Seeing these two’s reaction, Wu Jie simply snickered and without even moving, pressed his aura down on them, causing the two men to instantly go pale as they realized the massive gap in power between themselves and Wu Jie. All thoughts of resistance disappeared and only fear and panic remained in their eyes.
One of them trembled as he managed to ask, “Who are you and why did you capture us?”
Wu Jie didn’t answer, his green glowing eyes staring menacingly towards the pair of now terrified cultivators.
It was only after thoroughly intimidating them that Wu Jie coldly spoke, “I have something to ask you, your free to answer or not to answer, but if you fail to satisfy me, I’ll strip your Souls from your bodies and search your memories myself. If you’d prefer to not suffer the pain of having your Souls torn apart, I suggest you cooperate honestly.”
“Strip our Souls….” The two Transcendent Realm cultivators shivered uncontrollably, all colour draining from their faces.
Their strength was not too low, so they naturally understood what kind of pain and suffering would accompany their Souls being forcefully searched. Such inhuman torture almost always resulted in one first going insane from the pain and then dying a miserable death. Generally, only the vilest of cultivators would use such means.
However, the man in front of them with his eerie green aura and ghastly eyes seemed to perfectly fit the description of an evil master…
The pair hastily nodded, “Please ask, whatever you wish to know, we will definitely answer.”
Wu Jie grinned wickedly, nodding in satisfaction before beginning, “Do you know where this is?”
The two cultivators both glanced at each other and nodded, one of them replying, “This should be somewhere inside Nine Heavens Holy Land, yes?”
“Correct, this is indeed Nine Heavens Holy Land; yet knowing that, you still dared wander around outside?” Wu Jie eyebrow slightly lifted, “Explain yourselves, what are you doing here?”
The other man quickly replied, “We came here to search for artifacts.”
“Search for artifacts?” Wu Jie frowned, “On the ground outside?”
“Yes.”
“Who told you there were artifacts out there?”
“A lot of people have been discussing rumours like that…” One of the men hurriedly explained. Listening to his story, Yang Kai quickly understood that some unknown party was spreading false information that after the war that was fought around Nine Heavens Holy Land three years ago, countless powerful cultivators had died and left behind many artifacts. This rumour had attracted a great many people who wanted to try their luck to see if they could pick up a treasure or two.
“There are a lot of people outside, are you all looking for artifacts?” Wu Jie asked.
“There are some who are looking for artifacts, others seem to be hunting for Monster Beasts… We heard that many Sixth-Order and Seventh-Order Monster Beasts had run over here from the Beast Sea Jungle. Those Monster Beasts are good sources of refining materials.”
The other man quickly added, “It seems that there are also some people who have come here to kill Demons. Word is the new Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land has accepted a group of Demons as subordinates and settled them in the nine peaks. Those people came here to clean up those vile Demons!”
“Depending on just you?” Wu Jie looked at this pair with utter contempt and no small amount of pity, “Since you have heard there are Demons here, did you not hear about what kind of strength the posses?”
“It’s said that there were only a few masters among that group of Demons, a small number of Transcendents at most…”
“Hahaha…” Wu Jie cackled wryly, nodding repeatedly, “Indeed, there aren’t many masters among them… En, only five or so.”
Naturally, he was referring to five Saint Realm masters, three of whom had reached the Second Order!
Wu Jie had seen with his own eyes Li Rong fight Demon General Xue Li to a standstill and well understood how incredible the Ancient Demon Clan’s combat strength was. They were not a force one or two big Sects could take on.
If someone really wanted to exterminate them, they would need to gather together at least three or four forces on the same level as Soaring Heaven Sect to do so, and that was only if they were willing to suffer massive losses in the process.
Relying on these pitiful weaklings to clean up the Ancient Demon Clan was akin to hoping a bunch of ants cold shake a mighty tree.
After questioning them for a bit longer and determining they knew nothing else of importance, Wu Jie knocked the two foreign cultivators out again.
Turning his attention back to Yang Kai, Wu Jie frowned, “Sir Holy Master, it seems like someone is deliberately spreading some unfavourable rumours about you while guiding these hapless cultivators towards Nine Heavens Holy Land.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, not knowing why but suddenly recalling the Human Race powerhouse called Wu Zheng he had met recently.
If there weren’t some high-level Human Race masters working behind the scenes, there was no way these false rumours would have spread out so quickly across the Human Territory and deceived so many people. Only someone with a certain amount of prestige could do this otherwise no one would believe such obvious lies.
Wu Zheng obviously had such capabilities.
“What is the mastermind behind all this hoping to achieve? He must know that these riff-raff can’t possibly bring any harm to the Holy Land,” Xu Hui asked curiously.
“Some people don’t want Li Rong and her clan to remain in Nine Heavens Holy Land,” Yang Kai snorted, “They don’t want to see us getting close to the Demon Race as they consider such actions a great shame for the Human Race.”
Wu Jie’s eyes narrowed, seemingly thinking of something, a moment later conjecturing, “What Sir Holy Master means to say is that the one inciting these cultivators to come to Nine Heavens Holy Land is hoping to force a conflict to arise?”
“Something to that effect,” Yang Kai nodded, “Once we take action, no matter who moves, they can shift all the blame onto Li Rong. At that time, the person behind all of this will use that as an excuse to lead the Human Race’s forces against Li Rong and her clan. If they attack Li Rong, naturally I will not be able to sit back and watch, but once I step in, it will mean involving the Holy Land. When that happens, the Holy Land will become enemies with the entire Human Race and will have no chance of survival.”
“Are they so sinister?” Xu Hui expression changed.
“En, truly a bunch of despicable villains…” Wu Jie pondered, “If it was any other force, having so many foreign cultivators wandering around right outside their door, they would definitely choose to immediately drive them off. This Wu believes that the ones behind all this have hidden some pawns amongst these people who will be responsible for fanning the flames the moment Sir Holy Master tries to expel them.”
Yang Kai glanced over at him and couldn’t help grinning, his thoughts aligning perfectly with the latter.
“Holy Master, how should we deal with this?” Xu Hui asked, seemingly understand that although the situation was current not so bad, if they waited too long, more cultivators who were deceived would swarm to Nine Heavens Holy Land.
This situation needed to be resolved as swiftly as possible.
Nine Heavens Holy Land had just managed to return to a steady-state of development, if a conflict with many external forces were to suddenly occur, it would definitely have a large negative impact on its future.
Especially now that Yang Kai had not yet fully matured.
“What does Great Elder think?” Yang Kai looked at him and asked for his opinion.
Xu Hui respectfully replied, “Subordinate thinks that we should first announce the truth of this matter to the cultivators who have been deceived so they can withdraw of their own accord. The rumours of artifacts being leftover from that battle are completely ridiculous. If such things really existed, how could my Holy Land have not already collected them? As long as they can’t find anything they will eventually leave. As for the Monster Race and Monster Beasts, they have already returned to the Beast Sea Jungle, if those people have the courage to hunt Monster Beats, they might as well go to the Monster Domain, there’s no need for them to idle around outside the Holy Land… As for the cultivators who came here to fight Demons, we can just deny the existence of Senior Li and the others, they can’t enter and inspect the nine peaks anyways. As long as Senior Li and her clan remain inside the nine peaks and waits for this storm to pass, everything should be fine.”
Xu Hui was reluctant to go to war right now, that much was obvious to Yang Kai.
After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai nodded and agreed, “Then we will first act in accordance with Great Elder’s plan, bring some people and tell those foreign cultivators who are idling outside the Holy Land to disperse; however… do not appear too accommodating or amenable, lest they think they can make like of our Holy Land. En, we must let the world know what fate awaits those who offend us! Entering our Holy Land’s territory without permission is more than enough reason for us to kill!”
“It is exactly as Holy Master says!” Xu Hui nodded firmly.
In the past, if these people had dared to wander freely outside Nine Heavens Holy Land, Xu Hui would have already sent them packing, how could he waste time speaking with them? Anyone who refused to obey would be immediately killed, but the current Holy Land was no longer the same as before, so Xu Hui had to act more prudently.
“Good, give them three days to withdraw a hundred kilometres from the Holy Land, anyone who dares to remain past that deadline is surely a placed agitator here to stir up trouble. Such people need not be reasoned with, execute them on the spot!” Yang Kai ordered.
“Yes, subordinate will handle this matter!” Xu Hui said and immediately retired, bringing along with him the two cultivators Wu Jie had brought over.
Li Rong’s beautiful eyes flashed brightly as she stared at Yang Kai, a slight smile forming on her lips.
She suddenly found that after only a few years, Yang Kai had finally shown the temperament of a leader.
Back when he had first been sent to Demon God Citadel by Coffin Slave Senior, he was just a wary young man, but now he was able to make appropriate judgements and issue decisive orders based on the overall situation.
This was something Li Rong was very happy to see, secretly feeling once more that the Ancient Demon Clan’s future would be bright under his leadership.
“Sir Holy Master, this Wu will also take his leave, there are still a great many things to attend to in the Sect. If Sir Holy Master ever has free time, know that you are welcome to visit my Netherworld Sect at any time!” Wu Jie asked to be excused.
“One moment, Sect Master Wu,” Yang Kai stood up.
“Is there something else, Sir Holy Master?” Wu Jie asked curiously.
“I want to take a look around Shattering Mystical Palace and War Spirit Temple and would like to request Sect Master Wu to lead the way.”
“Of course of course!” Wu Jie smiled.
“Li Rong, come with me,” Yang Kai called out.
“En,” Li Rong gently nodded, also standing up.
After leaving the palace, the trio transformed into streaks of light that flew out of Nine Heavens Holy Land like bolts of lightning.
There had originally been four forces which had occupied this region but now only Nine Heavens Holy Land and Netherworld Sect remained.
These four forces weren’t located very far apart, each one only two or three hundred kilometres from its neighbours.
Such a distance would only take a moment for the current Yang Kai to cross, let alone now with Li Rong using her Demonic Qi to carry him along.
Soon, the three arrived above a group of mountains that had a large number of palatial structures arranged around it.
“This is the War Spirit Temple. Among the three forces, it was the closest to the nine peaks which resulted in them receiving the most benefits from the Holy Land; unfortunately, Cao Guan was far too short-sighted and brought ruin to his Sect,” Wu Jie explained.
Yang Kai nodded as he swept his eyes over the scene down below. The buildings were all neatly arranged, like pieces on a chessboard, but many of them had actually collapsed and there were some places where dark red bloodstains remained.
This should be a result of when Wu Jie’s came here to absorb War Spirit Temple’s disciples and resources.
