Swoosh. Slash. Spill.
The blood painted the ground red as Aksai beheaded the demon lady after he was done interrogating her in his own way.
He found the answers he was looking for. There was no reason for him to keep the woman alive.
As for formatting her memories and giving her a new lease on life? Why should he do something as stupid as that? Firstly, he found out that the woman had done quite a lot of horrible things in the past. Although she had a bottom line, some things she did to gain power and fame were extreme even by the Wild Devil Lands’ standards.
Secondly, Aksai didn’t want to plant a time bomb for himself in the future by letting this enemy off the hook. The lady he had killed just now was a demonic cultivator. She was particularly skilled in getting what she wanted by any means possible.
Even if Aksai were to delete her memories, he couldn’t do anything about her nature. He couldn’t completely change her into a different human being. Given that her base instincts had already been cemented, she was bound to walk the path of the demonic dao without any scruples even if she forgot all her deeds.
What would such a person do if they came to know that their memories had been tampered with in the future? At that time, this demon lady wouldn’t be glad that Aksai had decided to spare her life but would hold a grudge instead for making her forget her past.
The possibility of something like this happening was low. But why should Aksai take the chance?
Aksai knew his situation the best. He didn’t have an organization backing him. He didn’t have a powerful master. He also wasn’t acquainted with powerful personalities. As such, he had no right to show kindness whenever he wanted. At least the world of cultivation wasn’t the best place for such emotions.
‘Since I have killed her, why not use her as a fertilizer for my demon tree,’ Aksai thought to himself and nodded. In the next moment, the lady demon’s headless corpse vanished into thin air along with her severed head.
Aksai had sent a lot of his targets back to the demon tree to feed on. He felt that his demon tree was in the process of some kind of metamorphosis. As such, he tried his best to feed it with the “best nutrients” possible.
Of course, Aksai didn’t want to commit blind massacres to help his demon tree. However, killing the demonic cultivators to nourish the demon tree was still okay.
One had to say that Aksai was a weird cultivator. Although he had some self-imposed restrictions, sometimes his behavior would make him come across as a demonic cultivator himself.
Aksai also didn’t forget to rob the demon lady of her storage ring. He would have stolen her flying mount as well. However, he had learned from Jian that the flying mounts wouldn’t allow just about anyone to ride them. These flying mounts would only recognize one master in their life. And unless he was very skilled in some powerful beast-taming techniques, Aksai wouldn’t be able to make the demon lady’s mount his.
Under such circumstances, Aksai decided to get rid of the flying mount instead of experimenting on it. He killed the beast first so that the demon lady wouldn’t be able to fly away or ask for its help during the battle.
Anyway, Aksai had not only gotten the information he needed but also turned the demon lady into fuel to support the demon tree’s growth. He also found out that the demon lady’s storage ring was filled with a lot of Spirit Stones. It was quite a lot even by Aksai’s standards.
The reason for this haul was simple. This lady was the mistress of a powerful demonic cultivator elder who worked in a major demonic sect. Coincidentally, it was the same sect Haitin was in.
Through her memories, Aksai understood Haitin’s nature and his position in the sect even better. Of course, this demon lady was still too low ranked to get anywhere near Haitin or know about him personally. However, her position as one of the mistresses of the demonic elder was quite useful for her.
This demon lady had taken many advantages of her lover’s position in the sect. She did all sorts of missions and assignments and received twice the rewards for them. The mission she did before she met with Aksai wasn’t personally handed to her by Haitin. Instead, Haitin issued to his sect’s elders and the lady’s lover delegated to her.
What Aksai focused on during the memory extraction process was the conversation the demon lady had with this elder last night while they were in a compromising situation.
Ideally, this sect elder shouldn’t have said anything to this demon lady because a lot of the stuff he had revealed to her was sect secrets. However, he sang like a canary when the demon lady “performed” too well in bed last night.
One could say that Aksai had reaped the benefits of the hard work this demon lady had done the night before. Even though Aksai had no sympathy for the demon lady he had killed, he was still grateful for her “breaking a sweat” and making the sect elder spill all the sect secrets.
***
As for what Aksai found through the demon lady’s memories?
Things were quite a lot similar to what Aksai had predicted in his heart. However, he could have never imagined that the scale of the issue was so big.
First of all, the wanton killings and plundering the demonic cultivators were doing all over the Wild Devil Lands were indeed to test the bottom line of Haan Di. However, the reason for this action had nothing to do with making Haan Di’s Core Formation Lord’s disciples come and visit the Wild Devil Lands. Instead, they wanted the Core Formation Lord to visit the three major demonic sects himself.
The demonic faction was pressing all sorts of right and wrong buttons in the hopes that the Core Formation Lord would show himself and take action personally. Were they suicidal and brain-dead for doing something as crazy as that? Absolutely not.
Who in their right minds would turn a Core Formation Lord as their enemy? Even though the demonic faction and Haan Di were no bosom friends of each other, they still could be considered business partners.
Angering a Core Formation Lord for no reason was no joke. The demonic faction knew that it would have to pay a heavy price if and when Haan Di Lord did show up at their doorstep.
Under such circumstances, why would the demonic faction threaten to break the treaty it had with Haan Di for so long? The answer was simple: the demonic faction was almost certain that the Haan Di Lord was severely injured in an accident.
This was the best news for the demonic faction to take the lead. It wanted to probe Haan Di Lord’s situation by threatening to break the treaty. At the same time, it didn’t completely break the treaty and still allowed a majority of the righteous faction cultivators to pass through the Wild Devil Lands and enter the Duya Forest.
The demonic faction’s actions were contradictory in nature. However, it wanted to create this ambiguous situation with Haan Di, which would then force the Haan Di Lord to show himself up either to mend the treaty or break it.
The demonic faction also didn’t want to break the treaty it had with Haan Di. However, it wanted to renegotiate the terms of settlements it had. It wanted more benefits and fewer responsibilities. It wanted a chance to make its demon stars grow by using the resources of the entire Dadanga Subcontinent and not just Wild Devil Lands.
Haan Di was the key for the demonic faction to silently tap into the resources of the Dadangar Subcontinent without facing the Big Five Sects head-on. No matter how arrogant and bold the demonic faction was, an all-out struggle with the Big Five Sects wasn’t something it wanted to happen under any circumstances.
Even a singular Purple River Sect was enough to suppress the entire demonic faction to some extent. What would happen if all five Big Five Sects were to take action? The demonic cultivators were selfish and ambitious but their brains weren’t rotten to that extent. They knew the power of the Core Formation powerhouse better than the righteous faction. The demonic faction lacked such a powerhouse. As such, it didn’t want to offend any organization that had such a powerhouse as its figurehead.
The demonic faction wanted to first check if the Haan Di Lord was still severely injured due to an incident that had taken place in the Wild Devil Lands itself. Even if he were to just show up in public, the demonic faction was bound to cease all its offensive actions.
However, what would happen if the Haan Di Lord doesn’t show himself? First, the demonic faction would wonder if the Haan Di Lord was just biding his time and waiting for the demonic faction to do something totally irreversible. This was why the demonic faction hadn’t completely fallen with Haan Di yet. Its probe was only on the surface level.
The demonic faction would continue their actions without upscaling or downscaling them for a few weeks. If the Haan Di Lord doesn’t take action during this probe, then the demonic faction will prepare for the best possible scenario.
What was the best possible scenario for the demonic forces?
Of course, it was the death of the Haan Di Lord. If and when this death was confirmed, the demonic faction would use this unrest in the Wild Devil Lands as an opportunity to make a certain direct disciple of the Core Formation Lord come into the limelight.
This direct disciple would one day miraculously renew its agreement with the demonic faction and peace in the Wild Devil Lands would return.
This direct disciple would then become Haan Di’s ruler with a solid resume backing his position. And what would the demonic faction gain in return?
Of course, it was a puppet. A very capable puppet that would allow the demonic faction to grow at a rapid rate and expand without having to offend the Big Five Sects.