The Heavenly Demon Sect, Grand Hall.
"How did it go?"
The Holy Lord of the Heavenly Demon Sect sat high upon the main seat, while a shadowy figure knelt below.
"The subordinate who failed has already been eliminated."
The voice was cold and emotionless, clearly not the same person who had contacted the Holy Lord last time.
"Hmph!"
The Holy Lord let out a cold snort and cursed, "I sent two Tribulation Transcendence experts, yet they couldn't even deal with a single Golden Core cultivator. Useless trash!"
Without waiting for the shadow to reply, he continued, "You're no different. If you make another mistake, go to the Holy Sect's altar and offer your life yourself."
"This subordinate understands."
The shadow lowered its head. Hidden within the darkness, its eyes brimmed with hatred.
...
At the same time, within the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons, another conspiracy was quietly taking shape.
"Let those idiots from the Heavenly Demon Sect keep testing the waters of the Heavenly Gate Sect."
The Hall Master, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man seated at the head, wore a mocking smile on his plain face.
"When the time comes, you may lend a hand, but under no circumstances are you to expose our identities."
Standing below him were four figures of wildly different appearances—the old, the young, the sick, and the crippled.
They were the Four Great Protectors of the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons, fearsome fiends that made the Righteous Path Alliance deeply wary. Every one of them was steeped in blood and countless crimes.
"Heh… that bitch has already ascended to the Immortal Realm. With the four of us acting together, are we really incapable of crushing a mere Heavenly Gate Sect?"
The one who spoke was Old. His face was as withered as tree bark, etched with deep grooves carved by the passage of time.
"Foolish!"
The rebuke came from Young. He looked like a harmless child, yet the number of righteous cultivators who had died at his hands exceeded the total of those currently active in the Righteous Path Alliance.
"If the Heavenly Gate Sect were that easy to break, the Hall Master wouldn't have sent those fools from the Heavenly Demon Sect to test them."
"Cough… cough… let's not say it like that…"
The Sick One spoke up. The moment he opened his mouth, it was clear he was a frail old invalid. He stood in the corner of the hall, far from everyone else.
Yet this seemingly weak figure had killed more people than the entire Hall of Ten Thousand Demons combined.
He was plague incarnate.
"Ahem… Old only just took his position… ahem… he doesn't yet understand how terrifying the Heavenly Gate Sect truly is…"
Despite his aged appearance, Old was actually the youngest present. Young, on the other hand, was even older than the Hall Master himself.
"Old—"
The one who spoke this time was Crippled. He was missing arms and legs, had no nose, his left eye was blind, his right ear deaf, and half his mouth had been blown apart, exposing white bone and teeth.
In short, his appearance embodied misery.
But—
"In the beginning, I was only blind in one eye."
"Then what happened?" Old asked curiously.
"After that bitch ascended, I went to the foot of Heavenly Peak…"
Crippled lowered his head. He didn't want to say any more.
"…"
Old fell silent. Among those present, his cultivation was the weakest, still half a step away from undergoing the Demon Tribulation.
Meanwhile, the other four had all passed their Demon Tribulations a thousand years ago. Their strength spoke for itself.
"In any case, I've received word that the Heavenly Gate Sect has taken in a new disciple. Go and meet him. But even if you die, you must not expose your identities—"
Seated above them, the Hall Master swept a dark gaze across the four. After a brief pause, he said in a heavy voice, "What will happen otherwise, you all understand better than I do."
"Yes."
Four voices responded in unison within the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons.
After a thousand years of silence, the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons had finally begun to stir, harboring ambitions of rising again and reclaiming its former glory.
They intended to create a world without the Heavenly Gate Sect.
...
Abyss Demon Sect.
"Have the remaining little fiends of the Heavenly Gate Sect ascended yet?"
"Reporting to the Sect Master—not yet."
"Then… our sect will remain in seclusion for another thousand years."
As the Sect Master's resigned voice echoed through the hall, the Abyss Demon Sect—once a dominant force in the cultivation world, with battle achievements rivaling those of the Heaven-Defying Demon Emperor—fell back into silence once more.
...
Myriad Demon Ridge.
"If you don't want to die, then rein in your ambitions."
The Qiuqiu Monkey Clan chief, whom Ai Yueli called Granny, spoke bluntly to the current leader of Myriad Demon Ridge.
"Is there really no way, Aunt Qiu?" the leader asked.
The current leader of Myriad Demon Ridge was a Great Peng bird who had cultivated for several thousand years and was well acquainted with Granny.
"You can try—"
As if recalling something, Granny glanced at the Great Peng's golden wings and added, "By the way, Little Five has been hunting nearby. She's quite fond of roasted chicken wings."
"Sigh…"
The Great Peng let out a helpless sigh. "I understand, but my position as leader is only in name. I can't control those beneath me."
He wasn't lying. Though he held the title of leader due to having the greatest strength, that advantage was limited. Beneath him were several clans whose strength rivaled his own.
If those ambitious ones truly banded together, even the Great Peng clan would be doomed.
"Don't worry. I have a plan."
Granny quietly let out a sigh of relief. The situation she had feared most had not come to pass.
"Please enlighten us, Aunt Qiu," the Great Peng said, adopting an attentive, respectful stance.
"Didn't you bring in a group of Succubi? First, do this and that… then follow it up with this and that…"
For the sake of preserving the Demons' bloodline, and to protect her own Qiuqiu Monkey Clan, Granny was truly going all out.
That said, all she had done was leak the fact that there was now an extra Ye Ling within the Heavenly Gate Sect. At worst, when she ran into the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden again, she would just get beaten up once.
But if she did nothing at all, the Demons might truly be wiped out.
Recently, for reasons unknown, a massive number of demonic creatures had migrated from the west into Myriad Demon Ridge, greatly boosting its overall strength. As a result, the hawkish faction within Myriad Demon Ridge had begun clamoring for a counterattack against the Cultivation World.
But what truly loomed over Myriad Demon Ridge had never been the Righteous Path Alliance. It was terrifying reclusive sects like the Heavenly Gate Sect.
As long as the Heavenly Gate Sect still existed, any plan by Myriad Demon Ridge to invade the Cultivation World would be like carrying a lantern into a latrine. Pure suicide.
"Is this really feasible?"
The Great Peng's bird-like face showed an unmistakably human expression of doubt. It wasn't that he distrusted Granny. The plan itself just sounded far too outrageous.
"Relax. I've observed that kid. He's steady," Granny said with complete confidence. Then she added, "If those people are truly dead set on fighting, let them go out and fight. Just don't do anything stupid."
"Understood, Aunt Qiu."
Though still uneasy, the Great Peng nodded in the end, resolving to carry out Granny's plan.
"I'm only bothering with this because your father once pursued me," Granny said flatly.
If the Great Peng hadn't been the descendant of an old acquaintance, she would have come over, beaten him first, and only then started reasoning with him.
After spending so much time around the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden, whether human or demon, one tended to grow fond of solving problems in the simplest and most direct way possible.
"Th-thank you… Aunt Qiu," the Great Peng replied awkwardly.
Her words made his chest tighten, but since Granny truly had come to help, he swallowed the bitterness and said nothing more.
"I'm leaving. If fate allows it, we'll meet again in the Demon Realm."
Granny departed without a sound, leaving only those words behind.
"Hah… the Demon Realm?"
The Great Peng shook his head, then let out a sharp cry. It was time to summon the strongest members of the Great Peng clan and discuss what was to come.