A Spell Formation deployed by the Greatest Heaven Sect had been discovered by some random chance at this place, when a YuanYing stage senior together with some guests of another sect which had mediated in the war, were passing through there and were attacked by the Spell Formation.
An attack on the guests of the Five Phases Sect was a direct provocation to the authority of the Five Phases Sect. The YuanYing stage ancestor had directly attacked and broke down the Spell Formation in his bottomless fury, even getting rid of a JieDan expert of the Greatest Heaven Sect. Simultaneously they seemed to have also killed a Foundation stage junior, who was found decapitated and was not a disciple of the Greatest Heaven Sect.
All of the dead bodies were discovered at the scene and the Spell Formation was in a complete mess. Nobody knew why the two JieDan experts had attacked this YuanYing stage ancestor of the Five Phases Sect at this time, the body of that Foundation stage cultivator was also a riddle, but one thing was absolutely clear: the Greatest Heaven Sect was in great trouble this time.
This was not just trouble but very annoying trouble. All this time the Greatest Heaven Sect and the Five Phases Sect had practiced a lot of self control. After some big sects had mediated, everyone had intended to talk some sweet words and shake hands, and the conditions had all been discussed properly, but this one attack had wasted all of their previous efforts.
This was certainly a case of trying to dodge responsibility by saying that there was no proof of anything, but it was not enough. The people who were attacked belonged to various sects, including two sects which were allies of the Greatest Heaven Sect. The attack being launched from the ground was conclusive evidence, there was definitely no possibility of not taking responsibility.
On top of the already leaked Spell Diagram of the Greatest Heaven Sect, there was also a natural attack Spell Formation. Although everyone knew about the spell diagram, they were not clear about the internal controls to it. Apart from the people of the Greatest Heaven Sect, others were not familiar with controlling this Spell Formation in the least, so pushing the responsibility to other people was not a possibility. Here the suspicion was only on three people, two JieDan stage experts of the Greatest Heaven Sect and one unknown Foundation stage junior of some other sect. In any case, that junior was not a disciple of the Greatest Heaven Sect. The question was why he was with the Greatest Heaven Sect.
The two great sects had once again resumed a state of mutual hostility and anything was possible at the moment. This time, regardless of whether it was those mediating sects, or the disciples of the two great sects, even disciples of the Greatest Heaven Sect felt hatred towards these two JieDan stage disciples who had attacked first without permission.
For the Five Phases Sect, this was an unprecedented shame. The Greatest Heaven Sect had not only deployed a spell to steal the Fifth Earth True Qi from under their noses, but also after they were discovered they had also attacked a YuanYing stage senior, during the time the other sects were mediating the situation. This had already crossed the limits of provocation, it was like whipping their face with a bloody palm.
The slap was not only on the face of the Five Phases Sect, but also on the face of those big sects who were trying to reconcile them. The Greatest Heaven Sect absolutely did not care about the honor of anyone. These big sects were previously scared that, due to the strife between these two sects, a void would be created and Devil Sects could enter, but who could have thought that the Greatest Heaven Sect which was usually known as the most upright sect, could surprisingly cause this kind of matter.
This action had pushed those big, mediating sects towards the side of the Five Phases Sects, even those two allied sects of the Greatest Heaven Sect also supported the Five Phases Sect because of the attack on their own disciples. When the experts of the other few sects received this news, they also rushed towards the Desolate Valley at lightning speed. The general atmosphere was towards uprooting the power of the Greatest Heaven Sect from the Desolate Valley, even the territory under the Greatest Heaven Sect’s influence was no longer calm.
How could the person in charge of the Greatest Heaven Sect who was responsible for the matters of Desolate Valley dare to neglect it? He hastily ran towards the scene. Without saying anything more, he first apologized in order to pacify everyone, and then he asked about the details of the matter. The Sect Master of the Greatest Heaven Sect also rushed there as soon as he received the news, without caring much about the face of a Sect Master. If this matter was not handled carefully, then, although it wouldn’t go as far as the extermination of the Greatest Heaven Sect, it would certainly turn more than half of the cultivators in the world into their enemies.
That one Foundation stage junior with an unknown identity was also recognized by some people, surprisingly this was the sect traitor, Chu Heng, who the Pure Yang Palace had been looking for all along. His dead body had already been dismembered into a few parts by the angry YuanYing stage ancestor, but his face was fortunately still clearly recognizable. A lot of people in the Greatest Heaven Sect knew Chu Heng, at this moment, who would hide the identity of that traitor of the Pure Yang Palace, Chu Heng?
If it was just Chu Heng’s identity then it was still not much, but this was the region where Chu Heng had defeated four disciples of the Pure Yang Palace’s Law Enforcement Hall. But when they thought about the Spell Formation which had previously attacked the YuanYing stage ancestor, everyone immediately realized that Chu Heng had the assistance of this Spell Formation, only then could he, a water attributed cultivator, have defeated the four Law Enforcement disciples of the Pure Yang Palace.
Everything was revealed clearly, it was not that the Law Enforcement Hall’s disciples were not powerful enough, it was because the traitor had gotten external help, moreover the assistance of one of the most powerful sects. Against this kind of enemy, losing was not shameful, but the Greatest Heaven Sect on the contrary had shielded Chu Heng, which made the people hold them in contempt from the bottom of their hearts.
But the revelation of Chu Heng’s identity gave the people of the Greatest Heaven Sect a way out of this embarrassing situation. The attacker on the Five Phases Sect and the few mediators had immediately turned into Chu Heng. Although shielding a traitor of Pure Yang Palace was an extremely shameful matter, and they would even have to bow their heads to Pure Yang Palace again, when comparing offending a second tier sect such as the Pure Yang Palace, to offending the Five Phases Sect and other big sects, the Sect Master of the Greatest Heaven Sect clearly knew which was more important.
After working out this huge excuse, everyone felt that they had been given face. Because Chu Heng was good friends with a disciple of the Greatest Heaven Sect, the Greatest Heaven Sect had offered him shelter when the Pure Yang Palace was hunting him, but they also hadn’t anticipated that this traitor Chu Heng had such greed, that he was willing to go so far as to cheat that good friend disciple of the Greatest Heaven Sect, and after gaining his trust and grasping the method of controlling the Spell Formation, he used it to defeat the Law Enforcement Hall’s disciples and even went as far as to attack the YuanYing stage senior of the Five Phases Sect by manipulating this Spell Formation.
They were even speaking about the two JieDan experts at the scene, how couldn’t they stop a minor Foundation stage junior? There was not much of an explanation, other than them also being cheated by Chu Heng. These JieDan stage experts must have been careless and so on, giving a variety of reasons for this calamity. Moreover, these two JieDan stage expert had already paid the price with their lives.
Apparently this was the most satisfactory explanation for all sides and at the same time was also the explanation for which they would have pay the smallest price. Although this explanation still had many loopholes, it allowed everyone to get out of an embarrassing situation while keeping their face.
Under the tacit approval from all big sects, the Greatest Heaven Sect had no option but to submit all of their harvests from the Desolate Valley this time and simultaneously compensate the damages of all parties. This explanation was also recognized as the official explanation by everyone.
From the beginning of the attack, nobody noticed that a very small Meadow Viper and a small Sand Scorpion were roaming around in that region. They both only appeared as ordinary animals who had hastily buried themselves in the sand after the attack happened and covered their presence. They slowly departed from the scene and soon afterwards they appeared in another region, where nobody could sense them.
That region was at the edge of the Desolate Valley, several hundred miles away from the scene. Yang Chen was waiting there to rendezvous with those two demon beasts. At this distance, nobody could implicate that Yang Chen had any relation with what happened on that scene.
“The affair is settled?”
Sitting upright, Yang Chen didn’t even turn his head, but mysteriously said this.
“I am extremely curious, how are you able to discover us?”
The Meadow Viper’s voice appeared from behind Yang Chen and soon afterwards both demon beasts appeared behind him.
If the distance was a little farther, then Yang Chen also didn’t have any way to sense the Meadow Viper’s breath. He clearly understood this point from his first contact with the Meadow Viper. But as long as the Meadow Viper entered within a region of two meters, then no matter how deeply the Meadow Viper had concealed its breath, Yang Chen was capable of discovering it, this had puzzled the Meadow Viper all along.
“It is nothing strange, if you approach me a little closer, you will be discovered.”
Yang Chen did not explain this very clearly. Regardless of whether it was the Meadow Viper, the Sand Scorpion or any other person, he would not reveal all of his secrets.
Everything that had happened was according to Yang Chen’s expectations. The Greatest Heaven Sect’s hard work of all these years had turned into an arduous and thankless task and they had no other option than swallowing it down, apart from compensating the Five Phases Sect and the other sects to maintain their relations and give them face, the most important thing was precisely that they would have to apologize to the Pure Yang Palace again.
If the traitor Chu Heng had been shielded by a sect hostile to the Pure Yang Palace, then there would have been no problems, since they were already enemies, it would have actually united the disciples of the Pure Yang Palace. But the Greatest Heaven Sect would not do that because, to everyone on the outside, the Greatest Heaven Sect was the Mt. Tai in terms of being upright, and moreover the Pure Yang Palace was also a sect famous for being upright, so the two sects shouldn’t be hostile and instead had to have friendly relations.
Since it was like this, shielding the traitor of Pure Yang Palace and even the attack against the disciples of Pure Yang Palace’s Law Enforcement Hall was precisely brazenly injuring fellow cultivators. Perhaps some disciples would think about killing others, but they would never voice those thoughts in public. The problem with the Greatest Heaven Sect was that, if they did not admit that their own sect’s disciple had given asylum to Chu Heng, it would mean they had admitted to attacking the Five Phases Sect.
Among both the evils, the Greatest Heaven Sect could only clench their teeth and admit to lesser evil. Since they had admitted their mistakes and moreover had acknowledged this in front of the Five Phases Sect and the other mediating sects, they had no choice other than to compensate them.
The Greatest Heaven Sect was the example of trying to gain an advantage only to come off worst at that moment. They had tried to decrease their losses by using excuses, but in reality, the compensation that they had to pay was still huge.
Leaving aside the compensation they had to pay to the Five Phases Sect and the Pure Yang Palace, even their hard work of several hundred years had gone to waste and all of the fifth earth True Qi had been handed over to the Five Phases Sect. Adding onto that the death of a YuanYing stage senior and two YuanYing stage cultivators being severely injured, this was not just a damage to their face. After all of this, even the Sect Master of the Greatest Heaven Sect who was at the Da Cheng stage could not help but spit out blood.
But if they were honest, all of this was their own fault. Who pulled Chu Heng in? Who had wanted to use Chu Heng to defame the Pure Yang Palace? This current matter, even if it was blamed on Chu Heng entirely, these people would still have to endure the blame of disciples who didn’t know the whole story. This was a big mess.
When Yang Chen left the Desolate Valley, everything had been sorted out: The traitor, Chu Heng, had attacked the people of the Five Phases Sect and other big sects, so the Greatest Heaven Sect had to pay compensation to the Five Phases Sect for stealing the fifth earth True Qi and not handling Chu Heng’s matter properly. This compensation would be delivered to their sects in a few days, which also included Yang Chen’s home, the Pure Yang Palace.
“The fifth earth True Qi that you wanted to obtain has already been taken by those people, don’t you feel regret?”
As they were departing the Desolate Valley, the Sand Scorpion on Yang Chen’s shoulder asked him this question. Currently the Sand Scorpion and the Meadow Viper had learnt to say a few words, so they hadn’t transmitted their thoughts and had asked him directly.
“Regret?”
Yang Chen shook his head:
“What use is regret? This is not the only place in the world where fifth earth True Qi exists. I will seize what I deserve, what about regret? If I regret something, it is that the small amount that I had was also absorbed by you!”
The Meadow Viper and the Sand Scorpion had also absorbed fifth earth True Qi, but they were different: they were demon beasts, even without using any cultivation method they were able to directly absorb this fifth earth True Qi.
“They are not like the both of you and neither do they have the True Fifth Earth Secrets. Even if they have the fifth earth True Qi, refining it would require at least several hundred years of time, so they will just be wasting it slowly!”
As long as the Greatest Heaven Sect did not obtain it and the Five Phases Sect got the fifth earth True Qi, Yang Chen did not care much. In any case, following this, he had to try to slowly drive a wedge in the relationship of the Greatest Heaven Sect and the other big sects, as well as increase the Greatest Heaven Sect’s number of enemies. This would indeed assist him.
Yang Chen’s generosity allowed the Sand Scorpion and Meadow Viper to consider many things. On the road, when Yang Chen was rushing back to the Pure Yang Palace, the Meadow Viper suddenly asked Yang Chen:
“Yang Chen, if we enter your Pure Yang Palace, what kind of conditions will we have there? What kind of benefits can we gain?”
“There are a lot of benefits, naturally!”
Yang Chen smiled and explained while hastening his journey:
“The most obvious one is that, from when you enter my Pure Yang Palace, you will have a backer. If anyone wants to attack you, then they must consider the consequences of infuriating my Pure Yang Palace. If you maintain your identity of a demon beast and go out, then it should be very likely that a group of masters would hunt you. Loose cultivators are not all very good, other demon beasts even less so.”
“Then what sort of conditions do I have to follow?”
The Meadow Viper wanted to know this clearly and although the Sand Scorpion did not say anything, it was also calmly listening.
“Conditions? Basically, for YuanYing stage experts like you, there won’t be any conditions, only one thing, you will have to comply by the rules of the sect, that’s all.”
Yang Chen smiled.
“These are precisely that you cannot randomly kill people, you cannot do this, you cannot do that, isn’t that right?”
Although the Meadow Viper had a good temper, this time anxiousness was clear in its voice.
“Kill people?”
The smile on Yang Chen’s face widened even more:
“Do you think I kill a small number of people? The main point is that whoever you kill, you must not allow them to get any information that can be used against you. Most of all, you both, you are demon beasts, so you must be even more careful and by all means must not allow anyone to regard you as a target to get rid of, like a devil and to defend traditional values.”
