Chapter 15: Watch My Micromanagement

Of course, even though the major strategic direction had been set, that did not mean one could relax.

Next came the micromanagement.

The whitewashing strategy and the pay-to-work strategy were not difficult to execute—one only needed to use thunderous methods.

Establishing Demon Cavern bases was also easy.

The only difficult part was creating the “Great Love Immortal Sect,” this so-called holy sect.

After all, this was equivalent to building a major righteous sect from nothing.

“The Great Love Immortal Sect must not only remain hidden, but must also be built according to the standards of the Five Great Immortal Sects!”

“The Sutra Pavilion, the Artifact-Forging Peak, the Alchemy Peak, the Talisman Peak, the Array Peak, the Spirit Herb Peak, the Spirit Beast Peak—”

“All these functional buildings must exist!”

As he supervised the execution of the three grand strategies, Xu Gu personally oversaw the construction of the Great Love Immortal Sect and spoke to his trusted aides.

“This is a bit difficult. For the Sutra Pavilion, the brothers can gather enough scriptures to fill it. But the Artifact-Forging Peak, the Alchemy Peak, the Talisman Peak, and so on all require a large number of artifact forgers, alchemists, talisman masters, and other auxiliary professionals to be stationed there.

“With the Demon Cavern’s situation, how could we possibly gather enough of them?”

The trusted aide looked troubled.

These professionals were all extremely noble—how could they possibly lower themselves to come to the Demon Cavern?

Even if it was the whitewashed Great Love Immortal Sect, it was still dirt poor. They would not come.

As for the demonic cultivators within the Demon Cavern, although they could dabble in everything out of survival, none of them were truly proficient. They were fine using those things for themselves.

But asking them to forge for others, refine pills for others, or create talismans for others would probably result in deaths.

“Idiots! Won’t you hire them with enormous pay? No money? Aren’t the three nearby demonic factions made of money? Report them all, and the reward money is enough for you.

“Can’t even hire them with money? Then go kidnap them!

“Can’t kidnap high-rank professionals? Then cheat and abduct some low-rank ones first. They can be used for now while we nurture the high-rank ones ourselves.

“Worried they’ll bear grudges and harm everyone? Won’t you bring in their whole families? Please, you are demonic cultivators.”

Xu Gu shook his head, looking at the demonic cultivators below with deep disappointment.

They really did not look like demonic cultivators at all.

“Yes…” All the trusted aides trembled.

They really wanted to say that they were demonic cultivators, not wishing trees.

Where were they supposed to kidnap so many professionals?

But none dared refuse and could only force themselves to do as ordered.

Because the Demon Lord did not treat demonic lives as human lives.

Time passed. The three grand strategies—whitewashing, righteous cutting, and pay-to-work—continued to be implemented. Meanwhile, the Great Love Immortal Sect was starting to look legitimate.

If someone unaware stepped inside, they might really think it was a hidden orthodox sect!

During this time, the Great Love Immortal Sect did attract the suspicions of the righteous path several times.

But Xu Gu resolved all of them easily.

One day—

“Go pretend to be the Bliss Demon Sect and stir up some trouble,” Xu Gu said casually as he meditated on the main hall throne.

“Report to the Demon Lord, we already pretended to be the Bliss Demon Sect. Because of that, it was wiped out by the righteous path.

“Besides, the Nine Nether Demon Sect, the Asura Demon Sect, the Rampage Demon Gate… they were all destroyed by the righteous path for taking the blame for us.”

The trusted aide trembled. “Among the demonic forces, only we remain.”

“Oh?” Xu Gu opened his eyes with mild surprise.

He finally remembered that in order to develop quietly without attracting the righteous path’s suspicion, every so often he would sacrifice one or two demonic sects to draw the righteous path’s attention.

It was a simple logic—when running from a bear, you don’t need to outrun the bear. You only need to outrun your companions.

Who knew that without realizing it, he had sacrificed every demonic force of any real scale.

All the trusted aides lay prostrate on the ground, terrified. The Demon Cavern had expanded rapidly, its strength immense, and their Demon Lord had grown incomprehensibly powerful.

They even felt he already had the strength to overturn the righteous path.

“Then support a few small demonic sects and let them continue serving as targets for the righteous path.”

Xu Gu waved his hand casually.

It still wasn’t time to clash with the righteous path head-on.

After the trusted aides withdrew, a bright gleam flashed in Xu Gu’s eyes.

“One last step remains.

“I must borrow the strength of the Great Shang Dynasty.”

With that, he began preparing his next layout.

“Can this… really work?”

All the demon heads were shocked beyond belief by the Demon Cavern’s development inside the illusion.

Because under Xu Gu’s leadership, the Demon Cavern had truly become a gigantic force!

And this happened under the watchful eyes of the righteous path!

This was something they did not dare even dream of.

It was utterly unbelievable!

Most importantly, Xu Gu’s operations were demonic to the extreme—each step surpassed their imagination, overturning everything they thought they knew.

Even these seasoned demon heads felt like saints compared to him!

They had already honored Xu Gu as the leader of the heaven-sent demonic children.

Their respect and fear were endless.

As for the righteous undercover agents, seeing this, they also wore expressions of worship and pride:

“This is what a qualified righteous undercover agent should be!”

“He endured humiliation, rose to become the leader of the demonic path, restrained and guided his subordinates toward good, and step by step used the power of the righteous path to bring all the demonic forces to justice!”

Illusion Colored Clothes and the others revered Xu Gu to the extreme.

They still saw him as a beacon of the righteous path.

And just as everyone eagerly awaited Xu Gu’s final layout—

Ripples spread across the illusion, and it collapsed entirely.

Xu Gu was forcibly thrown out of the illusion.

“Cough, cough…” Xu Gu coughed a few times as if choked, confused. “I failed the trial? That shouldn’t be right. Although illusions aren’t real and I couldn’t fully micromanage, it shouldn’t be enough to fail.”

In his view, full marks might be hard, but passing should not have been a problem.

“…”

All the demon heads twitched violently at his understatement.

Listen to him—was that something a human would say?

He had already performed miracles and yet said he “didn’t perform well”?

Of course, they were used to it.

Their eyes all turned to Han Changsheng with a hint of blame.

They were about to witness the Demon Cavern contend with the righteous path!

And the illusion failed at the most critical moment.

Han Changsheng’s face was pale, sweat covering his forehead. He took a deep breath. “There were too many variables to simulate. The treasure couldn’t calculate them.”

“As expected.”

The demon heads sighed in regret, though they were unsurprised.

If they could truly use the Demon Cavern’s treasure to simulate the future—especially world-altering future—then the Demon Cavern would not have fallen into such decline.

“This is more than enough.”

“With Xu Gu’s methods, we can develop for a very long time.”

The demon heads smiled proudly. They felt as though they could already see the future path clearly and felt immensely strong.

“Then we’ll end it here,” Han Changsheng said, unable to stop smiling.

He never imagined that the three problems that had troubled the demonic path and countless demonic cultivators—

would be solved just because he used them as entry trials.

His eyes burning, he looked at Xu Gu with extreme eagerness.

If not for the Demon Cavern treasure being overloaded and needing time to recover, he would have already captured Xu Gu and made him answer questions exclusively for him!

(End of this chapter)