Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

What the Upper Cultivators were like, the secrets of Tribulation, the thoughts of the Master of Dao... these were issues for Lü Yang to worry about. For Minor Metal, there was not much to agonize over.

After all, those matters were too lofty and distant.

Although he could now perceive the Sea of Suffering and see the indomitable Great Dao of Tribulation, his Heart Spirit was focused more on himself.

"Right now, I’m no different from a Heart Demon," he thought. "Cultivators achieve Seeking Gold to be called Perfected Lords. Now, perhaps I can call myself a True Demon."

Minor Metal sensed the changes, feeling that the Heart Demon’s Five Divine Techniques he previously wielded had all been elevated to a higher level, transforming into methods akin to Fruit Position Imagery.

More importantly, his mind remained clear and conscious. However, this was not the end.

"I no longer have a Soul or Spiritual Space. I am an entirely illusory existence, surviving solely by relying on my true consciousness to control the Heart Demon’s body," he analyzed internally. "This is my current method of Cultivation. Controlling the Heart Demon with my true consciousness naturally allows me to unleash its power. But the deeper the control, the easier it is to be influenced by it. I could be unknowingly eroded until my true self dissipates. Instead of gaining autonomy, I’d be reduced to a Heart Demon’s puppet.

"Every action is Cultivation. If one day I can completely control the Heart Demon with my true consciousness without being influenced by it, perhaps I can step into a brand-new Realm."

Minor Metal came to this realization with a sense of joy, as this was exactly what he wanted!

"The position of True Demon is certainly good, but how can I just stop here? I should continue to advance bravely. Now that the path ahead is visible, it is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures!"

Right at this moment, a mighty sound of crashing waves suddenly echoed from the sky. With a deafening boom, a boundless Celestial River, towering over ten thousand feet high, cascaded down, filling the heavens and the Earth. On the surface of the river, a stunning woman dressed as a noble lady walked over, her hands on her hips, laughing heartily.

"Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!" With three words of praise carrying a hint of admiration and joy, World Purger Fei Xue looked at Minor Metal with satisfaction. "I didn’t expect you to encounter such fortune," she said with a smile.

"Minor Metal greets the Perfected Lord." He swept his sleeves and maintained the etiquette of a disciple.

Seeing this, World Purger Fei Xue restrained her smile. She cupped her hands in return, treating him as an equal, and responded solemnly, "Xue Feihong greets you, Daoist."

Before her voice faded, the cry of a sword rang out from afar.

CLANG CLANG!

The sword arrived with the sound. In the next second, a magnificent Sword Light tore through the void and crashed heavily onto Minor Metal, splitting him vertically in half from top to bottom.

However, the severed Minor Metal didn’t panic at all. Instead, he swayed his body on the spot and simply split into two, transforming into two identical Minor Metals. They chuckled simultaneously, "This junior admires Elder Gangxing’s Sword Light and Sword Intent, but to kill me, I’m afraid it’s still a bit lacking."

In the South, on Zenith Cliff.

True Monarch Gangxing frowned slightly. Because he had forcibly elevated his Position to save Demon Subduing Zhenren earlier, a sickly pallor still lingered on his face. Because of this, he hadn’t elevated his Position for the sword strike he just launched at Minor Metal. But even so, most Cultivators at the Early Stage of Golden Core would find it hard to block his sword.

Yet Minor Metal had blocked it.

"What kind of monster is this?" he wondered. "He clearly has no Fruit, yet he possesses a True Monarch Position, and his Abilities and methods even surpass those of an ordinary Perfected Lord of the Golden Core..."

As True Monarch Gangxing pondered this, he began to find Minor Metal troublesome. On the surface, however, he couldn’t show any weakness. He immediately said coldly, "I wondered who it was, but it’s just a disciple of the Demon Sect, a treacherous creature. Xue Feihong, are you sure you truly want to harbor this favored disciple of yours?"

Speaking up to this point, his voice abruptly grew louder. The vast Immortal Pivot, Dao Court, Pure Land, and Overseas regions all heard his voice: "You must know that anyone killed by this Demon will not have their Soul left behind!

"Zhengde’s soul has already scattered completely!"

Before his words had even faded, the Perfected Lords who had initially been watching for amusement immediately changed their expressions. Minor Metal instantly felt himself become the target of everyone’s hostility.

"As expected..." Minor Metal thought, not surprised in the slightest. Heart Demons fed on Souls, so fundamentally, they stood on the completely opposite side of Cultivators. Not to mention, he also possessed consciousness.

It would be one thing if he were a chaotic entity, but a conscious, intelligent Heart Demon had every capability to become the nightmare of every Golden Core Perfected Lord.

"With my Cultivation, as long as my strength is sufficient, even the Immortal trait of those at the Middle Stage of Golden Core will likely become a joke in front of me," he assessed. "After all, being so-called Immortal merely means being able to instantly return to one’s Position after reincarnation. But those killed by me won’t even have the chance to reincarnate..."

At the same time, resonant voices had already begun to ring out.

"Fei Xue, this person cannot be spared!"

"A Heart Demon turning real will inevitably bring chaos to the Immortal Pivot!"

"He must be killed!"

When it came to a critical matter involving their own safety, the Perfected Lords of the Immortal Pivot saw things very clearly. Voices even transmitted from the Perfected Lords within the Stain Sect.

Seeing this scene, Minor Metal turned back to look at World Purger Fei Xue. "Well?"

She still had her hands on her hips, completely ignoring the external criticism. With a faint smile, she said, "If you’re afraid, it’s not like I can’t protect you."

"...There’s no need." Minor Metal shook his head. Regarding this Perfected Lord who had supported him since his Immortal Spirit period, he believed he understood her personality and style quite well.

To sum it up in one sentence: World Purger Fei Xue was wicked at heart.

"If I beg the Perfected Lord to help me now, she would probably agree, and then find a way to sell me for a good price, simply because I don’t suit her taste," Minor Metal mused with a smile.

After all, even putting aside the weighing of interests, he didn’t actually want to seek her help. In this aspect, his thoughts had always aligned with hers.

That was—

"Thank you for your profound favor, Perfected Lord, but in the end, one still has to rely on oneself!"

Before his voice faded, Minor Metal’s figure was already fleeing Beyond the Heavens as Flying Light, while an irrepressible look of appreciation surfaced once again in World Purger Fei Xue’s eyes.

"Treacherous creature, you think you can leave?" At the same time, seeing Minor Metal’s Flying Light soaring through the air, on the verge of escaping the Immortal Pivot, True Monarch Gangxing immediately slashed out a Sword Light, attempting to intercept him.

However, in the next second.

"Roll back!" The boundless Celestial River surged in reverse, sprawling across the firmament. With just a single wave, it swallowed and shattered the Sword Light, buying precious time for Minor Metal to escape the Immortal Pivot.

"Fei Xue! You..." True Monarch Gangxing’s face instantly sank.

"You what?" World Purger Fei Xue sneered. "It’s just a soul scattering, so stop trying to pressure me with the Sword Pavilion’s ways. If you get killed, you only have your own lack of skill to blame.

"Besides, the source of the Heart Demon isn’t on Minor Metal.

"The Profound Spirit Realm is right outside. That Immortal Monarch of Tribulation is the true instigator of the Heart Demon. If you really want to resolve the Heart Demon issue, you might as well go ask him."

After speaking, she directly retracted the Celestial River and rode her Flying Light back to the Sea of Clouds. Meanwhile, Fortune was spacing out, his soul wandering beyond the heavens, having not yet regained his senses.

"Minor Metal became a Perfected Lord?" he thought. "Wasn’t his Dao path completely cut off?! How did he become a Perfected Lord? Becoming a Perfected Lord is nowhere near that easy! I spent five thousand years and still haven’t returned to my Position... Ah?"

He didn’t snap out of it until World Purger Fei Xue descended. Subconsciously, he blurted out, "Great Undertaking has already retrieved the fragment. I will be able to resume Seeking Gold in a few days."

"Oh." World Purger Fei Xue’s expression didn’t change upon hearing this. She merely cast an indifferent glance at Fortune, then walked into her bedchamber without looking back and sealed its main doors.

In an instant, Fortune’s expression twisted. "Am I truly inferior to a junior?" he thought. "What a joke!"

From that single glance of World Purger Fei Xue, he seemed to see disdain and contempt. For a moment, his mental state collapsed, and traces of black energy even seeped out from the depths of his eyes.

A Heart Demon was about to be born!

At the Beiji Exorcism Institute.

Minor Metal arrived here once again. Looking at the young Daoist sitting in the seat of honor, he bowed respectfully. "Thank you for bestowing the Dao upon me, Immortal Monarch. I am endlessly grateful."

"You are too polite, Daoist." Upon hearing this, Lü Yang opened his eyes and looked at Minor Metal with a strange gaze. However, a thought couldn’t help but sprout in his mind: "Should I just take in my martial uncle?"