Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

As one of their fellow disciples collapsed, stiff as a board, the people around him scrambled to hold him down. The scene was utter chaos.

Su Ling’er instinctively glanced at the giant cauldron, then back at her panicking sect-mates, shaking her head in resignation.

’It’s no use... They still got spooked.’

She brought a hand to her forehead and muttered.

"Here we go again..."

It was a scene she witnessed almost every time she passed the Alchemy Pavilion and the Artifact Refining Pavilion.

She had long since gone from initial terror and incomprehension to a creeping numbness. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

’It’s not like she had any choice but to accept it.’

’What else could she do?’

’Stop that madman from jumping into the cauldron?’

’He’d probably just curse me out for delaying his "Refining the Demon Body."’

’If you live here long enough, your mind gradually gets assimilated. You start to see courting death as something perfectly natural...’

’I just hope my fellow disciples from Qingxu Temple can finish their mission soon and expose the crimes of this demonic den to the righteous cultivators of the world...’

However, Su Ling’er’s numb expression and desperate whisper shattered the last shred of hope in the undercover disciples’ hearts.

’It’s over...’

’Miss Su... she’s completely adapted to this place.’

’She’s not even fazed by the horrific tragedy of refining people into pills anymore!’

’Could it be... that Miss Su was born to be an Evil Cultivator of the demonic path?!’

The bloody episode had cast an unshakeable shadow over the hearts of the undercover disciples.

Li Chunfeng watched Su Ling’er, his mind racing.

’She’s the Holy Daughter now—high status, immense power. She must have access to far more secrets than us newcomers.’

’We just need to stick close behind her. She’ll draw all the fire up front, while we quietly gather intel from the back.’

’Once we have the intel, we can just pack up and go, and Miss Su will even earn a great reputation for "heroically enduring humiliation for her outstanding contributions"... What do you call that?’

"This really is a good thing!"

He couldn’t help but blurt out his thoughts.

Hearing this, the disciples beside him, who were on the verge of a breakdown, stared at him in horror.

’Wait a minute, Feng... how can you possibly see this as a good thing?’

’That’s Feng for you!’

Su Ling’er ignored the commotion behind her and continued to lead them on a tour of the Spirit Beast Garden, Hundred Herbs Valley, and Dining Pavilion.

At every stop, the terrifying depth of resources on display far exceeded what they had imagined for a "fledgling demonic sect," causing the faces of her sect-mates behind her to grow increasingly pale.

Especially in the Spirit Beast Garden, when Su Ling’er saw the scene before her, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of complex emotions.

There, in the garden’s Spiritual Ore Mine, several sinister figures were working tirelessly.

Su Ling’er recognized them at a glance; they were the yin spirits her Eldest Senior Brother had captured and brought back from that "Li Estate."

The Ghost Bride and those two desiccated old men.

Right now, the Ghost Bride, clad in a crimson wedding dress, was using her ethereal hands to carry a massive Spirit Stone, floating through the air.

When blocked by boulders, she didn’t have to go around like the other spirit beasts. Instead, her form would flash, and she would use a short-range teleport to appear on the other side of the path out of thin air.

Meanwhile, the two desiccated old men were also using their hands to haul giant spiritual ores, far larger than their own bodies.

With every step, their bones let out an unsettling "CREAK CREAK," but their strength was astonishing.

In the distance, within the spirit fields of the Hundred Herbs Garden, dozens of translucent yin spirits could be seen tilling the soil and sowing Spirit Plant seeds.

Ever since these "new laborers" arrived, the mines of the Spirit Beast Garden and the fields of the Hundred Herbs Garden had become a place where vitality and deathly aura constantly intertwined.

Even the growth of the yin-aspected Spirit Plants had noticeably improved.

Su Ling’er was filled with emotion as she watched the scene.

’When Eldest Senior Brother first brought these evil creatures back, I had my own predictions about their fate.’

’Now it seems being put to manual labor is a kind of "blessing" for them. At least it’s better than them wreaking havoc and harming people out in the wilds.’

’It’s just... the fact that he could bring things directly out of that place made me even more suspicious of the so-called "Yin Spirit Institute."’

’Is it, perhaps, a real, separate dimension?’

’Or is it like the sect’s Demon-Locking Tower, a place that can "drop" items?’

’She couldn’t figure it out. She only knew that the power and resources of this demonic sect were far beyond her imagination.’

Meanwhile, the small group behind her erupted into chaos once again at the appearance of the Ghost Bride and the desiccated corpses.

[Qingxu Temple Undercover Transmission Group (11)]

[Disciple E]: Wait... hold on! Do you feel that? The aura on that Ghost Bride and the two desiccated corpses... the aura of death, ghostly energy, and necrotic energy... it’s... identical to Miss Su’s! It comes from the same source!

[Disciple F]: Did... did she kill them?! Miss Su killed them and used their souls and bodies for her cultivation! That’s why she’s tainted with the same aura, and she even refined them into puppets to work for this demonic sect!

[Disciple G]: And they were a family of three!!

’So that’s it! It all makes sense now!’

’Her cultivation! Her evil aura! Her status! All of it was bought with the lives of innocents!’

Even Dong Changsheng had broken out in a cold sweat.

Despite his best efforts to calm them, the other disciples, mired in extreme shock, began to question everything.

The sense of mission they’d felt before leaving was now buried under an impossibly heavy shadow.

Just as the group was lost in a daze, Su Ling’er’s voice called out from ahead, snapping them out of their fear.

"Up ahead is the Asking Dao Ladder."