"This person is truly efficient and a pleasure to work with," Li Bashan praised endlessly. "Have him come see me, and I will reward him with something more. I will have great use for this person in the future."
"Yes!"
Jiang Zhenhe immediately sent a voice transmission to Sima Zhao. Less than a moment later, Sima Zhao arrived.
He knelt before Li Bashan and said, "Greetings, Divine Son."
"You handled things quickly and brilliantly. Take these as your reward."
Li Bashan handed over another bottle of pills. A rich medicinal fragrance drifted from it, and at a single glance, anyone could tell they were fine goods.
Sima Zhao was both startled and overjoyed. He truly had not expected to reap two windfalls!
Not to mention, Ye Qingtao simply hadn't resisted at all, so he hadn't expended much effort!
Leaving that thought unsaid, he accepted the reward and said, "Everything is thanks to the Divine Son's cultivation."
Li Bashan laughed heartily. He wasn't cultivating Sima Zhao at all—this was only his first time meeting the man—but such flattery suited him well.
With a faint smile, he said, "Alright, enough flattery. Just take your things."
"Many thanks, Divine Son! From now on, I am willing to smash my body to pieces and give my all for the Divine Son, dying without regret!"
Sima Zhao took the items with extreme care, terrified that he might accidentally drop and shatter them.
His heart was bursting with ecstatic joy. Hahaha, he had made a fortune!
"Get up."
Li Bashan waved a hand. He had to admit this was a win-win ending. By seizing the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda from Ye Qingtao, all three of them profited. It was comfortable—immensely comfortable!
With nothing else to attend to, Li Bashan instructed the two of them to leave.
After Sima Zhao and Jiang Zhenhe departed, Li Bashan flicked his folding fan, and with a *swish*, he vanished.
A moment later, inside the Sect Main Hall, Li Bashan's figure materialized.
He fluttered the folding fan in his hand, letting the breeze stir his long hair, and asked, "Sect Master, what is troubling you?"
Su Yanran was currently tapping her forehead, suffering from a severe headache over who to choose as the next Demon Suppressor.
A hundred years ago, Ye Qingtao did not belong to any faction, so she had assigned him to guard the pagoda. But as it turned out, he had actually defected to the Demonic Path, leaving her to scramble for a replacement.
In truth, choosing a Demon Suppressor was no easy task; the requirements were quite strict. The candidate had to possess an unyielding willpower and passable natural talent, or else they would be eroded by the demonic Qi.
Disciples with strong willpower could hold out against the demonic Qi for twenty years, or even longer. Ordinary ones, however, might suffer a deviation in cultivation and lose their minds in a mere five years, requiring timely medical treatment just to preserve their lives.
Seeing the Divine Son arrive, Su Yanran motioned for him to sit and asked, "It's nothing, just a headache over selecting a Demon Suppressor. Oh, by the way, something happened with the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. Did you know?"
Li Bashan's expression immediately shifted. "I had no idea. What happened? Did the demons break out?"
"No, no." Su Yanran shook her head like a rattle-drum. "If they had broken out, it would be a catastrophe. It's the current Demon Suppressor who messed up—he actually colluded with the Demonic Path. Alas, I've already locked him away at the Cliff of Reflection."
Li Bashan asked, "Why lock him up? Why not just execute him outright? Colluding with the Demonic Path is a grave crime!"
Had Ye Qingtao heard Li Bashan say this, he surely would have laughed in fury. *I haven't done a single thing, yet in your mouth it's suddenly a capital offense.*
Su Yanran shook her head again. "It's not worth it. Regardless, over the past hundred years, there hasn't been a single demonic riot, and the sect has remained at peace. Consider his merits and faults as balancing each other out. There's no need for us to burn our bridges after crossing them. The most urgent task now is to select a new Demon Suppressor."
Inwardly, Li Bashan was ecstatic. "Sect Master, who do you think would be suitable?"
His purpose in coming here was actually to persuade the Sect Master to choose him, but he certainly couldn't state it outright, lest he give the game away.
Su Yanran produced a roster containing the names of everyone in the sect and began to read through it.
Li Bashan felt a twinge of anxiety. If the Sect Master chose someone else, things would become a bit precarious. Of course, even then, he could still act as an advisor and claim that the chosen person lacked the capability to suppress those fiends.
After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Su Yanran put the roster away and sighed heavily, "None of them will do. Not a single one is suitable. Do you have anyone to recommend?"
Li Bashan thought for a moment, then spoke in a roundabout way, "I do have someone in mind, but he recently went on a distant trip. It will take him at least ten days to half a month to return. He won't make it in time."
Su Yanran fell into deep thought.
A smile bloomed in Li Bashan's heart. After a moment, seeing that Su Yanran still hadn't made up her mind, he said, "Sect Master, why don't you let me temporarily suppress the pagoda for a while? Once you find a suitable person, I'll hand the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda over to them."
Fearing that wasn't enough, he quickly added, "You have a mountain of daily affairs to handle, while I have sufficient strength and nothing much to do on a regular basis. I want to do something substantive for the sect."
Su Yanran looked up at him, pondered for a moment, and finally said, "Alright then. You can step in for the time being. Once I find someone later, I'll have them replace you. Sorry for the trouble during this period."
"It's no trouble at all. Doing things for the sect is my duty," Li Bashan said respectfully.
He figured that if he asked for the long-term position right off the bat, the Sect Master certainly wouldn't agree. Therefore, it was best to approach it indirectly. As for waiting until the Sect Master found someone? By then, he would just invent another excuse to keep doing it.
Or perhaps that person would simply meet with some accident and suddenly disappear.
"I will find someone as quickly as possible and won't let you wait there too long," Su Yanran said.
The Divine Son was the future of the sect, and he certainly couldn't stay there for too long. What would happen if the demonic Qi eroded his body and an accident occurred?
Li Bashan's heart tightened, but he maintained a smiling face, waving his folding fan as he said, "Thank you for your concern, Sect Master. Please find someone soon; I'm also afraid it will delay my cultivation."
"Mm."
With nothing else to discuss, Li Bashan left and headed toward the back mountain.
…………
On his flight to the back mountain, Li Bashan was overwhelmingly excited. He was determined to get his hands on the treasures held by those fiends!
Yet he was completely unaware that he was utterly incapable of suppressing the demons inside the tower. Only an extremely bright and holy physique could suppress the entities within, while his Blazing Fire Physique—though not entirely useless—had minimal effect.
Li Bashan's Blazing Fire Physique belonged to a category that could at best be called rare; it was not one-in-a-million. Only Ye Qingtao's Ancient Heavenly Yang Physique was unimaginably precious, capable of effortlessly crushing those demons with overwhelming superiority. With his Blazing Fire Physique, even expending enormous effort might still leave him unable to win.
In short, he could not guard the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
…………
Before long, Li Bashan arrived at the back mountain.
He requested the Demon-Warding Jade Pendant and the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda from the disciple stationed there, sat down on the spot, and secretly began looking for an opportunity to execute his plan.
The sect had specifically designated this area of the back mountain for guarding the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda because the dense spiritual Qi here could purify demonic Qi. However, the Demon Suppressor was permitted to take the pagoda back to their residence when sleeping at night.
Li Bashan actually wanted to make his move right this instant, but it was broad daylight—how could he do so without some plausible cover?
Moreover, he was afraid those demons might suddenly riot.
One hour later.
Near a certain sect.
Demonic Qi raged here, churning with black flames. Countless passing cultivators did not dare fly through the air and instead gave the place a wide berth.
This was the Tianmo Sect. Rumor had it that they practiced a technique called the Myriad Heavenly Demons in Disarray; once it went berserk, their combat power could instantly multiply dozens of times over, making them formidable indeed.
At this moment, inside a lavish elder's bedroom, an elder was cultivating when suddenly a voice transmission punched through.
He had originally paid it no mind, but upon hearing the contents of the transmission, his expression drastically changed in shock.
"What! The Qingyun Sect's Demon Suppressor has been stripped of his post, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda confiscated, and he's locked in confinement—replaced by the Divine Son!"
This voice transmission came from a secret plant the elder had embedded within the Qingyun Sect. The message read: *Third Elder, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda in the hands of the Qingyun Sect's Ye Qingtao has been confiscated. He has been exiled to the Cliff of Reflection. The one replacing him to guard the pagoda is the Divine Son, Li Bashan.*
The Tianmo Sect elder was instantly wild with joy!
"Good heavens, this is a massive surprise! A massive surprise dropped right out of the sky!"
The Tianmo Sect and the Qingyun Sect had always been at loggerheads. Like bitter enemies meeting on a narrow road, their disciples would start a brawl the moment they laid eyes on each other!
The origin of this feud was simple. A hundred years ago, a Qingyun Sect disciple had killed a member of the Tianmo Sect while seizing a treasure, and then fled, vanishing without a trace.
Unable to find the culprit, the Tianmo Sect could only confront the Qingyun Sect. But how did the Qingyun Sect respond? They actually claimed that the disciple had already been expelled, that he had nothing more to do with the Qingyun Sect, and told them to go find him themselves.
Was that not an obvious brush-off?
Furious, upon returning, the Tianmo Sect announced to all their disciples that from then on, whenever they met someone from the Qingyun Sect on the road, they were to kill them on sight. Afterward, they needn't worry about the consequences—the sect would cover for them and simply declare that the victim had been expelled as a traitor.
Thus, the two sides forged a bitter grudge that only grew more irreconcilable. A hundred years had passed since then, and the hatred had accumulated as deep as the sea.
And now, hearing that the enemy's Demon Suppressor had been replaced, the elder was brimming with triumphant joy!
In the eyes of the Tianmo Sect, apart from Ye Qingtao, none of the Qingyun Sect's Demon Suppressors amounted to anything.
For no other reason than that, according to rumor, past Demon Suppressors could never properly keep the pagoda secure. Those demons had been restless day in and day out, frequently revolting, throwing the entire Qingyun Sect into a state of panic at the slightest sign of trouble, treating every bush and tree as an enemy.
Yet ever since Ye Qingtao took office, those demons had gone completely dormant, and the Qingyun Sect had enjoyed a period of utter peace. No one knew why, but he clearly possessed something special.
Now that Ye Qingtao was gone, who else could suppress the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda?
If those demons managed to break out, their Tianmo Sect could march right over, seize the opportunity to fan the flames, and unite with the demons in one go to annihilate the Qingyun Sect!
The only reason they hadn't easily started a war was that the Tianmo Sect lacked the deep foundation of the Qingyun Sect, leaving them restricted to petty maneuvers during normal times.
Hearing this news now, they couldn't possibly be happier; their spirits were soaring.
The elder immediately dispatched the message outward, and in less than a moment, the news spread through every level of the Tianmo Sect.
Instantly, the entire sect broke into celebration.
Everyone was overjoyed. The Sect Master, eyeing the situation with a predatory gleam, was already whetting his blades, preparing to mobilize the entire sect at a moment's notice to crush the Qingyun Sect in a single round.
Harboring a long-standing hatred for the Qingyun Sect, the Tianmo Sect Master whiled away the time sharpening his weapons by sending out this joyous piece of news to other sects that also had grievances with the Qingyun Sect—whether righteous or demonic paths, and even various rogue cultivators—so long as they had a dispute with Qingyun, they all received the transmission.
…………
Not long after, at another sect.