Red Intelligence

Inside the cave dwelling, a deathly silence reigned.

Gu Yang sat cross-legged, sensing the Foundation Establishment spiritual power surging like rivers within his body.

The faint, lingering scent of snow lotus served as a reminder that last night was not merely an illusion.

[The Daily Intelligence System is refreshing...]

[Ding! Detected that the host possesses sufficient Destiny Points. Consume 300 Destiny Points to upgrade the system to Lv3?]

[Lv3: Slightly increases the probability of high-quality intelligence appearing. Unlocks the Intelligence Critical Hit function.]

"Upgrade."

With a mere thought, Gu Yang spent the Destiny Points he had painstakingly accumulated, feeling no regret.

[Upgrade successful! Current level: Lv2 -> Lv3.]

[Current Destiny Points: 0]

[Ding! Today's intelligence has been refreshed.]

[Blue Intelligence: After the illusion formation failed, Shen Qingyue stubbornly insisted that it was the "Primordial Supreme Yang Essence Blood" that had clouded her judgment, not any transgressive feelings towards her disciple.

To prove her innocence, she plans to summon you again some time later under the pretext of "testing your progress." She intends to light the high-grade bewitching incense, "Drunken Immortal's Lure," within the hall to make you fall asleep, attempting to prove she can face you normally without crossing the line, free from interference.

However, fate plays cruel tricks. At that moment, Shen Qingyue's cold poison happened to flare up. Struggling alone between shame and the agony of the cold poison, her sanity finally snapped. Sitting astride, biting her lip with tears in her eyes, she engaged in a mechanical act of self-treatment.

...

Master, oh master, you truly are...

Suddenly, Gu Yang had a thought.

What if... what if I take the antidote for the Drunken Immortal's Lure in advance... and "just happen to" wake up while master is performing her automatic treatment...

I wonder what kind of scene that would be.

Would she be overcome with shame and anger, immediately get up and leave...

Or would she continue the motion, fly into a humiliated rage, and slice me with her sword...

Or, in her shame and fury, physically knock me unconscious...

Or perhaps, she would force herself to remain calm, only to make her pretense more obvious...

I truly wish to know what expression would appear on that peerlessly beautiful, ice-cold face.

...

Gu Yang continued reading.

[Use the Critical Hit function on the highest quality intelligence of the day? First use is free.]

"Use it."

Gu Yang's gaze remained fixed on the void, his breathing rhythm utterly undisturbed.

[Critical Hit in progress... Critical Hit successful! Intelligence quality upgraded from 'Gold' to 'Red'!]

[Red Intelligence: The Nightfall Empress, Tantai Jin, who swept across the Eastern Domain and unified the demonic path three thousand years ago, suffered damage to her true spirit after failing in her attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. She is currently in a deep slumber within the "Immortal Burial Forbidden Grounds" near the Sacred Heaven City in the Eastern Domain. [Click to view coordinates]

The Empress's true body is sealed within the "Ten-Thousand-Year Immortal-Nurturing Coffin," using a secret art to steal the spiritual energy of the earth's veins to heal her wounds.

To prevent disturbance from the living, she set a "Reversed Servant Contract" within the coffin's formation.

According to the original plan, the first living being the formation senses upon awakening would be forcibly branded with a "Servant Seal," transforming into a corpse slave guarding her coffin.

Due to the erosion of time, the Immortal Burial Forbidden Grounds once experienced earth-vein tremors, causing the formation's focal point of the "Two Forms Soul-Exchange Formation" on the Immortal-Nurturing Coffin to shift.

If one holds the "Supreme Yang Blood" and drips it into a crack three inches to the left of the coffin, the original master-servant contract will undergo an irreversible causal replacement.

When that happens, the tyrannical, supremely arrogant Nightfall Empress will, at the moment of her awakening, reversely become a "Blood Contract Servant."]

Gu Yang looked at the lines of text on the light screen, crimson as fresh blood, his pupils constricting to pinpoints.

Red Intelligence.

This was the first time a red-level intelligence had appeared since the system awakened.

Those 300 Destiny Points were spent incredibly well.

The Nightfall Empress... Tantai Jin!

Gu Yang whispered this name, one that was enough to silence crying children across the Eastern Domain three millennia ago.

According to the sect's ancient records, this Empress once bathed ten thousand miles in blood, refining several arrogant sacred lands into ghost domains.

Her personality epitomized coldness and a domineering nature.

And now, this most terrifying nightmare in the history of the Eastern Domain was to become his slave?

However, Sacred Heaven City is located at the very center of the Eastern Domain, a true hub of prosperity, while Falling Cloud Sect is merely a minor sect tucked away in a remote corner.

At his current sword-flight speed, it would take several months of traveling at full speed to reach it.

"Tantai Jin..."

Gu Yang savored the name, a cold curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

The intelligence did not mention anyone else intercepting this opportunity, which meant this three-thousand-year-old goddess of slaughter was currently lying in her coffin, waiting for him to "stamp his seal."

Suppressing the agitation in his heart, Gu Yang continued reading.

[White Intelligence: Within the Cold Moon Palace, Shen Qingyue has regained the composure of a Golden Core-stage cultivator. Whenever she is alone, the absurd scenes from that night in the great hall inevitably flash before her eyes. Shame, anger, and regret intertwine, giving rise to an intense sense of "ill-fated entanglement" toward you. She has decided that after emerging from seclusion, she will find a pretext to send you on an external mission, completely severing this entanglement that troubles her Dao-heart.]

Gu Yang felt somewhat speechless in his heart.

Be it in his past life or this one, this was the first time he had encountered a woman who would deny everything after pulling up her pants.

...

White Intelligence: The Falling Cloud Sect's Sect Master, Liu Yunzi, is pondering the celestial phenomenon record of the "Golden Crow Carrying the Sun" that you triggered. Outwardly dignified and virtuous, he is actually the greatest hypocrite within the sect. While ostensibly searching for a "passing mighty expert," he is secretly perusing the secret arts left by the founding patriarch. He suspects that someone blessed with such fortune, if their cultivation is still shallow, would just serve as a perfect flesh vessel for his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage.

...

[White Intelligence: After returning to her sect, Ji Shuanghua, the Sacred Maiden of the Supreme Sword Sect, has been unable to forget you. She keeps replaying in her mind the moment you threw her into the mud. That extreme humiliation has actually accelerated the fusion of the "Shattered Jade Sword Bone" within her body. She has now developed a morbid adoration for your behavior of "treating a sacred maiden like a rag," vowing to make you look at her again the next time you meet.]

...

Green Intelligence: Blazing Sun Sacred Land. On the night you awakened the 'Golden Crow Primordial Flame,' the 'Sun God Mirror' deep within the sacred land sensed a disturbance in the primordial flame seed. The sacred land believes this to be either a lost royal bloodline or the divine flame itself. They have dispatched three disciples, who are moving from west to east, investigating gifted disciples with fire-aligned constitutions one by one.

...

So, Sect Master Liu Yunzi is no good either.

On the path of immortal cultivation, it's all filled with self-serving individuals.

The waters of Falling Cloud Sect are getting murkier by the day.

Gu Yang retrieved a yellowed parchment map from his storage pouch, tracing a red line on it with his finger.

[Gold Intelligence: The Sacred Maiden of the Joyous Union Sect, Su Wanyin... possesses the treasure "Innocent Maiden's Exquisite Heart"...]

Falling Cloud Sect is in the east, Sacred Heaven City in the center.

The Joyous Union Sect happens to lie between Sacred Heaven City and Falling Cloud Sect.

It's on the way.

Gu Yang put away the map, a gleam of sharp light flashing in his eyes.

Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment is merely the foundation. The Foundation Establishment stage allows for the construction of 9 Dao Platforms in total. These 9 platforms form a cultivator's Dao foundation.

To build a towering edifice from the ground up, to form a Golden Core, attain Nascent Soul, or even, in the future, reach the Nascent Soul stage, every single brick of these nine Dao Platforms must be of the finest quality in the world.

The construction of each Dao Platform requires a rare heaven-and-earth spiritual object to serve as the "ballast stone."

The higher the quality of the spiritual object, the more solid the constructed Dao Platform will be, and the more immense the magical power it can contain.

If one were to forge a nine-layered Dao Platform using nine types of spiritual materials of Earth rank or higher... that would be the fabled preparatory stage for the "Flawless Golden Core."

The Pure Maiden's Exquisite Heart ranks seventy-eighth on the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Materials List.

It is more than qualified to forge the first layer of the Dao Platform.

Wang Teng...

I'll be borrowing your opportunity. I trust you won't mind.

Two days later.

Three hundred miles north of the Falling Cloud Sect, in an ancient temple within the desolate mountains.

Outside the dilapidated mountain god temple, the rain poured down in sheets, yet its roar could not drown out the stifled, desperate gasps emanating from within—sounds that seemed wrenched from the very depths of someone's throat.

Su Wanyin lay collapsed in the shadow of the deity statue's broken pedestal.

The crimson, smoke-gauze dress that symbolized her status as the Holy Maiden of the Harmony Joy Sect was now utterly soaked through by the icy rain.

The sodden fabric clung to her as if alive, suctioned tightly to every inch of her skin.

The taut material left nothing to the imagination, mercilessly outlining the breathtaking curve of her waist and hips, once veiled in mist. Rainwater traced a path down her trembling spine, rendering the thin layer of red gauze semi-transparent, faintly revealing the fine, mutton-fat jade-like flesh beneath.

"Cough..."

She clutched her chest. What seeped between her fingers was not bright red blood, but the inky black of poison.

The dark blood snaked down her slender, deathly pale fingers, over the delicate collarbones that seemed they might snap with a touch, and finally vanished into the deep, snow-white valley that heaved violently with her ragged breaths.

Black blood, red robes, flesh of a blinding white.

These three extreme colors wove together a bewitching yet tragic tableau within the dim confines of the temple.