Yao Zhong wiped the blood off his face and looked at the mangled corpse in front of him. Extracting Qi from a human was indeed a difficult, bloody process, especially when they hadn’t even formed their Qi core yet.

Either way, he’d gotten the Qi he needed. He raised his palm and let out a wisp of demonic Qi, a wisp that traveled directly to the elders.

—

The core of the United Demons Sect was in panic.

All the elders stared at the row of orbs, their eyes filled with a variety of emotions. The core orb, the one at the very center, had cracked, indicating something very simple.

Yao Zhong, their heir, had died. At least, his physical body had died.

The four core elders, each in the peak stage of the Void Exploring realm, stared at the orb gravely. They were waiting for a signal, any signal, from their heir. Even if everything had gone extremely wrong, the Soul Shifting Technique,a secret deeply burrowed within the United Demons Sect that only them, the heir, and a handful of other elders knew about, should be enough to let the heir to survive.

At great cost, no doubt, but the heir surviving was preferred over the heir not surviving, that was for sure.

That was why, as soon as they felt the wisp of demonic Qi that stroked at their souls, they moved into the human realm immediately.

—

Su Jiao kept her head bowed with the utmost respect she could muster. Even if she wanted to leap up and hug the Sect Leader with all she had as soon as she saw the old, wrinkled woman, she couldn’t. The Sect Leader had passed away, her natural lifespan consumed, and that was what had triggered the demonic sect’s attack.

Su Jiao could not help but feel immensely relieved and glad to see her master still alive. She felt like she’d gained a part of her back once more, like a pillar within her life had been reconstructed.

She wished there was some way for her to save her master, extend her lifespan. Surely there was some method.

“How did you know about the demon?” her master questioned. Her voice was hoarse, gentle, barely a whisper, but everyone within the inner sanctum could hear it clearly.

Su Jiao did not respond, her gaze still focused on the rocky floor.

Her master stayed silent for a few seconds, then stated, “You will not be able to escape this by simply staying silent, Su Jiao. We have all the time in the day. Tell me. How did you know about the demon?”

Many thoughts flashed through Su Jiao’s mind at once. All of them pointed to only one direction, telling her master the entire truth. There was no reason for her to hide this. She trusted her master with her life.

“Can I speak to you alone, master?”

The Sect Leader raised her eyebrows.

—

“I have come from the future,” Su Jiao stated, looking at her master solemnly. “A future where the demon I have killed successfully overwhelms our entire sect.”

Her master, the Sect Leader, stared at Su Jiao silently for a few seconds, and then tilted her head. “You are telling me,” she whispered, “that you were able to successfully master the Dao of Time?”

“No, no,” Su Jiao refused immediately. “No, I could not even imagine mastering something like the Dao of Time. The heavens. It was the will of the heavens… The heavens showed me mercy and sent me back in time in order to save the sect.”

The Sect Leader stared at Su Jiao, clearly not knowing how to respond.

—

It took the Four Prime Demon Elders a few hours before they were able to reach the heir’s location. They could have teleported there immediately if they’d truly wished to, but that would cause far too much of a ripple in the natural order of Qi. All of the Void Exploring experts of the human sects would detect them immediately, and it would spark a proper war if not handled properly.

That was not something they, the demon elders, wanted, not that the human elders wanted it either. It would cause too much damage on both sides.

Suppressing a sigh, Kong Xing stared at the blood stained girl in front of him. Indeed, this was the body their heir had possessed. Kong Xing could not help but feel a hint of sadness when he saw the girl. The girl’s body was completely unremarkable, completely useless…

Then again, no body could match the talent that their heir had possessed previously…

Even if they found a suitable body, the heir would survive, yes, perhaps even reach the Void Exploring Realm if they were very, very lucky, but reaching the peak of the Void Exploring Realm?

That had become practically impossible now.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

They’d messed up big time. They’d underestimated the Heaven Abiding Sect and overestimated their artifact and their heir.

But even now, Kong Xing could not get himself to quite believe that. Their plan had been perfect, with no loopholes…

The heir was a diligent person, one who could act splendidly and with patience.

What had given them away?

“Elders?” the little girl called out softly, bringing Kong Xing out of his thoughts.

It was an eerie sight, what they were looking at. The girl looked up at the four elders with guilt filled eyes. It would be odd enough if it was a demon child, let alone a human girl. Drowned in blood, looking up innocently, her eyes filled with concern, anxiety, nervousness…

It made Kong Xing feel goosebumps rise over his arms.

“Let us return to the sect,” Kong Xing declared, and the other three elders turned towards him. They had the same expression as him, their emotions blatantly visible, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. Sadness, disappointment, pain…

They’d made a gamble, and they’d lost it.

—

The Sect Leader sipped at her white stone cup, only to realize it was empty. A swish of her hand and the cup was refilled with warm green Qi Replenishing tea once more. She looked up at Su Jiao, a small smile gracing her face.

“Would you like me to refill yours too?”

Su Jiao smiled, lifting her cup up. “If you would.”

The Sect Leader swished her hand once more, a light, gentle gesture, and Su Jiao’s cup was refilled, too.

“Even now, I still can’t believe it,” the Sect Leader murmured, leaning back into her chair made out of a combination of white and black stone. “To think the demons would make such an outrageous move and succeed.”

Then she looked at Su Jiao, her smile growing. “But luckily, the heavens showed our sect mercy and sent you back to us. You’ve… You might have won us the war that is about to arrive, Su Jiao. You know it is only a matter of time before we—” She gestured at herself and chuckled. “—we old ones, the ones in the peak realm… It is only a few thousand more years before we die. It is you, the younger generation, who will fight the next war, who will decide which race survives. Us, the demihumans, or them, the demons. Killing a talented heir of the demon race… It might seem like a minor thing, but those small ripples are what turn into big waves.”

Su Jiao sipped her tea. It was slightly sour, warm, and had just a hint of lemon. She leveled a pensive gaze focused at the stone table between them. “Honestly, master,” she replied, feeling a whim to express her thoughts unfiltered, “I do not care about this upcoming war, about which race survives, or any of that. Perhaps it is because, compared to you, my lifespan is so small… Perhaps that’s why my focus is more on the immediate, the next few years, perhaps the next few decades.”

Su Jiao looked up, looking straight into the Sect Leader’s black eyes. “Honestly, I’m just glad that I was able to stop Zhao Ying from doing what he had set out to. From destroying our sect. From killing the sect members, juniors, elders, and seniors that—” She paused, letting out a small breath. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t find any other way to describe it. “—that I love.”

Silence took over them at that. Her master said nothing, and both of them took slow sips of the tea.

Then, her master asked, “Would you mind if I make you the sole heir?”

Su Jiao blinked.

—

Yao Zhong felt like a boulder was crushing his heart as he entered the Elders’ pavilion. The gazes of the disciples faded as soon as he entered the building. Almost everyone had been curious about the new young girl being escorted by the Four Prime Elders themselves, but it did nothing to soothe the anxiety that was filling him.

As soon as they reached the inner hall of the pavilion, a place where usually only the topmost Elders and disciples were given a chance to enter and gain guidance, Yao Zhong fell to his knees, much to the surprise of the four elders. They stopped, turning back, looking at him with expressions ranging from curiosity to concern.

Immediately, he began kowtowing furiously, slamming his forehead against the marble floor, not caring even as his skin bloodied and skull broke. “Forgive me, elders! Forgive me, elders! Forgive me, elders—”

He did not care that he was actually killing himself by his furious kowtowing. He very well would have continued kowtowing and would have killed himself, if not for the Elders stopping him from moving with their Qi…

Even as they stopped him and raised him up, using their Qi to close the wounds to the best of their extent—demonic Qi was not as good as human Qi at healing—Yao Zhong was crying. Tears streamed down his bloody eyes. No matter how hard he tried to stop himself from crying, from sobbing, from showing weakness.

He wished the Elders would let him go, let him continue kowtowing. It felt cathartic, being able to punish himself…

The physical pain felt like almost nothing compared to the emotional pain, agony, guilt he was feeling. He could not… He could not live with himself after failing the elders, failing the sect, failing the demons themselves, failing himself.

“Did you make any mistake that revealed your presence?” Elder Kong Xing, the gentlest but also the most straightforward one amidst the four, asked as he stroked his beard. Amidst the Four Prime Elders, he was the one with the longest horns.

“N-no,” Yao Zhong said, even through his tears.

Elder Xie Qing tilted his head, looking at Yao Zhong with a curious gaze. “Then how were you found?”

“I do not know,” Yao Zhong replied. He would have hung his head low if the Elders hadn’t restricted his entire body from moving. “A core disciple came along with an elder, and they were insistent that I remove my ring. Even after hearing my sob story, they were ready to swear on their honor as long as I simply removed the ring.”

This gave a pause to all the elders. Yao Zhong could clearly tell that they were surprised.

“And you did not give any reason to them to suspect you? That you could be a ‘violent’ bloodthirsty demon?” Elder Tao Liang asked, stepping forward to Yao Zhong.

“I did not. I made sure to not engage in any duels, in any fights at all. I made sure to be polite, respectful, and donned a mask of a perfect disciple. I-I had quite a good reputation amidst the outer ring and was close to entering the inner ring.”

The only Elder who hadn’t spoken till now, Elder Gao Yunsheng, pondered out loud, “Even if he did not maintain a perfect reputation, there is no reason to suspect he is anything but an unruly disciple. The fact that they suspected the ring, wanted our disciple to specifically remove his ring…”

The elders turned towards Gao Yunsheng, all of them seemingly agreeing with him based on their lack of argument.

“Either they have an artifact that is stronger than our ring, an artifact that specializes in finding demons,” Elder Tao Liang stated, “or they found out they have a mole amidst them and about the ring artifact… due to a spy of their own…” Elder Tao Liang paused, only for a second. “Perhaps within our elders.”