Infiltrating the Qingxuan Sect

“Hmm? It’s actually the Azure Mystic Sect?”

At that moment, the Purple-Robed Saint suddenly let out a note of surprise as he stared at the plaque above the mountain gate.

“Hmm? You know this sect?”

The Gray-Robed Saint King was somewhat surprised. This place was so remote, yet the other man actually knew of the sect.

“Indeed. There’s something you should know, Fellow Daoist. The Myriad Arts Pavilion in Profound Province is affiliated with my Supreme Mystic Sacred Land. They once told me about the seven great sects of Profound Province.”

The Purple-Robed Saint spoke with an animated expression.

“There are seven great sects in Profound Province, and the Azure Mystic Sect has always been at the bottom. The strongest among them has never surpassed the Heavenly Human Realm. Even if they possess a King Realm expert, it would only be some old ancestor whose lifespan is nearly exhausted, barely clinging to life.”

“Fellow Daoist, hurry and help me get inside and capture that brat.”

After saying this, the Purple-Robed Saint gathered a strand of saintly power in his palm and prepared to blast open the protective formation that, in his eyes, was practically useless.

“Wait.”

The Gray-Robed Saint King raised a hand to stop him. His gaze swept over the tranquil sect once more as he slowly shook his head, his voice low and seasoned.

“Even a lion uses all its strength to hunt a rabbit. That thief is as cunning as a fox. Although he appears to be at the end of his rope, he may still possess some final trump card, whether it be a desperate technique meant to take us down with him or a means of escape.

“If you force your way through the formation, the commotion will be enormous and will inevitably alert him. If he panics and employs some forbidden art that burns his source or sacrifices his life to take us down with him—or if there is some unknown escape route hidden within this sect—we may end up creating unnecessary complications.

“It would be better for us to conceal our auras and sneak in without making a sound, then appear directly before that thief.

“With the force of thunder, we can restrain him in an instant and give him no chance to react. Only then can we ensure that nothing goes wrong.”

The Purple-Robed Saint was stunned at first, but soon revealed an expression of heartfelt admiration. The spiritual power in his palm quietly dissipated.

“Fellow Daoist, your consideration is indeed thorough. We’ll do as you say!”

By the time the Gray-Robed Saint King’s divine sense swept across the entire Azure Mystic Sect, he had already seen through the operation of the sect-protecting formation.

“Just a King-level sect-protecting formation. Its nodes are loose, and the spiritual power flowing through it is sluggish. It’s practically riddled with flaws.”

A trace of undisguised disdain flashed through his eyes. In his view, this formation was no better than a child’s toy.

He arrived at one corner of the formation and casually moved his fingers. Several streams of refined saintly power, thin as silk, sank into the formation’s nodes.

The operating formation briefly froze, and a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through split open. After the two men slipped inside, it instantly closed again, as though nothing had happened.

The two of them looked around. Their divine senses swept over the disciples bustling about and quickly locked onto Shi Wanshan’s location.

At that moment, Shi Wanshan was weak and listless. He took out a healing pill and swallowed it, clearly intending to sit in meditation and recover from his injuries.

The two men were delighted when they saw this.

The Purple-Robed Saint could already imagine himself appearing abruptly before Shi Wanshan, and the latter’s bewildered, horrified reaction.

“Hahaha! Old thief, prepare to welcome your surprise!”

Without any further hesitation, the two men moved like ghosts. After flickering several times through the seemingly ordinary forests and halls of the Azure Mystic Sect, they silently arrived outside a secluded stone chamber in the rear mountains of the main peak.

The terrain here was hidden and the spiritual energy sparse, making it an ideal hiding place for someone with severe injuries.

The stone chamber was crude, its door left ajar. Inside, Shi Wanshan’s declining and chaotic aura could be clearly sensed.

They could even hear his heavy, labored breathing, along with the faint fluctuations of spiritual power as he desperately regulated his breathing after the pill dissolved.

The Purple-Robed Saint could no longer suppress his cruel, triumphant smile.

“Old thief, your death has come!”

The Purple-Robed Saint sneered inwardly. He could no longer hold himself back and suddenly struck out with his palm!

In an instant, shattered stone and clouds of dust filled the air.

He seemed to have already seen Shi Wanshan crawling out of the ruins in panic, his face ashen with despair.

However, as the dust slowly settled, the panicked figure he expected failed to appear.

In the center of the stone chamber, Shi Wanshan remained seated cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

He slowly raised his head. There was not the slightest trace of shock or fear on his face. Instead, he wore an indescribably strange expression.

It was a mixture of mockery, pity, and an undisguised excitement—as though he had finally waited for his prey to fall into the trap.

His eyes, however, were frighteningly bright. He stared straight at the two men who had barged through the door.

“Well, well. What distinguished guests. You’re quite late.”

Shi Wanshan slowly stood up and grinned, revealing a set of ghastly white teeth.

“I’ve been waiting for you two for ages. Even the tea has gone cold.”

This reaction was completely beyond their expectations!

The smug expression on the Purple-Robed Saint’s face instantly froze, replaced by astonishment.

A flicker of suspicion also flashed through the Gray-Robed Saint King’s eyes. Shi Wanshan’s abnormal reaction set off alarm bells in his mind.

Something was wrong!

The instinct he had honed through years of life-and-death battles allowed the Gray-Robed Saint King to make a decision in the blink of an eye. Regardless of what tricks his opponent had prepared, retreating from this place first was the safest option.

“Retreat!”

With a low shout, his gray robe billowed as the vast saintly power of a Saint King erupted. His figure shot backward like a ghost.

His reaction could not be called slow. He had almost immediately withdrawn the instant he sensed something amiss.

Unfortunately, he had come to the Azure Mystic Sect.

Just as he had retreated several hundred meters—

Boom!

A deep, thunderous crash erupted behind the two men, as though a massive bell had been struck!

The Gray-Robed Saint King felt as if he had slammed into an invisible wall. His body jolted to a halt.

“A spatial lockdown formation?”

His pupils contracted slightly. He swept the area with his divine sense and saw that the path through which they had entered without obstruction was now covered by a seamless membrane of light flowing with profound, pale-golden runes.

Gu Changge had long since added an invisible, intangible, yet indestructible barrier here, isolating this area from the outside world. There was no need to worry about the energy from the battle spreading beyond it.

“Fellow Daoist, what’s wrong?”

Only then did the Purple-Robed Saint react. He glanced at the formation behind them with some disdain.

“This is merely a little place like the Azure Mystic Sect! Even if this man has some skill with formations, how could the two of us fail to break it easily?”

Hearing this, the Gray-Robed Saint King also calmed down. He secretly thought that his earlier reaction had indeed been somewhat excessive.

His opponent was merely a Saint. To think that he could use this formation to turn the tables on him was nothing more than wishful thinking.

“A spatial lockdown? Hmph! You think such a trifling technique can trap me? Break!”

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. A sword ray condensed to the extreme—powerful enough to tear the void apart—stabbed viciously toward the invisible barrier!

Chii!

When the sword ray struck the barrier, the void trembled and emitted a shrill tearing sound.

The barrier fluctuated violently for a moment, its radiance flowing across its surface, before stabilizing once more.

Apart from a slightly larger ripple, it remained completely unmoved.

The calm expression vanished from the Gray-Robed Saint King’s face. That strike of his was powerful enough to severely injure an ordinary Saint-level formation, yet this barrier had merely wavered slightly?

“You only realized it now? A little late, isn’t it, you old bastard?”

Shi Wanshan’s mocking voice rang out, filled with undisguised ridicule.

“You’ve come to my territory. You want to leave without even having a cup of tea? Where’s the fairness in that?”

He clapped his hands and called out loudly, “Junior Brother, stop hiding and come out. Let these two distinguished guests who have traveled so far see how our Azure Mystic Sect treats its guests.”

As his voice fell, a figure slowly strode out from the shadows beyond the stone chamber.