After some tracking, you and Zhenpin arrived in front of a cave.
This Holy Fire Cult didn't have a proper sect gate; their headquarters was simply located inside this natural, massive cave.
It wasn't hard to understand why.
They worshipped fire.
They set fires during the day, set fires at night, and even when they slept, they had to light a bonfire beside them.
Doing this 365 days a year, a single mistake would easily set a house ablaze.
They didn't mind if they burned themselves. They would just think the Fire God had blessed them—the more it hurt, the more the Fire God loved them.
But a house couldn't withstand catching fire every few days.
Therefore, they could only live in caves. Stones weren't afraid of burning.
"Benefactor Chen, now that we have found their lair, let's strike directly. With the combined strength of you and me, the current Holy Fire Cult should be completely vulnerable. We can crush them in an instant."
"Who said I was going to wipe them out?"
"Didn't you just say during the day that you wanted to enforce justice on behalf of Heaven?"
"I don't think so. I actually want to join them. I like fire a lot too!"
Saying this, you circulated the Heart Flame Mystic Art and casually struck out with a palm, spewing forth a tongue of fire.
Zhenpin looked at you with a strange expression.
"Benefactor Chen, I find it increasingly hard to see through you."
"Old monk, thank you for helping me find the Holy Fire Cult. If fate allows, we will meet again in the future. For the sake of the Sword Master, please refrain from attacking the Holy Fire Cult."
"Amitabha. Since the benefactor insists on jumping into the fire pit, this is a tribulation you must face. This poor monk will not interfere. Look out for yourself."
Zhenpin left. His final expression seemed to show great disappointment in you.
You shrugged, not caring at all.
You were already quite old. Your only hope for continuing to live now was to break through your cultivation realm, so that your starting point in the next simulation would be higher.
You made a strong entrance into the cave and performed a set of the Crimson Heart Fist for a group of Holy Fire Cultists who were gathered around a bonfire, doing some unknown kneeling and bowing rituals.
Because of the characteristics of the Heart Flame Mystic Art, an external martial art, every punch you threw carried fire. You looked like a street performer doing a fire juggling act.
The Holy Fire Cultists were terrified at first, as an outsider had suddenly barged in.
Then, they were pleasantly surprised.
You could unleash flames from your body, and the damage the fire caused you was practically negligible. You were simply a natural-born Holy Body for the Holy Fire Cult!
"I want to join the Holy Fire Cult!"
"You are the Holy Son!"
"Huh? Is the promotion really this fast?"
You successfully joined the Holy Fire Cult.
You first tried to blend in with them for a few days, just to go through the motions.
But this group of people was too bizarre.
They never ate proper food on a daily basis. Instead, they tossed their food into the fire until it was carbonized, and then swallowed it down along with the sparks.
They didn't drink water. They hunted wild beasts and drank their blood.
Their cultivation method involved burning themselves with fire.
They all grimaced in pain, yet their mouths kept shouting things like "Praise the Fire God."
Unless they left the cave, as long as they were inside, everyone had to keep a bonfire burning without letting it go out, even while sleeping.
They would suddenly jolt awake in the middle of the night just to add firewood.
"A bunch of lunatics..."
You often found it impossible to fit in simply because you were too normal.
Within a few days, you revealed your true intentions.
"Lord Cult Master, my cultivation has been stuck at the peak of the Soul Tempering Realm for a long time. I heard our Holy Fire Cult has a way to break through realms, is that true?"
The Cult Master, whose beard was completely white, showed a look of pleasant surprise upon hearing this.
"We do, Holy Son, we do! You are at the peak of the Soul Tempering Realm?"
"What's wrong? Does our Holy Fire Cult not even have a Soul Tempering Realm cultivator right now?"
"Sigh. You just arrived, so you don't know enough about the history of our Holy Fire Cult. During the calamity over forty years ago, our cult not only lost all its higher-ups and elites, but our cultivation techniques were also lost. Without the key techniques to elevate our faith, it is very difficult to improve our cultivation base with our current training methods."
How could it not be difficult? Who could get stronger by self-mutilating every day?
You had no interest in the history of the Holy Fire Cult; you only hoped they could do you a favor and help you break through.
The group of cultists readily agreed, saying it was no problem.
Inside the Holy Fire Cult's cave.
An array formation pieced together with charcoal was activated.
Sixty Holy Fire Cultists sat cross-legged around the perimeter of the array.
Behind each of them was a fiercely burning ball of fire.
"Brothers and sisters, today we shall ignite our bodies and minds to help the Holy Son break through his cultivation, in hopes that our Holy Fire Cult will prosper once again!!"
You were a bit astonished.
"Wait, this Myriad Fire Heart Devouring... isn't devouring my heart?"
"Of course not! It is to use the flames to devour us, transforming us into the power for your breakthrough!!"
It was actually the legendary method of sacrifice!
Although you couldn't bear it in your heart.
But thinking that they were an evil cult and leaving them in the world would only be a menace, turning them into an aid for your breakthrough could be considered them doing a good deed for this world.
The secret art began.
The cultists raised their hands high, lay on their backs, and allowed the raging fire behind them to ignite their entire bodies.
"Burn my broken body! To save the people of the world! Ignite my ambition! To glorify the Fire God!!"
They repeated this general outline of their doctrine, struggling to hold on amidst the flames.
Suddenly.
You felt something was wrong.
You couldn't move.
The crude array made of charcoal beneath you transformed into a cage, trapping you in place.
It felt as if something was draining away from your body.
The frivolous voice of the Myriad Soul Banner rang out.
"Buddy, you fell for it. They are dividing and devouring your vital energy."
You suddenly realized the truth.
Sure enough, high-end hunters always appear as prey!
That middle-aged man you met in Wutuo City was a bait himself!
This was the true ritual of the Holy Fire Cult to improve their cultivation!
The one to be sacrificed wasn't them, it was you!
You instantly flew into a rage.
"How dare you scheme against me, you bunch of heretics!!"
Unfortunately, the Alien Race's Father trait couldn't take effect here.
But you still had the Myriad Soul Banner.
"Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts!!"
As soon as the immortal artifact was deployed, its extraordinary power was undeniable.
This group of evil cultists, whose highest cultivation was no more than the Soul Tempering Realm, were directly annihilated by a single killing move from the Myriad Soul Banner, which released thousands of demon souls in a single devastating charge.
These people turned into a pile of mush on the ground without even uttering a single groan.
Their bodies were still burning, resulting in an on-the-spot cremation.
However, you left one alive, and that was exactly the Cult Master.
Watching you stand up completely unharmed from the Myriad Fire Heart Devouring Array, holding the Myriad Soul Banner that was coolly emitting black smoke, with ferocious demon souls coiling behind you, this Cult Master felt that you were even more evil than he was.
"You... you actually possess such a treasure... You hid it deeply. Heh, a miscalculation..."
This Cult Master was actually quite calm.
They often tricked people into joining the Holy Fire Cult, then fooled them into sitting on the Myriad Fire Heart Devouring Array to divide and devour them.
Having done this kind of thing so many times, as the saying goes, if you walk along the river often enough, your shoes are bound to get wet.
"It's a pity... My Holy Fire Cult was once one of the top major cults in Xiliang, but now it has been wiped out by a stinking monk like you."
Only then did you remember that you had just shaved your head bald.
[This guy thought he had been wiped out by the Buddhists, which obviously made him even more resentful.]
["I'll ask you one more time. Do you actually have a way for someone to break through from the Soul Tempering Realm to the Golden Body Realm?"]
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
