If I upgrade, I can win prizes

Chapter 498 Bait
A pair of white and slender hands moved across the smooth head, occasionally flicking the scalp, causing the owner of the head to tremble.

"Another dirty soul..."

The owner of the finger's voice was gentle and pleasant, but it was filled with deep disgust, as if she was touching something disgusting.

Suddenly, his fingers started moving quickly, as if he regarded the head as a piano and wanted to play a song on it.

With the irregular but intensive bullet strikes, a translucent arc vaguely emerged on the scalp on top of the head. This arc rose higher and higher and turned into the phantom of a head with hair.

The phantom rose again, and finally, a complete human-shaped phantom floated in the air.

The phantom was still conscious. After being confused at first, it quickly turned into fear. After looking around, it immediately looked at the body below. Its mouth kept opening and closing, but no sound came out.

When the shadow's feet floated out of the body, the fingers finally stopped tapping. Under the dim candlelight, a pair of bright red lips appeared. The lips slightly opened and took a breath!
The floating shadow was immediately attracted by something, as if it fell into an invisible vortex. The whole shadow began to twist and spin, and finally was sucked into the cherry mouth.

In just two or three seconds, the original shadow disappeared without a trace, leaving only the kneeling body that fell limply to the ground without any sound.

There was still a faint sound of wailing in the air.

Under the sporadic firelight, the owner of the fingers and lips revealed her figure. She was a charming woman with a petite figure, pretty face and long hair. She was raising her head with her eyes closed, as if she was savoring something.

She stood there quietly for more than three minutes before she opened her eyes again. Her eyes were crazy and confused, but quickly turned calm.

In the dimly lit hall, in front of her, there was a long row of more than ten people kneeling, both men and women, old and young, and even a half-demon with demon characteristics. It was a pity that they must have been placed under some kind of restrictions, so they could only kneel there and tremble, but could not escape at all.

The white fingers touched the head of the next person again, and the hair instantly fell to the ground, revealing the smooth scalp, and the beating began again.

……

I don't know how much time had passed, the charming woman walked out of the dim hall, turned left and right in the winding cave, and came to a tall and magnificent hall. In the hall stood dozens of pillars emitting white light, and there was a person standing under almost every pillar.

The charming woman quickly found her position, tiptoed to the foot of the pillar, lowered her head, said nothing, and just waited quietly.

After waiting for more than half an hour, suddenly, a figure appeared on the green throne in the main seat of the hall.

He was a sturdy middle-aged man with snow-white hair that reached down to his waist. He was dressed in a dark green robe and had a gaunt face. But he had an imposing aura, like a gust of cold wind that instantly enveloped the entire place.

Those standing under the pillars immediately knelt on their knees and shouted in unison: "Welcome to the Venerable Wanpo! May the Venerable enjoy eternal blessings and a long life!"

The voice of the Wanpo Master was slightly hoarse: "Tell me, how is the investigation going? How did your senior brother die?"

The hall fell into silence for a while, but someone immediately knelt down and reported:
"Master, according to the information I got from the Devouring Soul, the Immortal Lotus Sect is guarded by the Returning Void Dragon Lord, who is very powerful. Senior Brother should have died at the hands of this Dragon Lord!"

"Master, from the information I have gathered, there are suspected to be two Dragon Kings in the Xianlian Sect, but the other one rarely appears, so I cannot be sure."

"Dragon clan?" Venerable Wanpo expressed his confusion: "Isn't this a sect founded by the human race? Why is there a dragon clan guarding it?"

Someone immediately came out to explain: "Master, this is what happened. Back then, the Sea of ​​Tears and Fairy Lotus Island were controlled by the demon race. More than three years ago, the human race launched a massive attack..."

Someone else added: "Yes, I specifically captured an elder who was out shopping on Xianlian Island. The Soul Devourer learned that there are many secrets on Xianlian Island. Not only do they recruit human disciples, they also recruit half-demon disciples. Even those with inferior spiritual roots will be accepted as disciples and taught the skills. There are also many secret realms in the sect, and there is also a magical building called an auction house..."

Venerable Wanpo pondered for a while and said, "Liuying, you are best at the art of transformation. Find a way to become a member of the Xianlian Sect and go in to investigate how many dragons there are in the Xianlian Sect!"

Liuying was the name of the charming woman. She immediately knelt down and said, "Master, it's not that I don't want to, but my strength is limited. I'm only in the late Nascent Soul stage, not as good as you brothers and sisters. Moreover, as far as I know, the Xianlian Sect has already started to close the formation and defend itself. No one has entered or left for almost a month. It's really hard to sneak in."

"Waste!" Venerable Wanpo snorted coldly, but did not force him. Instead, he changed the subject: "Have you discovered any other forces targeting the Xianlian Sect recently?"

“Master! I have swallowed the soul of a casual cultivator before.” Someone immediately reported, “This guy has seen people from the Heaven Devouring Sect swallowing up all the people from a small sect on an island. Judging from the scene, he is at least in the Spiritual Transformation Stage.”

"I found that the people from the demon clan have retreated." Someone else passed on information: "But there was a conflict between an unknown person and the Xianlian Sect before. I sensed from a distance that the unknown person has a strong demonic nature. I suspect it is a real demon! And it can fight against the Return to Void Dragon Lord, so its strength must be strong."

……

Just as a group of people were discussing countermeasures, suddenly, a short dwarf rushed into the hall.
As he came in, he was shouting, "Someone from the Xianlian Sect has come out again! Several of them have come out! They went to Yuanbao Island in the east!"

"Oh?" Venerable Wanpo cast a glance over and continued to ask: "Where did you get the news? What realm are you in?"

The dwarf quickly reported: "This is the news from seven days ago. I caught that person right after he came out of Yuanbao Island! According to the information in his soul, there are three people in total, and one of them is suspected to be the Dragon King! The water power is surging, so it should be a water dragon!"

"What level of spiritual vein does Yuanbao Island have? Is there a formation to protect the island?" Venerable Wanpo turned around and asked again.

"Master, you can't do that!" Someone immediately gave his opinion: "Although Yuanbao Island is a fifth-level spiritual island and the formation has not been repaired yet and is very crude, this is very likely a trap! The water dragon might want to use itself as bait to lure everyone over and catch them all in one fell swoop!" "Yes, the souls of the dragon clan are indeed extremely precious, but the dragon clan is one of the two leaders of the demon clan, and with the Mahayana Dragon Ancestor in charge, you never know what trump cards they have! Master, you must not put yourself in danger!" Someone advised, showing his loyalty and filial piety.

"Right! We'd better wait for others to make the first move and see what happens. If there is a chance, we should not be the first to take action!" Someone offered a suggestion: "The Heaven-Swallowing Sect has always been reckless. They must be salivating over the essence of the dragon clan. They will definitely not be able to resist!"

The training environment for demon cultivators is harsh, and they are experienced in dealing with conspiracies and intrigues. Venerable Wanpo knew without being advised that he should not act rashly, so he turned to look at several disciples and subordinates and said, "Then how about this, Soul Stealer, you take Liuying and Feigui over to have a look and find out what they are trying to do!"

……

Yuanbao Island is not far from Ling Island where the Soul Devouring Sect's gang is hiding. If they fly fast enough, it will only take eight or nine days. The three of them soon arrived at Yuanbao Island.

Venerable Wanpo naturally did not choose people randomly. The Soul-Devouring Sect is a major demonic sect on the human-demon border, but it is not very good at the art of transformation. These three are the disciples who have had some extraordinary experiences and are the best at the art of transformation. They can make it impossible to sense any demonic energy on their bodies. They are high-end talents who are capable of infiltrating the heartland of the human race.

One is in the God Transformation stage and two are in the late Nascent Soul stage. With such strength plus the secret techniques of magic cultivation, they can walk all over the general fifth-level fairyland.

The three of them soon turned into a group of dusty wandering cultivators. Their expressions and temperament, the fluctuations of their spiritual energy, the magical weapons they carried with them, and the characteristics of their skills were all exactly the same as the real people. It was obvious that they were all the poor people they had swallowed, absorbed all their memories, and inherited all their heritage.

However, unexpectedly, the island protection array on Yuanbao Island was not activated, and there were no inspection and guidance personnel. Anyone could land on the island freely, so there were particularly many people on the island now. Whether on the ground or in the air, everywhere you looked there were people.

Liuying is extremely talented and has had a keen sense since childhood. She can clearly sense that among the group of people below, there are a few who have transformed into good shapes, but there is still a trace of demonic energy around them. It is obvious that they are also demon cultivators!

This level is not presentable, but any righteous monk with some experience would most likely be able to sense it at close range, without the need to use a magic mirror!

But now, this place is completely defenseless! There is not even a magic mirror that makes me feel a little nervous!
There's something strange here! There must be something wrong! Maybe it's really a trap!
The three of them were not fools. They looked at each other and saw the intention to retreat in each other's eyes.

Unfortunately, as disciples of the Demon Sect, they are helpless. The Soul-Devouring Sect's skills are not so easy to learn. Once they betray, as long as the big shots above use the secret method, their souls will instantly leave their bodies and be sealed into magic weapons, suffering the pain of being burned by the demonic fire for tens of millions of years!
Moreover, even if they did not betray, but just did not obey the orders of the higher-ups in the sect, these higher-ups would have countless ways to deal with them. The feeling of being unable to live or die was something that the three of them had personally experienced, and they definitely did not want to experience again.

There was no other choice, the three of them had to descend, enter the crowd, and head towards where the crowd was most densely packed.

Of course, as I moved forward, I also asked people around me about the situation without leaving any trace. Although I was often turned down, I did get some information:
"You mean the other people on Yuanbao Island? They are all hired elders from outside the Xianlian Sect. They can't enter the Xianlian Sect. They just help the Xianlian Sect collect rent from the islands."

"I don't know where these people have gone now. There have been a lot more demons in the Sea of ​​Tears recently. They might have been captured by the demons."

"The Dragon Lord from the Xianlian Sect? He was here indeed. I heard that he came here to investigate because he discovered several secret realms on Yuanbao Island. He left five days ago."

"You ask me why I came? It must be to explore the secret realms! The Dragon King of the Immortal Lotus Sect said that these secret realms are open to everyone for free and everyone can explore them. All the gains belong to everyone. There are not many good things like this."

"Of course I know! Do you really think I'm stupid? After all, I've been in this frontier for more than 500 years, how could I not know the dangers of the secret realm? But as the saying goes, fortune and honor are sought in danger. If I don't take a chance, will I stop at the peak of the Golden Core in this life?"

"I can see that too. Those secret realms must be very dangerous. The bigwigs of the Immortal Lotus Sect are also afraid of death, so they just let us casual cultivators be cannon fodder. But so what? Maybe I will get some secret treasure or magical power."

"Other places are not much better. Once those secret realms were discovered, they would have been guarded by the big sects long ago. How could we, the independent cultivators, have a chance to take advantage of them? The big sects are wealthy and powerful, with many disciples and servants, unlike the Xianlian Sect, which has a shallow foundation. In addition, the demon cultivators are rampant in the area, which is why the fat water has flowed out."

"How is it? I am a physical cultivator at the peak of the Golden Core Stage! There are all kinds of dangers in this secret realm, and I am in need of manpower. Why don't we join together?"

……

After figuring out the general situation, the three of them stopped unconsciously, found a relatively secluded place, and began to discuss countermeasures.

"What do you think?" The Soul-stealing Master who led the team spoke first.

"Needless to say, there must be something wrong." Fei Gui said with disdain: "Just when we were trying to find a way to investigate the Xianlian Sect and find the secret of the son of destiny, a secret realm suddenly appeared here and attracted so many people at once. How could it be such a coincidence?"

The human-demon border is much larger than the human-monster border. As a top-level sect of demon cultivation, the Soul-Devouring Sect occupies a seventh-level spiritual vein. There is also a Hedao in charge of the sect, so naturally it controls some secret realms. As inner disciples, the three of them have also entered the sect's secret realm for trials and know what the secret realm is.

The secret realm is essentially a small fragment of the world in the void. There is a very small probability that they will collide and connect with the world of cultivation and merge with each other in different ways. Some are fixed, some appear once every few decades or hundreds of years, and some never appear again after appearing once.

But no matter which situation, the appearance of a secret realm is an event with extremely low probability. Often, a fairyland may not appear once in thousands or tens of thousands of years. The Sea of ​​Tears is not a very large fairyland. How could a secret realm suddenly appear at this point in time?
Even if they were lucky enough to appear, how could there be so many of them at once? Looking through the history of the cultivation world, there is no such thing as multiple secret realms appearing at once, and all appearing in the same place.

"Yes! There must be something fishy going on!" Liuying also expressed her opinion: "Let's go back and report to our Master."

"Report your ass!" Soul-stealing Master has always had a bad temper: "Don't you know Master's temper? You haven't figured out what's going on in this secret realm yet, and you're going back like this. You want to be cursed by the Soul-Breaking Curse, but I don't want to!"

"But there must be something wrong with this secret realm! Maybe it's just a formation, trying to trick us into going in and then trap us in a jar!" Liuying was also afraid of the Soul-Crushing Curse, but she didn't want to die even more.

"That's easy!" Soul-stealing Master laughed, "You two go in first. If you can come out safely, I'll go in and take a look. Then I'll be able to explain to Master, right?"

(End of this chapter)