Chapter 877: Dharma Spreader Suppresses Nine Mountains
The stone was remarkably similar to the device he had previously seen Zhou Qingang use to contact his superiors.
After a moment's thought, Li Fan placed both hands over it.
He activated it using the Five Elders Council's secret technique from memory.
Sure enough, it worked. As ripples spread across the stone's surface, a blurry human face materialized upon it.
After getting a clear view of the situation, the person on the other end froze for a moment.
Then the image shifted, as if someone else had taken over.
The figure on the other side glanced at Li Fan, and after a moment, scoffed, "You even know the contact technique we just recently changed..."
"So your Federation of All Worlds really has planted spies among us."
Li Fan chuckled. "Nothing of the sort. I just tried it on a whim. A lucky guess, that's all."
But they didn't sever the connection, instead demanding, "What do you want this time?"
"You royally screwed us last time. All that talk about some 'world-suppressing ultimate weapon,' the Heaven Splitting Cannon."
"We'd prepared a complete counter-strategy, hoping to achieve victory with an unexpected move. Who would have thought..."
"Hmph. Your faulty intelligence led to a major strategic error. We suffered catastrophic losses."
The face on the stone's surface suddenly loomed larger, and combined with his tone, it gave off a sinister air.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, not answering right away.
After a moment of thought, he shook his head and sighed. "It wasn't my intention to give you false information. The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's act was simply too convincing this time. Even we were deceived."
"Who could have imagined that such a powerful world-suppressing weapon was nothing more than a diversion?"
"But you're not exactly blameless, are you?"
Li Fan's tone suddenly shifted. "How could the great Five Elders Council possibly decide on a major strategic direction based on our words alone?"
"You must have uncovered something yourselves before finalizing that plan."
"If even you were fooled, how could we have been expected to see through it? All one can say is that the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance played their hand brilliantly."
The expression on the Five Elders Council member's face turned grim.
"We thought the thirty-three Immortal Selectors, announced with such fanfare, were just a public diversion. That the real killing blow was hidden in the shadows. Who could have guessed the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance would be so arrogant, so blatant?"
"Putting their trump card on the table for all to see..."
His tone was thick with the frustration of having wound up for a powerful punch, only to hit nothing but air.
Li Fan seized the opportunity to ask, "What exactly happened on the battlefield in Nine Mountains Prefecture?"
"You were defeated so quickly. By the time we heard the news, we had to come see for ourselves before we could believe it."
The Five Elders Council member's expression darkened, and he refused to answer.
Seeing this, Li Fan decided to play his trump card.
"Immortal Sage Ziqiong, of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's Martial Hall headquarters... he's one of yours, isn't he?"
The face simply froze.
Apparently, someone of his rank was not privy to such information.
"Go and confirm it with your superiors. This person..."
"...is a problem. He can't be fully trusted," Li Fan said, his expression grave.
The face, losing all its previous composure, hastily retreated and vanished.
Li Fan, in contrast, waited with perfect composure.
Beside him, Lin Ling quietly studied Li Fan, unable to contain the curiosity in her eyes.
The Five Elders Council responded swiftly.
Before long, a new figure materialized on the smooth stone surface.
"Friend," the newcomer began, "what you said before..."
"...about Immortal Sage Ziqiong not being fully trustworthy—what did you mean by that?"
The speaker was not the same person as before; the voice belonged to an older man, strong and resonant.
"If our intelligence is correct, Immortal Sage Ziqiong is a 'Zealot'. His true loyalty isn't to your Five Elders Council, nor is it to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance."
"It is to the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate, and him alone," Li Fan whispered.
"Sometimes, his intelligence is correct. But under certain circumstances..."
"I suspect there are lies mixed in with the truth, making it impossible to tell one from the other," Li Fan added, his tone full of meaning.
Although his words were vague, they were met with a long silence from the Five Elders Council.
"I see..." From the man's low murmur, it was easy to tell how deeply shaken he was.
After all, Immortal Sage Ziqiong was the Five Elders Council's deepest and most important spy.
He was the source of much of their most critical intelligence.
The matter was a top secret. Within the Five Elders Council itself, only a handful of people had been aware of it.
And yet, this cultivator from the Federation of All Worlds before him already knew Ziqiong's true identity.
Combined with their recent, crushing defeat, which had been caused by faulty intelligence...
The implications sent a chill down the middle-aged man's spine, as if he had been plunged into an icy abyss.
But he was a man of exceptional mental fortitude, and he recovered quickly.
He took a deep breath and thanked Li Fan. "We will investigate this matter thoroughly. Thank you for the warning, friend."
Li Fan cut straight to the chase. "We need to know exactly what happened in Nine Mountains Prefecture. Because of our own misjudgment, our attention was elsewhere at the time."
"We've heard things from within the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, but the reports are so shocking that we need you to confirm them."
"To be honest, He is expected to start appearing regularly soon enough... I'll send you the footage from that day. See for yourself." The middle-aged man, clearly anxious to verify Li Fan's information, transmitted the data and then ended the communication.
The smooth stone cracked and crumbled into pieces, rendered completely useless.
Li Fan, meanwhile, watched the scene unfolding in his mind, and what he saw shook him to his core.
The sky over Nine Mountains Prefecture was serene, a perfect, cloudless blue.
Suddenly, a face materialized in the sky.
He wore a tall crown, his face framed by a long beard.
His expression was solemn, his eyes downcast.
He seemed to hold a deep compassion for all living things, yet an endless, murderous aura was hidden just beneath the surface.
No cultivator from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance would fail to recognize this face.
For in the capital city of every province, and indeed, in every territory held by the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
Statues of this being could be found everywhere.
He was the founder of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, the creator of the New Method that defied the principles of heaven and earth, the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate who had dominated the Xuanhuang Realm for thousands of years!
As the Dharma Spreader's face appeared, a shimmering, translucent body quickly took form in the sky behind it.
At that moment, the Five Elders Council cultivators within Nine Mountains Prefecture all began to notice the strange phenomenon in the sky.
They rapidly assembled, preparing for a fight.
But the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate gave them little time to prepare before he made his move.
The Dharma Spreader, whose eyes had been downcast and closed, suddenly opened them.
And with that, an unimaginably terrifying pressure descended upon Nine Mountains Prefecture.
Countless cultivators were crushed into a bloody pulp before they even had time to scream, their blood staining the ground.
Under this immense pressure, the nine mountain ranges began to roar and tremble.
The mountains collapsed, shattering layer by layer.
From their peaks to their bases, they disintegrated relentlessly.
As long as the Dharma Spreader's gaze remained, the terrifying pressure crushing Nine Mountains Prefecture did not relent.
And so, inch by inch, the nine mountain ranges were leveled into flat ground.
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