Chapter 54: My Guess? His Purpose... Is Connected to the Demonic Clan!

"What?"
"It can only be performed at night? Is that really true?"
When asking the final question, Li Muchen looked directly at Elder Bai and Elder Lan of the Immortal Seeking Sect.
"Elders, do you know anything about this situation?"
To Li Muchen's disappointment, both Elder Bai and Elder Lan shook their heads.
"This is a demonic cultivation technique. Our righteous sects do not possess knowledge of such methods."
"Whether it is true or not, we cannot say for certain."
With no other choice, Li Muchen had to ask Li Zhengyi to elaborate further.
However, Li Zhengyi and his two companions were, after all, merely mid-tier disciples of the Green Wood Sect.
They only knew a few superficial details from handling tasks on the lower rungs.
As for anything more profound, the three of them were completely unaware.
Even so, from the words of Li Zhengyi and the others, Li Muchen still managed to piece together a considerable amount of information.
"Does that mean..."
"Every time Ji Hanliang requires a living sacrifice, it must be done with the absolute willingness of the living person for it to take effect, is that correct?"
"That is correct. It must be entirely of their own free will."
"As long as there is even the slightest hint of resistance from the sacrificial victim during the ritual, success is impossible."
"In essence, this is actually the forging of a contract."
"The sacrificed individual must willingly offer their life to a demon in order to complete the transaction."
"Then what methods did Ji Hanhuai—no, Ji Hanliang—use in the past?"
"How did he manage to make those sacrificial victims willingly offer their lives to the demon for his cultivation?"
"I am not entirely clear on that point," Li Zhengyi shook his head.
At that moment, Li Zhener suddenly spoke up to supplement: "I just remembered something."
"What is it? Speak quickly."
"Back in the Kingdom of Bei ji, every time the Second Prince needed a living sacrifice..."
"It seemed that the Sect Master and the Holy Master always operated in the dead of night."
"It appeared they were casting a hypnotic spell precisely when people's minds were muddled."
"Through this sorcery, they were able to plunge the sacrificial victims into a kind of illusion."
"Once the victims were trapped within this illusion, it became very easy to manipulate their minds."
"The caster could control the thoughts of the sacrificial victims, making them agree to willingly offer their lives in exchange for some illusory desires."
"I think I understand how this works now."

After listening to the explanations of the three protectors, Li Muchen understood that the demonic art practiced by Ji Hanliang must involve a form of mind-controlling sorcery.
It was akin to the legends he had once heard of trading something as precious as one's life by signing a contract with a demon.
Only, within the deceptive illusion,
the desires that the sacrificial victims believed they were obtaining were also entirely false.
Yet what they were giving up in return was their very real lives.
A sudden thought struck Li Muchen, and he hurriedly turned to confirm it with the three protectors.
"Tell me..."
"Can this sacrificial ritual be performed in separate installments?"
"No!"
"No!"
"No!"
The three of them answered in unison.
Hearing their unanimous reply, Li Muchen felt a momentary wave of relief wash over him.
"I understand how they are operating now."
Li Muchen shared his deduction with everyone present.
"The population of this small city is simply too vast, numbering around sixty to seventy thousand people."
"Previously in the Kingdom of Bei ji, the Green Wood Sect Master and Holy Master never sacrificed more than ten thousand people at a time for Ji Hanliang."
"The numbers are too large; they must cast their spells in batches."
"I suspect that every alternate night, while the townspeople are deep in sleep, they cast their hypnotic spells upon them."
"Given their capability, they can likely only control about ten thousand living souls per night."
"That explains what you witnessed: out of the entire city, the other nine small towns were completely deserted, leaving only this final town with about one-third of its population remaining."
"That town must be the target of their final incantation."
"Furthermore, based on my deductions..."
"Tonight at midnight will be their final spellcasting session, the time when they trap the remaining villagers within the illusion."
Li Muchen's reasoning won the unanimous agreement of everyone present.
"In that case, we are still in time." The expression on Elder Bai's face softened considerably.
As a practitioner of the righteous path, he harbored a deep-seated hatred for such demonic cultivators.
If Ji Hanliang were truly allowed to cultivate and break through to a higher realm, he would likely demand an ever-increasing number of human sacrifices.
Eventually, even cultivators from the immortal realm might not escape the ravages of this demonic art.
What looked like saving others now
was, in truth, a way of saving themselves.

The thoughts in Elder Bai's mind were shared by every cultivator present.
If Ji Hanliang was allowed to continue down this demonic path, sooner or later, he would set his sights on the cultivator community.
After all, sacrificing a single cultivator yielded a surge in cultivation that a thousand ordinary mortals could never match.
Should the sacrificed cultivator happen to possess an exceptionally high level of cultivation,
it would prove to be an even greater tonic for a demonic entity like Ji Hanliang.
Even for the sake of their own cultivation clan, they had to halt this endeavor before Ji Hanliang stepped into the ultra-high tier of cultivation.
"Elder Bai is entirely correct."
"We must reach that final small town before midnight."
"If we lie in ambush there in advance, we will undoubtedly catch those people in the act."
"At that time, we can follow them and locate the missing villagers."
"According to what Li Zhengyi and the others have stated, those missing souls are currently being held under control."
"Since the sacrificial ritual must be performed all at once, they cannot afford to strike prematurely."
"By trailing behind them, we will find the trapped victims and figure out a way to rescue them."
"The Young Master speaks wisely."
"However, I harbor another ominous premonition in my heart."
Elder Lan spoke abruptly, his expression grave and heavy.
"Elder Lan, please speak your mind."
"In the past, when the Second Prince demanded human sacrifices, he never used more than roughly ten thousand at a time."
"Yet now, he requires nearly seventy thousand lives for a single sacrifice?"
"There is undoubtedly more to this than meets the eye."
"Elder Lan, do you mean to say—?!"
"Indeed. I suspect the Second Prince is on the verge of a breakthrough."
"It is entirely possible that this massive sacrifice is intended to propel him into the ultra-high tier of cultivation."
Elder Lan's words dropped like a massive boulder into the hearts of everyone present, stirring up endless ripples of anxiety.
Li Muchen drew a sharp breath: "Impossible. We must never allow him to succeed."
"My master once told me..."
"Cultivation techniques that rely on human sacrifice can summon the demonic race once the practitioner reaches the ultra-high tier."
"For Ji Hanliang to be this anxious—even resorting to sacrificing the citizens of another nation to achieve his breakthrough—he must harbor far greater ambitions."
"I suspect his ultimate objective is inextricably linked to the demonic race."