Li Xuanxiao hesitated for a fraction of a second before allowing his pupils to pool into liquid gold once more, releasing a microscopically controlled, localized wave of pure Buddhist energy. Mindful of the dense crowd of wandering cultivators nearby, he compressed the divine aura within a razor-thin perimeter around his own body, preventing it from radiating outward and causing a scene.
Immortal Master Lingwuzi's expression transitioned from brief astonishment to an enlightened, deeply impressed smile. "So it truly is as I suspected! To think that an absolute anomaly capable of a simultaneous Dual Cultivation of Buddhism and Martial Arts actually walks this earth!"
Back when he had extracted the troublesome Qilin tracking mark from Li Xuanxiao, his 「Clear Radiance Bright Pupils」 had caught a fleeting glimpse of high-tier Buddhist energy circulating in the young man's meridians. He had privately theorized about the possibility back then, but seeing Li Xuanxiao casually manifest it on command definitively turned his wildest hypothesis into concrete fact.
Liang Jianqiu's jaw tightened slightly in sheer amazement. It wasn't that the senior hadn't harbored his own suspicions. During their previous joint mission, his seasoned senses had faintly picked up the lingering, tranquil resonance of Buddhist Dharma in the air. Coupled with the fact that the kid had somehow bypassed the Ancient Martial Mystic Court's rigorous, standardized admission cycles entirely through an irregular recommendation, Liang Jianqiu knew the boy was packing some serious, rule-breaking cards.
However, his theories had never ventured toward the dual-path territory. It was simply too shocking for a traditional martial artist to comprehend. The reality of the situation proved that he had ultimately been far too conservative in his estimates.
With a seamless tilt of his head, Li Xuanxiao deactivated the technique. The brilliant gold vanished, his eyes reverting to an innocent, deep black as the holy pressure completely evaporated from the air.
"Venerable Seniors, do you believe my intelligence data now?"
Both Liang Jianqiu and Lingwuzi nodded in unison. The Buddhist path, much like the esoteric arts of the Dao, possessed reality-warping miracles that defied conventional martial logic. If the kid was sweeping the terrain using an advanced Buddhist eye-technique, his ability to instantly differentiate between a human crowd and an encroaching threat suddenly made perfect sense.
"However, a critical logical error remains," Liang Jianqiu pressed, his brow furrowing deeper. "Even if we operate under the assumption that the Devil Race possesses an inherent, large-scale spatial teleportation technique... where did the original human citizenry of these empty cities go? Were thousands of mortals simultaneously warped away?"
Lingwuzi fell into a heavy, silent contemplation, stroking his white beard.
The senior was right. If the entities Li Xuanxiao saw swarming the city streets weren't humans, where did the actual population vanish to? Furthermore, if the occupiers were just invading monsters, why would they leave behind a perfectly preserved layout of active human life—wet ink, burning stoves, and fresh produce?
Assimilation... infectious vectors... zombie outbreaks...
Li Xuanxiao's mind spun through a thoroughly modern catalogue of pop-culture tropes. As a transmigrator, his conceptual boundaries were lightyears ahead of these traditional, narrow-minded natives who were bound strictly by their historical texts. He had devoured enough dystopian cinema and biological-horror thrillers in his past life to recognize a pattern when he saw one.
"Seniors, I have a rather radical, bold hypothesis..." Li Xuanxiao began, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Is there a slight possibility... that the monsters I observed swarming the streets were the original human citizens?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Liang Jianqiu, Lingwuzi, and even the starstruck Wu Jiangming locked their eyes onto him simultaneously.
To say Li Xuanxiao's imagination was advanced for these ancient locals would be an understatement.
"Wait... you mean those entities were transformed from humans?!" Wu Jiangming's eyes bugged out, his face contorting into an incredibly dramatic mask of sheer disbelief.
[Insert Confused Nick Young / Question Mark Meme.gif]
Liang Jianqiu and Lingwuzi merely stared at Li Xuanxiao with profound, unreadable intensity. To cook up a theory that twisted... you look more like a heretical creature than he does!
The senior experts lapsed into an uneasy silence, meticulously running the grim numbers of Li Xuanxiao's biological-warfare theory through their heads. When confronting the Devil Race—a volatile, cosmic anomaly that fundamentally rejected the biological baselines of Humans, wild Yao beasts, and civilized Demons alike—relying on conventional martial textbooks was a recipe for extinction. Though Li Xuanxiao's words violently shattered their cognitive boundaries, they couldn't find a logical reason to dismiss it.
A century ago, during the catastrophic Descent of the Heavenly Abyss, the Devil Race had manifested as an existential apex predator, viewing both Humans and the Demon Race as mere livestock. Their campaign was purely apocalyptic, leaving ruined empires and extinct lineages in their wake. Back then, the combined alliances were too busy desperately throwing their lives into the meat grinder just to repel the invasion to conduct systematic scientific research on the enemy's biology.
Only the scholars of Wenyuan Pavilion had quietly salvaged harvested Devil corpses over the decades, attempting to reverse-engineer their evolutionary origin from cold tissue samples.
After agonizing over the data, the two grand masters realized they couldn't produce a definitive answer on their own.
Liang Jianqiu exhaled slowly. "I will immediately relay this specific hypothesis to the Council of Elders. It is... an incredibly unexpected, vital line of strategic thought."
Lingwuzi chuckled softly, shaking his head with a trace of self-deprecation. "It seems this old Daoist is truly becoming a relic of a bygone era. The cognitive flexibility of the younger generation is something to behold; you possess the courage to completely dismantle ingrained conventions."
Wu Jiangming scratched his head in pure confusion, piping up, "Uh... I'm also a part of the younger generation. How come my brain didn't think of that?"
Lingwuzi let out a sharp tsk, shooting his disciple a look that practically shouted: How dare you compare your single-digit IQ to a freak like Li Xuanxiao?
[Insert Disappointed Parent Side-Eye.gif]
While the seniors were admiring his intellect, Li Xuanxiao's internal expression was turning increasingly grim. He was vividly remembering how fast things spiraled out of control in those zombie movies once an infection vector went airborne or waterborne. City after city fell like dominoes before the authorities could even establish a perimeter.
Granted, if it were merely a highly contagious virus, a powerful cultivation sect could easily deploy isolation barriers or scorched-earth arrays to quarantine the source.
But the terrifying wild card here was that the Devil Race possessed a localized, instantaneous group-teleportation hack. This meant they could bypass physical walls entirely, dropping their infective payload anywhere they pleased without being restricted by geographic borders.
An instantaneous spatial jump coupled with an absolute, rapid assimilation vector...
If his pop-culture hypothesis was 100% accurate, the Human Race possessed virtually zero viable strategic countermeasures to stop the exponential expansion of the Devil Race.
Li Xuanxiao agonized over the apocalyptic scenario for a long moment before his practical, shameless nature reasserted itself, letting out a breath of relief.
Relax, I'm definitely overthinking this, he comforted himself. If the Devil Race were truly that fundamentally broken and unrestrained, they would have achieved total global dominion a century ago. Why would they bother sneaking around the remote borders of the Northern Region, playing a covert game of hide-and-seek to slowly infect mortal outposts?
It was highly probable that while they could teleport and assimilate, both mechanics were bound by severe, balancing limitations—perhaps draining massive amounts of energy or requiring specific cosmic conditions. It couldn't possibly be an infinite, unpatched cheat code.
Li Xuanxiao smoothly articulated his reassuring counter-analysis to the masters, earning immediate nods of approval from Liang Jianqiu and Lingwuzi.
"Even so, a balanced, restricted spatial jump is still more than enough to give our supreme commands a massive migraine..." Liang Jianqiu sighed. "The strategic initiative rests entirely in their hands. Because their landing coordinates are completely randomized, we cannot position defensive garrisons in advance."
"That is indeed a massive pain in the ass," Li Xuanxiao thought, stroking his clean chin. A high-intensity, manual search operation of this scale by elite cultivators simply wasn't sustainable over the long term. And as they had just established, the enemy didn't have to limit their drop zones to the north—the entire Divine Land was on the chopping block.
"Can we consider reverse-engineering and mass-producing Wenyuan Pavilion's tracking gear?" Li Xuanxiao suggested, his mind shifting toward automating the security grid so he could go back to peaceful farming.
If they could optimize the Demonic Sense Spirit Beads to vastly amplify their tracking radius and distribute them to every major mortal empire below, they could create an early-warning radar web. At the very least, it would prevent a repeat of the historical tragedy where an empire wakes up completely infested without warning.
Liang Jianqiu grimaced. "The theory is sound, but the raw materials required to manufacture those tracking beads are harvested directly from Devil tissue. Our inventory is practically bone-dry."
Lingwuzi's eyes suddenly gleamed with a calculating, sharp light as he shifted his gaze meaningfully back toward Li Xuanxiao. "Perhaps we can innovate a different path altogether. Tracking the corruption of the Abyss doesn't strictly require dead Devil components..."
The old Daoist let out a knowing hum. Didn't the radar capability Li Xuanxiao had just displayed using his personal Buddhist technique completely leave the standard tracking artifacts in the absolute dust?
Liang Jianqiu caught the implication almost instantly, his eyes widening. Of course!
The blistering, logic-defying speed at which Li Xuanxiao had mapped out the regional cities was something their entire squad had witnessed firsthand. If they could find a high-tier array master or a spiritual craftsman to somehow anchor or solidify the essence of Li Xuanxiao's Buddhist eye-technique into a mass-producible talisman or spiritual tool, they could completely bypass the material bottleneck of using enemy corpses!
Li Xuanxiao's smile instantly froze on his handsome face.
[Insert Chuckles I'm in Danger Meme.gif]
Wait a minute... an honorary contribution of data is fine, but you old geezers better not be planning to turn me into a human battery for a nationwide surveillance grid! My DVP farming schedule is already fully booked!