Chapter 91

Ye Qiao: “…”

“Friends,” she cheerfully decided to ignore her senior brother’s words and turned to clap her hands, signaling everyone to look over.

“We’ve got the alchemy furnace. Your spiritual plants should still be intact, right?”

Miao Miao nodded. “Yes. But all the refined pills are gone; they must have eaten them.”

At least they had retrieved the mustard seed bags.

Xue Yu, seeing so many alchemists present, didn’t need Ye Qiao to speak up. He blinked and softly reminded them, “Since we have the spiritual plants, let’s all make some aphrodisiac pills tonight.”

“Aphrodisiac pills?” Si Miaoyan’s eyelid twitched slightly, thinking he had misheard. “What are those?”

“As the name suggests, don’t you get it?” Xue Yu, seeing all the alchemists looking over, decided to explain without any embarrassment, using his gentlest voice. “They’re pills that make demonic beasts go into a frenzy.”

“We don’t have much time. Without some special methods, we’ll end up at the bottom.”

Xue Yu had gone from feeling uncomfortable to being completely nonchalant, all thanks to Ye Qiao.

Si Miaoyan: “… Alright, understood.”

“Tomorrow morning, we’ll split into two groups.”

Ming Xuan stood up, preparing the talismans. “We’ll start acting tonight. You use the aphrodisiac pills to lure them over, I’ll set up a formation to trap the beasts, Mu Chongxi will kill the beasts from behind, and Miao Miao will finish them off.”

“The rest will follow Ye Qiao and listen to her commands.”

The current number of beasts among the five sects wasn’t that large. As long as they cooperated well, the situation in the secret realm, which was ever-changing, could be turned around in two days.

“Trust me,” Ye Qiao said calmly. “Right now, they are united as a pile of crap, but scattered like stars in the sky.”

“When they are together, we can stall until the secret realm ends. The others can go hunt demonic beasts and seize the opportunity to surpass in ranking.”

Ye Qiao looked at the sky. “Tomorrow, we’ll go and stall the three sects. Any method of delay will do. As long as we drag it out until the secret realm ends, victory will be ours.”

After discussing their strategy in an orderly manner, it was time for the lesson.

“Alchemists cultivator, take out your alchemy furnaces and show them to me.”

Upon hearing this, the five alchemists cultivator exchanged glances and brought out their alchemy furnaces.

The palm-sized furnaces suddenly expanded, becoming large and heavy, clearly very weighty.

Ye Qiao looked them over and was very satisfied.

“Good.”

“They all look quite vigorous.”

“When someone approaches tomorrow, just throw your furnaces at them.”

Liu Yun instinctively asked, “How do we throw them?”

“Whoever comes,” Ye Qiao pointed at the furnaces, speaking concisely, “smash them.”

“…”

“Use this,” Si Miaoyan looked at her own furnace, trembling, “to smash people?”

What, is this the usual practice for Changming Sect’s alchemists cultivator?

“Look at Xue Yu,” Ye Qiao saw their hesitation and immediately gave them an example. “He once knocked Chu Xingzhi out of the competition with his furnace.”

“If he can do it, so can you.”

Si Miaoyan could only imagine a group of alchemists cultivator wielding their furnaces and smashing them on people’s heads, and she felt suffocated by the thought.

Xue Yu demonstrated, enlarging his furnace and smashing it down, raising a cloud of dust and causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Finally, he made a calm summary:

“Under the alchemy furnace, all beings are equal.”

“I believe you can do it too.”

“…”

Si Miaoyan and the others were filled with respect, “Alright. We understand!”

They strived to follow the example of the alchemists cultivator of Changming Sect.

“All of Changming Sect’s direct disciples are really talented.”

“Seriously, they’re all good at brainwashing people.”

“Pyramid scheme.”

“A group of direct disciples led astray. My rebellious children, you break my heart!!”

…

The members of the three sects woke up after a night’s sleep to find the rankings on their jade slips constantly refreshing. Changming Sect and Bishui Sect had climbed up the ranks.

“Damn.”

“How did Changming Sect and Bishui Sect shoot up to third and fourth place?”

Where did they find the monsters in just one night?

“Not sure,” Song Hansheng shook his head. “But Ye Qiao’s tricks are too many. There’s only one day left until the secret realm ends. We can’t go on like this.”

They had to go out and find monsters to stabilize their rankings.

Qin Huai was also annoyed by the constantly increasing numbers. What was going on with Changming Sect? Weren’t they short on pills?

How did they suddenly become so fierce overnight, as if unaffected by the secret realm?

“I feel something’s not right,” Song Hansheng always felt that Ye Qiao wouldn’t sit idly by, fearing there might be an ambush on the way.

“Stop dawdling,” Chu Xingzhi said, “Changming Sect is almost catching up to second place. If we keep waiting, it’ll be too late.”

Enough.

He gritted his teeth, “Let’s go.”

Song Hansheng couldn’t believe it. Previously, Ye Qiao managed to ambush them because of Duan Hengdao and those two artifact cultivators setting traps. Now, without artifact cultivators, could she still take on so many of them?

She was leading a group of alchemists cultivator. Could Changming Sect really cause an upheaval?

…

Members of the three sects gradually left their base. Along the way, Song Hansheng used his spiritual sense to scout ahead, wary of any traps.

“Someone’s here.”

Song Hansheng’s spiritual sense detected movement, and he immediately warned, “Be careful.”

An arrow shot out.

Chu Xingzhi cut the arrow in half with his sword, sneering, “Who do they think they’re dealing with?”

The next second, something under Song Hansheng’s foot exploded.

A golden talisman in Song Hansheng’s possession shattered, and the others were caught off guard, ending up covered in dust and dirt.

“What the hell is this?”

Qin Huai was about to lose it.

Duan Hengdao recognized it, wiping the sweat off his face, “It looks like Ye Qiao’s doing.”

She used this to blow up a monster’s belly before, a vivid memory for Duan Hengdao.

“This thing can explode.” Song Hansheng had seen it too, when Ye Qiao used it inside a monster’s belly, “And it explodes quickly, catching you off guard.”

“Spread out.”

Ye Qinghan ordered coldly, “Su Zhuo, Zhu You, you two go and locate their ambush.”

“Let’s finish them off today.”

The two exchanged glances and used their spiritual sense to search for the alchemists cultivator.

Why the alchemists cultivator? Because they were easier to bully, of course.

Zhu You, seeing the opponents, swung his sword mercilessly at them. Si Miaoyan stepped back instinctively, wanting to run.

But remembering Ye Qiao’s instruction to stall for time, she gritted her teeth, turned back, and threw her furnace.

Zhu You was caught off guard and almost got hit.

Not only Si Miaoyan, but the other alchemists cultivator also imitated her, using their large furnaces to fend off anyone trying to approach.

Damn it.

What had these alchemists cultivator learned from Ye Qiao?

Ye Qiao, squatting in a tree, saw this scene and immediately threw down two fog talismans. Instantly, a thick fog spread, enveloping the entire secret realm.

She loved muddying the waters.

The murkier the water, the more likely things would go wrong.

“What is that fog again? Where does she get these things?” Duan Hengdao was on the verge of tears.

But there was no time to chat. He hurriedly activated his magic tool to shield his sect.

The talisman cultivators had golden talismans to barely block the attacks, but the sword cultivators were in a miserable state, unable to distinguish friend from foe in the fog, and had to deal with the occasional flying arrows, talismans, and bombs.

At first, they could calmly deflect the flying objects, but as time went on, it became increasingly chaotic.

Toward the end, that despicable Ye Qiao even stopped shooting arrows, instead leading a group of alchemist cultivator to throw stones directly at them.

“Damn,” Chu Xingzhi said, “Is she crazy?”

Ye Qiao’s mix of real and deceptive strategies had a clear effect. They never knew what would come flying at them next, so they had to frantically block and deflect whatever came their way.

But seeing a group of sword cultivators wielding their techniques against ordinary stones, acting as if they were facing a great enemy, was just too strange.

This not only wasted spiritual energy but also physical strength.

Ye Qiao’s war of attrition was remarkably successful. The talisman cultivators had many of their talismans destroyed, and the artifact cultivators also lost quite a few of their tools.

At the moment when everyone was in disarray, Ye Qiao raised her arm and shouted, “Brothers, the time for revenge has come.”

“Attack them.”

Xue Yu unfurled his Map of Mountains and Rivers. The quick ones retreated to avoid its range, but two slower ones were instantly drawn in.

Ye Qiao, under the cover of the fog, threw two talismans towards Chu Xingzhi.

After being hit by so many stones earlier, Chu Xingzhi thought it was just another stone and didn’t pay attention. In the next second, a body-freezing talisman stuck firmly to him.

This kind of talisman only lasted for thirty seconds.

But thirty seconds was enough to finish someone off.

So, when the teleportation array activated, everyone instinctively looked at each other.

—Who got eliminated?

The unlucky Chu Xingzhi hastily muttered, “I hate you all equally,” and then was teleported away.

Silence.

That night’s cultivation world was silent.

“Damn,” Zhu You was shocked, “Wait, who knocked Chu Xingzhi out?”

“Me,” Ye Qinghan said, his expression slightly cracked.

“Senior Brother,” Zhu You quickly formed a sword technique to block an ambush, speaking calmly, “Chu Xingzhi might be a bit stupid, but did you really have to kill him during the competition?”

Chu Xingzhi didn’t deserve this.

Ye Qinghan was also struggling to maintain his composure, his cold and aloof demeanor slipping, “The scene was too chaotic, and Ye Qiao had smoke bombs.”

Almost everyone was in a state where they couldn’t distinguish friend from foe. How was he supposed to know that the person standing back-to-back with him was Chu Xingzhi?

Song Hansheng added critically, “Even a dog knows to move when kicked. Who knew he would stay silent?”

Was this Ye Qinghan’s fault?

Hearing this after being eliminated made Chu Xingzhi feel like spitting blood. Did he not want to dodge? It was just that some sneaky person from Changming Sect hit him with a body-freezing talisman, and he couldn’t avoid it in time.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

“Draw the sword and strike down my fellow disciples.”

“Is this the tradition of your Sword Inquiry Sect?”

“Hilarious, Changming Sect and Bishui Sect are now resorting to any means to win.”

“First they used diversion tactics, then retreated and advanced, followed by a wave of acting, and finally a war of attrition. Is this what Ye Qiao meant by fighting guerrillas? I love it.”

“I still say, who leads the cultivation world? Ye Qiao is number one.”

The elders of the other three sects didn’t look pleased, except for Elder Bishui and Elder Zhao, whose previously tense faces finally showed a smile. “Ye Qiao really has many ideas…”

Anyone else would have given up long ago in this situation.

Being able to fight against greater numbers with a group of alchemists cultivator and force the other three sects into retreat was a first in the cultivation world.

“Ah, ah, ah, look at the jade slip rankings refreshing.”

On the fifth day, when the secret realm was about to end, the day’s ranking results essentially decided which sect would take first place. Ye Qiao, single-handedly stalling for two whole days, had bought ample time for Mu Chongxi and Ming Xuan.

As the rankings refreshed, the final top spot on the jade slip was none other than the three big characters: Changming Sect.

“Holy crap, they’ve overtaken us, it’s Changming Sect.”

“Two days to go from last to first, I ask you, who else can do that?”

Changming Sect’s fans were overjoyed.

“I still say, no matter how strong you are, Ye Qiao is the comeback king.”

*

6,400 words. Bonus chapter for the rewards, ah, ah, ah, I’m exhausted.