From the fake emperor to the concubine

The invisible and intangible melodies were no less powerful than the flying swords and magical artifacts wielded by the cultivators who attacked the Heavenly Sound Pavilion.

A purple-robed cultivator unleashed a heavy sword made of black iron, which collided with an invisible sonic blade, sparking dazzling sparks that caused his tiger's mouth to split open.

The few evil cultivators at the forefront were the first to be hit. The second attack had barely begun when four of them had their heads chopped off by the sound of the zither.

One of them even maintained the hand seal gesture, but his head was already thrown high in the air, and a ferocious look remained frozen in his turbid eyes.

The burst of bloody stench only fueled the cultivators' madness.

Some people tore open talismans to summon blood puppets three zhang tall, some bit their tongues to spit out their life essence blood to activate their magic weapons, and some even detonated their personal magic artifacts, blasting out bursts of dazzling spiritual light.

Many cultivators even directly used the techniques they had always kept as their trump cards for self-preservation.

Suddenly, a gaunt old man tore open his robe, revealing seventeen Soul-Devouring Nails embedded in his chest. These nails shot out with a mournful howl, hurtling towards the weakest point of the formation.

The protective array of Tianyin Pavilion was almost completely swallowed up by these dense attacks.

Five-colored light burst forth in countless ripples on the transparent barrier, as dense as a torrential rain hitting a lake.

Although the mountain-protecting formation itself is constructed using spiritual veins, maintaining its operation requires the support of the cultivator's own spiritual energy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Feng Xiqing noticed that her junior sister, who was in charge of the Kan position, was already pale, her slender fingers bleeding from the strings, but she still gritted her teeth and persevered.

The number of cultivators besieging Tianyin Pavilion was too large, and their attacks were too dense.

Before long, several disciples of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion ran out of spiritual energy and had to give up their spots to replenish it.

The disciple who took over had just infused his spiritual power when he was forced back three steps by the recoil, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Fortunately, Tianyin Pavilion is one of the six major sects in the Eastern Wilderness, and with a large number of disciples, it can barely hold on.

Suddenly, a clear and melodious flute sound rang out from the back mountain. It turned out that the elders who were in seclusion had also been alerted and were using music to remotely reinforce the formation.

Fortunately, they acted in time; otherwise, the foundation of the mountain-protecting formation might have been damaged.

Now, it remains to be seen which side will give up first.

Similar things are happening in the Red Dust Workshop.

The situation here is just worse.

The setting sun, like blood, reflected the smoke drifting above the market, the air thick with the stench of blood and the simmering energy of spiritual power.

Corpses lay scattered across the street, some cleaved in two by sword energy, others charred black, clearly killed by lightning magic. In the distance came the sounds of fighting, mingled with the ear-piercing clang of clashing magical weapons.

Hongchenfang is, after all, a market town, unlike other sects. It cannot directly activate the mountain-protecting formation when something happens to keep all disasters out.

In fact, ever since the appearance of the extraterrestrial demons, things have never stopped at the Red Dust Pavilion.

In the beginning, it was the cultivators who were affected by the demonic energy and killed each other.

The streets were filled with fleeing low-level cultivators, their screams echoing everywhere.

Soon, some of the heretical cultivators realized that the situation was so chaotic that many people were too busy taking care of themselves to care about the goods they were selling!

So, this guy stormed into a shop, killed the shop assistant and the owner, and swept all the spirit stones out of the shop.

Even if the shops, big and small, in the Red Dust Workshop are not directly operated by them, they still have a cooperative relationship with them.

Robbing them is no different from directly robbing the Red Dust Workshop.

Therefore, after this incident, in order to deter these cultivators, Hongchenfang immediately dispatched experts to stop the evil cultivators who were trying to steal spirit stones in front of everyone.

A steward from the Red Dust Pavilion, dressed in a purple-gold robe, descended from the sky, a golden light flying out from his sleeve, instantly piercing the burly man's chest.

Blood splattered, and the burly man stared wide-eyed, seemingly unable to believe he had died so easily. His body crashed to the ground, scattering the spirit stones from his storage bag.

Unfortunately, their approach had no effect.

Some people always harbor the illusion that they can escape successfully. As a result, robberies are becoming increasingly frequent.

Taking advantage of the chaos, some people rushed into the medicine shop, grabbed bottles of elixirs, and stuffed them into their clothes.

Someone broke through the restrictions of the weapon-refining pavilion and seized high-level magical artifacts.

Some even specifically target injured cultivators, killing them and robbing them when they are off guard.

The entire Red Dust Manor descended into utter madness, and order was completely lost.

The skilled cultivators of the Red Dust Pavilion practically became a fire brigade, fighting against cultivators who were plundering supplies everywhere.

However, just as they quelled one riot, another broke out in looting.

The constant looting in the market kept them on their toes.

As the scale of the battle expands, the possibility of various unexpected events will naturally increase significantly.

While fleeing, a cultivator detonated an explosive talisman he was carrying, instantly turning the entire street into ruins. Several Red Dust Pavilion cultivators who were pursuing him were also blown to pieces.

Elsewhere, two heretical cultivators got into a fight while vying for spoils, accidentally injuring onlookers and triggering an even larger melee.

Although the experts of the Red Dust Pavilion are all quite powerful, there are also some formidable cultivators among the other cultivators.

A rogue cultivator wearing a bronze mask sneered, and a jet-black short blade flew out from his sleeve, instantly piercing through the protective aura of a pursuing deacon and pinning him to the wall.

Some people secretly set up poison arrays before looting, and three Red Dust Pavilion cultivators died with their bodies festering as soon as they stepped into the trap.

This has led to more and more people not only successfully stealing the items, but also managing to kill the Red Dust Pavilion's pursuing experts and escape with ease.

Some even returned to the Red Dust Workshop after escaping, finding no one pursuing them, intending to make another profit without any initial investment.

Someone had just robbed a talisman shop, and seeing that no one was chasing them, they swaggered back and looted the herb shop next door.

At first, those people only targeted spirit stones, then it became cultivation pills, then magic artifacts and talismans, and finally they even dared to plunder the various cultivation techniques that the Red Dust Pavilion was heavily protecting.

A warehouse in the market town, used to store cultivation techniques, was now engulfed in flames, and countless precious books were reduced to ashes in the fire.

Several masked cultivators burst out of the sea of ​​fire, their arms bulging with jade slips, followed by several blood-soaked guards from the Red Dust Pavilion. One of the guards had just thrown his flying sword when a sudden black light pierced his throat, and his body fell to the scorched ground.

The once bustling and vibrant Hongchenfang has now become a bloody battlefield.

The cobblestone streets were littered with shattered fragments of magical artifacts, and several corpses hung from a crumbling archway, blood dripping from the gilded plaques. The once bustling shops were now wide open, their shelves overturned, and spiritual herbs and pills scattered everywhere, trampled to pieces by panicked cultivators.

Bloody battles and carnage were everywhere.

The aftershocks of the cultivators' battle reduced the Red Dust Pavilion to ruins.

An out-of-control sword aura swept across, cleanly severing the eaves of half a street. Amidst the flying rubble, a restaurant collapsed with a crash, raising a cloud of dust.

Further away, the shockwave from a cultivator's self-destruction of his golden core leveled all the buildings within a hundred feet, leaving only a charred crater.

If that elusive shop owner were here, he could probably quell this turmoil with just a flick of his finger.

But now, Feng Tianji is no longer here.

The four leaders of the Hongchenfang Puppet Sect, Lingbao Sect, Tiantong Sect, and Jinliu Sect are currently gathered together to discuss a solution.

Inside the council chamber, four rosewood chairs were arranged in a circle. Explosions occasionally echoed outside the window, causing ripples to form in the spiritual tea within the teacups.

The four men had grim faces and bloodshot eyes, clearly indicating that they had reached their limits.

However, judging from their expressions, these people clearly didn't have any good ideas about the current situation.

The host from the Lingbao lineage kept stroking the jade thumb ring in his hand, while the one from the Jinliu lineage wiped his eyes and sighed deeply while fiddling with an abacus.

Xu Ke, the host of the puppet faction, gritted his teeth and said, "We cannot let any of those who dare to take advantage of our chaos and attack our Red Dust Pavilion get away with it. We must kill them all."

He slammed his hand on the table, instantly cracking several times. The great cultivator's eyes were bloodshot, and flames flickered around his body; he was clearly enraged.

"Otherwise, we won't be able to do business anymore." These words seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a deep-seated hatred.

His several workshops, which he had painstakingly built up over many years, were all destroyed today, and the meticulously crafted semi-finished puppets were all turned into scrap metal.

The puppet lineage of Hongchenfang is mainly responsible for manufacturing various goods and commodities.

From the most basic flying swords and talismans to complex battle puppet mechanisms, and even the refining of certain special elixirs, all require the assistance of their specially crafted weapon-refining puppets. These puppets are not only capable of performing precise operations, but also work day and night, forming the foundation of Hongchenfang's presence in the cultivation world.

Xu Ke's heart bled as he recalled the warehouses that had been looted. Some special materials required decades to collect, yet now they had been given away to those opportunistic scoundrels.

The host from the Tian Tong lineage bluntly poured cold water on the idea: "It's easy to say, but if we actually do what you say, our business will truly be unable to continue."

"Do you know how many people were involved in this today? I can tell you with certainty that if we were to kill them all, it would be equivalent to offending all the cultivators in the world."

The Hongchenfang branch, belonging to the Tiantong lineage, is primarily responsible for transportation. They transport Hongchenfang's goods throughout the world, as well as goods from various parts of the Eastern Wilderness to Hongchenfang.

That is precisely why the Tian Tong lineage actually has the most experts.

The Puppet Clan and the Heavenly Passage Clan have always disliked each other.

This conflict has a long history; every time the four major factions hold a meeting, the two sides always compete openly and covertly.
Upon hearing the words of the Tian Tong lineage's host, Ke Xu Ke's temples bulged with veins, and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

People of the Tiantong lineage think that the puppet lineage is a bunch of weirdos who only know how to do research but don't understand anything.

They often mocked the puppeteers in private, saying they stared at cold metal all day and didn't even know the most basic manners.

No matter how powerful those complex mechanical puppets are, they can never compare to a real person.

The Puppet faction also felt that the Tiantong faction consisted entirely of smooth-talking, worldly-wise old foxes who were good for nothing but hard labor.

Xu Ke thought so too; these people simply didn't understand the intricacies of weapon crafting.

Their prized flying boats were nothing more than crudely made means of transportation in the eyes of the puppet faction.

The host from the Jinliu lineage, a portly man, was wiping sweat with a handkerchief as he stepped forward with a smile to smooth things over: "Both of you, calm down. This is a huge calamity for our Hongchenfang. At this time, we should unite against external forces."

The portly man in charge of finances had an oily face and his round body filled the chair to the brim. He wiped his sweat and smiled obsequiously, looking every bit like a shrewd businessman. But everyone knew that whoever could manage the financial flow in Hongchenfang was no ordinary person.

The host of the Lingbao lineage lowered his head, seemingly having pondered for a long time, before suddenly suggesting, "Actually, I have an idea."

The usually taciturn middle-aged man suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse yet unusually firm.

Everyone was quite interested in his proposal.

Even Xu Ke, who was in a fit of anger, temporarily suppressed his rage and turned to look at him.

The Lingbao lineage is mainly responsible for acquiring and selling various treasures, or for pawning and auctioning them.

Their people have to deal with all sorts of people, have seen countless rare treasures, and have also experienced all kinds of deceit and treachery.

It can be said that among all the people in the Red Dust Manor, they are the most adept at assessing the situation and finding opportunities in crises.

Buying high and selling low may sound unpleasant, but it requires a keen eye.

An ordinary-looking stone may be a rare treasure, and a dazzling magical artifact may be a fake.

Those who can establish themselves in the Lingbao lineage are all people with sharp eyes and meticulous minds.

Therefore, this host often has many different ideas.

"To be frank, what's happening here is nothing compared to the real trouble," he said, pointing to the extraterrestrial demons in the sky outside the window.

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and the suffocating oppressive aura of the enormous demon remained unchanged regardless of the distance.

Xu Ke frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "What do you mean by that? Are you saying we're just going to ignore everything and let them take and rob whatever they want?"

He abruptly stood up, causing the chair behind him to crash to the ground with a loud thud. The hot-tempered weapon-forging master's eyes practically spit fire; he was clearly extremely dissatisfied.

He was just saying it in anger, but to his surprise, the host of the Lingbao lineage nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“You’re right, I think this is the best choice.” The host from the Lingbao lineage spoke calmly, as if discussing the weather rather than the priceless goods in the Red Dust Market.

"what!"

The other three people simultaneously gaped in disbelief.

The fat man from the Jinliu lineage dropped his handkerchief on the ground, and Xu Ke stood there dumbfounded, his angry expression frozen.

No one could believe what they were hearing. (End of Chapter)