Chapter 326 - 317: Great World Commander, Zhu Yan Blood Wash

Chapter 326: Chapter 317: Great World Commander, Zhu Yan Blood Wash

"Isn’t giving it to him for the best? In our hands, it’s just a display piece. If we can use it to win over an expert willing to work for our Profound Banner, then it will have served its purpose."

Helu lit a stick of incense.

A black stick of incense, the length of a finger.

The black incense burned without smoke, yet it released a mysterious aroma—ethereal and faint, as if barely there. Inhaling it sent one into a trance, like a spirit ascending from its physical form.

Helu closed his eyes, silently savoring the sensation for a moment before continuing, "We need someone to help us purge and consolidate the Lower Five Banners.

Using an outsider, someone not from the Nine Banners, is the most suitable way to do it.

In any case, once we’ve used him, we can just kill him..."

With that, Helu turned to the corner of the room and casually asked, "Ghost Dragon, if you were to face him, what are your chances?"

The shadowy figure in the corner, wreathed in countless writhing tentacles, spoke in a low, raspy voice.

"I could crush him with one hand."

Helu nodded in satisfaction.

Helian, however, was still unwilling to let it go. "But it’s an Heirloom Magical Artifact... Even the Wuhuan Jin Clan doesn’t know we have the Exorcism Saber."

"An unsealed Heirloom Magical Artifact is nothing but a piece of scrap metal."

Helu stated flatly, "Only someone destined to be a Great World Commander can wield the Exorcism Saber. In the hands of anyone else, it’s a blade of calamity, a Master-Devouring weapon.

To unseal this blade, one must first feed it until it is sated, then wash it with the blood of a Zhu Yan...

"

Helu sniffed the Black Incense and continued, "You think I’m giving him a gift? In reality, I’m setting him up to fail.

This Exorcism Saber has already devoured the lives of seventy-six Commanders. He will be the seventy-seventh.

He’s so young, yet so powerful. He turned Shenghai upside down and managed to retreat unscathed. He must be a man blessed by fortune.

Perfect. We’ll use his flesh, blood, and fortune to feed this Exorcism Saber."

Hearing this, Helian’s beautiful eyes lit up, and her expression finally brightened.

"You are wise, my Prince."

Helian flattered him with a smile. "That man thinks he’s gotten a great bargain, but he has no idea you have him wrapped around your little finger, my Prince.

Not only will he be a dog for our Profound Banner, but sooner or later, he’ll lose his life and everything he has."

Helu looked slightly smug and sneered. "How amusing. He even used the Nine Spirits Filth Loading Technique to test me.

He probably doesn’t realize that the deeper one cultivates that technique, the faster one dies...

Emperor Qianming engraved it on the back of the map to the Military Treasure Vault, using immortality as a gimmick to lure people into fighting over it. He never had good intentions."

"Let him keep practicing. Once he’s dealt with the host of Low Grade Demon Officials from the Five Banners and reached a certain level of power, he’ll be perfect for clearing some obstacles for us..."

"Once we’ve completely subjugated the Lower Five Banners, we’ll feed their Demon Officials to the Ghost Flood King. Then, the Wuhuan Jin Clan’s Thousand-eyed Blood Bat will no longer be a threat."

Helu narrowed his eyes, his gaze shifting to the corner. He spoke slowly to the mysterious figure there, "As for that old bastard who bears the title of National Preceptor while secretly siphoning the essence and fortune of my Nine Banners, when the time comes... I’ll be counting on you."

The figure in the corner spoke with a savage grin in its voice. "Rest assured, my Prince. I’ve long been wanting to find out for myself.

Whether a so-called Grandmaster can truly withstand the full might of my Five Spirits..."

Helu nodded, satisfied. He then glanced at the stick of Black Incense in his hand, which had already burned halfway down in the blink of an eye. He said casually to Helian, "The quality of this Soul Fragrance is excellent. Have the Dark River send another batch over."

"Yes," Helian replied respectfully.

.....

Inside the smoothly moving carriage, Fu Juemin sat cross-legged, carefully examining the ancient blade in his hands.

"Yansheng."

He ran his hand over the blade, his gaze flickering as he stared at the faint ape-like face on the blade guard and the small character for "Yan" etched on the blade.

’Is this blade related to the Zhu Yan?’

Helu had said the twelve Heirloom Magical Artifacts were all related to ancient Calamity Level Great Demons. ’Does the Zhu Yan, which was born from the chaotic aura of war, count as a Calamity Level Great Demon?’

The ape-like face and the character "Yan" both fit the description.

’I’ll find someone to ask about it later.’

Fu Juemin gently stroked the blade. With his Consciousness Cultivation at the Gratitude Heart Sensing level, he should have been able to feel the weapon’s rhythm.

Yet the Exorcism Saber felt like a piece of dead iron in his hand. It didn’t react at all when he infused it with his Vitality. The only thing special about it was its extreme hardness.

For Fu Juemin, that was more than enough.

He had been lacking a suitable weapon, and the Exorcism Saber had arrived at the perfect moment.

Fu Juemin set the ancient blade aside and picked up the other two items.

There wasn’t much to see on Helu’s Prince’s Decree. The main point of interest was the dozen or so strands of Ghost Dragon Beard.

Fu Juemin casually picked up one of the parasite-like objects. The black tentacle twisted and coiled between his fingers, and he could sense the aura of a Demon Fiend emanating from it.

Fu Juemin slowly increased the pressure in his hand, and the tentacle writhed more violently.

The tentacle was surprisingly elastic and tough. He kept applying force but still couldn’t snap it. Only when a molten gold glow appeared in his palm, indicating he had activated his Dragon Elephant Glazed True Gang, did he barely manage to break it in two.

The severed halves of the Ghost Dragon Beard were still not dead, continuing to wriggle on the ground like a bisected earthworm.

Fu Juemin tried switching from his Dragon Elephant Glazed True Gang to his Profound Evil True Gang. This time, the writhing pieces of Ghost Dragon Beard finally slowed to a stop.

’The Profound Evil True Gang contains an Evil Force that extinguishes all Vitality. It’s actually more effective against Demons and other evil entities than the Dragon Elephant Glazed True Gang...’

Feeling faint streams of invisible energy flowing into his body, Fu Juemin picked up another strand of Ghost Dragon Beard and tried again, this time infusing his Profound Evil True Gang with a hint of Demon Soul Force.

Just as he’d expected, the Ghost Dragon Beard died much faster this time.

He wondered if Helu would be hopping mad if he knew that Fu Juemin had destroyed two of the Ghost Dragon Beards on the carriage ride back.

Fu Juemin, for his part, was quite satisfied with the results.

It was enough to know that he could deal with these things. In the future, even if he cooperated with the Profound Banner and had these parasites implanted in the Demon Officials of the Lower Five Banners, he could remove them at will. There would be no chance of him being reduced to an Attendant or a Blood Pack for the Profound Banner’s First Grade Ghost Flood Dragon.

’With the Profound Banner providing cover, I won’t have to rush my cultivation by slaying demons in the Demon Capital anymore...’

Before, Fu Juemin had been worried about triggering a "Thunder Burst," which was why he had been going through one banner a day, one family a day, wishing he could slaughter all the Demon Officials of the Lower Five Banners in a single month.

But he didn’t need to anymore. He could take his time, taking one bite at a time.

He could even play the long game—using the Profound Banner’s rebellion as an opportunity to hunt the First and Second Grade, or even Super Grade, Great Demons serving as Tributors for the Upper Three Banners and the Top Royal Banner.

’My original plan doesn’t need to change. With the Profound Banner rebelling, the Nine Banners will inevitably fall into infighting.

That makes it even more convenient for me to make trouble from the inside.’

Fu Juemin sat on the soft couch, casually toying with Helu’s Prince Token as his mind wandered.

In this deal with the Profound Banner Helers, he had paid almost nothing and reaped considerable benefits. It was an absolute windfall.

Before he knew it, the carriage had stopped. He was back at the estate of the Gray Banner Yan Family.

A crowd greeted Fu Juemin as he walked through the gates of the Yan Mansion. He only learned after entering that in his brief absence, Mu Feng and the others had already handled everything.

The former Patriarch Yan, Yan Huai’an, whether from shock or fear, had croaked after taking a few slaps from Mu Tingzhou.

Mu Feng and the others had initially worried that Yan Huai’an’s death would cause resentment among the Yan Family. They never imagined that the Yan family members would be overjoyed by his demise.

Yan Huai’an seemed old-fashioned and pedantic, but he was actually a sanctimonious hypocrite. In private, he was a depraved lecher who had not only taken the widows of his two dead sons for himself, but had even set his sights on his own granddaughter-in-law.

He treated the entire, sprawling Yan Mansion as his personal "harem."

The Yan family had suffered under Yan Huai’an’s depraved tyranny for a long time. If they hadn’t been reliant on his connection to the Royal Banner, they would have tried to assassinate him in secret countless times.

Now that Yan Huai’an was dead at the hands of the Profound Banner, the Yan family was ecstatic and became completely obedient to Fu Juemin’s people.

The one to succeed Yan Huai’an as Patriarch was his grandson, Yan Xi.

The man was not yet forty. It was said that whenever Yan Huai’an forced himself on Yan Xi’s wife, he had to stand guard outside the room in utter humiliation.

When he saw Fu Juemin, he knelt respectfully and addressed him as "Spirit Lord."

Afterward, he personally led Fu Juemin to the place where the Yan Family worshiped its Demon Fiend.