Chapter 1261: Demon Reign

She and Wang Qiuming traveled to the Central Plains immortal cultivation world, firstly, to gain experience and resolve their cultivation bottlenecks, and secondly, to provide cover for Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan.

According to their plan, Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan would also arrive in the Central Plains immortal cultivation world later. Wang Qingling's task was to act conspicuously, ensuring other factions knew of her activities in the Great Yan Dynasty. She would then publicly announce that the Azure Lotus Immortal Couple had also arrived in the Central Plains.

She was highly successful. After arriving in the Great Yan Dynasty, she widely participated in various grand celebrations and exchanged knowledge of insect-controlling and beast-taming techniques with other high-level cultivators. The name 'Immortal Maiden Bailing' became widely known throughout the Great Yan Dynasty. Her rapid rise to fame was largely due to Wang Qingshan.

Wang Qingshan had previously traveled in the Great Yan Dynasty, also widely participating in celebrations, defeating many young talents, and becoming renowned for a time.

Wang Qingling was Wang Qingshan's cousin. Leveraging Wang Qingshan's reputation, Wang Qingling had a very smooth experience in the Great Yan Dynasty.

"Young friend Wang spoke well," the middle-aged scholar said with a genial expression, making listeners feel comfortable. "If any other young friends have insights, they are welcome to come up and give a discourse. The discourse assembly has no restrictions on cultivation level, gender, or age; any cultivator can come up and speak."

Every hundred years, Youyue State holds a discourse assembly for mutual exchange, covering topics such as insect-controlling and beast-taming, cultivation of spiritual plants, alchemy, demon hunting, array formation, and artifact refining.

Confucius advocated the philosophy of education without discrimination, accepting disciples regardless of their background. The Central Plains immortal cultivation world has greatly promoted this concept of 'education without discrimination.' Regardless of one's cultivation level or the strength of their mastered skills, everyone is worthy of respect. Therefore, every time Youyue State convenes a discourse assembly, a large number of cultivators participate, ranging from Qi Condensation to Nascent Soul stages.

Wang Qingling bowed gracefully to the two Nascent Soul cultivators and returned to Wang Qiuming's side.

The Central Plains immortal cultivation world highly values etiquette. Adopting local customs, they were accustomed to performing bows.

A fair-faced, beardless scholar in a white robe and scholar's headscarf quickly walked forward. He first bowed to the middle-aged scholar and the green-robed Daoist nun, then cupped his fist to the assembled cultivators, politely saying, "This humble one is Hu Bin. Greetings, fellow Daoists. I specialize in painting, particularly portraits..."

The white-robed scholar spoke eloquently about painting. This itself was a form of Dao. For the same scene, different painters would create different artistic conceptions. Paintings reflected a cultivator's understanding of the Dao. Some preferred painting landscapes, others figures, and some depicted exotic birds, strange beasts, demons, and monsters.

Wang Qingling and Wang Qiuming were not interested in this topic. However, they did not show any impatience and listened attentively.

After Hu Bin finished his discourse, still feeling he had more to say, he took out paper, ink, brush, and inkstone, and began to paint on the spot.

Half an hour later, he finished his painting. He cast a spell on the paper, which then glowed with a soft white light and floated into mid-air. The painting depicted a group of cultivators surrounding a young woman in a green skirt, whose attire bore a lotus symbol, clearly indicating it was Wang Qingling.

"Madam Wang, this 'Myriad Immortals Discussing Dao' painting is for you," Hu Bin said sincerely, handing the painting to Wang Qingling. "It's a small token, nothing worth mentioning."

He hailed from the Hu family, a prominent cultivation clan in Youyue State, which boasted two Nascent Soul cultivators. Wang Qingling treated people sincerely, and Hu Bin was keen to befriend her.

Wang Qingling thanked him and accepted the 'Myriad Immortals Discussing Dao' painting.

"Madam Wang, Fellow Daoist Wang, the discourse assembly is nearing its end," Hu Bin said with enthusiasm. "Since you've made the rare trip to the Great Yan Dynasty, I've arranged a banquet tonight at the Golden Bamboo Pavilion to entertain both of you. I hope you will honor me with your presence."

"Alright, we'll certainly be there on time," Wang Qingling agreed, also hoping to make more acquaintances among fellow Daoists.

Wang Qiuming hesitated as if he had something difficult to say.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the Nascent Soul cultivators announced the conclusion of the discourse assembly. The cultivators dispersed, returning to their respective residences.

Back at their lodging, Wang Qiuming took out tea leaves and brewed tea. The two of them enjoyed tea and chatted.

"Tenth Aunt, after interacting with so many fellow Daoists, I feel my bottleneck has loosened. What about you?" Wang Qiuming asked with some excitement after taking a sip of tea.

"I'm still the same as before," Wang Qingling replied. "There are too many bookworms in the Central Plains immortal cultivation world. They talk about poetry and prose, which I have no interest in at all. My next stop will be to visit the Murong Royal Family and exchange knowledge about insect-controlling and beast-taming techniques with them."

Wang Qingling had no interest in poetry and prose. However, out of politeness, she couldn't show her impatience and had to grit her teeth and listen.

The scholars constantly quoted Confucius. Wang Qingling found it incredibly boring and decided to visit the Murong Royal Family.

The Murong Royal Family specialized in insect-controlling and beast-taming. The Wang family had business collaborations with them, and their relationship was quite good. Therefore, Wang Qingling and Wang Qiuming had a legitimate reason to visit the Murong Royal Family.

Wang Qiuming nodded. "Youyue State doesn't have a large-scale teleportation array directly leading to Chongzhou. Fortunately, Tenth Aunt has a third-tier black sparrow, so it shouldn't take too long," he said. "I wonder how Grandfather and Grandmother are doing."

They had arrived in the Central Plains immortal cultivation world several years ago, while Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan remained in the Northern Frontier. After all, the Nine Nether Sect was the Northern Frontier's largest sect, which filled Wang Qiuming with worry.

In fact, investigating the culprit involved inner demons. When Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan formed their Nascent Souls, Wang Qingzhi became their inner demon, crying that they had ignored him. Wang Qingling and others might also encounter similar inner demons when they attempted to reach the Nascent Soul stage in the future. There was only one Tri-element Soul-Stabilizing Incense, and even with it, it wasn't guaranteed to overcome inner demons, as it varied from person to person.

By uncovering the culprit and exacting some retribution before forming their Nascent Souls, they could weaken the power of their inner demons, which would somewhat aid their Nascent Soul formation. Otherwise, Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan would not have risked traveling to the Northern Frontier. If they wished to advance to the mid-Nascent Soul stage, it would take at least a century, and if their luck was poor, they might remain at the early Nascent Soul stage for several centuries. Wang Qingling, Ye Haitang, Wang Qingjing, and Wang Qiuming's cultivation levels were already considerable; reaching the ninth layer of Core Formation would not take a century.

"Don't worry! Ninth Uncle and Ninth Aunt are not weak," Wang Qingling comforted him. "Since forming their Nascent Souls, they've faced strong enemies before and have always been fine, haven't they? They'll be alright; we don't need to worry about them."

"Tenth Aunt is right; I hope I'm just overthinking it!" Wang Qiuming said with a wry smile. He suddenly remembered something and added, "I wonder if that demonic cultivator has been killed. If not, we should be careful when we travel."

Over a decade ago, several demonic cultivators unsealed a forbidden area and entered a secret realm to seek treasures. They inadvertently released a Nascent Soul stage demonic fiend. The fiend killed several Nascent Soul cultivators to cultivate its demonic arts. The Great Yan Dynasty dispatched a large force to apprehend this fiend and simultaneously launched a widespread investigation to capture demonic cultivators everywhere.

Wang Qingling nodded and said, "He probably couldn't escape! I heard that the commander of the Myriad Immortal Division personally took action. However, it's still better for us to be cautious. What I'm worried about is Tianwen; he works for the Myriad Immortal Division, apprehending demonic cultivators everywhere. I hope he's alright!"