Volcanic Age

In the past and in the era to come, Sword Demon was a prominent figure in the world of the murim.

Zhou Xuchuan would have heard of him and his tales even if he hadn't been one of the five high elders of Mount Hua.

The Sword Demon had a daughter whom he treasured more than his own life. Unfortunately, she was riddled with an incurable disease.

Because of it, the Sword Demon traveled far and wide across the Central Plains looking for physicians. However, he couldn't even find out what disease his daughter had, let alone a cure.

In the end, he had gone to the Benevolence Clinic, where a Divine Physician was said to reside, and asked for an audience. However, the Divine Physician refused to see him, claiming to be in the midst of developing a new medicine.

But the Sword Demon couldn't afford to give up.

He waited for several days, pleading to meet the physician by any means possible. However, the Benevolence Clinic, which originally resided in seclusion and far away from the world, treated him as if he was nothing and kicked him out.

Would a Divine Physician really be someone anyone could just meet?

There were dozens, if not hundreds, of people a day who would come to see the Divine Physician. Sometimes, there were even more, reaching nearly thousands.

People like the Sword Demon were everywhere, while the Divine Physician refused all visitors so that he could focus on developing new medicine.

That said, the Divine Physician would see and treat a visitor if they were from a large sect, had a high status, or had brought a large amount of money. Granted, it was the Benevolence Clinic, not the Divine Physician, acting selfishly out of greed.

Still, this incident had left the Sword Demon feeling resentful.

For the Sword Demon, the Dark Heavens Association's intervention had been like a gift from the heavens as his daughter was on her deathbed. From the murim's perspective, that incident was considered the worst disaster in history.

Because of how he had been treated, the Sword Demon had completely destroyed the Benevolence Clinic before the Dark Heavens Association's invasion of the murim had even begun.

Moreover, the Divine Physician had also lost his life at the Sword Demon's hands.

The Dark Heavens Association Lord gained the Sword Demon's loyalty by curing his daughter in the Divine Physician's stead. I'll be doing that instead.

That was why he had provoked Tang Hui and made the bet. Moreover, it wasn't because Tang Hui possessed god-like medical skills.

The Sword Demon's daughter wasn't suffering from an incurable disease of some unknown cause. She had actually been poisoned by a rare poison.

He was sure of it because the Sword Demon was rumored to have said so when he had destroyed the Benevolence Clinic.

There's nothing I can do with the Green Eyes Ten Thousand Poisons Art.

All the Green Eyes Ten Thousand Poisons Art could do was handle and use poison. It didn't provide Zhou Xuchuan with any knowledge of poisons.

If he had trained it using the normal path of the Poison Dao, things might have been different. However, since he had developed his mastery of the art using the Thousand Poisons Immunity as the foundation, his lack of knowledge of the poison arts continued to be a drawback.

That was the reason he needed the help of a Poison Master who had innate knowledge of poison techniques. The only person with those qualifications that he could ask for help was the Poison Phoenix.

Wait for me, Sword Demon.

Thump, thump.

A carriage being pulled by four horses bumped up and down the road loudly. The incessant bumps transmitted shock directly to his buttocks, causing pain.

Even for an expert martial artist, carriage rides were still quite uncomfortable. Unless a martial artist was able to use Void Step, they, like all others, would suffer from the shock.

Everyone would just get used to the pain and endure it.

"Thousand Poisons Immunity… Thousand Poisons Immunity…"

Zhou Xuchuan gave Tang Hui a rough explanation of where they were going. He told her the daughter of someone he knew had been poisoned by an unknown poison and needed help.

"How could a Daoist use such a cowardly tactic?" Tang Hui sharply said, sitting across from him.

"What?"

"To use the Thousand Poisons Immunity so shamelessly…" Tang Hui gnashed her teeth, her gaze venomous.

"How small-minded you are!"

Zhou Xuchuan retorted, refusing to back down.

"What? Did you forget that you're the one who needs help?"

"Wowwww. Surely, the Poison Phoenix from the renowned Sichuan Tang Family wouldn't go back on her word, right? No, that definitely wouldn't be the case. There's no way she would be that kind of liar, liar, pants on fire piece of trash with no honor."

CRACK!!

Zhou Xuchuan could say whatever he wanted casually, knowing that Tang Hui would rather die than go back on her word. While he never had the intention to cater to her in the first place, he felt even more comfortable because he didn't have to.

"I'm definitely not going to let this go. Just wait till after I detoxify this person."

"Whatever you'd like. Hehe."

Zhou Xuchuan laughed while digging his ear with a finger.

***

Mount Hua, Shaanxi.

"Phoenix Slayer?"

Luo Xiaoyue was dumbfounded when she heard Zhou Xuchuan's new title.

"Just what in the world is Senior Brother doing out in the gangho?"

It had been half a year since Zhou Xuchuan had left the mountain.

Luo Xiaoyue had no doubts about Zhou Xuchuan's skills.

Before, when he had returned to Mount Hua, she had asked to spar with him whenever she had the chance. Even after giving it her all, she could never win.

Although she wasn't one to brag, she was confident in her skills compared to her peers. She only had a few losses on her record, all of them at the hands of Zhou Xuchuan.

While she had been secretly cheering him on, hoping that her Senior Brother would make a splash in the gangho and surprise the murim, she wondered what was with the title.

A splash was a splash, but she suddenly found herself unable to laugh the way she had anticipated she would when hearing about Zhou Xuchuan's deeds.

All she had heard was that he had won the wager against the Poison Phoenix, while some were going around calling it a trick.

"Hmph."

Luo Xiaoyue pouted.

"Little one, why are you pouting so?" her master, Shen Yulian, came over and asked.

"Senior Brother."

"Zhou Xuchuan, that child again…"

Shen Yulian didn't frown like before.

While she had come to respect Zhou Xuchuan because of the previous Lotus Sword Gathering incident, that didn't mean she liked him all of a sudden. She just didn't hate him anymore.

"Yes. Some of us are practicing hard to become a Plum Blossom Swordsman, while he's going out into the world and flirting with women!" Luo Xiaoyue muttered, annoyed.

She had been selected as one of the prospective Plum Blossom Swordsmen after the Lotus Sword Gathering and was training intensely. Becoming a prospective Plum Blossom Swordsman wasn't just a title. Once selected, they were occasionally taught the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom. Once they learned it to the fullest, their promotion to a Plum Blossom Swordsman was almost certain.

Moreover, Luo Xiaoyue had already passed the martial arts, self-discipline, character, and etiquette portions of the selection. Now, all she had to do was go on a mission to gain experience and establish her reputation.

"Because Senior Brother is seriously lacking in interpersonal skills, if I'm not around, he'll definitely be eating alone. Considering he's still my Senior Brother from the same sect, don't you think that's a little too pitiful? I have to train myself as soon as possible and go on my mission to take care of him."

Luo Xiaoyue snorted before swinging her sword once again.

***

Nanchang, Jiangxi.

The Sword Demon needed money more than anything else. He spent every cent that he had to call over prominent physicians to treat his daughter.

Even one physician cost a lot of money, so bringing several of them had cost him an astronomical amount.

Because of that, he did anything that could make money, often resorting to dirty tasks rather than clean ones

That was why he intentionally worked in the southern part of the Evil Valley's sphere of influence.

"Hey, you punk. What are you thinking, bringing the young lady to Jiangxi?" Tang Hui's guard, the Peak Realm expert Yuan Dashi, growled.

Jiangxi was to the north of Hubei and Anhui, to the east of Zhejiang and Fujian, to the west of Hunan, and to the south of Guangdong.

Unlike Guizhou, Jiangxi was completely under the sphere of influence of the Evil Valley.

"Dashi, just because it's the sphere of influence of the Evil Valley doesn't mean that mountains of corpses rise all of sudden and that the sea is made of blood."

Jiangxi was still a place where people lived and had the rule of law.

If it were Xinjiang, the home of the Demonic Path, things would be different. However, Jiangxi wasn't some hell on earth.

Just as those of the Evil Faction were active in places dominated by the Righteous Faction, there were definitely areas in which the Righteous Faction moved within the Evil Faction's domain.

The only concerns were that it was difficult to guarantee that the party would be completely safe and it was difficult to receive support here compared to being in the Righteous Faction's sphere of influence.

"Who do you think you're talking to? You arrogant bastard!" Yuan Dashi raised his voice in anger, looking ready to swing his poisoned sword at any moment.

"I'm Zhou Xuchuan, you arrogant bastard!" Zhou Xuchuan responded without hesitation.

"You dog ba—"

"Stop."

Tang Hui raised her hand to stop Yuan Dashi.

"This conversation is so childish I can't follow along. I'm so embarrassed that your behavior might actually push me over the edge and make me drown myself in a bowl of water, so would you mind being a little more reserved?"

Tang Hui spat more venom at Zhou Xuchuan.

"Then tell your servant in advance not to pick a fight with me."

"Oh dear, he's just being loyal as my vassal. If he were to ignore something like this, his qualifications as a guard would be questioned."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Your mouth smells like a Ravenous Ghost that wanders the underworld, so I'll have to ask you to shut your mouth."

Tang Hui had a sharp personality that even those of the Demon Cult and the Evil Faction would give in to!

The party arrived at Nanchang late at night, found lodging at an inn, and unpacked. As they arrived, Tang Hui covered her face with a cotton veil.

Bees swarmed flowers.

Considering how extraordinary her beauty was, she was careful not to cause a scene for no reason.

The next day.

"If you bring twenty guards with us, it'll be like inviting unwanted attention. Just have three of them tag along and let the others go out into the markets and get information."

"Understood, Miss."

As Tang Hui had experience in the world of the murim, she had a good sense of how to move in public. Even though her personality wasn't great, she wasn't the type to be emotionally swayed and lose the ability to distinguish between public and private matters.

For Zhou Xuchuan, it was better than taking a brat who was unnecessarily proud, ignorant of the ways of the world and telling everyone around them about their every move.

The party made their way to a tile-roofed house on the outskirts of Nanchang. It seemed like a house of someone wealthy and was quite large.

"How small."

Tang Hui muttered while standing in front of the door.

Even though the house seemed large, it was a pebble compared to the giant structures of the Five Great Families.

"While what you think about it doesn't matter, it would be best if you keep your pride in check in front of the person we're about to meet." Zhou Xuchuan advised.

Tang Hui was about to retort with her usual sharp tongue but stopped herself when she noticed Zhou Xuchuan's unusually heavy mood.

Just who are we meeting?

Zhou Xuchuan hadn't been nervous and had even been confident in front of the Poison King, the Patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Family.

Considering how he was acting at the thought of meeting this new person, her curiosity was piqued.

Creak.

"What brings you here?"

As soon as the gate opened, fierce-looking warriors appeared before them.

"I came to meet the Money Crazed Sword Ghost."

Shing.

Swords were drawn smoothly from the warriors' waists.

"You should know that you won't be able to leave here if you have a grudge against him."

"Not many people should know who he is…"

"Who are you? Identify yourself."

The atmosphere changed in an instant. The warriors of the Tang Family on Zhou Xuchuan's side were also ready to throw their hidden weapons at any moment.

Just as the tension reached its peak, a voice commanded, "Get out of the way."

Someone walked out of the courtyard.

"Ah…" Zhou Xuchuan muttered softly.

He had found him.

It wasn't that he had never seen the Sword Demon before. It was just that the other times he had seen him, it had been from such a distance that he couldn't even recognize his face properly.

Even so, Zhou Xuchuan was able to recognize him at a glance.

His eyes were narrow, with pupils filled with venom. He looked like a demon that had returned from hell.

His jawline was as fierce as his eyes, and his untied hair reached his waist.

In his mid-forties, he was handsome, except for a scar that ran straight down from his right eyebrow, making him appear slightly scary.

What stood out the most was his height, nearly seven feet tall.

The Star of Warped Valor, the Sword Demon, Wu Qu!

One of the Ten Empyrean Overlords.

A Star of the Seven Stars.

The right hand of the Dark Heavens Association Leader.

As his name said, the Demon of the Sword.

Another monster of the Dark Heavens Association!

"Ha."

An involuntary hollow laugh escaped Zhou Xuchuan's lips.

I can't tell what realm he's in…

Someone of weaker cultivation couldn't discern the cultivation of someone stronger than them.

Moreover…

"Plum blossoms on your sleeves… seems Mount Hua has raised a monster."

The Master had recognized the expert.

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