“Newcomers, learn the battle procedures from the veterans. Don’t think about being a hero. As long as I’m here, I’m the only hero. Understand!”
“Understood!!!”
At this moment, the ambitious Hua Jian likely didn’t expect that her happy PVE life would soon be interrupted by waves, becoming much more… exciting.
……
On the Western Great Grassland of the Secret Realm, something terrifying was happening.
Ji Caiyue, ranked first on the Genius List, was being besieged by a group of masked Black-robed Men.
Fortunately, Ji Caiyue’s strength was extraordinary, and her followers protected her with all their might.
Otherwise, a tragedy like “The invincible Ji Caiyue has fallen” would surely have occurred.
“Fairy, please leave! Don’t worry about us. This must be the enemy’s decapitation plan — “
The Cultivator who was covering Ji Caiyue’s retreat hadn’t finished speaking before his chest was pierced by a Black-robed Man.
He looked forward in shock, but before he could say anything, a Black-robed Man flying in from the side raised his blade and brought it down, decapitating him instantly.
The round head hadn’t rolled twice before it was crushed into a mess of red and white by the Black-robed Man’s foot.
His headless corpse was also casually swatted aside by the attacker.
“Truly loyal. But the price of loyalty is your lives.” The Black-robed Man spoke to Ji Caiyue in a mocking, sarcastic tone.
Ji Caiyue couldn’t help but cover her mouth at the horrific scene. Logically, shouldn’t that Cultivator have turned into white light and disappeared?
Why did it end up like this…
Is he… dead?
“Hahaha, look at that! She looks so surprised. Did you think this was some house-playing game we were doing with you?”
A Black-robed Man let out a burst of frenzied laughter. His words caused Ji Caiyue’s pupils to contract.
Although she was the Fairy in everyone’s hearts, she was ultimately a small flower grown in a greenhouse, never having truly faced real storms.
In Ascension City, how could she have ever seen such an impactful scene?
And the tone of these people was very strange, giving her a very bad premonition.
“Fairy, this place isn’t safe. Leave quickly!” the people around her shouted to remind her.
“Let’s go!” Ji Caiyue took a deep breath, etching the scene of dark clouds covering the sky into her heart. She began to retreat with the guards still surrounding her.
She wanted to take the Cultivators back to the main camp to discuss things with the others, but on the way back, she encountered one of her partners, another Heavenly Talent on the Genius List.
When they found him, the genius was already heavily injured, his body covered in wounds and blood. Ji Caiyue barely recognized him.
“The camp was attacked. It was several very powerful Ling Kings. We couldn’t fight them. Everyone has been scattered.”
After being fed a healing Alchemy Pill by Ji Caiyue, the genius finally recovered slightly and told her about the situation at the main camp in fragments.
At the same time Ji Caiyue was attacked, their main camp had also been assaulted. But unlike the Black-robed Men besieging Ji Caiyue, there were only a few attackers at the main camp.
The number was small, but the impact was disastrous. All of these Black-robed Men were at the Ling King Realm.
As soon as they rushed into the camp, they began to release large-scale attacks recklessly.
The weaker Cultivators in the camp were essentially killed or mortally wounded at the slightest touch.
Even more terrifying was that the Cultivators hit by these attacks did not turn into white light and disappear; they truly left behind corpses.
The corpses left on the ground quickly melted into blood water, from which terrifying Monsters grew and began to attack the other Cultivators.
It was a total slaughter. Faced with the strength of a Ling King, the Cultivators in the main camp had almost no power to fight back.
Any who tried to resist were swatted away with a casual palm strike.
This genius had been heavily injured in that manner and had stumbled his way out.
“It’s all over. Fairy, it’s useless for you to go back now. That place has become a land of death!”
“What on earth is going on? Has something gone wrong with the Ascension Gathering? But why hasn’t the Saint Sect done anything…?”
Before Ji Caiyue could finish, a Floating Pavilion appeared in the distant sky, falling rapidly like a meteor toward the ground.
As a tremor vibrated beneath her feet, a massive mushroom cloud faintly appeared in the distance.
It seemed the Saint Sect couldn’t be relied upon.
“That’s the main camp of that Alliance. It wasn’t just us who were attacked…” Ji Caiyue recognized the place where the pavilion had fallen.
This attack wasn’t just targeting her camp. The other side, which they had fought for so many days, had also been hit. And it seemed they had suffered even greater losses.
After all, her side hadn’t been hit like that.
“What do we do now?”
“Go East. The enemies are coming from the West. There might still be a chance for survival in the East!”
Quickly suppressing the schadenfreude in her heart, Ji Caiyue pointed East and said to the group, “This is no longer a problem we can solve. We must quickly find the seniors of the Saint Sect and let them handle this!”
Ji Caiyue had already made her decision, while her rival was currently in a state of confusion over who was attacking him and why.
The most bewildered was undoubtedly the gentleman known as the Justice Swordsman.
While dealing with several black-robed attackers, he frowned, trying to figure out the situation.
The camp had turned into a sea of fire. The falling pavilion from moments ago had directly crushed the Grand Array they used to protect the camp.
The genius presiding over the Array was now of unknown status, and the swordsman couldn’t break free from the pursuit of these Black-robed Men to save him. At a time like this, it was every man for himself.
After fleeing for a while, he finally saw an acquaintance. Ji Caiyue’s Fiancé was also being chased by several Black-robed Men.
Compared to the swordsman, who could still parry a few blows, the Fiancé’s performance could only be described as pathetic.
Facing these enemies who showed absolutely no mercy, this nouveau riche-like Cultivator didn’t even have the courage to fight back.
He only cared about running for his life, leaving his attendants to cover his rear.
Previously, the attendants might have been willing to risk their lives for the promises he made, but now, once they realized the Token’s teleportation ability seemed to have failed, everything changed.
When death was real, the Young Master’s wealth was useless. Cultivators weren’t stupid; money couldn’t buy their lives back.
“Brother Swordsman, I finally found you! Run! It’s all over! These guys are from the Magic Path!”
Upon seeing the Justice Swordsman, the Young Master shouted as he ran over, saying something that made the swordsman’s pupils shrink.
“The Magic Path?! How is that possible? How could they appear here…?”
“Who knows! The Saint Sect must have messed up and given the Magic Path an opening!”
The Young Master felt the matter wasn’t that hard to understand. Hadn’t the Saint Sect just been backstabbed by the Magic Path?
He had heard many stories about the friction between the Magic Path and the Saint Sect. Neither side was good!
Forget it, now wasn’t the time for this. Escaping was the only priority.
“Where is the girl you brought into the Secret Realm?”
“How can I worry about her now? I can’t even save my own life! I’m not wasting any more breath on you. I’m leaving!”
Yes, to let his lover witness his “heroic” defeat of Ji Caiyue, this Young Master had brought her into the Secret Realm.
Of course, this was only possible because she had also passed the Saint Sect’s preliminary selection; otherwise, no matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t have brought her in.
In the end, as soon as trouble arose, this guy had abandoned his lover without hesitation. He truly lived up to the title of a scoundrel.
The swordsman cursed inwardly and immediately set off to follow him.
He believed that the lover would surely find a way to stay safe.
……
“This Array should be completed like this… um, Miss Hua Jian, look and see if I’ve filled this in correctly?”
“Don’t bring that thing to me. I’m only better than you in terms of combat strength. I don’t know much about anything else.”
Hua Jian quickly shook her head, indicating she wasn’t a polymath.
“Look, there are plenty of cannon fodder over there. Let them try it first.”
She pointed out a clear path for the girl who had volunteered.
If they didn’t know if it worked, the answer was simple: find some cannon fodder to test it.
She had just counted; among the Cultivators she had recently recruited, there were many fire and wood elements. Including her, they had enough people.
“Let’s go, I’ll accompany you to try it.”
“Great!” The girl’s eyes sparkled, looking as if she were about to fall for Hua Jian.
But halfway there, a “roadblock” suddenly lunged out from the side and snatched Hua Jian away.
“I have something to talk to her about. You all head back.”
The person who appeared was the Jade Pool Maiden who had been monitoring Hua Jian and had essentially become her exclusive camera.
Hua Jian was confused, but the other party clearly didn’t want to give her a chance to refuse. She dragged and carried Hua Jian to Linglong’s side and set up a soundproofing barrier with a wave of her hand.
The gesture gave Hua Jian an ill omen. It was too serious. Could something have happened?
“My connection with the outside has been cut off. I contacted the Floating Pavilions, and their situation is the same.”
The Jade Pool Maiden went straight to the point, telling Linglong and Hua Jian about the current situation.
“Not only that, the Black Mist in the Secret Realm is showing signs of spreading, and the pavilions in the south and west haven’t replied for a long time.”
At a time like this, they couldn’t consider the possibility that the other party had just accidentally missed the message.
Thinking of the worst-case scenario, perhaps they had all been wiped out!
“So something did happen. I knew this Ascension Gathering wouldn’t be peaceful.” Hua Jian mumbled. Upon hearing these things, her emotion wasn’t shock but a sense of relief that the shoe had finally dropped.
How could a place where the Main Character’s group was present be peaceful? For a major event like the Ascension Gathering, could the Magic Path not come to join the chaos?
Before arriving in Ascension City, they had found clues that the Magic Path was attempting to interfere with the gathering. Now, those clues had finally converged here.
“Is it the work of the Magic Path?” Hua Jian asked.
“It can only be them.” The Jade Pool Maiden nodded.
Who else in this world would dare to strike at the Ascension Gathering other than the Magic Path? Was the Saint Sect’s blade not sharp enough, or did they think their lives were too long?
“But this shouldn’t be possible. Each Floating Pavilion is hidden high in the sky, and those guarding them are very powerful Spirit Masters. With the help of the pavilions, they don’t even fear the threat of a Ling King.”
“Even if they were ultimately defeated, they should have been able to send out some news. How could they disappear so silently!”
The Jade Pool Maiden grabbed her hair in frustration. This question was beyond her understanding.
“Maybe the Magic Path’s strength is too great. For instance, dozens of Ling Kings besieging them at once…”
Hua Jian hadn’t even finished her sentence before she was suppressed by the “stop guessing blindly” looks from both Linglong and the Jade Pool Maiden.
What did dozens of Ling Kings even mean? If three or four Ling Kings snuck in, that was the Saint Sect’s negligence.
If dozens snuck in, that meant the Saint Sect had practically opened the Secret Realm doors and invited the Magic Path in!
Even if the doors were opened, the Magic Path wouldn’t dare enter, fearing it was a “Strategy of the Empty City” and that they would be wiped out in one go.
“If that’s really the case, it only means there’s a super, super, super big traitor at the top!” The Jade Pool Maiden spread her arms to gesture.
That traitor would likely have to be at the level of a Venerable to pull off something like this.
“Fine, I was just guessing. So, how much power can we currently rally? I mean, Ling King Realm power.”
After Hua Jian asked this, the other two fell into silence.
None of the proctors were Ling Kings, and all the Ling Kings they could find right now were inside the Forbidden Lands.
And even if they gathered all of them, there were only three.
“Can three Ling Kings make your pavilions lose contact silently?” Hua Jian counted on her fingers and asked with a wry face.
“The difficulty is a bit high, but it’s not impossible.”
“Then can three Ling Kings create such a massive disturbance?” Hua Jian continued to press.
This question caused the Jade Pool Maiden’s expression to freeze completely.
If the spreading Black Mist was also considered the work of the Magic Path, she truly had to suspect there was a major traitor at the top.
Could it be that the Tiandao Sect had taken bribes from the Magic Path!
“The Black Mist and the Magic Path should be two different things. The appearance of the Black Mist is normal!” She forced an explanation, but she didn’t even believe it herself.
If she couldn’t even convince herself, then there was no point mentioning Hua Jian.
“Sigh, let’s just assume the enemy is very powerful. If this Black Mist is also the work of the Magic Path… do you think it’s too late for me to surrender to the Wanhuagu?”
The Jade Pool Maiden’s eyes widened, but before she could speak, Linglong had already rapped Hua Jian hard on the head.
“Don’t say such things at a time like this.”
Linglong knew Hua Jian was joking, but in this situation, one couldn’t even make jokes.
Even she, the person who trusted Hua Jian the most, had momentarily considered the possibility of Hua Jian defecting.
If a stray comment led to Hua Jian being treated as a traitor, who would she turn to for justice?
” I just said it casually. Besides, it’s not certain that people from the Wanhuagu have even entered, right?”
“You can’t even say it casually. Things like this are not to be joked about. If someone takes it seriously, even I won’t be able to protect you.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.