Lord of the Demon Sect

According to Liu Mo, the Liu family is a small cultivation family located in Blood Shadow City. The current family head is her father, Liu Jie. The family owns a hundred mu of spiritual fields outside the city and operates a bazaar on East Street, where they sell various items for cultivation. Additionally, they have an alchemy workshop and an artifact crafting pavilion at home. These shops and spiritual fields are properties that have been passed down for hundreds of years.

Among the ancestors of the Liu family, there were alchemists and artifact craftsmen who were somewhat renowned in Blood Shadow City several years ago. Unfortunately, since her great-grandfather’s time, no one in the Liu family has had the talent for alchemy.

Though they had attempted to nurture several alchemists, they wasted many materials with no results. A cultivation family that operated an alchemy workshop had not even produced a single junior alchemist in over a hundred years, which made them the laughingstock of Blood Shadow City.

At this time, another cultivation family, the Shang family, which operates a shop on East Street and has had a poor relationship with the Liu family for centuries, has grown in power. Although they also lack outstanding alchemists, they at least have one member who passed the junior alchemist examination.

More importantly, the head of the Shang family, Shang Zhengwu’s youngest son, Shang Kejie, is a disciple with a heavenly spiritual root, taken as a direct disciple by the Blood Soul Ancestor, an elder of the Bloodshadow Sect. The city lord of Blood Shadow City is, in fact, the Blood Demon Ancestor, the brother of the Blood Soul Ancestor.

As a result, the Shang family’s status in the city has risen significantly. Let alone ordinary cultivation families, even the Alchemist Guild, Artifact Craftsmen Guild, and Talisman Maker Guild, which are all subordinate organizations of the Demon Sect’s Elder Council, have to give them some face. After all, although they are strong dragons, the Shang family is the local snake! These shrewd individuals are well aware of the principle that a county official is not as good as a local one. While the Bloodshadow Sect does not dare to openly confront these three major organizations, they certainly engage in some underhanded tactics to annoy them.

Shang Zhengwu, the head of the Shang family, harbored ambitious plans to annex shops from other cultivation families.

Given that the Shang family’s shop is on the same street as the Liu family’s, which is currently facing difficulties, they naturally became his prime target.

Initially, Shang Zhengwu approached the Liu family under the guise of marriage, sending a matchmaker to propose that his son marry Liu Mo, uniting their families through marriage.

This sounded like a good thing at first, but the son he proposed for Liu Mo was not his youngest son, Shang Kejie, who possesses a heavenly spiritual root, but rather his eldest son, Shang Kexi, who has five spiritual roots. This Shang Kexi is nearly thirty-eight years old and has only reached the fifth layer of the Qi Refinement Stage, underscoring his poor spiritual root quality.

Shang Kexi’s character was quite terrible; he took advantage of the fact that no one dared to provoke the Shang family in Blood Shadow City. He spent his days flirting around, and many low-level female cultivators had been humiliated by him, making his reputation in Blood Shadow City infamous.

In contrast, Liu Mo possessed a dual spiritual root and had already reached the ninth layer of the Qi Refinement Stage, just a step away from foundation establishment. She was also an artifact craftsman and was the most outstanding disciple of the Liu family in her generation. The family had nearly confirmed Liu Mo as the next heir to the family head position.

Under these circumstances, how could the Liu family agree to marry Liu Mo to Shang Kexi?

After learning that the Liu family had indeed rejected the marriage proposal between the two families, Shang Zhengwu began to suppress the Liu family’s businesses. He had not yet figured out a way to deal with the artifact crafting pavilion, given that Liu Mo was an artifact craftsman herself. However, he devised several schemes against the alchemy workshop.

First, he offered a high salary to entice a long-time alchemist who had been working for the Liu family to leave. Then, he spread the word in the city that any alchemist who agreed to help the Liu family would be considered an enemy of the Shang family, threatening to cut off their supply of alchemy materials and affect their sale of pills.

In recent years, the Shang family had significant influence in the Blood Shadow City auction house. Many rare medicinal materials and sought-after pills were sold through the auction house, which meant that the local alchemists were too intimidated to work for the Liu family.

Although Liu Mo offered a high price to recruit alchemists, none dared to risk offending the Shang family. Fortunately, Liu Mo’s grandfather had been friends with Luo Zhiyuan, the head of the Alchemist Guild in Blood Shadow City. Liu Mo asked Luo Zhiyuan to intervene and talk to Shang Zhengwu, requesting that he refrain from using threats or intimidation against the Liu family and instead compete fairly in business.

However, Luo Zhiyuan could only go so far. After all, the Shang family’s backing, the Blood Soul Ancestor, was the brother of the city lord, the Blood Demon Ancestor. Both of them were golden core stage cultivators, just like Luo Zhiyuan. He had to tread carefully, unwilling to offend them too much.

Upon realizing the situation, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but look grave.

Although the compensation offered by the Liu family was good, offending the Shang family was not a trivial matter! After all, the Shang family was indeed the local authority in Blood Shadow City.

Alchemy was a respected profession, and alchemists were admired wherever they went. However, the fact that the alchemists in the city dared not stand against the Shang family demonstrated how significant their influence was.

“Um… this fellow Daoist! I truly sympathize with your situation. But you know, I’m just a small cultivator at the fourth layer of the Qi Refinement Stage, and I have only recently entered the profession of being an alchemist. The other alchemists are too scared to wade into these murky waters… how can I dare to…” Jiang Chen instinctively tried to decline.

“You don’t need to worry about that! I already have a plan in place to ensure your safety! The people from the Shang family will absolutely not discover that it is you!” Liu Mo declared confidently. It seemed that she had thought of some strategies to deal with Shang Zhengwu’s oppression.

“Oh? Let’s hear it!” Jiang Chen asked, intrigued.

“You will be working secretly for our Liu family as an alchemist. We won’t publicly announce that we’ve hired an alchemist. Our alchemy workshop will remain closed just like before. That way, how would the Shang family know that someone is producing pills for us?” Liu Mo said, straightening her posture.

“But… if I’m not working in the alchemy workshop, where will I be making the pills?” Jiang Chen was taken aback by this.

“You’ll be doing it in my artifact crafting pavilion, which also has ground fire. However, my family’s ancestral Qingpu Pill Furnace was sold to the Ghostly Slaughter Sect by my inept father. I’ll need to buy another one to use…” Liu Mo frowned as she spoke.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen was momentarily speechless. The Qingpu Pill Furnace? Wasn’t that the very furnace he had purchased? And from Liu Mo’s description, her father was the one who had sold it to the Ghostly Slaughter Sect. Could it be the same middle-aged man who had given him the recipe for the Jiangshi cultivation pill? This world was too small!

“Fellow Daoist, what’s wrong with you?” Liu Mo noticed Jiang Chen’s unusual expression.

With a sigh, Jiang Chen took out the Qingpu Pill Furnace from his storage bag.

“Ah! This is our ancestral furnace! How could it be with you? Could it be… that you bought it from my father?” Liu Mo exclaimed, her surprise evident.

Jiang Chen could only smile wryly. “It seems we’ve had quite the coincidence!”

Liu Mo gently ran her fingers over the patterns on the furnace, appearing reluctant to let it go. “This furnace has been passed down since my great-grandfather’s generation. Although I’m not an alchemist and can’t use it myself, I always felt it was a family heirloom that shouldn’t be easily sold. But my wretched father thought that selling the furnace and shutting down the alchemy workshop would make the Shang family spare us. He doesn’t seem to realize that this only makes them think the Liu family is weak and easily bullied, and they will only be more relentless in their pursuit!”

At this moment, she cautiously asked, “Fellow Daoist, regardless of whether you agree to help the Liu family with alchemy, I would like to buy back this Qingpu Pill Furnace from you for double the price. What do you think?”

“Alright! You don’t need to pay double. I bought it for sixty spirit stones, so just give me sixty spirit stones, and it’s yours!” Jiang Chen readily agreed.

First, it was a family heirloom for her. Although it wasn’t considered a precious item, it held sentimental value. He didn’t want to take something that meant so much to someone else.

Second, Liu Mo was an artifact craftsman who had reached the ninth layer of the Qi Refinement Stage, on the verge of foundation establishment. She had the potential to become a foundation establishment cultivator in the future. Selling her a favor now could serve as a worthwhile emotional investment.

Third, he had just received a golden jade furnace from his new master, Luo Zhiyuan, which was of higher quality than the Qingpu Pill Furnace and could be used as a superior grade offensive spiritual artifact. The Qingpu Pill Furnace was practically a useless trinket for him now.

Hearing Jiang Chen readily agree brought joy to Liu Mo’s heart. She gratefully bowed and said seriously, “Thank you, fellow Daoist! Regardless of whether you help me, I consider you a friend! If you need any artifact crafting, just come to me!”

Jiang Chen nodded slightly and tossed the Qingpu Pill Furnace back to Liu Mo.

Liu Mo quickly produced sixty spirit stones and handed them to Jiang Chen.

After a moment, Liu Mo’s voice trembled as she asked, “Fellow Daoist, what do you think? Will you help me out? I can offer you a few more pill recipes and share some of my family’s treasured insights on alchemy from our ancestors. I really don’t want our family to crumble under the pressure from the Shang family!”

Looking at Liu Mo’s delicate and anxious face, Jiang Chen sighed. He realized he couldn’t bring himself to refuse her. Although he knew there were many incentives at play, he understood that his lingering sense of justice played a significant role. It was difficult to say “no” when such a beautiful and lovely girl was being bullied by villains and sought his help.

“Fellow Daoist! I agree to your terms! However, I can only help you for three months. After that, I’ll need to prepare for a minor examination within my sect. Whether I can continue to assist you afterward will depend on how things go then!” Jiang Chen said earnestly.

“Great! Thank you so much, fellow Daoist!” Liu Mo said, a bit excited as she grasped Jiang Chen’s hand. His hand felt firm and warm. Even though his cultivation level was lower than hers and he seemed to be only a year older, he provided her with a sense of security, giving her strong confidence that they could overcome her family’s crisis together.