What should I say about Chapter 26, the trial?
A familiar voice sounded above him. Fu Yunshu blinked and quietly withdrew his hand that was about to take out his sword.
The fan, shaped like a crescent moon, drew a graceful arc in the air, emitting a faint silver light, and was caught by a hand as clear as white jade. Ye Xiuzhu descended gracefully from the sky.
Ye Xiuzhu flashed forward, blocking Fu Yunshu and Qiu Nan. With a gentle wave of his fan, a sharp wind blade slashed towards Pan Hongru's ferocious beast phantom.
"Such a lively scene, of course I'm indispensable, don't you think, Elder Pan?" He looked at Pan Hongru with a half-smile, but his tone was full of coldness.
"And me too."
Wen Xun slowly emerged from the shadows. He glanced at Ye Xiuzhu and said disdainfully, "Your fan is getting more and more fancy."
Ye Xiuzhu was speechless: "Mind your own business."
The two of them, singing in harmony and appearing relaxed and carefree, deeply stimulated Pan Hongru.
He was initially a little scared when he saw that Wen Xun and Ye Xiuzhu had broken the formation and arrived so quickly, but now he was only annoyed.
"So what if you're the Peak Master? You two juniors dare to stop me?" Pan Hongru sneered, his hands quickly forming hand seals. Black spiritual energy condensed again, transforming into a giant black snake that lunged at Ye Xiuzhu and Wen Xun.
Ye Xiuzhu laughed heartily, waved his fan again, and the wind blade collided with Pan Hongru's ferocious beast phantom. The spiritual energy collided, and the surrounding area rippled.
Pan Hongru's expression changed slightly, clearly not expecting Ye Xiuzhu to be so powerful. He gritted his teeth, chanted an incantation, and a huge black snake appeared out of thin air, merging with the phantom of the ferocious beast.
Wen Xun's eyes narrowed, and with a slight tremor of his longsword, the eerie blue light on its blade intensified instantly. He flashed, becoming a blur, and directly confronted the black snake.
The sword flashed like lightning, instantly leaving several deep wounds on the black snake. His left hand was not idle either, occasionally throwing talismans at the black snake during the fight.
Fu Yunshu glanced at it. The black snake was Pan Hongru's contracted spirit beast. Judging from the aura of that ferocious beast phantom, it was probably chaotic. He wondered where this guy got the secret technique to attach this chaotic phantom to his black snake.
However, Fu Yunshu was not worried about Ye Xiuzhu and Wen Xun, as they were capable of handling the situation.
He turned around to check on Yin Lisheng, and his eyes met Yin Lisheng's just-opened gaze.
"Awake?" Fu Yunshu half-squatted down to take Yin Lisheng's pulse.
“Hmm,” Yin Lisheng stood up, “What’s going on now?”
“The peak masters of Fu Peak and Qi Peak have arrived,” Fu Yunshu gestured for him to look at the group of people who were engaged in a fierce battle.
Pan Hongru was gradually losing ground. Despite the support of the Chaotic Illusion, he was still being pushed back by Ye Xiuzhu and Wen Xun's attacks.
"Elder Pan, your black snake isn't very good," Wen Xun chuckled, his tone tinged with sarcasm.
Pan Hongru's face grew even more grim; he hadn't expected these two to be so powerful. He formed hand seals again, and black spiritual energy condensed around him, transforming into countless tiny black arrows that shot towards Ye Xiuzhu and Wen Xun.
Seeing this, Ye Xiuzhu abruptly closed his fan, then opened it again, revealing a complex array of runes on its surface. With a gentle wave, the runes on the fan instantly lit up, transforming into a massive barrier that blocked all the black arrows.
"Ye Xiuzhu, stop playing around. Let's finish this quickly. Although Senior Brother Gu is stabilizing the secret realm outside, the secret realm will become unstable if we continue fighting," Wen Xun said in a low voice, his tone serious.
Ye Xiuzhu nodded, and with a sudden flick of his fan, the eerie blue light on the fan instantly transformed into a giant fan shadow, slashing towards Pan Hongru.
Seeing this, Pan Hongru quickly activated his spiritual power, and black spiritual power condensed into a thick barrier in front of him, attempting to block Wen Xun's attack.
However, Wen Xun's sword shadow pierced through Pan Hongru's barrier as easily as cutting tofu, heading straight for his chest.
Pan Hongru's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly retreated, but the speed of the sword shadow was too fast, and he could not completely avoid it.
"puff--"
The sword pierced through Pan Hongru's shoulder, and blood gushed out instantly. Pan Hongru groaned, staggered back a few steps, and his face turned deathly pale.
“You…you!” Pan Hongru said through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with anger and resentment.
As long as the green hills remain, there's no fear of running out of firewood. Anyway, this body belongs to his useless nephew, so it doesn't matter if we abandon it.
Just as Pan Hongru was preparing to slip away unnoticed, Wen Xun keenly sensed his unusual behavior.
"Hmph," Wen Xun sneered, "Activate the formation!"
Suddenly, a brilliant golden light shone forth. Pan Hongru's pupils shrank, and just as he was about to forcefully break free, his soul was pulled out of Pan Tianlei's body by an invisible hand and put into a small bottle by Ye Xiuzhu.
"Elder Pan, you're already at your limit, why struggle any longer?" Ye Xiuzhu shook the bottle, not wanting to miss out on the trouble.
“Long before you even realized it, Wen Xun had already set up the formation. With your vital energy severely depleted, you are naturally no match for the two of us.”
A series of loud knocking sounds came from the small bottle. Ye Xiuzhu immediately put the bottle away, preferring to avoid seeing it.
After dealing with Pan Hongru, Wen Xun turned his gaze to Fu Yunshu. He was unsure of his grandmaster's intentions and didn't know what to do now.
Fu Yunshu understood his concerns and stepped forward, saying, "Peak Master Wen, the three of us just accidentally fell into this cave. Pan Hongru is probably here for the redwood box in the center. Please investigate this matter thoroughly."
“Of course,” Wen Xun said helplessly. His grandmaster hadn’t had enough fun yet.
The new disciples are still undergoing assessments. In any case, the biggest problem, Pan Hongru, has been resolved, and everything else can be postponed. Ye Xiuzhu and Wen Xun did not linger and rushed to the main peak with their people.
Inside the main hall, the atmosphere was so heavy it was almost suffocating.
Song Wenzhu sat upright in his high seat, his gaze sharp as a knife.
Pan Hongru's soul was sealed in a specially made jade bottle by Ye Xiuzhu. At this moment, the bottle was trembling slightly, indicating that he still had not given up struggling.
Ye Xiuzhu stepped forward, placed the jade bottle on the table in front of Song Wenzhuo, and gently tapped the bottle. Pan Hongru's soul was forced out, turning into a phantom and kneeling on the ground.
“Pan Hongru,” Song Wenzhuo’s voice was as cold as ice, “do you know your crime?”
Pan Hongru's soul trembled slightly. He raised his head, a hint of resentment flashing in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
Song Wenzhu sneered, raised his hand and waved it. A stream of spiritual energy condensed in the air into a water mirror. The water mirror showed Pan Hongru's various deeds over the years - accepting bribes, abusing his power, deceiving his superiors and subordinates, and tampering with the entrance examination on multiple occasions.
"Do you recognize these?" Song Wenzhuo's voice was as cold as ice.
"Since you've already found the evidence, why do you insist on making me admit it!" Pan Hongru gritted his teeth.
Song Wenzhuo was too lazy to answer; after all, he was just going through the motions.
"I'm very curious. You've done so many dirty things in Qingyuan Sect, and you've been so careful with each one that no one has discovered them all these years. So why are you now risking everything to sneak into the secret realm using your nephew's body?" Song Wenzhu stared straight at Pan Hongru.
Pan Hongru's face turned pale instantly. He knew he could no longer deny it, but he was still unwilling to give up. He gritted his teeth and said, "It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing."
"Still being stubborn!" Song Wenzhu sneered. "You went there for that mahogany box, didn't you? What do you actually know about that mahogany box?"
Just as Pan Hongru was about to make a rebuttal, he heard Wen Xun speak calmly from the side: "I recently learned a new spell from an ancient book."
Ning Xuexi was very supportive: "Tell me about it?"
Wen Xun drawled, “The Soul-Devouring Curse erodes the soul of the person afflicted, like being gnawed by insects, causing them to suffer continuous, intense pain, until their soul gradually weakens and dissipates.”
He smiled very kindly: "I haven't shown it yet, Elder Pan, would you like to try it out?"
Pan Hongru: "..."
He had lived a life of luxury in Qingyuan Sect all these years, with people fawning over him, but his soul could not bear this suffering.
“I said,” Pan Hongru closed his eyes, “I stole the Chaos Phantom from the secret pavilion of Beast Taming Peak. Du Zhun is not here, and Elder Chen and I are in charge of Beast Taming Peak, so it is easy to steal the scroll of the Chaos Phantom.”
"As for that box, I happened to find a notebook while searching for the Chaos Phantom. Due to its age, much of the content is blurry, but it records that there is a demonic treasure in the secret realm of the entrance examination, which was sealed there by True Person Chi Du back then."
As if realizing there was no way to turn the tide, he blurted out everything in despair: "I've been vaguely sensing lately that my secret might have been discovered, so I thought of taking that demonic treasure and surrendering to the demon prince Yan Nanqiu."
"Yan Nanqiu is ambitious, bloodthirsty and cruel. He has been eyeing the cultivation world for years. I don't think he would refuse such a windfall."
After explaining everything, Pan Hongru seemed to deflate, his spirit gradually fading. However, he still seemed to harbor a sliver of hope, looking at Song Wenzhuo with expectation.
"Sect Master, I... I was just confused for a moment. Please give me another chance, considering how hard I've worked for Qingyuan all these years, even if I haven't achieved anything great!"
"A moment of confusion?" Song Wenzhuo's voice suddenly rose, tinged with anger. "Leaving aside your bribery, today, as an elder of the Qingyuan Sect, you actually attempted to collude with the demons to steal the secret treasure. Is that what you call a moment of confusion?"
Pan Hongru trembled even more violently. He knew he could no longer argue, so he decided to throw caution to the wind and sneered, "Song Wenzhuo, what kind of good person do you think you are? The Qingyuan Sect has long been rotten to the core in your hands! I just saw through your true colors and wanted to find a way to survive!"
Song Wenzhuo ignored his impotent rage, turned around, closed his eyes, and said wearily, "Elder Pan Hongru of Beast Taming Peak colluded with the demons and accepted bribes. His crimes are unforgivable. His soul will be sent to the Cliff of Repentance to suffer eternal lightning punishment."
"Aaaaaah, Song Wenzhuo, you'll die a horrible death! You'll die a horrible death..."
Pan Hongru's shrill scream disappeared into the air, and Ye Xiuzhu calmly put away the jade bottle.
The hall was completely silent; everyone held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
Song Wenzhuo slowly sat back down, his gaze sweeping over each elder present, and said coldly, "What are your thoughts on Pan Hongru's matter, elders?"
The elders exchanged glances, none daring to speak first. Pan Hongru's crimes were obvious. Although he had been executed, the matter had far-reaching implications. He wasn't the only one in the water mirror earlier. They wondered how Song Wenzhuo would deal with those connected to Pan Hongru.
Just as everyone was filled with trepidation, Song Wenzhuo spoke up: "All..."
"Sect Master!" Ye Xiuzhu suddenly interrupted him, "The secret realm has collapsed."
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