Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 93: To make the righteous path degenerate into a heretical sect.
With a wave of his hand, Chen Ye dispelled the surveillance spell and disappeared from everyone's sight.

The Lord turned to the group of demonic sect disciples and said, "Do you really think we've already won?"

The crowd remained silent, but many of them genuinely shared this sentiment.

The Crimson Serpent Buddha has been fully cultivated, and most of the rogue cultivators have become followers of the Venerable Lord, constantly providing their vows to enhance the power of this Serpent Buddha.

In this way, their sect can be considered to have been revived, and they can easily find a place to re-establish themselves.

The Venerable One said, “I know what you’re thinking. You feel you’ve accomplished your mission and can now go somewhere else to enjoy yourself. Just like the Nirvana Sect, they’re finding pleasure in a place where the true path can’t be found. But how are they any different from stray dogs?”

The disciples felt somewhat ashamed upon hearing this, but hadn't it always been this way for a thousand years?
Once you've even touched the demonic path, you'll be rejected by the righteous path. What other options do you have besides hiding and running away?
The Venerable Lord sneered, "What I want is not to continue living like an ant, but to stand tall between heaven and earth again, and for all disciples of the sect to be able to walk freely in the sunlight."

Such bold words shocked everyone. How could the righteous path tolerate the re-emergence of the Crimson Serpent Demon Sect?

Everyone was skeptical, yet they couldn't help but hope that it might actually come true.

"Lord, what should we do? The righteous path is too powerful; we are powerless to resist it. Are we to use Hundred Seas Valley as a hostage?"

The Venerable One shook his head and said, "What is Hundred Seas Valley? What are the rogue cultivators here? It's only because the righteous path still has some face and wants to train their disciples that it has been delayed until now."

"But only one chief disciple from the Three Mountains and Five Halls of the Incense Burning Sect came; none of the disciples from Tianxin Island and Yunlu Immortal Sect who were connected to the Profound Realm were sent over."

"Only the Mirage Sect hosted this gamble, thinking they had the victory in their grasp, and sent a third of their elites. Even if I take all the righteous and rogue cultivators of the Hundred Seas Valley into my own hands, it will only be a minor blow to the righteous sects."

"That's why I said Chen Ye must not be killed. Once someone dies, the righteous path will no longer need to care about winning or losing, and will have a reason to intervene directly. At that time, the five major sects will take those juniors back and punish them severely, leaving us with only one path: death."

But a disciple immediately flattered him, saying, "Your Excellency has already mastered the Crimson Serpent Buddha. Even if a Dao Integration Realm cultivator comes in person, you shouldn't be afraid."

The Venerable One sighed again, “I am not afraid of Lu Xingzhou, but Zhang Qi… I cannot stop him. The Dao Integration Realm is the Dao Integration Realm, but Zhang Qi is Zhang Qi. We cannot generalize.”

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression darkened.

Zhang Qi is indeed an extraordinary individual, a swordsman who has dominated for a thousand years, and is the undisputed number one in the world.

The Lord said, "There's no need to worry. Zhang Qi's sword is powerful, but he's the easiest to deal with. We've finally gone from being pawns to the players; recklessly capturing pieces will only ruin our excellent situation."

"People will die in this fight, but we can't be the ones to strike first. I want to see those righteous people enraged, to see them slaughter the innocent. At that point, will Zhang Qi's sword be aimed at me, or at his fellow righteous people?"

From the very beginning, the Lord never intended to wage war against the righteous path head-on, for that would be a path to certain death.

The five righteous sects have been passed down for thousands of years. They have no powerful enemies outside, but internal troubles arise from within, and they are no longer what they used to be.

Some sects should have degenerated into heretical and unorthodox practices long ago.

If Zhang Qi cannot wield his sword to kill these fellow cultivators, then the Venerable One can stand openly before him, and Zhang Qi, whose sword heart is clouded, is not a threat.

If Zhang Qi really hardens his heart and kills disciples from other sects, then there will be a good show to watch.

When the five righteous sects are locked in a bloodbath, that will be the time for the demonic sects to rise again.

But all of this is predicated on the conflict between the rogue cultivators of Hundred Seas Valley and the righteous path, and the Venerable Lord must grasp this balance.

He can ignite the anger and resentment of rogue cultivators, but he cannot truly bewitch their minds and control them as puppets.

If it weren't for the spontaneous struggles within people's hearts, it wouldn't be enough to shake the righteous path and maintain the order that has lasted for thousands of years.

Therefore, from beginning to end, the only person the Venerable Lord controlled was Mo Suixin of the Incense Burning Sect.

In times of great battle, the diviner is killed first. This is an old saying passed down from our ancestors. Mo Suixin's divination skills are too frightening, so the Lord set a trap for Mo Suixin.

Not many people know that even if a snake's head is cut off, it can still bite and inject venom.

The same goes for the red-banded snake.

Mo Suixin thought the Red Serpent was dead, but little did she know that the Lord had been controlling the dead serpent and had bitten her when she was off guard.

From that time on, Mo Suixin became a puppet and naturally could not figure out the demon's location.

Now that the die is cast, it's no use for Mo Suixin to calculate anything.

Now, the only variable is Chen Ye.

Even the Lord didn't know why. Clearly, human nature is irreversible, and Chen Ye was just a boy of about ten years old. What could he possibly do in this chaos?
Now that he's been captured, the worst that can happen is that it will incite conflict between the Qinghe Sword Sect and the Fenxiang Sect, making the plan to stir up internal strife within the righteous path even more secure. But the Venerable One still feels uneasy; this telepathic connection is just like the mutual generation and restraint among all things.

Chen Ye was able to restrain the Red Serpent Buddha.

After much deliberation, the Lord decided to play it safe.

A phantom image of a red snake appeared behind him and then vanished in a flash.

Chen Ye, who was being escorted in the distance, suddenly felt a pain in his calf. He looked down but saw nothing amiss.

"What happened? It looks like I was bitten..."

As soon as Chen Ye had this thought, he felt a dizzying sensation and fainted.

Chen Ye's first reaction was that Wei Changsheng had poisoned him. He didn't expect him to dare to do it in front of so many people, including disciples from other sects.

If I had known this would happen, I would have been better off resisting.

But it was too late for regrets now. Chen Ye fell into a coma, and a black aura surged up from his feet, turning his face blue.

However, the most panicked person was not Chen Ye, but Wei Changsheng.

He originally planned to abuse his power for personal gain, show off his strength, and teach Chen Ye a lesson, but before he could even make a move, Chen Ye had already fallen.
Wei Changsheng initially thought Chen Ye was faking his death, but when he saw Chen Ye's face covered in black mist, he was terrified.

How could he have been bitten by a red-banded snake, especially when he was being captured?
The rest of the patrol team looked at Wei Changsheng with expressions of suspicion on their faces.

Wei Changsheng quickly explained, "No, this has nothing to do with me!"

No one spoke, but their expressions revealed that no one believed them.

Everyone knows that Wei Changsheng was not stupid. He had captured Fu Lu Shou and the other two, and he looked like he was about to use torture to extract a confession. After finally getting Chen Ye to confess, he couldn't wait to come out and arrest people again.

Nobody would believe it if there wasn't some personal grudge involved.

As for why Chen Ye was suddenly poisoned by the Red Serpent, who else but Wei Changsheng, who was right next to him, could have done it?

A disciple of the Yunlu Immortal Sect said to Wei Changsheng, "Senior Brother Wei, what you're doing is a bit excessive."

Wei Changsheng exclaimed excitedly, "No, I really didn't!"

However, the other party did not believe it at all. The disciple of Yunlu Immortal Sect clasped his hands and said, "That's enough. Our Yunlu Immortal Sect does not want to get involved in your personal grievances. Farewell."

The three disciples of Yunlu Immortal Sect took flight and headed towards their own residence, perhaps to report on the Incense Burning Sect's act of settling a personal score.

Disciples from other sects also felt something was amiss. If they continued to stay with the people from the Incense Burning Sect, wouldn't they be implicated?

Regardless of whether it's true or not, let's get out of this situation first.

The disciples from Tianxin Island and Shenlou Sect also took their leave one after another, leaving only Wei Changsheng and a few disciples from Fenxiang Sect looking at each other in bewilderment.

Wei Changsheng wanted to complain to his fellow disciples, but they said, "Senior Brother Wei, you really went too far. If you want to deal with this person, you can take care of him when you get back. There are plenty of excuses. You've made a mess of things."

"I...I really...I'm innocent!"

No matter how Wei Changsheng explained, Chen Ye's half-dead state was there for all to see, and no one believed he was truly innocent.

I just felt that this person was petty and narrow-minded, unable to even wait a short while before resorting to poison.

Chen Ye was unaware of all this; he was now completely asleep, his dream a deep abyss from which no amount of struggle could be of any use.

As he continued to fall, Chen Ye felt himself aging rapidly, his mind becoming sluggish, his body weak, and his flesh as if it had been drained of moisture, turning him into a piece of old, dried-out meat.

Just when he felt he was about to die of old age, a large, crimson snake appeared in front of him.

The snake's forked tongue was scarlet, licking at Chen Ye's withered face.

The giant snake asked in a seductive voice, "Heaven is unjust. You are the victim, yet you were still retaliated against by that person. He used the power of the Incense Burning Sect to settle personal scores and wanted to kill you."

"Do you resent it? Are you unwilling to accept it? Do you want to live?"

(End of this chapter)