Chapter 37: The Lethal Power of a Casual Line from Xu Gu

That very afternoon, Xu Gu set off back to the Demon Grotto with the group of master chefs in tow.

Because there were so many people, he very conscientiously used public funds to rent a private flying ship.

On the way—

“This operation is codenamed ‘Demonization’!”

“This is an extremely important top-secret mission!”

“It must not be discovered by any demonic factions!”

“For this, we have specially copied and constructed a ‘Demon Grotto.’ Every ‘demon cultivator’ in that grotto is actually one of our people in disguise, and now you will also be pretending to be its alchemists.”

“Once we’re on the mountain, you can only regard yourselves as demon cultivators. You must completely forget your former identities. If this secret leaks, you will become the sinners of the entire human race!”

Xu Gu spoke solemnly to the chefs, face full of seriousness.

He was deliberately planting the idea of “pretending to join demons for the sake of the righteous path” in their minds, so that in the future, whenever something looked off, they could happily fill in the plot themselves.

“Hiss!”

All the master chefs sucked in a breath together.

They’d known this was a secret job and that they couldn’t leak anything.

But they hadn’t expected that this hidden sect would go so far as to build an entire fake demonic faction just for this.

That way they didn’t have to worry about demonic spies infiltrating and stealing their secrets.

Only Master Zhao frowned deeply. He’d caught onto something and asked Xu Gu with a grave face:

“Isn’t this… a bit too wasteful? For just us, wouldn’t faking a single demonic stronghold be enough?”

“We don’t only have this one ‘chefs-turning-alchemists’ project.”

Xu Gu smiled.

“We also have weapon forging, talisman crafting, formation work, spiritual farming… The war between the righteous path and the demonic path is about to break out. When that happens, we won’t just be short on pills. We’ll be short on everything.”

“I see, I see. Our sect— cough, I mean, our Demon Grotto really is far-sighted!”

Master Zhao stroked his beard and very naturally corrected his wording, already slipping into his new role.

The other chefs were even quicker to internalize it than he was.

On the side, Huan Caiyi watched Xu Gu operate, her eyes glowing with pure worship. She was practically a little fangirl at this point.

Senior brother is just too amazing.

But then, a hint of worry crossed her face, and she sent him a sound transmission:

“Won’t this be a little risky? I don’t mean the method itself—I mean we probably shouldn’t have brought Master Zhao.”

Huan Caiyi was, of course, impressed by Xu Gu’s arrangements. But about pulling Master Zhao into this, she felt a bit uneasy.

“Master Zhao is Li Shouhe’s father-in-law. We’re taking his father-in-law away just like that, and for a very long time from now, Master Zhao won’t be leaving the Demon Grotto.

“If Li Shouhe misses him and comes to look for him, wouldn’t that…?”

If the constable trailed them to the Demon Grotto, wouldn’t the whole place be wiped out?

To that, Xu Gu just chuckled and answered calmly:

“It’s because Master Zhao is Li Shouhe’s father-in-law that I’m comfortable taking him away.”

“Huh?” Huan Caiyi was confused.

“There isn’t a daughter-in-law alive who loves being at odds with her mother-in-law.

“By the same logic, there isn’t a son-in-law alive who enjoys seeing a father-in-law who looks down on him.”

Xu Gu smiled.

“With the way Master Zhao and Li Shouhe interact, I can say with confidence that once Li Shouhe sends his father-in-law off, he’ll be so excited he won’t be able to sleep for three days and nights.”

“And after that, he’ll probably wish they never have to see each other again.”

“Is… is that how it works?”

Huan Caiyi was half convinced, half lost. In this sort of “worldly emotion” area, she was still pretty clueless.

But since senior brother said so, then it had to be right.

…

Meanwhile—

The martial world of Zhao Family Ravine had plunged into a level of chaos beyond imagination.

A single supreme martial manual had appeared, scattered into corners all across the jianghu.

A stableboy who tended horses got his hands on it, his martial realm skyrocketed, and he married a marquis’ daughter.

A youth who’d fallen off a cliff not only healed his injuries but saw his skills soar at a terrifying pace. He climbed back up, massacred his enemies, and wiped their clan from existence.

A scorned scion of a great family acquired the manual, reached a terrifying level of cultivation, and slaughtered everyone who’d mocked him on the clan’s testing arena.

A young man whose engagement had been broken off flew into a rage, trained in the manual, stormed his ex-fiancée’s family home, and tried every way he could to defile her entire family.

…

In short, the martial rivers and lakes were spiraling into madness far faster than anyone could have predicted.

“Better pain once than pain forever,” was how the body cultivators of Zhao Family Ravine saw it.

Just as Xu Gu had predicted, the officials here were mostly body cultivators.

They didn’t even consider that this scheme might be rejected by the imperial court for the short-term chaos it would surely cause.

They confidently began implementing it immediately while filing it upwards for record.

And inside the Demon Grotto’s stronghold in Zhao Family Ravine—

“Boss, do you really think what the demon envoy said was true?”

“I’m starting to feel like he was tricking us, honestly.”

“Just to get us to happily risk our lives for him and for the Demon Grotto.”

A few of the demon cultivators in the stronghold had already cooled off after just a couple of days.

They’d come down from their “boiling chicken-blood” state and started doubting everything Xu Gu had said.

They didn’t really believe Xu Gu would overturn the entire underground world of Zhao Family Ravine just to give them a chance.

To be honest, they didn’t think he could.

“This…”

Their leader, Shi Shangpin, let out a sigh. He wasn’t sure either.

Only now, with his blood calm again, did he realize how outrageous his request had been.

Yes, Xu Gu had casually solved the problem that had troubled them for so long.

But to throw the whole underground world of Zhao Family Ravine into chaos? That was too hard.

Even if the Demon Grotto poured out its whole strength, even if Senior Brother and all the great devils personally took action, they still wouldn’t be able to pull it off.

“Forget it. Let’s go back to lying flat and freeloading.”

Shi Shangpin hesitated for a bit… and suddenly felt that muddling along like this was actually pretty comfortable.

And then—

“Boss! It’s gone crazy!”

“It’s gone completely crazy!”

“The entire underground world of Zhao Family Ravine is a boiling pot now!”

“The martial world has lost its mind! Revenge—everyone is talking about revenge! Killing to silence witnesses, wiping out whole clans—it’s happening like it’s nothing!”

A demon cultivator who’d gone out to gather information rushed back, almost tripping over himself.

Their stronghold had just put down roots here, their influence was very limited, and usually any news they heard was way behind.

But this thing was too big—everyone knew about it.

Everyone was talking about it.

“What?”

The bunch of demon cultivators, who’d just come off their chicken-blood high, all stared wide-eyed, hearts pounding like thunder, unable to believe their ears.

“Really? It’s really gone mad?”

“It’s really a boiling pot?”

Shi Shangpin’s body trembled, his voice catching, heart thudding wildly in his chest. The admiration in his eyes reached its peak.

“Was it the demon envoy?”

“It can only be him!”

“Something this big doesn’t just happen overnight. Someone has to be pushing it from the shadows!”

And when you connected the dots with what Xu Gu had said just a few days ago—

It had to be him.

The others gulped, equally stunned and thrilled.

“That demon envoy… just what kind of background does he have? This is way too terrifying!”

“He did, all by himself in a few days, what the entire Demon Grotto couldn’t do in ages?”

And what they did not know was that this storm in the martial world hadn’t stopped at Zhao Family Ravine’s borders.

Like a spark in dry grass, it flared and spread at a speed no one could have imagined, spreading across the entire world.

Because of a single casual sentence from Xu Gu—

The martial path was about to step into an unprecedented era of darkness and decline.

(End of this chapter)