The maniacal overbearing aura of the sword freely spread through the crowd. Knowing that her sword could possibly affect the other cultivators, she decided to use her strongest slash right off the bat. Her small body spun as her sword sliced through the air with cruel laughter before slashing right through the talent-measuring rock. Quickly placing the spirit cloth back over her blade, she looked towards the elder to see what his take on it was.

  He was currently inspecting the cut of Hazel’s attack. Everyone watching was still stunned after feeling the demonic aura of Hazel’s sword. Yes, demonic. Fushai, the elder judging the accuracy and deadliness of the female disciple’s cut, recognized that foul aura anywhere. Somehow, she was able to resist the temptations of a demon sword at her age. Just that fact alone would make every single elder inside Nine Swords Sect interested in her.

  The Nine Swords Sect was the strongest righteous sect in the Evergreen continent. Their main goal lied in eradicating all demons and threats to humanity. From time to time, they would encounter demons and objects embedded with demonic qi. These particular objects were on par with earth, sky, and heaven-ranked spirit tools. Making them quite difficult to destroy. Putting them to good use by giving them to cultivators didn’t work either as they directly corrupted any normal human or cultivator and turned them demonic. While some managed to resist the temptation of the demon qi, eventually it would catch up with them in times of peril. Not many had the willpower to resist power on the verge of death. Many were willing to throw away their humanity for the sake of living once again with even more power.

  But for some reason, this girl wasn’t corrupted at all by the demonic qi. She didn’t look like she was carrying any burden on her soul, body, or mind. Like a completely normal girl. This girl... Had to be brought to the Sect Leader as soon as possible! Maybe with her, they could transform her into the ultimate trump card against demons! At the very least, she’ll be able to put their captured demonic tools to good use or destroy them!

“Congratulations on becoming a Core Disciple of the Nine Swords Sect! What is your name?” Fushai asked with a kind respectful tone.

“Hazel?” It was that easy? Maybe listening to Kai sometimes isn’t a bad thing.

“Please follow me Hazel! You can call me Elder Fushai. Everyone else, continue your testing or move on to the second test area already.” He dismissed everyone else as his eyes focused only on Hazel.

“See ya later? I guess?” Hazel waved goodbye to Kai as she was brought into the Nine Swords Sect.

“Hmph! I’ll be in there with you in no time! Don’t think you’re getting ahead of me!” Kai shouted to her.

“Directly made straight into a Core Disciple?! Is her swordsmanship that terrifying!?”

“Didn’t you feel that aura from her sword? I never felt anything like it in my whole life!”

“I’m still shaking from it!”

“This sword strike is too profound! I cannot glean anything from it at all!” Someone cried out in frustration.

“It barely looks like she cut it at all...”

  From a distance, the talent-measuring rock looked like it was still in one piece. But when one inspected the rock up close, they would see an incredibly thin line going from the left to the right of it. If someone pressed with enough force on the rock, it would easily tip over and reveal that it was successfully cut in half. Kai kicked over the rock in frustration and pride. Who told his servant to become so impressive that she would start to steal attention from him? Now he’s going to have to become a Core Disciple too by showing everything he had in this test.

  Fushai brought Hazel deep into the sect. He was taking her straight to the Sect Leader to report on her unusual talent never seen before in all of the thousands of years of the Nine Swords Sect glorious history. If she was lucky, she was going to be trained under the Sect Leader himself. If she was unlucky, she would be made a Core Disciple of a Head Elder. Both of which were still incredibly lofty positions for a recently joined disciple.

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  Hazel was taken inside a gigantic hall that she felt would be more suitable for 7m to 10m humans instead. She felt like an ant inside this luxurious place. Majestic art lined the walls, furniture that would cost a normal mortal more than they could ever afford even in three lifetimes, and from time to time strange elders would be roaming about muttering things like justice, swords, or women. All of it was a new and unfamiliar feeling. Being treated as she had value and was worth something. Certainly not a feeling she ever felt inside the Yingjie Clan.

“Sect Leader! I have important news to share with you!” He gave a deep bow and pushed Hazel’s head down too.

  She was irritated by it but nevertheless, couldn’t really resist an elder this powerful. She would just remember it for the future and pay him back at a later date. Before her head was pushed down, the Sect Leader was sitting very high up on a throne-like chair. At a glance, their figure looked similar to the child-like one she saw earlier before the start of the stair test.

“Go ahead.” Their voice was high-pitched too.

“This disciple is able to resist the effects of demonic qi.” He stated short and sweetly.

‘Demonic qi?’ Hazel had no idea what he was talking about.

“Oh... Is that right?” A smile formed on their face as they began to look at the Qi Gatherer with a little more interest.

“Correct! Hazel, would you mind wielding your sword?” He asked, releasing his hand from her head.

  She glared at him in irritation before doing as he asked. It wasn’t like she had a choice in a situation like this. The only thing she hoped was that something bad wouldn’t come out of this. Hazel easily held on to her sword as it flaunted its aura around her. Its power flowing through her body with ease and comfort.

  The demonic qi went to every single part of Hazel’s body and nourished it with demonic qi, hoping to turn her into a demon eventually. It was a living force but at the same time, it was not. As it wasn’t capable of realizing that Hazel was somehow immune to the effects of its demonic qi and actively took advantage of it by strengthening her inner organs and body with it. But it tried and tried again, tirelessly without stopping to convert her.

  Hazel’s eyes glowed a dark shade of purple and anyone within 100 meters should be able to sense her. Fushai and the Sect Leader both watched her calmly stand there. Not reacting in the slightest to the obscene amount of demonic qi flowing through and around her. Both of them could clearly see that her soul was undisturbed by the energy in the slightest. Which didn’t make any sense to either of them.

“You.” The Sect Leader called out to her. “Hazel, was it? Hold this for me.” A large brown gourd came slowly levitating down towards her.

“Okay?” Hazel grabbed the object with both of her hands and suddenly felt a massive increase in strength flowing through her body.

  Immediately, she dropped to her knees on the ground with her eyes closed to gain as much as she could from this influx of energy. Both hands still tightly gripped around the gourd as it began unleashing a deathly wail. From the inside of the gourd, a tiny black creature with sharp claws, an arrow-shaped tail, and a mouth filled with many dagger-like teeth crawled out. It stared at Hazel who was deep in meditation and hissed at her.

  Neither the Sect Leader nor Fushai could’ve expected its reaction next. The demon spawn made a small leap and crawled onto Hazel’s face before licking it. After doing that strange action, an uncountable number of similar demons started to crawl out of the gourd. All of them crawled onto Hazel’s body as if her body was the most suitable place for staying to them. Then, once all of them covered every inch of her body, they sunk into it.

“Interesting...” The Sect Leader was the only one capable of processing what happened. Fushai was completely lost.

“What just happened...?” He asked.

“They’ve nested inside her like parasites. She’s become the new home for the demons.” The Sect Leader casually explained.

“Does that mean she’s a demon now?”

“Well, look at her. How does her soul look?”

“It still looks normal... but that doesn’t make any sense... How can...” Fushai was at a loss for words.

“Completely incomprehensible. I know!” The Sect Leader laughed at the freakish young girl.

“Any normal person would’ve been torn apart or turned into a terrifying demon by now!” Even he, an elder at the 4th stage of the Earthly Immortal realm, was freaked out by this girl!

  The gourd was now completely free of demons and now any person could use it as well! She didn’t just absorb the demonic qi, she can completely control it without losing herself to it! With this girl in their sect, it looks like the time for demons has come to an end. As long as she’s properly taught, she will no doubt, bring a new age to the Nine Swords Sect!

“I will take her as my personal disciple.” The Sect Leader announced.

“Understood! Should I return back to the recruitment test?” Fushai asked.

“Yes, that’s fine. Just leave her here. I’ll watch over her.” The Sect Leader waved them away.

“I’ll be leaving now.” Fushai bowed before walking away.