"Zhēnzūn, after you left the area, Du Yunfei stayed behind in the Liuhuo Sect to cultivate her skills. Because she had a single fire spiritual root of such high quality, she gradually stood out among her peers in the sect. Her alchemy talent was exceptional, as she could refine complex pills with ease, so she caught the attention of the new disciples and the elders alike. In the end, she was taken in as a disciple by Huo Yi Jūnshàng of Liuhuo Sect, and for a time she was enjoying limitless glory within the mountain gates.
After that, relying on her powerful backing and status, she aggressively gathered resources for herself and pushed her cultivation level to the late Qi Refining stage, becoming the top talent among the new disciples. But at that point, her hidden crimes were finally exposed to the light. She was found to have harmed several outstanding disciples within Liuhuo Sect, and someone even reported her actions directly to her own master.
The cultivator who reported her was ruthless and thorough in their pursuit. They produced an image recording stone of her killing fellow disciples and publicly swore a Heavenly Dao oath, identifying Du Yunfei as the murderer for all to see.
Du Yunfei didn't dare swear an oath to deny the charge. Huo Yi Jūnshàng was deeply disappointed in her character and drove her away from his side, sending her alone to a small, desolate mountain peak where she was only allowed to refine pills for the sect.
From then on, junior disciples she had bullied in the past frequently came to the peak to cause trouble for her. Du Yunfei was not stupid and knew her position was precarious. She compensated them with some of her refined pills and tried to smooth things over with her words.
But the companions of those who had lost their lives were not so easy to deal with or placate. They secretly sabotaged her again and again, disrupting her alchemy process and preventing her from completing the mandatory sect missions.
In the end, Du Yunfei schemed to kill those few troublesome disciples and then betrayed the sect once more, fleeing into the night."
Wei Zhengrong didn't embellish anything as he spoke. He calmly narrated Du Yunfei's experiences over the past hundred years, his voice steady as he laid out the facts.
"After escaping the sect, she became a loose cultivator, trading her pills for cultivation resources on the black market. She did live comfortably for a while on her own. Not long after, she successfully established her foundation. She then wandered through various cities, selling her pills to accumulate more resources for her path. After reaching the Golden Core stage, she had a dispute with a female cultivator and crippled the other party's face in a fit of anger.
After being captured by that female cultivator's father, she was nearly killed on the spot. Du Yunfei promised to refine Beauty Restoration Pills to restore the woman's appearance, which was how she managed to keep her life.
Because she could refine fifth grade pills while still at the Golden Core stage, she caught the eye of that woman's powerful family. After she successfully refined the Beauty Restoration Pills and proved her ability to the elders, the family detained her and forced her to specialize in alchemy solely for them.
Du Yunfei claimed that the higher her cultivation rose, the higher the grade of pills she could refine for them. She said that Nascent Soul Condensation Pills and Divine Transformation Pills were no problem at all. Because of that promise, she was kept in that second rate family, cultivating with their resources while refining pills day and night. Her cultivation grew extremely fast under those conditions, and in just a hundred years she charged straight into the Divine Transformation stage.
When she prepared to break free from that family and escape, their Void Refinement Ancestor branded a slave seal directly into her primordial soul. She completely fell into becoming that family's alchemy slave. From then on, her cultivation stopped advancing further. She couldn't escape, and she couldn't remove the heavy slave seal. Her life was worse than death itself."
As Jian Dan listened to the report, she could already imagine Du Yunfei's suffocating misery within that family. She wanted Du Yunfei to see hope, to feel like she was about to grasp it, and then be slammed back into the abyss by fate. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worthy of her own possession rebirth and the suffering she had endured.
"Du Yunfei's repeated falls into the dust all had the Hua family's handiwork behind them. Although the Tracker Division has not discovered other watchers in the area, they seem to know Du Yunfei's movements extremely well. I suspect the Hua family planted a Flower Seal on her at some point."
Wei Zhengrong voiced his speculation as he looked toward Jian Dan.
"Mhm, your guess is probably right about the seal. But Du Yunfei's Divine Transformation cultivation is a bit too high for my liking. Find a way to knock her back down to the Foundation Establishment stage," Jian Dan gave the cold order without even blinking her eyes.
"Yes, understood. I will see to it."
"There is more to report. When Du Yunfei was a loose cultivator before, we discovered that her fortune was very strange and skewed. Whenever she teamed up with others for a hunt, she always reaped all the benefits while the others were injured or even died. She herself always managed to avoid any real danger. The whole situation was extremely eerie."
At this point, Wei Zhengrong frowned, his sharp brows knitting together in thought.
"Hmph. She cultivates by plundering other people's resources and luck. Pass the word down to the division. As long as you have the ability to intercept her resources, take them for yourselves. Treat it as the harvest from your surveillance work.
But the premise is not to be overly greedy and not to alert Du Yunfei to your presence. After all, inside she is an old monster."
The old monster Jian Dan referred to in her warning included Du Yunfei's three lifetimes of knowledge and experience, along with her sharp survival instincts and cultivation experience. She didn't want her own people to capsize in a shallow ditch over such a person. That wouldn't be worth it for the sect.
"Zhēnzūn, please rest assured. The people monitoring her are rotated every ten years. We won't let the same person watch her for too long to avoid detection."
"That is good. This is my personal matter. You have handled it well so far."
Jian Dan smiled and tossed Wei Zhengrong a storage bag. Inside was a set of silver battle armor, an immortal sword, and an array plate, counted as his compensation for the extra work.
Wei Zhengrong happily put the storage bag away in his own space. Anything Zhēnzūn gave was naturally good stuff of the highest quality. If he had to exchange these items with his own sect points, it would cost at least seven figures. He had saved a huge amount of effort again.
"Is everything peaceful inside and outside the sect? How has Heavenly Sword Sect developed over these hundred years while I was focused on my path?"
Jian Dan took a slow sip of her spiritual tea and asked about Heavenly Sword Sect's current state.
"Replying to Zhēnzūn, Heavenly Sword Sect's development over the past hundred years has been steady and prosperous. The newly recruited disciples have all cultivated diligently in their respective peaks. Those with excellent spiritual roots have already stepped into the Golden Core stage, which means they haven't disappointed the early nurturing provided by the sect.
Over these hundred years, we have successively opened small sect realms for Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages, giving qualified disciples chances to train their combat skills. Those at Divine Transformation and above enter the Rubik's Cube Realm on their own for their trials. Overall combat strength has improved significantly.
In alchemy, artifact refining, array crafting, and talisman drawing, we have cultivated several batches of outstanding disciples. We have placed orders with the Alchemy Sect, Array Sect, Artifact Sect, and Talisman Sect for finished products to supplement our stocks. We have also exchanged blood insects with the Beast Taming Sect. All the spirit beasts obtained have been retrieved safely. Some non sword cultivators have contracted spirit beasts to enhance their combat power.
Over these hundred years, various large and small secret realms have appeared in the surrounding territories. The sect arranged groups of disciples to explore them, gaining quite a bit of resources for the treasury, all of which were invested back into sect development.
Recently, another secret realm is about to emerge. Disciples from the Intelligence Division are already guarding the opening. The news they sent back says it's a large secret realm. Once it fully opens, they will inform the sect."