While harmony reigned within the Crimson Blood Sect, the Nine Abyss Sect faced a rather gloomy atmosphere.
The Nine Abyss Sect Leader valued his life greatly. When facing Zhu Baiyi, whose strength matched his own, he could still fight for the greater cause. But when his opponent suddenly changed from one Great Achievent cultivator to two, he fled quickly upon realizing he was outmatched.
Naturally, having escaped swiftly enough, he hadn't suffered any injuries, and his subordinates who followed his lead had mostly managed to escape as well. If this were all, the Nine Abyss Sect Leader would have rely lost so face, with plenty of opportunities to regain his lost dignity in the future. However, when he returned to his rear base and discovered the ground outside the demonic vessel littered with dead Elders and high-ranking disciples, his composure imdiately began to crumble.
"What happened? Why are so many people dead?!" The Nine Abyss Sect Leader, his face grim, asked while suppressing his anger.
The only ones who could answer this question were the disciples who had remained inside the demonic vessel—Qingyu and her companions had long since vanished without a trace, but their earlier ghostly ambushes against returning Nine Abyss Sect mbers had been clearly witnessed by those inside the vessel. They had gone from hopeful to terrified, until finally almost all were scared out of their wits, so much so that even long after Qingyu and her companions had left, these people didn't dare deactivate the protective formation.
Only when the Nine Abyss Sect Leader returned with his forces did the disciples inside the demonic vessel nervously deactivate the protective formation, only to imdiately face their Sect Leader's thunderous rage. The disciple who went out to greet them instantly went weak in the knees and knelt down: "S-Sect Leader, powerful experts launched a sneak attack."
The Nine Abyss Sect Leader was filled with rage, especially when he discovered that among the dead Elders were three at the Fusion realm, which caused him imasurable heartache—Fusion realm cultivators weren't common like cabbages, nor would they easily defect. So these three dead Fusion realm Elders had all been personally cultivated by Nine Abyss Sect. Heaven knows how many resources the sect had invested in them, yet before he could complete his grand undertaking, they had perished here!
Hearing the disciple's words, the Nine Abyss Sect Leader asked with a gloomy face: "How many attackers were there, and were they all Fusion realm?"
The disciple trembled fearfully, carefully replying: "There were four or five people, with concealed identities. However, it seems they weren't just Fusion realm; there might, might have been a Great Achievent cultivator among them. Fifth Elder was killed as soon as he appeared, and the other Elders couldn't even escape back to the vessel..."
Upon hearing that a Great Achievent cultivator had participated in the ambush, the Nine Abyss Sect Leader's eyelid twitched severely as he pressed further: "What did this Great Achievent cultivator look like?"
The disciple dared not delay and hurriedly answered: "It was a female cultivator dressed in white clothes, wielding a spiritual sword. As for other details... due to our insufficient cultivation and poor eyesight, we couldn't discern much else."
This answer was already sufficient—a white-robed female sword cultivator, wasn't that precisely the person who had joined forces with the Crimson Blood Sect Leader on the battlefield? The Nine Abyss Sect Leader had previously doubted her identity, but now he suspected that person might be a hidden Great Achievent cultivator from Crimson Blood Sect. Otherwise, why would she bring people to ambush their vessel, and why would she join forces with the Crimson Blood Sect Leader on the battlefield?
The Nine Abyss Sect Leader simply couldn't understand—he had clearly bribed high-ranking Elders within Crimson Blood Sect and obtained considerable intelligence, so why hadn't there been even the slightest ntion of this Great Achievent cultivator in the reports? Was it because the Elder didn't know, or had he been deceived?!
The naturally suspicious Nine Abyss Sect Leader imdiately asked his confidant: "Has Elder Shi from Crimson Blood Sect appeared today or sent any ssages?"
Upon hearing this, the confidant imdiately replied: "In response to the Sect Leader, no. Elder Shi hasn't appeared today, and the other Elders who have connections with us didn't show up on the battlefield either. Communications have been cut off... This subordinate suspects they might have been exposed?"
Hearing this, the Nine Abyss Sect Leader pondered before shaking his head uncertainly: "Not necessarily. These people deceived , never ntioning that Crimson Blood Sect had such a Great Achievent cultivator."
The four major demonic sects had comparable strength, with Sect Leaders all at the Great Achievent realm, but each sect actually had more than one Great Achievent cultivator. While so might be too engrossed in cultivation to bother with worldly affairs, or perhaps lack the strength of the Sect Leader and thus remain in secondary positions, the existence of such powerful experts would certainly not go unnoticed—the four sects might not know every detail about each other's strengths, but they absolutely wouldn't miss a Great Achievent cultivator.
Hearing this, the confidant thought for a mont before carefully speculating: "Perhaps that Great Achievent cultivator isn't necessarily from Crimson Blood Sect?"
After listening, the Nine Abyss Sect Leader shook his head without hesitation: "How many Great Achievent cultivators are there in the entire cultivation world? How many in the righteous path, how many in the demonic path—these are all known quantities. Did that female cultivator today resemble any well-known Great Achievent cultivator?"
Indeed, she didn't. Among their demonic path, there were fewer than ten Great Achievent cultivators in total, four of whom were female—two Sect Leaders and two Elders—none of whom were white-robed female sword cultivators. But to suggest that a Great Achievent cultivator had appeared out of nowhere was equally absurd, since a cultivator's path of cultivation inevitably involves a process. Reaching the Great Achievent realm was especially lengthy; it was impossible for soone to remain obscure before reaching Great Achievent and then suddenly erge, having broken through.
The confidant pondered without reaching a conclusion, then guessed even more cautiously: "Could it be soone from the righteous path? Has Crimson Blood Sect colluded with the righteous path?"
This was the closest the Nine Abyss Sect Leader had co to the truth, yet after so thought, he shook his head in denial: "Crimson Blood Sect has never had much connection with the righteous path, except for Yun Qingyue who sohow ended up at Xuanqing Sect. Moreover, given Zhu Baiyi's proud nature, she probably wouldn't stoop to such ans."
The confidant thought about it and agreed that there didn't seem to be such a figure among the righteous path either.
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While the Nine Abyss Sect Leader was speculating about Qingyu's identity, the "proud" Sect Leader Zhu wore a dejected expression, her heart filled with regret.
Yes, regret—she regretted letting the Grand Elder into her door... Heaven knows how this normally battle-hardened brute had suddenly turned into a matchmaker and even dared to criticize his own Sect Leader.
What did he an by saying she wasn't trying hard enough? What did he an by saying she didn't try to keep the visitor? Did he think she didn't want to keep the person? It was clearly because she couldn't keep her!
The Grand Elder was a good Elder who wholeheartedly served the sect. Ever since learning Qingyu's identity, he had been fixated on keeping her in the sect to strengthen their forces. But what he didn't know was that when Sect Leader Zhu introduced Qingyu, she had only told half the story—the other party wasn't just a Great Achievent cultivator, wasn't just the mother of their Young Sect Leader, but also a Peak Master of Xuanqing Sect!
The righteous and demonic paths were fundantally different, and with Qingyu's illustrious identity, it would be strange if she stayed to join Crimson Blood Sect... Zhu Baiyi personally didn't care about the distinction between righteous and demonic, nor did she mind the difference in status. If Qingyu invited her, she might truly pack her bags and defect to Xuanqing Sect.
Unfortunately, both scenarios were re fantasies—Qingyu couldn't possibly co, and Zhu Baiyi couldn't possibly go.
The Grand Elder continued to ramble in her ear. After berating the Sect Leader's "lack of effort," he began to offer earnest guidance. To help the Sect Leader successfully pursue a spouse, he even produced a "Wife-Pursuing Classic" that he had treasured for who knows how many years, boldly declaring: "Sect Leader, I think you're still too concerned with saving face, which is no way to win a Dao companion. Take this book and study it thoroughly. Once you've mastered it, you'll certainly capture your Dao companion in one fell swoop!"
He spoke with absolute conviction, and the wife-pursuing manual in his hand appeared exquisitely made, seemingly quite legitimate. However, Zhu Baiyi knew this Grand Elder of her sect all too well—he had been a bachelor for thousands of years. Learning how to pursue a Dao companion from him would likely result in permanent solitude!
In a rare mont of disregard for her image, Zhu Baiyi rubbed her ears, then waved her hand: "Alright, enough, I understand, I'll definitely try next ti." Having brushed him off, she quickly changed the subject: "We've just experienced a major battle today, with many casualties among the sect's disciples. I still need to recover and have no ti to attend to mundane matters, so I'll trouble the Elder to make a trip on my behalf to check on the disciples' condition."
Hearing this, the Grand Elder's expression turned solemn, his brows furrowing—due to the nature of their cultivation thods, Crimson Blood Sect disciples were mostly belligerent and bloodthirsty, fighting with reckless abandon. Although Crimson Blood Sect hadn't suffered a loss in today's battle, the casualties among their disciples were likely not insignificant.
Considering this, the Grand Elder also felt it necessary to check on them, so he rose and said: "Very well, I'll go see. Those young pups fight with no regard for their lives; they do need to be managed." As he spoke, he turned to leave, then glanced at the wife-pursuing manual still in his hand, casually setting it down and saying: "I'll leave this book here. Sect Leader, you really should take a good look at it."
Zhu Baiyi was getting a headache, but seeing he was about to leave, she decided not to create additional issues: "I know, I know, you go ahead first."
The Grand Elder set down the book and finally left, not forgetting to turn back and remind her once more at the doorway.
This ti, Zhu Baiyi didn't even bother with a perfunctory response. As soon as he left, she closed the door and activated the restrictions to completely seal off the room. As for the book left by the Grand Elder, she didn't even glance at it. If not for concerns that the Grand Elder might later ask for it back, she would have destroyed it on the spot!
Exhausted, not wanting to deal with these matters, she decided to sit in ditation and cultivate, while completely resolving the small insect problem in her divine soul.
Sect Leader Zhu sighed, sitting down to ditate and recover her strength—the evidence proved that cultivators who had reached their current level through self-cultivation weren't so fragile; Jiang Mo's 5,000 points could indeed be saved. Now that Sect Leader Zhu knew where the problem in her divine soul originated, and with professionals in the sect researching the black line worms from that night, she quickly identified the traces of the Soul-Devouring Insects.
With ti on her hands, she could now focus on removing the small insects clinging to her divine soul. The process might not be pleasant, but it didn't matter; resolving this issue would eliminate her lingering concerns completely.
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