The Puppeteer

Their legs felt as if they were crushed by the weight of ten thousand mountains, and that force continued to press down relentlessly.

Their kneecaps ground against the earth, letting out agonizing, teeth-setting cracks.

At the exact same moment, the legs of over thirty cultivators began to shatter bone by bone, starting from their knees.

The next moment...

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

Bloodcurdling screams erupted simultaneously from the mouths of the thirty-plus cultivators.

It felt as though millions of insects were gnawing at their meridians, devouring their flesh and blood, and chewing on every inch of their bones.

It was an excruciating pain that spread from the depths of their souls to every corner of their bodies, a torment that made them wish for immediate death.

The black-robed man at the late stage of the Void Refinement Realm knelt at the very front. His cultivation was the highest, and so the pain he endured was the most severe.

He could clearly feel those invisible insects biting his meridians to pieces inch by inch. The veins on his face bulged, and his bloodshot eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

Gu Changyuan did not even look at him.

At the same time he had uttered the words Kneel down, his other hand had already been raised.

Three streaks of light flew from Gu Changyuan's fingertips, vanishing into the bodies of Xiang Chenze, Zhuge Xueling, and Zhuge Xuening respectively.

The moment the light entered their bodies, the three of them simultaneously felt a warm, comforting current spread outward from their chests.

Wherever that warm current passed, their wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing that their Grandmaster had arrived, expressions of surviving a great calamity immediately appeared on their faces, and their tense nerves instantly relaxed.

Zhuge Xueling and Zhuge Xuening could no longer hold back. They threw themselves into Gu Changyuan's embrace from the left and right, burying their faces in his chest, brimming with grievance:

"Grandmaster, we thought we would never see you again..."

From infants in swaddling clothes to toddlers learning to walk, from little girls with pigtails to graceful young maidens.

Gu Changyuan had watched the two girls grow up, so they were extremely close to him.

"What silly words are you saying."

His voice was deep and steady, carrying a reassuring power.

"As long as you are in the Jiuxiao Realm, nothing will happen to you."

Gu Changyuan shifted his gaze away from them, landing on Xiang Chenze, who stood a little further away.

"Xiao Chen, you also did very well. Do your wounds still hurt?"

"Grandmaster, I am fine."

His voice was slightly hoarse, but very firm.

He paused, his eyes darkening slightly.

"By the way, Grandmaster, just now when we were fighting these cultivators, I heard them mention the word reward.

So I think these people are not the masterminds; there is someone else behind them."

Hearing Xiang Chenze's words, Gu Changyuan's gaze sharpened.

Seeing the change in his Grandmaster's eyes, a chill that dropped the surrounding temperature by several degrees, Xiang Chenze added.

"During these seven days of experiential learning, we basically had no conflicts with other factions. The only clash was three days ago in Qingmu City.

A group of cultivators blocked our way. They took a fancy to Xiao Ling and Xiao Ning and said some unpleasant things.

We refused, and they tried to use force, so we killed them all."

Although Xiang Chenze's cultivation was lower than that of the Zhuge sisters, he was born before them, so he was considered their older brother.

Gu Changyuan had taught them in the past that when they went out to gain experience in the future, if they encountered attacks from other cultivators, they should just kill them directly without worrying about bringing any trouble to the Holy Land.

To cut weeds, one must remove the roots; to kill, one must silence the witnesses. Being soft-hearted is merely being cruel to oneself.

The three of them had always remembered this and acted accordingly. When facing that group of cultivators and realizing the other party harbored absolute killing intent, they had not hesitated to slay them all on the spot, leaving no survivors.

Gu Changyuan nodded slightly, already having a clear idea in his mind. His gaze then returned to the black-clad cultivators who were still twisting and screaming on the ground.

With a single thought, he forcefully extracted the memories of the leading cultivator.

Gu Changyuan's divine sense quickly scanned the scarred cultivator's memories from the past few days and soon found the key information:

The man had accepted a commission from a monk. The monk had given them a massive sum of money, only demanding that they eliminate Xiang Chenze and the other two.

Since the other party was also in the Jiuxiao Realm, Gu Changyuan followed the karmic connection of that monk to continue his investigation. In just a brief moment, he found the mastermind behind the scenes: the Seventh Elder of the Great Lunming Temple in the Western Continent.

The leader of the group that Xiang Chenze and the others had killed previously was his secretly raised illegitimate son.

That young man had been arrogant and domineering since childhood, running amok while relying on the guards his father had given him.

Seeing that Zhuge Xueling and the other two refused to comply and even dared to resist, he had intended to take them by force, only to be slain on the spot by Xiang Chenze's trio.

When the Seventh Elder learned of his son's death, he was consumed by fury, but it was inconvenient for him to act personally.

On the surface, the Great Lunming Temple was a righteous and orthodox sect in the Western Continent. If he, in his capacity as an elder, took action for a personal grudge, word would spread and ruin the temple's reputation.

Therefore, he secretly had his subordinates spend money to hire a group of cultivators, intending to quietly eliminate Xiang Chenze and the girls.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his divine sense and slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze fell upon the distant horizon, the direction where the Great Lunming Temple was located.

"Great Lunming Temple."

"Very well."

The corners of Gu Changyuan's mouth curled up slightly, but it was not a smile.

It was something far more terrifying than anger.

"New debts and old debts, we will settle them all today."

With a wave of his right hand, a flash of spiritual light appeared, instantly summoning Xiang Xuanyin of the Heavenly Demon Pavilion and Xu Mengyao of the Celestial Holy Land to his side.

The moment the two appeared, their gazes immediately fell upon Gu Changyuan, who had summoned them. Then, they saw the black-clad cultivators twisting and screaming on the ground, as well as the three children with disheveled clothes inside the barrier.

Seeing the bloodstains on the clothes of Xiang Chenze and the girls, the two instantly understood the situation.

Xiang Xuanyin's eyes instantly froze, and the black baleful aura around his body surged out uncontrollably outside Gu Changyuan's barrier.

Wherever the baleful aura swept past, those already dying cultivators instantly inhaled it, and their agony escalated once again.

Xiang Chenze saw his father arrive and immediately walked forward briskly.

Two dark green snakes coiled around Xiang Chenze's arms. Their injuries had also been healed by Gu Changyuan, and the scales on their bodies had regained their luster.

Xiang Chenze stood before his father, looking up at him.

"Father."

Xiang Xuanyin's expression softened the moment he looked at his son.

The black baleful aura retracted from around him, and the ferocity and killing intent were replaced by gentleness.

He reached out and rubbed his son's head, his palm resting on the crown of his hair for a moment.

Zhuge Xueling and Zhuge Xuening, sensing their mother's arrival, first looked up at Xu Mengyao, and then looked at their Grandmaster.

Seeing Gu Changyuan nod slightly, they let go of his arms and walked toward Xu Mengyao.

"Mother."

Xu Mengyao looked at her two daughters, her eyes full of heartache. She didn't have the slightest dissatisfaction with the two little girls' behavior.

After all, when they were young, she had been running around everywhere and hadn't spent much time with them.

She also knew that compared to herself, the two girls were much closer to their Master.

After the two disciples had comforted their children and turned their gazes back to their Master, Gu Changyuan finally spoke.

"Great Lunming Temple. Today, your Master will take you to wipe out a temple."