Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

Therefore, even if two more people were added, the situation would probably not change.

That's exactly what he was thinking.

But the next second, when he saw the person who came, he couldn't help but be stunned.

Because that was someone he knew quite well.

As the two people who pushed open the door entered—to be precise, Fang Yan stared blankly into the eyes of the girl with a bandage wrapped around her right hand and short black hair, her gaze meeting those sea-blue eyes.

He was so shocked that he jumped up from his chair. As the current Protector General of the Lantian Empire, this was the first time in all these years that he had reacted so violently.

The reason is simple—

"Miss Zhang...? You are...Miss Ruoxue?"

Upon seeing her long-lost friend, Zhang Ruoxue's solemn expression gradually faded. She smiled and greeted Fang Yan ahead.

"Hey, long time no see... Yuan... what's this 'flame'?"

Fang Yan's lips twitched violently...

That name is definitely right, it must be Zhang Ruoxue from Yuntian Academy!

Although it was upsetting to be called by the wrong name, Fang Yan actually felt a touch of emotion at that moment.

After many years... someone finally... called him by the wrong name again!

—It sounds strange, but heaven knows how moved Fang Yan is right now.

Over the years, he searched the entire Desolate Heaven Domain. When the Demon Dynasty attacked, he knew that the Lantian Empire was probably no match for it, so he had no choice but to seek help from that mysterious senior. However, Yunping never came out after entering that secret realm.

Not only that... he couldn't even find out where Ye Yuchan and the others had gone, and the original courtyard house... had been turned into ruins.

So many years have passed, and he thought that senior and the people from Yuntian Academy might never reappear, but he never expected this...

Zhang Ruoxue came to him, which meant that the senior might still be alive!

For once, this veteran general, who had fought on the battlefield for years, smiled. He looked at Zhang Ruoxue with excitement and asked, "Where...where have you been all these years? Is that senior still alive? How are the others? Why haven't I been able to find you all these years...? Why was your courtyard house destroyed?"

A barrage of questions rained down on Zhang Ruoxue's face, leaving the girl completely speechless and dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, upon seeing an old friend, Fang Yan had far too many unanswered questions.

He didn't know why that senior had disappeared, nor where Zhang Ruoxue and the others had gone...

These problems had troubled him for a long time, which is why, when he met Zhang Ruoxue, this man who remained calm even when Mount Tai collapsed before him and was not flustered when facing tens of thousands of demonic cultivators, showed such an excited expression.

Zhang Ruoxue quickly shook her head and straightened her expression: "...We'll talk about these issues later...I finally found you, so you have to answer something for me first."

"what……"

Fang Yan was taken aback, realizing he had lost his composure. He quickly regained his composure, coughed twice, and straightened his expression.

Now that Zhang Ruoxue has appeared, he is not worried that she will run away. He can ask about the past issues later.

He breathed a sigh of relief, calming his excited heart for the moment, and asked, "What question? Is it about the Demon Dynasty?"

"It's this one—"

As Zhang Ruoxue spoke, she tossed the jet-black jade token to Fang Yan.

This is a problem that has troubled Zhang Ruoxue for a very long time, and it is also a problem that she must solve in this lifetime.

With a cold expression, she asked, "Do you know... who owns this token?"

This token.

The words "Demon Dynasty" were clearly engraved on the jet-black jade token.

That was more than twenty years ago, when Zhang Ruoxue was fighting a demonic cultivator wearing a mask. She took the token from the cultivator's waist when he wasn't paying attention.

And that masked man...

He was the culprit who slaughtered the entire Jinglin Village.

The reason she and Gu Xingzhuo came here, to the perilous border of the empire in Broken Wood City, was to find the owner of this token.

Complete Zhang Ruoxue's revenge!

After receiving the token, Fang Yan glanced at it briefly before his eyes narrowed and his expression became somewhat dazed.

He glanced at Zhang Ruoxue's cold, slightly murderous gaze, then seemed to understand something and inexplicably fell silent.

"General Fang, there is no need to avoid suspicion."

Gu Xingzhuo seemed to have seen through Fang Yan's thoughts, so he advised, "This token is of great significance to Junior Sister Ruoxue... You should be able to see that."

"..."

Fang Yan could naturally see it.

He remained silent for a long time, then reached out and rubbed the token in his palm twice before letting out a long sigh.

"Since that's the case, then I'll just say it directly."

"This token is not something an ordinary demonic dynasty cultivator could possess, judging from its material and overall shape..."

"The owner of this token should be one of the sixteen Demon Lords of the current Demon Dynasty..."

"That is, those sixteen demonic saints who entered the demonic path."

13. The Reasons for Despair

A sage of the demonic path.

For the Demon Dynasty, it can be described as the mainstay. Although its status is not as high as the four Demon Lords above it, it still controls the sphere of influence of the three Heavenly Domain Demon Dynasties.

Every Demon Lord achieves sainthood through the Demonic Path. As the most unpredictable of the three thousand Great Paths, in any previous era, very few cultivators have ever achieved sainthood through the Demonic Path.

Despite the challenging environment of the Demon Dynasty, it produced a total of sixteen Demon Lords at the Saint level... In a way, this was largely thanks to the master of the Demon Dynasty—the True Immortal Demon Emperor.

"The Demon Lord..."

Upon learning that the person she was seeking revenge against was one of the sixteen Demon Lords of the current Demon Dynasty, Zhang Ruoxue did not show much shock, nor did she erase the murderous intent in her eyes.

She had considered that the mastermind behind the massacre of Jinglin Village might be a powerful expert with extraordinary abilities, but the level of the other party's cultivation did not hinder her desire for revenge—to twist off their head and kick it like a ball.

No matter how high the opponent's cultivation level is, even if it is the Demon Emperor himself, Zhang Ruoxue will do everything in her power to find a way to punch that guy in the face. Even if she can't kill him, she will at least bite off a piece of his flesh.

Zhang Ruoxue's clenched fists and resolute expression caught his eye. Gu Xingzhuo knew of her hatred, but he did not try to dissuade her. Instead, he turned to face Fang Yan.

He gazed at the imposing general of the Lantian Empire, and slowly parted his lips: "General Fang... my junior sister and I have not set foot in this world for a long time... so we don't know much about the Demon Dynasty—there are as many as sixteen Demon Lords at the Saint level?"

“Yes.” Fang Yan nodded, curiously scrutinizing the white-haired youth who called himself Zhang Ruoxue’s senior brother, whom he had never seen before, as he answered, “Sixteen Demon Lords, four Demonic Half-Immortals, one Demonic True Immortal… If we include the Demon Generals in the Void Realm, there might be as many as a hundred.”

Gu Xingzhuo's eyes narrowed slightly, and his brows furrowed.

As a general of the Lantian Empire, Fang Yan's words were certainly true and not a joke.

That being said, the information Fang Yan revealed was so bizarre that Gu Xingzhuo even felt it was somewhat alarmist.

After all, in Gu Xingzhuo's memory, the Void Realm was already considered a hegemon in the entire Desolate Heaven Domain. Even the monarch of the Lantian Empire or the Palace Master of the Northern Ice Palace had not reached the Saint Realm.

While it's true that the spiritual energy in the Desolate Heaven Domain is not as abundant as in the other two Heaven Domains, even in the Extreme Heaven Domain, the most famous sage is Cao Qingluo, the dean of the Three Heavens Academy. The other sages are mostly in seclusion and rarely appear in the world.

As for the semi-divine beings—

That's the most domineering existence among the three great heavenly domains. Apart from the Twenty-One Ultimate and the legendary Black Dragon King, it's estimated that it's Xu Guangying from the Kun Heaven Domain and Gu Tianwang, the former Pavilion Master of the Emperor Pavilion.

And now?

The Demon Dynasty alone has sixteen Saints, no fewer than a hundred Void Realm cultivators, and four Half-Immortals!

This doesn't even include the Demon Lord of the Demon Dynasty—the True Immortal of the Demonic Path...

The rapid expansion of his realm made Gu Xingzhuo feel that the whole world was somewhat unbelievable, and he even began to doubt Fang Yan's trustworthiness.

"I see... It seems you were unaware of this..."

Fang Yan is no longer the naive young man he was thirty years ago. He could see the fleeting doubt and distrust on Gu Xingzhuo's face, so he smiled helplessly.

Gu Xingzhuo stared intently at him: "Don't know what?"

"Since the emergence of the Demon Dynasty and the Immortal Capital, the lands they occupy have been blessed by wave after wave of divine saviors. To put it simply, it's as if all areas within their sphere of influence have undergone a transformation no different from the era of spiritual saviors. The concentration of spiritual energy has reached an exaggerated level, and even wisps of the Great Dao and supreme treasures of heaven and earth have appeared."

"The Demon Dynasty and the Immortal Capital were able to cultivate so many Void Realm experts by taking advantage of those supreme treasures and the suddenly emerging natural treasures. And naturally, there were also quite a few cultivators who successfully crossed the Saint Realm by taking advantage of the breath of the Great Dao."

Hearing this, even Zhang Ruoxue could understand.

In other words, it's as if the heavens suddenly gave their two forces special treatment, showering them with resources. Even if they just stood there without cultivating, their cultivation levels would probably skyrocket.

"Isn't this just like cheating..."

Zhang Ruoxue angrily punched the sand table beside her, causing the landscape markings on it to shake. She gritted her teeth, her expression quite displeased.

She and Gu Xingzhuo fought tooth and nail in the Great Wilderness Heavenly Flame Trials, almost risking their lives, teetering on the edge of death countless times before achieving their current cultivation level.

But what about the people of the Demon Dynasty? They kill a few people, cultivate within the Demon Dynasty's territory for a while, and their cultivation level rises in no time.

This has nothing to do with cultivation or talent, nor with personal effort; it is entirely due to divine intervention.

Strangely enough, those evil and heretical beings who were once condemned by Heaven and Earth were not oppressed by Heaven at all. In the past, if one wanted to become a saint through the demonic path, one would not only have to face the tribulation of the demonic path, but also the tribulation of Heaven itself.

Looking at these sixteen demonic saints, it seems that even the heavens didn't intend to kill them.

In other words... even the Heavenly Dao has tacitly approved of the existence of the Demon Dynasty.

Seeing Zhang Ruoxue's unwilling expression, Fang Yan didn't know how to comfort her, but right now... he didn't seem to have that much time and energy to comfort her.

Remembering his earlier worries, he quickly asked, "By the way, Miss Ruoxue... do you know... where Senior is right now?"

“Teacher?” Zhang Ruoxue shook her head in disappointment: “I haven’t received any news from him yet… Yu Chan has been waiting for Teacher to come back, but we just came from somewhere else. Right now, let alone Teacher, we have no idea where anyone else is or what they are doing…”

"So that means there's no way to contact that senior..."

Receiving a disappointing answer, Fang Yan's face turned deathly pale. He took a few steps back and sat back down in his chair, his former dashing appearance replaced by a dejected one.

Fang Yan's appearance was truly intriguing. Gu Xingzhuo's gaze fell on the sand table that Zhang Ruoxue had almost overturned with a punch earlier, and then he calmly looked at the general in front of him: "General Fang, are you troubled by the matter of Broken Wood City?"

"Yes... but rather than being troubled, I'm more like I'm in despair."

Fang Yan forced a bitter smile, his expression downcast, as if he had truly encountered an irreversible situation.

Zhang Ruoxue and Gu Xingzhuo exchanged a glance, and then Ruoxue nodded.

Gu Xingzhuo took a step forward, his tone remaining calm and emotionless throughout: "In that case, may you tell us about it?"