The meeting arrived quickly.

A few hours after the camp's preparations had been complete, we all gathered together as a troop to discuss what was going to happen.

"Judging from the arrays and communication talismans we picked up from the enemy troops, it is clear that they were in communication with their sect before their death."

She pointed to a map laid on the makeshift table to the nearest known camp of the Demon Hair Sect.

"If the reinforcements come from this encampment, then we have about three days of preparation before the battle."

It seemed there was a mass agreement to that plan, not that any of the greenhorns would have the experience to spot the bad from the good. Still, even to the untrained eye, being in the defensive position was almost always favorable.

Everyone was serious. I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The less experienced cultivators were a bit more worried, even with the massive advantage we had as the defending party. There couldn't be a smoother first real engagement with enemy cultivators. Guerrilla warfare was my specialty, after all.

There was no way I could count their battle with the construct as anything other than just a quick encounter with a natural disaster that they had managed to survive.

It would be a waiting game from now on. There was only so much work one could do preparing traps and defenses.

At some point for the rookies, the fear would set in. They would begin to make some stupid mistakes and probably start overextending themselves.

That would be a good point to build my presence even more.

Nothing like a rescue to build up the right image,

So thus began the cycle of cultivation and keeping watch that we began to practice.

In the meantime, I was reading some of the books the Grand Elders had given to me. There was some interesting stuff inside there, just foundational things about cultivation from a more righteous perspective, which I never really thought.

It was surprising really that good karma had so little to do with their righteous cultivation methods. In contrast, negative and death karma was so crucial to continued strength in any True Demonic technique.

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Maybe at the higher levels, it was different, but there was no mention for building a proper fruitful karmic balance for further power.

Still, it was confusing to me why they didn't use a proper karmic basis for their powers. I would have thought it would help.

Maybe they think it would limit their possibilities of retaliation against the demonic sect.

Still, that shouldn't swing the karmic balance too drastically and would most likely aid you in your holy endeavors.

If they didn't want to limit themselves with just positive karmic actions, I could understand their viewpoints.

To not even give it as a possibility seemed strange.

As I grow in power and prestige within the sect, I would probably be able to find out.

Still, keeping my karmic balance so far has been difficult. Donating some supplies and techniques to some of the lesser outer disciples had helped; however, I could still feel I hadn't changed overmuch on the karmic track.

Keeping the whole group alive had helped as well. But I would have thought it would have made a more significant impact.

If it was this slow to build up a karmic goodness bank compared to the speed of the negative alternatives, then that could also be a reason for the censorship.

However, It should work as a tiny multiplier to power through only a basic reworking of some cultivation techniques that I had seen so far.

I would have to head to the mortal town and do some proper karmic work to see the actual results.

Leaving the others with a communication token to speak to me, I set off for the town. I was leaving the others behind. Bin Ji wasn't best pleased with one of the core members going off into enemy territory. Still, with Yurt keeping quiet, she didn't have much of choice.

Plus, getting an idea of the state from the locals was always a good idea.

After a quick flight to the town, I disguised myself as a simple traveler.

It was a small town. The walls barely reached two meters in height.

The guards were not very intimidating folk either.

Their shoddy spears and mismatched armor probably spoke to further issues in the town.

Helping with that would certainly help on the karmic scale.

They let me in with a bit of bartering. A little spell can go a long way in convincing someone you have inherent value. Just a simple illusion was more than enough to let me through.

The town was in a much worse state than I initially thought. The roads were little more than dirt tracks, the houses, shoddy ghosts of their ancient past. Disrepair was rampant, destruction even more. Every corner, every shadow, I could see beady eyes appraising my value.

Whether I was worth the hassle to harass, to steal, even to kill.

There was a stench that wouldn't go away of human filth and despair.

It would be a big leap for my Karmic balance if I could get this place in working order.

I would have to see whether enough people would be willing to put up with the changes I would implement and work to better themselves.

Even in Demonic territories, such malfeasance was rare to see. It was better to have thriving industrial cities to get sacrifices and other methods to further the Demonic Path. This kind of area was useless for almost everyone involved—an incredibly shortsighted state of affairs. The disregard for the dignity of mortal ingenuity was a disgusting thing to see. It was such a waste of potential.

Luckily for them, I was here now. It would be a good experiment to see exactly the result of positive Karma on cultivation.

With that, the center of the town opened itself.

With it, the actual problem of the town revealed itself.