The male supporting character was actually myself.

Wu Pei was speechless, only glaring sharply at the frank Taoist priest.

“Don’t take your anger out on him. He wouldn’t dare to hide a single word from me when I asked him to tell the truth.” The old master closed his eyes again and said calmly, “When the Ningzhou branch is thoroughly investigated, you will also enjoy the same treatment.”

Wu Pei's face turned ashen, and he almost collapsed in his seat.

"The following matters do not require Wu's involvement." The sect leader waved his hand, and security personnel quickly escorted him away.

After only the three old Celestial Masters, the Sect Master, and Jiang Chen remained in the conference room, the eldest female Celestial Master finally spoke up and asked, "Little Chen, to be honest, the Celestial Masters Sect no longer has the ability to suppress this evil spirit."

Even if one has the ability, it is impossible to find another person with a suitable physique like Yuan Xuefei.

Your assessment of the evil spirit's abilities is very accurate. If she so desires, the human world will suffer a devastating blow!

If I hand her over to you, what are your chances of keeping her calm and preventing her from causing trouble?

Instead of answering directly, Jiang Chen asked, "If I'm not confident, what do you plan to do?"

After exchanging glances, the female celestial master said quietly, "Then we can only take a gamble while we still have a breath left."

Using sheer numbers and all the treasures and artifacts collected by the Celestial Masters Sect, they'd see if they could send her into the rift between the two worlds.

If we fail, the human world will likely face annihilation!

Actually, we discussed countermeasures after we suppressed her back then.

But a new generation can't be cultivated, and the old generation is dying out too quickly. Now, no one can take care of anyone else.

So... even if you only have a sliver of confidence, you should still try for the sake of the human world.

The entire Celestial Master Sect will spare no effort to help you!

After receiving the promise, Jiang Chen reluctantly agreed, saying, "I'll try my best, but there are a few conditions."

"Speak," the sect leader said succinctly.

He counted on his fingers: "First, you need at least one level four spirit core every day."

For levels three and below, five to ten are required.

The spirit core is used to make spirit food for Jin Nian. Only by satisfying her appetite will she stop thinking about eating people or evil spirits.

Those things would affect her rationality; the more clear-headed Jin Nian was, the better she could control herself.

Second, assign her an identity, whether she takes human form or remains in spirit form.

It's like the kind of official certification you issue to certain evil spirits, and proclaim to the world that no one is allowed to attack Jin Nian at will.

As things stand, she is not in danger as long as she is not provoked.

Third, protect my sister in every way. Jin Nian and she are already soulmates; their fates are intertwined.

If Feifei experiences a drastic emotional fluctuation or is in danger, Jin Nian may lose control.

What needs to be done now is to minimize the risk of her getting out of control.

"No problem. Are there any other issues that need to be resolved?" His request was not unreasonable at all, and the sect leader readily agreed.

Jiang Chen countered with, "Everyone, have you ever heard of the Gates of the Underworld?"

The old celestial master, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and looked over. "Where did you hear about the Gates of Hell?"

A tense atmosphere filled the meeting room.

"Dare to glare at me?" Little White glared with its big blue eyes wide open. "Don't panic, host, watch me glare back at him!"

Jiang Chen: ...

He didn't know if it was the white cat's glare that had the effect, but he didn't feel any impact and said, "Jin Nian told me."

"The Gates of Hell are recorded in the secret documents of the Celestial Master Sect." The other person recalled carefully with a solemn expression: "If I remember correctly, it was learned from a high-level evil spirit when a powerful being was traveling hundreds of years ago."

It is said that the Gates of Hell will choose a place in the myriad realms, and when the time is right, it will open the gates and release billions of demons and monsters.

No world could withstand such an impact.

Once the gates of hell are opened, there will be widespread suffering and destruction!

Some worlds might even be completely destroyed, only able to recover over thousands of years from the beginning.

The sect leader asked with a gentle expression, "Why did the evil spirit Jin Nian mention the Gates of the Underworld? Is it related to the mortal realm?"

"It's extremely important." Jiang Chen nodded calmly. "This time, the location where the Gate to the Underworld opened is in the human realm."

"hiss!"

A collective gasp filled the conference room.

One problem after another!

The female Taoist priest pinched her brow, her tone rather weak, "What should we do? If we want to deal with that evil spirit, maybe we can still risk our old bones and try to win a little."

But the gates of hell have opened...

Who can stop them?

"The golden age of the human world has only just begun, is it about to face annihilation?"

"If it were anything else, we could probably find a way, but if the Gates of Hell were to open and unleash so many demons and monsters, even all the exorcists in the world combined couldn't stop them!"

"We can't just sit here and wait to die..."

……

The people in positions of authority discussed in hushed tones, while Jiang Chen casually sipped his tea with his legs crossed.

Only when their expressions grew increasingly grim, indicating they had run out of ideas, did he put down his teacup and say, "The Gates of Hell are open; perhaps I have a solution."

All eyes turned to him.

Jiang Chen held up two fingers. "To solve the problem of opening the Gates of the Underworld from the root, I have to go to the Underworld myself."

"I might not be able to take this year's college entrance exam..."

"We will contact and discuss this with the relevant departments."

As long as Xiaochen tries to find a solution to this problem, we will fully support him regardless of whether he succeeds or not!

"You don't need to worry about the college entrance exam. This year, you can choose any of the best universities and majors in the country, and you'll be directly admitted without taking the entrance exam." The sect leader immediately promised.

Since there's no other way, let's try anything, even if it seems hopeless.

If Yuan Jiangchen can really do it, it would be a life-saving act, and getting a guaranteed admission to a school would be a piece of cake.

If we fail, the entire human world will face annihilation. Who the hell cares about going to university?

"Then there's only one last thing left. I need to see all the documents related to the Blood Sun Mountain evil spirit attack. That disaster back then is crucial!"

Chapter Twenty-One: The Attack by the Evil Spirits of Blood Sun Mountain

Blood Sun Mountain?

They exchanged a glance before the sect leader nodded in agreement, "Your parents perished at Blood Sun Mountain back then, so you certainly have the right to know the truth."

"Please wait a moment, I'll have someone send over the confidential documents."

The Celestial Masters Sect is quite efficient, especially its wealthy headquarters. They use special methods without hesitation, and in less than five minutes, a specially sealed document bag reached Jiang Chen's hands.

Opening the heavy file bag, the first page of the archived documents was marked: Detailed Report on the Investigation of the Secret Method of Devouring Evil Spirits Cultivated in Blood Sun Mountain!

Devouring evil spirits?!

Jiang Chen couldn't help but give himself a thumbs up; his intuition was right after all, the Blood Sun Mountain incident was not so simple!

After going through all the documents, he finally figured out the whole story of the evil spirit attack.

Sun Li, the founder of Xueyang Mountain, was a disciple of the Celestial Master.

He was exceptionally talented and was chosen by the sect leader at the time as a protector, with a bright future ahead of him.

However, Sun Li was seriously injured during a mission to eliminate evil spirits, which damaged his foundation. His cultivation level plummeted and his status and position declined day by day.

Having fallen from grace, a prodigy, to the mortal realm, Sun Li was deeply unwilling to accept it.

During a cleaning session of the library, an elder from the Celestial Masters Sect entered the secret chamber to search for documents. Curious, he secretly slipped in as well.

The Celestial Masters Sect expelled him from the sect for violating sect rules by sneaking into the secret chamber.

However, no one expected that Sun Li had read a forbidden book in the secret chamber!

A forbidden book, collected from a demonic sect that was eradicated, that could not be destroyed, contained a method for rapidly increasing one's cultivation by absorbing yin energy and evil spirits.

Having lost his foundation and cultivation, Sun Li grasped at a straw.

Relying on his powerful memory, he transcribed the entire book from memory and practiced it on his own.

The method of devouring ghosts and monsters did indeed increase the abilities of other celestial masters faster. After traveling for several years and consuming countless evil spirits, Sun Li finally regained his peak strength.

So he established Xueyang Mountain deep in the Linyang Mountains, far from the headquarters of the Celestial Masters Sect.

The Celestial Masters Sect was unaware of this at the time.

All they knew was that Sun Li had returned to his peak after several years and founded his own sect. However, adhering to the belief of the Celestial Master to eliminate evil spirits and protect the human world, they thought that it was not a bad thing for him to establish Xueyang Mountain and recruit many disciples to protect the area from evil spirits. So they let him be free.

Until four years ago.

This is the Blood Sun Mountain, a place with a small population and a low profile that has never attracted much attention. Suddenly, its disciples changed their ways and openly competed with other sects for evil spirits.

Eliminating evil spirits is a good thing, but the people of Blood Sun Mountain are willing to fight each other to seize evil spirits, and each time they seize one, they don't eliminate it directly but take the evil spirit with them.

If this happens too often, it will inevitably arouse suspicion.

At first, everyone speculated that Blood Sun Mountain was raising evil spirits. However, some people investigated and found no trace of evil spirits in Blood Sun Mountain, nor in any area within a hundred miles.

According to locals, the area within the Xueyang Mountain protected zone is very safe and there has never been any harassment from evil spirits.

Because the evil spirits were eliminated by the Celestial Masters of Blood Sun Mountain before ordinary people even noticed their appearance.

It wasn't until shortly afterward that an anonymous letter was sent to the Celestial Masters' Sect, claiming that he had inadvertently witnessed a Celestial Master from Blood Sun Mountain devouring an evil spirit, which finally drew attention.

The Celestial Masters sect dispatched spies to investigate Blood Sun Mountain.

As the investigation progressed, the strange aspects of Xueyang Mountain gradually came to light.

They recruit people with extremely low talent who would only be patrol disciples or even be eliminated in other sects.

However, these people, who originally had no future in eliminating evil spirits, were able to advance to the level of second- or even third-level Celestial Masters within three to five years, and their combat power was extremely strong.