Chapter 26: With Conditions Like This, Who Needs Alchemists?

“This mission…”

The senior brother in the Mission Hall kept changing expressions, his face twisted to the extreme, looking like he was about to laugh and cry at the same time, on the verge of a breakdown.

“I’ll take this mission.”

Xu Gu stayed silent for a moment, thought it over, then relaxed his brows. He didn’t make things hard for this staff cultivator and spoke calmly.

“Huh?”

The white fox on his shoulder exploded on the spot, fur standing on end.

“You’re insane!”

It stared at him like it was looking at an idiot.

It had seen the mission details.

This was pure bullying.

Completely impossible!

It was already starting to suspect that those two Heavenly Demon Elders were deliberately making things hard for Xu Gu.

The smartest move, obviously, was to refuse.

Then go find Huan Caiyi and Li Shaobai and the others, band together, and go complain to Eldest Senior Brother. Report those two Heavenly Demon Elders for abusing their authority for personal gain!

In cultivating the demonic path, the most important thing is knowing how to write reports!

“What? Junior brother, you… thank you, junior brother!”

The Mission Hall senior brother was dazed for a moment, doubting his ears.

It took him a long breath to realize that Xu Gu had actually accepted the mission.

He was overjoyed, moved to the point of tears, and his voice shook as he promised:

“Junior brother, don’t worry! You just start working on this mission first. At the same time, I’ll think of a way to ask around and see if the two Elders… maybe sent the wrong mission.”

For a second, he himself wondered if this was really something that could happen inside the Demonic Abyss.

This junior brother was truly a good person!

Whoever said he was ‘so demonic he’s basically righteous’—step out here! I’ll be the first to disagree!

Of course, those words were just politeness.

Any mission issued by a Heavenly Demon Elder went through strict procedures. There was no way it was a mistake, and he definitely wasn’t going to ask.

Xu Gu didn’t say anything more and walked out of the Mission Hall.

“Take care, junior brother! Next time you come, I’ll give you special privileges on missions!”

Watching Xu Gu accept the mission and leave just like that, the Mission Hall senior brother’s emotions were a mess.

He couldn’t help calling out that promise.

Even though he knew very clearly—
Now that Xu Gu had accepted this mission, there probably wouldn’t be a “next time.”

“You really just took that mission?”

Once they stepped outside, the white fox was still in shock, utterly unable to believe it.

Its tone sounded more like an interrogation.

Then it grabbed its own ears, looking hopeless and slumped, quietly pulling out its little travel bundle, slinging it onto its back, and blinked away invisible tears from the corners of its eyes.

“You and I, one man and one fox—though we’re brothers of different fathers and different mothers, things have come to this.

“If I keep staying here, it’s not appropriate. I’ll just get in your way while you work on your mission.

“Trouble you to send me over to Sister Caiyi.

“Don’t worry. Every year during Qingming, I’ll come pay respects at your grave.”

“…”

Xu Gu was speechless.

As expected of a demonic-path fox. Its rebellious streak wasn’t just two pounds heavy.

He absolutely did not believe that.

Useless at everything but running away. Number one in escape.

“Relax.”

The corner of Xu Gu’s mouth curled up; his tone was calm.

“I have a plan.”

The white fox’s eyes lit up immediately.

“You’re going to report them? You only accepted earlier to gather evidence?”

Xu Gu grabbed its tail and dangled it in the air.

“You grew an extra load of rebelliousness and no brain, huh? Reporting Heavenly Demon Elders—two of them, at that—you tired of living?”

If this were the righteous path, filing grievances against two core elders at least left a sliver of hope. Worst case, you’d just get targeted afterward.

Might even trigger some thirty-years-east-thirty-years-west plotline.

But in the demonic path, that kind of move only had one ending: death.

You wouldn’t even live to see “afterward.”

He was a demonic cultivator himself—he knew very well how demonic cultivators thought.

“Then when you say you ‘have a plan,’ you mean…”

The white fox hesitated.

“You already know where you’re going to be buried?”

“…”

Xu Gu fought the urge to tear the fox into eight pieces and said lazily,

“I’ve already figured out those two Heavenly Demon Elders’ true intention. That’s why I accepted.”

Besides, a mission personally issued by two Heavenly Demon Elders wasn’t something he was really allowed to refuse.

The white fox scratched its head.

“What intention?”

“Haven’t you noticed the changes in the Demonic Abyss?” Xu Gu glanced around, his eyes deep.

“The Demonic Abyss wasn’t like this before.

“But now, it’s gradually transforming into the ‘Great Love Immortal Sect’ I built in the illusion.”

He’d realized this long ago.

The Scripture Pavilion, the training arena, the Mission Hall—these buildings were all newly built.

And then there were the not-yet-open but already planned Pill Refining Peak, Talisman Peak, Artifact Refining Peak, spirit herb fields and so on—also marked “under construction.”

Just looking at the newly built Scripture Pavilion, training arena, and Mission Hall, you could tell:

This wave of Demonic Abyss renovation was identical to how he’d remodeled the place into the “Great Love Immortal Sect” inside the illusion.

Obviously, the upper echelon of the Demonic Abyss were copying the operations he’d used in the illusion.

“What do you mean?”

The white fox hadn’t seen what Xu Gu did in the illusion. It was completely lost.

Xu Gu didn’t bother with a long lead-up and directly said,

“The Scarletfire Elder and Blueflame Elder were ordered to build the Pill Refining Peak.

“They ran into trouble building it and needed to find a large number of pill refiners.

“They couldn’t pull it off, so they dumped the job on me—the Demonic Abyss reform and development chief architect.

“So the real content of this mission… is just to bring back enough pill refiners to use.”

The white fox’s eyes narrowed.

Its body leaned forward slightly as it looked at Xu Gu, half-believing, half-doubting.

“Is that really it?”

It thought for a moment.

Even though it didn’t really understand anything, it had to admit… that did sound kind of reasonable.

“But pill refiners are hard to find too! Where are we supposed to get so many? Even if we managed it, the righteous path would issue warrants on us!”

The white fox frowned.

Even if they lowered the bar, this mission still wasn’t easy.

If alchemists were that easy to get, then the various demonic factions outside wouldn’t be in a state where most of them didn’t even have a single alchemist.

“How about we bring Huan Caiyi and the others in? They’re all really capable!”

The white fox suggested.

Its logic was simple: the more people helping, the higher the chances of success.

Xu Gu’s eyelid twitched.

Sure, if he asked them to help, the job would definitely go fast.

But if he actually pulled them into this, it wouldn’t take long before the entire Demonic Abyss got turned into a righteous sect.

With the personalities of those five, they’d find a way to ship every single righteous-path cultivator in here.

By then, they wouldn’t be looking for righteous undercover agents inside the Demonic Abyss—
They’d be looking for demonic undercover agents inside a righteous sect.

“No need.”

As the reform and development chief architect, Xu Gu was very confident.

“Why insist on ‘pill refiners’ being actual pill refiners?”

“What do you mean?”

The white fox scratched its head, completely confused.

“Just find a bunch of chefs.” Xu Gu said casually.

With conditions like this in the Demonic Abyss, who needs alchemists? Chefs are more than enough.

“Ah???”

The white fox’s eyes went wide as it stared at Xu Gu in disbelief.

It even raised a fluffy paw to touch his forehead, like it was checking whether his brain had broken.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Xu Gu explained meaningfully,

“The most important things for a chef are how they handle ingredients and how they control fire.

“And what are alchemists best at?

“Handling medicinal ingredients and controlling fire.

“As everyone knows, medicinal ingredients and food ingredients have always been… pretty interchangeable.

“The connection between these two professions is a lot closer than you think.

“With a little training, chefs can absolutely become respectable pill refiners.”

“Is that true?”

The white fox blinked, wearing a look that said, I haven’t read many books—don’t lie to me.

“If pill refining were that easy, why are there so few alchemists out there?”

Xu Gu replied matter-of-factly,

“Because out there, if you want to be an alchemist, you have to go get certified by the Alchemists’ Association. Slots are fixed every year—of course there are few alchemists.

“If you don’t have an alchemist license, nobody dares hire you. If they do, they’ll be fined by the authorities or even thrown in jail.

“But in our Demonic Abyss… do pill refiners still need to pass certification?”

“No.”

The white fox answered on instinct.

Everyone in the demonic path was already a wanted criminal.

Who would be afraid of getting fined for hiring an unlicensed alchemist?

Xu Gu said,

“Exactly.

“Not only do they not need a license, we encourage working without one.

“Worst-case scenario, they mess up a batch and a few demonic cultivators get poisoned to death.

“It’s fine. Demonic cultivators’ lives don’t count as lives anyway.

“So why the hell are we going out of our way to find real alchemists?

“Just grab some chefs and we can report mission success.”

“Hiss… when you put it like that, it kind of makes sense.”

The white fox had this vague feeling that something was wrong with what he’d just said—

But for the life of it, it couldn’t find a way to refute him.

Its scalp just tingled.

(End of this chapter)