On her way, Qian Ying had already thought about how to carefully explain things to the East Yang Mountain sect leader. When she arrived, she discovered that the East Yang Mountain sect leader was not there at all.
"Where is Sect Leader Dong?" Qian Ying asked coldly, looking at the puppet in the room that exuded the East Sect Leader's aura. She was understandably upset.
Guarding the East Sect Leader was his disciple, Dong Lan Yu.
Dong Lan Yu, however, was in a daze. "Ah? Master was just here."
Qian Ying's face immediately darkened. This meant he had deliberately fled upon learning of her arrival.
But why?
Qian Ying felt something was amiss. Even if the person surnamed Dong had done something wrong, he wouldn't have slipped away before being discovered, would he?
"Tell me, what exactly happened just now."
Dong Lan Yu seemed to snap back to reality, letting out a scream, "Master?"
He looked at the puppet sitting in the chair, his face a mixture of panic and shock as he knelt on the ground. "Venerable Qian Ying, please save my master! It must have been Bai Qing Zhi and Jing Yu who did this. They were the only ones who came to see my master just now."
Dong Lan Yu lowered his head, and unseen by anyone, a deep fear flickered in his eyes.
"Explain it clearly, what happened," Qian Ying impatiently repeated.
This Dong Lan Yu, the sect leader's direct disciple, couldn't even explain things properly.
Seeing that Dong Lan Yu was still trying to be vague, she raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Time is of the essence. I advise you not to play any tricks under my nose. Otherwise, I will have to resort to unconventional means to get the answers I desire."
Dong Lan Yu's expression changed.
Gritting his teeth, he had no choice but to confess everything that had happened. "First, Jing Yu came to see Master. I don't know what they said, but Master ordered all disciples in the sect not to leave with everyone for the time being. I wanted to ask, but Master scolded me."
Dong Lan Yu had thought at the time that it was because his master was still angry with Bai Sheng Yi, and he was being implicated.
But he also felt wronged. He had been involved in so many of his master's affairs, even his private communication with Daojun Ao Ming. What else couldn't he be told?
However, Dong Lan Yu would not reveal these words. He first distanced himself from the recent events before continuing, "Not long after, Bai Qing Zhi came to see Master again, and then... and then I think I fell asleep. When I woke up, this is how it was..."
"Bai Qing Zhi?" Qian Ying's gaze slightly furrowed. She wondered if she was overthinking things. The surname "Bai" made it hard for her not to think of Xu Ye, whom they still hadn't found on Shen Qi Mountain.
She went out and summoned two disciples from Shen Qi Mountain. "You two, immediately go find Bai Qing Zhi and Jing Yu. As for the alchemists, if they want to stay here and not leave, knock them out and take them away."
"You can't do that!" Dong Lan Yu exclaimed, surprised that Qian Ying would seize this opportunity to profit.
Qian Ying sneered, "Very well, if you don't want me to do this, then tell me first, what else have you been hiding?"
Dong Lan Yu's face turned pale. He stammered for a long time but couldn't utter a single word.
Seeing this, Qian Ying let out a scoff, then waved to the two Shen Qi Mountain disciples to hurry and carry out their task. Meanwhile, she sent a telepathic message to Xuan You. "Sect Master Xuan, I'll have to trouble you to come over. The East Sect Leader is missing."
Both Qian Ying and Xuan You were having headaches from this sudden turn of events. On the mountaintop, Bai Sheng Yi, Yue Bu Fan, and Lin Qing Yu were also not faring well.
The barrier the three had jointly set up could only slow down the descent of the Huan Yu Secret Realm, but it could not stop it.
The longer time passed, the more apparent the immense size of the Huan Yu Secret Realm became.
"No, we still need to find a way to stop it," Bai Sheng Yi couldn't help but say.
Yue Bu Fan stood in front of her. "A Yi, don't be rash. At worst, the Qun Yu Mountain Range will be destroyed. And at this speed, it's enough time for the people of the Qun Yu Mountain Range to evacuate."
Yue Bu Fan was truly afraid of this granddaughter of his.
She had a reckless impulse in everything she did, not caring for her own well-being at all.
Bai Sheng Yi's gaze fell on those stones, her voice slightly沉. "But if we let this continue, the destruction of Qun Yu Mountain is a minor matter. After all, who knows if the Huan Yu Secret Realm might be as large as the entire Shen Qi? Will it want to tear through the entire Shen Qi as if it were poking a piece of paper?"
As soon as Bai Sheng Yi finished speaking, a voice of agreement came from not far away.
"A Yi is right."
Qin Si tore through space and emerged, his red attire particularly striking in the darkness.
"A Si, you're back!" Bai Sheng Yi felt her gloomy mood lift considerably upon seeing Qin Si. She stepped forward and asked, "How did it go? Where is Li Ting Yun?"
It was no secret that Qin Si had taken Li Ting Yun to the Heavenly Dao Mountain Stream, and Lin Qing Yu and Yue Bu Fan were also people they could trust.
"Dead."
Qin Si clicked his tongue and said with annoyance, "That old thing indeed had something left on him. Fortunately, the Heavenly Dao's repair of the Immortal Ladder obscured the heavenly secrets, and we were within the Heavenly Dao Mountain Stream at the time. Otherwise, I fear that the moment I made my move, that old thing would have self-destructed."
Bai Sheng Yi frowned slightly. "So, you mean that even in such an environment, the person behind Li Ting Yun could still control him?"
Qin Si nodded.
Bai Sheng Yi's brows furrowed even tighter.
This meant that this person's cultivation was extremely profound, at least at the Void Breaking Realm or even the Sage Realm.
Such a person would likely be a powerhouse in the Chong Yuan Middle World.
However, if it weren't for someone with solid cultivation, they wouldn't dare to so easily incur the wrath of a small world.
Qin Si continued, "I only managed to search half of his soul before Li Ting Yun's Nascent Soul shattered."
For a Mahayana cultivator, if their physical body was destroyed and then their Nascent Soul shattered, it meant true and utter death, unable to even enter the cycle of reincarnation.
"It's a pity there wasn't much useful information," Qin Si's phoenix eyes dimmed slightly. "However, I learned from Li Ting Yun's memories that Yun You Yue had sent a message to Li Ting Yun a month ago, stating that the Huan Yu Secret Realm would appear in Shen Qi. Furthermore, people from the three continents of the Chong Yuan Middle World would also come to Shen Qi."
"This..." Yue Bu Fan was shocked.
He said, "This way, the allure of the Huan Yu Secret Realm is greater than we imagined. I fear people from the other two middle worlds will also come."
"The other two middle worlds?" Bai Sheng Yi asked doubtfully, "Could it be that there are only three middle worlds? Does that mean there are also great worlds?"
"Naturally," Lin Qing Yu replied to Bai Sheng Yi.
A hint of an unreadable sarcasm flickered in Lin Qing Yu's bewitching eyes. He said, "According to legend, after Hong Meng, Huan Yu was born. After the gods fell, the Heavenly Dao appeared. So, the gods lived in Huan Yu at that time. After Huan Yu disappeared, it transformed into a long galaxy and countless worlds, which are divided into three tiers."
"Three tiers?"
Yue Bu Fan was also hearing this for the first time. He surmised it must be the inheritance memory of the demon race, as the Phoenix clan was also one of the divine beasts.
However, for some unknown reason, they had become reclusive. It wasn't until the collapse of the Vermilion Bird Secret Realm thousands of years ago that everyone learned that the Vermilion Bird lineage of the Phoenix clan had indeed survived, and then Lin Qing Yu emerged to unify the demon race.
Thinking about it now, it seemed as if everything, in a mysterious way, had its cause and effect.