Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

'Good news?'

'Impossible.'

Those two words bored into Su Ling'er's ears, sounding no less ominous than King Yama knocking on her door in the dead of night.

In a demonic den like this, one that devoured people whole, what kind of actual good news could there be?

'Did some elder finally succeed in refining a Ten Thousand Souls Banner and need a few disciples to consecrate it in celebration? Or maybe some peak is about to activate a blood sacrifice formation and needs a few unlucky souls to fill the array's core, so they're sending our batch of disciples to be sacrificed?'

Su Ling'er stared at Lin Qingfeng's face, which looked especially benevolent in the moonlight, and the tension in her mind stretched taut.

'Eldest Brother is a master strategist. If it were truly good news, why would he need to come in person in the middle of the night? He would never do something so disruptive unless it was an extraordinary situation!'

'It's absolutely impossible!'

'Unless... this matter is so huge that even he can't handle it!'

'Is Eldest Brother trying to secretly tell me what's happening? Could it be that the Demon Venerable, who has never shown his face, has come out of seclusion?'

'Or even worse, has the Demon Venerable discovered Eldest Brother—that hidden spark of the righteous path—and the team he's gathered, including me?'

'Is the only reason he hasn't acted yet a lack of evidence? Or is it just suspicion? Or could it be that this great power is waiting for Eldest Brother to deal with me, hoping he'll expose himself in the process so they can be cleaned out together?'

At this thought, Su Ling'er's breath caught in her throat.

Terrifying images began to flood her mind.

In the next second, Eldest Brother might start beating around the bush, trying to explain the crisis. Or worse, his expression might suddenly change as he tells her to run. Then, a demonic, sky-blotting hand would descend from above, smashing this small bamboo hut—and both their dreams—to dust with a single slap.

'Death?'

'Eldest Brother gave me this life. For the sake of the common people, for the sake of cleansing the demonic path, what is there to fear in death!'

'But what she feared was dying a worthless death, or even worse, dragging Eldest Brother down with her!'

'Looking back on the day, what had she even accomplished?'

'She was supposed to persuade those misguided new recruits to leave, but what was the result?'

Although she had successfully convinced many to quit, the ones who remained were now clutching their Wooden Swords as if they were peerless divine artifacts. No matter how much she exploited them, they remained stubbornly devoted to this demonic sect. She couldn't even chase them away!

Someone was even planning to build a shrine for their Wooden Sword in their thatched hut!

'Not only have I failed to be a help to Eldest Brother, I've become an accomplice in strengthening this demonic sect!'

'He isn't here with good news at all. He's clearly here to give me my last meal! He's using this final act of gentleness to hide his disappointment in my incompetence!'

'And my previous methods of trying to get people to quit... were they too obvious? Maybe they aroused the Demon Venerable's suspicion, leading him to have Eldest Brother test me. That way, the Demon Venerable could also test Eldest Brother to see if he's willing to clean house!'

'If Eldest Brother doesn't act against me, it'll confirm that something fishy is going on!'

'If I die, maybe I can preserve the Demon Venerable's trust in Eldest Brother!'

Su Ling'er's eyes reddened and her knees went weak. Under Lin Qingfeng's astonished gaze, she dropped straight to the ground.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"E-Eldest Brother!"

"Ling'er is guilty! Ling'er deserves to die a thousand deaths!"

"Don't say another word... Ling'er is unworthy of this 'good news'! Please, just do it now. Ling'er will have no complaints!"

Lin Qingfeng: "???"

Lin Qingfeng's hand, raised mid-air, froze. He stared at his junior sister, who was curled into a ball at his feet, a storm of question marks raging in his mind.

'Junior Sister! What are you talking about?! What insane theories have you cooked up now?!'

'This junior sister of his was always a bit glitchy, her internal processor constantly generating all sorts of bizarre things, but this was a new level. What was wrong with her today? Did the pressure get to be too much and fry her NPC circuits again?'

'I said it was good news, so you should be imagining something good! How did you manage to generate a bad news scenario from that?!'

'He was just here to deliver a notice about a competition! How did it turn into an execution scene?'

'Could it be that your conscience finally kicked in and you feel like you've embarrassed the sect?'

'No, that can't be it. Earlier, you were playing the part of a cult leader with that whole "heaven is about to bestow a great responsibility upon this person" act, more invested than anyone.'

Lin Qingfeng rubbed the bridge of his nose in resignation.

「Just fifteen minutes ago,」 he had been in his own ridiculously luxurious immortal's cave, soaking in a Spiritual Spring spa. He was enjoying a fully automatic hydro-massage while playing a mini-game built into his system.

Then, a golden light flashed before his eyes, and a regional announcement was slapped right in his face.

[Regional Epic Event Announcement: The Yunzhou Sword Testing Conference!]

Lin Qingfeng glanced at the top three from the last event.

'So those old geezers from the Celestial Sword Pavilion, Golden Light Temple, and Profound Talisman Sect are going to be there too! And they were the top three at the last Sword Testing Conference!'

'I was just worrying about how to find them, and now they're practically lining themselves up for me to kill!'

More importantly, there was the list of rewards.

First Place: The sect will be granted the title 'Vanguard of the Righteous Path in the Yunzhou Realm' (unique in the entire Yunzhou Realm), one system-wide announcement for the whole server! Three announcements in the Yunzhou Realm! Reward: 10,000 high-grade Spirit Stones, one Earth Tier magical artifact, and the sect's Spirit Vein will be upgraded by one tier!

Lin Qingfeng shot up from the bathtub right then and there.

Spirit Stones, magical artifacts... after his experience in Anhe City, he wasn't particularly moved by them. But upgrading the Spirit Vein was pretty good. It would save a lot of money.

Besides, that title of 'Vanguard of the Righteous Path in the Yunzhou Realm'...

'Once I get that, whenever I, Lin Qingfeng, go out in the future... who would dare question the Guixi Sect's alignment?'

'Even if my junior sister goes full-on demonic, people will just have to say, "That's just how the righteous path is!"'

'Even if I refined some Evil Cultivators in the middle of the street, people would have to give me a thumbs-up and praise me, saying, "The venerable one is helping those souls find peace!"'

But this stupid event had a few restrictions:

[1. This event is limited to NPC participation only (six members). Players cannot register directly but can spectate and select participating disciples.]

[2. Participating disciples' Cultivation must be below the Core Formation Realm.]

[3. For 30 days before the event begins, no one may gather or conduct activities within a hundred-li radius of the venue (Broken Sword Ridge).]

In other words, his high-level Nascent Soul account could only cheer from the sidelines. The actual fighting had to be done by his subordinates. Wasn't this just a Pokémon tournament? Though maybe he could play some dirty tricks, like sending people to misdirect most of the other sects to compete somewhere else? And he wondered if giving them single-use magical artifacts would count as cheating?

But Lin Qingfeng's first thought was of his Pokémon, Su Ling'er.

'This girl's thought process might be bizarre, but her strength is the real deal—Late-stage Foundation Establishment. Plus, she's a native NPC, and she even knows the Sword Refining Skill!'

'Add in that batch of new recruits he had just tricked... uh, just enlisted today, and it was the perfect chance to take them out for a spin.'

Thinking of this, Lin Qingfeng forgot all about his bath. He threw on his clothes and rushed over, eager to share the good news with his junior sister.

But the moment he arrived, the girl kowtowed to him and begged him to kill her.

'What in the world is going on inside that head of hers?'

Lin Qingfeng sighed, squatted down, and gently tapped Su Ling'er on the head.

"Get up."

Su Ling'er trembled, tears streaming down her face—PLIP, PLOP—but she still obediently straightened up, closing her eyes as if presenting her neck for the blade.

"Who said anything about killing you?" Lin Qingfeng found it a little funny. "The good news I mentioned is that I want you to lead a team to go fight."

"F-Fight?"

Su Ling'er's eyelashes fluttered. She slowly opened one eye and saw that her Eldest Brother was looking at her as if she were... an idiot?

(Lin Qingfeng: I *am* looking at an idiot!)