What Wei Zhongran and his wife did not know was that over the endless years, the gray-robed elder had stayed on nearly every peak in the Malevolent Spirit Sect. He would simply die according to a normal cultivator's lifespan or in some "accident," and then reappear and enter the Malevolent Spirit Sect again under a different identity.
Just as the gray-robed elder above turned his attention back to the First Sir and Tu Tai, a voice, in two consecutive sentences, shattered the strange tranquility.
"You… you are Gu Jiuqi?"
Li Yan's heart trembled, because he recognized the voice. It belonged to the Grand Elder of the Wood Flow Sect—Shuang Qingqing.
As the voice rang out, Shuang Qingqing's peerless face appeared in everyone's view. She was currently standing on the shoulder of a towering ancient ape puppet, her figure poised against the wind. The night breeze billowed her purple dress backward, outlining her graceful silhouette.
At this moment, however, her beautiful face was frosted with ice, and she was staring intently at the gray-robed elder in the distant sky.
The gray-robed elder, who had already turned to face the First Sir and Tu Tai, froze upon hearing the voice and the name it spoke. His perpetually indifferent and lazy expression suddenly stiffened.
With his disposition and realm, he shouldn't have cared about any cultivator below; only a few high-level cultivators were worthy of his attention. His mission was to protect the Malevolent Spirit Sect. If he hadn't sensed that the Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl was already threatening the very survival of the Desolate Moon Continent, he would not have acted at all.
The existence of the Malevolent Spirit Sect was his mission, but it was also the creed of the Chimei Emissary to ensure the sect always had powerful, unyielding enemies. Otherwise, with absolute dominance, the Malevolent Spirit Sect would surely cease to strive for improvement, and its decline would not be far off.
Therefore, every Chimei Emissary had to keep the Malevolent Spirit Sect in a constant state of crisis, while also maintaining a balance in the number of its enemies. This applied to the Jingtu Sect, the Ten-Pace Courtyard, the Supreme Mystery Teachings, and to foreign invaders as well.
But earlier, for the sake of the Desolate Moon Continent's ultimate victory, the gray-robed elder would certainly not have agreed to let Su Changyang die while allowing Spirit Transformation cultivators from other sects to survive. That would have deprived the Malevolent Spirit Sect of its powerful figurehead.
"Hm? You… you are Shuang Qingqing! Why are you still on the Desolate Moon Continent… huh, why is your cultivation still at the Nascent Soul stage, and your soul is incomplete?"
When the gray-robed elder saw the peerless beauty, he was first stunned. He looked at the faintly familiar face, and then, amidst his surprise, he immediately switched to voice transmission, but his words came out as a string of questions.
"It really is you, Gu Jiuqi! I was always trying to guess who the current Chimei Emissary guarding the Malevolent Spirit Sect was. With your style back then, the sect would have surely chosen you for this task. As expected!"
Shuang Qingqing's beautiful eyes blazed as she, too, switched to voice transmission. A moment ago, overcome with emotion, she had blurted out his name. Of course, she didn't want others to know about her affairs, so she naturally switched to a private transmission. Although she was using voice transmission, anyone could see the traces of anger on her face.
She showed not the slightest hint of respect a junior should have for a senior. However, the name she had called out earlier immediately caused the expressions of many Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators to change drastically, especially the mid-to-high-ranking ones.
It wasn't that they were surprised by Shuang Qingqing's disrespect—it was obvious the two knew each other. They were shocked by the name "Gu Jiuqi." They knew this man was a Peak Master of Little Bamboo Peak from over forty thousand years ago. He was a figure of peerless elegance, a luminary among the Four Great Sects in his generation. To think that the unremarkable gray-robed elder before them was actually that man.
"Didn't this person ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm long ago?"
"Senior Gu hasn't perished yet? This… just how long is his lifespan…"
These were the thoughts in the hearts of many Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators. At the same time, many were puzzled as to how the Nascent Soul cultivator named "Shuang Qingqing" below could possibly know the gray-robed elder.
There were no more than two possibilities. The first was that Shuang Qingqing had seen a portrait or a jade slip of the gray-robed elder before. That was why she was able to deduce his identity based on some information. This could be seen from the initial uncertainty in her tone.
The second possibility was that the gray-robed elder could call out the woman's name, which was strange. However, since the gray-robed elder had appeared on the Desolate Moon Continent, it was possible he knew of people from the sects of old acquaintances.
But after Shuang Qingqing's initial cry, both of them switched to voice transmission, so others couldn't speculate further. With the gray-robed elder's cultivation, it was likely that even the First Sir would be blocked if he tried to eavesdrop.
Among the crowd below, Li Yan's mind was in even greater turmoil. Shuang Qingqing had just asked him about this person a few hours ago, and now, he was seeing him in the flesh. It felt almost like a hallucination.
'Forty thousand years! Even a Spirit Transformation cultivator can't live that long. How did this Senior Gu survive for forty thousand years?'
Li Yan had the same thought. At the same time, he no longer believed Shuang Qingqing's earlier claim that she was inquiring about Gu Jiuqi's whereabouts on behalf of the Wood Flow Sect. If she were trying to reclaim something for her sect, even with Gu Jiuqi's startling appearance, her attitude would surely have been extremely respectful. That was a terrifying existence who had incapacitated two Spirit Transformation cultivators in an instant. But clearly, the expression on Shuang Qingqing's face was not that. She was only an Initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
In that case, did that mean Shuang Qingqing's lifespan was also forty thousand years long?
'An old hag?' Li Yan thought uncertainly. 'But how did a wisp of her soul manage to exist in the 'Flying Sand Grotto-Caves' for forty thousand years?'
This thought arose not only in Li Yan's mind, but also in the minds of the Nascent Soul cultivators Zhu Luan, Mo Gu, and Mo Qing, who knew of Shuang Qingqing's identity. They were all utterly bewildered.
Yet, they did not immediately speak up to silence Shuang Qingqing. Each of them was as shrewd as they were old, and they all kept their mouths shut. The mere fact that the gray-robed elder showed no sign of anger was enough to prove that this Grand Elder of the Wood Flow Sect had an extraordinary background.
Moreover, even their Ancestor Su Changyang had remained silent for the moment. Among those who had cultivated to Foundation Establishment and beyond, how many were fools?
Thus, all the cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect fell into a strange silence. The cultivators from the other sects also watched with curiosity, equally afraid to make a sound. The gray-robed elder was not someone they could casually discuss or provoke.
The First Sir and Tu Tai were likewise trying to recall information about the so-called Chimei Emissary. Although the Malevolent Spirit Sect kept such matters secret, they had gathered some scraps of information over the millennia, but they had always dismissed it as mere rumor.
"Hehehe, is the incompleteness of my soul any of your business to be concerned about…" Shuang Qingqing stood on the shoulder of the towering ancient ape puppet, her voice a gritted, transmitted whisper, flames seeming to flicker within her gaze.
The gray-robed elder looked at Shuang Qingqing, fragments of memory vaguely surfacing in his mind, but they were incomplete. He suddenly moved his lips a few times, then shifted his gaze away from her.
Shuang Qingqing was visibly taken aback. She shot him a harsh glare, let out a cold snort, and said no more, her gaze growing even colder.
Within her mind, the gray-robed elder's aged voice still echoed. "Qingqing, I do not know why you did not return to the Verdant Continent, nor why your Divine Soul has been so severely damaged. However, we must first deal with the matter at hand. I am currently just a wisp of Divine Will from my main body. My memories of many things are fragmented and incomplete. So, we will speak of your matters later!"
Shuang Qingqing knew that the urgent priority was dealing with the Demon Clan's invasion. No matter how unwilling she was, she could only forcefully suppress her anger.
In the sky, Gu Jiuqi refocused his gaze on the First Sir. His somewhat sleepy eyes gradually sharpened, yet the aura around his body remained concealed. "I don't care where you came from, or why you can still use the ancient immortal arts of the Desolate Moon Continent. But you have aided the Demon Clan's invasion, so you will not be leaving today."
With that, without waiting for a reply from the bewildered First Sir, Gu Jiuqi raised a withered index finger and pointed it into the void.
Neither the First Sir nor Tu Tai had expected him to strike so suddenly and decisively.
The First Sir, who had been standing still, looked as if he had been stung by a hornet. His aged face contorted in shock, and with a flash of light, his entire person shot upwards, seemingly about to flee in an instant.
At the same time, Gu Jiuqi's aged voice sounded in the minds of Su Changyang, Daling, and Zhantian. "I will need about half an incense stick's worth of time to deal with the First Sir with my full strength. It is highly likely that he will unleash his Spirit Transformation cultivation without restraint. I will not have the capacity to handle that Demon Marshal. With your current states, holding him off for that long should not be a problem."
Before his voice had even faded, Gu Jiuqi's figure had already vanished from his original spot. Su Changyang and the others felt a chill in their hearts. The gray-robed elder's words were cryptic, but they completely understood his meaning.
They had not dared to use their full Spirit Transformation cultivation before, as it would be sensed by the laws of Heaven and Earth of the Desolate Moon Continent, which would then directly eject them from this world and exile them to some random pocket of the Chaotic Flow Space.
It now seemed that even Gu Jiuqi was not completely confident in his ability to take down the First Sir. He had to go all out. Otherwise, if a Late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator unleashed their full power, the consequences were predictable, and it was something Gu Jiuqi wanted to avoid at all costs.
The three of them were not in good condition. Facing Tu Tai, who was at his peak, they estimated they could only hold him off for a short while with their combined strength, just enough to prevent him from slaughtering the cultivators below or making an all-out charge for the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
As the few Spirit Transformation cultivators suddenly made their move, the great battle below, which had been quiet for a moment, erupted without any warning.
Li Yan and the others had already flown to the northern part of Windy Cool Mountain, and Li Yan finally got a clear look at the legendary Devil's Cliff Crevice.
The massive chasm was shaped like a gourd, with a narrow mouth and a wide belly. Below it was a precipice about two hundred li long, its edges lined with jagged rocks that gave it a sharp and perilous appearance. The cliff face was dotted with dense caves, presumably the residences of cultivators. Below the cliff, roiling black qi churned and seethed endlessly.
This black qi could only rise to the base of the cliff before it seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier. Below that, it was bottomless, like a deep abyss of black sea, with angry tides churning.
With the churning of these tides, figures of Demon Clan cultivators would occasionally emerge, charging toward the cliff above. Compared to the number of combatants in the great battle above, their numbers seemed small, but the feeling they gave off was that there was an endless supply of demon cultivators below.
Most of these demon cultivators were of the Demonic Soldier rank, but among them, one or two Demon Lords would occasionally burst forth with angry roars, charging toward the cliff.
However, contrary to what Li Yan and the others had imagined, even after the Nascent Soul cultivator had led several thousand cultivators out just now, there were still about a hundred cultivators on the cliff below, engaged in a fierce battle with the demon cultivators charging up from the black qi.
But with only a hundred cultivators spread out, their forces appeared weak. Many were already covered in wounds, bathed in blood.
Their shouts could not reach above the chasm, likely blocked by some kind of restriction. It was no wonder Li Yan and the others had not heard any unusual sounds from the rear before.
Judging from how Demon Marshal Tu Tai had been able to launch the Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl down without any obstruction, the barrier was likely a one-way restriction. To charge up from below, one had to either open a passage or forcefully break through. But descending from above was as simple as diving straight in. This setup was clearly more convenient for human cultivators to provide support at any time. It allowed them to aid any point at a moment's notice, while also effectively intercepting any demon cultivators who broke through when the human cultivators below were overwhelmed.