Chapter 98

What happened that day was ultimately kept secret. When Li Hao brought the weeping Liu Ruxin back home, many people were already waiting for them.

Fortunately, the two were safe and sound, otherwise the entire sect would be in chaos.

After this incident, the headmaster asked her how she had done it. Although he didn't quite understand how Li Hao had managed to save Liu Ruxin from the clutches of three Tongqiao-stage cultivators, he ultimately recognized her strength.

This matter lasted for a full six months, during which time the Huaqing Sect and the Demonic Sect had several conflicts.

Perhaps because he was becoming more and more impatient, the demons were acting more recklessly.

There are five Divine Transformation Masters in the current world of cultivation. One of them is the Demon King of the Demon Clan, who remains neutral in the conflict between the two sides.

Of the four, two each belonged to the righteous and demonic paths. However, Wen Xu, of the demonic path, was the youngest and had the greatest hope of reaching the Immortal Realm. The demonic path's other Divine Transformation Venerable was relatively weak, having been severely injured by the then-powerful leader and having never fully recovered.

But the situation on the righteous side is not much better. The Venerable Huashen from Buddhism is the oldest among the five Huashen cultivators. In two or three hundred years at most, this Venerable Huashen from Buddhism will pass away.

As the leader of the righteous path, the Flowing Cloud Sword God possessed immense strength. Back when Wen Xu had advanced to the Spiritualization Stage, he and another Spiritualization Master from the Demonic Path conspired to ambush the Flowing Cloud Sword God.

That battle was the battle of the century.

During the battle, the leader fought alone against two demonic masters and withstood the ambush of two demonic masters.

Even so, he had severely injured the Divine Transformation Master, who was still in seclusion. Although the Sect Leader was also injured, it was much easier than the Divine Transformation Master from the Demonic Path.

This is also the reason why Wen Xu of the Demonic Path does not dare to act recklessly.

However, they successfully tricked the master during Li Hao's apprenticeship ceremony, forcing the master to retreat into seclusion.

But this wasn't a long-term solution. The previous competition had already proven this. The righteous Ziweixing possessed immense potential; becoming a Divine Transformation Supreme was only a matter of time. Once the righteous path's third Divine Transformation Supreme rose to prominence, their demonic empire would be doomed.

There was no way to attack Li Hao directly. So, while the Huaqing Sect's leader was afraid to act, he could improve his own strength. Once Wen Xu reached the Immortal Ascension stage, their demonic sect would completely control the world of cultivation.

Wen Xu's cultivation method requires the sacrifice of countless lives for each advancement. The demonic sect has manipulated several mortal powers to cause war. If a war involving millions of people breaks out, Wen Xu will be able to reach the immortal stage.

In the land of Yongchang, this is an area close to the border. After passing a mountain range, there is a plain, and this plain is about to become the site of a war between several countries.

There once existed a small town here, where everyone lived a life of plenty. Despite concerns about taxes, the villagers, thanks to their natural location near mountains and water, could survive, if not become wealthy.

However, the world has been in turmoil for a hundred years, with strange events happening frequently everywhere. People in the evil way took the opportunity to cause chaos, and mortals in a village, a town, or even a city were often sacrificed.

The practice of the devil's way is accompanied by blood and death, but because the practice of the devil's way is simpler than the practice of the righteous way, even if the righteous way has repeatedly cleared out the devil's way, it still cannot completely drive out the devil's way. As long as the cultivators still have greed, there will be people in the devil's way.

Since they have no way to attack fellow righteous monks, they will attack defenseless mortals.

Major sects like the Huaqing Sect have disciples stationed in the several major countries under their protection to protect the peace. Inner disciples go out on missions every year, and if any demonic elements cause trouble, they must be eliminated immediately.

All cultivators in the Huaqing Sect who are at the stage of sensing the spirit must come out to eliminate demons and defend the way.

Typically, cultivators at the Sensing God stage are considered inner disciples. While the treatment of inner disciples is good, it's also very dangerous, as there are always accidents during annual missions. However, they all came from the mortal stage. It's not like Li Hao had imagined that they should completely sever their worldly ties.

A group of people dressed in dark blue descended from the sky and entered a cave. It was a massive cave. The entrance alone was a full five meters wide, and once inside, there was a whole other world.

The area was quite large. Many people could be seen setting up tents or simply resting on blankets spread out on the ground. The person in dark blue clothes walked to the center first.

As he took out various supplies from his space ring, an old man next to him quickly asked everyone to line up.

"Thank you, Immortal." The old man, who was obviously the village chief, hurriedly bowed and thanked the man.

"It may take more than half a month before you can return. Everyone, please stay here for the first half of the month," the monk said. "If you still need more supplies, please report it to me."

"That's enough, that's enough, thank you, Immortal." The village chief said hurriedly.

A few days ago, this immortal came to their village and told them to hide. He said there might be a war between monks in the next few days, and it might affect them.

The immortal produced a certificate issued by the imperial court. The village chief immediately believed it. Fortunately, their village had always had a designated refuge. The immortal led them there, and they migrated directly there.

A few days later, this immortal brought other immortals with him. They clearly had something important to discuss. However, this immortal didn't forget about them and even brought them a lot of food.

After settling these mortals, the monk walked into a tent where other monks were.

"They are already ready to make a move. I suspect the day of war is just around the corner," said one of the female cultivators.

"We can't get close to the battlefield right now. There's a special formation there that we can't break, and even information can't get in. War is inevitable," said the oldest cultivator. He rubbed his head and said, "Yunyang, have you notified the Huaqing Sect yet?"

"They said they'll be here soon," Yunyang replied.

"I can only hope that this matter is not as serious as I imagined." The old monk was very distressed.

"I didn't expect the demonic cultivators to have planned such a big thing this time. At first, I didn't realize this battle was the work of the demonic cultivators," the female cultivator said angrily. She was originally the person in charge of the stationed area, but she hadn't realized that someone was actually behind the war between the several countries.

It was his junior apprentice. After investigating a small matter, he discovered that something was amiss.

Originally, the countries were all at peace. However, the princess who was sent to the third country died on the way to the marriage.

This incident was of a different nature, implicating three countries at once. After much investigation, each party received different information. The country that the princess was married to received information that the country that passed through was behind the operation, aiming to disrupt trade between the two countries.

However, further investigation revealed that the country that was originally planning to form an alliance with the emperor had done so deliberately in order to facilitate the struggle between the two countries.

After much investigation, it was discovered that all three countries had their own explanations. Originally, at this point, it wasn't enough to directly launch a war.

After that, there were many strange deaths. First, the investigating official was assassinated, and then the implicated people committed suicide and wrote letters of apology.

In short, this chain reaction of events lasted for two years and eventually turned the three countries into mortal enemies.

Why didn't the monks discover it? It was because they were using only mortal means. No magic or anything like that. Therefore, the righteous monks stationed there didn't notice anything was amiss and were instead taken advantage of. Several times when they helped the mortal court investigate, the clues they found were all deliberately planted by the other party.

It was during the investigation of a mortal who had requested his help that the cultivator Yunyang discovered a clue that something was amiss. The mortal's wife, once a peaceful peasant woman, occasionally selling vegetables at the market, had suddenly disappeared. When Yunyang went looking for her, he discovered that she had reappeared at the princess's side, becoming her maidservant and accompanying her on the journey to the marriage alliance.

The mortal's original words were that this was absolutely impossible. How could his wife become the princess's maid? He never even saw his wife afterwards. He searched hard, but in the end, he only found out that the princess had died and his wife was missing.

He found this monk Yunyang, who was originally investigating a common evil ghost invasion. After hearing the mortal's request, he felt sorry for the other party and went to investigate.

As a result, when the body of this mortal wife was found, traces of magic were discovered on this peasant woman.

These demons were also very cautious and knew they couldn't attack the princess directly, so they turned to the next best thing and used magic to manipulate an ordinary mortal at will.

After investigating this, Yunyang vaguely realized that something was wrong. He followed up the matter and found a clue.

But by then it was already a bit too late. The war between the countries could no longer be stopped.

Later on, even if they found the monarchs of the three countries and explained the truth of the matter, it would be difficult to reverse their decision. After all, when they had previously sent these monks to investigate, they had all claimed that they had not found any trace of the demonic path.

And if our troops retreat, wouldn't other countries take advantage of the situation and move in? In short, trust has been destroyed, and hatred has been sown. Many of the things that have fermented since then have become difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

As a last resort, all they can do now is to hand this matter over to the more capable Huaqing Sect.

"Who is the person coming from Huaqing Middle School this time?" asked the old monk.

"It is said that he is the direct disciple of Liuyun Sword God." Yunyang replied.

"Could it be that Ziweixing?" The female cultivator couldn't help but say. As for this Ziweixing, everyone in the entire cultivation world knew about him.

"It shouldn't happen. It's too chaotic here, and Ziweixing hasn't grown up yet. It probably won't leave the sect easily." said the old monk.

It was exactly as they said. A group of six people came from Huaqing, two of whom were the direct disciples of Liuyun Sword God.

Among them, Liuyun Sword God's eldest disciple has already reached the middle stage of the Breakthrough Realm, and his second disciple is also a master in the late stage of the Opening Acupoint Realm.

The two were also dazzling talents within the Huaqing Sect, and the arrival of two direct disciples this time showed that the Huaqing Sect attached great importance to this matter.

Among the six people in the group, there are three in the Tongqiao stage, two high-level cultivators in the Pojie stage, and there is also a cultivator in the Ganshen stage.

This lineup was already stronger than everyone else in their sect combined, and their leader was only a cultivator at the Breakthrough Stage. It had to be said that they were worthy of being the number one sect.

But why would a cultivator at the Divine Sense Stage be invited to undertake such a dangerous operation?