Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 249 Attacked Inside the Zhilan Yushu Temple
While Fang Shu was still lingering in the spirit room, divining for his family's safety, many disciples had already emerged from the other spirit rooms.

Their faces were mostly excited, and they all walked briskly towards the outside of the earth dragon.

After gathering around the earth dragon's body, the group realized there was no way to leave. So they gathered around the earth dragon's head, waiting for the white crane immortal to set off and guide them out again.

During their stay, the disciples, having consumed the Earth Origin Pill, experienced fluctuations in their auras and joy, which were immediately apparent and attracted attention.

The most eye-catching figures were a man and a woman standing at the very front of the crowd.

The aura emanating from these two individuals was extremely chilling, causing those around them to tremble slightly upon seeing them.

Such a sight also attracted the white crane immortal atop the earth dragon's head.

The other party looked down and said, "Top-grade Qi, not bad. We have obtained two more Dao Seeds in the temple."

As soon as these words were spoken, the others couldn't contain themselves and immediately began to whisper among themselves: "Is it really top-grade internal energy?"

"This is a Foundation Establishment seed! It's truly extraordinary!"

Others stared intently at the man and woman, exclaiming in surprise:

"Brother Jiang's aura is pure white and cannot be looked at directly; it should be the Five Emperors' True Qi recorded in the temple's Qi Refining Method. But why does your aura look somewhat unfamiliar?"

Someone at the scene immediately shouted, "Fellow Daoist, what kind of internal energy do you cultivate? Could you show everyone?"

Upon hearing this, the woman surnamed Er put on a polite smile.

She looked around at everyone, bowed and said, "Fellow Daoists, you have sharp eyes. The Qi I cultivate is indeed not the Qi mentioned in the temple's cultivation method. Rather, it is a true Qi that I purchased from outside the mountain with the protection of my ancestor, who specially tailored it to my physique."

After saying this, the woman surnamed Er fell silent.

Among the crowd, someone nodded in praise: "As expected of a great clan within the temple, your family truly possesses profound heritage. With you by our side, it seems your family will gain another Foundation Establishment Immortal the next day."

Others' eyes flickered; though they remained silent, they were secretly exchanging whispers among themselves:

"Hmph! What's with the arrogance? You don't even dare to reveal the name of your Qi. Who knows if its quality and origin are seriously questionable."

"This girl really had incredible luck. That old man in your family was about to die, so he wanted to groom her, but she didn't die."

But the old man not only didn't diminish his favor towards this woman, but instead regarded her as a lucky star, nurturing and cultivating her even more... truly enviable.

There was a lot of discussion at the scene.

The White Crane Immortal ignored everyone. Standing on the head of the earth dragon, it glanced at the dragon's body below and immediately transmitted its voice, "It's getting late. The rest of you should come out now."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire body of the earth dragon trembled.

Not long after, figures emerged from the earth dragon's body, with Fang Shu among them.

When all the disciples who had been in seclusion emerged, their numbers were considerably greater than those Fang Shu had seen before his seclusion. They were likely mixed in with the disciples who had entered the spiritual chamber earlier due to their merits in battle.

The crowd gathered around the earth dragon, and thus roughly divided into two factions.

One faction consisted mainly of disciples who stayed in the mountains and repeatedly distinguished themselves in battle; the other faction consisted mainly of disciples who went down the mountain before the battle and returned after the battle.

Moreover, the disciples of these two factions were respectively led by the woman surnamed Er and the man surnamed Jiang at the front.

Fang Shu, even amidst the crowd, immediately recognized the quality of the qi emanating from those two individuals:
"Top-tier True Qi! Indeed, there are many outstanding individuals within the temple..."

He happened to know both of them.

The woman was none other than his former lover, Erdaiyuan.

After several years, the two finally met again.

The man was Jiang Linfeng, who was promoted to the inner sect in the same batch as Fang Shu. It is said that he is a descendant of the three capitals in the temple, and his background is quite remarkable.

Although he knew both of them and had a close relationship with them, Fang Shu had no intention of going up to acknowledge them or exchange pleasantries.

He stood discreetly in the crowd, without a hint of envy in his eyes.

Although Fang Shu felt he was being relatively low-key, when Er Daiyuan and Jiang Linfeng glanced at the disciples present and saw him one after another, and nodded to greet him, he no longer seemed so low-key.

Especially Erdaiyuan, who even took the initiative to smile at the other party.

This action drew the attention of some people to Fang Shu.

When their gaze swept over Fang Shu, they immediately noticed that Fang Shu's aura was also quite impressive.

"Five Elements True Qi!" "This fellow Daoist's foundation doesn't seem bad either."

The Jin family member in the crowd caught Fang Shu's eye and immediately stepped forward with a familiar expression, bowing respectfully.

"Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Fang! You have now refined the Five Elements True Qi, which is a superior Qi from the temple. It is only one step away from the Five Emperors True Qi. You will have a good chance of establishing your foundation in the future."

Everyone carried the decorated sedan chair, and Fang Shu returned the greeting with a smile: "Brother Jin has an extraordinary demeanor; he must have also cultivated true qi, and his path to immortality is far-reaching!"

Then several more people came over with smiles on their faces and began to exchange pleasantries with Fang Shu and Jin Duobao.

Before long, the white crane immortal spread its wings, glided down from the earth dragon's head, and landed in the center of the crowd.

It stared at the crowd, and a powerful aura of divine sense immediately emanated from it, causing everyone to stop whispering and their faces to show surprise and doubt. They wondered what the White Crane Immortal was up to, whether he wanted to give them a warning.
"That's strange. Did I remember wrong? I vaguely felt that three kinds of superior qi were born..." Baihe Xianjia's eyes showed doubt.

It really wanted to catch these little guys in front of it and screen them one by one to see if it had sensed wrong or if some little guys were hiding something.

However, when it thought that these little guys either had powerful backgrounds or military achievements, and might become its half-masters in the future, it suppressed such thoughts.

Withdrawing his divine sense, the White Crane Immortal flew away from the frozen lake without uttering a word.

An ice path appeared on the surface of the white pool, and the disciples who had finished their seclusion quickly ran towards the outside of the pool.

After everyone left the White Pool, their eyes were suddenly filled with the clear, high-altitude scenery that reappeared, and behind them, the White Pool was once again empty, with no trace of the giant earth dragon's body.

The crowd dispersed on the mountaintop, but they never saw the white crane again.

They only heard the cry of a crane, clear and melodious, as if telling them to return home and find their own masters, before it slowly dissipated. "Thank you for protecting me, Immortal Master!"

The disciples bowed and paid their respects to each other. They lingered on the mountaintop for a long time before splitting into several groups and descending the mountain one after another.

During his descent from the mountain, Fang Shu received a secret message from Er Daiyuan, who invited him to a small gathering in the mountains seven days later. Fang Shu calmly agreed and then followed Jin Duobao down the mountain, heading straight for the Jin family's headquarters.

After a banquet began, Fang Shu took his seat and, as he raised his cup, he quickly made many new acquaintances within the temple.

He also learned from Jin Duobao and others that, apart from them, the newly recruited disciples of the Qi Refining Realm, there were many other disciples in the temple who had long been practicing Qi Refining Realm.

Among them, there were also those who had reached the highest level of Qi Refining.

Roughly speaking, there are at least a handful of people currently in the Five Organs Temple who are at the upper level of Qi Refining and can be called "Foundation Building Seeds".

Among them was another acquaintance of Fang Shu.

The other party was the eldest disciple of Long Gu, whom he had long heard of but had never met, and his senior sister.

As for the other two Foundation Establishment seeds, he had dealt with one of them before.

The other party's name was Zong Qingxue, who was the disciple who went down the mountain to preside over the spring examination in Guling Town when Fang Shu participated in the Wuzang Temple Spring Examination.

Fang Shu still remembered that the other party was skilled in swordsmanship and had a fierce attack. He had once cut off the arm of a disciple of the Kugu Temple in the town.

During the banquet, when he inquired about this woman, Jin Duobao clicked his tongue in amazement and said:
"This woman is extraordinary. It is said that she was originally qualified to join the inner sect, but she offended a certain clan's prodigy within the temple and was thus schemed against, resulting in her being rejected."

As a result, in the great battle, this woman managed to earn the status of an inner disciple by relying solely on her flying sword skills. Furthermore, she has now accumulated enough cultivation to reach the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, and is only half a step away from Foundation Establishment.

As they spoke, someone in the room slurred and shouted, "This woman surnamed Zong is not to be trifled with. Everyone should avoid her from now on."

"Yes, yes, speaking of the immortal clan that offended her back then, they're having a tough time now. There are even rumors that the death of their Foundation Establishment ancestor is somehow related to this woman..."

Upon hearing this, Jin Duobao quickly put down his wine cup and interrupted, "I've had too much to drink, fellow Daoist, please be careful with your words!"

Fang Shu held up his wine glass, taking in all the conversations of the people at the table without making a sound.

In just one place, there are at least five Foundation Establishment Seeds. If we include the other four sects of Mount Lu, there are at least twenty Qi Refining Immortals who can be called Foundation Establishment Seeds.

Upon learning this, Fang Shu felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that his position among them was insignificant and not particularly remarkable.

However, he showed no sign of discouragement. Instead, he thought to himself, "These people should be the most formidable competitors in the secret realm expedition six months from now. I wonder what their true strength will be..."

at the same time.

While Fang Shu and the others were celebrating until dawn, news of their disciples' emergence from seclusion had already reached many people through various channels.

Leaving aside the reactions of certain individuals within the Five Internal Organs Temple.

Upon learning of this matter, the other immortals from the four other sects within the Lushan region reacted in rather unusual ways:
"Two more Foundation Establishment seeds at the top level of Qi Refining. It seems that the Qi Refining Method of the Five Organs Temple is truly unique."

"Tsk! Since so many fine talents have appeared in our stomach, how can our temple remain silent? Quickly, please summon the old fortune teller..."

And so.

Before Fang Shu and the others had even finished their banquet, they received news that a disciple inside the temple had been attacked.

And coincidentally, the disciples who were attacked were mainly Er Daiyuan, Jiang Linfeng, Zong Qingxue, and others who were the main focus of the discussion at the gathering.

This news left Fang Shu and the others looking at each other in bewilderment, all thinking they had misheard or that someone had spread false information.

It wasn't until news of another Foundation Establishment Immortal's defection arrived, and the identity badges on everyone's waists trembled one after another, that they were shocked and realized that this was probably not a false rumor.

The guests at the banquet immediately lost their appetite.

After their expressions changed, someone immediately cast a spell to protect themselves, while another pushed aside the table, stood up abruptly, bowed to the crowd, and hurriedly left their seat.

Fang Shu landed among them. He exchanged a few perfunctory words with Jin Duobao, and once he was sure the chaos inside the temple had subsided, he mingled with the crowd and quickly left the Jin family.

After returning to his cave, Fang Shu stayed indoors and remained quietly secluded.

Because of the attack on Erdaiyuan, his planned private get-together with her naturally fell through.

For a moment, he even felt fortunate that he hadn't yet met with Erdaiyuan.

Otherwise, now that the other party has been attacked, the old patriarch of the Naer family might place his grudge on Fang Shu, causing a lot of trouble for no reason.

Half a month later, when Sister Fang Lu personally sent him a message informing him of the recent developments in the temple, Fang Shu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

According to reports, although a Foundation Establishment Immortal was involved in the attack, fortunately, the attack took place inside a temple, limiting the attackers' ability to use their full power. Furthermore, the attackers were either wealthy or skilled, each possessing their own trump cards, and none of them perished.

Even among those seriously injured, only Fang Shu, the nominal senior sister, was seriously injured.

Rumor has it that because this woman did not receive timely assistance from a Foundation Establishment master, her protective energy was shattered on the spot, and most of her body was decayed.

Such injuries led the temple to suspect the Dragon Maiden's family of the attackers, almost resulting in a thorough investigation of the Dragon Maiden's lineage.

Fortunately, before the temple had thoroughly investigated the lineage of the Dragon Maiden, the Dragon Maiden's family had already extricated themselves from any grudges.

The reason for this was that Fang Shu's cheap senior sister personally testified that after waking up, she stated that it was definitely not the Dragon Maiden Immortal who made the move, but someone else, and provided corresponding clues.

Based on the clues provided by the senior sister, the Five Internal Organs Temple, in less than half a month, almost completely wiped out all those who were secretly colluding with the outer sect.

Those immortals who were suspected of being involved but were difficult to deal with were stripped of their authority or even confined to their caves.

Such an event caused quite a stir within people's hearts, leaving everyone feeling uneasy.

Fortunately, these matters were not related to Fang Shu for the time being. After learning about them, he sent out several letters and then buried himself in his cave, focusing on his arduous cultivation.

With only six months left until the trip to the Lushan Secret Realm, the outer sect's actions are clearly intended to disrupt the plans of the five stomachs.

The more this is the case, the more Fang Shu needs to seize this time to increase his magical power and improve his methods, so as to make full preparations for this great opportunity!

(End of this chapter)