Zheng Xianchan sighed, "They demanded that Chaoming Palace resign from its position among the five major sects and dismiss half of its disciples to find another way out, under the pretext of colluding with demonic cultivators."
Upon hearing this, Ji Mofan became even more puzzled. "Resign from your position? But who benefits from doing so?"
Although Chaoming Palace is not as powerful as Xiaoling Sect, it is still an old sect that has stood for thousands of years after the last war between immortals and demons.
Moreover, due to its extremely unique management style towards its disciples, Chaoming Palace has never, in all these years, formed any irreconcilable feuds with any organization in the name of the sect; at most, it would just be a disciple having a disagreement with someone else.
A relationship like that between Changfeng Valley and Yuncang Sword Sect in the past has never appeared between Chaoming Palace and any other sect.
Even if Chaoming Palace wins first place on the Heavenly Ranking of the Dao Inquiry Conference, it is not a decisive opportunity that would warrant Xiaoling Sect going to great lengths to target them.
It wasn't that Ji Mo Fan Duo trusted the character of Xiao Ling's group, since they weren't familiar with each other. He just felt that Li Jin Chu wouldn't do something so harmful and self-defeating.
His style of doing things is to sell people out and then have them help count the money.
But if it weren't for the Xiaoling Sect, then no one would have benefited from this.
Even if the majority of cultivators want the Xiaoling Sect to dismiss half of its disciples in order to weaken their own strength, it is obvious that the outer disciples who are not outstanding enough will be the first to be dismissed.
Those inner disciples, even true disciples and elders, who have gained more benefits within the sect and have a deeper emotional connection to it, will not leave.
The so-called reduction of strength turned into helping them streamline their personnel, which conveniently eliminated some parasites in the sect who only ate and did not work.
It's only a matter of time before Chaoming Palace tries to revive itself by leveraging its past influence.
Either their goal is simply to stall for time, or Ji Mofan is mistaken; their ambitions lie elsewhere, and they seek to achieve other, deeper objectives beneath the surface-level demands.
Zheng Xianchan saw that Ji Mofan fell silent after hearing what he said, and drank several more cups of his tea. "No matter what benefits it brings to them, it is extremely harmful to us!"
Ji Mofan stroked his chin. "I know, what's important now is Shengxi."
Even the second largest sect in the cultivation world, Chaoming Palace, is under such immense pressure; one can only imagine the distress Sheng Xi must be in.
While listening to Zheng Xianchan's story, he had already tried to send a communication talisman to Sheng Xi, but the talisman did not fly away with the wind after he finished reciting the incantation; instead, it spontaneously combusted in his hand.
The communication symbol could not find a recipient.
Sheng Xi is definitely not dead, otherwise the soul lamp he left in Chaoming Palace would have gone out, and Zheng Xianchan wouldn't be sitting here now, greedily sipping his tea.
He must have run into some secret realm, which is why the communication talisman couldn't be transmitted.
Or, less likely, he was restricted in his movements by someone and confined to a place inaccessible by communication tokens.
Ji Mofan rolled his eyes slightly, "Let's go to Guixu."
*
The water in Guixu Lantern Island still flows quietly, the surroundings are deserted, with only the sound of the water murmuring.
"Senior Brother, are you here to find Sheng Xi's soul lamp?" Zheng Xianchan rolled up his trousers and stepped into the water. "It hasn't been touched in a long time, so it's probably drifted to the far end of the river."
Ji Mofan squinted and scanned the area.
Although each person's name is engraved at the bottom of their soul lamp, it is obviously unrealistic to see them all clearly at this distance.
The good news is that although everyone's soul lamp petals are unique, Shengxi's lamp must have something special that no one else has.
—His flames were tinged with black smoke.
His gaze swept across the water's surface, and he immediately locked onto the small lotus lantern floating in the shadows of the grass and stones.
He gathered spiritual energy beneath his feet, and with a light touch of his toes on the water's surface, tiny ice crystals condensed and dispersed beneath him, using the force to help him reach the lamp.
"Found it!"
Just as Ji Mofan reached out and retrieved the soul lamp from the water, Zheng Xianchan's voice rang out from behind him.
His gaze was subconsciously drawn to it, but what he saw was a young man with his sleeves and trouser legs rolled up high, holding a koi fish, his mouth almost stretched to the back of his head in a grin.
"Finally caught it! I told you there were fish in the Guixu River, but my junior sister didn't believe me!" Zheng Xianchan carried the fish back to shore, watching it frolicking in the grass. "It's so hard to catch, I have to try it to see what it tastes like."
Ji Mofan's lips twitched.
He looked down at the still dripping soul lamp in his hand, the flame inside burning quite vigorously.
“Although you do seem like someone not to be worried about,” he said, reaching out to fiddle with a lotus petal, “you’re not even as important as a fish in the eyes of your fellow disciples.”
Having obtained the Soul Lamp, Ji Mo Fan naturally needed to rely on this small piece of divine soul to perform the communication technique.
Although I had never actually done it before, I definitely learned it by studying it.
Moreover, even if something unexpected happens, it will be Sheng Xi's soul that is damaged.
He brought this on himself.
He couldn't resist his inner demons and fell into demonic cultivation back then, and now he's the one hiding from others and refusing to see them.
Although Zheng Xianchan stayed by his side the whole time, he did not disturb Ji Mofan from drawing the array on the ground.
Because he was holding the fish, ready to grill it.
By the time Ji Mofan finished drawing the formation, the aroma of grilled fish wafted out from Zheng Xianchan's side.
"Senior Brother, what's the rush to find someone?" He poked a piece of charred fish with a twig and handed it to Ji Mofan. "Anyway, several days have passed, a quarter of an hour won't make a difference. But if we eat this grilled fish too late, it won't taste as good."
Before Ji Mofan could even speak, he saw the array he had just drawn begin to glow with a soft blue light on the ground.
The lotus lantern placed in the center of the formation slowly bloomed, fully revealing the flickering flames within.
The flames were drawn upwards and gradually burned into the shape of a human figure.
Sheng Xi, in her translucent blue attire, stood there, looking down at the hand that had "passed through" her stomach.
Zheng Xianchan abruptly pulled her hand back, "Eek!"
Soulfire has no temperature, but the touch of souls intertwining is quite uncomfortable.
"Zheng Xiaomao! Did you secretly grill and eat the fish from Guixu?!" Sheng Xi was stunned for a moment, then turned around and saw the bonfire burning brightly behind Zheng Xianchan. He immediately got angry, drew the Wushen Sword from his waist and slashed down.
Zheng Xianchan ran away yelling, "You have no respect for your elders! Two years ago, when you faked your death, the title of chief disciple was taken from you. Now you don't even have the title of true disciple. You should call me senior brother!"
"Master, you son of a bitch!"
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