When My Dark Arts Are Perfected, I Will Stain the Azure Sky with My Blood

[The billowing black smoke was close at hand.]

[You stopped getting closer, simply following the edge and tracking the scent of the supreme treasure forward. Hongluan followed closely behind you.]

[Suddenly, you saw a familiar figure.]

[It was an old woman wearing a loose traditional robe of the Southern Frontier. She held a walking stick in one hand and carried a bamboo basket in the other.]

[She stood quietly on a cliff, watching the forbidden zone riot ahead.]

[Her figure was hunched, and she had no imposing aura whatsoever, looking just like an ordinary old woman from the Southern Frontier.]

["The witch?"]

[She shouldn't be called that anymore.]

[She should be called Hua Wuyan.]

[Although you hadn't heard her admit it herself, you felt that the current human Dao Protector could only be her.]

[Just as you were about to step forward to greet her, Hua Wuyan lightly struck the ground with her walking stick.]

[In an instant, with the point where the walking stick struck as the center, the earth surged up like ocean waves, rippling outwards in all directions.]

[When the shockwave reached you, even as a Martial King, you couldn't resist it and were instantly blown away.]

["Myriad Ghosts Go to the Market!"]

[You unleashed your classic old move, letting the demon souls in the Myriad Soul Banner act as your eyes and ears to approach Hua Wuyan.]

[With a single strike of her walking stick, Hua Wuyan cleared away all the surrounding dark energy, instantly restoring clarity to an area of a thousand miles.]

[But the black smoke in the distance boiled, seemingly very unwilling to accept defeat, preparing to make a comeback.]

["Master, life and death are fated, and destiny lies with heaven. Since you have passed away naturally, why cling to the mortal realm?"]

[Hua Wuyan's old voice carried a bit of earnestness, as if hiding many stories.]

[Those dark evil ghosts shattered and condensed high in the sky into the vigorous and powerful face of a middle-aged man.]

[This massive human face was filled with anger.]

["Once I step onto the path to immortality, my fate is in my own hands, not heaven's! When my demonic arts are perfected, I shall dye the blue sky with my blood!"]

[This sentence was very loud; you could hear it clearly even without using the Myriad Soul Banner's technique.]

["Master? Demonic arts? Could it be that the one who created the forbidden zone and the forbidden zone riot is..."]

[From the information investigated by the Dragonman Race, it was known that the master of the fifth-generation Dao Protector, Hua Wuyan, was the fourth generation.]

[The Great Demon!]

[Hua Wuyan spoke again.]

["Master, I know you are unwilling, but the times have changed. The path from the Void Realm to the Real Realm is no longer passable. Even if you have boundless ambition and peerless talent, what use is it if heaven and earth do not tolerate you?"]

["No!! It is not that heaven and earth do not tolerate me!!! It is all someone causing mischief!!! I am below, possessing the ability to split the heavens! They are above, engaging in despicable deeds!!"]

["Even so, your current actions bring disaster to the human realm and poison the common people, which completely contradicts your original aspirations."]

["Don't say these things to me! Hypocrite!! If you truly cared about the common people, why do you always wait until I have absorbed enough vital essence before taking action?!"]

[Hua Wuyan sighed, her expression complex.]

["Because I am also human."]

[After saying that, Hua Wuyan tossed out the bamboo basket in her hand.]

[The incredibly crude-looking bamboo basket turned out to be a spiritual weapon as well.]

[It flew high into the sky on its own, scattering seven-colored radiance like a fairy scattering flowers.]

[The billowing darkness was covered and dispersed by the radiance.]

[The forbidden zone riot that had been spreading north and south from the Hundred Deaths Mountain quickly receded.]

[All the darkness gathered on the Hundred Deaths Mountain, making it look like a series of eerie, solitary graves.]

[In a moment of inattention, Hua Wuyan disappeared.]

["Truly elusive like a ghost."]

[Hongluan came up to you.]

["It's your human race's Dao Protector. She quelled the forbidden zone riot."]

["You don't look like you appreciate her."]

["The demon race will never thank her. She could always step in earlier, but she always deliberately waits until the one in the forbidden zone is full before making a move. Unless the forbidden zone loses control and taints the areas where humans live, she won't act in advance."]

[You said with some embarrassment.]

["Probably because... she is also human, so she ignores whatever chaos happens in the Great Wilderness as long as she can?"]

[Speaking of this, the look in Hongluan's eyes as she looked at you became even more enamored.]

["Only you are different, benefactor. Even though we had never met, you were willing to rescue our demon race without asking for anything in return. You are greater than any Dao Protector!"]

["So that's how you understand it..."]

[The forbidden zone riot had ended.]

[The path toward the Holy Land was passable again.]

[You bid farewell to Hongluan and set off on your journey once more.]

[Although Hongluan was very reluctant to part, she was only at the Spirit Condensation Realm. Even though she was born with wings and could fly, it was impossible for her to catch up with you flying at full speed.]

[Hongluan watched eagerly as you left, her beautiful eyes filled with tears.]

["Sigh, this damn charm of mine. Chen Yi, oh Chen Yi, how many people... demons... have you unintentionally hurt..."]

[You couldn't help but take out half of the Qiankun Mirror to look at yourself and tidy up your hair.]

[The sixth year, twenty-five years old.]

[Drawing a trait...]

[Draw successful!]

[[Thank You, Taro!] (White Common): You have face blindness, especially when expressing gratitude; you can't distinguish exactly who helped you.]

[Adjust the trait?]

[Yes/No]

"Eh? This consumed trait has been drawn again!"

In the fourth simulation, Chen Yi had drawn "Thank You, Taro".

Later, when snatching the Demon Refining Pot, he used the "Trait Slingshot" to hit the Four-Eyed Spirit Monkey.

This resulted in failing to inherit it after the simulation ended.

He didn't expect to draw it again so soon.

"I hope the 'me' in this simulation doesn't use it and brings it out. This way, I can use it every time in future simulations. This thing is quite handy."

[You selected No.]

[The earth rapidly retreated beneath your feet.]

[Mountains and forests slowly unfolded like a painted scroll.]

[This vast continent, thirty thousand years ago, was full of traces of human activity. It was a holy land that many races of the Void Realm came to admire.]

[In the past, the Void Realm could not exist without the Human Realm, just as the West could not exist without Jerusalem.]

[Now, there were only savage jungles and sparsely distributed demon races living on it.]

[When you got tired of flying, you rested for a while, stopping to find a few demons to cross swords with.]

[Now that you had gone deep into the Great Wilderness, you didn't easily take out the Nine Provinces Cauldron, lest you be discovered by the people of the Blood Moon and once again fall into the passive situation where the enemy is in the dark and you are in the light.]

[While crossing swords along the way, you also asked those demons about the Blood Moon organization.]

[At first, no demons knew anything.]

[The closer you got to the eastern part of the Great Wilderness, the more demons knew about the situation, and the details became increasingly specific.]

["What Blood Moon organization? Never heard of it!"]

["Blood Moon? I've heard a little about it."]

["Blood Moon? Isn't that a damn assassin organization! As long as you pay them, they will kill any human or demon! My third grandaunt was killed by them and had her horns cut off!"]

["No one knows where the Blood Moon organization's mountain gate or headquarters is. They are like a bunch of shadows, their whereabouts mysterious!"]

[The seventh year, twenty-six years old.]

[This year, you have finally arrived at the Shanhai Sacred Land, one of the Three Great Sacred Lands!]