Chapter 894: Divert the Calamity Eastward
At this moment, Ji Shaoli stood motionless, a lamb for the slaughter.
An expression of terror and shock was etched onto his face.
As his eyes fell on the withered yellow branch clutched in the man's hand, a scornful smile played on the youth's lips.
"An Earth Vein Ancient Tree, and this mysterious seven-colored radiance..."
"To think a mere Golden Core cultivator could possess such a treasure."
"When did such a formidable organization spring up under the jurisdiction of our Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance?"
"Well then, let's have a proper look."
As the youth watched, Ji Shaoli's soul was slowly extracted from his body.
In moments, it crumbled into a pile of skeletal remains that scattered across the floor.
What the youth had just unleashed was clearly a soul-searching art of the most vicious kind!
Unable to resist, Ji Shaoli's soul landed in the youth's palm.
Instantly, as the soul-searching art took effect, a torrent of information flooded the youth's mind.
The youth's body gave a slight shudder, a flicker of horror passing through his eyes.
...
"The Xuantian Sect?"
In that instant, it was as if the soul-searching art had triggered a hidden restriction within the soul.
The youth hadn't even had time to fully process all the information contained within the soul before it faded away like a wilting flower, vanishing into nothing.
The youth seemed unfazed by this.
If the contents of the soul-search were true, then the presence of such a restriction was only logical.
"To think that after several thousand years, the specter of the Xuantian Sect still looms?"
The youth's brow furrowed slightly.
According to the memories he'd just sifted through, this cultivator, Ji Shaoli, had been recruited by a mysterious Law King of the Xuantian Sect.
They were secretly building up their forces throughout the Cong Yun Sea and other regions of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, plotting a resurgence.
"Still clinging to hope after all this time. How utterly absurd."
The youth snorted, but inwardly, he didn't dare underestimate the threat.
"The ruins of the Purple Cloud Sect? Hiding in a place like that..."
A murderous glint flashed in the youth's eyes as his figure slowly faded from view.
...
Meanwhile.
Li Fan, who was already approaching the Purple Cloud Sect Ruins, sensed the demise of his clone.
He stopped short.
Faint images flickered through his mind, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. "The Heaven Controlling Division?"
"So, an organization like that really does exist."
"Then again," he mused, "it only makes sense."
"The idea I had before—that I could just mass-produce Dao Integration cultivators simply by knowing about the Spirits of Heaven and Earth—was a bit naive."
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has stood for millennia. If they lacked even this degree of control, they would have been toppled long ago."
Pushing the thoughts from his mind for the moment, Li Fan gazed at the nearby ruins of the Purple Cloud Sect.
"Now that the fish has taken the bait," he thought, "I can just sit back and enjoy the show."
Narrowing his eyes, he swept the area with his spiritual sense.
Soon, drawing on information from his past life and guided by a faint wisp of life force—one so weak it would be imperceptible to anyone else—Li Fan located the slumbering Xuantian Sect Law King in a sealed chamber deep underground!
One look at the man's face confirmed it: he was identical to Li Chen of the Purple Cloud Sect, the very body Li Fan had once inhabited!
He unleashed a blast of Extinction Sword Qi, sending it hurtling toward the chamber below.
The attack crackled with destructive energy, threatening to annihilate everything within the sealed room.
Just as the black light was about to strike the chamber, threads of golden light materialized out of the void.
The chamber itself disintegrated, but a protective web of golden threads held fast, shielding Li Chen at its core.
Undeterred, Li Fan launched several more blasts of Extinction Sword Qi in quick succession.
The golden threads buckled inward under the immense force of the bombardment.
They seemed on the verge of snapping.
At this critical juncture between life and death, the Xuantian Sect Law King at last began to stir, his eyes slowly opening.
Li Fan grinned, and with a flicker, vanished without a trace.
Moments later, when Li Chen had fully awakened, he remained motionless, stunned for a long moment.
He had been slumbering for far too long and needed time to sort through the fog of his memories.
But before he could fully grasp his current predicament...
Li Chen's expression suddenly shifted.
He suddenly realized that the space around him had been sealed.
Connecting this to the attack he had just endured, Li Chen instantly understood: for some unknown reason, his hiding place had been discovered.
But he was a Law King of the Xuantian Sect, a man who had once coolly evaded the combined pursuit of the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
Alarmed but not panicked, he first retrieved a porcelain vial from his storage ring.
He took a sip of the seven-colored nectar within.
Instantly, the languid aura that clung to him from his long slumber grew firm and substantial.
Just as Li Chen was restoring his strength...
A portal opened in the sky, and a contingent of several dozen cultivators clad in black emerged as one.
Their expressions were grim, and the murderous aura coiling around them was so thick it felt tangible.
And their leader was the very same young cultivator who had, only a short while ago, performed the soul-search on Ji Shaoli in the Cong Yun Sea.
He narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the ruins below.
"Three chimes of the bell... it truly is a Law King of the Xuantian Sect!"
A flicker of excitement in his heart, the youth waved his hand. The black-robed cultivators instantly fanned out, taking positions across the sky, each holding a small mirror.
Once they were in position, the mirrors unleashed boundless beams of cyan light.
In an instant, the light swept across the entire area.
Bathed in the cyan radiance, the ground below became transparent.
And so, Li Chen, who had been concealed within, was exposed to the eyes of the cultivators from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
Though surrounded, Li Chen's expression remained calm.
His gaze was fixed on the small mirrors in their hands, a flicker of nostalgia mixed with bitter resentment in his eyes.
Seeing the look in Li Chen's eyes, the young Dharma Transmitter gave a cold, inward snort.
At his mental command, the cultivators around him raised their mirrors high.
Aiming innumerable beams of cyan light down at the Xuantian Sect Law King.
The cyan light formed what looked like solid shackles, binding Li Chen in place.
A sneer spread across Li Chen's face. "Trying to capture a Law King of the Xuantian Sect with our own tools?"
"Have the cultivators of this age truly grown so foolish?"
As if in answer to his words, a crisp bell chimed near him.
In that brief moment, the cyan light binding his body began to warp bizarrely.
The bonds slackened.
Immediately, starkly different expressions appeared on the faces of Li Chen and the young Dharma Transmitter.
Li Chen's was a mixture of surprise and solemnity.
The youth's, however, was one of pure ecstasy.
He took a deep breath, reining in his excitement. "Fellow Daoist of the Xuantian Sect," he declared, his voice ringing out, "it would be best if you came with me!"
Li Chen, however, paid him no heed.
The crisp chime of the bell rang out once more, and the cyan light emanating from the mirrors began to tremble violently.
Then, as if it had broken free of its masters' control, the light erupted with ferocious intensity.
In an instant, the cyan light flooded the entire area of the Purple Cloud Sect Ruins.
Shielded by the blinding glare, Li Chen's figure vanished in an instant, right before their very eyes!
It all happened so fast that even the young Dharma Transmitter was caught completely off guard.
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