"The demon race has been extinct for a thousand years!" Li Nanyi’s voice rose sharply, his sword tassel swaying violently with his agitation. "How could there be demon qi in a place like the Blackwater Marsh? Li Nanzhu, even your lies must have limits!"
Li Nanzhu didn't rush to argue. She simply took a memory stone from her storage bag and tapped it with a sliver of spiritual energy.
"See for yourself."
The memory stone glowed brightly, projecting an image that made everyone present catch their breath.
Even through the memory stone, the thick demon qi was palpable. Demon qi and evil qi were fundamentally different substances, easily distinguishable from one another.
The tentacles on the mother nest and the horrific eyes upon them proved that the evil cultivators were indeed using people for experiments!
"They were indeed feeding an evil entity," Rong Yuying added. "My Hehuan Sect disciples were captured specifically to be bled for its nourishment. I just didn't expect..."
The crowd watched the footage from the memory stone with grim expressions. They hadn't expected what Li Nanzhu and the others said to be true; the evil cultivators were actually causing such a massive disturbance.
"If you still don't believe it..." Jiang Yifan expressionlessly took a demon qi crystal from his robe, and black, mist-like demon qi immediately churned in his palm. "This is the evidence. The evil cultivators are attempting to open a passage to the demon realm."
"Impossible!" Elder Yan's face changed drastically. "Have they gone mad? They actually want to release the demon race?"
"If it's evil cultivators... it's not entirely impossible." Pei Ji's voice was low, his gaze fixed on the demon qi crystal in Jiang Yifan's hand. "They were always a bunch of lunatics."
Faint wisps of black qi swirled around the surface of that crystal. Even from several feet away, everyone could feel the malevolent aura contained within—it wasn't ordinary evil qi, but true demon qi, a primordial power from the demon realm.
"This..." Li Nanyi’s face turned pale, yet he still forced a rebuttal. "The demon race was sealed a millennium ago, and even the demon realm passages were completely barred. How could they..."
"But the facts are right before our eyes," Feng Weilan interrupted coldly. "If you of the Sword Heart Sect don't believe it, you're welcome to go underground and look for yourselves—if you can still find an entrance."
Elder Yan's expression was as dark as stagnant water. He reached out to take the crystal, but the moment his fingertips touched the surface, he jerked back as if he had been burned.
"It is true demon qi..." his voice tight. "And the purity is extremely high."
These words hit everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer.
Elder Hua's brow furrowed. "Where did the evil cultivators get demon qi? Could it be..."
"They found some remnant rift to the demon realm," Jiang Yifan said coldly. "Or, they created one themselves."
"Absurd!" Elder Yan barked. "How could a demon realm passage be so easily opened? Even if they found a way, they would need a massive amount of energy to sustain it—"
He suddenly cut himself off, his gaze sweeping over the marks on the ground where spiritual energy had blasted the earth, his frown deepening.
Li Nanzhu’s heart skipped a beat, but she knew the spirit stones had already been cleared away. Even if the other party intended to search, they wouldn't find anything.
"In that case," Cang Dongqing lightly stroked her sword tassel, her voice soft. "Dongqing is merely curious... since the situation was so critical, why didn't you notify the other sects first?"
"Exactly!" Li Nanyi chimed in quickly. "If you had informed everyone earlier, maybe the evil cultivators' nest could have been wiped out by now!"
As soon as he finished, he noticed the others looking at him with exceptionally strange expressions.
"W-what!" Li Nanyi blustered. "Am I wrong? Maybe they were in league with the evil cultivators..."
"Shut up!" Unable to bear it any longer, Pei Ji smacked his fifth junior brother on the head. How had he never noticed before that his junior brother was so brainless?
"Why do you think nobody else asked that question?" Li Nanzhu didn't bother being polite. "Since when has the Blackwater Marsh allowed communication messages to be sent to the outside? Do you think you're the only clever one?"
"We of the Hehuan Sect only sent our distress signals after leaving the Blackwater Marsh. Besides, who would dare to wander in and out of the Blackwater Marsh alone?" Yu'er muttered.
Li Nanyi froze. He had been so focused on siding with his junior sister that he completely forgot about that detail. No wonder his second senior brother hit him...
Elder Hua smoothed things over at the right moment. "The priority now is to suppress this news and thoroughly investigate other possible strongholds." She turned toward the memory stone's projection. "As for the evil cultivators underground..."
"All dead," Li Nanzhu said succinctly. "They all became fodder for the mother nest."
"They didn't even spare their own people?" Rong Yuying’s face shifted. She clearly thought of the Hehuan Sect disciples they had rescued; if they had been a step later... she didn't dare imagine what they would have seen.
"So how did the underground collapse?" Daoist Master Xuan Shuang suddenly asked. "Don't tell me it was brought down by your fighting."
The four of them were prepared.
"The mother nest brought the underground down," Jiang Yifan said. "It went on a rampage after devouring those evil cultivators."
"And the mother nest?" Elder Yan stared at the four of them, seemingly trying to find a trace of a lie on their faces.
"Self-destructed."
"Self-destructed?" Elder Yan sneered. "Such a coincidence?"
"It was indeed a coincidence," Feng Qingping followed up calmly. "When we found the core, it suddenly began to collapse, nearly burying us underneath."
Li Nanzhu appropriately put on a lingering look of fear. "Thanks to Suisui's early warning, we managed to escape."
Suisui cooperatively shrank into her arms, looking like a creature overwhelmed by shock.
Li Nanyi scoffed. "I knew it had nothing to do with you all."
"Junior Brother Li," Rong Yuying snapped her round fan shut, the tip pointing directly at his nose. "If you say one more sarcastic thing, I wouldn't mind helping you 'attain enlightenment.'"
Seeing that an argument was about to break out again, Elder Hua directly released her Nascent Soul pressure. "Enough!"
The entire field fell silent.
"Though the mother nest is destroyed, the evil cultivators may not be wiped out entirely," she said coldly. "The priority is to investigate the Blackwater Marsh, not to bicker here."
Seeing that everyone had reached a consensus, Li Nanzhu spoke up again to share the intelligence. "We found some traces at the core. It seems that high-grade evil cultivators evacuated in advance."
This news caused a change in everyone's expressions.
"At the Nascent Soul stage?" Elder Hua frowned.
"Most likely," Jiang Yifan nodded. "We fought with those evil cultivators. Many had reached the Golden Core stage, and they spoke of 'those above,' following orders from someone else."
Elder Yan and Elder Hua exchanged a glance, both seeing the solemnity in the other's eyes.
"This must be reported to all sects immediately," Yan Zhengqing said heavily. "If a Nascent Soul stage evil cultivator has escaped, the consequences will be endless."
Daoist Master Xuan Shuang pondered for a long time before finally speaking. "Then, did you discover anything else underground? For instance... any special mineral veins?"
He asked this quite bluntly, making even Rong Yuying frown.
Li Nanzhu remained unfazed. "There were shattered blood-fiend crystals everywhere, but they were all destroyed in the explosion."
"Is that so?" Cang Dongqing said softly. "But I feel..."
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