very profound techniques for concealing their auras. Even when Chu Sang had just briefly probed with her divine sense earlier, she had detected how clumsy these people were at hiding their auras. By rights, it should have been impossible to escape the city's inspection.
But the fact was, the demon cultivators really did escape detection, infiltrating the city without being discovered, even catching the great sword cultivation family of Mo off guard, resulting in the tragedy of their extermination.
How could the Mo family, as a great sword cultivation family, be so careless? There must have been other forces pushing things along.
"I guess there were insiders in the city," Yan Wangxing smiled. "To be frank, what the demon race is best at is sowing discord and manipulating people's hearts. It's too easy to turn a few cultivators with unstable dao hearts... Maybe there were already insiders placed by the demon race in this city, perfectly coordinating inside and outside to take down the Mo family in one fell swoop."
"Let's investigate which family was guarding the city tonight." Mo Baizhou narrowed his long black eyes, his voice particularly cold and detached in the night wind.
Since learning that he came from the exterminated Mo family, whether intentionally or not, he had searched for a lot of information about the Mo family before their extermination. This main city was one of the five major cities in the cultivation world, said to have been founded by a patriarch of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, the most renowned sword cultivation sect a thousand years ago. The city was near the foot of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain, under the sect's protection.
Most people in the city were also sword cultivators.
Among the four top sword cultivation families, three were in this main city.
To protect the city's residents, the three great sword cultivation families would take turns sending large numbers of people to guard the city, strictly controlling the city gates and major passages to prevent demon cultivators from sneaking in.
If there really were insiders secretly sabotaging, the most likely place for problems to occur would be the city gates.
Once the checkpoint at the city gates was breached, demon cultivators could easily infiltrate the city and covertly implement their plans.
The guards at the city gates tonight were very likely to have been tampered with. Mo Baizhou didn't believe that the demon race could pull the wool over everyone's eyes by just turning a few small soldiers. There was a high probability that someone high up in the family guarding the city tonight had been turned by the demon race, enabling them to mobilize a large number of troops, coordinating from within and without.
So, it turned out there were traitors within the cultivation world.
The world behind the second door still repeated the story flow of the real world. The Mo family still couldn't escape the tragedy of extermination. The city was in chaos. Chu Sang intentionally didn't take Mo Baizhou back to the Mo family, inevitably thinking of another person. She inwardly sighed, fortunately Mo Qingchen wasn't present at this time, otherwise who knows how out of control his emotions would become. If there's a chance to meet him after getting out, they'll talk then.
After receiving the news, the Eight Great Immortal Sects quickly sent people to rescue, but it was too late. The sects were also very angry. How could the heavily guarded main city possibly be breached so easily by a group of demon cultivators? They sent a large number of people to investigate. The three disguised themselves and infiltrated the investigation team.
The people sent by the sects first investigated the city's defenses tonight. As it happened, the family on duty to guard the city tonight was the Xuanyuan family.
The Xuanyuan family expressed great sorrow over this matter, cursing the demon race's cunning on one hand, and asking for punishment for their subordinates' lax protection on the other. The immortal sects intended to punish them, but at this time, indeed, no one thought that even if the other two families had been on guard, they might not have been able to completely prevent it either.
After a round of questioning, no problems were found with the Xuanyuan family. In the end, this matter had to be left unresolved.
The Xuanyuan family received a lot of criticism back then. Twenty years later, this matter had long since become history. Most people in the cultivation world had forgotten about the tragic case of that year. In contrast, in recent years, the Xuanyuan family's power had grown even stronger than before.