Chapter 324: The traitor

Thankfully, all the demonic cultivators were exhausted. Opening the way into the Demon Palace had robbed them of their blood runes. Thus, most of them had now a strength equal to an early Mortal Warrior. Even then, they were rather weakened. Demonic cultivators were generally stronger than orthodox cultivators but the risks were higher and they often burned themselves before reaching very high. However, they had all gone extremely fast, way too fast. Without the blood runes, their strength had plummeted down and their fatigue was showing. This mission should have lasted several days but it had gone on for a few months.

While Ren Chao was keeping Neng Lue busy, Sun Liao was barraging the other demonic cultivators with his arrows. The Demon Palace was littered with arrows made from his own Qi.

"One Sun from Tang valley".

Wang Jinhua was already exhausted because of her wounds but she paired up with the last demonic cultivator to protect Mo Zi. The arrow shot by Sun Liao exploded before it reached its target. Even though he didn't know everything that was going on here, Sun Liao had immediately understood that letting Mo Zi get close to that ominous drop of blood was a bad idea. However, he was well protected. Even if his comrades had not intervened, the last remnants of the blood needle was around him.

At the same time, Mei Hua was playing her zither. In the middle of the room, Cao Yun was still partially within his sea of consciousness. There were many things he wanted to ask Dian Mo but right now was not a good time. Instead, he made sure to consolidate his prison. He was probably going to need to call forth the power of the Drop of Wrath and he didn't want Dian Mo to run havoc in his own soul. Maybe if he developed his mind cultivation further, he might find a way to contain him without the Drop of Wrath. But hopefully, he would not need to. As soon as he was out of this Palace of Supreme Wisdom, he would go to Xiao Xuefeng.

Considering how talented she was with her spiritual senses, she would certainly be able to get this spirit out of his mind. Then, she could extract everything she needed from him. In fact, he also wanted to talk to her about the Drop of Wrath. Now that he was near absolute control, he was not worried about it anymore.

Contrary to his expectations, Dian Mo was very docile. In fact, he found that he was way too docile. Clearly he was planning. There was no way he was just going to accept the situation without fighting back. But he was a very old spirit, he could wait for decades or even centuries to act. One thing Cao Yun was sure about was that he would strike back at one point. The sooner he could get what he wanted from him and dispose of him, the better.

Finally, Cao Yun could divert most of his attention into his healing. Thanks to the Divine Lotus Ointment pill and Mei Hua's melody, his flesh was reforming at a steady pace. Most of his muscles had been reconstructed and his skin was slowly taking form. But even with Mei Hua's effort to lessen the side effects, this Divine Lotus Ointment was draining Cao Yun of his energy. In order to compensate, the young man activated his Heart Star and pushed the Drop of Wrath. But he still kept some reserve, in case Dian Mo were to act out during the fight.

Although he wasn't fully healed yet, Cao Yun took out a robe from his spatial ring. Even the lava pool had not been able to destroy his ring, luckily. Since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era no one had been able to replicate such an artifact. But that also meant that they had been created by experts even higher than a Spirit Warrior. As such, they were usually very sturdy. The robe covered him before his skin was fully back. Focusing on his blood, his skin began to form very fast. Even his hair grew impressively fast as well.

In a matter of minutes, Cao Yun was back.

Apart from Mei Hua, no one was really paying him any mind. But when his aura was stable, Mo Zi finally noticed him. He had been so absorbed in his task that he had completely focused his senses on the drop of blood, Da Mo's blood. This was a drop of blood essence from the Demon God Da Mo in person. He was the demon who had invaded the Piaolu planet and enslaved all of mankind. He had gone toe to toe against Emperor Nuwa and ultimately had died.

According to what the demonic cultivators had found, he had been a Reborn Demon. Mo Zi had no profound understanding of the cultivation of demons but he knew that this realm was the fifth one. Compared with humans, this was the realm before Immortal, even beyond the Sage realm.

The records had shown that Da Mo's body had completely disappeared after his fight against Emperor Nuwa. No one ever found any trace of his body, his blood, his soul, nothing. And Emperor Nuwa herself never spoke about it. She wanted everything that was Demon God Da Mo to disappear forever. But in the documents found by Mo Tian, they had discovered that there had been something left behind by Da Mo. And the key was his blood essence. Sensing his upcoming doom, he had hidden a condensed drop of blood essence inside the Demon Palace. They needed it.

And now, Mo Zi had it. Despite the distraction around him, Mo Zi had finally gotten the drop of blood. His master would be pleased. Mo Tian had planned for this for a century. And Mo Zi had heard about it almost all his life. Just like Can Mouye, he had been abducted as a child after his family was massacred. But now he didn't care about it. Without this tragedy, he would only have been a weak mortal as his family was nothing impressive. But because Mo Tian had taken an interest in him, he might one day transcend both humans and demons. The legendary realms beyond Spirit Warrior would soon be accessible.

If he could also kill Cao Yun, this would be perfect. As soon as he thought about it, Mo Zi remembered his master's words. They were now so close to their goal. Although Mo Zi was convinced he could kill Cao Yun in his current state, there was no reason to play with fire. Maybe he would lose too much time and something terrible would happen. No matter what, he had to get this drop of blood to his master as soon as possible. At last, he activated the last part of the array formation plate. The blood needle that was now tiny and spinning around him halted all of a sudden. Then, it darted in a random direction.

-

Chief Elder Suxian was alone in a room with his friend Luoming Tian.

"Brother, I... I detected something in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. There are traces that the array formation has been tampered with. And they look like what my master, your father, used to do. Please, help me make sense of this."

Chief Elder Luoming had seen this coming. He sighed deeply and looked down.

"Friend, I really hoped I would not have to do this. At least, not so soon..."

"What do you..."

Before he could end his question, Chief Elder Suxian felt a pain in his heart. His friend had just shoved his right hand directly into his chest. From the wound, Chief Elder Suxian felt an extreme cold spread through his body. This was clearly poison but he had no idea what kind of poison. In his eyes, there was still disbelief. He could not imagine any situation in which his friend would try to kill him. Maybe someone had taken his appearance. Maybe this was an illusory array formation. But no, although there were array formations that could deceive Chief Elder Suxian, they were so powerful that no one was able to set them up in the current era. This was really his friend and he had just killed him.

Usually even losing one's heart was not enough to kill a Spirit Warrior but the poison unleashed by the attack was strange. It had completely congealed the Qi in his meridians. In an instant, it had spread throughout all his acupoints. Now Chief Elder Suxian's Soul Embryo could not even exit his body, both his Qi and his spiritual senses were trapped in his flesh. And his body was paralyzed.

"I am sincerely sorry. I hoped you would live long enough to see that I was right. I hoped that one day you would be by my side like a brother. But do not worry too much. I'll try not to hurt your disciple. Regarding his friend though..."

-

All the elders and chief elders were preparing many layers of defense around both the Palace of Supreme Wisdom and the Wubei Sect as a whole. Sect Leader Xuan was also still repairing the damage alone. Some were even wondering if the rumors about him being too weak with old age were right. During the stampede, he had not appeared either, he had only used the Seal of Authority to activate the array formations. Although there had been almost no casualty, the damage to the defensive array formations had been extensive. But a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior should have been able to deal with most of the demonic beasts without those external means. Thus, rumors were spreading. Maybe he really was too old.

The fact that he had given the Seal of Authority to Xiao Xuefeng was also a bad point for him in the eyes of many. Although she was renowned and praised, she was still an outsider. And now she had the full authority of the sect leader. She was even the one who was commanding the elders and chief elders right now.

As she was giving more orders, Xiao Xuefeng suddenly halted. She looked in some direction and disappeared in front of everyone. Most elders could not see her move but the chief elders who were around did. And when they tried to sense what was going on in the direction she was flying toward, they realized that there was some kind of void. There was a room in which they were unable to pry. Apart from very specific buildings such as the Sect Palace which had many array formations and had been built with a lot of Void Nurtured Platinum, nothing should escape their gaze.

In fact, they knew that this room was nothing special. It was just an old room they had forgotten about. Yet someone had made it impervious to their senses. But of course, Xiao Xuefeng was the greatest master of spiritual senses. If someone could feel what was happening in that room, it was her. And if she was rushing toward it. This was an emergency!

Although she had received no such order, Chief Elder Baishen abandoned her post as well and followed behind Xiao Xuefeng. The two women together were powerful enough to deal with almost any threat. As such, the other chief elders were not worried at all about them. Besides, Xiao Xuefeng had still the Seal of Authority. As long as she was within the walls of the Wubei Sect, she was a goddess.

When Xiao Xuefeng was close enough, she literally ripped apart the walls. Several buildings around the room she was aiming for were also damaged but she did not care in the slightest. The scene she saw enraged her. Although she had been here only three years, she had developed a nice relationship with Chief Elder Suxian. He had even helped her refine the Life Boiling Cradle pill. And here he was with Chief Elder Luoming's arm through his chest.

"Miss Xiao. I was excepting you. Apparently my disciples took a little too long and I was discovered ahead of schedule. At this point in time, you were supposed to be lying in your own blood. But we can still remedy that."

In an instant, Chief Elder Luoming let go of his former friend and appeared in front of Xiao Xuefeng. Even with her senses, he had been too fast for her. But worse than that, she now realized he had been hiding his cultivation. The most frightening part was that she had been deceived. Chief Elder Luoming was supposed to be an early 8th-grade Spirit Warrior, just a little above her own cultivation. But he was in fact a late 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Moreover, he was ready to finally break through to the Sage realm. In other words, he was at the same level as Sect Leader Xuan.

With no time to take out her weapon, Xiao Xuefeng relied on the Seal of Authority. With it, she could control everything within the Wubei Sect. Even a real Sage would have a hard time fighting against the entire Wubei Sect.

From the Seal of Authority, a single character appeared, 'Traitor'. All of a sudden, a powerful shockwave erupted from the seal and pushed Luoming Tian far away.

"Break!"

Without even taking out any weapon, he put his palm in front of him, still covered in his friend's blood. In a very short amount of time, he slowed down his movement as the shockwave became weaker and weaker.

On the ground, Chief Elder Baishen finally saw Chief Elder Suxian's body. He was not dead yet but he had lost almost all of his blood and it was black. She didn't need to be a physician to know that he had been poisoned.

"Take him to Chief Elder Qinghe."

"But..."

The old woman looked in the direction of Luoming Tian. Although Xiao Xuefeng was powerful, she was not a fighter. But on the other hand, Chief Elder Baishen was only a 7th-grade Spirit Warrior herself. Without the help of the Seal of Authority, she would be hard pressed to fight against a late 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Besides, she also realized that Chief Elder Suxian's condition was terrible.

Before Xiao Xuefeng could repeat her command, Chief Elder Baishen obeyed. Using everything she got, she activated several movement arts at the same time. The building around her got vaporized in an instant as she flew toward the physician pavilion. Her speed was so great that everyone in the Wubei Sect heard the echo of the vibrations she caused in the air.