The world of film and television starts from the flow of money

Zhu Yuyan slowly rose, gave a slight curtsy, her movements extremely elegant, and her voice was clear and melodious: "Alliance Leader, Yuyan also has something to report."

"Please speak, Madam Zhu."

"As instructed by the Alliance Leader, the Yin Kui Sect has basically completed the integration of the various sects of the Holy Gate. After the traitors such as Bi Shou Xuan, Zuo You Xian, You Niao Juan, and Bi Chen were executed, their remaining forces either submitted to me or were eliminated. Now, apart from the Demon Xiang Sect, which is based in the Turkic region, and the Butian Pavilion, whose whereabouts are mysterious and difficult to find, seven or eight tenths of the Holy Gate's power is under my control."

The information conveyed in Zhu Yuyan's words sent a chill down the spines of the assembled civil officials, including Song Lu and Xu Xingzhi, as well as the military generals, such as Wang Bodang and Xu Shiji. They hadn't expected Zhu Yuyan to act so swiftly and ruthlessly, managing to almost unify the deeply entrenched and unruly Demonic Sect in such a short time! This "Empress of the Underworld" was indeed unfathomably powerful.

Taking in everyone's reactions, Zhu Yuyan smiled slightly and continued:

"Taking advantage of this integration opportunity, Yu Yan has initially established an intelligence network called 'Shadow' that covers major cities in the Central Plains and even infiltrates some of the feudal lords' forces and the Turkic territory. Its spies are located as far north as the Li clan of Taiyuan and Wang Shichong of Luoyang, as far west as Guanzhong, as far east as Dou Jiande, and as far south as Lin Shihong. Intelligence on the troop movements, food reserves, and internal affairs of all parties will be regularly compiled and reported to the Alliance Leader."

As she spoke, Zhu Yuyan took out a thin booklet from her sleeve, which was then taken by a standing Yin Kui Sect disciple and respectfully presented to Yi Huawei: "This is a summary of the initial structure of 'Shadow' and some important intelligence recently acquired. Please take a look, Alliance Leader."

Yi Huawei took the booklet but didn't open it immediately. Looking at Zhu Yuyan, a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes. The Yin Kui Sect was adept at infiltration and covert operations; having her build the intelligence system would indeed be twice as effective. With this "Shadow" network, the Heavenly Dao Alliance would be like having eyes and ears everywhere, giving them a significant information advantage in future power struggles.

"Thank you for your hard work, Madam Zhu."

Yi Huawei said gently, "Integrating the Demonic Sect and establishing 'Shadow' are two things that are no less valuable to the Alliance than a hundred thousand soldiers. Going forward, the intelligence network needs to continue to penetrate to the grassroots level and extend to foreign regions such as the Western Regions, Korea, and Japan."

"Yu Yan obeys the order."

Zhu Yuyan nodded slightly and sat down calmly.

Yi Huawei's gaze swept over the civil and military officials present, finally settling on the huge map at the back of the hall, and he slowly spoke:
"You are all pillars of our Heavenly Dao Alliance, and what we have heard today is all good news. However, the world is not yet settled, heroes are all around, and the Turks are eyeing us like wolves. We must not be complacent in the slightest."

"Domestic affairs will continue to prioritize the well-being, prosperity, and education of the people; military affairs will focus on elite troops, strong generals, and superior weaponry; intelligence will prioritize accuracy, speed, and depth..."

………………

Just as Yi Huawei was listening to reports from civil and military officials in the Chengyun Hall.

Inside Guanlan Pavilion.

Kim Jung-jong remained seated, but his previous composure had vanished. Although the vast aura that had enveloped the entire city had slowly subsided, the lingering oppressive feeling still made him uneasy. His fingertips unconsciously rubbed the scabbard, trying to rekindle the shaken sword spirit.

Suddenly, the fingers stroking the sword sheath paused slightly. A keen perception of the flow of qi, derived from the art of swordsmanship, made him sense a soft, ethereal aura, yet with a hint of allure, which silently enveloped the "Guanlan Pavilion" like spreading vines.

The two disciples behind Jin Zhengzong, whose cultivation was slightly inferior, had not yet noticed, but seeing the strange expression on their leader's face, they immediately became alert and placed their hands on the hilts of their swords at their waists.

The door to the private room was pushed open gently without making a sound.

A slender figure dressed in a colorful brocade dress appeared silently at the doorway, as if stepping out of a painting.

Wen Caiting still wore that captivating smile, her eyes sparkling with an alluring charm. Her gaze swept over the three people in the room before finally settling on Jin Zhengzong.

“Sir, what a keen sense of perception.”

Wen Caiting's voice was soft and melodious, like a lover whispering in someone's ear, but it made the two Korean disciples tense up instantly, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Kim Jung-jong slowly raised his head, looking calmly at Wen Caiting. The long sword on his lap was not drawn, but his aura was already imposing.

"The Yin Kui Sect, 'Seductive Demon' Wen Caiting?"

Kim Jeongjong spoke slowly, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger. Although he was far away in Goryeo, he had heard of the important figures of the Central Plains Demonic Sect.

Wen Caiting covered her mouth and chuckled softly, her posture graceful: "Sir, you have excellent eyesight. May I ask your name and where you are from?"

Kim Jung-jong remained silent for a moment, knowing that it was pointless to hide his identity in front of such a master, and frankly said, "Kim Jung-jong, from Goryeo and Yijian Pavilion."

"So you are a highly accomplished disciple of the Master of Swordsmanship. I am deeply sorry to have offended you, Chief Jin."

Wen Caiting's smile remained unchanged, but her eyes sharpened: "Today, our Heavenly Dao Alliance is dealing with a traitor. Xiangyang City is a mixed bag, and to prevent troublemakers, the Alliance Leader has ordered that all suspicious persons in the city be screened. May I ask what brings Chief Jin from so far away and why he is staying in Xiangyang?"

A young disciple behind Kim Jeongjong could no longer contain himself and shouted in Chinese with a Goryeo accent, "We are Goryeo envoys, invited to witness the ceremony. How dare you be so rude!"

Wen Caiting didn't even glance at the disciple, but looked at Jin Zhengzong with a slightly cold smile: "Attending the ceremony is naturally welcome. But if you have ulterior motives or try to spy on our alliance's secrets... then don't blame me for not being hospitable."

The soft, ethereal aura surrounding her suddenly solidified, and an invisible pressure spread out, locking onto Jin Zhengzong. A sweet, cloying fragrance seemed to fill the air, yet it concealed a deadly intent—her unique skill: the combination of the Heavenly Demon Aura and the Enchanting Seduction Technique.

The two Korean disciples felt their breath catch in their throats, and hallucinations arose before their eyes, as if countless alluring women were dancing in front of them. Their minds swayed, and they almost lost control.

Kim Jeong-jong snorted coldly, and the long sword on his lap, though not drawn, emitted a clear and melodious sword sound!

"Zheng——!"

The sword's cry wasn't loud, but it carried a sword intent that could sever illusions, instantly cutting a gap in the seductive illusion and oppressive aura emanating from Wen Caiting! The two disciples trembled, the illusion vanished, cold sweat poured down their foreheads, and their eyes were filled with fear as they looked at Wen Caiting.

"Elder Wen."

Kim Jung-jong slowly rose, his posture as upright as a pine tree, his gaze fixed on Wen Caiting: "I have come here only to observe the ceremony, with no other intentions. The Yi Jian Pavilion has no grudges against the Yin Kui Sect, nor does it have any conflict with the Heavenly Dao Alliance. Today's business is concluded, and I will leave Xiangyang shortly to return to Goryeo. Is that sufficient?"

Kim Jung-jong knew that it was unwise to clash with the elders of the Yin Kui Sect on their territory, especially since the unfathomable leader of the alliance was nearby.

Wen Caiting stared at Jin Zhengzong for a moment, then her charming smile returned to her face, and her imposing aura receded like the tide.

"Chief Kim is a wise man."

Wen Caiting nodded slightly: "In that case, I will not disturb you any longer. I hope Chief Jin will keep his word and not put us in a difficult position. Please make yourself at home."

After saying that, she didn't look at Kim Jungjong again. Her figure floated backward like a ghost, and with a flick of her colorful brocade sleeve, the door to the private room closed silently, as if she had never appeared.

Inside the room, only Kim Jung-jong and two disciples, still shaken by the experience, remained.

Jin Zhengzong slowly sat down, stroking the long sword on his lap, his expression solemn. The strength and control displayed by the Heavenly Alliance far exceeded his expectations. The alliance leader and the forces under his command made him feel unprecedented pressure.

Gritting his teeth, Jin Zhengzong ordered in a deep voice: "Pack your things, we must leave Xiangyang immediately."

This place is no longer safe to stay in.

Inside Zuixianju.

The atmosphere in the private room plummeted to freezing point the moment Danmei appeared.

Danmei did not enter through the door.

She appeared silently in the shadows of the corner of the private room. Dressed in pure white, with snow-white hair, her face was cold and expressionless, except for her eyes, which were like ancient ice, coldly staring at Chao Gongcuo in the main seat. Chao Gongcuo had noticed Danmei the moment she appeared, and almost at the same time as sensing that chilling aura, he moved!
"Baka! Do it!"

Chao Gongcuo let out a sharp shriek, his thin body springing up from his seat like a spring compressed to its limit! Like a gecko, he used both hands and feet to pounce on the window of the room with lightning speed!
He was actually trying to escape through the window!
At the same time, the two followers dressed as warriors from the Central Plains below him revealed their fierce eyes. One of them threw three shurikens with serrated edges and a dark blue light, which shot towards Danmei's face, throat and chest in a triangular formation.

The other man drew a slightly curved Japanese sword, ducked low, and slashed at Danmei's feet like a bolt of lightning! The two worked in perfect coordination, one at a distance and the other at close range, their attacks ruthless and cunning!

Faced with this sudden attack, Danmei's icy face remained completely unmoved.

Just as the shuriken reached his body, a chilling and piercing true energy suddenly erupted from his body, and the moisture in the air instantly condensed, turning into countless tiny ice crystals that surrounded his body!
"Ding Ding Ding!"

The three poisoned shurikens shot into the icy aura, their speed decreasing drastically as if they were sinking into a viscous swamp. Finally, exhausted, they were carried away by the ice crystals and fell to the blue brick ground with a few "thuds". The eerie blue poisonous light on their surfaces was dimmed by the freezing.

The Japanese man who was wielding a knife and aiming for her feet felt an extremely cold energy surge upwards along the blade before the blade even touched Danmei's clothes! His right hand, holding the knife, was instantly covered with a layer of white frost, and the biting cold penetrated his meridians, making his entire arm stiff and numb!
"what!"

The Japanese man screamed and instinctively tried to withdraw his sword and retreat.

But Danmei moved even faster!

His right hand, which had been hanging by his side, reached forward seemingly casually. His fingers were slender, but his nails gleamed with a cold, eerie light, like five icicles. He struck first, and with unparalleled precision, grabbed the wrist of the man holding the knife!
"Crack!"

A teeth-grinding sound of bones cracking was heard!

The Japanese man's wrist was crushed by Danmei's five fingers! The Japanese sword clattered to the ground.

Danmei's fingers didn't stop, and she pushed forward with the momentum. Her fingertips, which contained the power of Xuanbing Finger, were like a red-hot iron piercing into the ice and snow. They easily broke through the protective energy that the Japanese had hastily raised and struck the Tanzhong acupoint on his chest!

"Uh!"

The Japanese man's body stiffened abruptly, his eyes bulged, and his face instantly turned a bluish-black frost. He was frozen in place, his forward-moving posture gone, his breath extinguished. The Xuanbing Finger technique had instantly frozen his heart meridian!

From the moment Danmei appeared to the moment a follower died, it was all over in the blink of an eye!
At this moment, Chao Gongcuo had already rushed to the window, his right hand, with its large knuckles and dark red color, slammed with all his life's strength, and slammed it against the tightly closed carved wooden window! He wanted to use the "Jade-Breaking Palm" of the "Seven Killings Style" to forcefully blast open a path to survival!
"Want to go?"

A cold, emotionless voice, like a chilling wind from the depths of hell, rang in Chao Gongcuo's ears.

Danmei's figure had appeared between him and the window as if by teleportation! It was as if she had always been standing there!

Chao Gongcuo's pupils contracted sharply. His palm strike toward the window continued in the same direction, but his other hand, hidden in his sleeve, moved like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, silently flicking out a "shadowless needle" as thin as a cow's hair and completely black, aimed straight at Danmei's lower abdomen! This needle did not rely on brute force, but rather on a mixture of potent poisons that would kill instantly upon contact with blood, making it extremely insidious!
However, Danmei seemed to have anticipated his underhanded trick. Just as the needle was about to touch his body, the Xuanbing True Qi surrounding him suddenly intensified!

"laugh--"

The tiny poison needle shot into the dense, frigid air, its speed decreasing sharply. A tiny ice crystal even formed on the tip of the needle. Finally, it fell to the ground, exhausted, just inches away from Danmei's clothes.

At the same time, Danmei's left hand, with fingers pointing like a sword, struck first, aiming at Chao Gongcuo's hand that was slapping against the window! Before the fingertips even arrived, the chilling icy wind from the fingertip made Chao Gongcuo's entire arm feel as if it had fallen into an ice cave!

Chao Gongcuo was horrified! This woman's chilling aura was so terrifying! He dared not take it head-on, so he had to suddenly change his move, forcibly retracting his hand that was slapping the window, and sliding backward like a boneless eel, trying to create distance. At the same time, he struck out with both palms in succession, instantly creating more than ten dark red palm shadows, carrying a hot and foul palm wind, which enveloped Danmei's major acupoints!

"Seven Killing Jade Palm - Hundred Splits!"

This is his "Seven Killings Style" ultimate technique. The palm strike appears fierce, but it is actually sinister and vicious, containing seven different forces. It is specifically designed to break through the internal protective energy. Those struck by it will appear unharmed on the outside, but their internal organs will be shattered.

Faced with this treacherous and ruthless palm technique, Danmei finally got serious.

A cold glint flashed in her icy eyes, and her right hand, which had been behind her back, finally moved. Her five fingers were spread out, palm down, and an even colder chill than before suddenly spread outwards from her palm!

"Seal off the Mystic Ice Domain!"

In an instant, the air within a radius of ten feet centered on Danmei seemed to freeze! A thin layer of ice covered the blue brick floor, icicles formed on the surfaces of tables and chairs, and even the light seemed to become dim and cold!

As soon as Chao Gongcuo's dark red palm shadows, which were attacking from all directions, entered the "Mysterious Ice Domain", their speed dropped sharply. The scorching and foul smell contained in the palm wind was instantly extinguished by the extreme cold. The seven layers of strange force were like flying insects trapped in amber, their movement sluggish and unable to continue!
"what?!"

Chao Gongcuo was shocked. He felt as if he had crashed into an invisible ice cellar, his movements became extremely slow, and even the circulation of his internal energy was greatly suppressed!

Just as his old strength was exhausted and new strength had not yet arisen, and his movements became sluggish—

Danmei's figure, like an ice sprite infused with the chill of the air, silently passed through the slowing palm shadow and appeared before Chao Gongcuo. Her right index and middle fingers were joined together, the tip gathering a point of extremely cold, ghostly blue light, which, like a meteor streaking through the darkness, aimed directly at Chao Gongcuo's dantian!
This finger strike was swift, accurate, and ruthless! It seized the perfect opportunity when Chao Gongcuo's aura was suppressed by the Xuanbing Domain and his moves were running out of steam!

Chao Gongcuo was terrified and desperately tried to twist and dodge, but under the suppression of the Xuanbing Domain, his movements were more than a beat slower!
"puff!"

A soft sound, like ice cracking.

Danmei's Xuanbing Finger Force broke through Chao Gongcuo's hastily gathered protective energy in his abdomen without any hindrance, and accurately struck his dantian acupoint!

"Uhhhhh-!"

Chao Gongcuo let out a bloodcurdling scream, his entire body going limp as if his bones had been removed! A surge of pure, icy true energy instantly invaded his dantian, like countless ice needles, pulverizing his "Seven Killings True Energy" cultivated over many years! Furthermore, a chilling aura rapidly spread along his meridians, freezing the meridians and sealing off the acupoints wherever it passed!
Chao Gongcuo crashed heavily to the ground, his body curled up in a ball, convulsing violently, blood frothing with icy shards constantly spilling from his mouth, his face as pale as paper. Danmei's finger strike not only crippled his martial arts, but the Xuanbing True Qi that had invaded his body was also constantly eroding his life force, making it impossible for him to even commit suicide.

The other surviving Japanese follower was already terrified by the sight before him. Seeing that Chao Gongcuo had been crippled in one move, he let out a strange cry and rushed towards the door, trying to escape.

Danmei didn't turn around, but simply flicked her sleeve.

A condensed, icy palm strike arrived first, precisely hitting the Japanese man's back.

"Oh!"

The Japanese man was struck as if by a charging wild bull, and he was thrown forward, crashing into the door with a dull thud. He then slid softly to the ground, blood gushing from his mouth and nose, clearly beyond saving.

The entire private room fell into a deathly silence. Only Chao Gongcuo's intermittent groans, born of extreme pain, could be heard.

Danmei walked expressionlessly to Chao Gongcuo's side and lifted him up like a dead dog. At this moment, Chao Gongcuo's martial arts were crippled, his meridians were severely damaged, and under the erosion of Xuanbing True Qi, he could hardly move a finger and could only be manipulated at will.

Glancing at the chaotic private room and the corpse on the ground, Danmei, carrying Chao Gongcuo, silently disappeared into the shadows, just as she had arrived, and left "Drunken Immortal Abode." She needed to bring this prisoner back to the Governor's Mansion as soon as possible and hand him over to the Alliance Leader for punishment.

Outside "Drunken Immortal Abode," Wen Caiting's figure quietly appeared. She glanced in the direction Danmei had left, then at Jin Zhengzong and his group who were already packing their belongings to leave not far away, and a cold smile appeared on her charming face.

"The Koreans are quite sensible... However, there are more than just a few rats hiding in this city of Xiangyang."

Wen Caiting gently tidied her temples, and with a wave of her colorful brocade sleeves, several ghostly figures of Yin Kui Sect disciples emerged from the surrounding shadows, bowing and obeying her orders.

"Let's go. The Alliance Leader has ordered us to 'pay a visit' to the other uninvited clowns and see who else dares to plot against us on the territory of the Heavenly Dao Alliance."

Before she finished speaking, Wen Caiting's figure had already vanished like a fragrant breeze, drifting off in several other directions within the city. The Yin Kui Sect disciples, like drops of ink dissolving in water, silently disappeared into the crowds on the streets. (End of Chapter)