Under everyone’s watching gaze, Shen Yi, as though he hadn’t heard Yu Yuehu’s warning, stepped straight into the transport formation.
At the sight, those few Mixed Origin Grandmasters hesitated briefly, then swiftly followed. The ink-robed young man’s earlier ease in battling three upper-tier demon kings was still vivid before their eyes. Beyond strength, his background was surely no ordinary thing either — so he needn’t necessarily fear that Xuanguang Cave. With Zhang Chenlin’s haughty temperament, a clash with this Senior later was likely unavoidable. And with the Senior taking the lead, even if they lent a hand themselves, could Xuanguang Cave really remember every last one of them?
Figures vanished one after another into the formation. Its glow grew ever dimmer.
Every Mixed Origin Grandmaster summoned their path infant, making ready to fight.
The next moment, a great crowd of figures appeared before them. The several dozen people of the Eight-Direction Dining Hall had gathered outside the estate. At their head, apart from Miss Mei, stood a burly, thick-necked old man before her, wearing a greasy long coat, a smoking-pipe clutched in his callus-covered palm.
At the sight, Yu Yuehu instinctively let out a breath. For the Eight-Direction Dining Hall to step in was surely to talk Xuanguang Cave down. Only, they’d never taken part in others’ affairs — what had gotten into them today?
In his puzzlement, Yu Yuehu soon found Zhang Chenlin’s figure, and then his pupils contracted. The reason he hadn’t spotted the man at a glance was that this proud-faced Xuanguang Cave disciple was now bowing in salute, like a servant beside a wealthy household. Arrogant before, deferential after — utterly ridiculous.
Beside Zhang Chenlin, a youth with tender features stood with his hands at his sides, hair bound in a topknot, in a plain long robe, cloth shoes on his feet. Red-lipped and white-toothed indeed, his face a touch on the round side. At the sight of him, even the several Mixed Origin Grandmasters just out of the formation hurriedly put away their weapons and cupped their fists together. “We greet Perfected Master Qingfeng.”
Yu Yuehu, holding his brother, couldn’t salute, and could only substitute a bowed head.
No wonder the Eight-Direction Dining Hall’s people had come out. So it was that a Wutong Mountain Perfected Master had arrived.
Never mind that Perfected Master Qingfeng ranked youngest among Wutong Mountain’s twelve disciples — with his strength, set against the Thousand Demon Den’s side, he was at least a demon emperor of the top-twenty dens. An indisputably great figure!
“No need for courtesy.”
Perfected Master Qingfeng nodded slightly, then swept his gaze over the crowd. “Inside there — did you see any demons?”
“I’ve been keeping watch here the whole time…” Zhang Chenlin lifted his head, meaning to explain, but the youth merely shot him a glance, which had him hurriedly shutting his mouth.
“Reporting to Perfected Master Qingfeng — we did!”
Before anyone else could speak, Yu Yuehu forcibly bit down the hatred in his heart and struggled to keep calm.
“Of the Thousand Demon Den?” The youth lifted an eyelid.
Those few Mixed Origin Grandmasters all answered, “That’s right. There was the Golden-Saber Demon King, the Dark-Wind Demon King, and also…”
“You’re talking rot!”
Zhang Chenlin gnashed his teeth in fury, turning his head to switch to a savage expression. “How is it I saw no demons? And besides, my uncle-master is still inside! With sorry goods like you lot, had you truly met those several demon kings, could you have come out alive?”
At this, the several Mixed Origin Grandmasters’ faces went slightly cold. But by unspoken accord they left out the matter of Zheng Zisheng. “That we couldn’t best the demon kings is true, but there was a Senior who struck to rescue us — and that’s no concern of yours.”
Their earlier striking against Zheng Zisheng, they now conveniently dumped wholesale onto the demons.
Perfected Master Qingfeng watched the transport formation vanishing at a rate visible to the eye, still no figure continuing to step out. Then he spared the ink-robed young man at the very front of the crowd another glance. Who this “Senior” the several men spoke of might be, one could glimpse from where they stood.
With that, he patted Zhang Chenlin on the shoulder and said blandly, “My condolences.”
“You talk r—”
Zhang Chenlin instinctively made to curse back, then trembled all over, and slapped himself across the face with a crack, explaining, “Perfected Master, calm your anger — I’m simply too worried for my uncle-master.”
“No matter. I came too late.”
The youth withdrew his hand, shook his head, and turned to walk toward the Eight-Direction Dining Hall.
This simple action startled everyone else. The meaning of those words… could it be the Thousand Demon Den had ambushed Xuanguang Cave’s Perfected Master Zhang inside the estate, and succeeded?!
Aqing and Chen Zhong, of course, knew things weren’t as the crowd imagined. But at this moment both watched their own noses and minded their own hearts. Merely for having stood by and watched Zhang Mingyang fall was enough for Xuanguang Cave to want their lives — never mind that the Xu family and Great Qian were already at odds with Xuanguang Cave to begin with.
“Perfected Master Qingfeng!”
Zhang Chenlin suddenly called out to him. “Could you tell me which one it was?”
The youth halted his steps, mused an instant, and said uncertainly, “The White-Feather Demon Emperor?”
“But why would…”
Zhang Chenlin’s figure swayed slightly, as though he could scarcely keep his feet. The fall of a Spirit-Transformation Perfected Master was, even for Xuanguang Cave, a loss hard to accept.
“Uh.”
The youth turned back, masking the awkwardness in his eyes. “I’m not too clear on that either.”
At these words, Miss Mei and the old man instinctively looked away.
Why?
Because the ingredients Senior Nie had brought were the Blood-Transmuting Demon Emperor of the Thousand Demon Den’s Nineteenth Den. This was absolutely a catastrophe out of nowhere, enough to make every power shut its doors and stay in. They could already all but picture the enraged Thousand Demon Den — just how many lives it would take as the price to quell its fury.
The rest was one thing, but the Eight-Direction Dining Hall, Great Qian, and Xuanguang Cave certainly couldn’t escape — the former the cook, the latter the ally. Wutong Mountain had only twelve disciples all told, each more formidable than the last. Nie Jun naturally feared no reprisal; with his temperament, should the Eight-Direction Dining Hall or an allied power run into any trouble, he’d simply take his revenge back at the time. Luckily, Perfected Master Qingfeng still had a measure of mercy in him, going all over the realm cleaning up the loose ends for his senior brother.
At the thought, Mei Xiyao quietly glanced toward the crowd. So many had gone in, yet fewer than half had come out, and even the Mixed Origin Grandmasters had suffered grievous casualties. She’d noticed the ink-robed young man at the very front of the crowd earlier. No wonder he’d spoken with such confidence when leaving. So it was a powerhouse with true skill to back him.
“If you don’t find it beneath you, I’ll ask you all to rest a while at our Eight-Direction Dining Hall. We’ve prepared fine dishes to receive you.”
As Miss Mei’s clear, pleasant voice rang out, everyone let out a breath. At least before Perfected Master Qingfeng, this Zhang Chenlin shouldn’t dare bring up any more talk of searching people. And looking again at the man’s pale-white face, they suddenly felt no small measure of vindication.
Serves him right!
“…”
Shen Yi listened quietly, and was fairly satisfied with this outcome too. It wasn’t that he found that Xuanguang Cave extreme-peak Mixed Origin Grandmaster difficult to handle — after the Nine Demons Transmutation Method had been raised once more, so long as he didn’t run into some heterodox trick he couldn’t understand, and everyone met head-on and hard, within the Mixed Origin realm he ought to count as a first-rate existence. But inside the estate and outside were, after all, different. Outside there were many eyes and mixed motives. Best not to waste precious accumulated faith on needless grievances — compared to demons, the cost-effectiveness of slaying cultivators was simply too low. And besides, with Xuanguang Cave’s foundation, should it truly turn its full force against him, that would be genuine great trouble.
(End of Chapter 274)