Chapter 238

After successfully persuading the Qi family members, Ming Xuan picked up a new brainwashing technique and started to practice convincing his own family members with some flair.

But Ming Xuan had his own ideas. He planned to directly steal talismans from the treasury. Yueqing Sect had an abundance of talisman practitioners, so having more or fewer didn’t matter much; what was important was getting the talismans.

“Brother!” Ming Xuan saw the other person’s eyes light up.

This person was one of the few normal individuals he had encountered in the Ming family. He had a good personality, and Ming Xuan used to call him “brother” when he was younger and less sensible. Seeing him now, he couldn’t help but happily greet him.

The person glanced over calmly, “Ming Xuan.”

“Why are you back from the sect?” The man pinched his brow. “And how did you get in? Did you send a formal request in the middle of the night?”

He started with familiar, concerned questions.

Ming Xuan shrugged and replied confidently, “I sneaked in.”

Ming Xuan’s older brother observed him for a few seconds, thoughtful. “You seem livelier than before.” He was even daring enough to sneak into the house.

Why did this person act like a thief just to enter his own house?

After a moment of silence, Ming Xuan’s older brother, who felt that this person must have some reason for being there, asked, “Do you need something?”

After successfully persuading the Qi family members, Ming Xuan picked up a new method of persuasion and started practicing it with his own family members.

But Ming Xuan had his own ideas. He planned to directly steal talismans from the treasury. Yueqing Sect had an abundance of talisman practitioners, so it didn’t matter whether they had more or fewer; what was important was acquiring the talismans.

“Brother!” Ming Xuan’s eyes lit up as he climbed up the ladder. “Can you do me a favor? Help me steal the key to my father’s treasury. Once we succeed, I won’t forget your contribution!”

Surprisingly, Ming Xuan did indeed remember his brother’s help. After that, he regularly brought meals to his brother in the Ming family’s confinement room.

But that’s a story for later.

After Leaf Qiao and the Yueqing Sect members met up, they proceeded to their respective sects for support. Following the principle of rescuing those nearby first, they decided to head to the Changming Sect’s location.

The scene was chaotic, with weak cultivators huddled in formations, looking panicked and unable to recover from the demon attack.

The shops along the streets were all destroyed, and the bodies of demon beasts were scattered everywhere. Song Hansheng looked at the dried bloodstains on the ground and pressed his lips together. “We need to find the elders’ location.”

Since they couldn’t contact them via jade slips, Song Hansheng pondered for a moment. “We can use spell techniques to locate them.”

Leaf Qiao watched as Song Hansheng requested items from Elder Duan Yu and others. He then drew a forbidden spell to guide their location. She couldn’t help but marvel, “I didn’t expect you to have some real skills, Song Hansheng!”

Song Hansheng retorted, “Don’t make me sound like some useless person!”

Leaf Qiao replied, “Oh, right, right, let’s hurry.”

They went their separate ways to provide support in different locations. Along the way, they encountered some gruesome scenes that made them hesitant to look. The demon race devoured living cultivators, leaving debris everywhere. The two who arrived late were increasingly silent, and when the atmosphere finally lightened a bit, Leaf Qiao and Song Hansheng tacitly avoided mentioning the things they had seen.

…

The outside world was in chaos. With the core disciples all gone to the legacy site and inner disciples dispatched to help with the other small cities, even though each sect had hundreds of inner disciples, they were still not enough.

“How about the Eight Great Families?” Elder Duan looked at the almost-fallen city before him, his sword never stopping, not daring to relax for a moment, fearing that any delay might cost lives.

“The Eight Great Families refuse to lend any help.” Another elder’s expression was stern as he used his sword techniques to clear a path. “They eventually gave us a few people, but most of them are just early Golden Core cultivators, and they even sent over some Foundation Establishment ones.”

Foundation Establishment cultivators were nearly useless here, especially with the rampant attacks from the demon race. They were more likely to hinder rather than help.

The sword cultivators of the Five Sects were almost all dispatched to deal with the major demons. Thanks to the elders’ presence, they barely managed to control the situation.

Some small cities had been completely overrun by demons.

The inner disciples were heavily injured within a month, and they needed to arrange for their evacuation first.

But the major demons in front of them showed no sign of letting them leave. They had tested the waters early on and found that these two sword cultivator elders were very strong, so they sent out dozens of demon kings.

It was a siege.

They could choose to abandon the disciples, as leaving them behind would make escaping much easier.

To the demons, humans were merely food.

Elder Duan had known that the demons were eager to cause trouble, seemingly collaborating with the demon race. But the appearance of these demon kings caught everyone off guard due to their large numbers.

The two elders could protect themselves and could potentially slay these demon kings, but what made them hesitant was that these demon kings had gained intelligence and were using captured cultivators as shields to threaten them.

Elder Duan Yu sneered, performing the Qingfeng Sword Technique, appearing behind one of the demon kings in an instant. With a sword strike, he created a whirlwind, severing the demon king’s limbs. He quickly saved one of the disciples and retreated.

A mist rose around them, and the demon kings laughed sharply. The weakness of the righteous path was too apparent—these weaklings. As long as they captured them, even the two strong sword cultivators would have to die!

With so many demon kings, and with disciples needing protection, they couldn’t simply abandon those held by the demons. The situation thus reached a stalemate.