Cui Hao, the Good Man

"Kind benefactor, you've finally arrived!"

At the entrance of the shrine, Cui Hao enthusiastically welcomed the hurriedly arriving Zheng Zhaoling.

"Has something urgent happened?" Zheng Zhaoling's spiritual sense swept the surroundings, but finding nothing unusual, her gaze shifted back to Cui Hao. She emphasized, "I don't have much time."

Lately, she had indeed been under considerable pressure. The dissatisfaction of the God of Yunze was almost spilling onto the surface.

This was especially true amidst the earth-shattering changes happening in Yunmengze.

Zheng Zhaoling had the advantage of a formidable background. Through her forceful endurance, the God of Yunze held back from taking any extra actions, seemingly planning to coax this great figure into leaving before making further plans.

Cui Hao nodded repeatedly. He naturally understood that Zheng Zhaoling was likely extremely busy recently.

After all, it was a fact that Zheng Zhaoling was suppressing the God of Yunze. Aside from the pressure on the God of Yunze, Zheng Zhaoling naturally had to bear pressure as well.

Although Zheng Zhaoling had never personally admitted her identity, one would have to be far too foolish not to recognize who was standing before them at this point.

"Naturally, there is a matter I need Fellow Daoist's help with," Cui Hao immediately said. "Does Fellow Daoist know that the demons of Yunmengze have been making deals with outside evil cultivators?"

Hearing this, Zheng Zhaoling's gaze froze. After a moment of silence, she gave a light nod.

The elders operating in Yunmengze had naturally told Zheng Zhaoling the details of this matter.

Although the path of faith was the cultivation method for ordinary demons in Yunmengze, the truly top-tier demons of Yunmengze did not cultivate it.

For example, the great demon nominally at the pinnacle of Yunmengze—the God of Yunze—was exactly like this.

Yunmeng Pavilion provided a fixed monthly subsidy of spirit stones to Yunmengze, but relying solely on spirit stones to supply the entirety of Yunmengze was naturally unrealistic.

This batch of spirit stones would naturally be cleanly divided up among the high-level demons and wouldn't leak out—even if they couldn't use them all, they had to save some for the future.

Compared to muddy faith power, the spiritual energy supplied by spirit stones was naturally far superior.

Ordinary sects naturally wouldn't brave the pressure of Yunmeng Pavilion to attempt any transactions with the demons of Yunmengze.

After all, the only presentable things Yunmengze had to offer were faith power and those mortals.

With the spirit stones supplied by Yunmeng Pavilion cleanly divided among the high-level demons, the slightly lower-level demons would naturally think of ways to get their hands on some spirit stones too.

Moreover, when making such deals, the demons naturally couldn't become the party being controlled.

Compared to orthodox sects, evil cultivators were naturally much better at keeping secrets.

After all, even if an evil cultivator snitched, it was much easier to handle than a sect turning hostile.

Becoming an evil cultivator was tantamount to tacitly losing all right to speak and all human rights.

Zheng Zhaoling naturally understood these circumstances. However, she also knew that such matters could probably only be reduced, not completely eradicated.

Even if they didn't abduct their own incense-offering commoners, they would abduct the commoners of others.

They couldn't just wipe out all the demons in Yunmengze.

Furthermore, there were still humans selling humans. Weren't those trading with the Yunmengze demons precisely human evil cultivators?

The God of Yunze definitely knew about this too, but chose to turn a blind eye to it entirely.

If this path was truly cut off, then Yunmengze would inevitably fall into complete chaos.

The God of Yunze could tolerate the current suppression, but absolutely could not accept a thoroughly chaotic and disorderly Yunmengze.

Because it would inevitably be the first target in a chaotic and disorderly Yunmengze.

For some things, aside from pretending not to see them and applying slight disciplinary measures, there really was no better way.

Zheng Zhaoling didn't want to say anything overly naive, especially when the Cui Hao standing before her was exceptionally smart.

Zheng Zhaoling's tone carried a hint of helplessness as she said, "I know about it, but these matters cannot be brought out into the open, and there isn't much more I can do."

"If you want me to find a way to deal with those evil cultivators, there isn't much I can do either."

"I naturally understand Fellow Daoist's difficulties," Cui Hao said with a sincere expression. "I am not asking Fellow Daoist to eradicate the evil cultivators. After all, Fellow Daoist has already done many things for me, so I naturally should do my part as well."

Hearing these words, Zheng Zhaoling sighed softly, then signaled Cui Hao to continue.

Cui Hao continued, "There are some things Fellow Daoist can and cannot do. For example, this matter of the evil cultivators. The underlying meaning of you doing it versus me doing it is completely different."

"I will handle the evil cultivators. I only hope that Fellow Daoist can buy me some time to deal with them, preventing them from fleeing the borders of Yunmengze."

"I understand that this kind of thing cannot be eradicated, but we must first close the doors to beat the dogs, lest they interfere with our plans."

"If other external forces get involved, I fear we will fall short of success at the last stage."

Listening to these words, Zheng Zhaoling felt that aside from being intelligent, Cui Hao was also considerate of others and didn't just dump difficult problems on her.

Cui Hao had clearly received intelligence that outside evil cultivators were preparing to intervene in Yunmengze.

Thinking about it this way, Cui Hao's contributions were probably far from being less than her own.

The frustration in her heart smoothed out considerably, and she said:

"I should have a way to temporarily seal off Yunmengze. The key is, how do you plan to handle it?"

"Evil cultivators lack humanity, so it's perfectly normal for them to infight," Cui Hao said, setting the tone first to resolve any worries Zheng Zhaoling might have, before continuing.

"I'm afraid I can't handle this matter properly on my own, so I've invited a few like-minded friends to deal with it together."

As he spoke, Cui Hao took out a jade token and handed it toward Zheng Zhaoling, saying:

"Inside is the information on the evil cultivators that my friends have scouted out, as well as the methods we plan to deploy. Fellow Daoist can take a look."

Zheng Zhaoling looked at Cui Hao for a moment, ultimately giving a light nod of agreement, but she did not reach out to take the jade token.

She said, "Understood. I won't look at the plan."

Rather than looking at some plan and appearing distrustful, it was more practical to just see how Cui Hao would actually go about doing it when the time came.

What was written had no necessary connection to what would actually be done.

"Is there anything else?" Zheng Zhaoling asked.

Cui Hao shook his head.

Zheng Zhaoling nodded slightly, then turned and walked outside.

Naturally, she needed to visit this place as little as possible; it would be troublesome if her tracks were actually discovered.

"By the way, if the pressure on Fellow Daoist is truly too great, I have a method," Cui Hao suddenly called out to stop Zheng Zhaoling.

Zheng Zhaoling looked back over her shoulder.

She heard Cui Hao say, "Fellow Daoist must know this principle, I am just giving a reminder—the best way to deal with unreasonable pestering is not to understand the other person's difficulties and then take on a mental burden."

"Instead, it is to unilaterally throw out your own difficulties. If our own difficulties haven't been resolved, how would we have the time to listen to someone else's?"

"If we don't have a burden, then the burden belongs to others."

Listening to Cui Hao's words, Zheng Zhaoling stared at him and slowly said:

"These words of yours really don't sound like something Fellow Daoist would say."

Cui Hao lowered his eyes slightly, let out a soft sigh, and said with a touch of loneliness:

"If possible, I wouldn't want to understand this principle either."

Looking at Cui Hao's lonely expression, Zheng Zhaoling seemed to instantly understand something.

She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say. Finally, she could only say:

"Many thanks, Fellow Daoist. I will remember it."

With that said, she turned and left.

Zheng Zhaoling sighed in her heart.

Indeed, good people are easily bullied. Cui Hao had probably also experienced times when his good intentions were let down.

It is just a pity for such a good man like Cui Hao.