Chapter 856: A Series of Great Shows

Chapter 856: A Series of Grand Plays

Boom! With a thunderous roar, that strange valley was flattened by Ye Chen's palm.

Then, he smeared the blood of the ant elder on his forehead.

Subsequently, he transformed, taking on the appearance of the Māyī Lǎozhé, imitating his every word and action to perfection.

And so, this guy's purpose was clear: he wanted to use the convenience of the Māyī Lǎozhé's identity to do some rather disreputable things.

The Māyī Lǎozhé was from the same generation as the supreme ancestor of Shìxuè Diàn, revered as Yán Zūn. Although he didn't have as much power as the Shìxuè Yánluó, and wasn't like the nine great branch hall masters who commanded large armies, his orders were still quite effective at times.

"Shìxuè Diàn, this time you'll have your hands full."Ye Chen sneered coldly and flew straight towards one direction.

After a quarter of an hour, he arrived at a vast ancient city.

"Have you heard? The one who kidnapped Xue Lin demanded over ninety million spirit stones from Shìxuè Diàn." As before, as soon as he entered the ancient city, he heard discussions everywhere.

"That guy is really ruthless."Someone clicked their tongue. "Ninety million spirit stones! I've never seen that much money in my life."

"The one demanding the ransom is that person's clone. He must be an experienced kidnapper."Someone sighed. "Shìxuè Diàn has so many experts, but they still haven't found where his true body is."

"I don't know why, but this kidnapping reminds me of someone."Someone stroked his chin.

"You're thinking of Ye Chen from South Chu, right!"Someone gently stroked his beard. "Their styles are quite similar, but Ye Chen? He's basically impossible; he's already dead."

Listening to the discussions along the way, the person in the black robe had already stepped into a pavilion.

Inner realm!

Just as he walked in, Ye Chen saw through the mystery here. The facade was small, but inside it was extraordinarily vast, with a radius of over ten thousand zhang, making him marvel at the grandeur of Shìxuè Diàn.

Seeing Ye Chen enter, an elder sitting cross-legged on one side of the pavilion slowly opened his eyes, glanced at Ye Chen, and then spoke indifferently,"Our pavilion is closed to visitors today; leave quickly."

Ye Chen ignored the elder's words, took a step forward, and headed straight to the inner hall of the pavilion.

"You—"The elder's face instantly turned cold, and he immediately conjured a large hand to grab at Ye Chen.

"Get lost!"Ye Chen flipped his hand and struck, sending the elder vomiting blood as he retreated.

"Who dares to cause trouble here?"Immediately, a powerful aura surged, and a blood-haired elder appeared like a ghost, staring coldly at the black-robed Ye Chen.

Not only him, but from this branch pavilion, over a hundred figures rushed out at the same time, with the weakest at the fifth level of Lingxu Realm.

"Sir, this is the heavily guarded area of Shìxuè Gé; aren't you being too arrogant?"The blood-robed elder stared coldly at Ye Chen.

"Cāng Mù, you've got quite the air about you!"Ye Chen spoke, his voice cold and desolate, carrying supreme authority.

With that, he waved his hand and pulled off the black robe covering him, revealing the venerable appearance of Māyī Lǎozhé.

"You—"Seeing Ye Chen's true face, the blood-clothed elder named Cāng Mù was stunned for a second, and after that second, they all knelt on one knee."Disciple Cāng Mù pays respects to Uncle-Master Yán."

"Yán... Uncle-Master? He is Yán Zūn?"Seeing Cāng Mù performing such a grand rite, the others in Shìxuè Gé suddenly looked at Ye Chen. They were of a lower generation than Cāng Mù, so someone whom even Cāng Mù called Uncle-Master was their grand-uncle-master!

At this moment, especially the elder who had just attacked Ye Chen, his face turned pale in an instant. His generation was too low; he had never seen Yán Zūn of Shìxuè Diàn before. Now, upon learning Ye Chen's identity, he was almost scared to death.

"Are you all courting death? Why aren't you kneeling?"Seeing everyone standing there in a daze, Cāng Mù roared angrily.

Upon hearing the rebuke, over a hundred people snapped out of it and knelt collectively before Ye Chen."We pay respects to Grand-Uncle-Master."

"Rise!"Ye Chen didn't even glance sideways as he walked step by step to the dragon seat in the inner hall, acting with extraordinary authenticity.

Here, Cāng Mù, who had just stood up, calmed his shocked emotions a bit before tentatively looking at Ye Chen."Uncle-Master, I heard you were in seclusion comprehending the Dao. How did you come out?"

"If I didn't come out, Shìxuè Diàn would be ruined by you all."Ye Chen snorted coldly, startling Cāng Mù so much that his whole body trembled, and the others even more so.

"Uncle-Master is right in his teachings."

"Execute everyone on the list without exception."Ye Chen threw out a scroll, densely written with names, over a thousand in total.

Upon hearing this, Cāng Mù hurriedly glanced at it, but his brows furrowed at the same time.

After three to five seconds, he tentatively looked at Ye Chen."Uncle-Master, forgive my nephew's stupidity. The people on the list are basically the heirs of the major families in North Chu, and most are allied with our Shìxuè Diàn. If we kill them, it might affect the alliance matters!"

"Are you questioning me?"Ye Chen said coldly, with a startling light flashing in his turbid old eyes.

"I... I dare not, nephew."

"If you dare not, then do as I say."Ye Chen's voice was full of irrefutable authority. "If you can't even tell friend from foe, Shìxuè Diàn will eventually fall into your hands."

"Understood."Cāng Mù wiped away some cold sweat and looked at Ye Chen again. "Then, should we report this to the hall master?"

However, after saying that, he regretted it. Yán Zūn had personally come to the branch pavilion, so it must be with the hall master's orders. His question was clearly doubting his uncle-master, which was insubordination.

As for Ye Chen, he acted very much like the part; for Cāng Mù's question, he simply remained silent and coldly glanced at Cāng Mù with his eyes.

In this way, one look said it all; this was Ye Chen's cleverness.

After the silence, Ye Chen slowly stood up and walked step by step towards the outside, his body fading with each step."Act quickly, and I don't want them to know this has anything to do with Shìxuè Diàn."

"I will not fail in this mission."Cāng Mù hurriedly saw Ye Chen off.

After Ye Chen left, he wiped away another cold sweat, feeling as if he had just walked through the gates of hell.

"Cabinet Master, do we really not need to report this?"On the side, a purple-clothed elder tentatively looked at Cāng Mù.

"Report what? Are you asking for death?"Cāng Mù immediately scolded.

"Yes, yes, this subordinate is foolish."

"Pass the order: all personnel, assemble."

Meanwhile, Ye Chen had already hurried straight to the next ancient city.

Just like this time, he repeated the same trick, bluffing the people in the Shìxuè Diàn branch pavilion.

Next, he directly copied this approach, visiting one ancient city after another, staging one grand play after another.

However, along this dusty path, what he was doing were major events that stirred up storms.

Until nightfall, he stopped in a deep mountain, casually tearing off his disguised clothing.

That day, he had visited over a dozen Shìxuè Diàn branch pavilions, and the forces he commanded to gather were quite powerful. With them secretly fueling the fire, it would surely keep North Chu's Shìxuè Diàn and the major forces occupied for a short time.

Although he wanted to tour the major halls and other branch pavilions of Shìxuè Diàn in the ancient cities, for safety reasons, he decided to first go after the Hàotiān Shìjiā, because the Shìxuè Shényǐng could find their tracks at any time.

"I'll leave it to you all here."Ye Chen took a deep breath and turned to disappear.

At this moment, on a vast mountain peak, the ninth hall master of Shìxuè Diàn, Xuè Qióng, appeared.

"Hall Master."Seeing Xuè Qióng return, several commanders rushed over. "How did it go?"

"How else could it be?"Xuè Qióng's face was ashen, furious beyond words. Originally, everything was planned perfectly, and he would have ascended to the position of Shìxuè Diàn master without issues, but Shìxuè Yánluó was still alive and well. This time, not only did his dream not come true, but he was also scolded mercilessly.

Xuè Qióng was depressed; ever since receiving the order to exterminate the Hàotiān Shìjiā, he had been hit with one misfortune after another, and it was as if it was endless bad luck that he couldn't stop.

Seeing Xuè Qióng in such a sorry state, the various commanders wisely kept their mouths shut, thinking that their hall master must have hit a wall this time.

"Notify everyone: continue the search for me."It wasn't until who knows when that Xuè Qióng roared.

Now, all his fantasies were shattered, and everything returned to the starting point. If he couldn't complete the task, it wouldn't just be losing the hall master position; he might even lose his head.

"Hall Master, there's something I don't know if I should say."One commander spoke softly.

"What the hell time is it? Speak!"Xuè Qióng scolded.

"Is our search direction wrong?"That commander braced himself and said.

"What do you mean?"

"I suspect they took a detour through the mortal world."

"Have you lost your mind, or has the Hàotiān family lost theirs?"Xuè Qióng immediately cursed. "There's no teleportation array in the mortal world. If they go through there, when will they get back to South Chu? Are they full and have nothing better to do?"

"Hall Master, what the third commander said makes sense."Another commander hurriedly unfolded a large map, pointing to several places on it. "The Shìxuè Shényǐng has guarded the teleportation arrays to the major ancient cities in South Chu, but there's no sign of the Hàotiān Shìjiā. So many people, it's as if they vanished into thin air. Don't you find that strange, Hall Master?"

"Get to the point."Xuè Qióng took a deep breath.

"The point is, they deliberately avoided the areas where cultivators gather, that is, the ancient cities with teleportation arrays."That commander said immediately. "The Hàotiān Shìjiā has so many people; the teleportation arrays in ordinary ancient cities can't support their transmission. They know that, and with such a large target, they have good reason to bypass the ancient cities where cultivators congregate."

As soon as these words were spoken, Xuè Qióng's eyes narrowed slightly, and his overheated mind returned to its usual wisdom. Precisely because it's unconventional, it's more possible.

"They don't dare to make a big fuss, so they must choose remote places to proceed."While Xuè Qióng was pondering, another commander spoke. "Based on the time, they should still be in the cultivator world and infinitely close to the mortal world."

"Perhaps, their goal isn't to detour through the mortal world, but to hide in the mortal world."A commander pondered. "Once the heat dies down, they'll sneak back into the cultivator world and use the teleportation arrays to go to South Chu in batches. But in any case, their target is likely the mortal world."

Now, Xuè Qióng's eyes narrowed even more, with a sharp cold light flashing in them."Hàotiān Xuán Zhèn, I really underestimated you, pulling something like this on me."

"Where is the closest mortal world boundary to North Zhèn Cāng Yuán?"Xuè Qióng asked immediately.

"It's an eighty-thousand-li mountain range."A commander pointed to a place on the map. "Here, Huángquán Mountain Range."

"Huángquán Mountain Range, what a fitting name."Xuè Qióng's face instantly turned ferocious, with a sinister light flashing in his eyes. "Pass the order: all armies, head to Huángquán Mountain Range. This time, I want to wait in ambush. Let Huángquán Mountain Range become the road to the underworld for the Hàotiān family."