Chapter 24: Encounter with a Demon

Redemption from Calamity?

Upon hearing these words, Redcloud paused, a faint startle flickering across his features. Deep within, it was as if a forgotten shard of memory slowly surfaced before his eyes.

Back then, he too had been at the age of those children playing in the distance, picked up by his master, and thus began his own journey of redemption from calamity, step by step, until he reached his current realm.

In this world, there existed no spiritual energy or magical power; only demonic aura and baleful qi coursed through the land.

Redemption from calamity—here, it was regarded as the rudimentary education of the human race in the Bottle Realm.

Its purpose was nothing else: it served to help young children undergo a test, to see whether they possessed any capacity to cultivate baleful qi.

When children reached the age of five or six, they could be brought to undergo the redemption from calamity, to gauge their sensitivity to baleful qi and to determine if, when guiding the qi through themselves, they could truly take the first step into the Acquired Realm.

The period of redemption lasted a hundred days. Among the human race, this was also known as the Hundred-Day Quest for Calamity.

......

“Why should I help you?”

Redcloud cast a cold gaze at the other, then looked away, his silence making plain that he had no intention of meddling.

This...

The half-demon of the Innate Realm showed neither disappointment nor surprise at these words, as if he had long anticipated such an answer. His steel-like teeth clenched, and from between them, he forced out a reply:

“I have already heard that the Roc Demon King has gathered a great force, preparing to storm Sun-Moon Gorge. The king is fierce and cruel by nature, with a taste for human infants and children. Without those rare delicacies, those among our half-demon tribe who have not yet undergone redemption from calamity will become the Demon King’s next meal.”

As he spoke, his eyes reddened, his dog-like ears trembling, and with a thud, he knelt to the ground.

“Hero Zhao, our half-demon caravan once produced an elder who, in the Bottle Realm, rivaled the Treasure Body Realm among humans. If you agree to help, I am willing to offer you our caravan’s calamity treasure.”

A calamity treasure?

Redcloud narrowed his eyes at this, studying the other for a while before turning away once more.

“I accept. Find a quiet place. In a hundred days I will leave of my own accord.”

“If that is not enough for you, I...”

The half-demon instinctively tried to sweeten the offer, but then caught himself, and all that remained was the excitement in his eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘I’? Make the arrangements at once.”

Seeing the other lost in thought, Redcloud found himself unexpectedly growing more favorable toward him.

One reason he had stayed with this caravan was that, before realizing Redcloud’s true cultivation, this half-demon had not shown any resentment or ill will toward him as a human.

After discovering Redcloud’s superior cultivation, he had treated him with courtesy and never harbored an evil thought.

After all, Redcloud was human, and in demon territory, humans were like mice hiding in corners—should they reveal themselves, they would be hunted down.

But there was another reason Redcloud had stopped the caravan: he had sensed a strong aura of tribulation about this half-demon.

At first, he thought it was merely a trace, but now the amount had grown to three, and still was steadily increasing.

He wished to study how these tribulation points could be earned.

It seemed he’d started with none, but after surviving a deadly ordeal, he had gained some.

Now, what he was truly eager to know was whether altering someone else’s fate—saving them from a deadly tribulation—would earn him more tribulation points.

In the primordial world, nothing was said to surpass the will of Heaven. Now, having set foot upon the myriad heavens, he was desperate to know whether, in this Bottle Realm, he could truly sway another’s fate.

......

Clang—

With a clear and pleasing sound, Redcloud sheathed the Crescent Moon Blade. He stood beside the carcass of a massive wild bear, deftly peeling off its hide, taking its gall and spinal marrow, and then set out once more for Watergate Town.

Even now, the quantity was insufficient...

He glanced at the jade bottle at his side, frowning. Redemption from calamity required a special ingredient: a calamity primer.

For humans, the primer was most often earth marrow or the essence of sun and moon, used in medicinal baths to temper the body in the early stages.

At the final stage, a crowning touch allowed one to experience baleful qi in a single moment, enabling a direct step into the Acquired Realm.

For half-demons, earth marrow was best, but in its absence, the blood and marrow of a similar species would suffice.

Since these were dog-tribe half-demons, and canine demons were rare in the nearby mountains, he had to make do with slaying many wolf and bear demons. Though not identical, their bloodlines were at least akin.

After much consideration, Redcloud decided not to turn back, but moved deeper into the mountains: forget it, he would search for two more days and see if he could find a demon with a stronger innate cultivation.

As for the so-called calamity treasure...

The thought soured his expression. No wonder it belonged to a dog-tribe half-demon: using Zhao Jingcheng’s judgment, he had already guessed what the item was.

It was, at the very least, the leg bone of a Nirvana Realm human cultivator.

Before Zhao Jingcheng defected from the Surging Moon Sect, he had collected many of the sect’s Nirvana cultivation manuals.

The Nirvana body was marked by distinctive bone patterns of baleful qi, nurturing vitality from bone and blood, endless and unceasing. This leg bone was covered in such intricate patterns.

He had hoped to glean some insight from it, but thus far had only confirmed one thing: it was not the remains of a Nirvana elder from Surging Moon Sect or Setting Sun Sect.

Its only present use was as a reference for perfecting his own cultivation.

He had once tried to use tribulation points to break through, but each layer required thirty points.

If he relied solely on this, he would exhaust his points before reaching the latter stages.

More importantly, he still did not know how to earn tribulation points. To squander them now would be a reckless waste.

As he pondered this, his steps slowed. He gazed into the distance, one hand gripping the leg bone, the other tightening around the Crescent Moon Blade.

Moments later, the undergrowth ahead was crushed aside, and a giant elephant more than thirty feet tall emerged from the forest. It had been utterly silent, but now its steps made the earth tremble.

The giant beast let out a low, rumbling call, its eyes glinting with greed. It lifted its trunk and stomped down.

“Human!”