Be the Hardest Working Demon Cultivator!

Although he already knew the true name of this demonic technique, Tan Shuchang felt the name he had given it was more pleasing to the ear, so he was resolute in not changing it.

"It can indeed restrain the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome.'" The leader of the demon sect was also adamant about not changing it.

"Then, Senior... When you feign death to escape and blend into the orthodox path, could you take me with you?" Upon hearing this, Tan Shuchang immediately expressed his desire to improve.

After all, the situation of the demonic path was really too grim.

"I spent decades setting this up. If you want to escape successfully, you must do the same. The 'Absolute Immortal Sword Tome' of Lutou Mountain is particularly sensitive to the most vicious and evil forces. You will have to put in a lot of effort to stand a chance of going undetected by its cultivators," said the leader of the demon sect.

However, although he didn't outright refuse, his words clearly conveyed to Tan Shuchang that he should give up hope.

Because the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome' that Tan Shuchang held had already evolved into something different, except for the flow of energy which remained that of the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome'.

Especially those bloody sword qi, their ferocity was even more terrifying than that of fierce ghosts.

After saying this, the former leader of the demon sect took out a jade slip that was heavily sealed.

"This contains some insights and understandings I had when attempting to change the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome' after failing to find those demonic techniques. I no longer possess the ability to do so, thus I'm giving it to you as a gift from the past demon path to the current. Let it be a token of my passing," he said.

The leader of the demon sect tossed the jade slip to Tan Shuchang. He also gave him a token and a purple rectangular box.

"The token is a spirit-communicating magic artifact, the Demonic Cultivator Order. Its power is not particularly remarkable, with only simple attack divine skills and some minor ones, so I won't go into detail.

The only thing worth mentioning is that it contains records of all the spirit-communicating treasures I have seen in the past, especially those of the demon path, described in the most detail."

"As for this box, inside is a complete Nine-Apertures Martial Demon's arm."

"Young man, take care!"

With these words, the former leader of the demon sect had already drifted far away.

It seemed as though his appearance was merely to remind Tan Shuchang not to take the four complete volumes of the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome' lightly and to give him two additional treasures of the demon path on his way.

However, by taking possession of these two items, Tan Shuchang's identity had officially transformed into the leader of the demon sect.

The official leader of the demon sect was meant to possess the complete Nine-Apertures Martial Demon. But considering the killing power of the Nine-Apertures Martial Demon, which immortal sect would dare let the leader of the demon sect keep it whole?

Thus, historically, one would only possess a few fingers or toes.

The former leader of the demon sect had been able to present a complete arm of the Nine-Apertures Martial Demon; it's only to say that he had not wasted the past two hundred years.

The Demonic Cultivator Order contained a record of all the spirit-communicating treasures encountered by past leaders of the demon sect. Just for this, even an elite immortal sect like Lutou Mountain would be tempted.

Aside from recording its appearance and power, it also recorded the conditions for bonding with these spirit-communicating treasures.

This was essentially the Daming Preface for spirit-communicating treasures.

You must understand, the past leaders of the demon sect practiced the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome'!

As long as they were not killed, they could live for a very long time.

According to what the Fairy next to Master Tao said, the disappearance of the myths three hundred years ago was due to an unimaginable fortune that allowed cultivators who had reached a certain level of practice to ascend and leave.

Because they all reached the level of the Three Proofs in cultivating the Immortal Realm, even their various legends and traces vanished from the Jiawu Realm, to be recorded onto their respective immortal dao embodiments.

So, if one or two practitioners of the 'Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome' managed to achieve the Three Proofs, then the spirit-communicating treasures recorded on this Demonic Cultivator Order were likely to be of a staggeringly high number.

"It's actually a part of the Nine-Apertures Martial Demon..." At this moment, Tan Shuchang had also opened the purple box, and upon seeing its contents, he could not help but think of taking out the partial skull he had obtained from the young master at Luoja Mountain.

But at this time, because he opened the box sealing the Nine-Apertures Martial Demon, and because it was an entire arm, the unique phenomenon of the Nine-Apertures Martial Demon's body was reflected in much of the sky in an instant.

That was a complete phantom of an arm, spanning between heaven and earth, with a demonic aura so strong and terrifying.

Such a distinct phenomenon immediately alarmed the cultivators within tens of miles, and thus these cultivators each used their own methods to rush to this place.

The first to arrive were naturally several sword cultivators.

Sword cultivators do not need thirty years of cultivation, nor do they need to reach the realm of Integration of Man and Sword in the Sword Dao, to perform Sword Flight; they are considered the darlings of the cultivator world.

However, having arrived here, these darlings of the cultivator world instantly regretted it.

Tan Shuchang!

They all recognized who it was that held the arm of a nine apertures martial demon in hand.

One by one, their faces turned a few shades paler.

And at this moment, Tan Shuchang had also come to realize why that former lord of the demon path specifically pointed out that it was a complete nine apertures martial demon arm before leaving.

Could it generate such a special phenomenon even when this part of the body was complete?

No wonder the nine apertures martial demon was not easily assembled.

Just an arm alone caused such a stir; what if an entire body was involved? Wouldn't it alert the whole world?

By this time, other cultivators who had seen the phenomenon and were able to come had also arrived.

Upon seeing the pale-faced sword cultivators, and then seeing Tan Shuchang, a small part of the group started turning pale as well.

These were the cultivators who knew of Tan Shuchang.

A demon cultivator already infamous for his ferocity, now with such a complete part of a nine apertures martial demon body—was this to challenge the "Absolute Immortal Sword Tome" that had withstood Luoja Mountain?

Which trouble-seeking fellow gave him this?

That's fucking against all martial propriety!

The reason these cultivators thought so, was because Tan Shuchang made the phenomenon of the nine apertures martial demon arm apparent, which indicated he didn't know what was inside the box.

So it had to be a deliberate gift from someone.

As for the giver, someone did mention it, but because the person's cultivation time was so short and their understanding of the traits of the legendary nine apertures martial demon was limited, this led to the phenomenon revealing itself to the world... this possibility was directly ignored by these cultivators.

They felt that with Tan Shuchang's strength so formidable, he must have taken all of Heartless Old Man's treasures, and with the collection of the Heartless Old Man, it was unlikely Tan Shuchang would be as ignorant as those loose cultivators without a legacy, unaware of what would be considered common secret news.

"My fellow cultivators, have you all come to congratulate me on acquiring a treasure?" Tan Shuchang turned his head slightly, glanced around, and then asked with a smiling, gentle voice.

"Congratulations to Tan Daoist for the auspicious acquisition of the right arm of the nine apertures martial demon!" one of the cultivators immediately stepped forward and said after congratulating, "I am Jin Cheng, a disciple of Li Yixue of the Jiawu Realm, and she is my wife."

Upon hearing that it was Jin Cheng, a son-in-law of the Luoja Mountain sect, Tan Shuchang cupped his fists and returned the greeting, "So it's Brother Jin."

The Heartless Old Man had several disciples who also became sons-in-law in the Luoja Mountain sect, and among those disciples, they were few who had survived of the Heartless Old Man's last batch.

Seeing Tan Shuchang acknowledge his identity, Jin Cheng couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. He had heard that although Tan Shuchang was surrounded by demonic flames, due to his scholarly upbringing in earlier years, he was still a pedantic scholar who valued propriety, and now he saw there was no falsity in the rumors.

But how good it was to be a scholar turned foolish!

Right then, Jin Cheng thought to exchange a few more pleasantries and leave, but at that moment, a loud shout came, "I am Ling Shuangtian, a disciple of the sword sect on Luoja Mountain. A complete arm of the nine apertures martial demon has appeared in the world, such a demonic thing should be kept by our sword sect! The wise will hand over the nine apertures martial demon arm!

On behalf of my sect, I can spare your life!"