They’re really about to fight?
Seriously?
Dongfang Xiaotian couldn’t help but grin. Good, let them fight!
The protagonist just finished leveling up and is already about to fight—the villain must be really unlucky to run into a protagonist who gets plot armor right after leveling up.
In every story, as soon as the main character levels up, it’s almost guaranteed they come with a “first battle must win” buff.
Battles they couldn’t win before, suddenly they can, and ones they could’ve won are now finished in one move.
Dongfang Xiaotian had never encountered such luck himself; even after leveling up, he still couldn’t win the fights he couldn’t win before.
“So eager?”
Dongfang Xiaotian asked curiously, “Isn’t eliminating an evil cult usually something that has to be decided at a big meeting between the two main sects and the City Lord’s Manor?”
“Sometimes it does require careful planning, but other times, speed is of the essence in warfare.”
Xiao Yuanqing extended his hand to Dongfang Xiaotian, making a gesture inviting him to follow.
The meaning was obvious—the next part was confidential. If he wanted to hear, they’d have to go somewhere more secluded.
Dongfang Xiaotian immediately tensed, but thinking it was to gather information for his junior brother—and that maybe there was someone very important within the Evil God Cult—he forced himself to follow Xiao Yuanqing carefully.
Soon, the two arrived outside the Protective Formation of Four Sages Academy and then climbed atop a massive stone formation that overlooked the entire camp.
Of course, due to the dense, almost suffocating miasma, visibility was only a few dozen meters at best. If Dongfang Xiaotian didn’t use his innate pupil technique, he wouldn’t be able to see a thing.
Xiao Yuanqing gazed at the camp of Four Sages Academy and said, “Brother Dongfang, what do you think of these evil cultivators compared to before?”
“Organized, disciplined, but utterly without bottom line.”
Dongfang Xiaotian didn’t hesitate to give his judgment. “Not only that, they’re clever and cautious…typical Evil God Cult style.”
“Although the Evil God Cult only emerged in recent years, as a cult that’s quickly outpaced all the rest, the biggest difference between their members and other evil cultivators is—You almost never see a lone Evil God Cult cultivator in action. If you run into one, there’ll be at least three.”
In terms of organization, they outclass those reckless evil cultivators by a wide margin.
And this time, the evil cultivators haven’t just come in groups; even when they totally overpower their enemies, they still use traps, and when facing someone like me—a mere seventh-layer Qi Refiner—they still insist on attacking in numbers. Their tactics are extremely cautious.
Clearly, this group of evil cultivators can’t be treated the same as the scattered rabble we dealt with before.
“Exactly.”
Xiao Yuanqing nodded and added, “Besides, they don’t seem to care much about the Seven-leaf Yangzhi that appeared in the secret realm. Instead, they’re ruthlessly hunting down cultivators outside the camp to refine into Blood Pills.”
As he spoke, Xiao Yuanqing took out a blood-red pill. A faint, metallic scent drifted to Dongfang Xiaotian’s nose, but Dongfang Xiaotian’s expression didn’t change at all.
Seeing Dongfang Xiaotian wasn’t surprised by the Blood Pill, Xiao Yuanqing couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, that’s to be expected from someone as extraordinary as Brother Dongfang. Of course you’d notice.”
He casually crushed the Blood Pill into powder with spiritual energy and sighed.
“It’s obvious the Seven-leaf Yangzhi was a bait set by these evil cultivators. Their discipline shows someone is watching them from behind the scenes.”
Dongfang Xiaotian roughly understood the situation.
“So, they’re painstakingly collecting large amounts of Blood Pills, and even prefer to use living people to refine higher-quality ones. Their goal is to supply some hidden figure with blood… or perhaps a pill for a cultivator about to break through to the Golden Core stage.”
“That’s right.”
Xiao Yuanqing nodded, obviously aware the Blood Pills could help break through major cultivation bottlenecks. Then he noticed Dongfang Xiaotian staring intently at him and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Brother Dongfang, if I were the mastermind, there’d be ten thousand ways to keep you from getting in. Why would I let you spot any flaws?”
“True enough.”
Dongfang Xiaotian nodded, accepting this explanation. “So, in other words, this mastermind stirring up all this trouble is probably a mid- or high-ranking member of the Evil God Cult?”
“Very likely.”
Xiao Yuanqing nodded and said, “But that’s not all. The Evil God Cult’s strategies have never just been about carving out territory. They always start by infiltrating and gathering intelligence before taking action…”
Dongfang Xiaotian nodded, gazing down at the camp—or more accurately, in the direction of the formation. “I understand. I’ll take care of this.”
A scheme.
Dongfang Xiaotian had suspected as much before. After all, the Third Elder had only just arrived and was seriously injured by sword talismans from the evil cultivators—clearly a premeditated move.
How could there be such a coincidence that, while even stronger, late-stage Foundation Establishment evil cultivators chasing after Second Senior Sister didn’t have sword talismans, suddenly eight or nine sword talismans are all used on her?
At best, Second Senior Sister is a high-level NPC—what are the odds? If it was Little Junior Brother instead, maybe he’d believe it a little more.
“Mm, that would be for the best. But rooting out an infiltrator isn’t something that can be accomplished quickly. On our end, we’d rather deal with these evil cultivators with overwhelming force and investigate later.”
Xiao Yuanqing nodded, finally looking at Dongfang Xiaotian.
“That’s all I can say. Brother Dongfang, you should go. Conservatively, the enemy’s strength may not be less than mine. I’d be hard-pressed to protect even myself, let alone you.”
The situation was clear. The two sects wanted to eliminate the evil cultivators, while the evil cultivators needed large numbers of corpses or living people to refine Blood Pills. This battle was inevitable.
“Understood.”
Dongfang Xiaotian nodded, glancing toward Four Sages Academy. “Is there anything else I should know?”
Seeing Dongfang Xiaotian still hadn’t left, Xiao Yuanqing shook his head and said, “I came here only for you, Brother Dongfang. There’s nothing else. Are you really planning to stay?”
“Yeah. After all, I have junior brothers and sisters to look after.”
Dongfang Xiaotian smiled. “You go on ahead. Maybe we can help each other later.”
“I suppose so. Fate will decide.”
Xiao Yuanqing let out a soft sigh and gave a respectful clasp of his hands. “If you need anything, head for the Great Hall of the Three Sects Battle from back in the day.”
With that, Xiao Yuanqing walked off into the thick miasma.
Dongfang Xiaotian looked toward the Four Sages Academy camp and sighed.
Yishen, Dingchou, Kuizi…
Although Dongfang Xiaotian couldn’t make out each person in the Four Sages Academy, every point of light he saw represented something with spiritual power—either an item or a person.
By filtering out the ones that were constantly moving (obviously people), the rest underneath were formation flags.
Besides the already-laid Protective Formation of Four Sages Academy and the Black Tortoise Guardian Star Array, there were other, unfamiliar things mixed in among the formations.
“Wooden Ox Trapped Beast, Earth Dragon Drinks Blood Stance… Quite the expert—this is a big problem.”
Dongfang Xiaotian sat cross-legged right there, feeling a headache coming on.
The enemy’s intentions were clear—not to destroy the formation, but to turn the Black Tortoise Guardian Star Array against Four Sages Academy.
But changing a formation that’s already set up, with all the cores and nodes already connected, is like trying to add a new function to a huge pile of messy code that’s already written.
Just from that alone, he could tell the person setting up the formations was a true expert. The most troublesome part was, Dongfang Xiaotian had never seen the formation the other side used…
But just because he hadn’t seen it didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything about it.
Still, looking at this massive formation being turned into such a mess, with dozens—maybe even hundreds—of nodes and seven or eight core positions, and not a single person noticing, Dongfang Xiaotian couldn’t help but mutter,
“They’re about to be infiltrated like a sieve—what are those people even doing?”
But then, thinking it over, he realized it probably wasn’t their fault.
It must be Little Junior Brother’s protagonist halo lowering the IQ of all the friendly NPCs.
***
Shaozong Camp
“What are you Evil God Cult bastards even good for?!”
Li Shihua glared at the two evil cultivators reporting back. First, he pointed at the first one, “I sent you to capture a dying elder from Four Sages Academy, and you almost all died on the way back!”
Then he pointed at the other, “And you’re even worse. All you had to do was catch three juniors! Late-stage Foundation Establishment, and you got played by three little kids!”
“Useless! Completely useless!”
Li Shihua really couldn’t understand it—how had he managed to screw up such a good setup so badly?
Only one slowpoke who couldn’t keep up with Liu Bingchan from Four Sages Academy made it back alive, and another with a special trick managed to escape from Xiao Yuanqing’s swift sword, but lost an arm in the process.
The two evil cultivators now knelt on one knee, enduring the curses of this dog of a man. If not for the “Sage” ordering them to obey him before leaving, they’d have torn him apart right now!
The first one didn’t mind so much, as he’d missed the chaos because he was slow.
But seeing the carnage at the scene—chests caved in, the strongest one’s face turned into a washbasin…who knows what kind of monster they’d run into!
The other just wanted to curse out loud.
Unable to hold it in, he looked up at Li Shihua. “Old man, you owe me an explanation! You said it would be three juniors, so why did a half-step Golden Core show up?! And from your own Shaozong Camp, too!”
The evil cultivator stared daggers at Li Shihua, his murderous intent impossible to hide.
Li Shihua paused, realizing it was that brat Xiao Yuanqing. He couldn’t help cursing Xiao Yuanqing inwardly—if only he’d kept his head down, nothing would’ve happened. Always meddling!
Still, Li Shihua wasn’t too bothered. He’d known Xiao Yuanqing had it in for him for a while, so it wasn’t surprising he’d do something like this in retaliation, though he hadn’t expected him to react so quickly.
But he didn’t care about these lowlife evil cultivators’ minor rebellion. As long as his sister was still with Shaozong Camp, there was nothing they could do.
Naturally, Li Shihua felt no need to explain anything to these nobodies. He simply stared coldly at the angry, one-armed evil cultivator.
“Two pieces of trash want to rebel now?”
Li Shihua’s expression turned cold. As a late-stage Foundation Establishment elder, he certainly wouldn’t fear a pair of low-level evil cultivators.
“I don’t even need to handle you myself! Fourth Brother!”
At his call, a burly, muscular man with a deep sword scar across his chest strode over, radiating an oppressive aura that made the evil cultivator unconsciously retreat a step.
That Foundation Establishment evil cultivator could tell at a glance—this was a body cultivator! And one who’d reached the second realm, the Visceral Training stage!
Within five meters, against another in the second realm, body cultivators had an overwhelming advantage!
“Kid, you’ve got good bones. I’ll use you to make a Blood Pill for my big brother!”
As he spoke, he reached out a massive hand to seize the evil cultivator!