Chapter 19: Luring the Snake Out of the Hole

Just as he was about to act, Xia Chenyu spoke up, “Wait.”

He walked over holding the token and asked, “What is this?”

The person glanced at it and replied, “It’s the sect leader’s identity token. With this token, one can freely enter and exit other branch sects and the main sect.”

It seemed like they had obtained something useful. An Ran gave a subtle signal for Xia Chenyu to keep it, saying, “Keep it, it will be useful.”

He then looked around the stone chamber at the numerous furnaces. With a wave of his long sleeve, the magical instruments shattered one by one, and the endless life force surged out, slowly drifting upwards.

“What are you collecting these for? To refine some evil martial arts?” Xia Chenyu sternly asked, looking at the life force drifting in the air.

The person hesitated but was met with An Ran’s sharp, sideways glance. With just a slight glare, the person immediately felt uneasy and said, “I only know that the branch sect sends a batch of dry yang cauldrons to the main sect every month. As for what they’re used for, I don’t know.”

An Ran waved his hand dismissively, “No need to ask. There is a martial technique in this world that can refine a person’s life force into spiritual energy, though the efficiency is extremely low, barely one in a hundred.”

After speaking, he removed the light circle near the person’s feet and struck the top of the person’s head with a palm, saying, “You may go.”

The person immediately fell to his knees with a thud, and the impact left two shallow dents on the ground. The overwhelming pain flooded his body, and his spiritual veins were destroyed.

Before he could recover, he heard An Ran’s voice again: “I suggest you stay far from the Tian Luo Sect from now on, or you might suffer the same fate.”

The person didn’t understand but didn’t dare to ask more. He thought that if he didn’t escape now, he wasn’t sure if the immortal would change his mind, so he nodded and crawled away in haste.

He ran for his life, all the way to the valley bottom. Finally feeling a bit safer, he stopped to catch his breath.

At that moment, he heard a deafening roar from above. Looking up, he saw massive fireballs erupting from the cliff face, engulfing the entire building in flames.

One after another, screams echoed from the sky, and figures burning with flames fell from the cliff, one after another, crashing in front of him. Their bodies were charred, still burning like dried wood.

The smell of burning flesh was sharp and nauseating. He gagged twice, stepped back, and looked again at the scene above, which resembled a hellish battlefield, unable to take his eyes off of it.

From the flames emerged two shadows, black and white, which stopped in midair. The white robes fluttered in the wind, and the immortal seemed to notice the gaze from the valley below. He glanced down at the tiny figure with a disdainful look.

The person, upon receiving this sharp gaze, felt his legs go weak and stumbled backward. Suddenly realizing he should flee, he turned and ran.

Now, he understood the meaning of those words: stay away from the Tian Luo Sect, or next time he might end up as part of the sacrifice.

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The Plan Was a Total Failure.

Xia Chenyu didn’t become the sinner; instead, he became the hero who saved the suffering people.

Shinan Village was not wiped out and instead became the subject of an unforgettable legend, with stories of a young master descending from the sky to save the people from disaster spreading far and wide.

Moreover, with over a hundred witnesses, the Tian Luo Sect, once an unknown cult, was now exposed and became a notorious and terrifying organization in the area.

They could no longer use the name of the Tian Luo Sect to swindle people, so they changed their strategy. Not only did they alter their methods of deception, but they also no longer openly declared their sect’s name.

This made it difficult for Xia Chenyu to investigate further. In the blink of an eye, the Tian Luo Sect seemed to vanish without a trace. Villages they targeted were sealed off and isolated from the world, with no news able to escape. It was as if all clues had vanished.

But this was all in the future. For now, back at the mountain gate…

An Ran said with a gloomy expression, “You still haven’t explained, what’s going on with that senior?”

Xia Chenyu, unable to dodge the question, had no choice but to honestly explain.

He revealed that for several years, he had often heard someone speaking to him. At first, he thought it was a mental illness, but when he followed the guidance given, he found it effective. That’s when he believed that a higher being had been helping him, and this person always appeared at critical moments, providing great assistance.

Since this person had never shown themselves, how had they been able to track Xia Chenyu’s every move?

An Ran pondered this and suddenly had a guess. He then called his disciple over. Once the youth stood in front of him, An Ran raised his palm and infused spiritual energy into him. As the energy flowed through the youth’s body, it reached the Shen Ting point and revealed something unusual.

The boy had been unknowingly subjected to the “Guan Ming” technique, which allowed the practitioner to see and hear exactly what the subject did.

Earlier, An Ran thought that after the mysterious soul had shifted its focus, the connection between Xia Chenyu and that person was severed. But now, he realized that the soul was merely a distraction.

With a soft sigh, An Ran canceled the technique.

Once the connection was severed, he thought, “Let’s see what you have left.”

However, the Heavenly Eye did not improve his mood as much as expected.

The key event in Shinan Village had been reversed, and the timeline had deviated significantly…

A static buzzing sound came from his mind as the report was cut off. An Ran issued an order, “No need to report the deviation anymore.”

He didn’t want to know this. Right now, he was highly skeptical about the possibility of completing the task on this plane. Moreover, he was now more interested in finding that mysterious person.

Without finding this person, the mission would be impossible to complete.

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An Ran had planned to observe the situation quietly, but the mysterious person’s trace had completely vanished. Had they given up? Or was it because life had been so peaceful that Xia Chenyu no longer needed help?

High-dimensional life forms, because they had no lifespan limitations, didn’t have a strong sense of time. A year or a day didn’t feel different to An Ran.

Only when he saw that Xia Chenyu had grown taller and completely shed his youthful aura did An Ran realize that two whole years had passed.

Since that mysterious person hadn’t shown up, perhaps it was time to create some trouble for this child and force the person to reveal themselves.

It happened to be time for the sect’s annual competition, so An Ran decided to act based on the situation.

It seemed like fate was on his side—Xuanyue Sect wanted to regain the face lost during the last competition and suggested changing the format, from a one-on-one contest to an elimination system.

The arena was set in Xuanyue Sect’s spirit beast hunting grounds, and the last three standing would be victorious.

An Ran smiled inwardly. “This is perfect. Anything could happen in the hunting grounds. If Xia Chenyu is in danger, that person has to appear.”

With that thought, An Ran, in a good mood, led his disciple and the Lingxiao Sect’s team toward Xuanyue Sect, several hundred miles away.

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