The Demonic Gathering Array was one of the arrays used by demonic cultivators to gather demonic energy for their cultivation. Different types of Demonic Gathering Arrays also gave rise to different levels of efficiency in gathering demonic energy. This Demonic Gathering Array had used a nine-by-nine grid of superior grade spiritual stones to activate the entire formation array. Evidently, its demonic energy gathering abilities were no trifling matter.
In fact, if Jun Xiaomo had decided to cultivate at the heart of this Demonic Gathering Array for a period of time, she would very quickly be able to break through the third level of Qi Mastery or even more. However, she could not bring herself to tell Ye Xiuwen any of these things right now, despite Ye Xiuwen having once told Jun Xiaomo that he did not mind if she practiced demonic cultivation. This was because she knew that Ye Xiuwen still harboured some hatred for demonic cultivators in his heart.
When Ye Xiuwen was only eleven years-old, his entire clan had been annihilated by demonic cultivators who had coveted and used the lives of the Ye clan as tribute for a blood rite to activate an enormous Demonic Gathering Array, thereby sending the entire Ye clan into extinction.
The demonic cultivators then had seen how talented the Ye clan was in spiritual cultivation, and they knew that the spiritual energy in the blood of the Ye clan members was extremely potent. Therefore, the resultant Demonic Gathering Array would naturally be of a commensurate potency. If not for the fact that Jun Linxuan had coincidentally pa.s.sed by that area and saved Ye Xiuwen then, Ye Xiuwen might well have joined his clan members and become part of that Demonic Gathering Array’s foundations.
This was also the reason why Ye Xiuwen had such a huge reaction upon hearing that this formation array was a Demonic Gathering Array. After all, this reminded him of one of the worst tragedies in his life.
Jun Xiaomo bit down on her lower lip as she blinked her eyes a few times. Then, she stretched out her arm and firmly gripped Ye Xiuwen’s arm, saying, “Perhaps brother Ye might not have a very good impression of demonic cultivators, but I want to say that not all Demonic Gathering Array have been activated and formed using blood rites or blood sacrifices. Just like how this Demonic Gathering Array taps onto the latent powers of spirit stones in order to active the array. Therefore, you don’t have to be too worried about its existence.”
Hearing this, Ye Xiuwen was brought back to his senses. He looked at the young man solemnly trying to console him, and he could not help but chuckle softly, saying, “I understand that. Whether it’s a formation array or a cultivation method, they are by nature neither good nor bad. It all depends on the person using these things.”
Just like Ke Xinwen and Qin Lingyu. It did not matter that they bore the reputation of being from a righteous and upstanding Sect, and that they practiced orthodox spiritual cultivation and techniques. As long as their hearts were not in the right places, they were no better than any scheming demonic cultivators.
Jun Xiaomo returned a smile at Ye Xiuwen as she said, “It’s good that brother Ye understands then!”
“Alright, don’t you want the ink-black object in the heart of the formation array? What are you waiting for?” Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo’s shoulder as he said.
“Ah!” Jun Xiaomo did not realize that Ye Xiuwen had seen through her intentions so easily.
“Seeing how your little pet likes that black object at the heart of the formation array so much, I can’t imagine that its owner would be very much different either. Besides, your earlier expression has already betrayed you.” Ye Xiuwen smiled sincerely as he said. Most importantly, his eyes did not show any trace of hatred or despise for the possibility that Yao Mo could be a demonic cultivator.
“Alright, seems like brother Ye has discovered my intentions.” Jun Xiaomo rubbed her nose in embarra.s.sment.
Even though Jun Xiaomo was surprised by Ye Xiuwen’s accurate observation of her intentions, she was not alarmed by it at all. After all, the earlier Ye Xiuwen knew about these things, the better. This way, she did not have to hide the fact that she was a demonic cultivator any further either.
Squeak squeak! The little packrat once again broke up their interactions and brought Jun Xiaomo’s attention back over to her side. It scampered about around the ink-black object before looking at Jun Xiaomo pleadingly with its black, beady eyes.
It was as though it were saying: Come and get it! Quickly! …
Jun Xiaomo deliberated for a moment, before shaking her head as she said, “Let’s look on to see if we can leave this place first. Since there is a Demonic Gathering Array here, then perhaps this might be a demonic cultivator’s cultivation grounds. It would not be good to simply appropriate his things.”
Ye Xiuwen looked at Jun Xiaomo with praise in his eyes, and he nodded in affirmation.
Most people faced with such a valuable object would hardly hesitate to appropriate it for their own personal gains. The fact that this young man could remain so composed and not covet what is not theirs clearly spoke volumes about the innocence and purity of his heart.
Compared with this young man, people like Ke Xinwen had really better look at himself and reflect on his crimes. Ye Xiuwen thought coldly to himself.
This ma.s.sive cavern looked exactly like the previous cavern. Three sides were walls, and one side bore a path that led away from the cavern.
As it turns out, it really might not be such an easy thing to leave this cavern right now.
“My instincts tell me that this place should have a trap door or a hidden mechanism of sorts.” Jun Xiaomo said thoughtfully as she tapped on the experiences from her previous life.
Hearing this, Ye Xiuwen walked to another part of the cavern, looked pensively at the wall for a moment, before placing his hands on the walls and pus.h.i.+ng –
Grrrrrr— The walls suddenly parted, revealing a hidden chamber within the walls.
Jun Xiaomo: …… Just how sharp can martial brother Ye be? …
Ye Xiuwen calmly turned around and explained, “The colour of this wall looked different from the colour on the other walls, so I tried my luck. I didn’t expect things to be so simple either.”
Jun Xiaomo applauded Ye Xiuwen’s acute observational skills in her heart.
Then, both of them walked into this hidden chamber, and discovered that the chamber was furnished with a stone bed, a small table and a bookshelf. It looked exactly like a place where someone would rest at. Apart from this, they found no other traces of living people around.
Just at this moment, Jun Xiaomo’s eyes noticed some writings on the stone bed that had been gathering dust for some time.
“There are some words here.” Jun Xiaomo inched closer to the stone bed. Just as she was about to retrieve a Cleansing Talisman, Ye Xiuwen waved his hands and casted a simple wind-based spell, swiftly clearing away all the dust that had gathered on the stone bed immediately.
Jun Xiaomo was rendered momentarily speechless. She had almost forgotten that her martial brother was a living source of wind.
Once the writings had been cleaned of all its dust, Jun Xiaomo inched over to have a closer look at the words as she read the writings from start to end –
“Welcome, dear guests. I’m the owner of this cavern. If you’re reading these words right now, then I’m afraid that I’m no longer of this world. I’ve set up various formation arrays around this cavern in the hope that someone would come into my cavern one day and read my parting words.”
“You must have realized by now that this place is easy to enter yet difficult to leave. I don’t have the intentions of trapping you here, and I don’t want to make things difficult for you either; however, I do hope that you would be willing to help me fulfill my final wishes.”
“My name is Jiang Yutong, and I was once a concubine of Inferno Kingdom’s second prince. The second prince promised to take care of me all his life. But when that sc.u.mbag finally ascended the throne, he turned on everyone who ceased to be useful to him any longer and killed all of them. Not only did he annihilate my entire clan, he even disfigured me and locked me in this cavern for the rest of my life! I know I don’t have much life left in me, and my only regrets are that I could not look after my child and watch him grow up.”
“Dear guest, if you’re reading this, I hope that you can help to fulfill my final wishes – find my child and give him the piece of Blood Jade that is on the bed. Once you agree to this and make an oath accordingly on the Heart-Oath Array, then a Teleportation Array will naturally appear and allow you to safely leave this place. The piece of Blood Jade is inscribed with my son’s name, and it would emit a red glow the moment you encounter him.”
“Finally, you may take everything else that is in this cavern away with you, including the Demonite set at the heart of the Demonic Gathering Array, as my thanks to you for your hard work.”
As Jun Xiaomo finished reading the writings on the stone bed, these words slowly s.h.i.+fted about and gathered in the center of the stone bed, becoming a complex formation diagram that was better known as the Heart-Oath Array.
Jun Xiaomo scratched her chin – she felt that the name Jiang Yutong was a rather familiar name to her.
Moments later, she pounded a fist on her palm as she said, “So it’s her!”
Jiang Yutong was not a foreign name to Jun Xiaomo. This was because before her “notoriety” as the Lady Demoness had spread far and wide within the cultivation world, there was another demonic cultivator whose name preceded hers – and this person was none other than Jiang Yutong.
However, her notoriety had not arisen because of the fact that she was a demonic cultivator. Rather, it was because despite being such a powerful demonic cultivator, she had agreed to be the concubine of Inferno Kingdom’s second prince, attend to her husband, teach her child, and otherwise lead the life of a mere mortal. This caused a huge commotion among everyone in the cultivation world.
At that time, everyone expected Jiang Yutong to become the queen once the second prince ascended the throne. Unexpectedly, once the second prince successfully ascended the throne, Jiang Yutong mysteriously vanished off the face of this earth, and someone else became the queen to the second prince.
Someone people speculated that Jiang Yutong had died; while others said that Jiang Yutong had entered closed-door cultivations. As time wore on, people gradually began to forget the fearsome and awesome name of that concubine, Jiang Yutong who singlehandedly helped the second prince ascend the throne.
“I didn’t expect her life to have ended in such a tragic manner…” Jun Xiaomo sighed in remorse for her.
It was as though she saw a trace of her past in Jiang Yutong’s life – they had both lived their lives for that man that they fell in love with, but that very fact had also resulted in their tragic downfall and eventual death.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you to fulfill your final wishes.” Jun Xiaomo softly said, “If need be, I’ll even take revenge for you. And you can…count it as my thanks for all the treasures and resources you’ve left behind.”
As Jun Xiaomo said this, she walked over to the side of the bed, intending to place her palm on the center of the Heart-Oath Array.
“Wait a minute, Little Mo, what are you doing?” Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows as he held onto Jun Xiaomo’s arm and asked.
Jiang Yutong had planned everything out carefully. The words left behind by her could only be seen by demonic cultivators, while all Ye Xiuwen saw were merely messy symbols on the stone bed.
Jun Xiaomo looked at Ye Xiuwen and laughed, saying, “It’s alright. I’ll explain it all to brother Ye later. The owner of this place doesn’t intend to trap us here, and she only hopes that we can help to fulfill one of her dying wishes.”
Ye Xiuwen could see the determination in Jun Xiaomo’s eyes, and he relented.
Furthermore, he seemed to have noticed in Yao Mo’s eyes some traces of…water.
Jun Xiaomo placed her hand on the array, closed her eyes, and then said in her heart – I, Jun Xiaomo, hereby solemnly make oath that I shall help senior Jiang Yutong fulfill her final wishes. That is, I shall help her locate her child and give Jiang Yutong’s Blood Jade to him. That is all.
As Jun Xiaomo ended the oath, the inscriptions below her hand instantly vanished in a glow of blue light. As the blue light faded, the Heart-Oath Array had now become a Teleportation Array.
“Senior’s formation arrays are really quite something. I don’t think I would be able to make a formation array transform into another one like she did.” Jun Xiaomo exclaimed to herself.
Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo’s shoulder, saying, “It’s been hard on you, Little Mo.”
“It’s nothing much. It’s only a single statement anyway.” Jun Xiaomo chuckled as she temporarily refrained from explaining Jiang Yutong’s matter to Ye Xiuwen, “Ah! That’s right. This senior has said that we can take everything here with us. Brother Ye, let’s take what we need. This senior’s cultivation level had been extremely high, and it would be a waste if we left anything here.”
Jun Xiaomo had a feeling that this entire cavern would vanish off the face of this earth once they left this place.
“Alright, since that’s the case, why not you go retrieve that black coloured stone first?” Ye Xiuwen pointed towards the object beside the little packrat as he said.
Demonite was a substance formed by the congealing of concentrated demonic energy. To a demonic cultivator, this was an extremely valuable form of nourishment.
“Mm, mm. I’ll do that.” Jun Xiaomo nodded as she made her way over to her little packrat.
Ye Xiuwen was a spiritual cultivator, and he naturally did not want to draw near to anything that was emanating concentrated amounts of demonic energy. Otherwise, he might face a backlash from the demonic energy.
Once Jun Xiaomo safely stowed away the Demonite, she took her little packrat along with her as she returned to Jiang Yutong’s chambers. Then, she discovered that Ye Xiuwen was currently looking curiously at a book on the bookshelf. The words on the book stated – Beast-taming Technique.
Beast-taming Technique? Jun Xiaomo rubbed her chin as she deliberated for a moment. Then, her face revealed a profound and mischievous smile.
Perhaps this might be a good thing…I was just fretting over how I would deal with Ke Xinwen and the others…