The seven great sects have made their move. Shortly after the incident with the tiny humanoid beast, alarms went off, and people streamed out of the immortal gate above the sect leader. The formations that attacked me and Bloodmoon back then also attacked these new intruders. As expected, the majority of the disciples of the great sects were vaporized, but a few had protective charms that automatically defended them, creating spherical defensive barriers around themselves and their fellow disciples. Unfortunately for them, their barriers weren’t capable of defending them from the humanoid beast.

A chorus of cutoff screams rang through the sky. The disciples shouted when the humanoid beast approached, and their shouts died off as they did once their barriers were destroyed and the formations were free to attack them. It wasn’t that simple, however. Some of the barriers were disappearing, the disciples inside using teleportation charms to escape. Those charms would take them to a random location a random distance away; there was even a possibility of teleporting underground and suffocating, but it didn’t matter. In the middle of those formations with the humanoid beast slaughtering them, that was the worst place to be.

Like an endless stream, the disciples from the seven great sects flowed through. The sects own great swaths of land, and they have millions upon millions of disciples. They won’t hesitate to put them all to use to fight for the supreme immortal’s inheritance. Why else would a sect raise so many disciples in the first place? It doesn’t matter how many of them die; even the relatively talented ones are expendable to the great sects. As long as the higherups, the pillars of the sect, don’t fall, their sect will remain prestigious enough to recruit as many disciples as they want.

No matter how strong the humanoid beast is, she’s only one person. By herself, she isn’t able to stem the flood of invaders. An easy way to stop them from coming through would be to enter the gate, but I believe the humanoid beast has no intention of doing that. Instead, she looks like she’s enjoying herself. How she can look so happy when a huge disaster is about to befall this lower realm, I’m not sure, but she’s managing to do it. While not all the disciples are quasi-immortals, they still have plenty of knowledge about different cultivation techniques. It’s only a matter of time for them to work with different sects here, tempting them with items and manuscripts from the immortal realm.

“Attention, attention. Everyone, if you look up, you’ll see a great blinding white light. Inside of that blinding light, you’ll find invaders from the immortal realm. None of them are immortals; there is nothing to be afraid of. If you kill one of them, you may keep everything inside of their interspacial ring; of course, you can trade the items inside for contribution points. Their heads are worth ten thousand contribution points each. Currently, they are teleporting out of the defensive formations into the surrounding regions. For those of you who aren’t confident in your combat abilities, sending information about their locations will also award you contribution points. Also, to prevent confusion, please wear your identification jades on your waists and turn off your cultivation-hiding abilities. Happy hunting.”

That was the demon’s voice. It seems like she activated a formation that broadcasted her voice throughout the sect. I believe she also messaged the surrounding sects as well. With that, the invaders won’t have a fun time in this lower realm, not with all the natives hunting them as if they were rare beasts that’d make them rich after catching them. Even I’m tempted to hunt them; I’ve seen what a thousand contribution points can buy. Ten thousand contribution points should restore my strength to about twenty percent of my peak, enough for me to defend myself from most dangers.

“Are you going to go?”

Is someone reading my mind? Oh, it’s Bloodmoon. He’s in a similar position as I am. I’ll ignore him.

“Think about it.” Bloodmoon walked right in front of me with an ugly grin on his ugly face. “If the two of us work together, how many points can we obtain? We know all their tricks, their hiding techniques. Even if we don’t personally capture anyone, I’m sure we’ll be rewarded a sizeable amount of points by sniffing those disciples out.”

He has a point, but as usual, I’m not going to talk to him. This is a matter of principle. He slaughtered my family; we can never work together.

“Hey!”

The demon’s here. Shouldn’t she be doing something else at a time like this? Her face is expressionless still. I wonder what would have to happen to make her panic. “Greetings, Principal Pentorn. You don’t seem busy at all.”

“Neither do you two,” the demon said. She grabbed her necklace with one hand and raised it in front of her face. “Smile.”

What?

There was a flash of light, and the demon lowered her necklace. “Alright. I have a job for the two of you.”

“Is it teaching?” Bloodmoon asked.

“No.”

“Excellent.” Bloodmoon’s face split into a grin. “It seems you want our help in hunting down these disciples. Why don’t you give me some resources to recover some of my strength? I guarantee I’ll bring their heads to you.”

The demon shook her head. “I have a better way for you to contribute. The two of you are going to turn into bait.”

Bait? “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” the demon said and crossed her arms over her chest. “Those disciples are here to obtain the supreme immortal’s inheritance that Bloodmoon snatched.”

“Rightfully took.”

“Snatched, rightfully took, same thing.” The demon snorted. “I’m going to place you in another sect, fill it to the brim with formation traps, and then I’ll broadcast your location to the whole world. Everyone from the immortal realm will flock to you, and we’ll deal with them then.”

That’s not going to work. “How dumb do you think these disciples are? They’ll figure out it’s a trap after asking around.” Our presences haven’t exactly been concealed. Everyone knows two immortals, me and Bloodmoon, have been detained by the Shadow Devil Sect.

“It doesn’t matter if they know it’s a trap.” The demon rolled her eyes at me. For some reason, I wanted to punch her smug face. I don’t know why a sudden bout of anger came over me, but I stifled that feeling in my chest. “If they want the inheritance, they’ll have to approach Bloodmoon. I believe you called it an open scheme?”

…I suppose it is an open scheme. I really dislike this demon.