“Does the imperial court know about this?”
“Of course they do,” Lu Zheng nodded. “Last year, during the floods, the court already discovered traces of demonic heretics. Later, Daoist Yuting sent the corpses of two demonic cultivators to the Anomaly Suppression Office. That’s just what I know of, who knows how much more there is that I’m unaware of.”
“So, the Anomaly Suppression Office should have measures to deal with these demons?”
“Exactly!”
The one who spoke wasn’t anyone present but the newly arrived Du Huanzhen.
“Sister Du?”
“Hey!” Du Huanzhen responded to Lu Zheng’s address with a cheerful smile, then greeted everyone before continuing, “The court is already aware of Wuxin True Desire Demon Ancestor. The imperial ancestor and several Buddhist and Daoist masters have clashed with him twice in the past year and defeated him both times. However, as a reincarnated heavenly demon, he’s extremely difficult to kill and managed to escape each time.”
“Wow!”
Everyone gasped in unison, stunned by this revelation.
“Sister, please sit. What brought you to the peach forest today?” Lu Zheng invited Du Huanzhen to sit, offering her plum wine and cherries with grapes.
At the same time, Lu Zheng teased Xin Zhanting, “Sister Du knows all this, how come you know nothing?”
Xin Zhanting replied irritably, “My job is to stop underworld ghosts from causing chaos in the mortal world, not to chase demons all over the place. Of course I wouldn’t know!”
Meanwhile, Du Huanzhen accepted the wine glass without hesitation, took a sip, and said, “I followed the traces of Daoist Rong Song and that demon. Yesterday, I received a report from the constables that many people had died in Hongshan Village, with black smoke lingering in the clouds. When I went to investigate, I found remnants of demonic energy and Daoist aura, indicating a master had stopped the demon’s evil deeds. So, I followed the trail of the battle here.”
Du Huanzhen popped a grape into her mouth and smiled, “I didn’t expect that by the time I arrived, you’d already dealt with the demon.”
Glancing around, Du Huanzhen inwardly sighed at the demon’s bad luck. It had stumbled into this gathering of cultivators in the peach forest. Even without Lu Zheng’s decisive blow, the combined strength of so many extraordinary individuals would have reduced it to ashes. She recalled that when Lu Zheng reported the Black Wheel King incident to the Anomaly Suppression Office, though she wasn’t present, she later heard he had made significant progress in his cultivation. Dealing with a demon of a mere two hundred years’ cultivation was child’s play for him.
“This demon wasn’t highly cultivated, but it was quite cunning and hard to kill,” Lu Zheng remarked.
If even such a minor demon was this difficult to handle, Wuxin True Desire Demon Ancestor would be far tougher. In the southern border battle years ago, several great masters had to join forces and pay a heavy price to defeat him. Now, after decades of recovery and learning about the current world, he’d be even harder to kill.
Du Huanzhen shook her head. “If only a celestial immortal from the upper realms would descend, they could easily suppress that old demon.”
“Absolutely. Whether it’s the Nine Heavens Thunder God Puhua Tianzun or the Pure Origin Wondrous Dao True Lord, dealing with demons would be a matter of a single move,” Xin Zhanting nodded in agreement.
Zhu Yushan shook his head. “The upper realm immortals have already left their legacies. The world is filled with spiritual energy. If we can’t even eliminate a heavenly demon’s divine will and still need to call on immortals for help, what right do we have to cultivate qi, practice the arts, and seek immortality?”
Guangyue nodded. “Exactly. We cultivators should rely on our own strength.”
Yuanjing smirked. “Says the Buddhist who makes grand vows.”
Guangyue’s eyes widened in anger. “Our Rizhao Temple doesn’t make grand vows!”
Lu Zheng quickly intervened, “Stop arguing, let’s hear more from Sister Du.”
Du Huanzhen nodded. “Although we haven’t killed that demon, he’s been severely wounded. It’s said he’s fled beyond the borders of the Great Jing Dynasty.”
“They can even know that?” Lu Zheng asked.
“Of course. This was deduced by several seniors at the Imperial Observatory skilled in celestial calculations,” Du Huanzhen explained. “Though the demon is powerful, he’s only a reincarnated divine will, so determining his life or death and general whereabouts is still possible.”
“Where did he go?”
“The southern border!”
Lu Zheng, “…”
Well, alright, he’s gone full circle back to where he came from, or perhaps to a new place? Honestly, though Wuxin True Desire Demon Ancestor, as a heavenly demon from the upper realms, sounds impressive just by name, why is it that every time Lu Zheng hears of him, it’s about his defeats?
Lu Zheng: (???)
Then again, this world has long been dominated by the Chinese pantheon of immortals, and the environment is rich with spiritual energy. For the demonic path to invade and reshape the world would be like playing on nightmare difficulty. From the current situation, it seems Wuxin True Desire Demon Ancestor struggles to change the status quo. Leaving a legacy before his reincarnated body perishes would already be an achievement, and who knows how long that legacy would last?
Even if a few more heavenly demons were reincarnated, they’d likely fail to shift the world’s balance. But this had little to do with Lu Zheng. His focus was on quietly developing his strength until he could slap a heavenly demon to death, even if its true form descended.
“Though the demon is now in the southern border, he hasn’t given up on Great Jing. Besides the agents he left behind, recently some demons have been causing trouble in the Central Plains, collaborating with those chaotic southern border cults, trying to stir up trouble in the southern provinces,” Du Huanzhen said. “As a result, the Anomaly Suppression Office and the military have concentrated much of their forces in the south, leaving the Central Plains short-handed, occasionally allowing the enemy to take advantage.”
“Of course, the Central Plains are full of talented individuals and wandering cultivators, so no major incidents have occurred. Take Hongshan Village, for example. Didn’t Daoist Rong Song handle it?”
Rong Song waved his hand. “If I hadn’t run into Brother Lu, I’d have had to lead it to Yizhou Prefecture.”
Du Huanzhen smiled. “That would still count as resolving it.”
…
With the interruption settled and Daoist Rong Song and Du Huanzhen joining, Lu Zheng clapped his hands, announcing the gathering would continue.
Music resumed! Dancing followed!
Du Huanzhen unceremoniously took Xin Zhanting’s spot and quickly learned mahjong rules under Liu Qingyan’s guidance, eagerly joining three other women in a game. Rong Song, meeting everyone for the first time, stayed with Lu Zheng, observing their chess match.
He watched Lu Zheng and Zhu Yushan play, silently nodding as he refrained from commenting. Soon, he was drawn to the verbal sparring between Guangyue and Yuanjing nearby. Good heavens, one was chanting about the Golden Radiance of the Tathagata, the other about the Dragon and Tiger of Pure Yang. Were these two masters?
Then…
Rong Song squinted, feeling the sun was a bit harsh, stinging his eyes. Since when did the Buddhist and Daoist sects produce such unworthy disciples? Did their masters know?
