Villain Master, my disciples all want to backstab me

Rumbling--

The deafening roar lasted for more than ten minutes. Dense piles of rubble, carried by mushroom-shaped clouds of dust, soared high into the sky before falling back in a shower of gravel.

"Master!!"

Ye Shuang'er was stunned.

This was the first time she'd witnessed her master engaging in such intense combat with another. She'd been absent when Bai Yuan fought Qing Lingzi in Falling Star Valley, and she'd been controlled by Gui Yuan during the subsequent battle against the Skeleton Giant in Cangwu County... So, at that moment, she felt a pounding in her head, and she felt unwell.

“Master…I…”

The little girl tore through the lingering smoke and rushed towards the center of the explosion, one foot deep and one foot shallow. She accidentally stepped on the foul-smelling blood on the ground, stumbled, and then fell to the dirty ground with a look of panic on her face.

Rationally, she knew her master's methods. Even if the other party used such methods, it was highly likely that they would not be able to hurt her master. However... at this time, there was obviously no way to think rationally, and she could only rely on an almost blind self-confidence to rationally speculate whether he was still alive.

Ye Shuang'er was also confused because of her concern.

Just as the little girl opened her eyes wide and looked around, calling Bai Yuan anxiously.

A slightly childish voice suddenly emerged from the depths of the smoke and fell into her ears: "You don't think that a mere Nascent Soul self-destruction method can threaten your master, do you? You've been through so many storms, why are you still so impatient?"

As the words fell.

Bai Yuan's figure slowly emerged from the darkness shrouded in smoke. Her petite body was wrapped in a red dress sparkling with starlight. Her crystal clear bare feet stepped in the air as she walked towards where Ye Shuang'er was.

Behind her, there was a huge figure as big as a hill, slowly following her, looking like a giant beast from ancient times.

——It was Shadow Leopard.

As mentioned earlier, Shadow Leopard's "Shadow Blur", in addition to turning itself into a shadow to isolate itself from external harm, also has many different derivative applications, such as blending with the surrounding shadows, or drawing other people's shadows into itself, thus forming a shadow outline that looks huge like now.

Bai Yuan made a waving gesture.

Seeing this, Shadow Leopard opened its mouth and vomited out the contents of its "belly". It was the corpses of Shentu Jialuo and Eagle Demon, as well as a pile of spoils from the Blood Origin Sect. Among them were the figures of Shao An's two subordinates.

They fell to the ground one after another, raising clouds of flying dust.

"Master, I'm so glad you're okay!"

Ye Shuang'er stood up and rushed over, throwing herself into Bai Yuan's arms like a young swallow returning to its nest. Her face showed an expression of reluctance to part. However, because Bai Yuan was in her lolita form and a head shorter than the little girl, it looked more like she was being tucked into the little girl's arms.

Fortunately, Ye Shuang'er still had some sense and did not pick her up directly because of the height difference, otherwise she, the "Demon Lord", would have lost face.

rustle--

Footsteps approached. It was Ji Tingxue who arrived. She picked up a piece of cloth-like object from the ground and examined it. "Was this the thing that caused the commotion just now? Even after being weakened by the [Exquisite Dice], it still possesses such formidable destructive power. It's truly an incredible treasure of the Blood Origin Sect."

"...Yeah, it's pretty impressive. But it's also a bit of a shame."

Bai Yuan nodded and added.

Just as Ji Tingxue said, she had indeed consciously mobilized the "Seal" side of the [Linglong Dice], and the power of the law it represented, to imprison Shao An, his subordinates, and those blood puppets, in order to prevent their serial self-explosion.

There was nothing wrong with the rest of this. Bai Yuan's sniping operations were indeed successful.

However, the Blood Soul Banner in Shao An's hand was a high-level magical instrument from the Blood Origin Sect, forged by a former demon cultivator at the Divine Transformation Realm. It still held a trace of the power of the Law. Therefore, even the "Seal" technique couldn't completely prevent its self-destruction.

Now, Shao An himself was blown to pieces.

And the [Blood Soul Banner]...

"What a pity."

Bai Yuan kicked a fragment of the Blood Soul Banner on the ground that was different from the one Ji Tingxue had just picked up, and sighed, "I was thinking about whether I could seize this magical weapon, but it seems I missed it."

Actually, it’s not a miss.

Because even if Bai Yuan truly obtained the complete "Blood Soul Banner," it would be difficult to refine it with his current strength. Even if he refined it, it would be difficult to use. This was because it was a true magical weapon for cultivation. Only by killing a large number of people and filling it with souls could it achieve its maximum power. Otherwise, it was no different from an ordinary high-level magical weapon.

Although Bai Yuan was indifferent to killing people, he would never kill people just to enhance his magical weapon. So in the end, he would probably just sell it off like the "Nine Cauldrons Mountain Seal".

However, considering the unique nature of the Blood Soul Banner, and the current climate of conflict between good and evil, the probability of it being effective is extremely low. Instead, the possibility of the Blood Origin Sect being found while searching for their tracks is much greater.

So, it’s better to be destroyed.

What really made Bai Yuan sigh was that she hadn't been able to preserve Shao An's body. After all, this guy was a genuine eighth-grade Nascent Soul. If his soul was well preserved, he might be more useful than Shentu Jialuo, who was a ninth-grade Nascent Soul but had a damaged soul.

However, although Shao An, the leader, was not caught, six or seven blood puppets were taken into account and they were doing "daily training" every day from January to December.

"Clean up the scene and get ready to leave."

"This battle caused quite a stir. Although this place is quite far from the Blood Origin Sect's branch temple and shouldn't be discovered so quickly, it's still better to be cautious and avoid any chaos."

Bai Yuan raised his chin and said this.

The little girl was stunned for a moment, then did as she was told randomly.

soon.

Thanks to the efforts of Ji Tingxue, Ye Shuang'er, and Bai Hu, Luoyingjian was briefly cleaned up. If anyone came here to search for clues about Bai Yuan's actions, they would most likely return empty-handed.

On the contrary, if one wanted to find some traces of the Shentu family, they could find them, because Bai Yuan had torn off a small piece of Shentu Jialuo's sleeve and thrown it aside. On it, the Shentu family crest could be vaguely seen.

This frame-up, while admittedly a bit crude, was the best option at the moment. After all, Bai Yuan couldn't possibly push Qingxuan Sect out to take the blame again, and it wouldn't be appropriate to use Tianyuan Sword Sect or Qingming Valley instead. As long as this arrangement could slightly disrupt the Blood Origin Sect's line of sight, Bai Yuan would have achieved his goal.

"Let's go! Shuang'er and Tingxue!"

present.

Bai Yuan patted the storage bag full of rewards, then flipped over and jumped onto the tiger's back. At this moment, Ye Shuang'er and Ji Tingxue followed suit. The former held Bai Yuan's waist tightly with both hands, as if afraid that she would die again. The latter was a little more reserved and glanced around.

then.

The three of them rode on the white tiger, which spread its bone wings and continued to move towards the headquarters of the Blood Source Sect.

This time, Bai Yuan's goal was to completely rescue the "young master" of the Jiang family from the Blood Origin Sect before considering other matters. However, achieving this goal was undoubtedly difficult.

In this regard, Bai Yuan’s only answer is “do your best”.

……

at the same time.

The headquarters of the Blood Source Sect, Jiuyou Mountain.

Dozens of soul lamps suspended from the bronze lamp tree suddenly swayed in unison. The one engraved with the character "Shao" exploded with a crack, startling the nearby disciples and causing them to collapse even lower. The withered old man, sitting cross-legged not far away, suddenly opened his eyes, and the pool reflected the two-headed snake swimming in his pupils.

"Elder!"

After the initial shock, the disciple gathered the broken pieces of the lamp and stumbled back, "It was Master Shao of the Blood Refining Hall. His soul lamp suddenly shattered just now..."

"Yes, I saw it."

The skinny old man raised his hand and took the fragments from the disciple's hand. He squinted his eyes and stared at it for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

After this action was performed, a bit of lamp oil was seen jumping and burning, and a vague image of Luoyingjian appeared in the air.

Chapter 178 The Return of the Divine Phoenix

Every sect with a certain level of influence would place a soul lamp for each of their most important elders and disciples. This lamp would be lit with the essence and blood of the individual. If the individual's life force was strong, the lamp would burn brightly. Conversely, if the individual encountered an unexpected event, the lamp would fluctuate violently until death.

Depending on the different soul lamp manufacturing techniques, the information that different sects can obtain from them is also different.

For the worse ones, you can only see "alive" or "dead". You can't even tell "healthy" from "severely injured".

If you are better off, you can judge the other party's current cultivation status and general location based on the brightness of the lights.

More advanced ones can directly see the opponent's real-time location, cause of death, and even the assailant's appearance, figure... and other information. They can even use soul lamps as a medium to brand the assailant from thousands of miles away, making it impossible for them to hide.

Shao An was one of the eight hall masters of the Blood Origin Sect and a notorious figure within the demonic realm, so his soul lamp was naturally of a higher-end design. Almost as soon as the withered old man realized he was dead, he used his magic to summon the scene of the incident, "Falling Eagle Stream."

Can……

The skinny old man only saw the boundary marker of "Falling Eagle Stream" and had no idea where this Stream was or why Shao An appeared there.

"What kind of place is this? It doesn't look like the location of our sect's branch altar."

"Shao An, as the hall master, why didn't he run to this valley instead of commanding his disciples in battle? He was even ambushed and lost his life..."

The old man continued to mobilize his spiritual power.

On the screen, a square barrier and several blurry figures appeared - calling them "blurry" is a good word, because in fact those figures were made up of large pieces of mosaics, and it was difficult to tell whether they were human or not, let alone distinguish their identities.

However, there was a figure flying in the sky that looked quite large and caught the old man's attention.

"This thing..."

Does it look a bit like the Sky-Splitting Black Eagle that cooperates with our own sect?

There are generally only two situations that can prevent the soul lamp from seeing the specific image. One is that the other party has the cultivation level of the Spirit Transformation Realm, and the other is that the other party has a magical weapon related to the Spirit Transformation Realm that can interfere with the rules... Which one does this case belong to?

After watching the video of Shao An before his death, the skinny old man fell into deep thought, and was a little confused for a moment.

Instead, the disciple next to him waited for a while, then bravely asked, "Elder, Hall Master Shao is a big shot in our sect, and now he's fallen outside. Should we report this to the sect master..."

"No."

The skinny old man refused without hesitation: "The sect master is in a critical period of retreat recently and must not be disturbed. Although Shao An is powerful, he is not at the Spiritual Transformation Realm after all. There is no need to go to the sect master specifically for such matters..."

After a pause, the old man raised his head and ordered the disciple opposite him, "There is no time to lose. I will give the order now. Pass the message down and ask the other elders of the branch temple to find the place where Shao An died as soon as possible based on the footage just now. They should also investigate the cause and effect of the incident and the traces at the scene and report back!"

"During this period, Elder Yang will replace Shao An and take charge of all duties at the branch altar. We must deal with the impact of the four righteous sects and minimize the impact!"

"Yes!"

The disciple responded, turned around and left in a hurry, going to find the sound transmission jade slip to send a message to the branch temple.

Wait until he leaves.

The skinny old man lowered his head and replayed the scene he had just seen in his mind, especially looking at the figure of the "Sky-Splitting Black Eagle" several times, with hesitation on his face.

how to say……

The possibility that the Eastern Wilderness Demon Clan wants to deal with the Blood Source Sect is actually based on facts.

Just a while ago, because the plan of "hunting down the Jiang family" failed, the three forces of the Xueyuan Sect, the Shentu Family, and the Demon Clan actually had several disputes.

The Blood Origin Sect believed the primary reason for the operation's failure was the absence of the demon clan. If only one more Divine Transformation Realm cultivator had been present, a six-on-one situation would have surely slain Ling Xiuya on the spot, and Jiang Rao and the Five Elements Wheel would have become spoils of war for all three parties. Therefore, the demon clan bore full responsibility for this failure.

The Eastern Wasteland demons believed they were only in supporting roles, not the primary attacking force. The fact that Ling Xiuya had defeated five of them alone, and yet they managed to escape, was solely due to the human race's incompetence. In particular, the Blood Origin Sect's "Blood Ghost Binding Formation" had completely failed to contain them.

There is inherent conflict of opinion.

Coupled with the Shentu family's secret instigation, the Xueyuan Sect and the demon clan quarreled very fiercely at one point and almost came to blows on the spot.

Although the Shentu family later acted as a peacemaker and facilitated peace between the two sides, the seeds of suspicion had already been planted, and it was unlikely that both sides would be free of grudges.

and so……

"Could it be that the demon tribe, feeling disgruntled, deliberately lured Shao An to his death to vent their anger?"

This thought lingered in the skinny old man's mind for a moment and could not be shaken off.

"Or perhaps, this is the work of the Four Righteous Sects, who want to use this opportunity to sow discord between us and the demon race. After all, they were also witnesses of the 'hunt' and might be able to guess something..."

To be honest, this guess is actually very close to the truth.

However, due to the lack of information between them, the withered old man could hardly imagine that the instigator of this assassination was actually the "dead" Blood Kite. Even more unexpectedly, he could not imagine that this Demonic Heavenly Monarch actually possessed the [Netherworld Bone Flute], a corpse refining artifact even more powerful than the Blood Origin Sect's "Blood Puppet Technique."

Of course, the skinny old man could sense that there was something else behind Shao An's death. So after some thought, he quickly made up his mind:

"The Sect Master is still in seclusion, and Hall Masters Gu and Xing are also recovering from their injuries... We should go and discuss this with that master. Perhaps with his wisdom, he can see through something."

Thinking this, the skinny old man slowly stood up and walked towards another place in the sect.

……

……

The dark sea of ​​suffering.

Black Lagoon Ferry.

This is the easternmost part of the entire Central Continent region, and is also one of the hottest and most dangerous places in the entire cultivation world.

The hottest part is because it's closest to the sun, where the blazing sun rises daily. The scorching temperatures are unbearable for most lower- and middle-level demons. Only high-level demons like the Divine Phoenix, who possess a natural fire attribute, can ignore them.

The most dangerous part was that this place, along with the [Cangwu Abyss] in the southwest and the [Great Forbidden Land] in the far north, formed one of the three forbidden areas of this world. Not only ordinary people, but even accomplished cultivators rarely dared to come to such a place.

The demons of the Eastern Wasteland rarely come to the Central Continent, as the "storms" of the Netherworld Sea of ​​Bitterness are beyond the ability of ordinary demons to withstand.

But today.

But it's a little special——

As time passed noon, the shadow of a wooden sailboat suddenly appeared on the dark sea.