Ji Wujiong took out a jade slip from his storage space item and handed it over. “Being my disciple isn’t just about addressing me as Master a few times; there are works to do.”
Meng Qi accepted the jade slip. On the back of the smooth surface was a single character ‘Ji,’ similar to the one she had seen before during the Grand Tournament, suggesting it was related to the Ji clan. With a nod, she began infusing a strand of spiritual aura into the jade slip and found it contained some simple arrays and a bit of the Ji clan’s history.
Meng Qi quickly scanned through the content. She was surprised to find that the Ji clan’s history extended back for tens of thousands of years, tracing back to the ancient era. This made her wonder, as Yun Qingyan had once told her that the lord of a certain Great Devil Seat in the Devil Realm was also surnamed Ji, and they had good relations with the Demon Realm. Yet, in the Three Thousand Worlds, she hadn’t heard of the name Ji clan being mentioned.
“What’s your plan now?” Ji Wujiong asked again, “Going directly to the sect?”
Meng Qi shook her head. In the end, she didn’t inquire further and safely stored the jade slip away. “I come from Qingfeng Valley, and I currently have no sect or affiliation. I’ve just reached the Nascent Soul stage, and my medical cultivation is only at the fourth rank. It wouldn’t be of much use for me to go to Jingyuetian now.” She replied honestly.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Ji Wujiong said. His understanding of the inner work of large sects was much better than Meng Qi. “After the event at the Apricot Forest, you’ve gained some reputation in the Three Thousand Worlds. With your current status, if you were to go to Jingyuetian, they might not dare to drive you away.”
Meng Qi shook her head again, “The young master of Jingyuetian has his golden core damaged. Even if I go now, I’m not confident that I can heal him.”
Speaking of medical skills, Ji Wujiong wasn’t completely ignorant. He was quite skilled in using poisons and antidotes, although he wasn’t a medical cultivator per se. His long fingers tapped rhythmically on the blue slab table as he continued, “Back then, a new crack was formed on the barrier between Three Thousand Worlds and the Devil Realm. This crack, however, was very small and not easy to traverse. It was impossible to pass through it if you are above the Spirit Severing stage.”
Meng Qi nodded.
Ji Wujiong gave her a glance and said again, “The lord of a certain devil seat where this crack was formed personally sent a small team of devil cultivators into the Three Thousand Worlds. But they were quickly discovered, and a fierce battle raged at the crack for three days and nights. The cultivator who discovered the invasion was severely injured, yet he managed to drive the enemies back into the crack. Otherwise… tsk, tsk.. do you know? Among the devil cultivators, there is a type known as poison devil cultivators. They grow up in the poisonous swamps, surrounded by venomous creatures and plants until they become poisonous beings themselves. Ordinary people would die immediately simply by being in their vicinity.”
“You mean there was a poison devil cultivator on that team?” Meng Qi asked. She had only learned about this incident in the Starfallen Sea. However, it was clear that Li Che and even the Xue siblings knew less about it than Ji Wujiong did. At the very least, they didn’t know that there was a poison devil cultivator among the invaders.
Those who became poison devil cultivators, as Ji Wujiong described, were a special type of cultivators in the Devil Realm. Strictly speaking, they didn’t belong to any specific cultivation path. Poison devil cultivators could be spell cultivators, sword cultivators, medical cultivators, or even array cultivators. What made them special was that they had grown up with venomous creatures and poisonous plants from a young age, to the point that even their spiritual aura became poisonous.
If a poison devil cultivator was a spell cultivator, their spells would emit poisonous gases when used. If they were sword cultivators, their natal sword would naturally carry poison and, when the wielder was skilled enough, could easily inflict lethal injuries with just a small scratch. Higher-level cultivators might be able to resist being directly killed by poison, but those below the Golden Core stage couldn’t be so sure.
Some records in the Three Thousand Worlds had once noted the attack from poison devil cultivators during two major conflicts with the Devil Realm. Most of these poison devils happened to be sword cultivators, and their natal swords were enveloped in a dark aura that carried a deadly poison. Many Golden Core cultivators of Three Thousand Realms met their demise at the hands of these poison devil cultivators, often from just a minor wound that went untreated.
After these incidents, these poison-infused cultivators were known as ‘poison devil cultivators.’ However, they had significant flaws, a drawback of growing up in a toxic environment with poisonous creatures and plants. The spiritual sea of a poison devil cultivator was smaller — sometimes only half the typical size of cultivators of the same level — so they often suffered the lack of aura. Furthermore, lacking aura also caused them to struggle to withstand thunder tribulations, and this problem only grew more severe as their cultivation advanced. Most poison devil cultivators could only reach the Spirit Severing stage at best, and there were no records of any advancing to the Void Comprehending stage in thousands of years.
Meng Qi silently recalled what she had learned about poison devil cultivators. While it was difficult for them to reach high cultivation bases, they still posed a significant threat. Ordinary cultivators — those who were at the Golden Core stage and below — made up the majority of the population of a sect, with Nascent Soul and Spirit Severing taking the leadership positions on battlefields. This was the case even in large, powerful sects. Together, these cultivators formed the core strength of a sect, and they often suffered significant losses when facing poison devil cultivators of the same level.
Ji Wujiong nodded, his eyebrows raising slightly. “The cultivator who discovered the invasion clearly knew the power of poison devil cultivators. So, he did everything in his power to keep the enemies at the crack in the barrier.”
As he spoke, he glanced at Meng Qi and continued, “This person should be a rare genius among cultivators. Despite his young age, his combat prowess is unparalleled, and his cultivation is extremely high. The captain of the devil cultivators was the son of the lord of that devil seat, and he was also a young genius. He grew up hearing praises from all sides and never paid much attention to this young human cultivator. But it was his arrogance that led to his downfall. Even though the devil cultivators had more people, and their cultivations were on par with that person, he managed to hold them back for three days and nights. In the end, when reinforcements from the sect finally arrived, the only poison devil cultivator among them self-destructed, causing severe injuries to this cultivator.”
Meng Qi’s gaze drifted into the distance as she imagined the brutal battle from back then. She could imagine the entire area around the rift being a scene of carnage, with bloodshed, and a menacing atmosphere. And yet, the young master of Jingyuetian had single-handedly held off the enemies, managing to do so with sheer determination.
She couldn’t help but exhale slowly. If those devil cultivators managed to invade Three Thousand Worlds and arrived in a populated city, just the existence of the poison devil cultivator alone would bring unimaginable disasters to the common people.
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