The next day, everything remained as usual at the Spirit Pagoda in Lingbo City.
At least from the outside, it looked no different than usual; the doors were wide open, and people occasionally went in and out.
But everyone inside the Spirit Pagoda knew that everything had changed.
That shameless Hua Tao had colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult and screwed all of them over.
Those ordinary staff members were each secretly praying that Vice Pagoda Master Leng Yaozhu would handle the matter impartially, investigate their innocence, and not implicate them too broadly.
From yesterday until now, the entire Spirit Pagoda had been permeated by a depressed and tense atmosphere that made it difficult for people to even sleep well.
Under this atmosphere, at a little past nine in the morning on the second day, the Spirit Pagoda finally welcomed a special group of "guests".
At the lead was a tall, cold, yet stunning woman dressed in black fitted attire, her long hair tied into a high ponytail.
Beside her was a very cute young girl with a somewhat childish face, whose steps were bouncy and full of vitality.
Behind these two women followed five figures whose bodies were completely enveloped in black robes, with their wide hoods pulled down very low so their faces could not be seen.
These were naturally people from the Holy Spirit Cult, and the two women leading them were precisely two of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Holy Spirit Cult, Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie and Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai.
They walked onto the plaza in front of the Spirit Pagoda. Just as Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai was about to continue walking forward, Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie beside her suddenly halted her steps.
Her foot paused mid-air, and her entire body froze for a fraction of a second like a sculpture that had been pressed with a pause button.
Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai looked back at her, her brows slightly furrowed: "What is it?"
Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie did not answer immediately. Her pupils contracted slightly, and then a layer of invisible mental force rapidly spread outward from her as the center.
Her mental force was like a fine net, sweeping across every floor tile on the plaza, every window of the Spirit Pagoda, and every wisp of airflow.
A moment later, her expression changed abruptly, and her voice carried a low, hurried tone: "Not good! Let's go!"
The very instant Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie's voice fell, those five figures shrouded in black robes behind her collapsed silently, as if all their support had been pulled away at the same time.
The five bodies slammed onto the stone-paved ground of the plaza at almost the exact same moment, producing a muffled thud without even managing to emit a single scream.
This sudden turn of events made Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai realize something was wrong as well, but it seemed to be too late.
She abruptly turned her head to scan her surroundings. Those pedestrians originally walking by the street and those Spirit Masters occasionally passing through the plaza were now gradually dissipating, vanishing into the air one after another like mist dried up by the sunlight.
Except for the few of them, not a single figure was left in the entire plaza.
Everything appeared unusually quiet, so quiet it was like a meticulously arranged stage.
"Hua Tao! How dare you deceive us?!"
Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's voice carried an unsuppressible anger, and the voice echoed across the empty plaza, yet no one answered her.
Obviously, in Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's mind, it was Hua Tao who had invited them here, and this place must be a trap set by Hua Tao and Qiangu Dongfeng behind him!
At this moment, a voice slowly drifted over from the direction of the Spirit Pagoda: "As expected of a Mental-type Super Douluo, you were actually able to see through this illusion."
Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie's gaze locked onto the front doors of the Spirit Pagoda. A moment later, her lips moved slightly, and she slowly spat out three words: "Huo Yuhao!"
She recognized that the owner of that voice was precisely that youth they had once dealt with in the Star Luo Empire.
It was just that the aura on his body was now completely different from back then, so deep that it faintly gave birth to a sense of unease in her heart.
Immediately following that, three figures walked out from the doors of the Spirit Pagoda, and they were precisely Leng Yaozhu, Han Tianyi, and Huo Yuhao.
Leading them was Leng Yaozhu, her gaze falling upon Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai, and within those consistently calm eyes, complex emotions were currently churning.
Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's gaze crossed a distance of several zhang and nailed itself straight onto Leng Yaozhu's face.
Her originally cold and stunning face twisted slightly at this moment, and her voice was squeezed out from between her teeth word by word: "Leng... Yao... zhu..."
Those three words were bitten down with extreme heaviness, as if compressing all the complex emotions of not seeing each other for many years into this single call.
Leng Yaozhu stood in place, her brows tightly knitted.
She truly did not understand why her younger sister looked at her with such hatred at this moment.
When she spoke, her tone carried a heavy solemnity: "Yulai, you actually joined the Holy Spirit Cult?!"
Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai sneered: "Who else could it be since my Spirit is the Dark Phoenix? I was naturally meant to be together with Evil Soul Masters."
Before her voice even faded, her entire figure rushed straight toward Leng Yaozhu like a dark flame, condensing blazing and dim Phoenix flames in her palms, carrying a determination to fight her sister to the death.
A trace of pain flashed through Leng Yaozhu's eyes, and she said in a deep voice: "Dark Bell is left to you."
Immediately afterward, she also leaped into the air, and the platinum-gold Heavenly Phoenix True Fire suddenly burst forth around her body, meeting that dark beam of light like a blazing sun.
The moment Leng Yaozhu moved, Han Tianyi had already finished putting on his battle armor. He turned his head to glance at Huo Yuhao beside him: "Yuhao, don't intervene."
The last time he fought Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie, Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai was also present, and he had been worried about Huo Yuhao, leading to a prolonged stalemate.
He had always muttered about this matter and held a bit of a grudge.
Now that he had finally encountered this opponent again, he naturally would not miss the opportunity; he wanted to wash away his past humiliation.
The moment his voice fell, without even moving his steps, his majestic mental force had already crushed toward Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie like an invisible giant wave.
Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie's expression changed slightly, the Dark Bell Spirit hanging above her head. Instead of retreating, she similarly met it with her mental force.
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao stood in place watching the suddenly erupted battle before him, temporarily appearing almost like an outsider.
With his hands in his pockets, his gaze swept back and forth between Leng Yaozhu and Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai, as well as Han Tianyi and Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie. In the end, he simply stood quietly there, acting as an unqualified spectator.
He knew clearly in his heart that rashly intervening at a time like this might instead disrupt his own people's rhythm.
Anyway, with his mental force, if any accident occurred, he would be able to react at the first instance.
Above the plaza, two Phoenix figures, one white and one black, were engaging in a fierce clash.
The platinum-gold Heavenly Phoenix True Fire and the Dark Phoenix flames continuously collided in the air, each impact stirring up circles of visible energy ripples that tore the low-hanging dark clouds apart layer by layer, revealing the sun that had been obscured for a long time.
Huo Yuhao looked up for a moment, then withdrew his gaze.
He was not worried about the battle on Leng Yaozhu's side; whether in terms of cultivation or battle armor, Leng Yaozhu occupied an absolute advantage.
Although Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's offensive was fierce, she was consistently and steadily suppressed by Leng Yaozhu, unable to make any major waves.
Meanwhile, the battle between Han Tianyi and Dark Bell Dark Bell Nanalie on the plaza was much quiter. Both of them were Mental-type Spirit Masters, standing opposite each other across the empty plaza with invisible mental fluctuations permeating their surroundings.
There was no roar of Spirit Power, nor any explosive shockwaves, yet Huo Yuhao could clearly perceive that both of their mental forces were consuming rapidly.
Their combat within the illusion was far more intense than it looked on the surface. Every clash of wills was like a silent tsunami, firmly sealed between the two of them by that layer of mental force field.
Not long after, a dark figure plummeted suddenly from mid-air like a shooting star, heavily slamming onto the stone-paved ground of the plaza.
Shattered stones splattered everywhere, smashing a shallow pit into the ground, which was covered with spiderweb-like cracks all around.
Following the sound, Huo Yuhao saw Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai half-kneeling in the center of those shattered stone slabs. Her battle armor was covered with charred cracks, traces left behind after being repeatedly scorched by the Heavenly Phoenix True Fire.
Fresh blood overflowed from the corners of her mouth as she tried to struggle to her feet, but before she could prop up her body, Leng Yaozhu, wearing her battle armor, had already traversed through space and appeared right in front of her.
Leng Yaozhu held a fiery sword condensed from the Heavenly Phoenix True Fire in her hand, its tip precisely pressing against the front of her neck, stopping just barely in time.
Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's movements abruptly halted. She raised her eyes to meet Leng Yaozhu's gaze, within those eyes churning reluctance, anger, and a trace of unspeakable, unclear complex emotions.
Huo Yuhao could tell that this was still the result after Leng Yaozhu held back.
If she had struck with full force, that attack just now would have been enough to take half of Dark Phoenix Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai's life.
----------------------------------------------
A/N:
I hope all of you are enjoying this story so far. I would appreciate some Power Stones if you can spare any. Leave a review if you like the story. Thank you.