Chapter 1168: Accounting

He whistled. The little qilin immediately teleported back into Jiang Fan's arms, hiding itself.

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord glanced over, as if sensing something. He instantly understood, realizing where Rat-Nothing's Yin-Yang fish had gone.

His mouth twitched, but he didn't make a fuss. He decided to first go to the Heavenly Secret Pavilion to see if the longevity-extending magic treasure was as described. If not, it wouldn't be too late to reclaim his own treasure.

"Let's go." With a sweep of his sleeve, he enveloped Jiang Fan and Rat-Nothing, taking to the air.

The Eight-Aperture Nascent Souls of Mount Sanqing became anxious. "Senior Demon Lord, this person who stole our things..."

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord looked back at them. "Your Venerable Xuan Yi took the item," he said. "What does that have to do with him? Stop bothering me!" With that, he vanished into the air.

The many powerful cultivators of Mount Sanqing were left stamping their feet in frustration. "Damn Venerable Xuan Yi, does he even know what he took? That thief didn't just steal the Divine Transformation demonic beast's corpse; he also stole a mysterious box left behind by it!"

The world only knew that the Divine Transformation demonic beast had flown into Mount Sanqing and that Mount Sanqing had killed it. However, no one knew that Mount Sanqing had killed it not for its True Spirit blood or its corpse. How could a dead Demon Lord compare to a living one? If they had healed it, any casual promise from the beast could have brought endless benefits to Mount Sanqing, which lacked a Venerable's protection. Unless, there was a greater gain. And that box was precisely the reason! It contained the secret to allowing demons to advance to Demon Lord rank!

Unfortunately, Mount Sanqing had studied the box for years but couldn't open it. And now, it had been stolen!

In the sky, while the Ice-Fire Demon Lord led the way, Jiang Fan looked into the spatial mirror. Venerable Xuan Yi had now awakened. And since the Ice-Fire Demon Lord was suppressing Rat-Nothing, Xuan Yi had also recovered from the effects of the theft.

He stared coldly at Jiang Fan and sternly demanded, "Jiang Fan, how dare you steal from my Mount Sanqing! Do you know what consequences the Heavenly Secret Pavilion will face?"

Jiang Fan knew he would make such a threat. Without batting an eyelid, he took out a small pagoda and projected a segment of footage from it into the mirror.

In the projection, Venerable Xuan Yi, in the deep pit of the East Sea, while being pursued by the Giant King, successively sealed off two Eight-Aperture Nascent Souls. The scene of him using them as human shields, and them being devoured alive by the Giant King, was clearly displayed.

Jiang Fan said calmly, "It's hard to say what consequences the Heavenly Secret Pavilion will face. But if I hand this pagoda over to Mount Sanqing, how long do you think you'll live?"

Venerable Xuan Yi's face gradually turned pale, and his cheeks trembled: "The treasure of the All-Encompassing Empty Realm Lord? How did you get your hands on it?"

He never imagined that his actions that day had been recorded by the small pagoda. Having caused the deaths of two Eight-Aperture Nascent Souls consecutively, Mount Sanqing would never let him off the hook.

"W-what do you want?" Jiang Fan withdrew the pagoda. "I don't want to do anything to you," he said. "Stay obediently inside and wait for the ancient giants to arrive; I'll give you a chance to fight on the battlefield! If you render meritorious service, I can destroy the pagoda. But if you dare to escape, or try to betray your own kind again, Mount Sanqing won't need to clean its own house. I will personally execute you!"

Venerable Xuan Yi swallowed hard. Fighting on the battlefield offered a slim chance of survival, but returning to Mount Sanqing meant certain death. The choice was obvious. He said in a deep voice, "I know what to do."

Only then did Jiang Fan exit the spatial mirror. He then took out the power of thunder that Song Lingyu had given him. While the Ice-Fire Demon Lord was leading the way, he quickly absorbed it.

Half a day later, the Heavenly Secret Pavilion was now in sight, and Jiang Fan had successfully absorbed all the power of thunder. His Abyssal Heart cultivation had reached the Great Completion stage. If he stored enough lightning, it would be enough to continuously activate Cloud Phantom for the duration of a tea-brewing. Each activation of Cloud Phantom covered thirty li, and sustained for a tea-brewing, he could travel tens of thousands of li! This distance was enough to travel back and forth between the palaces of the West Sea and North Sea. Truly astonishing!

The Bronze Grasshopper could escape urgently, and Cloud Phantom provided sustained movement. Unless a Venerable was pursuing him, his life would be secure.

As they arrived at the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, the powerful cultivators within the sect appeared. When the Heavenly Secret Pavilion Master saw Jiang Fan, he smiled with relief, but then his gaze fell upon the Ice-Fire Demon Lord beside him. Noticing the back of his head, he was secretly startled. Where did Jiang Fan manage to "snatch" another Venerable? Although his divine halo appeared dim and there seemed to be something wrong with his body, he was still a living Venerable! He quickly bowed and saluted: "Heavenly Secret Pavilion Master greets Senior." Immortal Yunshang, Demon Emperor Nuxin, Yue Mingzhu, Liu Qingxian, and others all stepped forward to pay their respects.

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord nodded slightly. When his gaze swept over Immortal Yunshang, Demon Emperor Nuxin, Liuli, and Lingshu, he showed slight surprise. "So many demons? And two with extraordinary bloodlines."

Demons were rare in the Grand Prefecture of Taicang, so encountering four of his own kind by chance naturally made him feel a sense of closeness. Jiang Fan smiled, "I'll trouble Senior Demon Lord to guide them more in the future."

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord chuckled, "Let's see if you can even keep me here first!" He hadn't even warmed his seat yet, and the young man was already making calculations.

Jiang Fan said, "Please, Senior." He led the Ice-Fire Demon Lord to a private chamber. Only then did he take out the Blood Coffin.

The reason he handed over the Blood Coffin instead of the Space-Time Dust was this: The Blood Coffin not only involved significant karma but also had the mastermind behind the White Bone Alliance connected to it. Before the White Bone Alliance Master died, he had explicitly threatened that his master would arrive in the Grand Prefecture of Taicang. For someone at the Seven-Aperture Nascent Soul stage to call someone their master, that person should at least be a Nine-Aperture or even a Venerable, right? Therefore, if the Ice-Fire Demon Lord used this Blood Coffin, when the White Bone Alliance Master's master came seeking revenge, it would be difficult for the Ice-Fire Demon Lord to remain uninvolved.

The moment the Blood Coffin appeared, the Ice-Fire Demon Lord's pupils slightly trembled. He sensed the surging vitality within the blood pool. "This Blood Coffin was set up by a Great Sage."

Jiang Fan's heart was solemn. This implied it was likely the Great Sage-level Asura who had infiltrated the upper echelons of the Central Land. "This Blood Coffin carries significant karma; using it will likely lead to trouble in the future," the Ice-Fire Demon Lord mused.

Jiang Fan said, "If Senior has any reservations, I'll find another way." In any case, he needed to find a way to make the Ice-Fire Demon Lord stay.

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord scoffed, "I'm a dying man, what reservations could I possibly have? I'll take the Blood Coffin. From today, this secret chamber will be my place of recuperation. As long as I'm in the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, I'll protect you. Additionally, I'll guide those four female demons whenever I have time."

Jiang Fan was overjoyed. He then asked, "Senior, can this Blood Coffin help you regain your peak strength?"

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord shook his head. "It's only enough to extend my life; regaining my peak is no longer possible. At my peak, I was a Great Demon Lord, experiencing the Five Decays of Heavenly Beings. Unfortunately, I'm destined to never reach the Great Sage realm in this life, and my lifespan is nearing its end. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a secret technique from outside this world to extend my life: by diminishing my divine halo, I could delay the onset of the Five Decays of Heavenly Beings."

Jiang Fan was secretly astonished. The Ice-Fire Demon Lord had actually once reached the realm of the Five Decays of Heavenly Beings? What a pity! If he were at his peak, he would be more than capable of handling the Five-Star Giant King!

The Ice-Fire Demon Lord then sighed: "Now, my divine halo has diminished to almost nothing; I'll soon lose even my Venerable cultivation. A few months ago, my life almost ended; my breath was like a faint wisp of smoke. I was even found by the Evil Crow Venerable of your Grand Prefecture of Taicang, who nearly refined me into an Yin Corpse! Thanks to the timely appearance of the Heaven-Burning Clam Pearl, and its flames, I managed to recover somewhat and shatter that old scoundrel's domain."

As he spoke, malevolence welled up in the Ice-Fire Demon Lord's eyes. He was the perfect embodiment of a tiger fallen to flat ground, bullied by dogs! "Do you know where this Evil Crow Venerable is? I've been searching for him everywhere, but he's nowhere to be found!"