A month later, at the inauguration ceremony of the new master of the Yearning Heart Sect, I shall grace the occasion in person.

Puppet Heaven Holy Land.

This place was not built upon beautiful, spiritually rich mountains and rivers, but was instead a massive metal city suspended hundreds of feet in the air above the flat plains.

The entire city was forged from an unknown black metal, covered in precise gears and complex patterns. It loomed in the sea of clouds like a slumbering primordial behemoth.

Deep within the Holy Land, inside a hall constructed entirely of metal.

The Second Elder knelt on the ground in a wretched state.

Her face, which usually bore a charming and seductive demeanor, was now swollen like a pig's head, with a trace of dried blood still lingering at the corner of her mouth.

Her Daoist robes were heavily torn, making her look incredibly miserable.

Two days had passed since she returned from the Acacia Sect.

For these two days, she had not treated her wounds nor washed up. She simply knelt there, waiting for that person's summons.

She dared not make the slightest movement.

Because she knew that in this hall, no small action could escape that person's eyes.

Finally.

A sigh echoed from the deepest part of the hall.

The voice was ancient and devoid of any emotion.

"Do you know your crime?"

The Second Elder's delicate body trembled. She buried her head even lower, her voice carrying an uncontrollable quiver and... a perfectly measured amount of fear.

"I know my crime."

"The Third Elder and a group of elite disciples all lost their lives in Qihuang Gorge due to my miscalculations. I... cannot escape the blame even with ten thousand deaths!"

She did not defend herself; instead, she directly took all the blame upon herself.

Because she clearly knew that in front of an old monster who had lived for an unknown number of years, any sophistry would be futile.

Only by showing weakness and placing herself in the lowest possible position could she find a sliver of a chance to survive.

Upon hearing this, the other party fell into a long silence.

That silence was more suffocating than any reprimand.

The Second Elder could feel an invisible, scrutinizing will fall upon her, as if trying to see right through her very soul.

She dared not move, even keeping her breathing extremely light.

After a long time.

That ancient voice finally sounded again.

"Tell me exactly what happened, word for word."

"Yes."

Feeling as if she had been granted a grand pardon, the Second Elder suppressed the wild beating of her heart and began to slowly recount the events with a tone of lingering fear.

She explained how she and the Third Elder followed the divination hexagrams to find the subterranean lava cave at Qihuang Gorge.

Then, they did not find a true dragon, but rather a fire flood dragon that was on the verge of transforming into a true dragon.

Given their strength, taking down the fire flood dragon would not have been difficult.

But just as she was about to succeed...

Su Ji appeared.

"...That Su Ji seemed to only have a cultivation at the great circle of the Foundation Establishment realm, but his body exuded an aura that made even this disciple palpitate with fear."

"It was just that the Third Elder, seeing the other party was merely at Foundation Establishment, grew contemptuous and wanted to torture and kill him, but unexpectedly..."

The Second Elder's voice began to tremble violently, as if she were recalling an extremely terrifying scene.

"That Su Ji merely raised his hand, and the Third Elder... the Third Elder, he..."

"He couldn't even take a single move before Su Ji shattered his Golden Core from across space, destroying his body and soul!"

"I and the other martial nephews were also imprisoned in place by that power, unable to move, and could only watch helplessly as he... slaughtered our fellow sect members!"

She perfectly grafted Hui Xing's casual finger strike onto Su Ji.

How should she put it.

She definitely could not confess the matter about the true dragon.

Otherwise, as soon as the Holy Lord heard it, he would beat the living daylights out of her.

Then wouldn't her mission become impossible to complete?

Thus, she mixed truth with lies, and lies with truth.

Because the news brought back by the First Elder was that the new sect master had slain Lin Qingliu with a single sword strike.

Now, by saying he instantly killed the Third Elder with one move, it would only make her story more credible.

"After Su Ji killed everyone, he spared only my life."

"And then he did those unspeakable things to me..."

"If the Holy Lord does not believe me, the traces of his climax should still remain within my body..."

The Second Elder paused at just the right moment here, her tearful appearance making one involuntarily feel pity.

Of course, the so-called traces were naturally acquired from someone she randomly found on the road.

She pretended to be injured and was picked up by the other party, then she stirred up the lust in his heart to commit that illicit act...

The man looked like an honest and simple farmer, and who knows if this would become the memory he yearned for day and night.

The Holy Lord did not seem interested in this point.

"Why did he attack? And why didn't he kill you?"

"He... he said..."

The Second Elder's voice was filled with humiliation.

"He said the First Elder owed him one million top-tier spirit stones, and since he didn't come to our door to collect the debt, our Holy Land was entirely oblivious and didn't know to deliver the spirit stones to the Acacia Sect?"

"He said he spared my dog life to come back and bring you a message."

"He wants you, at the succession ceremony, in front of all the cultivators in the world... to personally kowtow and apologize to him, and offer up the spirit stones!"

"He also said that if you do not go, he will personally flatten our Puppet Heaven Holy Land and make you... beg for life and wish for death!"

These words were half true and half false.

Su Ji indeed wanted her to cause trouble at the ceremony, but these highly humiliating words were fabricated and embellished by her own making.

What she needed to do was mold Su Ji into an arrogant young cultivator who, after obtaining a heaven-defying opportunity, looked down on everyone and became arrogant to the extreme.

Only in this way could she completely enrage this high and mighty Holy Lord.

"Bang!"

A loud crash echoed.

The white jade floor in front of the Second Elder exploded into a deep pit without any warning.

A bone-chilling killing intent, almost tangible, instantly filled the entire hall.

"Good... what a fine Acacia Sect!"

For the first time, that voice carried anger.

"Do they think our Holy Land has no one?!"

The Second Elder felt wild joy in her heart; she knew the fish had taken the bait.

But on her face, she maintained that terrified and uneasy expression.

"Holy Lord, please quell your anger!"

"That Su Ji... that Su Ji obtained some unknown heaven-defying opportunity, and his strength is unfathomable. Both the First Elder and the Third Elder were not his match for even a single exchange. We... we absolutely must not act rashly!"

As she spoke, she kowtowed repeatedly, as if worrying about the future of the Holy Land.

"Hmph."

A cold snort caused the temperature in the hall to drop several degrees.

"He is merely a jumping clown who obtained some inheritance or relies on a special destiny. Does he really think he is invincible in this world?"

"I would like to see what qualifications he has to dare utter such arrogant words!"

Hearing this, the Second Elder's heart trembled. She knew the time was ripe.

She abruptly raised her head, and a trace of resolute madness actually surfaced on her swollen face.

"Holy Lord!"

"I have a plan that perhaps... can help our Holy Land wipe away this previous humiliation!"

The voice fell silent once more.

The Second Elder gritted her teeth and revealed her entire plan.

"Since that Su Ji is so arrogant, he must want to use this ceremony to establish his dominance over the entire Great Xia cultivation world."

"Then we will do the exact opposite..."

"Let me step forward to humiliate him and demand he pay double the compensation."

"In a fit of rage, he will inevitably attack me."

"When the time comes, you only need to observe his methods..."

She took the strategy of luring the snake out of its hole that Su Ji had entrusted to her and presented it verbatim as her own scheme.

Only, in her telling, the protagonist of this plan changed from Su Ji to their Puppet Heaven Sacred Land.

And the target to be caught in a single net shifted from the major sects to Su Ji himself.

"...When the time comes, if you strike with the force of a thunderbolt, you will certainly capture him in one fell swoop!"

"All the fortuitous encounters and secrets he possesses will belong to our Sacred Land!"

After finishing her words, the Second Elder kowtowed deeply to the ground once more, awaiting the final judgment.

She had staked her own fate, as well as the future of the Puppet Heaven Sacred Land, on this massive gamble.

The hall once again descended into a suffocating silence.

The Second Elder could feel that the Holy Lord was rapidly weighing the pros and cons.

Time ticked by, minute by minute, second by second.

Just as the Second Elder felt her heart was about to leap out of her throat.

That aged voice finally echoed once more.

"Granted."

A simple word, yet it carried the weight of a thousand mountains.

The Second Elder's tense body instantly relaxed. She slumped onto the floor, her back long since drenched in cold sweat.

She had won the bet.

"Transmit my decree."

"In one month, at the succession ceremony for the new master of the Acacia Sect."

"I shall attend in person."