A Bunch of Extremists

The two of them set off once more, dragging the still unconscious Leng Jin Yu with them.

The silence between them stretched until Qiang Yan couldn't bear it anymore. "What I was wondering about …"

Bai Mu looked over, raising his brows in a questioning manner. He had no idea how he would be able to help his father solve any issues about these matters. He didn't know much about the immortal races or their realms, not to speak of their history. He hardly understood what his father had talked about before even though he had met some of these people.

Qiang Yan cleared his throat and uncomfortably shifted at his son's gaze. "Maybe it's insensitive to ask but … I was wondering what was up with that Chun Feng Sect. Back then, my blood was completely human. I'm sure of that. And even though your mother was of mixed descent, part of her blood was human as well and another part was that of a god. Why would any demon hunters be after you?"

Bai Mu sighed. "The Chun Feng Sect … I guess you could say they're a little special. All deity sects kill demons but it's mostly for their disciples to gain experience. Actually, for the most part, the ones they'll go after are rather demon beasts instead of actual demons.

The Chun Feng Sect is different though. They have specialized in this sort of thing. They don't care about demonic practitioners or spirit beasts and just care about actual demons. And in their eyes, whether you're a full-blooded demon, a half-blooded one or even less than that, you're still a demon. So if they find out, they'll hunt you down without fail. Even running away won't help. They'll paint your face and distribute it to all their disciples along with any kind of information they can gain about you. They don't mind using your loved ones against you either. It was that way for me." Bai Mu furrowed his brows when he thought back to that day. If it wasn't for him falling in love with Nie Huang, he might have been able to escape. After all, there was still his mother's realm that he could enter and leave at will and he had lived long enough to be able to alter his appearance so that the lower-leveled disciples wouldn't be able to recognize him.

But the Chun Feng Sect had hunted demons for a long time. They were especially proficient at sniffing out those who were partly of demonic blood, slowly casting a net, and finally catching them. It had been that way for him as well.

He didn't know if his meeting with Nie Huang had been orchestrated by them from the very beginning. It wasn't that he suspected that Nie Huang had known anything about it but the Chun Feng Sect never did anything halfheartedly. And he had lived for a long time.

He had been part of two of the highest-ranked sects back in the day and even after he was betrayed by the people from the righteous faction and then finally left the demonic faction, he still hadn't insisted on keeping a low profile. It was probably the most accurate to call him a wandering cultivator. Helping when he saw people in trouble, exploring whatever ruins or realms he encountered, cultivating in solitude … He had never hidden away to escape trouble. He hadn't felt it necessary. After all, the Da Dao Guang Sect had fallen and even the Shen Shen Yuan Order had become a thing of the past. Who would have any interest in pursuing him?

He never would have thought that there actually was someone. By now, the Chun Feng Sect had been around for a long time and before them, there had been other sects that specialized in hunting demons. There was a very good chance that the original members of the Chun Feng Sect had been made up of people from these sects. So their knowledge of demons and those of demonic descent wasn't shallow and maybe they had even inherited some tasks or rather information on some people that were suspected to be demons. It would have made sense.

It could also be that he had one day been spotted by them while doing something that alerted them to his nature. Maybe they had been keeping an eye on him since that day. Anyway, them shadowing him and trying to find out more about him wouldn't have been a thing of just some days. No, they would have inspected his habits and likes for a long time and they also would have known what kind of person he liked as his partner.

It wasn't unthinkable that they had waited until he once again encountered somebody or maybe fiddled with a few things to make sure that he would meet with Nie Huang back then. If it didn't happen, they might have even sent one of their disciples to play the part. He could imagine that so in a way, he had been lucky that he met somebody who truly loved him and didn't just fall into a trap set by the demon hunters.

It changed the outcome though. Because after he found this woman and decided to spend the rest of her life with her, he had naturally been tied down. With her around, he didn't dare to fight. Even with her out of the way, he didn't dare to go overboard.

Even if he would've been able to take out the members of the Chun Feng Sect that day, he wouldn't have dared to do so. After all, they already knew about her. What if the ones at the site weren't the only ones? What if she got into trouble because of what he had done? So with her life at risk and being unwilling to take her away and condemn her to be a fugitive for life, he had only been able to let himself be captured and hope that Nie Huang wouldn't be in trouble.

That had also been the reason why he didn't dare to go back to her after leaving the Chun Feng Sect with Qiu Ling's help. Because if the demon hunters found out that he went back to see her, then he would once again be in the very same situation: Nie Huang would be the one they followed around, hoping that she would enable them to catch him.

And with how the Chun Feng Sect operated, they might even be alright with endangering her to draw him out. He wouldn't believe for one moment that they were unwilling to do that. To this sect, sacrificing one human to be able to catch one of these dangerous demons as they thought of him was well worth it. After all, they were sure that with his demonic blood, he would be plunging many, many more humans into despair, maybe even killing them. So just sacrificing one was much better than letting something happen to a lot, wasn't it?

Thinking of that, Bai Mu could only shake his head. The Chun Feng Sect — even though they tried to portray themselves that the good guys — had no compassion and in the pursuit of eradicating the demons, they didn't know any boundaries either. There was nothing holy to them, nothing forbidden. As long as their aim could be achieved, any way to do so would be alright with them.