Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 24 - Chapter 24 – The Identity of the Demoness

Kunlun’s Cave Heaven.
Danding Peak.
In a small courtyard halfway up the mountain—

Li Yu sat on a stone chair in the courtyard, gazing up at the sky as streaks of light flew overhead. Even though quite some time had passed, everything still felt dreamlike and surreal.

At this time yesterday, he had still been at Baiyun Mountain, worrying about whether he would be selected.

But now, just a day later, he had officially become a disciple of the Kunlun Sect. On this mountain peak, rich with spiritual energy, he had even been granted a courtyard of his own.

Just earlier, he had parted ways with Zhou Zixuan. Li Yu remained on Danding Peak, while the attendant disciple escorted Zhou Zixuan to Biyun Peak. From now on, they would be cultivating in different places.

The Kunlun Sect was vast. According to the attendant senior brother, this place was an independent small world, separate from the outside world. Danding Peak and Biyun Peak were dozens of li apart.

Now that Jiang Li had left, the one Li Yu was closest to in Baiyun Temple was Zhou Zixuan.

She had promised to come visit him whenever she had the time.

As for Jiang Li… who knew what she was doing now? Senior Sister Xu had said that her master had ordered her into closed-door cultivation—it might be a long time before they met again.

Li Yu didn’t know how long he sat there, but eventually he stood up and slowly walked out of his courtyard.

His wasn’t the only residence here. In fact, there were over a hundred identical courtyards scattered across the mountainside. Further up the mountain, half-hidden behind trees and clouds, grander buildings could be seen.

This was Danding Peak, where the Kunlun Sect trained its new disciples in the Dao of alchemy.

Li Yu had been planning to look around and get familiar with the surroundings when a voice suddenly called out from behind him.

“Fellow Daoist, how should I address you?”

Li Yu turned around and saw a short, wiry young man walking out of a nearby courtyard, smiling as he greeted him.

Judging by his attire, he was likely a new disciple just like Li Yu.

Li Yu replied politely, “Li Yu, from Baiyun Temple.”

The small, coarse young man introduced himself as well: “My name is Wu Tong, from the Wei Empire. I’m also a new disciple.”

Li Yu noticed that among Kunlun disciples, unless they shared the same master, they generally didn’t address each other as senior or junior brothers. In that respect, it was similar to Baiyun Temple.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wu Tong asked curiously, “If I may ask, Fellow Daoist Li—what is your relationship with Senior Sister Xu?”

This was already the second time today someone had asked him that. Instead of answering, Li Yu replied with a question: “You just joined the sect too. How do you even know Senior Sister Xu?”

Wu Tong raised his eyebrows and said, “Who doesn’t know about the Seven Prodigies of Kunlun? Even before joining the sect, I’d often heard Senior Sister Xu’s name. When her spirit boat descended outside, I recognized it right away.”

Li Yu realized that this disciple named Wu Tong clearly knew far more about Kunlun than he did. So he asked directly, “What are the Seven Prodigies of Kunlun? Tell me about them.”

Wu Tong was momentarily stunned. He clearly hadn’t expected someone personally escorted by Senior Sister Xu to not only be unaware of her identity—but not even know what the ‘Seven Prodigies of Kunlun’ were.

These matters weren’t exactly secrets—anyone who cared to inquire could find out. It was actually a good opportunity to strike up a conversation and build rapport. Getting close to someone connected with Senior Sister Xu could only be beneficial for him.

Wu Tong smiled and explained, “The so-called Seven Prodigies of Kunlun refers to the seven strongest disciples of the Kunlun Sect’s younger generation. Other sects have similar titles for their most outstanding young talents, like the Ten Saints of Tiandao, the Seven Swords of Shushan, the Five Harmonies of Tianyin, the Six Arts of Qingcheng, the Four Beauties and Twelve Maidens of Emei… Actually, it’s not just the righteous path sects—there are similar designations in the demonic path as well, though I don’t know much about that side.”

After Wu Tong’s explanation, Li Yu roughly understood that these famous young disciples were the “destined children” Elder Sun had mentioned.

They had entered large sects to cultivate since childhood, guided by elders at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul level, with unlimited sect resources. Their cultivation progressed rapidly; when disciples around their age were still struggling in the Qi Refining stage, they had already reached the peak of Foundation Establishment—or even stepped onto the Golden Core path.

Li Yu suddenly thought of the young man who had been beside Xu Qingxin and asked Wu Tong, “Besides Senior Sister Xu, who else is among the Seven Prodigies of Kunlun?”

“Qin Keren, Chen Qingxuan, Lu Xingzhou, Hua Yun, Wang Zhen…” Wu Tong named several disciples unfamiliar to Li Yu.

Li Yu thought for a moment and asked, “Which one is the one with the silver flying sword?”

Wu Tong considered briefly and said, “Among the Seven Prodigies, two commonly use flying swords—Wang Zhen and Lu Xingzhou. Which one do you mean?”

Li Yu added, “Looks rather ordinary.”

No sooner had he said this than Wu Tong quickly replied, “That must be Senior Brother Lu Xingzhou. Among the Seven Prodigies, his appearance is definitely the most plain. But in cultivation, strength is all that matters. Being handsome doesn’t help accelerate cultivation or increase lifespan…”

As he spoke, he suddenly realized he might have said something wrong and hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, Fellow Daoist Li, I didn’t mean to imply you’re useless…”

Li Yu didn’t mind his unintentional slight. No normal person would take offense at someone calling them handsome.

Lu Xingzhou.

Back at Baiyun Temple earlier today, it was because of one casual comment from him that Li Yu was almost barred from entering Kunlun.

Lu Xingzhou’s reasoning had sounded perfectly legitimate on the surface, but anyone could see he was deliberately making things difficult. If it hadn’t been for Jiang Li’s plea to Senior Sister Xu, that casual comment could’ve severed Li Yu’s path to immortality then and there.

Li Yu silently committed the name to memory.

Seeing that Li Yu truly knew little about these matters, Wu Tong said, “Fellow Daoist Li, wait a moment.”

Then he quickly ran into his courtyard and soon returned with a thick book, handing it to Li Yu: “Here, you can borrow this. Remember to return it after you’re done.”

A short while later, Li Yu sat at the stone table in his courtyard, flipping through the book with great interest.

The book had no title or author, but its contents fascinated Li Yu—it was all about the cultivation world, more precisely, a detailed list of some of the young geniuses in the cultivation realm.

To ordinary cultivators, these chosen prodigies were undoubtedly idols.

Wu Tong had mentioned things like the “Ten Saints of Tiandao,” “Seven Swords of Shushan,” and “Four Beauties and Twelve Maidens of Emei”—all were recorded in detail in the book, including ages, main spiritual veins cultivated, Foundation Establishment times, spirit beasts and mounts, even their travel treasures…

But what surprised Li Yu most wasn’t just the details—the book even had portraits of these individuals.

Li Yu found the portrait of Lu Xingzhou, learning he was a descendant of a Nascent Soul ancestor of the sect, and also found Xu Qingxin’s. She was twenty-one this year, and her master was a late Nascent Soul ancestor, among the top in strength within the sect’s Nascent Soul elders.

He didn’t know who painted the portraits, but they were incredibly lifelike. As he flipped through further, the female disciples of the Emei Sect were all stunningly beautiful, and the prodigies of the Tianyin Sect were also impressively good-looking…

“Wow, her legs are so long.”

“This one looks so pure…”

“This one—queen vibes all the way, peak waifu material…”

Li Yu admired the portraits while silently evaluating them in his mind.

Suddenly, his page-turning halted. On this page was a painting of a woman, but her face was veiled with light silk, so her exact features couldn’t be seen. Li Yu glanced at the text beside it.

“Qin Keren…”

This girl named Qin Keren was one of the Seven Prodigies of Kunlun, possessing the strength of the Golden Core stage.

Li Yu was shocked in his heart. This woman was also from their Kunlun Sect, even stronger than Senior Sister Xu. The cultivation world truly had people beyond people, and skies beyond skies. The most important thing was—she was only nineteen years old.

Just one year older than Li Yu, yet she had already reached Golden Core, while Li Yu had only just succeeded in Qi Gathering.

This was a heavy blow to him. Li Yu quickly turned the page, needing a moment to recover.

However, when he looked at the portrait of a woman on the following page, his pupils contracted sharply, and his body seemed to petrify.

On the page was a woman dressed in black, her hair tied casually in a ponytail. Her appearance was stunningly beautiful, with a heroic aura tinged with a trace of wickedness. Judging from her looks and temperament, she was truly top-tier…

But the problem was—Li Yu recognized her!

This exquisite face was deeply engraved in his memory.

His gaze stiffened as he looked to the side, where a line of text was written next to the portrait.

“Saintess of the Xuan Yin Sect, Nangong Chan.”