In the massive forests that started out from the south of Starfall City, the familiar form of two cloaked figures was wandering aimlessly.

They made twists and turns in the large forest and sometimes circled around to arrive at the same place they started a few moments ago before once again walking aimlessly.

Finally, the man could not hold on any longer and let loose his power, instantly vaporizing a large swath of the forest in anger.

“Damn it! Are you sure that thing is not broken??”

“Shut up you damned primate!! I am this close to burning you to a crisp!”

“Oh yeah?? Why don’t you try it?? As far as I remember, we are both in the same realm and I have more combat experience than a pampered princess like you!”

“How dare you!!”

The bickering between the two continued for some time before the two finally gave up and sat down on the spot, mentally exhausted after their months-long search for their target.

“….Yan Xinyan, just what the hell is going on? Why is the artifact that the mistress gave us not working properly?”

The woman glared at the man and then at the artifact before answering.

“It is not that the artifact is not working properly, Yan Liehuo. It’s just that the pure Qi in this region is abnormally high, preventing the artifact from properly tracking the Qi signature of the seal that the girl has on her.”

The man felt shocked at those words, finally realizing what the weird sensation he had been feeling ever since walking into this forest was.

“But how is that possible? Isn’t this region considered the backwaters of the continent? Unfit for any proper cultivator? Hell, the concentration of pure Qi in this region should be so low that nobody should be able to break through past the Nascent Soul realm in this place. It is the reason we, the rest of the Holy Lands, the barbarian clans, and the other forces don’t particularly interfere with the politics of these two pathetic empires in the first place.”

Yan Xinyan nodded at her companion's words before speaking again.

“That was supposed to be the case, but clearly, the collective information gathered by all the holy lands and the top forces back home was wrong for at least as far as this area is concerned. By the heavens, I won’t even be surprised if a Heavenly Treasure spontaneously manifests in this area with such a high concentration of Pure Qi.”

“Please don’t talk about Heavenly Treasures right now. I still feel the phantom pains from when the mistress punished us for failing to retrieve that damned fruit all those months ago.”

Yan Xinyan grimaced at that reminder before collapsing back on the ground and staring listlessly at the sky.

The past few months had been extremely unlucky for this unfortunate duo of people.

First, they failed to retrieve the Bodhi Fruit that had manifested in their territory thanks to the actions of the other forces and a cat of all things. Something that their mistress punished them for as a show of authority for the rest of the disciples of their Holy Land. A fact that they knew beforehand and the reason why they did not harbor any resentment towards their mistress as they understood her position.

Then, they were given another chance to make up for their mistake by locating a child that their mistress said was extremely important for their Holy Land and should be treated as if she were her own child.

A task that they were spectacularly failing at, once again proving themselves incompetent in the eyes of their mistress should she learn of this failure.

As they continued to lay there and contemplate the failure that was their lives, a large group of people led by an old man arrived at the area through the air and looked down arrogantly at the two people wearing cloaks. His Nascent Soul realm cultivation on full display.

“Was it you two who destroyed such a large swath of the forest? Do you understand just how troublesome it is going to be for us, the Heavenly Sword Sect, to train our disciples in this area if you scare off all the low-level demonic beasts in the area? How do you intend to compensate our sect for this loss??”

As the old man blabbered on about his sect, his status, his family and everything in between, Yan Xinyan and Yan Liehuo ignored his ramblings while continuing to imagine their fate at the hands of their mistress.

The old man in the sky, one of the elders of the sect known as Chen Wei, grew incensed at this clear dismissal and directly attacked with his palm, causing a large amount of True Qi to push down on the two people like a mountain pressing down on a human.

Unfortunately for the elder who wanted to show off in front of the core disciples behind him, his actions had sealed his fate.

Yan Liehuo did not even turn to look at Chen Wei before waving his hand casually, dissipating the True Qi and turning Chen Wei into a cloud of bloody mist and gore while also destroying his Nascent Soul at the same time.

In that split second of his action, the horrified core disciples of the sect realized who their elder had recklessly provoked.

A Soul Transformation realm expert, a powerhouse that is unrivaled in this region.

“….Demonic Cultivation? Yan Liehuo, capture those disciples.”

“Already on it.”

The man directly teleported in front of the disciples who grew even more horrified at that feat which clearly indicated that the man was in the advanced stage of the Soul Transformation realm.

Immediately, they felt a suffocating pressure engulf their bodies for a few seconds before it left.

“Senior! Please don’t take out your anger on us! We are just Foundation Establishment ants, we have nothing to offer you-“

“Stop your bootlicking, demonic scum.”

With the cold voice coming from Yan Xinyan, the disciples immediately knew that their fates were sealed.

“Yan Liehuo, they all have the taint of demonic energy in their cultivation. You know what to do.”

“Got it.”

Once again, Yan Liehuo waved his hand despite the pleading and begging of the core disciples of the Heavenly Sword Sect, directly killing them and dissipating their souls for good measure.

One can never be too careful with Cultivators of the Demonic Path.

“….Looks like we will have to delay our search for the child. We have much more pressing issues to take care of right now.”

Yan Xinyan nodded at her companion’s words and put the tracking artifact back in her space ring.

Together, they flew back towards Starfall City to gather information on the Heavenly Sword Sect.

They needed to know just how far the corruption had spread and if they needed to pull out the roots of an entire sect or not.

The purge of the demons takes priority over anything else. That was the rule upon which all the Holy Lands operate with no exceptions to this rule.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

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“Brother Wei!!”

“Haha! Come here you brats!”

“Hey! We are not brats!”

I just laughed at the retort from the kids and hugged them tightly, happy to have these kids back from that accursed sect.

With the younger children done, I wasted no time and hugged the embarrassed teenagers who gave a lot of protests at my actions. Of course, their bodies told another story entirely when they returned my hug with twice the enthusiasm as me.

They might think that they are adults now but in my eyes, they will still be the snot-nosed brats that I watched grow up in the past years.

I am glad that Lin Mei took my warning seriously and got her friends out of that place as quickly as she could under the pretense of a long-term mission. I cannot allow any of them to be harmed in the turmoil that is to come for the Heavenly Sword Sect in the next two years.

Speaking of the girl, she was standing at the back of the group and fidgeting nervously while another figure was hiding behind her.

‘How intriguing.’

‘…this can’t be good’

‘Nope. Definitely not good, for the sect that is.’

‘..I really admire your carefree attitude, why can’t I be so uncaring of dangers and unpredictable situations as you?’

‘Because you tend to think too much about things. Like I said before, what happens to that sect and its people has nothing to do with us, even with this surprise addition, that fact doesn’t change.’

I walked towards Lin Mei who started to fidget even more. Embarrassment and guilt were very apparent in her body language and expression as I approached her.

And sure enough, as I approached her, I spotted the figure hiding behind the girl and received confirmation of my suspicion.

“Well, I always knew you were very adventurous but I never imagined you would take the next step with someone so high profile. To think that Little Mei has grown so much that she brought home a girl to introduce to me and her parents.”

“Brother Wie!! Stop embarrassing me! It’s not like that!”

I laughed at her embarrassed shout and ruffled her hair, much to her frustration before turning back to the teenager hiding behind Lin Mei.

“Hello there, little miss. I am Da Wei.”

“….I am Guo Yufeng.”

The mosquito-like voice belonging to the granddaughter of Heavenly Guo, Guo Peng, the Patriarch of the Heavenly Sword Sect came out from the girl who still continued to hide behind Lin Mei.

The same girl who was supposed to have died by now under mysterious circumstances within the sect.

I looked towards Lin Mei for an explanation as the girl immediately started to justify her actions to me despite not having anything to justify.

“When you sent that message to me that we were in danger and something was happening in the sect, I overhead a few core disciples talking about 'plans' involving Yufeng. Since she was one of my friends, I could not let her be when her life was in danger, so I asked her to come with me.”

“And her grandfather just let her go?”

“…….He doesn’t know that I left.”

‘…..Wow. Just when I thought Guo Peng couldn’t be more incompetent’

‘He was always incompetent. The only reason he is still the patriarch is due to his strength. Of course, that is going to change soon enough in the following years. What with Nascent Soul cultivators popping up like cabbage within the sect thanks to a certain someone.’

The old demon’s words made sense since I couldn’t find a single instance in my memory where the patriarch ever acted with competence when it came to fulfilling his duties.

“I see. In that case, what do you plan to do? As you know, this is Lin Mei and the other’s home but that is not the case with you. You will have to figure out where to go from here soon enough. Of course, I can talk to Chief Chen and make you a permanent resident of this village if you want to but you will have to earn your keep.”

“…..I don’t know what to do from here. Can I think about it?”

I smiled at the depressed girl.

“Of course. Take your time. In the meantime, welcome to our humble little village.”

That brought a small smile to the girl as Lin Mei excitedly pulled Guo Yufeng towards her home.

‘….Are we sure Lin Mei has not taken that girl Yufeng as a Dao Companion? She is strangely excited about having that girl meet her parents.’

‘Not every relationship has to be a romantic one. We both know how Lin Mei is. If she had chosen someone as her Dao Companion, the first people to know about it would be her parents and the first person she would come to for advice would be me. Besides, I can see that Lin Mei only thinks of Guo Yufeng as a very good friend, possibly even a sister.’

‘Makes sense. Besides, I don’t think they should be thinking about relationships at this point in time when they are at the perfect age to become stronger. ’

‘…did you just express your concern for someone other than ourselves?’

‘Now you are making me regret saying it’

‘No, no. This is good. It shows that, for the first time, you are learning to be human instead of a demon.’

‘Seriously, fuck you.’

I just smiled at his words and headed toward Chief Chen’s house to talk about our recent addition.

Despite my words, I really am glad that the old demon is slowly starting to come around and embrace the humanity that he abandoned long ago.

While it is true that some people are simply irredeemable, the old demon is not one of them. I have seen his memories, all of his joys and sorrows, his suffering and anguish, his actions and his reasoning, everything.

This allowed me to see things from his perspective and his reasoning for his actions. It does not mean that I forgive him for the cruel and demonic actions that he performed in his timeline, but it does mean that I understood where he was coming from.

The old demon will always remain the old demon, that is a fact I know better than anyone. However, whether this old demon can learn to be human and relearn what it means to care about someone is something that only time will tell.

Arriving at Chief Chen’s house, I knocked on the door and waited until his wife, Li Na, opened the door and smiled at me.

“Wei’er, come it! I’m preparing dumplings for the old man and could use someone to tell me how they taste.”

“Not today, Grandma Li. I’ve got something for the old man to decide on. We just received a new guest in the village along with the returning group from the sect and I want to know what he thinks we should do about it.”

The old woman laughed and motioned me in.

“What do you think we should do? Wei’er.”

“I think we can have her make a home for herself here if she chooses to. Of course, It is not up to me to make that decision.”

“Something tells me it is.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing, you’ll know soon enough.”

Soon, we arrived at the massive garden behind the house where Chief Chen was lazily reclined in the recliner I made for him a few years ago.

“Oi! You lazy old man, Wei’re is here to talk to you about something!”

The old man did not even move as he shouted back.

“Tell him to make a decision himself and stop bothering me! I want to enjoy what’s left of my little life damn it!!”

“You are hardly old enough to speak like that, Chief Chen.”

“Damn it, Brat! What kind of workload did you bring me this time??”

I chuckled and took out a recliner from my space ring. Putting it down beside the old man, I lay down as well as spoke to him about what happened in the village.

The response I received was something that I did not see coming.

“Why are you asking me about it?? Can’t you make a decision yourself?”

“…As far as I can remember, I am not the Chief of the village. You are.”

“For now.”

“Don’t even joke about that.”

Old man Chen suddenly sat up and stared at me seriously.

“Tell me, Da Wei, why do you think I have been slowly slacking off over the past year and having you pick up my work as a favor to me?”

“….Because you are old and you are suffering from exhaustion?”

“Don’t try to play dumb. I know you are sharp enough to realize what I am saying.”

“Hell no!”

“There is no denying it. You have done such a good job picking up the slack that everyone in the village easily follows your every word. After gathering the adults and the old people in the village, I learned that almost everyone agrees with my view. The only ones who don’t agree are those who are worried that I am putting too much responsibility on you and would hurt your health.”

“They are right! I am not healthy. In fact, I have been feeling under the weather for the past few weeks *cough* *cough*”

Old man Chen glared at me.

“Don’t try to fool me, boy. You are a body cultivator, you can’t be sick unless you are poisoned.”

I finally gave up and glared at the old man.

“….Why me?”

“Because you care about the village and everyone in the village, including me, cares for you. I don’t have any children or any successor. I am old, Da Wei, old enough that I can feel my time is near. I can’t leave my home unattended when my time comes and I can’t have someone incompetent take care of it since you and I both know the kind of dangers that lurk in this world. I just want what’s best for my people, my village, and my home. And you, are the best that I have, better than anything that I could ever hope for.”

Damnit old man, don’t try to guilt trip me like this.

“You know better than anyone that I am someone who won’t hesitate to run from my responsibilities if it becomes too dangerous for me.”

“That is one of the reasons why I want you to succeed me. You know when to hold on and when to retreat. With you in charge, I have no doubt that should the worst come to pass, you would not hesitate to take the people and leave behind this collection of buildings to save their lives.”

I stayed silent and stared at the heavens, contemplating his words when I felt Grandma Li place her palm on my shoulder.

When did she arrive behind us? I did not even sense her presence.

“Don’t think too much about it, Wei’er. We are not asking you to succeed this old fool right now. I won’t allow this lazy bum to throw everything on your shoulders and laze around at the house all day. As long as there is breath in his body, he will fulfill his responsibilities. We just want you to be prepared when the time comes.”

The old man started bickering with his wife about her words as I just stared at them as a smile slowly formed on my face.

She is right. I don’t have to worry about this right now.

Since he trusts me to succeed him and protect this village, I will oblige. However, I will allow this old man to push all of that onto me so quickly. I won’t allow him to die so quickly either.

‘Just you wait, old man. I will make sure you live for a few more decades at least and fulfill your responsibilities for deceiving me like this.’

And that is a promise I will not fail to fulfill.