“Provide me with real-time positions of the other Golden Core cultivators, so I can safely destroy the Immortal Alliance’s affiliated factions?”
Qi Ping couldn’t help but feel stunned at these words.
This white-haired Golden Core cultivator in the silver mask wasn’t here to kill him—he was here to help him?
“Yes!”
In response to Qi Ping’s confusion, the silver-masked Golden Core gave a firm nod, simultaneously wrapping a peculiar-looking communication talisman in spiritual energy and delivering it to Qi Ping.
Faced with the offered jade talisman, Qi Ping didn’t take it directly. Instead, he had one of his bees retrieve it first.
Then, puzzled, he asked:
“Why are you helping me, sir?”
Qi Ping regarded the silver-masked Golden Core with curiosity, showing not a trace of fear in his eyes.
The silver-masked Golden Core, in turn, shot Qi Ping an appraising look, noting his complete lack of tension.
This Bee Daoist certainly had guts!
No wonder he’d dared to scheme and slaughter so many Foundation Establishment cultivators—and then, right after, risk being discovered by the Immortal Alliance’s Golden Cores to continue eliminating their affiliated factions.
A new idea began to form in his mind.
“We share a common enemy, that’s all. If I wanted to harm you, one finger would be more than enough. Why would I need such elaborate methods?” the silver-masked Golden Core said matter-of-factly.
“If that’s the case, then I thank you!” Qi Ping clasped his fists.
The silver-masked cultivator’s answer made him somewhat convinced. If the other truly wanted to harm him, there was indeed no need for all this trouble—unless he had some ulterior motive.
And for Qi Ping, this was nothing but a treant clone. From the moment it had left his territory, he’d never planned for it to return. So he had nothing to fear!
“I’m merely using your hand to kill some people—no thanks necessary!” the silver-masked Golden Core stated bluntly.
With that, he placed a special token in front of Qi Ping.
Qi Ping focused his gaze—and saw the words “Qing Yuan” inscribed upon it.
“A Qingyuan Sect token? What does this mean, sir?”
Qi Ping didn’t understand the purpose of this gift.
The silver-masked Golden Core floated gracefully in midair, his flowing white hair drifting, and explained:
“Whoever holds this token can become an inner disciple of Qingyuan Sect without any obstacles.”
“I’ve noticed that every time you destroy an Immortal Alliance faction, you clear out their cultivation technique repositories. I suspect you have a strong thirst for knowledge about cultivation.”
“By entering Qingyuan Sect, you’ll gain access to cultivation knowledge that ordinary factions could never hope to find. Qingyuan Sect has been passed down for over ten thousand years—the sheer richness and variety of our accumulated knowledge is beyond anything you can imagine…”
With those final words, the silver-masked figure vanished in an instant, leaving only a wisp of spiritual energy holding the Qingyuan Sect token aloft.
“A Qingyuan Sect token?”
Qi Ping gazed at the token, which radiated a unique Dao resonance, feeling rather perplexed.
He could understand the silver-masked Golden Core helping him—they had a common enemy, after all. But why give him a token that would grant him inner disciple status at Qingyuan Sect?
Could this person be some Golden Core cultivator from Qingyuan Sect?
“How strange…”
Though doubts lingered in his mind, Qi Ping still had his bees collect the token.
If the location information the silver-masked cultivator provided in the future checked out, then he might consider sending his treant clone to Qingyuan Sect someday.
He had little interest in becoming some type of disciple—what truly stirred his heart was that knowledge accumulated over ten thousand years!
That was the most precious treasure of all!
For Qi Ping, knowledge was also the hardest thing to obtain!
To achieve eternal life through the Dao, he absolutely had to pay Qingyuan Sect a visit.
At the same time, Qi Ping was curious about what kind of people were actually inside Qingyuan Sect—the ones who’d turned Qingtian Domain into the sorry state it was today.
For Qingtian Domain to grow stronger, those parasites who colluded with the Immortal Alliance and ravaged this land had to be completely eliminated!
But those willing to genuinely develop Qingtian Domain could be spared. Otherwise, a Qingtian Domain plunged into chaos would only continue its decline.
Admittedly, some people within Qingyuan Sect were remarkably skilled administrators! Their economic policies were quite well-crafted too…
However, Qi Ping planned to digest all the resources and knowledge he’d acquired this time before dealing with any of that.
With no immediate crisis or pressure bearing down on him, he much preferred to take things one steady step at a time.
Whatever the silver-masked Golden Core’s motives might be, he could wait ten or twenty years before worrying about it! With his treant clone and Cloud Dream Immortal Tiger around, his most basic security was guaranteed.
The path of immortality was long and leisurely—only by calming the mind, comprehending the Dao, and diligently cultivating could one find the true foundation…
Following that, Qi Ping’s killing spree proceeded remarkably smoothly.
With the silver-masked Golden Core providing location intel, Qi Ping successfully avoided the Immortal Alliance’s Golden Cores!
Without the threat of Golden Cores, and with the Alliance’s Foundation Establishment cultivators already terrified of Bee Daoist, none of them wanted to face this madman head-on…
But as the slaughter and destruction neared its end, Qi Ping discovered that many Immortal Alliance-affiliated factions had either gone into hiding or relocated entirely, leaving no trace to be found.
Qi Ping couldn’t do much about that—after all, they weren’t fools just waiting around to be killed.
Some had actually started hiding as early as the beginning stages, though their methods had been crude and easy for him to uncover.
In the later stages, Qi Ping suspected the Immortal Alliance itself had stepped in, directly concealing a large number of factions.
“Let’s call it here for now.”
Unable to find any more targets, Qi Ping decided to end this killing spree.
After all, he couldn’t very well march straight to the Immortal Alliance’s headquarters, could he?
What kind of place was that? Even Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators could meet their end there. With his frail little body, he’d be reduced to ashes before he even got close.
The main reason he’d been able to cripple the Immortal Alliance this time was that these were mostly small, scattered local factions under their umbrella—highly dispersed and not particularly strong.
Add to that Qi Ping’s years of dedicated research into stealth and tracking, his passive talents, secret assistance from other cultivators, and a dash of luck—and that was how he’d managed to deal such a heavy blow to the Alliance’s affiliated forces.
“With things pushed this far, there shouldn’t be any large-scale child abductions or plundering of the world’s essence for quite a while…”
“Even if the Immortal Alliance started forming its own personal guard from this very moment, it would take a very long time before they could match what they had before…”
Qi Ping felt that after this wave of relentless slaughter, for a long time to come, very few factions would be willing to work for the Immortal Alliance.
As long as Bee Daoist remained alive, that was the greatest deterrent of all!
“So now, Bee Daoist completely disappearing and going into hiding is far more effective than dying at the hands of the Alliance’s Golden Cores. A sword that could fall at any moment is the best deterrent…”
After all, as long as Bee Daoist lived, who would dare to recklessly work for the Immortal Alliance, not knowing whether that madman might come knocking on their door someday?
In a sense, Bee Daoist was a man with no ties, no weaknesses—an invincible figure… a madman!
Having sorted through all these considerations, Qi Ping began processing everything his treant clone had gathered.
After taking care of all the logistics, he found a secluded place and destroyed the treant clone, bringing its mission to a close.
The instant the treant clone crumbled, back in his territory within the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, Qi Ping’s main body opened his eyes—eyes that had been shut for a very long time…
It was time to take stock of his gains…
