“Cannot calculate! Cannot calculate!”
Xuan Fengzi was both startled and terrified, his eyes vacant, as if his soul had left him. He just kept muttering these three words.
Bai Jiang was not a patient person. He frowned tightly, "Old man, what are you playing at? How can there be anything your Tian Xuan Sect cannot calculate?"
A faint smile played on his lips, but his words were forceful and overbearing, "If you cannot calculate it with your broken turtle shell, then use your lifespan. If your lifespan cannot calculate it, then use your Xuan Tian Sect's destiny. In short, I want to know the result."
The path of divination and calculation was, in essence, prying into the secrets of heaven. However, it was said that heavenly secrets should not be revealed, so how could one know them without paying a price?
According to Bai Jiang's intention, he wanted Xuan Fengzi to find the whereabouts of the Tian Ji Sword at all costs.
Bai Jiang said this because he feared the slippery old man would try to fob him off. Little did he know, as soon as he finished speaking, he saw Xuan Fengzi spit out another mouthful of blood. His face rapidly withered, as if he had aged two hundred years in the blink of an eye.
Already an old man, he became even more aged.
"Cough, cough!" Xuan Fengzi gave a bitter smile, "Bai Jiang, the whereabouts of the Tian Ji Sword truly cannot be calculated."
He had never seen such obscure and strange卦象 (guà xiàng - divination charts). The sky was a hazy grey, the earth shrouded in mist. There was no Tian Ji Sword, nor any person. When he tried to probe further, his heart suddenly ached, and he was unexpectedly repelled, even losing over three hundred years of his lifespan.
"My lifespan is nearing its end. I must return to Xuan Tian Sect to arrange my affairs," Xuan Fengzi had completely given up.
He had secretly toiled for so many years to elevate his cultivation to the middle stage of Nascent Soul, with a total lifespan of only a thousand years. Now, after such an ordeal, he had less than thirty years left to live.
Thirty years. For a cultivator, what was the difference between that and waiting to die?
Since he was going to die anyway, who cared about the threat of that void beast!
Bai Jiang watched Xuan Fengzi turn and leave. His smiling face instantly collapsed, and he said sinisterly and stubbornly, "Useless trash!"
Not far away, Yu Pingxiao and other disciples, having failed to catch up with the white figure, returned with worried expressions.
"Senior Brother Bai?" Yu Pingxiao looked at Bai Jiang's white robes with hesitation, "Senior Brother Bai, have you finished your business?"
Bai Jiang smiled, "It's done. Let's go, I'll patrol with Junior Brother Yu and the others."
Yu Pingxiao couldn't help but ask, "Senior Brother Bai, did you just see a white figure?"
"A white figure? What white figure? Could it be that a demonic cultivator has sneaked onto Mount Qunyu?" Bai Jiang asked urgently. "No, we must immediately inform Sect Leader Xuan You and Daoist Master Qian Ying of Xuan Tian Sect."
The ones stationed at Mount Qunyu were precisely Xuan Nu Sect Leader Xuan You and Divine Inspiration Mountain Daoist Master Qian Ying. That's right, ten years ago, Qian Ying had a sudden enlightenment on the battlefield, breaking through to the Mahayana stage and becoming a Mahayana cultivator.
Seeing Bai Jiang's worried and urgent expression, which did not seem feigned, Yu Pingxiao's recent doubts dissipated. He nodded in agreement, "Yes, let's go together."
The group immediately went to report the matter.
A chilling murderous intent flickered across Xuan You's ice-cold face, "Issue an order. Search Mount Qunyu immediately."
"Which teams of disciples are responsible for patrolling today?" Xuan You asked again.
She was naturally aloof and indifferent. Over the years, she had been involved in constant battles, and her entire being exuded a fierce, icy killing intent that deterred anyone from looking directly at her.
A disciple standing respectfully beside her listed the names of the patrolling disciples.
"Besides you, no one else noticed anything amiss?" Qian Ying played with an exquisite wine cup in her hand. Even in this simple room, her resplendent and beautiful attire still sparkled, catching everyone's eye.
Such ostentatious luxury did not seem dazzling.
"This disciple does not know," Yu Pingxiao said, "but we indeed saw that white figure."
The other disciples also chimed in, saying they had seen it.
Qian Ying did not doubt the truthfulness of these disciples' words. However, at this critical juncture, every slight disturbance had to be treated with caution.
Before long, the person sent to inquire about the other patrolling disciples' teams returned.
"Reporting to the Sect Leader and Daoist Master, besides Dong Lanyu's team, the other teams indeed did not see any white figure."
"Dong Lanyu's group also saw it?"
The disciple reporting did not answer Yu Pingxiao, but instead said, "Dong Lanyu and his group privately abandoned their posts and did not patrol within their assigned areas, so they have no knowledge of whether a white figure appeared."
Xuan You exclaimed in anger, "Bastards!"
To be negligent of duty at such a time!
"Summon them over, and also notify the Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain to come over immediately."
However, before Xuan You's summoned personnel could leave, Dong Lanyu himself caused a commotion with his people.
"I'd like to see who dares to arrest us! We are here to support Mount Qunyu with medicinal pills. If you dare to lay a single finger on us, then from now on, if any cultivator on Mount Qunyu gets injured, do not blame us for being unforgiving and refusing to treat you!"
Dong Lanyu loudly declared, "What if I don't patrol? If demonic cultivators truly attack Mount Qunyu, then the culprits should be Divine Inspiration Mountain! It's a shame that Divine Inspiration Mountain is a sect on par with the other two. Knowing that the situation on the battlefield of Mount Qunyu is tense, they still dispatched disciples to Qianlian Sea. What, are the lives of our Mount Qunyu disciples not lives? If everyone is going to die, then what's the point of patrolling?"
Dong Lanyu's outburst caused an uproar among the disciples of various sects on Mount Qunyu.
Not all disciples were aware that Divine Inspiration Mountain had dispatched support disciples to Qianlian Sea, nor did all disciples know that Li Tingyun had appeared in Qianlian Sea. Moreover, Dong Lanyu's words were vague and deliberately incited emotions, causing a huge uproar within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
"Daoist Master Qian Ying, what is going on with your Divine Inspiration Mountain?" a disciple agitatedly approached Xuan You and Qian Ying.
"You imbecile! Get down!" The Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain strode in from outside, slapping the disciple and roaring, "Who allowed you to be presumptuous here?"
The disciple was sent staggering back two steps, becoming even more defiant, and said with his neck stiffened, "Sect Master, we just want the truth!"
Seeing this, the Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain roared "Presumptuous!" and struck out again.
However, before the palm strike could reach the disciple, it was dispersed by a crimson light.
"Fellow Daoist Qian Ying?" The Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain looked over in confusion.
Qian Ying's beautiful eyes flickered, but her voice was exceedingly cold, "No need to act in front of the old... this venerable one."
"Fellow Daoist Qian Ying, you misunderstand me," the Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain said with a facade of being a good-natured person. "This disciple is truly unruly. Let me discipline him properly."
"If you truly intended to discipline him, he wouldn't have come to me," Qian Ying chuckled.
The atmosphere in the room immediately turned rigid.
Qian Ying, however, seemed oblivious. "Since Dongyang Mountain is so dissatisfied with our Divine Inspiration Mountain, why not do this: I will yield my position to you, Sect Master Dong."
The Sect Master of Dongyang Mountain opened his mouth and chuckled awkwardly, "Fellow Daoist Qian Ying, such a joke is not funny."
"Who said I was joking?" Qian Ying lightly laughed. "Our Divine Inspiration Mountain fought for fifty years in the war between righteousness and demonic paths, only to be slandered and vilified in the end. Since that is the case, why waste our energy here?"