Volcanic Age

For now, I should check if anyone's still alive.

Zhou Xuchuan knew he had to prioritize saving lives. Thankfully, he sensed no immediate threats in the area, allowing him to search in relative peace.

Just as he thought, he discovered several survivors, but none of them were conscious. Even after shaking them lightly, they didn't respond.

But this was actually for the best. This rescue would have become far trickier had the survivors woken up terrified.

Just before Zhou Xuchuan could take this opportunity and bring the survivors upstairs…

"Urgh! I'm dying of starvation here."

"Mm! How about we mess around with the things downstairs for a bit?"

"Forget it, man. You know Dan Libai has gone totally nuts these days. Who knows how he will react once he finds out you did something stupid down here?"

Voices came from the stairwell entrance above. Zhou Xuchuan quickly hid in the shadows and observed the people coming down.

Even if the human sacrifices were stashed somewhere well hidden, someone still had to manage them.

Zhou Xuchuan had been puzzled by the lack of guards. As it turned out, these guards had only temporarily left their posts.

Now then, let's see… Three of them?

Zhou Xuchuan didn't even need to sense their presence. Their voices alone were enough. As he thought, three figures descended the stairwell.

For mere guards, their cultivation realms were quite high. All of them were First-Class martial artists.

Shuffle…

Zhou Xuchuan stealthily moved out of their line of sight and successfully approached them from behind without making any sound.

Slice!

He couldn't use Mount Hua's swordsmanship in fear of revealing his identity. It'd leave too many traces behind. The Ten-Thousand Jin Sword technique was too slow for what Zhou Xuchuan wanted to do, so he chose to go with the Hidden Nether Flying Dagger Art instead.

Though there was no breeze down here, Zhou Xuchuan's sleeves billowed slightly before releasing hidden daggers. Two streaks of faint light targeted the throats of two guards.

Zhou Xuchuan closed the distance to the third guard, swiftly slicing his throat with a dagger held in reverse grip.

"Kkuek!"

"Kkeok!"

The guards died instantly, their screams cut short.

Even though Zhou Xuchuan hadn't fully mastered the Hidden Nether Flying Dagger Art, its power was still considerable in the hands of an expert at the Harmony realm.

Clang!

Huh?

One of the two streaks of light failed to reach the enemy's throat. Not because Zhou Xuchuan had made a mistake, but because the enemy had somehow deflected the attack in the nick of time.

To think he'd deflect Zhou Xuchuan's ambush! For a First-Class martial artist, his skills were quite good.

"Who goes—!"

Before the guard could cry out, Zhou Xuchuan's hand shot out like lightning and grabbed his throat.

"Keo-huhk!"

"Very well. Now that things have come to this, I might as well get some info… Mm?"

Just as Zhou Xuchuanwas about to threaten the guard, the latter abruptly went limp like a corpse. Even though he hadn't planned to kill him?

He felt the guard's pulse just to be sure. But the guard wasn't faking it.

As he began to wonder what happened, he saw the guard's skin quickly growing dark and sickly.

"Poison?"

Zhou Xuchuan opened the guard's jaw and saw a small hole in one of his molars. That hole was just large enough to contain a lethal dose of poison to kill oneself.

"Could he be a soldier from the Seven Stars Division?"

This guard didn't even hesitate and swallowed poison to kill himself!

Not even a highly trained assassin could be this ruthless about offing themselves. And that was especially true for a member of the evil faction.

Damn. Looks like I'll have to hurry up a bit here.

These people could have a fixed communication routine. If that got cut off, the allies of these guards might notice something was wrong and rush over here.

Zhou Xuchuan quickened his efforts to rescue the survivors, moving them to a safer location with far more urgency than before.

Thanks to giving it his all, Zhou Xuchuan managed to rescue all fifty-or-so survivors within half an hour. He saved time by taking them somewhere close by, but not directly above the surface.

"May your souls rest in peace."

After evacuating the survivors, Zhou Xuchuan offered a funeral prayer for the piles of corpses.

He searched every nook and cranny of the basement to see if he had missed anything. After confirming that there was nothing of importance down there, Zhou Xuchuan set everything on fire.

He deliberately left the entrance wide open. He remained hidden while watching the thick smoke rising from the stairwell.

He didn't set the place ablaze without a plan, of course. He made sure there would be lots of smoke, so the people nearby could easily see that something was wrong.

He even set the nearby bushes on fire, in case the darkness of the night hid the smoke a little too well. He also made sure that the crimson glow of the flames would be noticeable from the distance.

"Fire!"

This latrine wasn't located in some random area, but within the evil faction's heartland. Obviously, the security around there was quite good, so the fire and smoke were discovered rather quickly.

To confirm if it was an enemy raid, large groups of warriors, including several powerful experts rushed in from practically every direction. Zhou Xuchuan slipped into this crowd and stayed incognito.

"W-what the—?"

He noticed that several warriors in this crowd looked panicked, while some others had visibly pale faces.

"Why was there a fire in a place like this?"

Location-wise, this spot was nothing special, it was merely a latrine used by servants. Since that was the case, a fire wouldn't naturally break out.

Someone must've started the fire deliberately, but these warriors couldn't sense any strange presence nearby.

"This could be a diversion!"

"We need to return immediately!"

Someone shouted urgently. Zhou Xuchuan looked at who it was, and it was one of the pale-faced warriors.

That man's expression conveyed how anxious and stressed he was. But his words sounded persuasive enough. Just before the group could urgently return, however…

"We must put out the fire now! If we don't, the flames will spread everywhere!"

Zhou Xuchuan shouted while changing his voice. He even stayed hidden within the crowd so that he couldn't be singled out.

"We'll split into two groups!"

An expert, exuding an extraordinary air even at a casual glance, swiftly issued a new order, prompting a handful of warriors to step forward.

"Please leave this place to us!"

"This might be an enemy raid, so let us put out the fire while you focus on the enemy!"

Their voices sounded tense and their expressions didn't look so good, either.

Aha. They must be Dan Libai's underlings.

On the surface, at least, this area wasn't anything special. So, for them to be so pale-faced? It could only mean they knew what this place was. Their expressions were a dead giveaway.

"No! The fire is spreading too fast! A handful of you can't handle this!"

Zhou Xuchuan made sure these underlings wouldn't be able to do as they pleased. He spoke with enough authority in his voice to get the crowd moving.

Sounding authoritative didn't require anything too special. The tone and timber of a person's voice was important, sure, but infusing the voice with qi would do half the work.

"What are you all doing? Hurry up!"

Under normal circumstances, these warriors would've tried to figure out who was ordering them around. However, with so many people gathered here, it became impossible to do so.

More importantly, however, they could see the flames spreading to other buildings. Now didn't seem like the time to stand back and analyze things objectively.

Even before Dan Libai's underlings could dissuade the others, the warriors split into two groups and got to work.

"Urgh…"

"No, this… This is bad!"

The underlings had tried and failed to chase all these people away. The scale of the smoke from the fire had drawn far too many people here.

If Dan Libai was here personally, he might have done something, but there wasn't much these underlings could do as mere First-Class warriors. Left with no choice, they had to watch on helplessly.

Clang, clang, clang!

Warning bells rang in the night sky. Warriors jumped out of their beds and rushed outside their rooms with weapons at the news of a fire.

As for the warriors already at the scene, they did as Zhou Xuchuan intended and focused on putting out the troublesome fire.

"Huh?"

"Hey, we found something over here!"

Once the fire was put out and the smoke cleared away, the stairwell to the basement was revealed.

"Huh?!"

"What's going on here?"

The underground space, hidden from everyone's view, was finally exposed to the world. Many corpses got burned, but the warriors brought the fire under control quite quickly. That meant many other corpses were left intact.

"These bodies… They died recently!"

The Evil Valley's expert, who had been overseeing the firefighting efforts, hardened his face while studying the bodies.

These corpses were desiccated like mummies, but suspicious traces on their bodies indicated that the mummification wasn't natural. Sensing that something ominous was afoot, the expert sent several warriors back to report on the grisly findings.

Well, then. Let's see how this will play out.

****

The next day.

A chaotic event had broken out during the night. A fire nearly burned down the latrine used by the servants.

However, the location of the fire wasn't important. Wondering if it was a diversion tactic, the Evil Valley Sect Master strengthened the security of the surrounding areas and carefully monitored the situation.

But the feared assault by an unknown enemy never came. On the other hand, though, the existence of a mysterious basement was brought to the Evil Valley Sect Master's notice instead.

"We discovered traces of demonic cultivation, sir!"

"…!"

The Evil Valley Sect Master clenched his fists so tightly that his palms bled where his nails bit into his skin.

"We also discovered that the basement was connected to the Little Valley Master's residence, sir."

"That son of a—!"

The Evil Valley Sect Master almost blurted out 'son of a b*tch' just then, only to catch himself at the last second.

Not some random cultivation art, but traces of demonic cultivation?!

Even if the person implicated was his own son, the Evil Valley Sect Master could not forgive him for this indiscretion.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the stories of Dan Libai's personality turning for the worse had been circulating recently. The Evil Valley Sect Master didn't pay any heed to that rumor since his son was already infamous for being a libertine.

However, as it turned out, that was actually demonic cultivation's side effects manifesting itself!

"I've tolerated his behavior long enough!"

Even though his son's unacceptable behaviors showed no signs of improving, the Evil Valley Sect Master let it be since his martial prowess had been extraordinary.

He also didn't think much of his son openly letting his ambition of taking over the sect master position be known recently.

However, this demonic cultivation business had crossed the line. Once the demonic nature corrupted the cultivator's mind, making them unable to think and choose rationally, that would be the end of the road for them.

Euh!

Not being able to entrust the future of the Evil Valley to his son was one thing, but when the Evil Valley Sect Master thought about how bad this situation would reflect on him, his anger rapidly boiled over.

Thinking about how others would mock him for failing to notice his son's demonic cultivation despite being one of the Ten Empyrean Overlords made his face flush red with anger and shame.

"Bring that fool to me, right now!"

The Evil Valley Sect Master understood how grave this situation was and ordered Dan Libai to cut his visit to the Beast Gate short and return immediately.

The rumors of this event rapidly spread to all corners of the Evil Valley… No, throughout the evil faction. Restricting the flow of information was impossible because of how many witnesses were on the scene.

As such, it reached the Beast Gate faster than the summons from the Evil Valley Sect Master.

"Explain yourself!"

A middle-aged man with an impressive physique, a lengthy mane-like beard, and a sharp, savage glare in his eyes angrily raised his voice.

"You mastered demonic cultivation? Are you out of your mind?!"

This middle-aged man, the Beast Gate Sect Master, Ren Chaojian, began grilling Dan Libai for answers.

"This is not what you said, Little Valley Master!"

The current Beast Gate Sect Master didn't like the Evil Valley Sect Master. Actually, his feelings had already gone past the level of dislike and firmly into the territory of 'grudge' at this point.

That was because, during the battle against the Murim Alliance, the Evil Valley Sect Master insulted Ren Chaojian in front of important evil faction experts by saying, Not only is your sect called the Beast Gate, even your mind is like that of a beast. How could you be so thoughtless?

The memory of that day's humiliation still burned vividly in his mind to this day. The memory was so intense that Ren Chaojian sometimes recalled it in his dreams!

From that day forward, his feelings toward the Evil Valley Sect Master had soured. That was why he went along with Dan Libai's offer of bringing his father down.

However, the news of demonic cultivation changed the situation greatly. Regardless of what he thought, he couldn't help a demonic cultivator.

"Shut up!"

Dan Libai's chilling voice slammed into Ren Chaojian's ears.

"How dare you!"

Ren Chaojian growled back menacingly. As a ranker among the One Hundred Experts Under Heaven, he had a fiery temper. It was just that he had been overshadowed by a monster called the Evil Valley Sect Master all this time.

If someone was dumb enough to pick a fight or piss him off, Ren Chaojian would thoroughly destroy that bastard before literally feeding them to beasts.

"Hmph! I'm sure you already know who will be put into a tough spot by baring his fangs at me!"

Dan Libai remained unfazed by the Beast Gate Sect Master's anger. Forget fear, he even openly cackled in mockery as crimson light burned within his eyes.

"The Beast Gate isn't the only one who has agreed to join me. Three out of the Eight Gates are deeply invested in this venture already! You know as well as I do that my father—no, the Sect Master—is not the type to let bygones be bygones."

The current Evil Valley Sect Master was far more domineering than his predecessors. That meant quite a few evil faction experts obeyed him without question.

However, half of their loyalty was tinged with fear. The Evil Valley Sect Master was also infamous for being merciless and never forgave mistakes or disloyalty.

There was a precedent, too. In the past, one of the sect masters of the Eight Gates tried to rebel, only for the Evil Valley Sect Master to execute the rebel immediately and install his pawn in the empty Gate Master seat.

If someone like that learned of the Beast Gate's alliance with Dan Libai? Ren Chaojian was as good as dead.

Dan Libai smirked, his expression twisted with satisfaction, "We're already preparing for an open war, aren't we? The time for that war has been brought closer, that is all."

Despite his demonic cultivation being discovered, he didn't seem bothered at all.

Buzz, hiss!

The crimson light burning in his eyes intensified. Even at a casual glance, Ren Chaojian could tell that Dan Libai's mastery of the demonic cultivation art was deep.

Cyncoco's Thoughts

The title is a bit of a confusing one, and also, y'all said you enjoyed little context notes, so here you go. It's a combination of two different words, 패륜 which, while taken to mean immorality, literally means to revolt/sin against the heavens (Go against + order/standing), and 반란, which means to stage a rebellion against.

So, it's to commit such an immoral act that it's taken as one's rebellion against the heavens and the natural order of things.

Which, considering the last chapter, is quite fitting.