Demonic artifacts were still spirit artifacts, they were simply spirit weapons crafted by demonic cultivators. But the so called demonic cultivator was just another branch of cultivation.

Normal cultivators all seek immortal ascension, but the path of cultivation is long and filled with thistles and thorns. One must exert unimaginable effort to have even a measure of success.

That is also why even a talented cultivator, other than having spiritual roots, must also have an eternal perseverance.

Spiritual roots were innate, either you had it or you didn’t. But this perseverance was dependent on oneself. Although everyone would like to progress further on the road of cultivation, but there were truly few that could put forth their greatest effort and draw up such perseverance.

Quite a lot of cultivators lead a life of mediocrity. This was not because they had bad apt.i.tudes but simply because they did not put forth enough effort. Some of them sank into obscurity but some of them tried to find convenient shortcuts.

As everyone knows, cultivators were people that were seeking an understanding of the heavenly laws. This was a step by step process to form a firm foundation. But those opportunists took an alternate approach. They created cultivation techniques that did not require a lot of effort and allowed one to progress very quickly. For a time, all the cultivators wanted to acquire these cultivation techniques.

These were the first demonic cultivators!

But not everyone rushed to cultivate in these techniques. Quite a few wise people saw that although these techniques would allow cultivators to raise their cultivation rapidly, they also had many hidden risks and vulnerabilities.

As one cultivates these techniques, the speed of progress would gradually slow down and one’s Dao-Heart would be easily swayed and cause one to have heart demons. This was the first point. The second was that these cultivation techniques were particularly vicious and were sinful. Although to be fair, cultivators could not be considered to be kind people at all. They were ruled by the law of the jungle, ordinary mortals were like ants to them.

But those cultivators that truly enjoyed pointless killings were actually very few in number. Even killing and robbing at least had a reason: personal benefit. But demonic cultivators were not the same. After cultivating such perverse techniques for a long time, their characters would also turn vicious.

Killing for pleasure and using souls to refine demonic weapons. There action shows that they did not have reservations about this at all.

Demonic cultivators had a bad reputation, but regular cultivators decided that they could coexist with them. The cultivation world was an every man for themselves kind of place. They would only retaliate if you offended them. Removing demons for the greater good was purely a lie made up to tell little kids.

Hearing the words demonic artifact, Lin Xuan recalled all the information he had learned about them. He was very surprised. This Ye Tian joined the sect at the same time as Lin Xuan and the Floating Cloud Valley was a genuine cultivator sect, so how could he be a demonic cultivator?

After Ye Tian gave them the Spirit Sealing wine, his face became increasingly vicious. He laughed coldly and said: “Three Junior Apprentice Brothers, if you want to blame someone, you can only blame yourselves for having such back luck. In order to refine this Hundred Souls Streamer, I have already used eighty-one souls of ordinary mortals. But that demonic manual I acquired clearly states that if I wanted to succeed, I must also use three souls of cultivators.”

“Why did you pick us?” Song Hui was shaking all over. He had obviously heard rumours of these demonic cultivators. To have his soul ripped out and used to refine demonic artifacts was a fate worse than falling into the eighteenth layer of h.e.l.l.

“Hmph! Why do you have such weak cultivation?” Ye Tian coldly smiled. “If a few elite disciples went missing, the sect would definitely investigate. If by chance they found that I was the culprit, then I would have to face all the consequences!”

Although cultivators and demonic cultivators could coexist together, but they were still from the same sect. Secretly using demonic techniques to refine artifacts was against the rules, in addition, he was even ripping souls out of others to do so. Ye Tian was not stupid, of course he would be careful.

Also, the Song brothers and the lanky youth were all unimportant disciples of the sect. Even if they went missing, the sect would not expend too much effort searching for them.

Of course, that was only one of the reasons. There was also another reason: he had only recently acquired that demonic manual and this his cultivation was not deep enough.

Although the manual clearly stated that the stronger the soul of the cultivator that was used to prime and refined the artifact, the more powerful the Hundred Souls Streamer would be, but that was only in theory. In reality, if the cultivation of cultivator whose soul he uses was too profound, he might not be able to successfully refine it. The refinement of the artifact would only end in failure.

Therefore, why not find three disciples who had somewhat weak cultivations. That way, he would be sure to succeed in refining their souls and his wicked deeds would not be discovered by the sect. It was simply killing two birds with one stone.

Lin Xuan did not show any outward expressions on his face but he was feeling very murderous in his heart. This Ye Tian, he originally set Lin Xuan as a target, but Lin Xuan did not fall for the trap.

He was truly devious and vicious and deserves to die. Of course, Lin Xuan would not make his move now, but in the future……

Although he did not cause Lin Xuan any substantial harm, but based on Lin Xuan’s att.i.tude, if he had the opportunity, he would definitely pay Ye Tian back for this.

While Lin Xuan was making plans, Ye Tian had pulled out a small streamer from his bosom. Although there were in a secluded area, it would still be best to refine their souls first lest something unexpected happens.

The Hundred Souls Streamer was about the size of a palm, but as soon as it was pulled out, Lin Xuan felt a thick Yin energy. It was very horrific and felt full of resentment.

But to the contrary, Ye Tian had a face full of excitement. The more vicious this Yin energy was, the more powerful the Hundred Souls Streamer would be.

“Senior Apprentice Brother, please spare us, we swear we will not breathe a word about this.”

“That’s right. We’ll go catch Lin Xuan, that guy with not spiritual roots, and then s.n.a.t.c.h two more low-level disciples and help you refine your demonic streamer.”

……

The three of them piteously begged and said some ever more despicable and shameless words.

A cold look flashed past on Lin Xuan’s face and what little qualms he held also vanished. He inwardly reminded himself: in the cultivation world, the strong eat the weak, cultivators were selfish and held no regards for others, they also loved to benefit at the misfortune of others. He must be selfish and not have the slightest sympathy for others, or else the one who would suffer would be himself.

Lin Xuan coldly smiled, he was content to watch from the sidelines and just let it play out. He would never follow any of those ideals of justice and evil. Of course, he would not go out and do evil deeds, but he would also not be softhearted anymore.

Or else after he saved them, they might instead come back and bite him. Lin Xuan would not want to become Mr. DongGuo1.

Lin Xuan would not be softhearted, Ye Tian would be even less so. No matter how those three begged, he would not sway an inch.

Let them go? What a joke!

s.n.a.t.c.h some more disciples? That was completely unnecessary!

They might expose him once they got back to the sect. And even if they kept their words, it would still be more unnecessary work for himself.

It has to be their souls that are sacrificed to the demonic weapon. Ye Tian lifted the Hundred Souls Streamer high in the air……

Note: In the future, I will not be explicitly translating everything as tools. In the Chinese text, it does say tool, but I will be taking liberties in cases where he is using say the sword shaped spirit tool and changing it to artifacts (maybe). Calling them all spirit tools is just awkward when read out loud.

Mr. DongGuo saved a wolf from hunters. When the hunters left, the wolf turned around and wanted to eat Mr. DongGuo stating that since Mr. DongGuo saved it once, it should save it again by not letting it starve. Wikipedia ↩