Rain fell like a curtain connecting heaven and earth, the clamorous noise rising continuously from the ground below.
At the hilltop pavilion, rain poured from the eaves like a waterfall.
A group of cultivators powerful enough to shake all of Eastern Divine Continent were now crowded together in this tiny pavilion.
"Fellow Daoist Chu, why not return to Xiaoyun Hall first?"
Yunxiao had lost count of how many times he'd said this, but he had no choice but to say it again.
After the encounter with Xu Linglong's clone, Chu Xingchen had been shot down by an arrow but still refused to return to Xiaoyun Hall, insisting on staying in Eastern Divine Continent.
His reasoning was straightforward—without being on the front lines, how could he command the overall situation?
Moreover, to keep Xu Linglong deceived, he needed to stay in Eastern Divine Continent, making her hesitate to act.
Chu Xingchen gazed at the curtain of rain, completely ignoring Yunxiao's words.
Yunxiao sighed softly, his helpless gaze shifting to the two Tribulation Transcendence cultivators Xiaoyun Hall had hurriedly sent over.
Previously, when Chu Xingchen had arrived at Xiaoyun Hall with just Huang Miao, one Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, Yunxiao and the Sect Master had judged Chu Xingchen to be audacious beyond measure.
Now looking back… Chu Xingchen wasn't merely audacious beyond measure.
This was beyond audacious—he'd placed life and death entirely outside the equation.
On the horizon, several streaks of rainbow light flew in and landed.
Ye Antao parted the rain curtain with spirit energy, bowed first, then entered the somewhat cramped pavilion.
"Nearly all the targets marked on the map you provided have been eliminated, Fellow Daoist Chu. Almost every one was captured. Xu Linglong did not assist these forces in retreating from Eastern Divine Continent."
"Most were found to have similar ritual arrays, with many signs of testing at the sites. Currently we deduce these ritual arrays are still in the testing phase."
"Perhaps we can speculate that Xu Linglong may have also lost the ritual array…"
Yunxiao furrowed his brow slightly at this.
What kind of deduction was this? If the ritual array was truly this important, Xu Linglong could forget her own identity as a Celestial Demon before forgetting this array.
Ye Antao was ultimately not someone with extreme attention to detail.
Yunxiao's gaze shifted subtly toward Chu Xingchen. If Chu Xingchen was about to criticize, he would step in to smooth things over.
No matter how naive Ye Antao was, her older brother still had to shield her.
An outsider's grievance—his own sister wouldn't suffer.
"Is that so? Thank you for your trouble, Fellow Daoist Ye." Chu Xingchen smiled and nodded, handing over a cup of freshly brewed spirit tea. "Did you perhaps let a few go to see where they'd flee to?"
Ye Antao, whose hand had been half-extended to accept the tea, froze momentarily.
Chu Xingchen understood then that this straightforward Ye Antao hadn't thought much about it. But it didn't matter—if it had been truly critical, he would have warned her earlier.
He placed the tea directly into her slightly stiff hand, smiling gently:
"Catching them all was fine too. Prevents any extra complications."
Ye Antao gripped the cup, warmth spreading through her hands.
Chu Xingchen paused, then continued:
"Now that the small fry are cleared out, let's not give Xu Linglong any breathing room."
"I propose that Xiaoyun Hall and I join forces to begin settling accounts with Xu Linglong."
"The Three Sects will provide support within what Xiaoyun Hall deems acceptable."
Ye Antao didn't immediately respond, her gaze naturally turning to Yunxiao first.
Yunxiao took over: "We currently have no intelligence confirming Xu Linglong's location. How do we settle accounts?"
Chu Xingchen's lips curved into a slight smile.
For some reason, Yunxiao's instincts immediately told him something bad was coming.
As expected, Chu Xingchen's next words hit him like his head was about to split open.
Chu Xingchen laughed freely, his gaze sweeping across the rain-soaked sky and the ink-black forest below:
"I'll use myself as bait to lure every demon under heaven!"
Cangwu Kingdom.
Inside Miaoyuan Temple, a suffocating silence permeated the air.
Li Yingling's face had lost all trace of its earlier cheerful playfulness. Her expression was dark, every bit of displeasure displayed openly.
Chen Baiqing sat in a corner of the Great Hero Hall, her expression unchanged from before—as if nothing had happened. She didn't even seem to notice the gloomy look on her eldest senior sister's face.
Clearly, this unexpressed expression only fueled Li Yingling's anger further.
Just moments ago during their heart-to-heart talk, Chen Baiqing had been all "Eldest Senior Sister is right," but the moment they'd arrived in Cangwu Kingdom, she'd completely forgotten and abandoned everything.
Li Yingling felt her sincere trust had been utterly betrayed.
But unlike when they were children, Chen Baiqing—now grown up—was clearly no longer someone you could educate by spanking.
The big picture was still unsettled, and Master's instructions were at hand.
Li Yingling could only use this unhappy expression to show her current stance, while also intimidating Chen Baiqing into not doing anything else irrelevant.
Li Xingtian had quite the headache.
His role in covering for Chen Baiqing had dragged him into Li Yingling's reckoning as well. Now he couldn't get too close to the eldest senior sister either.
Inside the temple at this moment.
Li Yingling sat with Cui Hao on one side.
Chen Baiqing and Li Xingtian—who couldn't go to the eldest senior sister's side—sat on the other.
Wu Wang stared in despair at the two groups sitting on his left and right.
He was getting confused too—wait, things had gotten this bad, he was practically in despair, and these people were still putting on a sibling quarrel show in front of him?
What made it even more speechless was that all the people arguing were actually here to help him.
What made it even more speechless than that was that all these people arguing had stopped working, just sitting around in Miaoyuan Temple, letting external developments play out on their own.
Cangwu Kingdom's new policy was being implemented. After first suppressing a batch of extreme Small Vehicle Buddhist Teachings "believers," it began greatly intervening to ease the tense situation.
The entire nation was spreading the message, packaging the new policy first as giving everyone a fair chance—the opportunity to become literate and to rise above the great families distributed to the world.
Facts proved.
Hating the great families and hating becoming a great family were two completely different things.
A moderate proposal appeared. The great families made concessions. Xuanwu Kingdom's show of force outside, supporting resistance against the chaos of Small Vehicle Buddhist Teachings, also attracted support from surrounding nations.
The national momentum was enough to make those high-ranking "believers" who wanted to manipulate the faithful carefully consider the consequences of carrying this through.
Especially as the Buddhist Sect's ability to sustain the effort was becoming increasingly obvious.
The situation was still in flux.
But it no longer had anything to do with the people inside Miaoyuan Temple.
Li Yingling kept her eyes locked on Chen Baiqing, afraid she might still make a move.
Chen Baiqing, pinned down by that gaze, had no room to act even if she still had schemes in mind.
Cui Hao, this little junior brother she'd personally nurtured all this way, was also putting on a show at this critical moment.
Wu Wang had been completely sidelined. Under Li Yingling's pressure, he had no room for further action.
All of this would depend on whether Li Junzi could bring everything to a stable landing.
A jade token's glow flowed in from outside the hall, heading straight for Li Yingling.
Li Yingling reached out and caught it, glancing at the seal to see it was from Master.
She dipped her consciousness into it, only to find it wasn't another set of instructions from Master.
Instead, it expressed the hope that Li Yingling would mend her current relationship with Chen Baiqing. Harmony within the sect was for the best.
Li Yingling sighed inwardly, then raised her hand and tossed the jade token directly to Li Xingtian, who had been shielding their junior sister.
Li Xingtian caught it, thinking it was something important, and quickly probed it with his consciousness. After reading the contents, he looked up at Li Yingling—only to receive a glare in return.
Realizing he was just the messenger, he immediately passed the jade token to the third junior sister beside him.
Chen Baiqing took it, probed with her consciousness, and her expression instantly shifted from calm to grave.
The next instant, she stood and turned to walk out.
Li Yingling's spirit energy surged as she asked coldly:
"Where are you going?!"
Chen Baiqing turned her head, her eyes glistening with tears:
"This was never written by Master! I'm going back to Tianyan Sect! Handle things here however you want, Eldest Senior Sister!"
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