The other members of the Magic Path did not agree with Hua Jian’s idea, and the two sides began to openly feud in front of everyone.
During the infighting, Xia Hui tore off the masks of those Magic Path members, making it impossible for their identities to remain hidden any longer.
“Are you all stupid? Hua Jian wants to save people, these Magic Path members won’t let her. Of course we have to help Hua Jian!”
A voice suddenly rang out from the crowd. A cultivator directly charged out from the masses, rushing towards the demonic cultivator who was currently engaged in a great battle with Shiqi.
Although both sides were from the Magic Path, Hua Jian’s current goal was to save people. They could also ride on Hua Jian’s coattails, so why not help her?
Helping one faction of the Magic Path kill another faction of the Magic Path was still killing demonic cultivators, right?
Forget it! Kill first, think later!
With him taking the lead, a large number of cultivators began to follow their own hearts, shouting as they pounced on those who had already been exposed as members of the Magic Path.
Their strength was certainly no match for these demonic cultivators, but don’t forget that the cultivation limit in the current secret realm was fixed, at only the peak of the Spirit Master Realm.
Within the same tier, the tactic of overwhelming with numbers still had some effect.
A single demonic cultivator being ganged up on by dozens of people wouldn’t be able to hold out for too long.
Just as the crowd was being stirred up by Xia Hui, Hua Jian finally touched the colorful branches and leaves descending from the sky.
The colorful vines growing from her body came into contact with the colorful branches and leaves hanging down from the sky. The two almost instantly merged into one.
Hua Jian’s consciousness went blank. In that moment, everything seemed to lose its original meaning.
She forgot everything, forgot her own identity, forgot what she was supposed to do.
Her colorful eyes became vacant. She seemed to have become a real plant, able to act only on instinct.
And her current instinct told her that she was hungry, she wanted to devour this world.
The moment this thought was born, all the colorful branches and leaves in the secret realm simultaneously began to riot.
Their spreading speed became extremely fast.
Wherever they reached, the space completely shattered, and the fragments of the secret realm were rolled up, digested, and absorbed piece by piece by these branches and leaves.
The black-clothed cultivators, who could barely manage to block the spread of the branches and leaves before, were caught off guard, nearly wiped out by these vines within the spatial fragments.
Fortunately, the vines had no intention of actively attacking them.
These branches and leaves were only focused on shattering space and absorbing the power of the secret realm, completely disregarding them, which allowed them to escape with their lives.
“We can’t hold them back! Head to the center of the secret realm! There should still be a chance to defend there!”
The black-clothed cultivators did not know that the situation at the secret realm’s center was no better than theirs.
After Hua Jian connected with the branch, the branches and leaves hanging down from the sky tore the entire secret realm’s sky into fragments.
Now, the sky above the secret realm’s center was pitch black. The cultivators could look up and even see the plant’s true form hidden deep within the space.
It was a colorful flower slowly blooming.
“What on earth is going on?” The battle between Linglong and the Heavenly Dao Sect cultivator had already stopped. In this situation, continuing to fight was meaningless.
Those branches and leaves that were accelerating the shattering of space were the real crisis that needed to be solved.
“Its scale is too large. Miss Hua Jian cannot control it in a short time. Miss Hua Jian should be very confused right now.”
Flower petals gathered around Linglong. Xia Hui, who had just exposed the Magic Path spies, appeared beside Linglong.
“So?” Linglong knew that Xia Hui was coming for her this time.
“Right now, we need someone with a deep bond with Miss Hua Jian to awaken her. Otherwise, we can only wait for Miss Hua Jian to wake up on her own.”
Xia Hui pointed at the sky as she spoke.
“Although those branches and leaves won’t actively attack us, it will be quite troublesome if they devour the very ground we stand on.”
In the few moments it took to say these words, Linglong felt the spiritual power concentration of the place she was in drop significantly.
A large amount of spiritual power, freed from the constraints of the secret realm space, began to rapidly dissipate into the void.
No, it couldn’t be called dissipation. Those branches and leaves were absorbing this escaping spiritual power!
If they didn’t stop it quickly, this place would soon become a dead land without spiritual power.
By then, the cultivators wouldn’t be able to quickly replenish their spiritual power.
And many spirit techniques that required gathering spiritual power from the air would also become unusable, such as the Thunder Magic Linglong commonly used.
It was equivalent to halving the combat power of the vast majority of cultivators.
“Not a single word you people say can be trusted.” Linglong still remembered the plan Xia Hui had explained to Hua Jian earlier, which bore no resemblance to the current situation.
They said everyone in the secret realm would be fine, but does this look like ‘fine’?
But then, remembering that the promise came from a Wanhuagu cultivator, it all became strangely normal.
It was a promise from Wanhuagu. If you believed it, you had to be prepared to be tricked. If there were any other way, no one would truly believe Wanhuagu’s words.
“At least that last sentence was true. Consider it a gift we’re giving to the Saintess.” Xia Hui still wore her ever-present smile. “I don’t think you’ll refuse, right?”
With Wanhuagu bringing Hua Jian into it, Linglong naturally had no possibility of refusing.
She glared at Xia Hui somewhat angrily. “I’ll remember this.” With that, she flew straight into the sky, heading towards Hua Jian’s location.
“From here on out, it’s all up to fate.” Watching Linglong leave, Xia Hui returned to a state of clasping her hands, as if everything was now unrelated to her.
But even though she seemed to have completely let her guard down, the Heavenly Dao Sect cultivator standing only a few steps away from her didn’t dare to act rashly.
Even though she was a known Wanhuagu demonic cultivator, and the Heavenly Dao Sect cultivator should have charged at her to fight just like before.
The result, however, was that he didn’t dare to move.
He couldn’t predict the outcome if he made a move, but his intuition told him he couldn’t make this move.
When the risk outweighed the reward, even the Heavenly Dao Sect wouldn’t be as fiercely righteous as he had just acted.
This attitude earned him a glance from Xia Hui, her eyes filled with contempt.
“Hah, the Heavenly Dao Sect.”
Truly the most unpopular of the Saint Sects. Bullying the weak and fearing the strong to this extent, who could possibly respect them?
Full of energy when fighting amongst themselves, but when facing real members of the Magic Path, they become turtles hiding in their shells.
It truly answered the question she had asked Hua Jian not long ago.
Are good people destined to be bullied?
When dealing with these kinds of people, it’s better to be the bad guy.
A shrill, piercing bone whistle sound rang out in the dark space.
As spiritual power was poured into the whistle, this small bone whistle flew out from the Lingcaifeng Master’s hand.
A tidal wave of spiritual power surged out from the whistle, materializing a figure in the void.
The unique pressure of a Saint descended upon the space, forcefully suppressing the auras of the five Venerables back to the areas around their bodies.
Even if it was just a Saint’s avatar, its power was enough to suppress all the Venerables present.
After appearing, the avatar did not ask the Lingcaifeng Master about the current situation. Things had already reached this point; the avatar naturally knew who the enemy was this time.
Without hesitation, it raised its hand and swung a palm strike towards the branch that had shed its black color.
This palm strike was swung extremely slowly, yet it carried an unstoppable momentum.
Before the palm strike was fully executed, those branches and leaves were already pressed down by an invisible force, unable to raise their heads.
“This is the might of a Saint…” the Venerable Penglai murmured softly. No matter how many times she saw it, she would feel a deep sense of powerlessness.
Even though she was also a cultivator standing at the peak of the Spirit Lord Realm, she would still feel this powerless when facing a Saint’s avatar.
You have to understand, the combat power of an avatar was far inferior to the Saint’s true self, merely a tiny fraction of the Saint’s strength!
“Something’s wrong… those branches and leaves seem to be resisting!” The Venerable from the Heavenly Dao Sect suddenly shouted.
Under the might of the Saint’s palm strike, the colorful branches did not wait for death. Instead, they quickly gathered together, forming a giant bud in the darkness.
Then, that bud slowly bloomed. An aura not one bit inferior to the Saint’s avatar forcefully pushed back the palm wind.
Inside the bud, a translucent figure was curled up. As the bud fully bloomed, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she opened her eyes.
Her vacant, colorful eyes swept over everyone, finally fixing on the Saint’s avatar.
The next moment, the Saint’s avatar and she moved simultaneously.
The Venerables couldn’t see the battle between the two, but the aftermath of the fight forced them to retreat far away.
If a battle like this erupted in the Central Continent, Ascension City would probably be leveled in an instant. And this was merely a duel between two Saint avatars.
No wonder the Saints of the world never acted lightly. Even when they confronted each other, it was only to mutually deter.
If two Saints truly went to war, it would absolutely be a catastrophic disaster of heaven-shattering, earth-rending proportions. No one could bear the consequences.
“That shadow looks like Hua Jian. Am I seeing things?”
The Fenghua Venerable, forced back by the aftermath, stared at the distant colorful figure, momentarily doubting her own eyesight.
Although the translucent girl who awoke from the bud was completely different from the usual Hua Jian, this was only a difference in clothing.
Her facial features and figure were practically carved from the same mold.
Could it be that Hua Jian was actually a Saint?
That’s not a joke you can make!
“I think you saw correctly, but Hua Jian absolutely cannot be a Saint. This must be a divisive tactic by the Magic Path.” The Lingcaifeng Master answered without hesitation.
That translucent figure was indeed Hua Jian, but it was also different from Hua Jian.
The translucent figure was more like a spirit item that hadn’t fully taken human form. Various parts of her body bore characteristics of her true form.
For example, a circle of colorful flower rings grew on her head, and plant branches and leaves could be seen growing from her limbs.
Even her clothes were transformed from leaves and tender branches, completely different from the clothing worn by humans.
This translucent figure only had the appearance of a person, but lacked the essence a person should have. It was nothing but a fake!
Clap, clap, clap…
“Good eyes.”
As soon as the Lingcaifeng Master finished speaking, several clapping sounds rang out in the darkness.
Immediately after, a cluster of flower petals drifted out from the darkness.
“Everyone, have your Saint avatars stop. If this continues, none of the little ones in the secret realm will survive.”