Chapter 45: Opening a New Track, Go Find Him for Me!

“I want to fish for fallen spirits too!”

Mi Suhui was practically bouncing.

“I think… having evil ghosts recite Buddhist sutras for me might not be impossible.”

“…”

Everyone’s faces went dark.

What are you, a Buddhist cultivator, doing mixing into this?

If Kong Haoran having ghosts read his prose for him was barely plausible—Confucian suppression of ghosts wasn’t that extreme—

Then you, a Buddhist cultivator whose entire toolkit hard-counters evil spirits to the max, what are you planning to do?

Even if you don’t get backlash from it, the ghosts will definitely suffer for it.

And even if they could help you chant, so what? A Buddhist cultivator’s combat power doesn’t all come from chanting.

What are you going to do—have them recite Rebirth Mantras and send you to the Pure Land?

Although everyone was speechless in their hearts, nobody outright shot him down.

Because… what if it actually worked?

Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui exchanged a look, both wearing that “heroes see eye to eye” expression, chin lifted as they swept their gaze around like lonely experts above the world.

Then they both looked at Xu Gu, clearly wanting a comment.

“It’s not impossible,” Xu Gu thought for a moment, then said,

“Junior Brother Haoran has a higher chance of success. Junior Brother Suhui… might have to adjust his approach later.”

Kong Haoran lit up.

“Thank you for the acknowledgment, Senior Brother.”

He’d already been completely convinced by Xu Gu. If Xu Gu said it was doable, then it was doable.

“What approach?” Mi Suhui was a little disappointed, but not surprised. His suppression over ghosts was indeed much stronger than Kong Haoran’s, making his idea much harder to pull off.

He quickly asked.

Xu Gu didn’t hide anything. He smiled.

“If you can’t drive evil spirits, then maybe try driving… demon beasts.”

“Demon beasts?”

Mi Suhui’s eyes flashed like he’d just had a revelation. He got excited on the spot.

“That could work!”

His suppression over demonkind really was much lower.

Watching this, the demon overlords all twitched at the corners of their mouths, a vague sense of pity for the demon race rising in their hearts.

They knew very well: with one sentence from Xu Gu, the demon race would probably never know peace again.

“We can figure that out later. Try ghosts first,” Xu Gu said with a smile.

Most demonkin were gathered on the Southern Demon Continent. On the Heaven Profound Continent itself, they were rather sparse.

If he was going to experiment properly, he’d have to make a trip to the Southern Demon Continent.

But that was far away, so there was no rush.

Then he turned back to Redflame and Blueflame.

“Can we add him as well?”

The two elders were very generous, showing no trace at all of heartache.

“Of course. You three can fish however you like for that month. Just remember—the other two don’t get a guaranteed minimum.”

As long as there was no guaranteed bottom line, with those two’s abilities, reeling in a fallen spirit would be hard. Even if they managed it, one or two at most—no big deal.

Might as well use it as a favor to Xu Gu.

Xu Gu bowed.

“Many thanks, Seniors.”

No matter what, he was only at the ninth level of Qi Refining. In front of these overlords, he still had to keep things humble.

Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui immediately followed his example with respectful salutes.

“You’re making it too formal!”

The two elders hurried to stop them and said,

“In that case, we’ll go make preparations. Give us a day or two. Once the Fallen Spirit Pool is ready, we’ll send word for the three of you.”

The two spoke, then vanished into black smoke before Xu Gu could even respond.

Once they’d fled a safe distance, both of them were panting, as if they’d just survived a calamity.

“Who would’ve thought Xu Demon Child would be that monstrous? And we just tossed such a nightmare mission at him without even talking it over. We nearly walked straight into death’s door.”

“Thank the Abyss he actually completed it…”

“And doesn’t think we were making trouble for him.”

“He even thanked us!”

The two Heavenly Demon Elders started laughing. Losing some wealth to avert disaster? Worth it.

They might have gotten clear, but the other demon overlords weren’t so lucky.

More accurately—they reacted too slowly.

Those eliminated master chefs, after being enlightened by Xu Gu’s earlier words, had already faintly touched something.

Seeing Zhao Grandmaster and Zhao Bigmouth successfully refine pills, they all felt as if their meridians had been opened, confidence soaring as they requested a re-test.

And asked the judges to taste.

The demon overlords were dead set against it in their hearts, but these were the Demon Grotto’s future honored “refiners.”

They still had to show some respect.

This time, the chefs were moving with ease.

They quickly produced successful… “pills.”

Which meant the demon overlords—who’d thought they’d escaped—found themselves dragged back to the chopping block, faces like death, eyes averted, shuffling up one by one to taste the “medicine.”

Once swallowed, the effects were the same as normal pills.

But the side effects… all came out.

Not a single one repeated.

Even at their level of cultivation, they were barely able to endure.

Meanwhile.

Ping Wuqi pulled Xu Gu aside, brows slightly furrowed.

“These chefs really can refine pills now. But their cultivation is too low, and their talent isn’t great. In the future, they’ll probably only be able to make low-grade pills.

“If we want to avoid shortages of high-grade pills down the line, shouldn’t we also start selecting good seedlings here in the Demon Grotto and train some proper alchemists from scratch?”

Since the current development plan for the Demon Grotto basically followed the blueprint Xu Gu had shown in the illusion trial, any strategic questions were best asked directly to him. The cost-performance was too high to ignore.

“Why would we train our own? We’re demons.”

Xu Gu looked confused at the idea.

He’d long since thought this problem through. He shook his head immediately.

“No need at all. Training alchemists is a waste. Just use these guys for now.

“Their cultivation is low, sure—but their skill is superb. Later, all we need to do is find a few high-level cultivators to act as their assistants and follow their instructions. They’ll be able to produce mid and high-grade pills just fine.

“Once the Demon Grotto is fully developed, we can just knock over the Alchemy Association, drag all their high-grade alchemists back here in chains, and that’s that. No need to raise our own.”

“Hiss…”

Ping Wuqi’s eyes widened again.

Every part of him wanted to ask: “Have high-level cultivators listen to chefs and refine high-grade pills? Can that really work?”

But because it was Xu Gu saying it, he couldn’t bring himself not to believe.

Xu Gu continued,

“As for what they’re refining—there’s no need to call it ‘pills.’

“Down the road, we’re going to walk out as the orthodox hidden holy sect ‘Great Love Celestial Sect.’ We can’t violate imperial law by openly employing unlicensed alchemists.”

“True…”

Ping Wuqi flinched again, deeply impressed by how far ahead Xu Gu was thinking.

He’d always thought he was already cautious and thorough.

But Xu Gu had already planned beyond his line of sight—right up to the day they’d cut ties with the Demon Grotto and whitewash themselves.

“How do we solve it then?” he asked.

“We just call the product ‘dan meals.’ Zhao Grandmaster and the others won’t be chefs anymore, and they certainly won’t be ‘alchemists.’

“They’ll be honored Dan Meal Masters.

“Create a new product, a new profession, and a new standard. Once we completely separate it from the alchemy industry, we won’t have to worry about breaking the law.”

Xu Gu’s tone was calm.

“Not only that. We’ll build a Dan Meal Masters Association and bring all the world’s dan-meal makers under our control.”

“Huh? You can do that?”

Ping Wuqi stared, feeling his worldview crack and reform.

So this is how you cultivate the demonic path?

At that moment, he genuinely felt like all his years of cultivation before Xu Gu had been a waste.

When he looked up again, his gaze at Xu Gu was full of awe and shock.

He truly couldn’t imagine—same race, same species—how one person could come up with so many heaven-defying ideas, each enough to change the future.

Maybe this was the difference between a “person” and “the foremost of heaven-sent demon children.”

If Heaven had not birthed Xu Gu, the demonic path would have been shrouded in endless night.

Meanwhile—

Inside the inner cabinet of the Great Shang Imperial Palace, the emperor was in a towering rage.

“A bunch of useless trash! You can’t even find one person!

“‘Born of a hidden sect and hard to track’—excuses, all of it!

“I don’t care what it takes, you must find Xu Gu! Once you do, I will heavily reward him!”

He slammed his hand on the table, eyes blazing.

“I will name him National Preceptor!”

(End of this chapter)