Duan Xianxing suddenly gave a cold sneer. "Ling Xiao, you keep calling it an evil entity, but have you ever actually seen it harm anyone?"
By now, he was so incensed that he had completely dropped all honorifics. No matter how many times he told himself to stay calm, the other man's attitude was simply too much to bear. The thunder on his sword crackled and popped, his lips pressed into a thin, tight line.
"A skeleton like this—its very existence is a sin!" The tip of Zhao Wufeng's sword trembled in the air. "It is better to kill by mistake than to let a single one escape!"
Zhu Yinxi gently set Li Nanzhu down and stepped forward. "Immortal Venerable Ling Xiao, your words are quite flawed. If we follow that logic, then anyone whose hands have been stained with blood should also be exterminated?" When he looked up, his eyes were clouded with frost. "If that is the case, who among those present is fit to live?"
Liu Qingyang took the opportunity to add, "Suisui is not only harmless, but has saved people many times. If you judge good and evil by appearance, how are you any different from the demon race?"
"Presumptuous!" Ling Xiao's pressure suddenly erupted, his Soul Transformation stage spiritual energy surging forward like a tide.
Duan Xianxing and Zhu Yinxi groaned simultaneously, a thin trail of blood leaking from the corners of their mouths. Liu Qingyang fared even worse; he was forced down onto one knee, yet he still stubbornly held his head high.
The group from the Shenmu Sect had long been unable to breathe under the weight.
Seeing that they still refused to back down, a flash of irritation crossed Ling Xiao's eyes.
He had already been nursing a belly full of grievances from before. Now, encountering an evil entity only to be repeatedly blocked by these juniors, his patience had reached its limit.
"Enough!" Ling Xiao suddenly bellowed. With a broad sweep of his sleeve, his colossal spiritual energy sent Liu Qingyang, Zhou Zichun, and the others flying. "This venerable has no patience for your petty excuses!"
Liu Changhe rushed to catch his son, but Liu Qingyang struggled to break free again. "Father! Let me—"
"Shut up!" Liu Changhe directly sealed his son's silence point, his expression grim as he held the boy behind him.
Seeing this, Suisui immediately clattered and crawled onto Li Nanzhu's chest, using its bone claws to shield her tightly. The little skeleton's soul fire flickered unsteadily, staring warily at the sword Ling Xiao had raised.
"Final warning." Ling Xiao's blade glowed with a piercing golden light. "Move."
Purple lightning ignited on Duan Xianxing's sword. "Only over my dead body!"
Zhu Yinxi's jade flute sounded a sharp note once more, the sound waves condensing into a physical barrier in the air.
The two stood to the left and right, shielding the unconscious Li Nanzhu and Suisui in the middle.
Only then did the crowd realize with a shock that one of these young men was actually at the Golden Core stage, while the other, though still in Foundation Establishment, appeared quite young and possessed the exceptionally pure thunder spiritual root!
People with such talent and spiritual roots could never be in league with evil cultivators. The elders' expressions became uncertain, and their resolve began to waver.
Perhaps they really had misunderstood?
However, this was not enough to shake Ling Xiao's determination. Just as the sword light was about to fall—
"Since when is it an outsider's turn to discipline my people?"
A lazy voice rang out abruptly, and a sky-blue figure appeared out of thin air. Feng Yi flicked his wide sleeve, and Ling Xiao's pressure vanished into nothingness.
Suisui immediately arched its frame alertly, its soul fire shrinking to a tiny point. It spread its bone claws in front of Li Nanzhu, completely distrusting this sudden stranger.
That was until it saw the joyous expressions of Duan Xianxing and Zhu Yinxi.
"Master!" the two shouted in unison. Duan Xianxing's eyes sparkled, and the usually cold lines of Zhu Yinxi's brow smoothed out.
Suisui's soul fire flickered, seemingly trying to judge if this master was the real deal.
Feng Yi simply stood there casually, yet every cultivator present felt a jolt in their hearts. That invisible sense of oppression was even more suffocating than Ling Xiao's pressure.
"Who are you, sir? Why protect this skeleton?" Zhao Wufeng was the first to speak. At the same time, he noticed Ling Xiao's expression was off and quickly sent a secret voice transmission.
"Do you know this man?"
The tip of Ling Xiao's sword trembled imperceptibly. His divine sense responded with suppressed annoyance, "Do you remember what happened at the Immortal Ascension Assembly?"
"It's him?!" Zhao Wufeng was secretly alarmed.
"Yes. I thought about it for a long time after returning to the sect, and I finally remembered where I had heard his name." Ling Xiao's grip on his sword tightened. "He is that person from the Five Elements Dao Sect!"
"The Five Elements Dao Sect?!" Zhao Wufeng nearly lost control of his facial expression upon hearing those words.
It was no wonder he reacted so strongly. For the past thousand years, the Five Elements Dao Sect had shown no trace of activity in the outside world. Even he had almost forgotten them. To be told now that the former number one sect had reappeared—how could he not be shocked?
Feng Yi first swept a glance over the unconscious Li Nanzhu, his gaze lingering for a moment on the folding fan she gripped tightly. Then, he turned to Ling Xiao. "Ling Xiao, you certainly are putting on quite a show of authority."
"Feng Yi," Ling Xiao said, his face darkening. "Even if you are the sect master of the Five Elements Dao Sect, that is no reason for you to protect such an evil entity!"
These words were like a thunderclap, causing every cultivator present to turn pale.
"The Five Elements Dao Sect?!"
"That Five Elements Dao Sect from the Eight Sects?"
"I thought they were already..."
Whispers broke out everywhere. Liu Changhe instinctively pulled his son back a few steps, his eyes full of shock and suspicion.
The only ones present who were purely delighted were Liu Qingyang and Lin Xiaowan's group.
That was the Five Elements Dao Sect! And since this man was so powerful, he would surely have a way to protect Suisui!
"Evil entity?" Feng Yi chuckled, his fingertips suddenly lighting up with five-colored spiritual light. "Little bone, come here."
Suisui hesitated for a moment, but seeing the looks from Duan Xianxing and Zhu Yinxi, it eventually scrambled quickly toward Feng Yi.
Seeing Suisui cooperate so well, Feng Yi looked at Ling Xiao again. "Do you see? This is my sect's dao-protecting bone spirit. If you slay it, do you intend to become an enemy of the Five Elements Dao Sect?"
"A dao-protecting bone spirit?" Cang Dongqing couldn't help but question. "I have never heard of such a thing..."
"Ignorant." Feng Yi huffed and casually pulled out an ancient jade slip. "The third volume of the 'Chronicles of the Five Elements' records that in ancient times, our sect had a tradition of taming bone spirits to protect the Dao." He flipped open a page at random, which indeed bore a pattern extremely similar to Suisui.
Duan Xianxing and Zhu Yinxi shared a look, struggling to keep their lips from twitching—they knew better than anyone that the book in their master's hand, 'Chronicles of the Five Elements', was something he had just made up last year!
As for that pattern of Suisui, it was likely just drawn on.
After all, Feng Yi's greatest talent was arguably his ability to spout serious nonsense.
"This..." Zhao Wufeng looked at the jade slip suspiciously.
"Absurd!" Ling Xiao's sword qi surged again. "You think you can get away with this by just producing a random jade slip?"
Feng Yi unhurriedly took out an ancient bronze mirror. "Since you don't believe me, Ling Xiao, why not test it with the Profound Sky Mirror?"
Under the mirror's light, Suisui's soul fire appeared pure and translucent, without a single trace of evil energy.
Seeing this, the crowd fell silent. A high-level magic tool like the Profound Sky Mirror could not be faked. Since it showed no evil energy, and given the man's status, the others didn't feel it was their place to say anything more.
"Satisfied?" Feng Yi put away the ancient mirror, his tone turning cold. "Or is it that you, Ling Xiao, even wish to question my sect's inheritance?"
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