Chapter 1442: The Lingering Water under the Fading Sunset

“Junior Sister, Elder Li agreed to this matter himself. Before he left, I spoke with him at length. From what we know of Elder Li, he is meticulous and prefers to act only after careful planning. It would be very difficult for the Donglin Family to plot against him. Moreover, I personally visited the Heavenly Demon Prairie several times over the years to investigate in secret. Although I didn’t find that Glazed Butterfly, I did capture some other demonic beasts in the area Donglin Tingyue mentioned. After repeated soul-searching, I finally found scenes of what happened in the memories of a few of them. The mishap occurred right after they captured a Golden-Winged Great Peng. The person who appeared was indeed a woman, just as Donglin Tingyue and the others described. From the memories of those demonic beasts, I can still feel the profound terror that comes from the depths of their souls whenever they think of that woman. I also saw her appearance. That pair of golden eyes is quite unique. Her aura fluctuations should be at the Spirit Transformation Realm, and her strength is extraordinary!”

Shangguan Tianque sighed. His junior sister’s temper was as fiery as ever.

“But, according to what you said before, that young Golden-Winged Great Peng was clearly captured by Donglin Tingyue, and then she threw it out to block the woman’s killing blow! No matter how you look at it, the woman’s target should have been Donglin Tingyue. Why was it Elder Li who disappeared in the end?”

Ren Yanyu shook her head. She found it illogical for the woman to have targeted Li Yan.

“That’s what I’ve been wondering as well. Jia Fugui said that he and Li Yan had agreed on a meeting point, but when he arrived, Elder Li wasn’t there. I had the same suspicion as you back then, but the three of them couldn’t explain the final outcome either!” Shangguan Tianque also wore a puzzled expression.

“Then what do you propose we do about this, Senior Brother? Are we just going to let the Donglin Family off the hook?”

Although Ren Yanyu’s face was calm, her black hair whipped about even more wildly in the wind.

“Their family’s Great Elder is already in seclusion, attempting to break through to the Spirit Transformation Realm. I’ve wanted to speak with him, but have never had the chance. Besides, if we move against the Donglin Family now, others will see it as us trying to annex neighboring powers now that we’ve grown strong. Once that happens, we will definitely attract the attention of the Blood Lantern Sect. They will truly become wary of us. If the Broken Army Sect were to swallow up all the sects under them one by one, wouldn’t the Blood Lantern Sect be left as a mere figurehead? That is something they will never allow. Furthermore, Elder Li went of his own volition. It was a transaction between them. What evidence do we have to say Donglin Tingyue set a trap? On the contrary, the reasons they gave are irrefutable, and they can be verified by having someone soul-search the demonic beasts in that area. I already entrusted this matter years ago to some friends who frequent the Heavenly Demon Prairie, as well as demonic beast hunting squads, asking them to help inquire about news from the Golden-Winged Great Peng clan whenever they had the chance. We did get some news in the early stages. The Golden-Winged Great Peng clan dispatched quite a few of their members right around the time Elder Li disappeared. They went to many areas on the outskirts of the Heavenly Demon Prairie, as if they were searching for something. During that period, the number of human cultivators dying in the prairie suddenly increased, including even Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation experts. What does that tell you?”

At this point, Shangguan Tianque withdrew his gaze from the distance and looked at the red-robed beauty by his side.

His junior sister’s personality was as intolerant of evil as ever. He hadn’t even finished explaining his judgment before she became unwilling to listen. She valued the foundation they had worked so hard to build, and had long since fully accepted Li Yan as a member of the Broken Army Sect.

“Are you saying that the massive mobilization of these demonic cultivators was to search for Donglin Tingyue and the others, or… possibly to find Elder Li? If even Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation cultivators died inexplicably, does that mean a Void Refining expert from the Golden-Winged Great Peng clan appeared?”

Ren Yanyu was only straightforward, not unintelligent. On the contrary, she was exceptionally clever. She had simply not heard the full story earlier. Hearing the additional information from Shangguan Tianque, she immediately guessed the reason.

Shangguan Tianque nodded and continued.

“I have a theory. Donglin Tingyue and the others also searched for Elder Li in secret afterward, but they never saw that woman again. Junior Sister, don’t forget our past speculation that Elder Li might be a Spirit Transformation cultivator. I believe the woman discovered this as well, which is why she considered him the mastermind and pursued him relentlessly. During their battle, Elder Li might have killed her, but he was also likely severely injured and unable to leave the Heavenly Demon Prairie immediately. That’s why the Golden-Winged Great Peng clan sent people out to search for their enemy. It’s also possible they were looking for traces left by the woman!”

…

In the Donglin Family’s territory, on an island, a blood-red setting sun hung over the distant sea, painting the water’s surface in a magnificent, picturesque scene.

A woman with a graceful figure stood beneath a tree by the sea. She leaned against a coconut tree, her pretty face, hidden behind a crescent moon mask, tilted slightly upward, gazing at the splendid sunset sky.

The sea breeze rustled her long hair, sending a few loose strands to gently brush against her smooth forehead and fair cheeks. The billowing of her black clothes in the fluctuating wind accentuated her curvaceous body, one moment revealing prominent peaks, the next concealing them like shifting clouds…

“So many years have passed. Are you alive or dead? But I know you are not dead. The family lost so many people, but we finally managed to gather some information. We know that the Golden-Winged Great Peng clan sent out so many members to find a man, and they never found him. So where did you go…”

…

In a Cave Residence within a low hill in the True Earth Domain, Li Yan sat cross-legged, his eyes slightly closed.

A few dozen zhang in front of him, a short, stout man looked around in a daze. His vision was filled with a vast expanse of white, and he could not see Li Yan, who was just a short distance away. He remembered flying when his consciousness suddenly spun into a dizzy spell. When he came to, he was met with the current scene.

The entire event seemed to have passed in an instant. Just then, the stout man’s eyes suddenly bulged forward, as if they were about to pop out of their sockets!

“Ah!”

He let out a miserable cry. His body staggered, and he clutched the front of his robes, his face contorted in pain as he stumbled back several steps.

“Who… Who are you? Do I have a grudge with you, Your Excellency?” the stout man gasped heavily.

He had realized by now that he had likely entered a restriction formation set by someone else. After being attacked, he had sensed the power of the soul art used against him and judged the attacker’s cultivation to be around the Golden Core Realm, similar to his own. Thus, he immediately knew that someone was ambushing him.

However, after the stout man asked, no one around him responded.

The next moment, an arc of blue light appeared on his body as a defense. The instant the arc materialized, it dented deeply right between his eyebrows!

A fine needle, glowing with a faint red light, had appeared out of nowhere once again and was piercing its way in, but it was currently stuck in the blue arc of light.

“Who… Who on earth are you? I am a cultivator of the Spirit-Slaying Sect! If you know what’s good for you, you’d best leave quietly. Otherwise, the moment my soul tablet shatters, my sect will track you down…”

As he spoke, another red needle, so faint it was nearly invisible, suddenly appeared at the back of his head and stabbed down!

This attack was even more powerful. Half of the needle instantly pierced through the blue light shield, its body disappearing from sight.

“Ah!”

The stout man let out another wretched scream. At the same time, the blue light on his body erupted in a blinding flash, sending the one-and-a-half needles flying backward.

Afterward, the stout man began to launch attacks indiscriminately in all directions. He didn’t know where his opponent was. His previous hope was to quickly pinpoint the enemy’s location by their voice and then unleash a full-power strike. But his opponent was like a mute, making no sound at all, only attacking him relentlessly. The stout man couldn’t just defend passively forever, so he had no choice but to attack all around him.

But after taking those few hits, he found himself unable to comprehend something. The soul art attacks from his ambusher had the power of only the Initial-stage Golden Core Realm. He wasn’t afraid of such a cultivation level; he was at the Mid-stage Golden Core Realm, after all.

The first time he was struck inside his body, he could explain it away by reasoning that he had been in a daze after the dizzy spell, allowing the hidden enemy to succeed with a sneak attack. That was why he had successfully defended against the second attack aimed at his glabella.

But the third strike, even with his defenses prepared, had still managed to break through, with a small part of the attack penetrating his body. Moreover, judging from the art’s execution, it was still at the Initial-stage Golden Core level, but with a sudden addition of Soul Power. This Soul Power was not integrated with the soul art itself; it wasn’t part of the art’s intrinsic power. It was as if someone had just forcefully added a push.

Suddenly, he felt as if he had been hit by an attack at the peak of the Pseudo-Core Realm. This caught the stout man completely off guard, and his defense was instantly shattered.

He simply couldn’t understand such an attack.

The enemy’s goal was obviously to kill him. Since they could overpower him, why bother testing him with underpowered soul arts? Wasn’t that just a waste of their own Soul Power?

Furthermore, the soul art the opponent used was not some sharp, high-powered technique, but the most common “Soul-Condensing Silk,” a most basic offensive soul art.

This soul art was so basic that the stout man felt he had almost forgotten it. He could almost subconsciously produce countless soul threads, but he would usually transform them into a more powerful soul art before attacking. He was unwilling to waste his hard-earned Soul Power on such basic arts. When he had high-powered soul arts at his disposal, only a fool would use the most rudimentary ones.

But his opponent’s Soul Power was stronger than his, and they were forcefully infusing large amounts of this power into basic soul arts. To him, it felt less like they were trying to significantly boost the art’s power and more like they were showing off how strong their Soul Power was.

This method of using Soul Power was too simple, too crude, and too wasteful!

As the stout man attacked his surroundings indiscriminately, a few of his attacks did fly wildly toward the seated Li Yan.

Li Yan raised his hand, continuously forming hand seals to block them one by one. A pained expression flickered across his face, but his subsequent expression was one of careful contemplation, as if savoring the experience.