Shiqi hesitated for quite a while, but in the end, she still didn’t give Hua Jian a definite answer.
“I’ll come with you to take a look,” was all she said.
If Hua Jian and the others succeeded in stopping that conspiracy, and if there were still any members of the Gang Wolf Legion alive, she would simply take in all the defeated remnants of the Gang Wolf Legion.
If Hua Jian and the others failed, and the Gang Wolf Legion was wiped out, she could use the opportunity to help Linglong and Hua Jian escape.
Shiqi’s goal had always been clear: take out the people from the Gang Wolf Legion. As for everything else, she’d do it if she could.
“That’s fine, though I have no idea how to stop her, honestly.” Hua Jian glanced at Linglong, her eyes pleading for help.
Saintess, you’re the one who came up with the plan—say something.
Linglong said nothing, only spread her hands to show she had no idea what to do either.
No clues, no plan; all they had was hot-blooded courage and recklessness.
Truly worthy of a dragon…
“We’ll have to enter the Flower Sea to find out what’s going on. Standing here and guessing does no good,” Linglong offered in her own defense.
She did want to stop Bai Hua Zun Zhe, but right now, they didn’t have the slightest idea what Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s plan was.
Even a clever woman cannot cook without rice.
They’d have to go into the Flower Sea to check out the situation first.
“I’ll let the Protectorate Supervisor’s senior brothers know what’s happening here, then we’ll head to the Flower Sea!”
Linglong took out her Communication Jade Talisman and reported the situation to her senior brothers at the Hudaosi.
But for some reason, after sending the message, she received no reply at all.
After waiting a little while, Linglong reluctantly put away her jade talisman.
Well, the message was sent—she could only continue with the plan now.
The three of them gathered their things and rushed toward the Flower Sea without delay.
Not long ago, the White Flower Sea had been peaceful, but now a good portion of it was destroyed, and everywhere cultivators were locked in fierce combat.
Hua Jian and Linglong had gone back and forth; by now, dusk had turned to deep night, but the Flower Sea was still bustling like a marketplace.
Spirit Techniques flew through the sky in every direction; corpses were scattered across the ground, and if you weren’t careful, you’d step on some strange human body part.
Linglong took out a Night-Luminescent Pearl from her Storage Pouch.
The gentle white light illuminated the area around the three of them.
“There’s a dead body over there. I’m going to check it out.” Seeing a shriveled corpse in the light, Hua Jian said a word to Linglong and ran over to examine it.
To understand Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s true plan, investigating these corpses was absolutely necessary.
Fenghua Venerable had said Bai Hua Zun Zhe wanted to use a blood sacrifice to refine a human body—so how would Bai Hua Zun Zhe obtain so much blood?
Maybe the answer was hidden in these shriveled corpses.
Hua Jian approached the body and saw at a glance that it was nothing but skin stretched over bone; all the flesh and internal organs were gone without a trace.
Reaching out to summon Xiteng, Hua Jian tried to flip the corpse, but was surprised to find it seemed to be anchored to the ground by something.
She gave it a hard pull and managed to wrench the corpse free.
Turned out there were many thin little vines growing under the corpse, piercing into its body and fixing it to the ground.
“So that’s it…” Hua Jian immediately guessed how the corpse’s flesh had disappeared.
She gently tapped the vines under the corpse with her own Xiteng, wanting to glimpse Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s arrangement.
But these vines were extremely cunning. As Hua Jian’s Xiteng approached, they shrank back into the soil, giving her no chance at all.
And Hua Jian’s range of absolute control over vines was only about a meter.
She couldn’t dig three feet down to chase those retreating tendrils.
Bai Hua Zun Zhe had indeed said she wouldn’t stop them, but apparently never said she couldn’t run away either.
“Any cultivator who dies in the Flower Sea will have their blood and flesh drained away. Staying here is pointless—we need to head directly to the center.” Hua Jian returned to Linglong and told her so.
There were simply too many cultivators fighting here. Even if they stopped one or two skirmishes, plenty more would keep slaughtering each other elsewhere—they couldn’t stop it all.
To stop Bai Hua Zun Zhe, they had to go straight to the center of the Flower Sea.
That had to be the critical point of the plan, their only hope.
“All that collected blood and flesh must have somewhere to go, and it can only be there.” Hua Jian didn’t overthink it, just used the simplest logic to deduce Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s actions.
From several interactions, she’d basically figured out this venerable’s personality: simple, direct, without much in the way of human feelings.
With a person like that, the plan definitely wouldn’t be as convoluted as a human venerable’s.
She didn’t need to play such tricks.
Doing things openly, nobody would stop her—why bother making things complicated?
Don’t they know, the more complex a plan, the more likely it is to fail?
“Alright, then let’s go straight to the center of the Flower Sea!” Linglong nodded immediately.
“Eh? The baleful aura is soaring—that’s a big scene!”
In the woods, Huaxinyuan, wearing a black robe, looked into the distance. Surprise flickered across her face.
Though it was still some way off, she could already see a pillar of blood-red light rising into the sky in that direction—something terrifying was definitely happening there.
“Which Spirit Beast Lord is flying into a rage and purging cultivators this time?”
“Maybe there’s no rage at all… Huaxinyuan, look over there.” Qian Feixue, however, didn’t focus on the place where the aura soared, but kept gazing at another spot in the night sky.
Following Qian Feixue’s gaze, Huaxinyuan could faintly see a few small specks entangled in midair.
She narrowed her eyes and channeled her spiritual power for a closer look.
“Hudaosi and Tianmomen? Why are they fighting here?”
One side was a storm of murderous intent; the other was a battle between Hudaosi and Tianmomen’s Ling Emperors.
Huaxinyuan found it odd—why were all these things happening at once?
Oh well, let Hudaosi and Tianmomen fight if they want to. It had nothing to do with her.
Don’t forget, back in Huiyue City, Huaxinyuan had been hassled by Tianmomen’s Ling Emperor.
And Wanhuagu girls weren’t known for their broad hearts—unfortunately, Huaxinyuan was no exception.
She’d be doing well not to trip up Tianmomen; help them? Impossible!
“Let’s go. We should check that place out…” She was about to pull Qian Feixue away, when suddenly a crisp command rang in her ear.
After listening, she slapped her face a couple times to make sure she hadn’t misheard, and then her mood instantly plummeted.
“What’s wrong? You look like a deflated ball.” Qian Feixue’s lips curled with a sly smile—she looked just like an old fox who already knew the truth but pretended not to.
This woman, she must’ve expected this long ago, right? Huaxinyuan glared fiercely at Qian Feixue.
She’d sensed something was off from the start. Qian Feixue seemed to have been tempting her to come all along. Now she understood—this was a trap!
Qian Feixue! You knew it would turn out this way, didn’t you!
“I have to go help that guy,” Huaxinyuan ground out.
“Oh? Need my help?”
“If you dare walk away, I’ll tear your chapel down when we get back!”
Covering her lips, Qian Feixue put on a show of fear. “Oh my, if you threaten me like that, I guess I have no choice but to obey.”
Anyone could see she wasn’t the least bit afraid of Huaxinyuan’s threat. But it didn’t matter. All she needed was an excuse to act.
And Huaxinyuan had given her that excuse.
“So you knew all along?” Huaxinyuan demanded, none too pleasantly. “Even the Elder was part of your scheming?”
Qian Feixue naturally shook her head, pressed her palms together, and replied devoutly, “It was Ancestor’s Guidance.”
Ancestor’s Guidance, my foot. Huaxinyuan turned away, seething. If you’re going to give an excuse, at least make it convincing—your ancestor has nothing better to do?
After all these years since ascending to immortality, is she still worrying about her non-blood-related descendants?
Huaxinyuan was truly angry. The Elder had instructed her to help Tianmomen’s Ling Emperor hold back Hudaosi’s Ling Emperor—they couldn’t let them leave.
But the Elder hadn’t said she had to keep that Tianmomen Ling Emperor alive.
The subtext: as long as Huaxinyuan could hold off Hudaosi’s Ling Emperor, the Tianmomen Ling Emperor could die.
That was why Huaxinyuan asked Qian Feixue for help. She couldn’t stall two Hudaosi Ling Emperors alone, but with Qian Feixue’s help, she could.
And when the delay was over, they could conveniently finish off that Tianmomen Ling Emperor and offer him up to Hudaosi.
Hmph, let’s see you strut for a couple more days. Huaxinyuan muttered under her breath.
A seven-colored glow slowly bloomed behind her, and a cloud of flower petals lifted her as she flew toward the three Ling Emperors locked in battle.
She cleared her throat and called out loudly, “Fellow Daoist of Tianmomen, don’t be afraid—I’ve come to help you!”
……
Clang!
Shiqi raised her sword to block the blade stabbing toward her, putting her whole strength into it to barely force her opponent back two steps.
“You want to fight our Gang Wolf Legion for the treasure? Go to hell!”
A bald cultivator wielding a giant sword howled madly, lunging at Shiqi like a lunatic.
The huge sword came crashing down, but Shiqi didn’t flinch.
With a sidestep, she dodged the bald cultivator’s attack, and while he was wide open from the missed swing, she stabbed at his waist.
Rip!
The Black Sword struck the cultivator’s clothes, but the seemingly thin fabric actually deflected Shiqi’s thrust, causing the blade to skate off with a shower of sparks.
Whoosh! Pop!
Before the bald cultivator could even rejoice, a bullet shot over and smashed into his head, knocking him aside and sending him rolling across the ground several times before he struggled up again.
Hua Jian clicked her tongue in annoyance. These cultivators’ physical defenses were still too strong—not even a bullet to the head could kill them.
What she’d just fired was a regular Jade Marrow Bullet, nothing special, just pure kinetic force.
Its advantage was it could be made fast; its disadvantage was its lethality against cultivators was low—run into a tough target and it was almost useless.
But as a tool for breaking up the fight, it worked pretty well.
Having helped Shiqi drive back the bald cultivator from the Gang Wolf Legion, Hua Jian glanced to the other side—Linglong was going all-out, battling three Spirit Masters from different factions at once, and she wasn’t falling behind at all.
As for why they were fighting these cultivators… well, obviously, because they all wanted to reach the Flower Sea’s center.
Originally, this group had been fighting each other. Hua Jian and the other two had tried to sneak past unnoticed.
But the others weren’t blind—once they saw the three girls trying to slip by, they immediately targeted them.
And so, these top Spirit Masters from various factions rushed over, pulling Hua Jian’s group into the chaos.
The situation was very complicated. The cultivators were fighting Hua Jian’s group and each other at the same time.
The one Shiqi was fighting was the Gang Wolf Legion’s Second King. The Third King was now fighting with Hei Long Gang’s Protector.
The three Linglong was fighting included a top member of the Thorn Serpent Society, a Gang Wolf Legion expert, and a rogue cultivator.
Their overall strength wasn’t so high, but under Linglong’s pressure, they actually fought even harder, barely withstanding her Thunder Escape.
Right now, inside the Flower Sea, cultivators were battling in clusters by strength: the weakest played in the outer ring, the better ones formed a ring around Hua Jian’s group, and the strongest—Ling Kings—fought while moving toward the center.
“Linglong, can’t you hurry up and kill these guys?” Hua Jian shouted to Linglong.
“I can’t! There’s too many of them!” Linglong wanted to break free quickly too, but she was just a genius, not cheating.
There were nearly twenty expert Spirit Masters in this melee—there was no way she could take them all out at once.