A flick of a finger sent the die spinning again.
In the East Domain, on a street outside the East Command Sword Sect, Lu Siyu was leisurely strolling along with her maid. Wherever she went, people called out to her, each one with a smile in their eyes when they saw her.
“Good morning, Uncle Nan. Your porridge tastes better every day.”
“Thank you, Miss Siyu. If you like it, have some more.”
“Of course.” Lu Siyu’s eyes shrank into crescents as she laughed.
“Miss Siyu, try some of this old woman’s flower cakes.”
“Wow! Flower cakes? Thank you, Granny!”
“If you like them, take some more home.”
“Thank you.”
“Miss Siyu, here we have—”
The region surrounding the Four Commands Sword Sect was home to both cultivators and ordinary people. Life in this area was peaceful, and the people were content, as the Four Commands Sect had never oppressed the common people.
From the shadows, a pair of eyes followed Lu Siyu. The gaze was initially cold, but it quickly softened.
Lu Yin had not expected to Possess a Netherfiend just outside the East Command Sword Sect. A short distance from the gates, he could see the beloved Lu Siyu roaming about the street, carefree and smiling brightly.
As memories began to pour in, Lu Yin’s eyes grew wide in shock, his expression growing solemn.
This Netherfiend had not been given a mission to gather stolen spirit seeds. Rather, his only assignment was to watch Lu Siyu. To what ends was unclear, as his only order was to keep his eyes on the young woman.
Although the man himself did not know the reason for his assignment, Lu Yin already had a guess. It was possible that the Netherfiends already knew that Qi Xu’s seven emotions were attached to the Seven Fairies. That might be why someone had been sent to watch Lu Siyu.
If Lu Yin’s suspicion was correct, then all of the Seven Fairies were being watched. Of course, no one was capable of spying on Deathmound’s Great Master. Attempting to do so would be suicide.
In contrast, Lu Siyu was much too easy of a target.
The Netherfiend had been watching her for a very long time.
In the man’s memories, Lu Yin even saw himself when he had helped Lu Sizhan claim the title of Four Commands Grand Swordmaster. The observer had watched Lu Yin spar with Lu Sizhan, as well as when Lu Sizhan had entered Dukkha.
He stared at Lu Siyu’s carefree for a long time as she moved about the street before ending the Possession.
His mind returned to his body, and he immediately called Greater Sancte Awe Gate over.
“I’ve found another Netherfiend. He’s watching Lu Siyu.”
Greater Sancte Awe Gate was caught off guard. “Watching Lu Siyu?”
“That’s right. His only task is to keep an eye on her, nothing more. While his purpose is unclear, all he has to do is keep watch.”
Greater Sancte Awe Gate was silent for a moment. “I understand. Tell me where.”
“Obscura must have received word of Qi Xu’s death. What will happen to the Seven Fairies?”
“When Greater Sancte Green Lotus returns, we’ll remove Qi Xu’s emotions from them. They won’t be personally affected, but that will allow Obscura to clearly sense that Qi Xu is dead.”
Lu Yin nodded. There was no longer any point in saving those seven emotions.
He then thought of something. “Can you give me those seven emotions?”
“You?”
“To strengthen my karma.”
“Very well. I’ll speak with Greater Sancte Green Lotus.”
“Thank you, Senior. I’ll continue now.” With that, Lu Yin put his communication device away and rolled his die again.
He needed to rest for another ten days, but he immediately continued afterwards.
Over the course of another month, Lu Yin managed to roll Possession three different times, and each time, he Possessed a Netherfiend who was gathering cultivated spirit seeds. He carefully made a list of every person and faction that worked with the Netherfiends, supplying them with spirit seeds. Deathmound kept careful track of everyone that Lu Yin reported, and they were prepared to take them all out at a moment’s notice.
Most people had no idea that they were working with Netherfiends, but even so, plundering cultivated spirit seeds was strictly forbidden. No matter who it was for, the crime and punishment remained the same.
Lu Yin also found the locations of two storage boxes. He believed that both were sealed with the same Heaven (天) character that blocked off Spirit Search, just like the box in the Autumnspring Slip. Who knew how many spirit seeds might be in those boxes?
The boxes had been buried for higher-ranking Netherfiends to collect later, and they never contained too many cultivated spirit seeds. Normally, they would be emptied once every 100 years.
In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.
During that half year, Lu Yin had done nothing but hunt for Netherfiends.
Because of that, the rest of the world grew much quieter.
However, when Deathmound finally pulled in its net, there would surely be a massive uproar.
Lu Yin had discovered a large number of people who were actively stealing cultivated spirit seeds. They kept to themselves, and their actions were hidden too well. They might only plunder a cultivated spirit seed once in a while, which meant that, even if they were discovered by Deathmound, they could simply claim that they were taking revenge, which was easy enough to cover up. What made things worse was that the stolen seeds were almost immediately delivered to the Netherfiends, which made it nearly impossible to find them
Lu Yin also managed to Possess several cultivators who were spying on the Seven Fairies. There was one hiding among the Jue family in the West Domain, another in Everchange Valley, and one more watching Qiunan Hongye within her family.
That meant that he had identified four Netherfiends who were observing the Seven Fairies. He had not taken action yet, as he was waiting until he could deal with all of them at once.
For six months, aside from uncovering Netherfiends, Lu Yin had also managed to acquire a great deal of red energy from them. More importantly, he had obtained firsthand experience of what it felt like to use multiple spirit seeds.
Not every Netherfiend qualified to receive multiple spirit seeds. In fact, only a rare few had the requisite skill to succeed.
Two months had passed since Lu Yin had entered the strange dark space and seen a bright ball of light. While it had still been dimmer than his own light, it belonged to a Dukkhan. That ball of light had belonged to a Dukkhan Netherfiend, and that person had even received two spirit seeds, just like Jie Zun.
When Lu Yin Possessed the man, he had repeatedly recalled the memories of the process of receiving the second spirit seed and how it felt to use both of them at once. He had even seen the place where the Netherfiends had tried to force cultivators to fuse with multiple spirit seeds. Unfortunately, everything had already been moved away.