As he was deep in thought, the trace of spiritual sense he had left beside Huo Lan stirred. Immediately afterward, Huo Lan turned and hurriedly descended from Qingxiao Peak.
Wu Youqi raised an eyebrow. Calmly, he tucked the letter from Xi Laiyi into his robes, tidied the letter box, and returned it to its original place before walking to the window. He concentrated, using his spiritual sense to see and hear.
He did not know what Huo Lan had encountered, so it was not appropriate to follow him rashly.
Huo Lan landed below Qingxiao Peak. Behind the Diyue Gate, an outer sect steward was already waiting with a lantern.
“Sect Master,” the steward stepped forward and lowered his voice, “Visitors from Lichiwuhen and Qianfeng Sect have arrived. What do you think… would you like to see them?”
Hearing the names of these two sects, Huo Lan closed his eyes and sighed deeply, “It is… Pavilion Master Hua and Elder Hu, I presume?”
“You knew?” The outer sect steward bowed, stepping aside to let Huo Lan pass, the lantern illuminating the bluestone slab beneath Huo Lan’s feet. “I did not give them a definitive answer; I only said it was late and I was unsure if you had retired. I led them to the Guest Hall to wait for a while and have already served them good tea.”
Huo Lan nodded approvingly and gestured for the steward to lead the way.
It was all predestined; there was no escaping it.
The Guest Hall was located beneath a corridor south of the Taiji Plaza, facing the training field across a lotus pond.
When they arrived, hearing footsteps, both guests simultaneously lifted their teacups and looked up. Pavilion Master Hua of Lichiwuhen was the first to replace the lid on her teacup and speak:
“Sect Master Huo, please forgive the rudeness of such a late visit, but you must have heard about today’s events regarding the Demon Realm.”
Huo Lan nodded. Before he could speak, the Elder from Qianfeng Sect, whose surname was Hu, slammed his teacup onto the table with calculated force, preempting him:
“To be aware of such filth… Sect Master Huo, I trust you have not been able to sleep soundly, have you?”
Cold sweat broke out on Huo Lan’s back. He sat down in the hall before forcing a wry smile, “Are the two of you… interrogating me?”
This time, Pavilion Master Hua remained silent. It was Elder Hu who folded his arms into his sleeves and said, “The person is, after all, from your mountain, Sect Master Huo. We had no choice but to come to you. All those years ago, how much did the Immortal Venerable Qingyi do for that devil? Yet now, are you just going to ignore it?”
“…” Huo Lan wore a pained expression. He wished he could intervene.
But after Wu Youqi fell into the demonic path, he reached the Mahayana stage, and he possessed the divine weapon Kulou Yin Gu. With such strength, it was likely that throughout the entire cultivation world, no one was his match.
Standing on the mountaintop, Wu Youqi sneered to himself upon hearing this:
How much did Shizun do for him? Why was he unaware of it?
Once, he had thought the same: he believed his teacher treated him with sincerity and that his teacher simply lacked the ability to express it, still holding him, his disciple, in his heart.
But the reality was the heartless palm strike delivered from the peak of Qingxiao.
His teacher’s heart had always been occupied only by the Great Dao and the common people:
For the stability of the cultivation world, he could slay his master, Kongdi Jiuyin; likewise, to protect the commoners, he could ruthlessly kill his own “Demon Star” disciple.
He could even sacrifice his own life.
His teacher was righteous, disciplined, and had a clear conscience, but what about him? What about the five years they spent together on Qingxiao Peak, accompanying one another?
Were they all just… insignificant things?
Wu Youqi closed his eyes, pressing a hand against his heaving chest. When he focused his senses again, the three people in the Guest Hall were silent, neither speaking for a long time.
Finding it meaningless, he closed the window and prepared to leave. However, as he crossed the water curtain to reach the edge of the cliff, he took a misstep due to his turbulent emotions—
A brilliant blue-gold spiritual light erupted. The triggered barrier released a powerful pressure, and thousands of sword shadows appeared in the sky above the bluestone.
At the same time, the warning bells in Qingshuang Mountain rang out, and spiritual light shone from the peaks of the other four mountains. The mountain range, which had just been pitch black, was now lit up with lights one after another.
Wu Youqi realized something was wrong. He immediately withdrew his spiritual sense and retreated rapidly, dodging the attacks from the sealed barrier.
However, he was delayed for just that brief moment, and Huo Lan and the other four Peak Masters arrived one after another, followed closely by the two from Lichiwuhen and Qianfeng Sect.
“Devil?! You still have the nerve to come back?!”
“Wu Youqi?! What… what are you doing here?!”
Lanterns, torches, and the shimmering spiritual light of the mountain-sealing array instantly illuminated the entire Qingxiao Peak.
Standing at the front of the crowd was the Master of Qingqi Peak, who was nearest to this peak and served as the mountain’s Enforcement Elder. He now held his sword, glaring at Wu Youqi, “Devil, don’t you dare touch this seal!”
Wu Youqi raised an eyebrow. Just as he was about to speak, a sharp sword force swept directly at his back. He leaped aside to dodge it, and looking back, he saw it was Shen Yu again.
“Devil, pay with your life!”
Shen Yu had come in haste, dressed only in his undergarments without even an outer robe. His black hair was half-loose, and his expression was ferocious.
Wu Youqi could not be bothered to draw his sword. He flicked a finger, releasing a wave of demonic energy that forced Shen Yu to the ground. The surging sword energy swept across the peak, flattening a grove of green bamboo.
Watching the bamboo leaves and stalks falling everywhere, Huo Lan felt a lingering fear and stepped forward, shouting urgently: “Shen Yu, stand down!”
The Enforcement Elder stepped forward, siding with Shen Yu, “I shall assist you, Nephew Shen! This devil is arrogant and actually came alone to break the array. Today, we shall ensure he never leaves!”
With the Elder’s assistance, Shen Yu hesitated for a moment, bowed to Huo Lan in apology, changed his stance, and attacked again in coordination with the Qingqi Peak Elder.
The two coordinated perfectly, their sword techniques weaving into a dense net. The Enforcement Elder even unleashed the mountain’s secret scripture—determined to take Wu Youqi down in one stroke.
Seeing this, the other three Peak Masters joined in, all drawing their respective soul-bound swords, “Take this, devil!”
Huo Lan stepped forward to intervene, but Pavilion Master Hua and Elder Hu from behind him also joined the fray, launching themselves forward.
“…” Although he wanted to stop them, the current situation left him no choice but to stand by. Reluctantly, he drew the Qingshuang Sword from his consciousness.
Anyone capable of climbing Qingxiao Peak possessed at least Golden Core cultivation. With eight people attacking simultaneously, the spiritual light, laden with immense pressure, was impenetrable, almost cocooning the black figure at the cliff’s edge.
Wu Youqi looked up at the overlapping net, but he did not move an inch. The corners of his lips lifted, and he let out a cold laugh.
It is the same again.
Without asking the reason or seeking the truth, simply because he was a “devil,” anyone could rush up to scream for his blood, and their behavior would always be considered righteous.
He was tired of explaining, so he decided to act directly.
Mobilizing his demonic energy to protect his body, the black mist suddenly burst forth, forming a massive circular shield above his head. The impact of the spiritual energy against it produced a deafening thud.
The sword-shaped projections condensed from spiritual energy were shattered by the demonic aura and fell to the ground. Wu Youqi stepped on his toes, releasing his full demonic power—
The net, which had appeared impenetrable just moments ago, was instantly pierced by the dispersing demonic energy, and the cultivators who had floated into the air were all blasted away.
Shen Yu bore the brunt of the impact, coughing up a mouthful of blood as he fell to the ground in a sorry state. The other four Peak Masters were also unable to hold their ground, suffering internal injuries, having to lean on their swords or sit cross-legged to regulate their breathing.
Huo Lan was the highest-cultivated among them, but even he felt his spiritual core churn, unable to hold his sword steady, and staggered back several steps before stabilizing his figure.
Wu Youqi looked at the people strewn across the ground, especially Shen Yu, who was closest to him. He sneered, his eyes filled with contempt:
Striking a stone with an egg, overestimating your own abilities.
Seeing his expression, Huo Lan’s heart rose to his throat, fearing that in a fit of rage, he would go on a killing spree and destroy the seal of the An Yuan.
“Wu Youqi,” Huo Lan stepped forward, his sword held horizontally, “If you still cherish your former teacher’s kindness, please leave. Do not do this on his Qingxiao Peak.”
Wu Youqi scoffed, “What? Is the Sect Master trying to drive me away again?”
Back then, he had been removed from the genealogy by Huo Lan, not expelled from the sect, so he remained his teacher’s disciple, even if he no longer belonged to Qingshuang Mountain.
In front of so many people—insiders, outsiders, and Shen Yu—Huo Lan truly found it difficult to say anything. After much thought, he could only speak with difficulty:
“This seal was something your teacher exchanged his life for to protect this world. If you have any conscience left, you should not come here to destroy or damage it…”
“Sect Master Huo, why are you still wasting breath on this evil entity?!” Elder Hu of the Qianfeng Sect did not understand his intentions and, having regulated his breathing, stood up again. “If he had a conscience, he would not have betrayed Immortal Venerable Qingyi to kill and fall into the demonic path all those years ago!”
“That’s right…” a few inner sect disciples chimed in softly, “The Immortal Venerable was such a good teacher, it’s just that he didn’t know how to cherish it.”
Wu Youqi had no intention of arguing, but upon hearing these words, he could not help but mockingly retort: “That cruel teacher of his? The one who, when you needed him most, struck you down a cliff with a single palm?”
Pavilion Master Hua also stood up, shaking her head with an expression of regret, “Wu Youqi, you are too narrow-minded. It is a pity that your teacher had the Great Dao of all living beings in his heart; how could he have raised a petty person like you?”
Narrow-minded? A petty person?
In the three years since he had fallen into the demonic path, the righteous path had called him every insulting term imaginable; these ones sounded fresh.
“Yes, I am narrow-minded. He didn’t care about my life for the sake of his world and common people, but what about you?”
A faint blood-red hue spread in Wu Youqi’s eyes. “What about you lot who stood by and watched, and who pride yourselves on being the righteous path?”
“Dealing with the An Yong was clearly the responsibility of the entire cultivation world, but at the critical moment, why did you let him bear it alone? Where were you then?”
The Kulou Yin Gu in his spiritual core sensed Wu Youqi’s killing intent and flew out without being summoned, hovering beside him with a faint red glow:
“You claim to care about the common people, so why didn’t you stop the An Yuan with him when it manifested? Why did you put him on a pedestal and let him self-destruct his spiritual core alone? If you had shared the burden together…”
Wu Youqi gripped the hilt of the Kulou Yin Gu, “Perhaps he wouldn’t have had to self-destruct his core. Perhaps even now, he could be the one handling me, his ‘rebellious disciple,’ for you.”
Pavilion Master Hua was left speechless by his series of questions and sarcasm, and even Elder Hu from the Qianfeng Sect was fuming, his face flushed red.
“Furthermore” Wu Youqi’s tone shifted, “You call yourselves gentlemen and point at me as a ‘Demon Star,’ attributing the outbreak of the An Yong and An Yuan to me alone without any evidence. With a single word, ‘devil,’ you want to exclude dissidents and label everyone the same. In the year the An Yong appeared, how many thousands of children were born on the cultivation continent!”
Several Qingshuang Mountain disciples’ faces changed, their eyes darting away; they had indeed been jealous of the extraordinarily talented Wu Youqi.
Just as everyone fell silent, Shen Yu finally managed to stand up. His expression was calm as he pointed his sword at him once more:
“But you killed my dao companion; that is an indisputable fact.”
Wu Youqi had repeated this matter too many times in the prison, and through Shen Yu’s repeated assassination attempts over the past three years.
Shen Yu did not believe him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Looking at his former senior brother, Wu Youqi let out a long sigh.
“Moreover, you should not keep captives for your pleasure and humiliate your former teacher,” Pavilion Master Hua said, clutching her zither and taking two steps forward. “Even if your teacher had a thousand faults, he was still your teacher. A teacher for a day is a father for life; you…”
Humiliate?
Wu Youqi was somewhat stunned, but looking at the furious expressions of the crowd, he suddenly understood everything in a flash.
Shen Yu had seen Gu Qingyi, and naturally, people like those from Lichiwuhen and the Qianfeng Sect now knew as well.
They assumed he had found a substitute to torment and vent his anger, and that he wanted to trample the dignity of the righteous path underfoot to prove the greatness of the demon race.
But…
Looking at Shen Yu, who was pointing a sword at him, and then at this group of people who were no different from how they were three years ago, he finally could not help but laugh out loud:
“You say that I am going to humiliate him?”
His eyes were stained with blood, and an infinite malice grew in his heart. “Since you all are so concerned about my former teacher… then, I shall do as you wish!”
Wu Youqi used one hand to calculate on his fingers, while the other gripped the Kulou Yin Gu and slashed diagonally. After a wave of black energy forced the crowd back, he successfully broke out of the encirclement.
Flying and hovering above Qingxiao Peak, Wu Youqi curled his lips into a smile:
“Next month on the seventh day is an incredibly auspicious day. I will be marrying the one you speak of as my dao companion. At that time, you are all welcome to come to the Demon Realm to offer your congratulations.”