Spreading Poisonous Skills

A week later, the Yunhua Sect closed its mountain gates, officially bringing an end to the current round of disciple recruitment.

However, this recruitment drive had not yielded any disciples of exceptional talent.

Among this batch of new disciples, Xie Yuyan was already considered one of the most promising.

The day after Xie Yuyan formally joined Huoyang Pavilion, she met with Yan Yun, but their encounter was brief, as she swiftly returned to the pavilion afterward.

Yun Yan, being exceptionally strict with new recruits, demanded that they master the Yunhua Sect’s foundational cultivation technique and Huoyang Pavilion’s exclusive methods within three months.

Failure to meet this deadline would result in severe punishment, leaving Xie Yuyan with no time to socialize with Yan Yun for at least the next three months.

As for Yan Yun, with his vacation period over and work resuming, he could no longer spend every evening secretly meeting Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao, too, needed to focus her efforts on cultivation, so they agreed not to insist on daily meetings.

Instead, they vowed to meet at least once a month, provided no other pressing matters arose, with any cancellations requiring advance notice.

A sense of calm seemed to settle over everything, with no one paying much attention to Yan Yun, a mere chore disciple incapable of cultivation.

As for tending to the medicinal fields, this task was nothing short of a triviality for Yan Yun, especially with his Heavenly Tome.

One evening, approximately half a month after Yan Yun’s induction, as he was refining medicine, a languid groan suddenly reached his ears.

“Ah! How comfortable, that was truly a blissful sleep.”

It was Yan Lingyun’s voice; she had finally awakened.

“Ancestor, this is wonderful! You’re awake?” Yan Yun exclaimed, his voice laced with excitement.

With Yan Lingyun by his side, he felt a much greater sense of security.

“Indeed! I’ve awakened, and the power I expended last time has finally been restored.

Eh, what is this place?” Yan Lingyun floated out from within Yan Yun’s body, her gaze sweeping around with a puzzled expression.

Yan Yun promptly recounted to her everything that had transpired during her period of slumber.

Upon learning that the Lin family had not only discovered her parents’ graves but intended to use them against the Yan family, Yan Lingyun was utterly enraged.

“What? The Lin family went to Luoxia Mountain and dug up my parents’ remains?

Damn them! How could they commit such a despicable act?

Just you wait; one day, this old woman will eradicate every single member of their Lin family from this world, scattering their ancestors’ bones to the winds!” Yan Lingyun declared, her face contorted with uncontrollable fury.

Her words were no idle threat.

“Ancestor,” Yan Yun began, a serious tone in his voice, “I’ve been waiting for you to awaken.

I have an undeveloped idea that requires your counsel.”

Yan Lingyun’s brow furrowed.

“Speak your mind,” she prompted.

“Given your current predicament, it seems there’s little you *can’t* do, doesn’t it?”

Yan Yun chuckled, then proceeded to explain his idea of spreading the poison cultivation technique far and wide.

The moment he uttered these words, Yan Lingyun was greatly astonished.

Ordinary cultivators would never conceive of such a counter-intuitive approach.

Yan Yun’s reasoning was thus: since the Immortal Alliance forbade people from cultivating, he would disseminate the cultivation technique.

This, he argued, would not only divert the attention of both the Immortal Alliance and the Lin family but also thoroughly muddy the waters.

“Well, I’ll be,” Yan Lingyun chuckled, “your methods are truly venomous.

How do you intend to proceed?”

Seeing that Yan Lingyun had not rejected the idea, Yan Yun meticulously laid out his plan.

After Yan Lingyun listened to the entirety of his scheme, she praised it endlessly.

“Brilliant, truly brilliant! Very well, we shall proceed as you suggest.

I will first modify this cultivation technique, embedding weaknesses known only to us.

That way, even if others succeed in cultivating it in the future, they will be powerless to use it against us.

Why did I never think of such a method before?”

As she spoke, a cunning smile simultaneously appeared on the faces of the two, who were both grandmother and disciple.

Having concluded that discussion, Yan Yun also informed Yan Lingyun about his discovery of the Heavenly Tome’s new functions.

Given Yan Lingyun’s superior cultivation, she would undoubtedly be able to provide significant assistance in perfecting his alchemy.

On the second day following Yan Lingyun’s awakening, Yan Yun commenced the implementation of his plan.

During his leisure time, he made inquiries about chore disciples who were soon to depart the Yunhua Sect.

Individuals frequently left the Yunhua Sect, and these departing chore disciples were precisely the optimal candidates Yan Yun had chosen to spread the poison cultivation technique.

Once his targets were identified, night fell, bringing with it a profound stillness.

****

Within a certain pavilion in the medicinal fields area, a young woman lay deeply asleep.

Just then, a series of eerie feminine laughter drifted from outside the building.

“Hehehe…”

As the laughter echoed, the young woman inside abruptly opened her eyes, which were vacant and lifeless.

Like a puppet, she moved to the main entrance and numbly unlatched the door.

Standing outside was a woman whose eyes glowed with a pervasive purple light.

The woman gazed at the young woman, her purple eyes flickering with a terrifying, heart-stopping luminescence.

The woman’s lips moved, seemingly uttering words, and then she handed the young woman a sheet of paper covered in text.

“After leaving the Yunhua Sect, travel to a major town in Jiang Country, make countless copies of this, and scatter them throughout the streets and alleys.”

The young woman nodded, accepted the paper, then closed the door once more and returned to her bed to resume her sleep.

It was as if she were merely dreaming, completely unaware of her own actions.

The next day, at first light, the young woman, acting as if nothing had happened, proceeded to complete the formalities for her departure from the Yunhua Sect and left.

Upon arriving at a large town, her eyes suddenly flickered with a purple glow, and her expression instantly became vacant.

She located a shop specializing in printing.

“Owner, please print the contents of this paper,” the young woman stated blankly.

“Print as many copies as possible.”

The owner of the print shop took the paper, his expression momentarily bewildered.

As an ordinary person, he could not comprehend its contents.

Naturally, he asked no further questions; payment was all that mattered.

The shop’s printing capabilities proved quite efficient.

Having placed the order in the morning, the young woman retrieved two large bags from the shop the very next morning.

After returning, the young woman waited until the dead of night, then moved like a lone, wandering spirit.

Carrying the bags, she traversed the city’s various streets, continuously pulling thick stacks of paper from within and scattering them around.

The next day, as dawn broke, a shop assistant had just opened the doors when a gust of wind swept in, pressing a white sheet of paper directly onto his face.

“What in the world is this?” the shop assistant exclaimed, quickly peeling the paper from his face and glancing at it.

His gaze widened in astonishment.

“A cultivation technique, the Heavenly Poison Sutra? This…?”

The shop assistant looked outside, his face etched with disbelief, only to discover that the ground was littered with sheets of paper detailing this cultivation technique.

A single gust of wind sent them swirling and dancing everywhere.

“What is this trash? Who has such little public etiquette, scattering paper everywhere?” someone grumbled indignantly.

Yet, a passing cultivator, noticing the papers detailing the Heavenly Poison Sutra, needed only a glance to confirm that this was, indeed, a genuine cultivation technique.

“Eh? This is a forbidden cultivation technique? How can this be?”

This marked the first step of Yan Yun’s plan.

He had Yan Lingyun use her formidable divine sense (TL Note: ‘神识’ refers to spiritual perception or consciousness, often used in cultivation to scan, influence, or communicate mentally.) to implant suggestions in those departing the Yunhua Sect, subsequently entrusting them with copied, modified versions of the Heavenly Poison Sutra.

Their mission was to travel to the major cities of Jiang Country, mass-produce copies of the Heavenly Poison Sutra, and then scatter them everywhere as if they were mere waste paper.

In Qifeng City, for instance, papers detailing the Heavenly Poison Sutra’s cultivation methods appeared everywhere on the streets overnight.

Furthermore, Yan Yun did not merely send one person to disseminate them; he tasked many.

Every chore disciple scheduled to leave the Yunhua Sect during this period was subjected to Yan Lingyun’s hypnotic influence.

The speed of this dissemination was astonishingly rapid.