Chapter 1469: Internal Strife in Soul Suppression
Just as Li Yan looked up at the sky, a squad of red-armored cultivators suddenly appeared in that direction, carrying a soaring, fierce killing intent. In a single flash, they had already arrived over their area!
This squad of red-armored cultivators consisted of only thirty people, but the pressure emanating from each of them surprised Li Yan. The ten leaders at the front were all Spirit Transformation realm experts, and the rest were all Late-stage Nascent Soul experts. Each of them was brimming with killing intent, their iron-blood resolve like swords and spears. The faces under their red-tasseled helmets were as cold as iron.
The moment these people arrived in this area, an old man in full armor with a red-tasseled helmet issued a emotionless voice.
“All cultivators, ascend and open all the restrictions of your courtyards. If anyone is found hiding, kill them!”
Li Yan knew that these people were the most mysterious Aegis Guard. This was the first time he had seen them since joining the sect. This should be just one squad. But if such a squad were to go to the lower realm, it could easily pacify a continent. The likes of the Four Great Sects or the Sacred Demon Palace would be easily flattened by their overwhelming power. Whether all Aegis Guard squads were this powerful, Li Yan couldn’t be sure, but those sent to clear an area must be very strong.
Upon hearing the command, Li Yan dared not delay. He immediately flew up from the still-shaking ground. As he flew up, he also saw dense figures rising from the surroundings, continuously rushing into the sky. These people were just like him, having honestly stayed in their courtyards before.
“Hover your tokens in front of you. You have three breaths of time!” the old man in the red-tasseled helmet issued another cold command.
As his voice fell, red tokens instantly hovered in front of everyone. Everyone was extremely obedient. Then, the soul power of these thirty people spread out like a heaven-and-earth-covering net in all directions.
Li Yan sensed that the soul power emitted by these thirty people was mostly directed at the tokens, while a portion of the soul power was separately probing the courtyards where everyone lived. All this happened in just a few breaths. Li Yan himself and the token hovering in front of him were swept over by a tyrannical soul power. That soul power barely lingered for a moment before sweeping towards other places…
Ten breaths later, the old man spoke again.
“Everyone, return to your courtyards. Before you receive orders, anyone who goes out will be killed!”
After saying this, these thirty brightly armored cultivators once again stirred up a large expanse of red light and flew away rapidly…
Li Yan watched the departing red-armored cultivators, his eyes flashing a few times. After landing in the courtyard again, he immediately entered the cultivation chamber. He sat down cross-legged, but his expression was already extremely grave.
‘Not even the elders of the Strange Sparrow Hall appeared. The Aegis Guard came directly. This means they don’t trust any of the three halls. I have only just established a foothold. Is this incident good or bad?’
…
The next morning, at the Hour of the Snake, Xue Tieyi’s voice, which pierced through the heavens and the earth, once again resounded from the solitary peak in the rear!
“All disciples, proceed to the foot of the Soul Suppression Palace mountain!”
As this voice fell, black dots like ants from all over the sect began to fly towards the solitary peak in the north…
Li Yan walked into the courtyard and looked up at the sky. Streaks of rainbow light were crisscrossing the heavens and the earth.
‘Gathering all the disciples might not necessarily mean the rebellion has been quelled…’
He pondered for a moment, then flew up. However, the direction he was heading was toward Tang Feng’s courtyard, a few dozen miles to the west. He wanted to get some information from Tang Feng first; that man’s news was much more reliable than his own.
At the entrance of Tang Feng’s courtyard, Li Yan did not see Tang Feng come out. So, as usual, Li Yan took out the voice transmission soul slip Tang Feng had given him, muttered a few words, and then immediately sent it into the courtyard’s restrictions. But after more than ten breaths, there was still no response from within the courtyard. This surprised Li Yan. Tang Feng was not in his courtyard.
He had flown over almost immediately after receiving the Sect Master’s order. Even if Tang Feng had reacted faster, at a distance of a few dozen miles, Li Yan in the air should have been able to spot him at first glance. But Li Yan had not encountered him on the way. Li Yan dared not delay any longer and had to fly towards the solitary peak of the Soul Suppression Palace in the north, just like the other disciples.
When Li Yan arrived at the foot of the solitary peak of the Soul Suppression Palace, he saw dense streaks of multicolored light falling continuously like pellets of stars. He did not specifically look for the cultivators of the Strange Sparrow Hall, but found a secluded corner where there were relatively fewer cultivators, and landed on a rock.
The people around were constantly discussing the matter in low voices. Li Yan listened carefully and found that they were all talking about what happened last night. But after listening for a few sentences, he realized that it was basically all speculation. It seemed these people, like him, had been ordered to stay put, so they were not very clear about last night’s rebellion.
Li Yan stood there waiting, quietly listening to the whispers of others.
A short while later, he saw eight figures appear and then hover in the sky above. These eight people looked down, like gods looking down on mortals. As these eight figures appeared, the various discussions below also receded like a tide.
In the air, the leader was an elegant, middle-aged scholar. He had fair skin and handsome features, giving off a gentle feeling.
As Li Yan listened to the fading discussions of the people around him, he also gleaned some new information and immediately confirmed the identity of this elegant scholar. It was the Soul Suppression Palace’s Sect Master, whom he had only heard of but never seen—Xue Tieyi, a cultivator whose temperament was completely at odds with his name. When Li Yan first heard this name, and the two times he had heard his cold voice, he had thought this person was extremely ruthless and iron-blooded. But he had not expected him to be such a cultivator, like a Confucian cultivator with the air of a Daoist immortal.
Among the eight people, Li Yan also saw a familiar figure. It was the tall and thin Grandmaster Lan. She also had a solemn expression, with an added touch of cold severity. These eight were all Void Refining realm experts, and a few of them had bloodstains on them, as if they had just been through a great battle.
“Last night, there was a rebellion in the Arc and Arrow Hall. The sect has now been basically cleared…”
Xue Tieyi didn’t waste any words and went straight to the point, explaining the situation. Then, Li Yan and the others learned the general situation. Four Void Refining elders from the Arc and Arrow Hall and one Void Refining elder from the Strange Sparrow Hall had rebelled. They had colluded with nine sects and cultivation families and launched a surprise attack from both inside and out last night, intending to take down the Soul Suppression Palace in one fell swoop.
These nine sects and families were not ordinary forces; they were all top-tier forces in the “True Earth Domain,” each with one or two Void Refining experts. Coupled with the internal support in the Soul Suppression Palace, the sect gate had suffered the most intense attack since its founding. However, fortunately, the Soul Suppression Palace had been aware of it and had taken precautions in secret. Although the incident last night was sudden, they had responded in a timely manner.
Of the five rebelling Void Refining experts within the sect, three were killed on the spot, and two escaped the sect with the help of the nine major forces outside. The Arc and Arrow Hall suffered extremely heavy casualties overnight, with sixty percent of its cultivators killed. This included not only the rebelling cultivators but also disciples who were suddenly attacked by them. With the timely dispatch of the Aegis Guard, the rebelling cultivators of the Arc and Arrow Hall were basically cleared out by this morning. The Strange Sparrow Hall also suffered about twenty percent casualties, with both enemies and allies among them. Only the disciples of the Star Subduing Hall, though they also suffered casualties, were not severely damaged. The main reason for this was that the vast majority of power in the Star Subduing Hall was in the hands of the Sect Master and Grandmaster Lan. Moreover, all the Void Refining cultivators in this hall had been personally and strictly selected by Xue Tieyi and the Supreme Elder, and they were extremely loyal to the Soul Suppression Palace.
Currently, although the Soul Suppression Palace had repelled this rebellion and attack, they had only driven them ten thousand miles away from the sect. But these nine forces had spread out and surrounded the Soul Suppression Palace.
Xue Tieyi ordered all halls to prepare for an all-out purge of the rebellion. Currently, as the Arc and Arrow Hall, which served as the sharp sword, had been compromised, the Aegis Guard had to act as the vanguard. Next, all Golden Core and above cultivators from each hall would go out to cooperate with the Aegis Guard in an all-out purge of the rebels.
At the same time, the sect had begun to contact the two Supreme Elders who were in seclusion, asking them to come out and suppress all the rebels. But since the two Supreme Elders were in closed-door death seclusion, it would take some time to forcibly open the formation restrictions there and wake them up. As soon as the two Supreme Elders came out, all these rebellious forces would be uprooted and their entire families implicated.
Xue Tieyi also said one more thing, telling all disciples to prepare for the great battle ahead. Because these rebels had long premeditated, they had secretly lobbied the other remaining major forces in advance. Although these major forces had not participated in the rebellion, they were currently in a state of wavering. The sect had also sent people out to summon those forces, but before that, everything had to be completed by the Soul Suppression Palace itself.
Xue Tieyi’s words immediately filled the vast majority of the Soul Suppression Palace disciples with righteous indignation. They were often proud of being disciples of the Soul Suppression Palace. What was the Soul Suppression Palace? It was the master of this land. For countless ages, it had always been so. How dare someone rebel!
However, many people remained silent about this, their thoughts running deeper. But most disciples believed that those rebels were crazy. The Soul Suppression Palace had Body Integration realm cultivators, and two of them at that. As long as the Supreme Elders came out, all so-called rebellions would be a joke.
In this rebellion, Xue Tieyi revealed the names of the five Void Refining experts. To Li Yan’s astonishment, Xiong Tianba’s name was among them. And among the two Void Refining cultivators who had escaped last night, Xiong Tianba was one of them.
‘What a coincidence. This means I won’t have to worry about Mu Guyue’s matter within the sect anymore. It’s just a pity that this scoundrel didn’t die!’
Li Yan thought to himself. He had been worried about this matter yesterday, but now the situation had taken a sharp turn.
Xue Tieyi only briefly mentioned these things before turning and leaving with his people. The remaining matters were then deployed by a Void Refining expert. The sect required all Golden Core and above disciples to return to their respective hall’s deacon hall and act according to the deacon hall’s orders. Then, this Void Refining elder left with all the Spirit Transformation cultivators, obviously to discuss the detailed allocation of tasks. These were not things Li Yan and the others were qualified to hear.
Li Yan looked around. Seeing the elder leave, the numerous cultivators had also flown up and scattered in different directions. In an instant, figures rose into the sky one after another, like birds rising from a forest, scattering into black dots.
Although there were many cultivators near Li Yan, no one knew him, and no one would greet him.
Li Yan was also planning to fly away from here and go to the Strange Sparrow Hall’s deacon hall to see the arrangements. But just as he was about to fly up, a pleasant and beautiful voice suddenly came from the side.
“Is this Daoist Friend Li Yan?”
Li Yan immediately looked in the direction of the voice and saw a yellow-robed female cultivator in her twenties with very delicate features flying quickly towards him. Li Yan looked at her carefully. She was also a Nascent Soul cultivator, but he did not know her.
So, Li Yan stopped and asked with some doubt.
“It is I. May I ask who this Daoist friend is…”
“Oh, just before Grandmaster Lan left, she asked me to give this soul slip to you!”
In the blink of an eye, the female cultivator flew in front of Li Yan. Her beautiful large eyes were also looking Li Yan up and down, but a soul slip had already appeared in her hand. In her impression, there was no such person among the disciples of her several martial uncles and masters. But her own Martial Ancestor had suddenly called her over and whispered a few words to her. Then, she had pointed out this person’s position in the crowd and asked her to deliver something to him. This made the yellow-robed woman a little strange.
“So it was Grandmaster Lan who had something to give me. Thank you, Daoist friend!”
Although Li Yan was surprised, his expression showed no surprise. Now that such a major event had suddenly occurred in the sect, the formation testing on Grandmaster Lan’s side would definitely not be able to continue. At least for now. This should be to inform him or to set the next time.
“Here, I’ll give you this soul slip!”
The yellow-robed woman’s jade hand pushed through the void, and the soul slip floated over. Although she was curious about Li Yan, Li Yan’s appearance was extremely ordinary. Thrown into a crowd, he was no different from any other Zhang San or Li Si. Moreover, Li Yan’s cultivation was about the same as hers, nothing special. She was just curious about Li Yan’s identity. In addition, the yellow-robed woman also had other things to do. After giving the soul slip to Li Yan, she just said a word and turned to leave.
Li Yan took the soul slip into his hand and immediately probed it with his soul power. Sure enough, Grandmaster Lan was just telling him to wait for her notice for the subsequent formation testing. She also told Li Yan to be careful and not to lose his life. But what she said next surprised Li Yan.
Grandmaster Lan had briefly stated the reason for this rebellion. The purpose of her explanation was to remind Li Yan that this time, the rebellious side was at a point of no return. Therefore, with no way out, the rebellious enemies would be absolutely ruthless, and she told Li Yan not to underestimate them.
Li Yan had not expected that the usually cold Grandmaster Lan would actually care about a small cultivator like him. But Li Yan could also guess that, firstly, he had indeed given Grandmaster Lan a lot of help with that formation, and she was afraid that if he died carelessly, she might lose out later. Secondly, although Grandmaster Lan was obsessed with artifact refining and pill alchemy, her attitude towards juniors was not actually that cold.
But what surprised Li Yan the most here was the reason for this sudden rebellion. Why did these people rebel? The sect had not given any explanation before… But Li Yan didn’t have time to think about it. Looking at the now-empty foot of the mountain around him, he had no choice but to fly towards the deacon hall of the Strange Sparrow Hall first…
…
On the square below the deacon hall, deacons were constantly shuttling back and forth making arrangements. Li Yan was quickly assigned to the army. But this time, Li Yan was not just a common soldier! He, like the other Nascent Soul cultivators, was responsible for leading fifty Golden Core cultivators to purge a designated direction and area along the way! But the specific direction and plan would be assigned by the Spirit Transformation cultivators after they returned.
Those Spirit Transformation cultivators had been called over by the Void Refining cultivators and still needed some time. Therefore, before the Spirit Transformation cultivators returned, all cultivators had one hour to prepare. Because the rebellion had happened so suddenly, many cultivators had not prepared the necessary items such as medicinal pills, talismans, etc. Now that the Aegis Guard was still holding the front line, some necessary free time had to be given to the disciples to prepare. Moreover, they basically didn’t need to leave the deacon hall. They could buy all kinds of necessary items right here. But some disciples still had to rush back to their residences to get some things, and Li Yan was one of them.
Instantly, streaks of light once again streaked across the sky within the entire sect. These streaks of light at this time all emitted a sharp, piercing sound, showing their speed.
After Li Yan came out of the deacon hall, he also immediately flew up quickly, but he didn’t go back immediately. Instead, he flew over some places at the fastest speed. He saw from afar that in some areas, thick black smoke was still rising. There were traces of great battles everywhere, and huge cracks had appeared on the ground. The area where the Strange Sparrow Hall was located was also a mess in many places. But the further west one went, the better the situation became, especially in the remote places where Li Yan lived in the far west.