Chapter 107: The Misaligned Path to a Technological Renaissance, Part 22

She had just come out of seclusion when Zhou Qingqing asked, “Sis, is something troubling you?”

What Zhou Qingqing admired most was her elder sister. Ever since childhood, she had heard their mother speak of her sister’s deeds. Her sister had established an independent household with their mother and even brought her mother—who had no spiritual root—into the cultivation world. That was something no ordinary person could accomplish. And to think that the Illusory Net had also been invented by her sister.

A puppet servant came over and poured Zhou Qingqing a cup of tea before retreating to the side. The method for refining puppets had ultimately been submitted by Mu Yin. By now, many households had puppet servants to help with the housework. With so much less to do, people had even more time to go online.

“Tell me,” Mu Yin said. “If I wanted to find someone, what would be the best way?”

“Sis, who are you looking for? The Illusory Net has already spread throughout the entire cultivation world, and even the demon realm got one later. If you want to find someone, can’t you just post a bounty online?” Zhou Qingqing asked, puzzled.

“That won’t do.” Mu Yin had considered that herself, but doing so would expose the other person completely.

Seeing her struggle with the matter, Zhou Qingqing stopped paying attention. She shook her head and walked away.

Not long afterward, Mu Yin stopped agonizing over it, because Liao Changyun’s fate had finally appeared. A spatial passage had emerged in the region of the Black Sea. Demon creatures had poured out from the other side, killing people on sight and already running rampant throughout the area.

The difference between demons and demonic cultivators was that the former fed on living souls. The more intense the emotions within a soul, the more they liked it. Joy, anger, sorrow, delight—whether positive or negative, all emotions were their purest source of energy.

Humanity’s positive emotions were more delicious to demons, but they were not as powerful as negative emotions. Thus, demons most loved souls filled with resentment, jealousy, greed, sorrow, rage, pain, and other such feelings. Those were their favorite food.

Demonic cultivators were different. They cultivated through dark energy. Although its attributes opposed those of orthodox cultivation, the two paths ultimately led to the same destination by different routes. It was only because demonic cultivators acted so ruthlessly that they had been branded with the word “demonic.” Strictly speaking, “dark cultivators” would have been a more accurate term.

Demonic cultivators also gathered souls steeped in such emotions, but they treated souls as tools for manipulation, whereas demons consumed them. Though their conduct could appear similar, the two were fundamentally different.

Clearly, what had emerged from this rift were not demonic cultivators, but true demons. They ate people—and took particular pleasure in torturing them to death. Because of the Illusory Net, news traveled quickly. Almost as soon as the demons appeared, reports of them were uploaded online.

Many cultivators declared that they would immediately head to the Black Sea and eliminate the demon creatures. Yet soon afterward, several more spatial passages appeared—not only in the Black Sea, but in the surrounding regions as well. More and more demons emerged upon the continent, with no sign that their numbers would stop growing.

The major sects of the cultivation world soon joined forces and released the Demon Hunting Rankings on the Illusory Net. Mu Yin created a program that allowed people to register the number of demon creatures they had slain and then be ranked accordingly. The top ten would receive rewards, while everyone else could exchange their points for various prizes.

Points were awarded according to the number of demons killed, with different ranks of demons worth different amounts. At present, however, no one could determine the exact level of the creatures.

Mu Yin naturally went as well. Otherwise, how could she find Liao Changyun? He should be somewhere in that region by now. After all, it was his destined path.

Naturally, she was not the only one heading there. Countless other cultivators were rushing toward the same area, drawn by the enticing prizes jointly offered by the sects.

“Yinyin, why are you here too?”

Mu Yin had not expected to run into Shui Yueran upon arriving in Black City. She felt that the woman had changed considerably. She had once been bright, confident, and straightforward, but now she seemed coy and affected. When speaking to Mu Yin, there was even a faintly sour undertone in her words.

“I’m here to hunt demons.” Mu Yin thought the question was deliberately obvious. “Senior Sister, I’ll be going now.”

“Oh.”

Shui Yueran watched Mu Yin leave, then turned to look behind her. When she saw no familiar figure, she let out a sigh of relief. After quite some time, Bai Qifei finally came over carrying a box of grilled skewers, which he handed to her.

“Here’s what you wanted.” Bai Qifei glanced around. “What were you doing here just now?”

“Nothing. I saw someone I knew and stopped to greet her.” Shui Yueran shook her head. She said only that it was someone she knew, without revealing who. After all, ever since Mi Yinyin had created the Illusory Net, the men had been paying close attention to her.

“Oh. Then let’s go.”

Bai Qifei was indeed very wary of Mu Yin. After all, she had disrupted their plans several times in succession. They had originally helped Shui Yueran establish her storyline; all she needed to do was follow it. Yet the plot had been thrown into chaos again and again. If the female lead’s status as the primary protagonist had not been bound and impossible to alter, they would have replaced Shui Yueran long ago.

They had no idea where Liao Changyun had hidden himself, either. If they found him, who would still be willing to bother with such a useless protagonist as Shui Yueran?

Mu Yin had no idea how low the female lead stood in Bai Qifei’s estimation. Even if she had known, she would not have found it strange. They and humanity were not of the same race. Those who did not belong to one’s own kind could never truly share one’s heart. How could they possibly develop feelings for a human? Bai Qifei was not a genuine romantic hero, after all.

Perhaps the Heavenly Dao itself wanted her to find Liao Changyun. After only a few days and several slain demon creatures, she finally saw him.

She had had to investigate his appearance carefully beforehand, but he was indeed exceptionally handsome—far more so than Bai Qifei. In truth, the two were roughly equal, but Mu Yin’s disgust toward Bai Qifei had rendered her entirely indifferent to his looks, even repulsed by them.

Still, why did Liao Changyun’s aura feel so strange? The murderous aura surrounding him made him seem almost exactly like a demonic cultivator. Had she found the wrong person?

“Um, sorry to disturb you. I’ll be leaving now.”

She had watched Liao Changyun dispatch a group of cultivators who had surrounded him with a single slash. When he turned toward her, arcs of electricity flickered across his body. Dressed entirely in black, with his unbound hair seeming to dance in the air, he was handsome and wickedly alluring—but no matter how she looked at him, he resembled a villain.

Mu Yin immediately began to retreat.

“Stop.”

The man spoke, and for some reason, Mu Yin froze.

“Um… is there something you need, Senior?” She turned back, her scalp prickling. Surely the male lead was not about to kill her.

“Were you sent by those people as well?”

Liao Changyun’s dark eyes fixed on Mu Yin, and they seemed to contain a trace of killing intent.

“Who? No, no, of course not. I only came to hunt demons for points and happened to pass by. No one sent me.” Mu Yin hurriedly waved her hands.

Keeping herself alive was the priority. She felt that Liao Changyun did not need her protection at all. She merely had to prevent the female lead from stepping forward—or perhaps she could kill Bai Qifei first.

“Senior, I truly was only passing by. I’ll leave immediately. I absolutely won’t say anything.”

Mu Yin smiled ingratiatingly as she spoke. Come to think of it, wasn’t this male lead supposed to be part of a world-destruction mission? Why did he look exactly like he was? With that, she prepared to make her escape.

“You know me?”