When I stepped out of the building, Lord Bountiful finished speaking with an aide. The young man bowed, took a jade slip from the city lord, and ran off. He turned around and smiled at me. “Did you talk about everything you needed to?”

“I did.”

“Then perhaps, before you go, I could interest you in seeing my Red-Feathered King Hawk? He’s beautiful and a perfect hunter.”

“Spiritual beasts hate me, remember? Even your sharks tried to stab me.”

He waved off my concern. “Those sharks obviously aren’t trained enough. My hawk, on the other hand, is perfectly obedient. You’ll see.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to risk injuring one of your precious beasts, since we may end up working together.”

“Aren’t you a bit overconfident?”

I smirked and put my hands behind my back like the master I was.

He grinned. “Very well, Master Alchemist, tell me how you wish to work with me.”

“Teleportation to the other side of the world is expensive, even if it’s just for two people. The guild doesn’t have any task for me that is worth that much, but—“

“You were told to talk to me?”

I liked working with smart people.

Or had he been eavesdropping on my conversation? I narrowed my eyes at him. Thankfully, I hadn’t talked about anything sensitive since I suspected someone might listen in.

He held up his hands. “Look at that face! No need to be so suspicious. I guessed. You see, I happen to have a very difficult task, but I’m not sure you’ll be able to pull it off.”

“Try me.”

“Ah, I do like your confidence!” He stroked his chin. Then he eyed me up and down as if considering if I could even pull this task off. “The guild asked me to keep my eye on this one particular situation for the past couple of decades. Things have finally come to a head.”

“And you need someone reliable to bring things to a close?”

He tapped his bottom lip and hesitated. “It just so happens to be lunchtime for my pets and I have to feed them myself. Why don’t we walk while we talk?”

This felt like another test. But I couldn’t let this chance escape me.

We didn’t walk too far, just around the corner. There was a field spread out before us where black cages, each the size of a building, held a variety of spiritual beasts. Lord Bountiful took out haunches of meat and used his spiritual energy to send them inside.

“You see, if I want my spiritual beasts to serve me well, I need to feed them myself, so I always come here to give my new pets lunch at this time.”

I stepped a little too close to one cage and the massive spiritual tiger rammed against the side. The whole thing rattled precariously. I pulled out my battle guitar and blocked an oncoming claw before taking several steps back.

Even though there were bars between us, I didn’t trust their craftsmanship. It growled and clawed, trying to get at me again. I played a few lines of a calming rock ballad loosely inspired by “Dream On” by Aerosmith. It huffed and went back to eating. Of course, it still glared at me.

I missed Xiao Bai already.

Lord Bountiful grinned. Wait. Was this his test? He knew beasts hated me, so he had to make sure I could handle them?

“Careful there. As you can see, these ones aren’t fully trained yet.” He sent a massive chunk of red meat to a black bear spiritual beast and it started to tear into it.

“You were going to tell me about the task?”

“Well, the unorthodox sect is in the area.” He sent a whole massive silvery fish out. It landed with a squelch inside the cage of a golden eagle spiritual beast with several blue spots. The eagle screeched and jumped on the fish before jerking its head from side to side to pull away pieces of meat.

image [https://i.imgur.com/IwEXUto.jpeg]

[https://i.imgur.com/IwEXUto]

This guy was just going at his own pace, wasn’t he?

“Due to sightings of demonic sect members being spotted in this area, the Alchemists’ Guild suspects that they’re working with demonic cultivators. But they don’t have any proof.”

“From what I know, they loathe the Demonic cult more than us Orthodox cultivators do.”

He frowned and threw a piece of haunch at the cage of a wolf. It slammed into the bars, causing the whole cage to move several feet. The meat practically exploded.

“That’s just their face!” He glared and flared his spiritual energy with his frustration. The wolf cowered. “This sect is walking a gray line. Everyone knows it, but the Alchemists’ Guild refuses to do anything about them unless I provide proof.”

“This sounds like a mission that could take decades.”

“One month.”

I raised a brow at him.

“You wanted a task that is worth a teleport for two to the other side of the world. You’ll have to do ten years’ worth of work in one month.”

That was actually not unexpected. Shockingly fair, really.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Join the sect. Spy on them for me for one month until just after the Sect’s Founding Day Festival, and find definitive proof that they’re working with demonic cultivators.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “This all sounds impossible.”

He shrugged. “Tell you what, Master Alchemist. I’ll give you three key pieces of information that will help you succeed if you agree to try.”

I needed that teleport, plus I felt no remorse about trying to take down the sect of that asshole Noxious Fangstrike. As far as I was concerned, I was getting a good deal from this. Just imagining his face as the Alchemists’ Guild righteously destroyed his sect. Muahahaha!

“Let’s sign a contract!”

He grinned and sent a haunch into a lion’s cage.

***

It took us a good thirty minutes to iron out everything, but once we were done, I wrote up a contract on a jade slip. Once I handed it to him, Lord Bountiful casually signed it and made a copy for his own records.

“Excellent. I very much hope you succeed. That sect has been a thorn in my side for decades. Though I think the worst part about them is that they always take the best pets for themselves.”

“By the way, what are the key pieces of information?”

He grinned at me slyly. “You’re so different from the last spy I hired for this mission.”

“Oh. Does this mean I have competition?”

“Well, you would have, except I heard — Ninth Plum Blossom, I believe her name was — was very easily killed at the teleportation platform today by a mysterious and powerful cultivator.”

That was the woman I accidentally ended. “Oh, her… I overestimated my opponent.” If she hadn’t tried to kill me, I would have apologized.

He grinned, then laughed. “I knew that was you! I am so glad things worked out.”

Man. This guy felt zero sadness for his dead spy.

“For the past couple of decades, I’ve been hiring spies from the various shadow organizations in the area. So far, none have been able to find anything. And all of them ended up dead in that sect. I’m glad that I’m finally working with someone competent.”

“Lord Bountiful Tenacity. The information?”

“Right!“ He took out a jade slip and tossed it to me. “This contains a list of rumors circulating the area. Essentially, they say that a master in a demonic sect has found a cure for the side effects of the unorthodox cultivators’ manuscript. The one that makes them grow ears, horns, and tails.”

I quickly looked them over and he was right. “Likely untrue. Would they be that stupid to believe something like that?”

“Ah, but here’s the thing: those unorthodox cultivators are desperate. Their sect keeps declining, which brings me to my next piece of information. The Unorthodox sect has the Scroll of 10,000 Evil Souls.”

“That sounds like a spiritual tool a demonic cultivator would create.”

“It was. But the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect took it when they killed the original owner. And they supposedly locked it in a box that can only be opened by a certain clan.”

“Which clan?”

“The Golden Sound Clan. They were, in fact, raided by the demonic cultivators after that rumor started circulating. There is no telling if anyone from that family is left. But if they are, they’re probably slaves to the demonic sect.”

“While interesting,” and a bit depressing, “that doesn’t seem like this information will help me gain proof that the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect is working with demonic cultivators.”

“True, but there is a rumor that the Unorthodox sect will trade the scroll for the cure. And that the trade will happen at the founding day festival.”

That was a serious accusation. One that was plausible.

If this sect was working with the demonic cult, I wanted to take it down just as much as Lord Bountiful.

“And what’s the last bit of information?”

He started walking toward his palace’s gate. “First, let’s keep moving. Now that you’ve agreed, there is no time to waste.”

This fucker. He wasn’t in a hurry when he was feeding his pets.

Whatever. I was pretty sure this last piece of information would be key and it was easier to be patient and wait until he was ready than try to force it out of him.

He grinned down at me. “The last piece of information I have is that the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect takes in new disciples from the rogue cultivator population once every five years.”

“Is the reason you’re telling me that because it’s happening soon?”

“This afternoon. If you go now, you’ll be able to make it.”

My eyes widened as we reached the gate. “Say that sooner!”

“Goodbye and good luck, Master Alchemist.”

The asshole chuckled as I hurriedly pulled out a cheap ass sword I’d taken off of Ninth Plum Blossom. I used the flying sword controlling technique available at Foundation Establishment to speedily make my way toward the sect.

Apparently, Lord Bountiful hadn’t been finished because he sent me a secret sound transmission. “By the way. If you bring me the Scroll of 10,000 Evil Souls, even without the proof of misconduct, I will pay for your teleportation, even if the guild won’t.”

I didn’t know much about this guy, but I imagined it would take him 30 years to save up that many spirit stones. It was an option I’d keep in mind if I became desperate. But I wasn’t sure I should trust him enough to trade a spiritual weapon like that, even for a trip home.

***

I had almost forgotten to tell the kid what was going on, but once I caught him up with everything that happened, he rushed towards the sect on his own flying sword, one I found in one of the bags an assassin had on him.

I arrived first to find a large crowd of rogue cultivators surrounding a small arena with a stone slab floor. Inside were a bunch of alchemists haphazardly attempting to enter the sect by proving their worth as poisoners.

Damn. It would be a piece of cake for me to enter by using alchemy. Then again, Noxious was familiar with my methods. He might spot me if I entered as a poison master.

I landed beside a friendly-looking rogue cultivator. He was tall, thin, and had pale yellow hair. His smile reached his eyes. “Little Fairy, I haven’t seen you with the rogue cultivators before. I’m Gold String Delicate Touch.”

Oh good, a talkative guy I could coerce some information from. I shrugged. “You can call me Fairy Linlin. I’m not from around here and only just found out that these trials were happening today.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Unlucky.”

“What?” I crossed my arms.

He nodded toward the panel of judges. “The cultivators hosting this year are impatient to get it done. And it seems like they’re looking for an excuse to not accept anyone new.”

“How do I enter?”

His mouth opened. “You came here without even knowing that?”

I shrugged. “It was a very last-minute decision.”

“Well, they are doing different tests for various disciplines. Once they announce the next one, you just go up on stage and participate.”

I frowned. “That sounds so chaotic.”

He grinned. “This is an unorthodox sect. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to enter.” He gestured to the arena floor. “Look. They’ve already finished the trials for Puppeteers and Poison Body Cultivators without gaining a new disciple. Right now they’re in the middle of a test for Poisoners.”

Fuck. “What’s left?”

He held up three fingers and pointed to each one as he said. “Dread Painters, Beast Blood Contractors, and Demonic Musicians.”

They might call them Demonic Musicians, but they technically had nothing to do with the demonic cult. In fact, there were plenty of things called demonic that weren’t evil.

I relayed this information to Little Spring, who landed on the opposite side of the arena.

::Don’t worry about me, sister Lin! I’ll try out for the Beast Blood Contractors. That sounds like it’s a kind of beast taming, right?::

::Probably. I’m not overly familiar with this sect. Most of these unorthodox sects were obliterated within three centuries after I first came to this world in my past life.::

::Well, if I don’t pass, I can always practice in the space.::

::Actually, it would be better that way. I might not be able to save you if you become corrupted by these unorthodox methods.::

::Still, I think you could use my help. Infiltrating a hostile sect like this can’t be easy.::

I grinned. ::I bet you that it will be.::

He frowned and his brow furrowed with worry. ::But, Sister Lin, you’re not always observant, and you still get distracted by your thoughts sometimes.::

::I do not.:: This brat! I crossed my arms.

::...:: He sent me a telepathic pause that spoke volumes.

I scowled. ::Fine! Enter if you can.::

::Yes, Sister Lin!:: he said happily.