Chapter 38: Filthy Business Warfare!!!

Outside the Demon Grotto’s mountain gate, several figures stood in a casual row.

Each one was brimming with spirit, wickedly handsome, exuding the wild aura of peerless devil prodigies.

Yet at the same time, their bearing was so refined and aloof it made people instinctively respect them, as if they were unparalleled gentlemen.

The group of master chefs, following behind Xu Gu and Huan Caiyi, saw this scene and were all secretly shaken.

“As expected of a hidden sect!”

“Those four… they’re on such a different level. It really is like everyone around here is a dragon!”

Exclamations rose and fell.

Huan Caiyi rolled her eyes, looked at the four very familiar faces in front of the gate, and asked blankly:

“What are you all standing out here for?”

Those four were none other than the rest of the Righteous Path undercover squad: Li Shaobai, Mi Suhui, Zhao Jingang, and Kong Haoran.

Huan Caiyi suddenly felt guilty, and her first instinct was to be humble.

Don’t tell me they found out I secretly slipped out to have fun with Xu Gu and came here to question me?

That shouldn’t be, right? I already “explained” it was a coincidence!

Xu Gu was also silent as he looked at them, not sure what they were trying to pull.

“Huh, Caiyi Junior Sister, how did you know we broke through? That’s right, we’re at late-stage Qi Training, ninth layer now.”

Mi Suhui grinned, deliberately releasing his aura.

As expected, the other three, though still standing there with calm faces and lofty postures, also quietly let their spiritual pressure roll out.

Huan Caiyi’s lips twitched.

“You bastards… you actually secretly cultivated behind my back!”

“Slander!”

“Blatant slander!”

“Other people don’t know us, but you do. Are we the kind of people who properly sit down and cultivate?”

“Stop denying it already, Caiyi Junior Sister. Our talent is higher than yours.”

Kong Haoran retorted on the spot, very smug, his expression practically screaming “showing off.”

“…”

Huan Caiyi was speechless.

Seeing her take the L for once, the four all smiled brightly, feeling extremely pleased with themselves.

Not a waste to pose out here for a full day and night.

“How about it, Xu Senior Brother, we’re not that weak, right?”

As Kong Haoran spoke, the four of them adjusted their poses and turned to face Xu Gu, still keeping that “expert” look on their faces, but deliberately letting their aura surge stronger.

The intent to show off couldn’t have been more obvious.

They were young, had only been cultivating for a short time, and didn’t like to seriously sit and train.

But each of them had Heavenly Spiritual Roots—just messing around for a bit was enough for their cultivation to rise. When they entered the Demon Grotto, all four had been at the eighth layer of Qi Training, higher than Xu Gu.

After joining the Demon Grotto, though, not only had the gap rapidly shrunk, they were about to be overtaken.

It had shaken them to the core.

What, our heavenly roots aren’t as good as Xu Senior Brother’s triple roots?

Now that they’d finally pulled ahead again, of course they wanted to flash it in his face.

“Not bad.”

Xu Gu smiled, not minding at all.

Huan Caiyi, however, was furious.

“This doesn’t count! You all secretly worked hard behind my back!”

“We did not work hard,” Zhao Jingang said honestly.

“We really didn’t cultivate that much. We don’t even know what happened—these last few days, that mysterious suppression inside the Demon Grotto suddenly vanished.

“We just put in a bit more effort than usual afterward, and then… we all broke through.”

Hearing that, Xu Gu’s smile froze for a moment, the corner of his mouth twitching.

No wonder these four, who were just as playful as Huan Caiyi, had broken through before her, the Dream Illusion Celestial Physique.

So it was because he hadn’t been in the Demon Grotto. The “Mediocre Man Suppression” effect hadn’t been pressing down on them…

Xu Gu hurriedly said,

“What suppression? You’re all being too modest. I can imagine how much effort you’ve put in lately. Reaching this level is only natural.”

He absolutely could not let them think deeper about this.

If he left the grotto a few more times and they kept noticing the pattern, wouldn’t they start suspecting that the problem lay with him?

And just as he finished speaking—

Boom.

His aura suddenly shifted.

From the eighth layer of Qi Training… straight into the ninth.

“Huh?”

The surge of spiritual power shocked everyone present.

Especially the four who’d just been proudly showing off their breakthroughs—their eyes went wide, mouths falling open.

They could not accept this.

“This has to be hacks!”

“How is this fair?!”

Just a moment ago, they’d been flaunting how their cultivation had surpassed Xu Gu’s.

And now, on the spot, he just… overtook them again?

On what basis? Wasn’t he supposed to be the one who’d gone out to do a mission?

Exactly who here has Heavenly Spiritual Roots and who has Triple Spiritual Roots?!

The four of them were about ready to tear their hair out.

“Hahaha, you guys still dare compare yourselves to Xu Gu Senior Brother? Do you not understand what ‘returning to simplicity’ means?”

Huan Caiyi said triumphantly.

“Xu Senior Brother’s triple spiritual roots are just a disguise. In truth, he’s already at an immortal’s state of mind. Breaking through is just a matter of a single thought.”

Ever since she’d gone on this trip with Xu Gu and watched him handle task after task with absurd ease, she’d worshiped him even more.

“Hiss…”

Xu Gu, who had just broken through, didn’t feel happy at all.

Instead, he stared ahead, troubled.

In front of him, clouds like a rolling black ocean were gathering in the sky, pressing down over the Demon Grotto.

Within that sea of darkness was endless baleful energy, like an inferno. Countless malevolent souls shrieked and twisted inside.

This scene was something only he, who cultivated the Heavenly Demon Art, could see.

That’s right—this was the negative energy he’d provoked.

“I think I really stirred up a hornet’s nest this time,” Xu Gu muttered.

He knew that suggesting Li Shouhe mass-copy that supreme martial manual, and causing the martial world of Zhao Family Ravine to descend into chaos, would earn him a lot of negative power.

But he truly hadn’t expected it to be this overwhelming.

He hadn’t even consciously drawn on it for cultivation, and it had auto-triggered his breakthrough.

This had to be the entire world’s Martial Dao shaking on its foundations.

And the worst part was—

It didn’t stop.

That evil qi was still pouring toward him in a continuous tidal wave, nowhere near exhausting itself.

“Stop coming. I’m scared,” Xu Gu thought, swallowing hard.

He already knew how terrifying the Heavenly Demon Art could be.

The karmic weight was enormous.

If this ever got exposed, there was a real chance he’d be killed on the spot someday.

In truth—

The impact of his “casual suggestion” really had gone far beyond even his imagination.

Once the spiral of internal competition began, it was impossible to stop.

In almost no time at all, it had affected martial artists all across the Heavenly Profound Continent.

“Damn it!”

“Who dares touch my Dao Fruit!”

Meanwhile, deep in an ancient forest, inside a remote tomb, a terrifying aura suddenly erupted into the sky, shaking heaven and earth.

A figure of overwhelming power shot out, standing in midair and freezing the nine heavens with his presence.

“Who destroyed my Martial Dao?!”

“How dare they!”

This was an incredibly ancient cultivator.

He was the one who had originally opened the path of the martial artists—hoping to use it to evolve a powerful Dao Fruit.

Just as he had predicted, once Martial Dao was created, it had begun to evolve on its own.

From the beginning, when the strongest martial artists could only rival early Qi Training cultivators, it had slowly grown to the point where they could match half-step Golden Core experts.

His Dao Fruit had only grown more and more brilliant with it.

If allowed to keep developing, he would eventually ascend through this Martial Dao.

At that time, the entire world would fall under his control.

Of course, this process was extremely slow, so he had used icy essence to seal and slumber within his own tomb, quietly waiting for his ascension.

In his dreams, life had been sweet—after all, Martial Dao was evolving far better than he had hoped.

But now…

Martial Dao had abruptly gone from its unstoppable peak momentum—straight to cardiac arrest.

“Zhao Family Ravine!”

“The source is in Zhao Family Ravine!”

“And the imperial government!”

With a brief deduction, his eyes flashed, killing intent exploding, and he shot toward Zhao Family Ravine like a falling star.

This time, he would erase the entire Zhao Family Ravine and the Great Shang Dynasty from existence.

At the very same time, another figure in Zhao Family Ravine was likewise burning with rage, aura surging into the clouds.

This was the current patriarch of the Zhao Clan, current Sect Master of Kingkong Sect—Zhao Futu!

“Who kidnapped all the chefs in my Zhao Family Ravine?!”

“Which son of a bitch was it?!”

“Are they sick of living?!”

Zhao Futu’s eyes bulged, killing intent boiling, fury beyond measure.

Do you know how hard it is for body cultivators to earn money?!

They’d finally found a way by blatantly copying other cities’ commercial streets, and things had just started to look promising.

And now you take all the chefs away?

What kind of filthy business warfare is this?!

Right at that moment, he saw a terrifying figure barreling toward him from the horizon.

“I just happen to be in a bad mood, and someone delivers a punching bag to my door.”

Zhao Futu snorted coldly, tapped his foot once.

The surrounding mountains shook and collapsed, and his body blasted into the air like a cannonball, launching a punch straight out.

(End of this chapter)