Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

"What did Xiao Zhengyan tell you to say?"

After Lu Quan'an finished asking his question, everyone in the hall looked at Yi Yang, wanting to know the news from inside the Sky Patrol Division.

Before speaking, Yi Yang used his spiritual power in his sea of ​​consciousness to sense the state of the Buddhist beads in his pocket, wanting to confirm their condition before answering.

Sure enough, the crimson blood color that had originally occupied half of the inside of the bead receded.

From occupying half the size of a bead when it was halfway up the mountain, it shrank back to a wisp of light that was almost invisible.

It was exactly the same as when he had just pulled it out of Xuan Yi's corpse.

Yi Yang's suspicions were confirmed.

now it's right.

Halfway up the mountain, only he and Zhao Xunge were walking together, and the blood-red color of the Buddhist beads suddenly intensified.

Upon returning to the main hall, with Lu Quan'an present, the crimson color receded.

It's not a coincidence; the Buddhist beads are indeed sensing something, and it should be related to the Nine Evil Cults.

And that thing related to the Nine Evil Sect is on Zhao Xunge.

Yi Yang withdrew his mental energy and raised his head.

At this moment, Zhao Xunge stood three steps to his right, his Taoist robe stained with a few fallen leaves, his whisk tucked into his waistband, his expression serene.

He turned to Yi Yang and asked, "Commander Yi, what exactly did Lord Xiao confess?"

The question was asked naturally, with a casual tone, as if the person was genuinely just curious.

Yi Yang looked at his face, trying to discern something from it.

He was a tall, thin man in his early fifties, but his actual age was older than Yi Yang's, at least over eighty. He had just started practicing martial arts earlier than Yi Yang, and his aging process slowed down after reaching the True Qi Realm.

But the chilling sharpness in his eyes still lingered, making him look exactly like the Cangwu Mountain Sect Master in the portrait, without the slightest flaw, and even a hint of concern on his lips.

"Lord Xiao gave an instruction," Yi Yang said, looking at Zhao Xunge. "He said that there's a problem with the sect leader of Cangwu Mountain."

Yi Yang's voice echoed in the quiet hall.

The atmosphere inside the hall changed.

Xu Yuhu, who was leaning against the stone slab in a daze due to his serious injuries, suddenly opened his eyes. His pupils, which were dilated due to his injuries, focused on Yi Yang's face, and his eyes were filled with shock.

"Zhao Xunge has a problem? How is that possible! Could it be that I'm the only one among the three sect leaders who doesn't have a problem?" Xu Yuhu thought in a daze.

Lu Song was also startled awake from his closed-eye meditation. He sat up straight, supporting himself on the wound under his ribs, and called out in a hoarse voice, "Lord Yi, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

He looked at Yi Yang, then at Zhao Xunge standing beside him, his face full of confusion.

"How could there be a problem with the Cangwu Mountain Sect Master? Sect Master Zhao came here to support our Xuanjian Pavilion."

Xu Yuhu also spoke up, his voice weak but his attitude clear: "Commander Yi, is there some misunderstanding here? Sect Leader Zhao rushed here overnight, and everyone in my Xuanjian Pavilion remembers this favor."

"Although there was a conflict of interest between Cangwu Mountain and Xuanjian Pavilion, Sect Leader Zhao did not take advantage of their misfortune. He also did not participate when Xuanyi attacked the mountain."

Neither of them wanted to believe it.

The Xuanjian Pavilion had just had its mountain gate breached by the Jinyang Temple, its sect leader nearly lost his life, and its most treasured artifact had fallen into the hands of the Nine Evil Sect elders.

If the sect leader of Cangwu Mountain also had a problem, then two of the three major sects would have been infiltrated by the Nine Evil Sects, and the prefecture city would have been finished long ago.

But Lu Quan'an, standing in the center of the hall, remained silent.

He stood there, his hands hanging at his sides, his deep brown, almost black eyes moving from Yi Yang's face to Zhao Xunge's face, and then back again.

He didn't express his opinion or ask any further questions; he just watched as everyone spoke.

He knew that since Yi Yang dared to return to the main hall in Xiao Zhengyan's name, he wouldn't make baseless accusations based on mere guesswork.

Seeing the chief inspector's gaze fixed on him, Yi Yang knew what Lu Quan'an meant; he wanted him to produce evidence regarding this matter.

Moreover, Zhao Xunge's reaction was faster than Yi Yang had anticipated.

The old Taoist priest turned around to face Yi Yang, his brows furrowed in confusion, and asked:

"Commander Yi, have I offended you? I respect you as a member of the Sky Patrol Bureau, but what you are saying is absurd."

His voice rose a beat, filled with grievance and anger as he shouted:

"Xiao Zhengyan isn't even here anymore, how can you blindly believe his words? He's just a member of the Punishment Department, he has absolutely no connection to Cangwu Mountain, what makes him think I have a problem?"

Zhao Xunge took a step back, pulling his whisk from his waist and gripping it tightly in his hand.

"Upon hearing the news from Donglai County, I rushed here overnight to clean up the mess for Xuanjian Pavilion. I may not have done anything meritorious, but I certainly put in the effort. In the end, I was smeared with dirty water?"

He spoke quickly and urgently, and his reasons were plausible.

Lu Song, who was standing nearby, nodded repeatedly, agreeing with Zhao Xunge's point.

But Yi Yang noticed a detail.

When Zhao Xunge was defending himself, his right toe was two inches off-center from the direction of the main hall entrance.

That's the body reacting before the brain; it's a reaction to prepare to run away.

Yi Yang did not respond to Zhao Xunge's words; the Buddhist beads he held in his hand were still waiting for an opportunity.

"I cannot bear this injustice here."

Zhao Xunge's voice grew louder, and he clasped his hands in a fist salute to Lu Quan'an, saying:

"Your Excellency, I must leave now. The disciples of Cangwu Mountain are still waiting inside, and I cannot remain here to be unjustly criticized."

He took his first step and walked towards the entrance of the main hall.

"Sect Leader Zhao, please don't be in a hurry."

Lu Quan'an finally spoke, his voice not loud, but Zhao Xunge immediately froze in place.

It wasn't the kind of stop caused by being frightened; it was a natural, instinctive response from the body to the sound.

Lu Quan'an looked at Yi Yang and said, "Show me your evidence."

That's exactly what Yi Yang was waiting for.

He pulled his right hand out of his clothes and opened his palm.

A golden Buddhist rosary the size of a thumb lay in his palm, its surface engraved with dense runes, and a faint scarlet wisp of water moving inside the rosary.

"I found these prayer beads on the body of Abbot Xuanyi of Jinyang Temple."

Yi Yang held the bead up to the light so that everyone in the hall could see it clearly.

"Half an incense stick's time ago, Sect Leader Zhao and I set off from this main hall and walked down the mountain along the gravel path. We hadn't gone more than a hundred feet when this Buddhist bead began to jump."

"The blood-red color inside the bead changed from a wisp to half a bead."

Looking calmly into Zhao Xunge's eyes, Yi Yang said:

"At that time, there were only two people within a hundred feet radius. Me and Sect Leader Zhao."

"I turned back to the main hall and walked up to the Chief Inspector. The blood in the prayer beads immediately faded."

Upon hearing Yi Yang's explanation, Lü Song's expression changed, and Xu Yuhu clenched his fists, gripping the stone slab tightly.

The eyes of everyone in the hall fell on Zhao Xunge.

Zhao Xunge remained calm as he faced the Buddhist prayer beads. He raised his chin and asked with a grave expression, "A Buddhist prayer bead of unknown origin, changing several times, can prove that I have a problem? Commander Yi's handling of the case is far too casual."

"So I'm prepared to try again."

Yi Yang flicked his finger, and the Buddhist beads left his palm, flying towards Zhao Xunge.

Zhao Xunge raised his right hand, seemingly trying to stop the prayer beads, but he stopped abruptly halfway through.

The golden bead that Yi Yang launched drew an arc in the air and spun as it flew toward Zhao Xunge.

Five zhang away.

The crimson blood inside the golden bead began to expand.

Three zhang (approximately 10 meters) in length, with blood making up 30% of the color.

One zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), half a bead.

The moment the prayer beads touched Zhao Xun's robe sleeve—

The golden base of the prayer beads has disappeared.

The entire prayer bead transformed into a scarlet blood bead from the inside out, with dark red light seeping out from the gaps in the runes, and a sweet, fishy smell permeated the hall.

It was exactly the same as the bloodshot look in He Dingbo's eyes.

It was exactly the same as the manipulated energy within Xuan Yi's body.

The hall was deathly quiet.

"Zhao Xun Ge!"

Xu Yuhu coughed up a mouthful of blood, still staring intently at the blood bead.

"Could it be that you...?"

Zhao Xunge looked down at his shoulder, and the anger on his face subsided.

All the anger and resentment he felt after being humiliated were completely gone.

He raised his hand and pinched the blood droplet.

"Click."

With a cracking sound, the bead split open.

"Commander Yi."

Zhao Xunge raised his head, his eyes already tinged with dark red.

"I underestimated you. And Xuan Yi actually has this bead."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Xunge rose up, his gray-white Taoist robe billowing open with his inner energy. His whisk flew out from his waist, and three thousand white strands of hair swept towards Xu Yuhu and Lü Song.

He did not attack Yi Yang.

He chose to cripple the two seriously injured men first, and then rush out through the side door.

Yi Yang had already stepped forward before his aura changed, and Xuan Yuan was drawn, the back of the blade slicing through the white silk of the whisk.

"Sect Leader Zhao, please wait."

The blade sliced ​​through the whisk, breaking off the white silk threads. Zhao Xunge used the recoil to crash into the palace gate, his gray-white Taoist robe billowing as he unleashed his full True Qi Realm aura. The stone slab beneath his feet shattered into pieces.

The moment the person stepped out of the threshold, they had already rushed more than ten feet away.

But he forgot one thing.

Lu Quan'an was sitting in this grand hall.

Yi Yang didn't even have time to see how Lu Quan'an made his move.

A burst of emerald green energy flew from his palm, crossed the palace gate, and struck Zhao Xunge in the back.

boom.

There was no violent collision; Zhao Xunge's body simply exploded in an instant.

It wasn't blown away; it exploded from the inside.

Blood, flesh, fragments of Taoist robes, and remnants of whisks flew in all directions, splattering half of the hall's walls and floor.

Yi Yang's mental energy detected the anomaly half a breath before the explosion occurred.

The moment Zhao Xunge's body exploded, a blood-red figure shot out from the shattered flesh.

Extremely fast.

The blood-red figure, enveloped in a layer of scarlet aura, darted to the entrance of the main hall before the pieces of flesh even hit the ground. With a leap, it vaulted over the half-collapsed door frame and fled towards the dense forest below the mountain.

Yi Yang stared intently.

The blood-red figure that flew out of Zhao Xunge's body was a monk.

Bald, wearing an ochre-red monk's robe, thin and withered-looking.

He is not the same person as Zhao Xunge at all.

Yi Yang frowned, surprised that the man was not a Taoist priest from Cangwu Mountain, but a Buddhist monk.

A monk was hidden inside a Taoist priest's body?

Upon seeing the man's profile, the heavily injured Xuanjian Pavilion leader Xu Yuhu dropped his sword and cried out in alarm:

"Xuan Ding?"

"Didn't he die more than ten years ago?"

"Xuan Ding?"

Upon hearing this address, Lü Song's face completely changed color.

"Impossible!" Lu Song exclaimed, "Didn't Xuan Ding of Jinyang Temple die at the hands of the sect leader more than ten years ago?"

Xu Yuhu's body was trembling, and blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were fixed on the door.

"It's him."

Xu Yuhu's voice was extremely hoarse as he said:

"His movements, his physique, and the black mole behind his right ear."

It was Xuan Ding. I still remember him to this day. It took me three years to heal the demon-subduing hand seal he used fifteen years ago.