Jin decided to wait for the church to arrive and try to join their expedition. He was not short of funds but he was definitively very curious about this top power.

He had to wait three days for them to reach this city. They were late compared to the schedule. Then again, they came here with quite the crowd already. A gigantic train made of people entered the gates and flooded the narrow streets.

From a glance, one could guess that there were at least two hundred people. They were all cultivators and had very different levels. The majority were actually still in the body refinement realm. Jin found it suspicious but then again, with such a quantity, a lower quality did not mean that much. It depended on the opponent obviously but with two hundred people, you would be quite safe going around. At least, in the lower continent, it was safe.

The subjugation mission would probably succeed.

Jin perceived a few auras belonging to cultivators of higher realm than himself within that crowd too. There were few but they were present. He was a little skeptical about whether they would still hire more people though. It would be quite a shame if they did not. He would be forced to give up on joining. Forcefully joining them or watching from a hiding spot would likely be a bad idea too. Messing with two hundred warriors led by religious men...That was something that could end really badly. He did not plan to take this kind of risks.

Fortunately, the dozen religious men at the front announced that they would keep recruiting and depart tomorrow. They simply went on to the very center of the city and settled there. It was as if they were camping except it was the middle of a city. Many cultivators pitched their own tents there under the gazes of a bunch of powerless city guards.

They would never dare offend the Church of Light and, even less when there were so many warriors with them. In fact, there probably were not even two hundred city guards.

After some time, additional warriors that had waited within the city began to walk towards the encampment. They wanted to join the party. And they were always welcomed by the priests. Those ten guys in yellow robes kept preaching as they hired more people. Of course, the majority of cultivators nodded and agreed with them on the surface. Truthfully, they mostly did not give a fuck and just agreed so that it would end faster.

Warriors were after the cash, not the faith.

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Jin waited some more before he joined in as well. The procedure was rather quick and he acted similarly to the other cultivators. He did not try to question the priests in any ways as it was dangerous. Just after a few sentences, he could feel that they truly believed in their own bullshit. To him, they were already placed in the fanatics category. That was just the first impression though. And, even if they were truly mad fanatics, he was curious about that so-called demon.

Curiosity is a dangerous feeling but without it, one would never be able to advance further.

Jin settled himself somewhere alongside others. He had no tents but did not really need one or care about it. He was used to sleeping in the wild since a long time ago. He simply sat down and began to meditate.

As he entered his soul sea, he could still see the seal if he focused. He continued to hammer it with his shaped spears. It had yet to show any signs of breaking or weakening but that was all he could think of doing. He could probably send the corruption after the seal as well if he tried it but he was fearful of doing so. If the corruption ended up devouring his core along with the seal or it developed another consciousness after eating away the seal...

Basically, he lacked knowledge about how to use corruption in his soul sea and did not want to proceed until he no longer did. He would rather wait until he got Sarina to give him a solution than kill himself because he was impatient. Patience was key to cultivation. It was not about running the fastest but being the one reaching the end.

In any case, he planned to keep on sending out the spears to slam at the seal until something happened or he managed to get Sarina's advice.

...

The next morning, at dawn, the priests got up and began to pray loudly in the middle of the camp. The prayer was not that loud as there were only a dozen of them chanting but the people in the surroundings were mostly cultivators. To them, this was the signal to get up and prepare to depart.

Jin remained seated until the priests finished their show and ordered for the people to march ahead.

As he followed the crowd, a few fellows approached him to talk. He discussed with a few people here and then, learning some more about the geography, the lore, the history and the ongoing events of note. A few times, he asked if people knew where they were going. No one did. At least, none of those he asked. He also inquired about what the demon was. Again, people did not have a clue.

In the end, he was moving along with the crowd blindly.

It took two more days until they reached the foot of a mountain and stopped there. The priests got up on a mud platform they created and began to preach.

Jin filtered the useless content. What truly mattered was that they reached the lair of the demon and would now move out to subjugate it. It was supposedly lurking on this mountain.

Jin looked up. The vegetation was rather abundant on this mountain. It would be quite difficult to take care of the demon. At the very least, it would know of their approach and had the home ground advantage. And more than anything, no one knew what this demon was...