Your Excellency
When she woke up again, she was in a dark dungeon. Wen Zheng and Mu Qing were locked up together, both of them with shackles on their hands and feet.
Wen Zheng sat up and nudged Mu Qing beside her: "Wake up."
He probably didn't drink the medicine, right?
Mu Qing opened his eyes and sat up. He condensed his spiritual energy into a sword and easily cut through the shackles. He also helped Wen Zheng cut through them as well.
"I'll go out and scout the situation first. You wait here for me to come back." Mu Qing casually tossed down a paper figure, which transformed into his likeness after landing, though his expression was somewhat blank.
"Okay, be careful." Wen Zheng moved her wrist, revealing a red mark that looked quite conspicuous.
She sat close to the wall and secretly drew talismans with her Qingling Brocade Brush.
Wen Zheng had a premonition that a fierce battle was about to unfold.
She focused intently on drawing talismans, using the paper figure "Mu Qing" as a cover, her brush moved swiftly.
After leaving the prison, Mu Qing changed her clothes, dressing herself in black from head to toe, and even changed the weapon she was holding from a sword to a knife. In short, she changed everything.
The dungeon was deserted, without even a guard. The oil lamps on the wall flickered, casting swaying shadows that instilled a sense of unease and fear.
Mu Qing explored the dungeon with extremely light footsteps. There weren't many rooms in the dungeon, only a few, but quite a few people were imprisoned there.
Along the way, he saw the robes of disciples from several sects, and they were not ordinary disciples, but almost all inner disciples.
Every inner disciple of a sect is cultivated with great effort by the sect. If they go missing or die, the sect will definitely try to find out the truth.
There were dozens of inner disciples in the dungeon. Didn't any of the other sects notice anything unusual?
With questions in mind, Mu Qing did not disturb the imprisoned disciples and quickly changed back into her original clothes and returned to her cell.
Upon entering and closing the cell door, the first thing he noticed was the stacks of talismans piled up at Wen Zheng's feet; there seemed to be quite a lot of them.
Mu Qing put away the paper figure and sat down next to Wen Zheng, telling her what she had seen.
"The dungeon holds inner disciples. The damage to the cells is probably not the first time, but no sect has reported any missing disciples."
This was the strangest thing to Mu Qing: a disciple went missing, and the sect concealed it. He couldn't think of any reason why they would do that.
"What if we get stopped?" Wen Zheng asked, her hands still busy as she began to tidy up the talismans on the ground.
"Probably not." Mu Qing shook her head.
The Immortal Alliance is generally fair and has never shown favoritism, so they shouldn't have interfered with this matter.
Wen Zheng smiled and remained silent when Mu Qing disagreed with her statement.
If the person she stopped was the one she suspected, then it's possible.
"Should we rescue them?" Wen Zheng changed the subject. The trouble these disciples would bring after being rescued would probably give the immortal sects a headache for a while.
"Save them," Mu Qing said decisively. He also wanted to see what was going on.
“Okay, but we can try a different approach to save her.” Wen Zheng said, then looked at Mu Qing.
There are many disciples who have been imprisoned. If they are rescued, it will be difficult for them to return to the sect smoothly. It would be better to let others find out about this and coordinate an attack from the inside.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Mu Qing said. The things that the Longevity Sect was doing needed to be known by others, and the best way was to expose this matter to the Immortal Sect.
The two sat down together and began to discuss the entire plan.
On the other side, Xu Ximing, having resolved the major hidden danger of Mu Qing, was in a good mood, leisurely drinking tea and fantasizing about what kind of reward he would receive after this batch of "goods" was delivered to the Venerable One.
Shi Xin had performed a great service this time, bringing him to meet the Emperor and offering a few words of advice, allowing him to fill Li Ruyue's position.
After losing Li Ruyue, he had to act cautiously, fearing that any mishandling would give others leverage and cause trouble for the Venerable One.
However, Shi Xin is too scheming and cannot be completely trusted. It is still necessary to cultivate a loyal subordinate, preferably someone like Li Ruyue, who is obedient and without ulterior motives.
"Sect Leader," Shi Xin approached Xu Ximing with a happy expression, "when shall we go to see His Excellency?"
He couldn't wait to be blessed by the Venerable One and become even stronger than Li Ruyue. Then, the first person he would deal with would be Xu Ximing, and he would finally be able to sit on the position of the leader of the Longevity Sect.
Sensing his impure intentions, Xu Ximing composed himself and said coldly, "What's the rush? We'll set off on the night of the full moon."
Today is the 12th, and we still have three days before we set off.
“That’s not what I meant,” Shi Xin explained, “but shouldn’t we deal with the Immortal Pursuit Sect?”
When Mu Qing and his junior sister were about to leave, they mentioned that there was an urgent message from the sect. The old man who was the head of the Zhuxian Sect should already know that he was in the Changsheng Sect and was now being held in the dungeon. The Zhuxian Sect would definitely send someone to inquire about the situation.
Xu Ximing smiled, as if victory was assured, "I already ordered people to disguise themselves as them and leave the Changsheng Gate, so the disappearance can't be blamed on us."
He had done this countless times and was already very familiar with it, so he didn't need Shi Xin to remind him.
He glanced at Shi Xin impatiently and asked, "Besides these, is there anything else you need from me?"
Shi Xin wanted to ask if he could be chosen by the Venerable One, but seeing Xu Ximing's unpleasant expression, he shut his mouth and shook his head: "No."
"Get lost." Xu Ximing waved his hand, telling him to leave.
After everyone had gone far away, Xu Ximing took out his natal magic weapon, the Moon Mirror, and formed a complex magic seal with his ten fingers. A black-robed figure appeared on the mirror.
"What do you want with me?"
The man in black robes spoke with extreme impatience, glancing at him with a sullen face.
Xu Ximing, being a sect leader, wasn't angry at being treated this way. He respectfully said, "Your Excellency, it has been confirmed that Li Ruyue is dead. I would like to train a new person to help me."
Even if he didn't tell the Venerable One about Li Ruyue's death, the Venerable One would still find out.
The man in black lowered his eyes, as if he were asleep. Xu Ximing knew that the other was thinking, so he kept his mouth tightly shut, not daring to interrupt.
After a long silence, the man in black finally spoke: "Do you have someone to recommend?"
"I think Shi Xin, the inner sect steward, is alright. What do you think, Your Excellency?" Xu Ximing asked.
The man in black robes refused without hesitation: "He's too useless and too old. If we want to cultivate another Li Ruyue, she must be young and talented."
Shi Xin is over four hundred years old, and his cultivation is stuck at the Nascent Soul stage. There is absolutely no chance that he will step into the Divine Transformation stage in this lifetime.
Replacing him with a better spiritual root would at most raise his cultivation level by two realms. If something is cultivated with such effort but is still useless, it would be better not to cultivate it at all in the first place.
"Yes, I'll take another look." Xu Ximing immediately changed his mind after being refused.
There's no need to disobey the Emperor's orders for the sake of Shi Xin, especially since Shi Xin's intentions are impure.
"No need, I have a few good prospects here. Take a few back with you when you come." The man in black robes disappeared from the mirror before Xu Ximing could speak.
Xu Ximing watched the disappearing figure, his fist clenched tightly in his sleeve, his face still respectful, not daring to utter a single word of dissent.
He finally climbed to the position of the leader of the Changsheng Sect, and the Venerable One suddenly sent someone over, because he thought he was not doing a good job.
Xu Ximing's mind was filled with many thoughts as he leaned back in his chair and pondered quietly.
Outside, Shi Xin's figure quietly left, only stopping when he reached the sacred tree on the back mountain.
The sacred tree has thick trunks and slender branches that cover the sky above. Its emerald green leaves grow densely, with no other colors visible.
Legend has it that when the first master of the Longevity Sect was on the verge of death, he accidentally drank the dew from a leaf, thus beginning his path of cultivation and establishing the Longevity Sect.
Time has passed, the divine tree no longer has the power to bring the dead back to life, and the Gate of Longevity is no longer the Gate of Longevity it once was.
Thinking of the black-robed man's evaluation of him, Shi Xin's eyes darkened, and anger flared up from his chest, burning through his limbs and bones.
It's useless, too old.
In the cultivation world, apart from the Thousand Saints Palace, most people's cultivation levels are not high. He thought that the Nascent Soul stage was already very strong, but others thought that such cultivation was useless.
Shi Xin sneered, and after his anger subsided, a chill ran through his body.
Who exactly is His Excellency?
What is his purpose?
The two questions were like sand stuck in my shoe, always causing me discomfort whenever I thought about them.
Shi Xin thought carefully about the details concerning the Venerable One, but he couldn't figure it out no matter what. Just as he was feeling somewhat frustrated, he thought of the batch of "goods" locked in the dungeon.
Touching the key hanging from his waist, Shi Xin's eyes turned cold as he walked towards the dungeon.
In the dungeon.
After Mu Qing and Wen Zheng finished discussing the details, they sent a message to everyone in the Zhuxian Sect, telling them what to do.
"I've made arrangements with the sect leader." Mu Qing put away the communication jade slip, turned to see Wen Zheng about to leave the cell, and asked, "What are you doing?"
Holding the talisman in her hand and wearing the soft armor gifted to her by the Lord of Vermilion Bird City, Wen Zheng turned around and said, "This alone is not enough. Why don't we turn the people locked in the dungeon against us and then throw them out together when the sect leader arrives?"
She couldn't even imagine how spectacular the scene would be when the sect leader and people from other sects came to demand their people back. The Changsheng Sect's crimes would definitely be confirmed.
Mu Qing stopped her: "Go later. I think those people are still not quite conscious. I'll prepare some antidote pills to take to them."
Neither of them had drunk the Soul-Separating Powder, so they didn't know how effective it was. Judging from the dazed and confused look of the people in the prison, the effects of the drug had probably not worn off yet. He would prepare some antidote pills and see if he could get any useful information out of them.
Wen Zheng walked back slowly and sat down next to Mu Qing, extending her hand and saying, "I'll help."
She had no questions for these people; they were just a bunch of unlucky guys who had been arrested and probably didn't even know how they got caught.
What she cared more about was the person behind the Gate of Immortality. Was that person the one she suspected?
The two were concocting medicine in the corner of the cell when they suddenly heard footsteps. They exchanged a glance, quickly put away what they were holding, and pretended to faint on the ground.
The two of them were lying in a good position, as if they were sleeping on the same bed. Wen Zheng could see Mu Qing's expressionless face by turning her head slightly.
"Pfft."
Wen Zheng quickly turned her head away from him, unable to hide the smile on her face.
I don't know why, but seeing Mu Qing's face makes me want to laugh.
The footsteps grew closer, and Wen Zheng slowly adjusted her expression, pretending to faint. She only breathed a sigh of relief when the footsteps passed their cell.
At this moment, she was wondering who the person who had come was.
Xu Ximing?
No, he shouldn't be here. What would he be doing here for no reason?
As Wen Zheng was still thinking, a cold hand grabbed her wrist, and Mu Qing whispered in her ear, "Don't move."
The person came back.
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