The Speedrun Begins with Choosing Hunter

Chapter 354: Chapter 348: I’m Really Not a Demon God

The rain outside grew heavier, and the wild wind made the old Daoist’s robes snap and flutter.

The old Daoist’s topknot was wet with rain.

Normally, his cultivation level would have allowed him to remain untouched by a single drop, so he must have come in such a hurry that he let the rain fall upon him.

Bai Yuan gazed calmly at the old Daoist outside the door, his mind already forming a suspicion.

The old Daoist let out a soft sigh. "So, you know?"

Bai Yuan retorted, "So you knew all along?"

The old Daoist made no attempt to hide it, giving a slight nod.

In that instant, everything clicked into place for Bai Yuan.

It now seemed their meeting had been entirely orchestrated by the old Daoist. He must have long suspected that Bai Yuan was the so-called Demon Seed. For some reason, however, he hadn’t eliminated him on the spot.

Bai Yuan’s hand tightened on the hilt of Bloodfiend.

"Why are you all so certain that I am the Demon Seed?"

The old Daoist recited, "Blessed Infinite Celestial Venerable. Donor Du Qinghui once told me he believed he had found an unusual young man. That is why I came to Ling Province."

Du Qinghui?!

Bai Yuan was taken aback. He hadn’t expected the old Daoist’s arrival in Ling Province to be connected to Old Du.

"Donor Du is the person with the greatest spiritual aptitude I have ever met. He can perceive the true essence of things and has the ability to see through cause and effect."

"In his letter, he wrote that he had met a young man in Ling Province with the surname Bai who seemed to possess the makings of a Demon God."

"..."

Bai Yuan was speechless. For some reason, much of the anger in his heart had dissipated.

"Why was... Mr. Du so certain?"

"I do not know either," the old Daoist said, shaking his head. "However, it is said that when the Demon Seed descends, great chaos is born. I used a Secret Technique to peer into your destiny and found it to be one of great calamity. In all my life, I have never seen a fate so malevolent. Furthermore, you have indeed mastered the Holy Technique of the Demon Sect."

"The Holy Technique of the Demon Sect?"

"This technique has another name: the Divine Mansion Technique."

Bai Yuan was speechless.

’Well then. So it was all because of the Divine Mansion Technique.’

’As for why his fate was so calamitous, that was because of the Demon Manifestation Technique.’

’The great demon he visualized was a Zhu Yan, a symbol of war. How could his fate *not* be malevolent?’

’He just never expected the Divine Mansion Technique to be connected to the Demon God.’

’He recalled the Great Demon Raccoon Power on Shenfu Mountain saying that a powerful expert of the Human Race had ordered it to build a palace, after which it was imprisoned on the mountain.’

’Could that person have been the Demon God?’

’According to the legends of the Demon God circulating in Xuan Yang, the Demon God was the transformed Founding Ancestor of the Demon Sect, but the timeline didn’t add up... It was truly shrouded in mystery.’

’But at least one thing was certain: he was definitely not the Demon Seed.’

’The only reason he could cultivate the Divine Mansion Technique was because of his cheat...’

’Walk the path of the Demon Seed, leaving the real Demon Seed with nowhere to go?’

’The Demon Seed: "I feel like I’ve been living in his shadow this whole time"?’

’Hmm... I like the sound of that.’

As Bai Yuan pieced it all together, he had a moment of clarity.

’It seemed Old Du, Elder Pei, and that Mr. Yuan had all been led astray by his heaven-defying aptitude. After all, who could have ever imagined someone with a cheat like him could exist in this world?’

Bai Yuan decided to turn the situation around. Being mistaken for the Demon Seed was not a good thing.

"Daoist Pei, what do you think the Demon Seed is?"

The old Daoist was a little stunned by the question. After a long, thoughtful pause, he finally spoke. "The Demon Seed should be an incarnation of the Demon God in the Lower Realm, or perhaps the Demon God reincarnated?"

"Daoist Pei, don’t tell me you truly believe there are Immortals in this world?"

The old Daoist was speechless.

The Daoist Sect seeks longevity and ascension to immortality, but in ten thousand years, not a single person has succeeded. The records of the last person to ascend can only be traced back to the Ancient Era.

The traditions from that time are long lost and can only be treated as myths, not taken as fact. There are too many falsehoods. Back then, even a giant python might have been called a divine dragon.

Therefore, deep down, the old Daoist didn’t truly believe in Immortals either.

Seeing the old Daoist’s silence, the corners of Bai Yuan’s mouth turned up slightly. "Then, Daoist Pei, what do you believe a ’demon’ is?"

The old Daoist replied, "One who steals from Heaven and Earth is a demon."

Bai Yuan shook his head. "Not so. The Daoist Sect places the greatest importance on the Unity of Heaven and Man, on blending one’s light with the dust. It even has methods for absorbing the fortune of Heaven and Earth. By that logic, is the Daoist Sect also demonic?"

"..."

The old Daoist fell into deep thought.

Bai Yuan pressed his advantage. "I believe this concept of ’demon’ is nothing more than a judgment passed by later generations on their predecessors. You might as well just call them villains. As far as I know, the Demon Sect was called the Holy Sect during the previous dynasty, and the Demon God was called the Saint King. If the dynasty changes, in another ten thousand years, Xuan Yang itself might be called a demonic kingdom."

The old Daoist’s eyes gradually brightened.

"To be called the Demon Seed simply because I am strong—that is unreasonable."

"What Lord Bai says does make some sense."

Seeing that the old Daoist was finally coming around, Bai Yuan continued, "An Immortal is just someone with immense power. Whether one is a demon or not is merely a matter of methods. I practice the Divine Mansion Technique, you study the Purification Technique—we’re both good citizens, aren’t we?"

"Lord Bai, what is a ’citizen’?"

"COUGH COUGH, that’s not important."

Bai Yuan had gotten a little excited and momentarily carried away.

The old Daoist looked ashamed. "Lord Bai truly has great spiritual aptitude. It was I who was being conventional in my thinking."

Bai Yuan smiled faintly, delivering his closing argument. "Immortal, demon... these are just worldly prejudices. Ultimately, it comes down to the person. One who uses a Cultivation Technique to benefit the world is an Immortal. One who uses power to throw the world into chaos is a demon."

"That is precisely the principle."

The old Daoist had a moment of revelation.

Just as Bai Yuan had said, a Cultivation Technique was merely a tool; the person wielding it was what mattered.

Even if the Divine Mansion Technique was a demonic art, if it was used to benefit the people, wouldn’t that make it an Immortal Technique?

Through his observations during this time, he had seen that while Bai Yuan was decisive, almost to the point of being cold-blooded, his fundamental nature was good.

If Bai Yuan was a demon, then ninety percent of the officials in the Imperial Court were even more demonic.

The old Daoist felt a flush of shame.

He and Du Qinghui were friends despite a great difference in age, but one hailed from the Confucian Sect and the other from the Daoist Sect, so their views often diverged.

Du Qinghui was a firm believer in the Confucian way of moral education, holding that even a person born a scoundrel could be transformed into a good man through proper teaching.

Perhaps it was this very philosophy that led Du Qinghui to continue looking upon Bai Yuan with favor, despite knowing he could be the Demon Seed.

It was because of his influence that the old Daoist had refrained from acting against Bai Yuan.

Otherwise, given his identity as a Purple Gold Great Heavenly Master of the Dragon Tiger Sect and his disposition for slaying demons and hating evil as a personal foe, he would have struck Bai Yuan dead with a Palm Thunder long ago.

Seeing that he had persuaded the old Daoist, Bai Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Daoist Pei, does Lord Yan know about this?"

The old Daoist shook his head. "Only Donor Du and I are aware of this matter."

’That’s good...’

Bai Yuan let out another long sigh of relief internally.

’If he were stuck with the title of Demon Seed, getting by in Xuan Yang would become incredibly difficult. He might have no choice but to flee to the Northern Plains.’

’The only reason he had been able to persuade the old Daoist was that, in this world, there truly were no Immortals.’

’Was the Demon Sect good?’

’Of course not. The Demon Sect’s theory of using the power of ten thousand people to support one person’s ascension to immortality would get you charged with running a pyramid scheme in any era.’

’As for the moral education the Confucians were always going on about...’

’Bai Yuan would rather just drown those scoundrels in a toilet. Trying to educate them would be a waste of society’s resources.’

’Thinking about it... maybe I really am the Demon Seed?’

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