“If word of this gets out, outsiders will only say that the disciple of Wanjian Peak's Peak Master was down on her luck to the extreme. But Master will know deep down that it was targeted at her.”
“First sever her right arm, then wait for her mind to lose its composure and her sword heart to be clouded...”
Chi Yuan: “＜(ºOº)＞”
She realized that in certain respects, her junior sister's mind turned even faster than her own. While she was still pondering which link in the chain had gone wrong with the intelligence, her junior sister had already thoroughly dissected the mastermind's motives.
Chi Yuan chose to silently accept it, because every point her junior sister made was entirely sound in logic.
In the entire Azure Cloud Sect, there were very few people capable of tampering with a mission assigned to a personal disciple of Wanjian Peak.
The five Peak Masters, Sect Master Martial Uncle, plus the Chief Deacon of the Mission Hall.
The scope was just that narrow.
Master didn't have many enemies within the sect, but not many didn't mean none. To sit in the seat of a Peak Master, who hadn't stepped on a few people along the way?
“I've noted this,” Chi Yuan said. “After we return, I'll have the deacons of Wanjian Peak investigate thoroughly.”
She added, “Hopefully, it was just an accident.”
Shen Qingci looked deeply at her for a moment. When her senior sister said "Hopefully, it was just an accident," her expression was as calm as ever, but the fingers gripping her scabbard tightened for a split second.
She said no more; some things didn't need to be spelled out completely.
To her senior sister, Master was not only the elder who imparted the Dao and taught her cultivation, but also the benefactor who had pulled her out from a pile of corpses all those years ago.
If the error in this mission's intelligence truly was deliberate, how furious would Master be when she found out?
Shen Qingci gathered her thoughts and issued an order within her sea of consciousness: “Shadow Division, hear my command. Search a thousand-li radius around Blood Thorn Ridge, focusing on underground caverns and areas of dense miasma. Target: an evil cultivator at or above the late Nascent Soul stage, practicing blood-fiend arts.”
“Once located, do not alert the enemy. Use the Shadow Kill Array to lock down their position from a distance and await my orders.”
【Shadow One obeys.】
Dozens of dark shadows soundlessly darted out from across Blood Thorn Ridge, scattering in different directions.
These secret guards had crouched in the dark for nearly several hours, watching their Eldest Young Lady play along with the evil cultivators, watching Fairy Chi dispatch one Golden Core per sword strike, never once receiving an order to intervene from start to finish.
A few secret guards had exchanged private voice transmissions, unanimously agreeing that the Eldest Young Lady's senior sister could truly fight, and that the Eldest Young Lady's eye for choosing a Dao companion was exceptionally sharp.
However, they only dared to think this in their hearts, not daring to gossip aloud. They were terrified that their thin-skinned Eldest Young Lady would get shy and embarrassed, causing their Commander to dock their entire monthly allowance!!!
Chi Yuan waited for a quarter of an hour, then tilted her head to ask, “A-Ci, can they find him?”
“Yes,” Shen Qingci answered with certainty. “A Nascent Soul cultivator's divine sense shielding might fool a Golden Core, but it can't fool a Soul Transformation cultivator.”
“When Shadow One sweeps her divine sense across, not even an ant can hide within a thousand-li radius of Blood Thorn Ridge. If the mastermind is still inside the ridge, he won't get away; if he has already withdrawn, she can still trace his direction by following the residual spiritual energy fluctuations.”
Chi Yuan nodded.
At this moment, she genuinely experienced the charm of her junior sister. She also finally understood why so many sword cultivator elders in the sect squeezed their heads off trying to form marriage alliances with top-tier great families or marry into prominent clans.
【Traveling outside with her brings an overwhelming sense of security.】
In her sea of consciousness, Shadow One's voice rang out: “Eldest Young Lady, the target has been found. An underground karst cave in the inner perimeter. The cave entrance has three layers of concealment restrictions, and there are seventeen sentries on the outer perimeter, ranging from early to late Golden Core stage.”
“The sentries have all been subdued without alerting the survivor inside.”
Shen Qingci replied, “Good. Leave a few squads to watch the entrance, and take Senior Sister and me over.” Saying that, she tilted her head toward the stone platform. “Those nine behind the stone platform, dispose of them directly.”
“Understood.”
Shadow One's figure coalesced from the shadows. She raised her hand and waved toward one side of the hollow valley.
Several secret guards landed, crisply and cleanly carrying off the three paralyzed cultivators on the ground, while two others darted toward the stone platform.
Having done all this, Shadow One stepped before Shen Qingci and Chi Yuan. “Eldest Young Lady, Fairy Chi, pardon my offense.”
A spatial ripple spread out, and their figures vanished from the spot. For a Soul Transformation cultivator, crossing space over a short distance took merely an instant.
When the scene before their eyes solidified once more, the three were already standing before a rock wall overgrown with blood-thorn vines.
The illusion array on the surface of the cliff wall had already been broken, revealing a three-zhang-tall cave entrance behind it. On either side of the entrance slumped a black-clad evil cultivator, their necks twisted at unnatural angles.
“This is the place.” Shadow One stepped aside. “Shall this subordinate accompany the Eldest Young Lady inside?”
“No need,” Shen Qingci said. “Guard the entrance. If anyone inside tries to flee, execute them on the spot.”
Shadow One bowed and retreated to the side of the entrance, her figure blending back into the night.
Shen Qingci and Chi Yuan walked shoulder to shoulder into the karst cave.
An underground space spanning a full hundred zhang opened before their eyes. The Blood-Thorn Scrying Eyes embedded in the stone walls were all shattered, and upon a stone seat in the center sat a withered old man.
Imprisoned by the array, he was unable to rise, capable of moving only his upper body in slight increments.
Yet the crushing pressure of dozens of Nascent Soul secret guards joining forces to form an array was far beyond what a single peak Nascent Soul cultivator could break free from.
Such a grand display of power—looking across the entire Southern Region, the factions capable of producing it could be counted on one hand.
Yet the two sword cultivators before him had mobilized it so casually. He had spent his entire life being timid and cautious—even when killing rogue cultivators, he would clear the grounds first, set up illusion arrays first, and investigate whether the targets had any background first. He never imagined that, in the end, he would still capsize in the gutter.
Blood-Robed Patriarch squeezed out a smile with difficulty: “May I ask, young ladies, from which immortal mountain or noble clan do you hail?”
Shen Qingci did not answer.
Blood-Robed Patriarch did not expect her to answer either. His gaunt face was plastered with a fawning smile as he continued on his own: “This lowly one has knocked about the Southern Region for a thousand years. To survive until today through several rounds of sect extermination campaigns, what I relied on was never fighting and killing. For a power capable of raising Nascent Soul secret guards, My Lady is likely not from the Southern Region.”
As he spoke, he opened his hands with palms facing upward, indicating he had no intention of self-detonating.
“This lowly one boldly takes the liberty to ask: by My Lady's side, do you lack someone to do the dirty work?”
Chi Yuan's fingers came to rest on the hilt of her sword.
Blood-Robed Patriarch glanced at her, convinced that the Qi Refining female cultivator beside her was the true person in charge.
“Please don't misunderstand, My Lady. What this lowly one means is that while great families look glamorous on the surface, who among them doesn't have a few unspeakable deeds hidden in the dark?”
“The secret guards by your side are all elites; their combat strength and protection are beyond reproach. But killing is easy, whereas cleaning up cleanly is hard.”
“In certain matters, having a swift sword is far from enough.”
He struggled to count on his fingers, his tone growing increasingly eager: “If My Lady has need, within the Southern Region, within three months, this lowly one can help you establish an underground stronghold in any province or county—from site selection to array layout to staffing...”
“Moreover, this lowly one knows how to train death soldiers—true death soldiers tempered repeatedly after having fiend-qi infused into their bodies. They fear neither pain nor death, executing orders without the slightest deviation.”
“Your secret guards are all elites, Eldest Young Lady; losing even one would be heartbreaking. But for tasks that mean certain death, there is no need to send elites.”
“This lowly one can train a few batches of death soldiers for you, dedicated to those one-way errands. If they're lost, it won't sting—we can simply train more.”
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