Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

Chapter 161: Chapter 153: The Passing of That Nascent Soul Is Truly a Great Loss to Our Sect and Even the Entire Cultivation Realm

In the First Disciple’s cave abode, on the cold jade bed.

Lin Qingfeng’s eyes fluttered open. He had respawned on the spot.

He stretched lazily, an expression of drowsy bliss on his face.

Then, he immediately opened the sect channel. As expected, it was already flooded with messages tagging him.

[Lin Qingfeng]: Ahh~ that Heart Demon... How do I put this? It was amazing! Simply the best perk I’ve encountered in all my time cultivating!

[Lin Qingfeng]: That Heart Demon really gets it! You HAVE to go through that tribulation! It’s so, so worth it!

[Shi Gandang]: Huh? Boss, did the Heart Demon fry your brain? How can you be this happy after failing your tribulation?

[Lin Qingfeng]: What do you lot know? This isn’t just some simple Heart Demon. It’s art! It’s philosophy! It’s something that touches the very depths of your soul... *cough, cough*. Anyway, you’ll all find out when you’re about to reach the Nascent Soul stage. This thing... it’s absolutely worth dying for a few times!

As soon as he said this, the entire tone of the sect channel shifted dramatically.

[Ji]: For real?! There’s a deal that good? If even the Guild Leader says it’s amazing, just how amazing a perk could it be?! That’s it, I’m going to go die a few hundred times and see if I can trigger the Heart Demon early!

[Shen Nong]: @Ji, calm down. You’re only at the Core Formation Stage. You can’t trigger the Nascent Soul Heart Demon Tribulation no matter how many times you die. You might even regress to the Fake Core stage. Still... hearing the Guild Leader talk about it, I think I’ll go for my Nascent Soul breakthrough soon too.

[Lu Wu]: So jealous! I’m still a long way from the Nascent Soul stage. Guess I’ll just have to pop more pills.

For a time, the few players in the sect who were on the verge of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage were rubbing their hands together in eager anticipation.

Meanwhile, those with lower cultivation levels filled the screen with envy, jealousy, and hate.

...

「Elsewhere.」

One of the disciples noticed something odd.

"Huh? Mr. Li,"

Undercover Disciple A said, looking in confusion at Li Chunfeng, who remained perfectly calm and composed,

"That second shockwave just now was so powerful. We were all knocked off our feet. How are you completely fine?"

"Did Miss Su secretly intervene to protect you? Or were your reflexes just fast enough to hide behind a tree?"

Only then did the others realize. They all turned their gazes toward Li Chunfeng, who was still in the same spot, drawing his sword with a "SHING".

"Hah? Hide?"

Li Chunfeng paused and swept his gaze over the crowd as if they were a bunch of fools.

"I, Li Chunfeng, seek the Dao with a heart witnessed by heaven and earth, attested to by the sun and moon. Do I need to hide?"

He gently patted the Wooden Sword in his hand.

"As I said, I was merely drawing and sheathing my sword over and over. When the Spiritual Qi shockwave reached me, it was automatically guided away by the Sword Intent surrounding my body."

"Believe it or not, that’s up to you."

The crowd exchanged glances, their faces plastered with expressions that screamed, ’Like hell I believe you!’

A mortal cultivating Sword Intent just by repeatedly drawing a Wooden Sword? And even using it to block the impact from what was likely the self-detonation of a Nascent Soul grandmaster?

That was more absurd than the tales spun by storytellers in the city.

Looking at Li Chunfeng, however, Su Ling’er came to her own conclusion:

’Mr. Li must have some other life-saving trick up his sleeve. He’s just not willing to reveal it...’

’That makes sense. In a den of monsters like this, it’s always good to keep a trump card hidden.’

Having reached a silent consensus, the group stopped pressing the issue.

Just then, Undercover Disciple B, who had failed to deliver the intelligence, finally recovered from the aftershocks of the Spiritual Qi blast.

Using a voice transmission, he recounted his failure to pass on the intelligence to the rest of the group.

Upon hearing this, Dong Changsheng immediately walked over and patted his shoulder.

"Junior Brother, don’t blame yourself! This wasn’t your fault. It only means the time is not yet right!"

He then continued via voice transmission.

[Dong Changsheng]: Now that the fiend has just fallen, the sect must be in chaos and its people in a panic. This is the perfect opportunity for us to send our intelligence!

The others heard this and agreed that it made sense.

[All Undercover Disciples]: In that case, this is actually a good thing!

[Disciple C]: Tonight is the perfect chance! I’ll do it this time!

But at that very moment, a figure appeared on a small path nearby.

It was Lin Qingfeng, humming an off-key tune and lazily... taking a stroll.

Since he hadn’t died directly in front of them, everyone still recognized him.

They stared so hard their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"W-Wait a minute! I-Isn’t that the First Disciple?!"

"How is he... How is he still alive?! Didn’t he fail his tribulation and die from self-detonating?!"

Su Ling’er’s heart sank, immediately followed by an absurd feeling of ’I knew it’:

’I knew it! I knew it!’

’How could the First Disciple possibly die so easily!’

’This has to be another one of his schemes!’

’Then... who was that mighty Nascent Soul expert who just perished?!’

Just then, Lin Qingfeng seemed to spot them, and his eyes lit up.

"WHOOSH—!"

With a flash, he teleported to a spot right behind Su Ling’er.

"Yo, Junior Sister,"

"Taking the junior brothers out for a stroll?"

"AAAAAH—!"

Su Ling’er jumped in fright, the hair on her body standing on end. She nearly used Sword Control to flee on the spot.

’He’s doing it again!’

’He’s doing it again!!!’

’Can’t he just walk up like a normal person?!’

’He always appears out of nowhere like a ghost haunting my back!’

’You obsessive, stalking fiend!’

’You’re driving me crazy! Aaaargh!’

She suppressed her internal screams and turned around stiffly.

"F-First Disciple... Y-You’re out of seclusion?"

"First Disciple, just now... which great expert in the sect failed their breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage and unfortunately perished?"

"Oh, you mean him."

"Ah, that was a... peerlessly handsome, suffering-saving, morally upstanding, supremely powerful expert! A true paragon of the righteous path for our generation, an unparalleled master!"

He rattled off a pile of impressive-sounding adjectives, then feigned sorrow, wiping away nonexistent tears.

"Alas, his passing is truly a great loss for our sect, and indeed for the entire Cultivation Realm!"

"Tragic! How utterly tragic!"

Su Ling’er stared at him, her face a mask of disbelief.

’Keep talking!’

’Yeah, you just keep talking!’

’Praising a fiend who just died as if he were a saint... don’t you have a conscience?!’

’No, you fiends don’t have consciences to begin with!’

She asked cautiously, "Then... shouldn’t we prepare a funeral for this fallen expert?"

’My funeral was so grand when I, a mere Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, just pretended to be sick.’

’An expert who might have reached the Nascent Soul stage just perished. The ceremony for that would surely be even more spectacular.’

To her surprise, Lin Qingfeng simply waved his hand dismissively.

"Alas!"

"Junior Sister, you’re letting formalities get the best of you!"

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust! We cultivators should see beyond life and death, not get bogged down by ceremony! A Nascent Soul expert has passed on, so they’ve passed on. Be a little more nonchalant about it!"

Su Ling’er: "????"

’When I died... bah, I mean, at my funeral, I don’t remember you being so philosophical about it, huh?’

...

「Meanwhile.」

Qingxu Temple, in the forbidden grounds of the rear mountain.

Within a dark, secret chamber, Daoist Xuanyuan sat cross-legged before a stone platform. His eyes were tightly shut and his expression seemed placid, but inwardly, he was burning with anxiety.

Atop the stone platform, the main mirror of the ancient, crack-covered bronze artifact—the Lingxi Inquiry Profound Mirror—was emitting a faint glow.

Less than a month remained before the Celestial Furnace Sect would arrive to collect the Tithing.

Of the twelve undercover disciples he had dispatched, he didn’t need them all to succeed. If just... if just one of them could send back a secret tantalizing enough to the Celestial Furnace Sect, Qingxu Temple could survive this crisis.

He might even be able to get a piece of the pie for himself...

However.

"CRACK..."

A sudden cracking sound echoed in the chamber.

Daoist Xuanyuan’s eyes flew open, his pupils contracting violently!

He saw that on the surface of the Lingxi Inquiry Profound Mirror’s main plate, one of the motes of spiritual light—each representing a sub-mirror—had just shattered!

’It... failed?!’