Way of the Devil

“It’s not impossible, but very unlikely.” Xu Fenghe shook his head. “Anyways, the situation is extremely dangerous right now.”

More sect masters were soon attracted to the site and came to check on the situation. Xu Fenghe explained the situation and his conclusion to the crowd.

Many of the sect masters present immediately fell silent.

“The other party dared to start the fight with so many sect masters and elders present, meaning they must have both abnormal strength and planning,” one sect master whispered.

“But since they didn’t dare come into the open and decided to assassinate instead, it means their strength is not great enough to fight against us all. That is why they chose to hide. Otherwise, they could just walk in and kill everyone.” Blood Infant Huang Fu, the first seat of the West Infinity Court, had arrived with a team of people. He was the leader and had full rights to attend the Hundred Lineages like other sect masters.

“Brother Huang is right.” The other two first seats also arrived one after another.

None of the masters nearby on the same journey would ever miss this huge explosion. They naturally hurriedly arrived.

Bai Xiu, the Chosen One, looked around.

“After receiving information on the explosion, my group and I examined the surroundings. We didn’t find any signs of anyone leaving.

“This time, apart from the sects who stayed in the Heaven Lotus Sect and some others that traveled in the complete opposite direction, we had altogether a total of twenty-seven sects going this way.

“It’s really easy to hide one or two people in this massive procession of hundreds of people.”

“You mean to say that there’s a spy!?” Blood Infant Huang Fu furrowed his eyebrows.

“Perhaps,” Bai Xiu replied coldly.

At this time, more and more sect masters have also arrived. Even the ones that didn’t come sent disciples to ask what was going on.

The situation was also getting more and more chaotic. Using the West Infinity Court’s name, Huang Fu ordered everyone to gather in an orderly manner and repeated what happened before.

***

Elders Huan and Jing from the Mirage Water Palace sat in a carriage opposite each other, their expressions serious.

“Something actually happened at the Eastern Talent Sect. Is it really because of that incident?” Elder Jing asked cautiously in a low voice.

“The people who pulled off the assassination have extraordinary strength. A force that can send such a strong group of people like this must be something to be reckoned with.” Elder Huan frowned. “It is hard to tell whether this is revenge against the Eastern Talent Sect or not.”

“The problem is how they fought the whole Eastern Talent Sect with so many sect masters nearby. As you should know, they brought along the master of Spring Island to be their team leader. He had gotten to the middle three grades at an early age and was much stronger than most of the sect masters in the lower three grades. It doesn’t make sense for him to just completely disappear without a trace.” Elder Jing sounded worried.

Both fell silent in deep thought.

A moment later.

“Could it be… that?” Elder Huan’s pupils suddenly shrank as if he suddenly remembered something.

“What did you think of?” Elder Jing asked in surprise. He knew his brother really well, and if it wasn’t for something extremely severe, he wouldn’t have such an expression.

Elder Huan took a deep breath, approached Elder Jing, and moved his lips slightly.

“Boom!!!”

Suddenly he slammed his palm into Elder Jing’s chest.

Without a second of hesitation, he opened his mouth and spat out a circle of silver light, completely enveloping Elder Jing’s head and his howls of pain.

The sound was suppressed before it could be heard.

After the silver light wrapped itself into a ball, it suddenly exploded and turned into a closed dome-like barrier. It quickly enlarged to a radius of more than thirty meters and covered all of their surroundings.

“You!?” Elder Jing finally separated himself from Elder Huan, but a bloody hole was already pierced through his chest, the flesh around the wound desperately trying to heal itself.

But before he could say anything else, Elder Huan gave him another strong blow to the back of his head.

His brain splattered everywhere—more than half of Elder Jing’s head had been thoroughly caved in.

The opponent’s outburst was too fast and too sudden. He couldn’t react before getting hit. He never expected that his blood-related brother from the same mother would revolt against him so suddenly.

Caught off guard, Elder Jing completely lost his ability to resist. After being hit in the body multiple times, he didn’t look human anymore, but rather like a meatball trying to recover its original shape.

“I didn’t know that only one ray of the Power of the Divine Weapon would be so strong!” Elder Huan spat out another circle of the silver light, wrapping the “meatball” inside. His face also changed, turning into one of an elderly man wearing a bamboo hat.

“The main threat has been taken care of. Now it’s time to handle the rest.”

Only now did the sect disciples who heard the noises get here, the sound of them arriving one after another.

***

The rear of the fleet of carriages.

Chong Yuezi looked at the snake-like line of carriages from a distance.

“Is the Hundred Temperings Sect in that direction?” he whispered.

“In the direction of your right hand, the flag that stands on the edge of weathered rocks is right above the Hundred Temperings Sect,” the two snake-headed men standing behind him answered slowly.

The snake-headed men were tall and stocky. They were the most capable troops under Chong Yuezi.

They were much taller than their boss. Their black, dense snake scales made them look fierce and evil.

Chong Yuezi carefully sniffed at the air in the direction of the Hundred Temperings Sect, and suddenly his facial expression became strange.

“Interesting, this sect actually concealed so much of its strength… perhaps a small noble family?”

As a highly ranked demon who was in alliance with the Lin Family, Chong Yuezi wasn’t afraid of ordinary noble families. The Nine Great Families of the Central Plains aside, while the rest of the families had strong Divine Weapon Masters, they couldn’t easily deploy them.

Although Divine Weapon Masters were strong, that was mainly due to their Divine Weapons and not the ability of the masters themselves. The normal noble families didn’t have enough assets, so they had to please the Divine Weapon by conducting large ritual sacrifices in order to harness their power.

By that time, Chong Yuezi could easily escape without a trace. Divine Weapons and Devil Blades were abnormally loud and distracting.

Therefore, famous demons weren’t scared of the small noble families that much; what they feared were big noble families like the Lin Family, a well-known and cruel large clan.

In reality, the Nine Great Families of the Central Plains were also structured around Divine Weapons, but they didn’t need to use them. They had a handful of Holy Weapons at their disposal, and could take any amount of the Weapons with them on a whim and pursue someone. They could easily chase down the great demons just like them. Although killing a single demon would come at a cost, when compared to killing a great demon, it was but a small price to pay.

“Master Long, there is a hidden noble family within the Hundred Temperings Sect? Then why wasn’t the Lin Family notified of this beforehand?” another tall snake-headed man asked gloomily.

“Because I’m different.” Chong Yuezi laughed. “My sense of smell can identify countless kinds of smells humans cannot distinguish between. The smells of noble families and sects, although similar, still have some minor differences. Even though they covered up their tracks in different aspects very well, in the end, they can’t hide from me.”

“What about the Prime Devil Sect then?” one of the snake-headed subordinates asked.

Chong Yuezi sniffed in the direction of another team.

“Everything is normal, just like a normal small sect. They probably used the Holy Weapon to kill the Wandering God. Well, I am going to take care of the Hundred Temperings Sect, you guys take care of the Prime Devil Sect. Remember to move swiftly and regroup at the same place after completing the task,” he commanded quickly. His expression showed his interest.

“Yes, Master Long!” The two snake-headed ones bowed their heads one after another.

Chong Yuezi finally took a look at the color of the sky.

“The effect of the Time-Freezing Axe lasts only four hours, keep track of the time on your own.”

“Don’t worry, master Long!” said the snake-headed guys hurriedly.

Both of them were the strongest snake demons among Chong Yuezi’s troops, with monstrous strength and scales like iron armor. They both trained painfully in the Southern Mysterious Moon Lake for hundreds of years and had strong sorcery. Snake realm sect masters couldn’t even come close to them.

They saw Chong Yuezi leave like a ray of electricity. He was gone in the blink of an eye. Only after he left did they straighten their backs.

“The Holy Weapon needs to charge at the Holy Weapon Pool. Since it hasn’t been that long since the Wandering God was killed, there’s no way that the Prime Devil Sect would bring out the Holy Weapon.”

“That is to say, all we need to face is a sect master from a sect in the lower three grades.” Both snake-headed men slowly opened their mouths, slowly flicking their snake tongues, revealing a nasty smile.

“I haven’t eaten raw meat in a long time. I really miss it…” For those who were already at the Black Crystal Realm, they could actually fight hand-to-hand against difficult opponents from the middle three grades without losing.

As for a two-against-one fight against someone from the lower three grades, it was just like a walk in the park.

***

Fang Tan frowned at the direction of the faraway explosion.

“What’s going on?” Zhan Hongsheng whispered.

The two were chatting while riding their horses. Suddenly, the sound of the explosion came and the horses were all scared, now lacking the courage to continue to go forward.

“Let’s go take a look first,” Fang Tan said unenthusiastically. “It looks like a secret technique went out of control and exploded. I can hear people talking about it in the distance.”

The two were in the field surrounding the carriage fleet, with neither He Xiangzi nor Chen Yunxiang. Instead, they followed outside the fleet alone, as if the entire world had only the two of them.

At this time, when he saw that another explosion took place among the carriages, Fang Tan quickly urged the horse to approach it. But, the horse was unwilling to move a single step further no matter what. It was obvious that it was scared by the loud noise. Zhan Hongsheng’s horse was the same.

Without any other choices, they got down from their horses. Fortunately, the fleet stopped as well. They tied the horses behind a cargo wagon.

Fang Tan walked straight in the direction of his sect. Zhan Hongsheng followed behind him, looking left and right.

The strange thing was that when the two came out, there were still a lot of people. Now, when they came back to the sect, there didn’t seem to many people at all.

“Why isn’t there anyone around? There’s a lot in the distance, but it’s so peaceful here. Have they all gone to check out the situation?” Zhan Hongsheng asked in low voice.

Fang Tan felt that something was wrong and whispered, “Perhaps. Let’s walk faster and have a look first.”

“Ok!” Zhan Hongsheng felt something was off as well.

They passed carriage after carriage. Although they could see people in the distance, it was like seeing a reflection in a mirror, indistinct and fuzzy. And if you took a close look, you could notice minor distortions.

Zhan Hongsheng saw someone laughing while he was eating something, but after walking some distance, she unintentionally noticed that that person was still laughing while eating.

The Chinese pancake in his hands… after being stuffed into his mouth for a while and chewed, it was still one large piece—its shape hadn’t changed at all.

“Hiss….” She got a little bit scared and quickly caught up to Fang Tan.

The fashionable short skirts and tight tops that they had originally worn all of a sudden felt like they weren’t thick enough, making them regret sacrificing utility for appearances… They were chilled to the bone.

The two passed by a carriage, and when they were about arrive where the Jade Echo Clan and Fine Garden Sect’s carriages were, Fang Tan suddenly stopped.

He looked down slowly and his pupils shrank.

“Is this…!?” A faintly discernible silver thread on the ground separated their spot from where the other sects were.

He looked to the left along the silver thread, which marked out a large circle that wrapped the entire area.

Both inside and out of the thread, everything seemed completely normal. As for them two, they stood within the circle.

“What… What is this?!” Fang Tan felt stress building up in his heart. Originally, he was a bit worried about Zhan Hongsheng, but at this point, there wasn’t even a trace of her left.