Chapter 208: Chapter 201: Our Sect Prospers Day by Day
Capital City’s Tongtian Sect Talisman Master Association.

President Gao Miao rubbed his temples with both hands.

After a long while, Gao Miao adjusted his emotions and tried his best to maintain a stable mindset.

“Jiang Cheng, repeat your request to me once more. This time, don’t rush, speak slowly, I am afraid I might not hear clearly or understand.”

Jiang Cheng nodded and, using standard Mandarin, told Gao Miao his requirements completely and clearly.

“I want Tongtian Sect to list me as a wanted fugitive.”

Although Gao Miao had heard it several times before, he still couldn’t keep up with Jiang Cheng’s train of thought.

Due to his high position, in fact, a considerable number of talisman masters throughout the Capital would seek Gao Miao’s assistance.

Such as pulling some strings to enter the Tongtian Sect system; or erasing some unfavorable records in the association; or giving them a leg up during the Talisman Master Certificate examination.

But the request to help someone become a wanted fugitive, Gao Miao was encountering this for the first time in his life.

However, once he thought of the fact that this request was made by Jiang Cheng, Gao Miao suddenly felt it made sense.

After all, it was Jiang Cheng, and upon reflection, it was quite understandable.

Think about it, given the talisman Jiang Cheng has drawn in the past half year, shouldn’t he have already become a wanted criminal!?

Seducing the Dragon Clan Commandery Princess, abusing plants, participating in serial killings, colluding with the Demonic Tao Hehuan Sect…

Jiang Cheng was still at large only because the laws of the Immortal Sect were well-established.

If the laws of the Immortal Sect were less refined and more flexible, the Enforcement Hall would have already brought Jiang Cheng to justice!

Gao Miao said with a pained expression, “Jiang Cheng, why do you want to become a wanted criminal? You must give me a reason, right? Although you are fully qualified to be wanted, the Immortal Sect still has to do things with reason.”

Jiang Cheng nodded and said, “It’s like this, Senior Gao, I plan to…”

Jiang Cheng briefly told Gao Miao his plan.

“So what you mean is, you’re planning to disguise yourself as a member of the Demonic Tao and trade talisman with them?”

“Right.”

“Can’t you just sell it to them directly?”

“It’s possible, but I’m worried that the people of the Demonic Tao are too rule-abiding, which is not conducive to advancing the plan.”

Gao Miao broke into a sweat, “You might be the first person since the founding of the Immortal Sect to worry that the Demonic Tao is too rule-abiding.”

Jiang Cheng argued logically, “Senior, you should know that although the Demonic Tao isn’t as rule-abiding as the orthodox path, to confront the Immortal Sect and stop internal struggles, they often maintain a certain understanding among themselves. The benefits of the Perception Transmission Talisman would definitely cause conflicts within the Demonic Tao. But if their understanding outweighs the conflict, our plan to capture the Hehuan Sect would come to naught.”

Gao Miao pondered, “So your plan is to intensify their internal conflict?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng said with a smile. “I am just trying to persuade them to mend their ways.”

Gao Miao advised sincerely as someone who had been through a lot, “I suggest that you persuade them in a formal setting, otherwise the arrest officers in the Capital might not believe your tall tales.”

…

Besides the Hehuan Sect and the Demon Pattern Sect with their vast intercontinental scale, the Capital City also hosts some smaller, less competitive local demon sects.

The Shadow Puppet Sect is one of them.

At the beginning of the founding of the Liang Kingdom, the Shadow Puppet Sect could still throw its weight around.

The spell that the Shadow Puppet Sect was best at was refining a living person into a puppet and then manipulating this puppet to battle others.

The puppet was a bit weaker than cultivators of the same cultivation level, but they had numbers on their side.

If the opponents were defeated, the Shadow Puppet Sect disciples would add one more puppet, fostering a scenario where they grew stronger with each battle by fueling war with war.

Later, after the Liang Kingdom had passed through the turmoil of its founding years and entered a peaceful era, the Shadow Puppet Sect wasn’t as popular anymore.

Because of the brutal nature of refining living people into puppets, coupled with the government’s need to strike hard at the overreaching, the Shadow Puppet Sect faced unanimous suppression from both the government and the Immortal Sect and nearly perished!

Subsequently, facing the overwhelming tide, the Shadow Puppet Sect had no choice but to change, shifting from refining living people to refining the dead into puppets. Even though they were often accused of “desecrating corpses,” once the corpses were refined into puppets and could prove that they hadn’t been desecrated, the accusations fell through, and the sect managed to survive.

The current Shadow Puppet Sect had become relatively more law-abiding.

It’s unclear how many bad deeds he’s done behind the scenes, but his publicly recognized sect industries were still paying taxes regularly.

Deputy Sect Master Fan Yue of the Shadow Puppet Sect was feeling quite troubled lately.

He had achieved Core Formation at two hundred years old and rose through the ranks with pay increases; now he held the position of Deputy Sect Master, managing the sect’s businesses in Capital City, supposedly at the pinnacle of his life.

But fate is fair; his career might be thriving, but his love life was full of bumps.

He recently found a partner, a Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment level with decent looks, which satisfied Fan Yue quite a bit, having nearly reached the stage of discussing marriage.

But it was at this time that an unexpected issue cropped up in his love life.

The reason was that his partner’s brother was jobless and was introduced to their sect to become a disciple.

Fan Yue thought it would be easy as a piece of cake, for his status as Deputy Sect Master certainly allowed him to arrange a disciple’s position with no trouble.

But to his great surprise, his brother-in-law just couldn’t get promoted.

Even though his talent and cultivation level were quite decent, promotion was out of reach. Even when Fan Yue pulled strings here and there, it was to no avail.

Later, after transferring his brother-in-law to work directly under him, Fan Yue finally discovered the biggest reason why he couldn’t get promoted—he wasn’t bad enough!

In the Demon Sect, you can lack a background, you can lack talent, but you can’t lack wickedness!

Disciples of the Demon Sect who can’t be bad enough are only considered as undercover agents from the Immortal Sects.

Forget about getting promoted; you’d be lucky not to be captured for interrogation and torture.

At the Riverside Hotel, Fan Yue patted his brother-in-law Zhao Jun on the shoulder and said, “Do you know what we Demon Sect disciples enjoy doing the most?”

“Bad things?”

“That’s too general.”

“Murder and arson?”

“Tsk, I asked you about the method, not the results.”

Zhao Jun, who couldn’t figure it out, said, “Brother-in-law, I can’t think of anything!”

Fan Yue sighed and said, “Remember this, the thing we Demon Sect disciples love most is to bully the weak and fear the strong! Bullying the weak demonstrates our Demon Sect’s consistent style. Fearing the strong reflects our Demon Sect’s cautious philosophy. The combination of both is the way of survival for us Demonic Taoists.”

Zhao Jun lamented, “Being a disciple of the Demon Sect is really not easy.”

Fan Yue proudly said, “Every line produces its own top scholar.”

Fan Yue wrapped an arm around Zhao Jun’s shoulder, looking toward the dining hall of the Riverside Hotel, and said, “Take a look, among the guests in this hall, which one looks easy to bully?”

Zhao Jun looked around and pointed at Jiang Cheng, saying, “That one looks like a college student, easy to bully.”

“Good. Delay his meal, show him some colors!”

“Okay!”

Upon hearing he was going to do something bad, Zhao Jun couldn’t help feeling excited.

He thought: My brother-in-law is so malicious! Not serving the ordered food and letting the customer repeatedly experience the torment of hunger is just too wicked!

But what Zhao Jun had not anticipated was that, ten minutes later, the seemingly easy-to-bully Jiang Cheng proactively approached the hotel’s front desk.

“Why hasn’t my meal been served after such a long time?” Jiang Cheng asked.

Fan Yue signaled Zhao Jun with his eyes, and Zhao Jun confidently said, “The kitchen is too busy. Please go back and wait, we will serve your meal as soon as it’s ready.”

Jiang Cheng nodded and said, “You guys are disciples of the Shadow Puppet Sect, right? The service attitude is not bad; I’ll give you a good review later.”

After Jiang Cheng left, Zhao Jun proudly said, “Brother-in-law, I did pretty well, didn’t I?”

Fan Yue slapped Zhao Jun on the head, leaving Zhao Jun bewildered.

“Pretty well, my foot! Didn’t you hear he wants to give you a good review? Do you still want to get promoted or not?”

“I do.”

“This person knows you’re a disciple of the Shadow Puppet Sect and still wants to give you a good review; he’s clearly trying to harm you, hinting to the sect that you’re an undercover agent from the Immortal Sects! Learn from him! Casually, he has done a bad deed!”