“Oh…” Reprimanded, Zeng Fei cleared his throat and looked away, feeling more penitent about his hasty execution now.

  Since the original hadn’t possessed much information on devilish cultivators, he’d thought Granny Ju was a devilish cultivator like any other and hadn’t thought much of killing her; nor had his modern sensibilities bristled at doing so when Granny Ju was a serial murderer who’d gone after her own kin, cruelly using them as cultivation materials.

  Noticing his abashed expression, Sun Ru’s frustration melted away somewhat as she was satisfied to see that he finally understood why it’d been so important to interrogate Granny Ju.

  Although she did not know about his past, she guessed from this that he must be someone who’d always stuck to internal sect missions until now. After all, it was a realisation everyone had early on during fieldwork: how being hotheaded almost always resulted in a worse outcome than otherwise, all the more so if the alleged culprit turned out to be innocent after you’d punished them.

  In light of this, Sun Ru continued in a softer tone. “While there’s a chance that Granny Ju’s abilities were sourced from the eldritch being behind her cult, we can’t yet discount the possibility there is still a demon beast involved here, perhaps even the very Astral Hunter she mentioned. Lies are at their most convincing when mixed with truths.”

  They waited outside the cottage until the smoke and stench had cleared from within, then got to combing through Granny Ju’s possessions in search of cult-related material or anything else that might explain the disappearances.

  There was much to go through, and so it wasn’t until hours later that they found a bamboo scroll containing what they sought.

  [Acolyte Ju,

  Now that you have displayed your continued interest, I gladly welcome you into our fold with open arms. I tell you that you need not fret about the advanced age you’ve reached, for the shackles of mortality are of no significance before the Divine Deliverer.

  Display your faith in him and spread his name, and you too will be liberated by his grace, make no doubt.

  In order to help you, I have attached eight Totemic Poles, a Sacrificial Pad, and a Knife of Deliverance. These are the instruments by which you can prove your devotion, and thereby receive his heavenly aid.

  The best offerings are careless cultivators, but I would advise against procuring them at your current level of strength. Instead, I recommend you to tribute a flock of mortal lambs to him first, receive his blessing, and progress from there.

  The following will instruct you on how to do so:

  Use the Totemic Poles to mark out the boundaries of your sheep pen as before, but ensure you place these above ground as they need access to the air to function. Also, since they struggle to work if even one is broken, ensure they are well camouflaged and unlikely to attract attention.

  Now, within that area, find a concealed location to set up the Sacrificial Pad - hidden groves, difficult-to-reach caves, and abandoned ruins are locations that past acolytes have found great success with.

  Next comes the difficult part of leading your flock to the abattoir. The Lord will handle the logistics of transportation - whenever you strike someone with the Knife of Deliverance, they will be sent to the Sacrificial Pad by his grace - so don’t worry. But that still leaves you in charge of securing them and preventing any mishaps from happening afterwards.

  We’ve found that best practice for ensuring target compliance is for them to be dead, but given your personal strengths, you may get away with - and indeed, it may be better to - coat the knife with a concoction that kills or subdues the target until you can get there to finish the job.

  Give yourself a pat on the back if you get to this point as that’s the hardest part of the process over with.

  Now, ensure the target is laid atop the Sacrificial Pad and not in any state to wander off. Proceed through the worship ceremony as taught.

  Through this, you will perform communion with our Lord: your tribute will provide him sustenance through the lamb’s blood essence, and he, in turn, will shower you with condensed qi.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  This shall shock-wake your sleeping spiritual roots. As you need to clear your meridians before proceeding any further, your progress will be slow at first. But I tell you, nothing worthwhile comes easy, so do not lose faith and keep chipping away at it, for this is the path that shall give you all that you desire.

  Moreover, the set-up you have received is an upgrade of our usual, one that we recently invented and which we believe will revolutionise the game. Since you are the first to take advantage of it, you can be seen as the harbinger of our cult upon the world. It appears fate has big plans for you, Acolyte Ju.

  I eagerly await to hear back from you once you have reached the Foundation Establishment stage, blessed acolyte.

  Also, ensure that you do not burn this missive like the others and keep it hidden near yourself. This missive is an artefact that acts as a one-way messaging portal - if ever I sense danger heading your way, I will use this to warn you in advance and prevent your death.

  Yours sincerely,

  Grandmaster He Who Cannot Be Astrally Bound

  PS: Should you be aware of any other individuals with spiritual roots, inactive or otherwise, who would be amenable to our cause, please have them contact me as nothing brings me more joy than to grow the Lord’s fold. Better yet, if you find ten such individuals, I will commend your efforts by sending you additional rewards that can aid your efforts to the next stage.]

  “Sounds almost like an MLM.”

  “Huh?”

  Zeng Fei cleared his throat. “Nothing.”

  Sun Ru gave him a sceptical look before moving on. She inspected all the sides of the scroll and then shrugged. “Seems like Granny Ju’s handler didn’t warn her about us. So maybe it doesn’t work as he claimed.”

  “Or maybe we too were expected to be lambs for the slaughter,” Zeng Fei suggested.

  Sun Ru grimaced, knowing that that could have well been a reality if not for Zeng Fei’s quick thinking; if she’d been assigned Dong Fu or Wang Li instead, who knows if they would have followed Granny Ju’s script and wound up dead by now.

  Shaking her head, she cleared those useless thoughts. “What’s important now is to find the Totemic Poles and Sacrificial Pad as soon as possible. Do you happen to know where they could be placed, Village Head? Or what they look like?”

  “No, Esteemed One. I haven’t heard anything of the sort. But if you deem the area to be safe now, I could have the villagers search the surrounding area and alert you if they find anything.”

  “Yes, have that done at once. Some of the victims may still be alive, just subdued, so time is of the essence here.”

  While the villagers went about this, Sun Ru scanned the qi signature of the bamboo scroll, then used this to find the knife that best matched it. The Knife of Deliverance was a nondescript sheathed utility knife that had been on Granny Ju’s bedside table - in hindsight, it was clear that the hag hadn’t been trying to dodge when Pingu had attacked but attempting to snatch up her knife.

  Testing the weapon on a lizard that failed to scamper away in time, Sun Ru noted how the lizard flickered for a second, then disappeared in its entirety.

  It was evident that the Totemic Poles were functioning as a formation, and that the knife activated it to transport the target to the set point inside.

  While many formations could achieve similar results, those were high-rank formations made of literal magic treasures; in contrast, these items looked to be ordinary household goods that somebody had engraved using an indecipherable script.

  This mattered because it meant these items were working solely by nature of the eldritch being whose power was being called upon, i.e. this was a being so immensely powerful that they were able to have an effect millions and millions of miles away.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to tell if the lizard had been poisoned and subsequently died from the wound. Hence, Sun Ru was forced to drop any thoughts of using the knife on Zeng Fei to speedrun discover the Sacrificial Pad’s location.

  While heat treatment could work to break down any protein poisons, who knew if it would break the knife’s magical properties as well?

  To get around this, she had Zeng Fei go to the nearest village on the Heavenhoof Horse and grab hold of the medicine man there. And as suspected, when Sun Ru gave the man the knife to check, he detected a deadly poison on it, a particularly frightening one if his reaction was anything to go by.

  The first Totemic Pole was found several hours later, after which the others became easier to spot. And once they’d figured out the rough area of the formation, the location of Sacrificial Pad came not long after.

  It was in a large burrowed tunnel on the side of a nearby hill, hidden by the thick vegetation outside.

  Since they didn’t know what could be inside, Sun Ru had commanded the searchers to immediately inform her when any likely locations were found. As such, the large dark hole was still unexplored by the time Zeng Fei and Sun Ru stood outside, flanked by many villagers who either bore weapons or gripped their hands together in prayer, hoping against all odds that their loved ones still lived.

  Zeng Fei and Sun Ru watched this with a heavy heart, all too aware of the chilling blood-soaked aura emanating from the cave, but knowing it would be cruel to dash the villagers’ hopes like this. Besides, the truth was that they had no idea what was inside.

  Could it be the demon beast they’d been tasked to handle for this mission was waiting inside? If so, this would be its optimal time to attack, while they walked blindly into its territory.

  On the flip side, this risk came with the opportunity of reward: of obtaining a stronger demon core.