I have to admit, this feeling is truly carefree—at the very least, it is far better than constantly worrying about those demons making trouble inside the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
This feeling of being completely free from worries and burdens is extremely comfortable.
Suddenly, with a swish, a voice transmission came through.
It was sent by Jin Dajian, who was currently entering the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
"Little friend Ye, let me give you a heads-up. I've come to find the Divine Son, asking him to return the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda to you. But he insists with absolute certainty that you colluded with the Demonic Path, accepted their initiation and empowerment of demonic energy, and even received lavish gifts from the fiends inside the pagoda. Right now, I am going inside with him to check things out in person. Rest assured, I will make sure he doesn't wrong you! Of course, if you really did collude with the Demonic Path, considering our friendship over all these years, I will find a way to secretly send you down the mountain. From then on, you must never return, because I'm afraid they will kill you."
This voice transmission was rather long. After listening to it, it would be a lie to say Ye Qingtao was not moved at all.
He hadn't expected Elder Jin to be so good to him, taking the initiative to help clear his name. Even if he really had defected to the Demonic Path, the elder would still secretly let him go. Putting everything else aside, he would remember this favor.
However, he had done nothing to let down the sect, so they could investigate all they wanted.
"The Divine Son is truly something else, perpetually terrified that the sect won't descend into chaos. If they really let him carry on like this, the demons will definitely break out of the pagoda in a massive swarm."
Ye Qingtao let out a cold sneer.
It didn't matter, though. Let him stir up trouble to his heart's content. It would be best if he turned the sect into a complete mess, and when the countless fiends inside the pagoda swarmed out, let's see what he would do!
…………
Li Bashan believed that the demonic qi on Ye Qingtao's body was dense, which was why he concluded that Ye Qingtao had defected to the Demonic Path. But the reality was quite the opposite. Just imagine, with Ye Qingtao sitting amidst a pile of demonic qi year after year, could he possibly avoid being tainted by some of it?
It was just like spending a long time around someone with body odor—could you avoid picking up some of the scent yourself?
It was simply because Ye Qingtao had been at it for so long—longer than anyone else—that the demonic qi on him was extremely dense. At first glance, one might genuinely think he practiced some sort of Demonic Cultivation Technique, but in truth, he did nothing of the sort.
Ye Qingtao was well aware of this himself, but he couldn't be bothered to explain, because speaking would be a waste of breath. Would anyone believe him?
A fabricated charge, coupled with the fact that he had no way to clear his name, meant it was better not to waste that kind of effort. Let those who wanted to take over the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda take it over. Whatever happened next, he would just stay right where he was and watch the show.
Besides, even if he left the sect now, he still possessed a shred of self-preservation capability in the outside world, so he didn't care at all.
In fact, it wasn't that Ye Qingtao had never thought of repaying Su Yanran for her past kindness in discovering and employing him, but when he was framed, she hadn't even bothered to ask him a single question. How could that not chill his heart?
Forget about investigating to clear his grievance—the least she could do was ask!
Without asking a single word, she had directly relieved him of his post and had him locked up.
To dismiss his contributions of a century simply because of someone else's word—he was completely speechless.
Over the past hundred years, Ye Qingtao had done nothing to betray the sect. His conscience was completely clear. Every single day, he was conscientious and kept a vigilant eye on the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, never letting his guard down for a moment.
Even when he fell ill or fell asleep at times, his heart and mind were still worrying about the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
After all, this thing concerned the life and death of the entire sect.
Sometimes, out of fear that he might miss something and let those demons slip away in secret, he lived in a state of constant tension year round.
And there were simply too many demons—countless trillions of them. If he had to kill them all, wouldn't he be worked to death?
Yet all of this was negated by a single false accusation from someone else.
Therefore, Ye Qingtao had no lingering affection for Su Yanran now. Let things be as they may; when the sect fell into utter chaos, he wondered what expressions they would wear.
What made him even more resentful was that ever since he became a Demon Suppressor, aside from seeing the sect master once when he first entered the sect, he had never seen the sect master look for him again.
Not even a single disciple was ever sent to check on how he was doing.
It wasn't that Ye Qingtao thought it was inappropriate, given how high-status a figure the sect master was.
But he had contributed so much to the sect over the years; asking for some pills to restore mental energy wasn't too much to ask, right?
With his nerves stretched so tight every day here, giving him a few pills was, in his opinion, hardly excessive, right?
Yet no one ever sent any. Even when he once went to find the elder in charge of pills, the other party simply said, "The sect master didn't arrange for pills to be issued to you. You don't have to do anything every day except watch the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. What resources could you possibly need?"
Then came the talk about how they had to go out on missions, risking life and limb, and so on and so forth.
In short, two words: bullshit.
You contribute to the sect, so I suppose I don't contribute to the sect?
I guard the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda every single day with not a moment to relax, alright? Even when I go back at night and close my eyes, I don't dare let my guard down for a second, alright?
However, Ye Qingtao couldn't be bothered to explain to them. Fine, whatever you say goes.
So back then, Ye Qingtao didn't say much to them and just turned and left. That elder had even told him to go apply to the sect master—as if he could possibly see the sect master!
Still, the salary of a Demon Suppressor was quite generous; the spirit stones issued every month were at the inner-sect level, and absorbing the spirit stones to recover his strength was decent enough.
…………
Inside the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
Jin Dajian and the Divine Son had already entered. Looking around, the entire interior of the pagoda was thick with demonic mist, pitch-black like lowering clouds.