No Inner Demons, Only Ascension

Chapter 1
I am currently the Third Junior Brother of the Anywhere Sect, and also a
transmigrator.
This identity is utterly unremarkable—less intriguing than even the sect’s name. At
one point, I even suspected that our master, who named the sect, might also be a
transmigrator.
The Anywhere Sect has only four members: the Master, the Eldest Brother, the
Second Brother, and me. The Master claims to be in seclusion, but he’s rarely seen
in his room. The Eldest Brother, a Fire Spiritual Root swordsman, is as
straightforward in personality as he is in appearance. I’ve asked him many
questions, including the origin of our sect’s name.
“Why is our sect called the Anywhere Sect?”
“The Master wants us to live freely, guided by our own will,” he relayed the
Master’s teachings.
“Then why not call it the Carefree Sect? That sounds more... xianxia-esque.”
“Uh…” The Eldest Brother hesitated. “When the Master registered the sect name,
the registrar said ‘Carefree Sect’ was already taken. So he had to pick ‘Anywhere
Sect’ instead.”
“Ah, plagiarism check. Got it.” That twist I hadn’t expected.
The Eldest Brother nodded solemnly.
Oh, right—I almost forgot to mention. I’m a Water Spiritual Root cultivator at the
Foundation Establishment stage, still figuring out my path.
True to its name, the Anywhere Sect lives up to “anywhere.” We have no rigid
techniques. Everyone follows their strengths and interests. The Master’s library has
entry-level manuals for everything, and if you want to study under another sect
later, he won’t stop you. “This will always be your home,” he says—or so the
Eldest Brother told me.
Thanks to this rule, though the Anywhere Sect only has four members now, its
disciples are spread across the world.
As for the Second Brother… It’s not that I always forget to mention him. It’s just
that the Eldest Brother’s presence overshadows everything. And the Second
Brother… Well, when I first joined the sect, he left me with
some… unpleasant memories.




Chapter 2
When I first transmigrated here, instead of obsessing over what kind of storyline I
might have landed in, I was more curious about which website this world belonged
to. Although, considering how increasingly insane and chaotic online novels have
become lately, it probably didn’t matter much—wherever I ended up couldn’t be
that much worse.
But I have to say, the moment I met Second Senior Brother, my internal alarms went
off like crazy. He rushed up to me, practically throwing himself at me, and said, “I’
ve finally found you! You’re someone very important to me!”
Excuse me? Do you have any idea how many flags you just raised? And, um, aren’
t we meeting for the first time? Coming on this strong right off the bat really makes
one question your motives, if not your very identity.
Naturally, I did wonder if Second Senior Brother was hiding something. A
reincarnator? A player in some kind of cyclical timeline? An omniscient
transmigrator with insider knowledge of the plot? Or maybe even some kind of
entity that replaced the original Second Senior Brother? Whatever the case, I couldn’
t figure him out. After asking a few probing questions, I realized I’d learned less
from him than I could from Elder Brother or Master.
Elder Brother, by the way, is a quintessential role model for any aspiring cultivator.
Not only does he patiently answer all my cultivation questions, but he also
encourages me to consult Master personally. Although, whenever I see Master lazily
flipping through a random book, I can’t help but feel a little skeptical about his
teaching commitment. I’m also ridiculously curious about what kind of novels
Master is reading, but I’ve never had the chance to find out. Elder Brother won’t
let me look, saying it might distract me from my cultivation.
“You’re not like Second Senior Brother,” Elder Brother once said to me. “His
cultivation follows the principle of ‘the boat will straighten itself when it reaches
the bridge.’ But for you, it’s better to remember: ‘a journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step.’”
Elder Brother has a penchant for slipping idioms into his lectures. I have no idea
where he picked up the habit, but it’s weirdly endearing.
“Second Senior Brother’s cultivation?” I asked, immediately suspecting that his
identity wasn’t as simple as it seemed. ‘The boat will straighten itself when it
reaches the bridge’—wasn’t that just another way of saying his cultivation would
naturally progress at certain milestones, regardless of how much effort he put in
beforehand? Could something that convenient actually exist? I couldn’t help but
doubt it.
Second Senior Brother’s cultivation style, as far as I could tell, seemed to involve
some kind of foresight or precognition. I wouldn’t even know what to call it,
honestly. I’d never seen him actually use it, so I had no idea what his spiritual root
or cultivation level was. All I knew was that he, too, was at the Foundation
Establishment stage. From a traditional cultivation perspective, he didn’t seem
particularly suited to this path, yet he stubbornly stayed in the sect, saying he was
waiting for someone.
Given how our first meeting played out, I had every reason to suspect that the
person he was waiting for was me. But honestly, the whole thing felt like a Jinjiang
BL author accidentally publishing their work on a Qidian male-protagonist
platform—just awkwardly forcing the plot forward without any subtlety.
Thankfully, Second Senior Brother didn’t continue with any overly ambiguous
behavior. During our regular routines—meditating, resting, or strolling through the
marketplace at the foot of the mountain—he didn’t do anything suspicious, like
trying to sneak a kiss or initiating overly intimate gestures to farm votes from
readers. Nor did he pull any of those “ hero saves the beauty ” stunts or
manufacture random conflicts to force us into dramatic interactions.
If anything, things were almost too peaceful, to the point where it felt boring. There
wasn’t even a hint of the kind of exciting plotlines that would make this a hit on
Qidian. No major events, no thrilling twists—just a life so tranquil it couldn’t even
qualify as a slice-of-life “farming” story. It felt less like a novel and more like…
well, just life.
One day, Elder Brother announced that he had to leave the mountain for a while to
take care of some matters. He told us to seek out Master if anything came up during
his absence.
Second Senior Brother and I stood at the mountain gate, watching as Elder Brother
departed. He stared at Elder Brother’s retreating figure for a long time, blinking
once or twice before finally closing his eyes, as if turning into a statue.
“Uh…” I hesitated, wanting to remind him that it was time for meditation. But
when I reached out and touched his hand, I was startled to find it as cold as jade.
“Elder Brother will die.”
That was the first time I’d ever heard Second Senior Brother utter one of his
prophecies.




Chapter 3
See? The inevitable chaos finally arrives. I could already picture it—the Anywhere
Sect crumbling from neglect, or some vengeful enemy slaughtering us all, followed
by a revenge arc spiraling into endless cycles of bloodshed.
“Should we tell the Master?”I asked. The Eldest Brother always claimed our Master
was formidable. If enemies really were coming, preparation couldn’t hurt.
“Mn.” Second Senior Brother nodded. At least he wasn’t the type to stubbornly
charge into certain death. Small mercies.
When the Master finally looked up from his dog-eared novel, his gaze pinned
Second Brother. “What else did you see?”
“Junior Sister.”
Well, shit. Thunder might as well have cracked the sky.
“...” The Master returned to his book. “If you’re worried, go to the capital. Take
the sect’s identity tokens.”
“Both of us? To the capital? Are you serious? We’re just Foundation Establishment
rookies!”
“Consider it training. Besides—it’s you two.”
“Where’s this blind confidence coming from…?” I muttered, but accepted the
“mission” anyway. The Eldest Brother deserved better than an off-screen death.
On the carriage ride, I wondered: What if our meddling causes his death? Second
Brother, reading my mind as usual, cut in: “The future I see is one possibility. It
doesn’t guarantee tragedy.”
“Then why say ‘Elder Brother will die’?! Don’t drop vague doom prophecies!”
“That was a divinatory verse. The vision itself wasn’t about that.”
“...” He turned to the window. “If I could control the details, Master wouldn’t
have needed to find you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I’d expected cryptic nonsense, but this was
next-level rambling.
“I saw you in a vision. Searched for you myself. But my cultivation was too weak to
go far. Master… drew your likeness from my descriptions. That’s why we first met
here.”
Holy hell—that was the most he’d ever spoken. My gut twisted with dread.
“Get down!” Foundation Establishment bodies aren’t arrowproof.
After dodging the first volley, we heard footsteps. We tore through the carriage roof,
ambushing the frontliners. The rest scattered, muttering curses.
“Someone doesn’t want us reuniting with Elder Brother.” I checked the horses.
“Do you even know what mission he’s on?”
“No. But finding Third Junior Sister in the capital might help.”
“Third Junior Sister?” I’m the Third Junior Brother. “Do I have a secret senior
sister? Or a junior I’ve never met?”
“She joined before you. Hit a bottleneck. Chose to ‘walk the mortal path’ on
Master’s advice.”
“So we’re hunting her in the capital? Where?”
“Are you in a hurry?”
“YES?! We’re being hunted! Who knows what’s next!”
“Fine. She’s a talisman specialist. We could use her teleportation talisman to reach
her directly, but—”
“But?”
“We should contact her first. With a messaging talisman.”
“Then do it!”
“The distance… interference is likely.”
“Cut the excuses. Bottom line?”
“We need to reach the capital first.”
Great. Back to square one.




Chapter 4
The journey had its share of close calls, but between Second Brother’s eerie calm
and my increasingly creative swearing, we scraped through. Along the way, we even
ran into allies—so many allies. I’d heard the Master’s disciples were “spread like
peach blossoms across the land,” but only now did I grasp the scale.
I lost count of the “senior brothers” and “sisters” we bumped into. At some
point, I stopped numbering them and just yelled “Senior!” at everyone. When in
doubt, network. The Anywhere Sect’s identity tokens worked like magic—literally.
One senior brother pulled me aside, though: “Don’t flash that token too boldly
in the capital. The sect’s reputation… draws mixed attention.”
I tucked the token into my hidden pouch, nodding. But the real oddity? Every senior
disciple recognized Second Brother. Their jaws dropped seeing him this far from the
mountain.
“He joined way before you,” I shrugged to the curious crowd—until a gossipobsessed senior sister cornered me. She circled me like a hawk, then gasped: “You’
re the one he’s been searching for!”
Her fan theories snowballed from “childhood friends separated by fate” to
“reincarnated lovers.” By the time she started debating our future children’s
surnames, I cut in: “Senior Sister, your imagination’s… impressive.”
“Keep in touch!” She tossed me a jade slip. “Just drop my name at any
bookstore—they’ll forward messages. Oh, and you’ll get discounts!” Hard pass—
though the book discounts were tempting.
After endless detours, we reached the capital. The messaging talisman finally
sparked to life. I nudged Second Brother: “Contact Junior Sister. Now.”
We holed up in a teahouse, activated the talisman, and got a reply: Come to Chunlan
Palace. Fast.
“Where’s that?” You can’t expect a hermit cultivator to know squat about city
landmarks.
“Where Junior Sister lives.” For once, Second Brother sounded certain. “She
hosted a sect banquet there once. I know the way.”
“Then why are we still here? Let’s go!”




Chapter 5
“State your business!” The guards barked, snapping me to the realization: We’
re at the imperial palace gates. Of course Junior Sister was… that kind of princess.
“Uh…” Would “Junior Sister invited us to Chunlan Palace” fly without proof?
No letters, no phones—wait, couldn’t we just use the messaging talisman right
here?
“We are—” Second Brother stepped forward, bowing. His next words blurred into
static. By the time my ears cleared, he was already trading blows with a guard whose
disguise peeled away like paper.
Since when did Second Brother know how to fight?! I lunged into the fray. Together,
we actually pushed them back.
“Demonic cultivators,” Second Brother muttered, brow furrowed. “They favor…
unconventional weapons. Stay sharp.”
Unconventional? Before I could ask, the enemy whipped out a gun.
Seriously?! “The times are changing, my lord”? I couldn’t ID the model, but instinct
screamed: Even a Foundation Establishment body won’t tank that.
“Is this normal for demonic cultivators?!” I chucked a smoke bomb, yanking
Second Brother into the palace grounds. Live to flee another day.
Inside, Junior Sister—no, Her Highness—greeted us with a sigh. “You rarely leave
the mountain, Second Brother. You know how dangerous this is.”
“Did you call Elder Brother here?” I cut in, sick of everyone morphing into riddles
around Second Brother. “He saw a future where ‘Elder Brother dies.’ We’re here
to stop it.”
“...The worst-case scenario.”She massaged her temples. “The Northern Rebellion.
Imperial forces can’t quell it—demonic cultivators are pulling strings. I had to ask
Elder Brother to hunt their leader.”
“You sent him alone? That’s a death flag!”
“He’s not. Imperial cultivators joined the campaign. Most rebels are mortal. He
just needs to eliminate their demonic commander.”
“But Elder Brother’s personality—”
“We’ll go north,” Second Brother interjected, gaze distant.
“We? You sure?”
“Your Foundation Establishment can handle grunts. Their guns hold 8—maybe 9—
non-explosive rounds. Count the shots. Reloading’s slow.”
Since when did he become a firearms expert?!
“But watch for artificer-demons. They channel qi into the guns. Those blasts you
dodge.”
Junior Sister drilled more tips into us. Soon, we were en route to the north—yes,
Second Brother tagged along.
“Why isn’t Junior Sister coming?” I blurted, then facepalmed. Right. Princess
duties.
“She guards the capital. Enemies might strike here.”
“But she’s more than just a princess, isn’t she?”
“She abandoned cultivation,”Second Brother said flatly. “Chose to ‘fix the mortal
world’ after her bottleneck.”
“There are… more like her?”
“Many. They quit when their hearts grew troubled. Those who don’t…” He turned
away. “Die. Or turn demonic.”
“Troubled how—”
He clammed up. Classic.
I couldn’t shake the gun thing. Since when do demonic cultivators embrace
Industrial Revolution cosplay? Was this some twisted “firepower anxiety” aesthetic?
I need to steal one of those guns.

付费内容

游客，您好！如果您要查看本帖隐藏内容请向楼主支付30money

立即购买