Cohabitation with Sword Spirit

Chapter 514 - 15: Hard-to-Capture Thrills

The naming of the Painted Demon comes from this Demon Race’s unique appearance. As a highly specialized demon in physical form, the Painted Demon merely has a rough human silhouette, thin as paper, like a piece of human flesh forcibly flattened, with a bright and vivid surface, resembling a painting.

However, contrary to this appearance, the Painted Demon is not the type adept at disguise. Their temperament is extremely timid and cowardly. In battle, even if they are superior in strength to their opponent, the moment they perceive a possibility of defeat and death, they instinctively avoid combat... This kind of nature scarcely allows one to believe that they could belong to the bloodthirsty Demon Race. Due to this nature, they are incapable of clandestine espionage behind enemy lines surrounded by foes. Instead, they only appear on the frontline, as the key targets closely monitored by the Demon Race’s overseer squads, weeping as they charge into battle.

On the battlefield, they then play a role that makes humans gnash their teeth in frustration.

Painted Demons are the most cunning commanders on the front lines. Their cowardly instincts offer them tactical talents—the Painted Demon can always find methods to capture great victories at minimal cost. Under the order established by the Demon Emperor, using their authority as commanders, they maximize the strengths of other demons.

In battles involving Painted Demons, humans always pay a greater and more devastating price, leading to periods of despair.

Compared to the Demon Race, humans are at a disadvantage in individual strength and in numbers. If they cannot reclaim the advantage in tactics and strategies, there seems no hope for victory whatsoever. Later, once the Jiu Immortal Venerables overthrew the original leadership and replaced the command system, situations finally began to improve.

Furthermore, as members of the Demon Race, Painted Demons are rather excellent in their qualities, ranking middle to upper in the overall demon hierarchy. There are often Painted Demons present among Demon General-level demons.

Yet humans do not think highly of Painted Demons.

Because the Painted Demon’s capability in direct combat is very weak, despite possessing great power, they almost never utilize more than half of it, always reserving half for fleeing. At the slightest hint of risk, they wish to run away, and more so...

Painted Demons are the only demons that may harbor a desire to surrender to humans—though due to the Demon Emperor’s awe-inspiring presence, no demon dares to surrender publicly. At the moment of no return, other demons unleash even greater power, seeking to perish together, while Painted Demons struggle impassively between the instinct to survive and the pressure of the Demon Emperor. Of course, humans have never truly captured a Painted Demon as a prisoner, but compared to those demons that shatter to bits without negotiating, their behavior is astonishing to many.

And now, what is being exhibited in the room is the corpse of a Painted Demon, five in total, neatly affixed to the four walls.

Using the Demon-Pointing Sword to point at each in turn, the vibrations produced are nearly uniform, not intense, which is a standard reaction for typical demon corpses. And because these are corpses sealed for millennia, they did not immediately elicit a reaction from the Demon-Pointing Sword—the Chaos Ruins are never in short supply of demon corpses, so Wang Jiu naturally filters out corpse responses.

"Strange, there’s no special reaction at all." Wang Jiu put away the Demon-Pointing Sword, feeling even more perplexed about the situation at hand.

It seems, indeed, as if two early explorers traversed vast distances to reach the War God Hall within the Golden Cloud Peak ruins, and then vented their rage upon the remains of the Demon Race that once destroyed Jiuzhou Civilization, ultimately obliterating their own bodies completely...

From Wang Jiu’s understanding of humanity, there appears to be no internal logic in this behavior. But considering that the two founding Sect Leaders emerged from the Dark Era, perhaps they possessed uniquely twisted characters, or it might be that in those special times, all of humanity was somewhat distorted. It might also be...

Just as he pondered, the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect said, "Perhaps it was that the two predecessor Sect Leaders discovered the lingering presence of demon remnants in the Primordial Ruins, tracked them all the way here, and finally perished together with their opponents."

Wang Jiu paused for a moment upon hearing this, then after contemplating, admitted this very likely might be the truth.

Tracing the paths traveled here and the causal ties with the Demon Race, this explanation makes complete sense. The presence of some remaining demons in the Primordial Ruins fragments of that era was a high probability event, especially for specially adapted demons like the Painted Demon who excel at survival through cunning.

Last year, mid-year, in Cyan Peak Mountain outside QingCyan Cloud yuan City, Wang Jiu discovered a demon remnant that had survived a millennium, so within Xiangzhou, this was the case. It stands to reason that the survival of demons in Chaos is even more likely. As a race, the Demon Race has a tendency toward self-destruction, but individually, they are masters of survival. Among them, mid-rank and above demons often possess longevity attributes, living as long as or longer than humanity’s legendary True Immortals.

Given the level of Xiangzhou Civilization two thousand years ago, delving into the Chaos Ruins was already near miraculous. If they indeed encountered demons, it would surely be an encounter without survival. This way of pulverizing the physical body and neatly arranging it into two stacks was indeed a tactic Painted Demons once used...

"Before the First Generation Sect Leader passed away, they likely endured immense torture," the Sect Leader murmured. "In all historical records—whether based on our Saint Sect’s internal data or the records of the Seven Houses—the two founders possessed unparalleled resilience. While pioneering borders alongside the leaders of the Three Academies and Seven Houses, they always bravely led the way, often suffering severe injuries, but even when carved apart wouldn’t flinch. So, those two bloody words must embody endless suffering."

Wang Jiu looked at the blood-written words on the wall, nodded after a long while, and said, "Indeed, it shows extremely strong emotions, which is also one of the Demon Race’s favorite pastimes—stimulating human emotions through pain to draw energy. As a race that destroyed Myriad Realms, the Demon Race is more skilled than anyone at torture and torment. No matter how unyielding the human Cultivator is, if captured by the Demon Race, they will inevitably collapse, with no exceptions to date."

The Sect Leader felt a pain in his heart at once.

The experiences of the two First Generation Sect Leaders were likely more tragic than imagined; they were the hope of human civilization, heroes respected without question. Yet faced with demons, they were powerless and suffered a heinous defeat—around the remains of the two Sect Leaders, there were no signs of intense battle—and endured torment that shattered their body and spirit. What’s more... After their collapse, they might have revealed secrets of human civilization.

The so-called ruin and infamy, it’s just like this.

"Demon Race... Demon Race!" The Sect Leader instinctively clenched his fists, channeling his rage onto a mounted demon specimen on the wall.

A tremendous rumble echoed as the entire exhibit room trembled under the force of his punch, yet that was the extent of it. A full-force punch from a Sea Overturning Realm Cultivator couldn’t even create a crack on the museum wall, and the demon specimen remained unharmed.

Even after thousands of years, the legacy of the Jiuzhou Era still seems distant to the Xiangzhou civilization.

This despairing power disparity further solidified the Sect Leader’s resolve.

"Senior, ever since the First Generation Sect Leader, the Saint Sect has emphasized one concept: be prepared for danger even in times of peace. We must not be lulled into complacency by Xiangzhou’s peace, and must remain vigilant against unknown enemies. For two thousand years, the people of the Saint Sect have been on guard against potential crises, trying their best to prepare. But now it seems that preparation isn’t enough! I am already the strongest on the Xiangzhou Continent, yet I can’t even deal with a corpse that’s been dead for millennia. If another crisis of a Demon Race invasion occurs, Xiangzhou will surely be doomed! So, I implore you, Senior, to bear the responsibility of a leader tirelessly!"

Wang Jiu pondered for a moment but did not rush to agree.

Although it now seems like most questions have been answered, such as why the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect would vaguely trigger the Demon-Pointing Sword’s reaction. It is because their founder held a blood feud with the Demon Race, a causal link that easily passes down through generations and triggers the Demon-Pointing Sword’s reaction.

But some detailed issues remain unexplained, like why the specific trigger for the Demon-Pointing Sword’s reaction is Eternal Hope, one of the Ten Great Immortal Techniques? How did two thousand-year-old human cultivators make their way to the heart of the Golden Cloud Peak ruins? Were they brought there after being captured by the Demon Race? Furthermore, observing the spatiotemporal distortion along the way reveals very obvious artificial markings, as if intentionally hiding this exhibit room in Chaos, so what is the reason for this artificial manipulation?

Unresolved mysteries still exist, so Wang Jiu remains far from satisfied with the current answers.

In his view, the suspicion towards the Saint Sect still hasn’t disappeared, and given the matter’s relation to the Demon Race, he’s inclined to be even more cautious.

"I need to go back and review all the information about the First Generation Sect Leader, as much as possible."

The Sect Leader was taken aback for a moment but nodded in agreement: "No problem."

Wang Jiu still wasn’t convinced: "I need all the information, no matter how detailed."

"...All of it?"

Wang Jiu explained: "Besides the official historical records, gather those folk legends, unofficial histories, and even storybooks, as many truths of history are hidden within details."

"But the First Generation Sect Leader is a legendary figure on the Xiangzhou Continent, and there is just too much information."

Wang Jiu replied: "Gather as much as you can. My data processing capability is sufficient to handle it."

"Do you really need even the storybooks and unofficial histories?" the Sect Leader asked while taking out a book from his bosom, "It just so happens I have one here..."

Wang Jiu took it and saw the title, "Rebirth: I Am the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect."

"Sigh, when I first saw the title, I thought it was about me, and I was curious about what those eloquent literati thought about what more I could do if given another life. But it turns out it was about the First Generation Sect Leader, which was quite disappointing."

Wang Jiu thought for a moment and said, "Judging by the current mainstream narrative, it probably involves having sexual relations with the first beauty of Xiangzhou."

"..." The Sect Leader displayed an expression of disgust at the violation of his integrity, "Zhao Chenlu? Disgusting."