Chapter 1 The Truth

"It seems that if I don't use some methods on you, you won't tell the truth." Ye Chuxiao stared at Dong Li, his five fingers spread open and then slightly curved.

In Dong Li's eyes, the mountains rose higher again, and then fell like five fingers, tightly grasping him and beginning to squeeze him with force.

During the squeezing, different forces and energies collided violently. Although not enough to kill him, it caused him immense pain, as if he had tasted the feeling of being torn to pieces in an instant.

"Stop, stop! What I said is the truth."

"Ah! Bastard, you little brat, just you wait!"

"No! Stop, don't continue."

"Okay, okay, okay...I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

In the process of punishing Dong Li, he perfectly demonstrated the entire process from being tight-lipped to admitting defeat.

"Actually, provoking Qin Gongjia was originally a part of the plan. He is the master of the Chu water dragon cultivators. Now that he is old, many people want to take advantage of his decline and kill him. I don't know exactly who is manipulating things behind the scenes. My task is just to lure Qin Gongjia here," Dong Li said, his words mixed with cries of pain.

"You don't know who it is? Then you still cooperate?"

"You old demon, you're really something!" Ye Chuxiao clenched his fingers harder and then slowly moved them upward.

Under the suppression of the formation, Dong Li's transformed dragon body suddenly appeared top-heavy.

Fresh blood, along with muscle and internal organs, was squeezed by Ye Chuxiao, crowding from the tail towards the head.

"I really don't know who it is, but the one who contacted me was Nan Hui of the Five Demons. After it's done, he will give me the Wan Nü Yin Qiao Dan (Ten Thousand Maiden Yin Aperture Pill) that he has been refining for many years." Hearing this, Ye Chuxiao temporarily sealed the formation and released the seal on Jianghu (martial world) hero Han Daohang and his companion Feng Yuanlu.

Han Daohang and Feng Yuanlu naturally noticed that they had been blind and deaf moments before, but they were both smart enough not to question Ye Chuxiao.

However, the look in their eyes towards Ye Chuxiao was no longer just simple gratitude, but carried some fear and hidden worry.

"How much do you know about the Five Demons?" Ye Chuxiao asked Han Daohang.

Although Ye Chuqi had told Ye Chuxiao a lot about the Wasteland Battle Realm, his time was limited, and Ye Chuqi's own understanding and knowledge were also limited. It was impossible for him to tell Ye Chuxiao everything that had happened in the Wasteland Battle Realm throughout history.

Compared with the actual figures and events, what Ye Chuqi had told him was like a drop in the ocean.

As for the short time Ye Chuxiao himself spent in Wenjia Mountain City, he mainly used it to accumulate experience and break through to the Wisdom Realm.

His collection of external information was actually quite limited.

Therefore, Ye Chuxiao had no concept of the 'Five Demons' mentioned by Dong Li.

Han Daohang said, "The Five Demons refer to Dong Li, Xi Gui, Nan Hui, Bei Zha, and Zhong Hengtian, a total of five great demons who have wreaked havoc for many years. The Five Demons are not a united force, but because their reputations are very strong, and they have been harmful for many years, yet no one can deal with them, they are mentioned together."

"Among them, the ones that are truly harmful to the vast number of cultivators and ordinary people are Dong Li, Nan Hui, and Bei Zha. Dong Li likes to kill, is proficient in the evil arts of poison and plague, and enjoys killing people. Often, wherever he goes, corpses are strewn across the fields. Nan Hui likes to collect the pure yin blood of female cultivators who have maintained their chastity in order to cultivate, or uses the most vicious means to torture these women in order to collect Yin and foul energy. Bei Zha mainly deceives people, often causing them to lose their fortunes. The most notable instance was deceiving a Chu kingdom clan prince into selling his son on the street, becoming a laughing stock and scandal for the Chu kingdom clan."

"As for Xi Gui, his cultivation style is incompatible with normal cultivators, and he is often harassed by demon slayers. In fact, he rarely actively appears to harm a region. He is mostly in seclusion cultivating in White Bone Mountain. The name of Zhong Hengtian was truly earned through killing. Twenty years ago, he killed the Chu Emperor so that he dared not leave the imperial city, thus gaining the name Hengtian, and being listed as the leader of the Five Demons."

Hearing this, Ye Chuxiao thought for a moment and then asked, "The Five Demons are not a united force, but are there any particularly close personal relationships among them?"

Han Daohang shook his head and said, "This...I don't know. After all, whether they have personal relationships or not, they wouldn't tell me, let alone easily tell others. However, Zhong Hengtian once hunted down Nan Hui for a total of six months, but later, for some reason, it ended without a result."

Ye Chuxiao processed this information, but still had no clue.

But it didn't matter, there was still an old, wretched dragon to interrogate.

"Okay, thank you. I'll have to trouble you to be blind and deaf for a while. When things have a result, I will let you leave safely," Ye Chuxiao said to Han Daohang and Feng Yuanlu.

The two looked at each other, although they felt bitter, they didn't dare to refuse and could only nod in agreement.

Then, Ye Chuxiao once again sealed the two's ability to perceive the outside world and looked at the old dragon Dong Li locked in the formation.

This old mud loach had not resigned himself to fate, but was shrinking his dragon body, wanting to drill into the ground and escape the constraints of the formation in this way.

It could only be said that he had some ideas, but not many.

Since Ye Chuxiao had set up the formation, how could he have ignored these two obvious exits, the sky and the earth?

Naturally, he had made preparations in advance.

Dong Li had only half of his head drilled into the ground when rolling hot earth fire surged out, sticking to his scales and roasting him, almost turning him into a spicy snake dish.

Ye Chuxiao didn't waste any words and started with torture first.

After a round of 'massage,' he continued the topic.

"I've already found out that you and Nan Hui should have joined that person a long time ago!"

"It seems that apart from him, who else could make you willingly be a pawn? Selling your life as bait!" Ye Chuxiao said casually.

Hearing this, Dong Li revealed a panicked expression and said, "How...how did you know? Our allegiance to Zhong Hengtian is clearly..."

He spoke halfway, then made a look of accidentally revealing a secret, gritted his teeth, and shut his mouth, but glared at Ye Chuxiao with resentment.

"Ha...hahaha!" Ye Chuxiao pointed at Dong Li's appearance and laughed loudly.

"Your acting is really bad!" Ye Chuxiao commented.

"Forget it, I guess you wouldn't tell me the truth anyway!"

"It doesn't matter, I'm not a judge or a detective. I don't need the truth, I just need the result," Ye Chuxiao said expressionlessly.

Then, he sealed the formation, captured Dong Li, and after extracting his dragon tendons and removing his dragon scales, he imprisoned him in the ice lotus. The same Daoyun (Dao Rhythm) and Denglou (Ascension Tower) package was activated.

"Normal interrogation won't get more clues from Dong Li."

"The cause and process of the matter don't really matter."

"As long as the result is beneficial to me, but since it involves the Intent Realm, if I want to reap the benefits, my current trump cards are far from enough," Ye Chuxiao frowned.

Just like he said when he looked down on Dong Li, the Wisdom Realm was nothing, how could setting up a formation really bridge the gap with the Intent Realm?

Back then, Mr. Nanshan was able to use the Ten Thousand Plum Blossom Formation to block Wen Xianfu, not only because the formation was strong, but also because Mr. Nanshan was essentially still in the Intent Realm, only his physical cultivation had been crippled. When he changed bodies, he could still display some of the Intent Realm's style. Coupled with Wen Xianfu's scruples and restraint, that was the result.

In other words, Ye Chuxiao was not an Intent Realm cultivator. Even if he replicated a Ten Thousand Plum Blossom Formation that had been built up for many years, it would still be far from the effect Mr. Nanshan displayed.

"So the conclusion is to give up?"

Ye Chuxiao carefully recalled Ye Chuqi's explanation of the 'Dragonfall' incident.

In the incident, the person who picked up the gold in the dragon's mouth was a small Bitter Realm cultivator.

He encountered this lucky event because he went out to sea to catch spirit fish.

Then, he used this gold from the dragon's mouth to gain the appreciation of a great cultivator and entered a famous sect.

"The key to this event is that the dragon fell, but no one came to collect the spoils."

"Then there are three possibilities. The first is the familiar mutual destruction, the Gilded Dragon Qin Gongjia in Dong Li's words and the person who tried to hunt him both suffered heavy losses. The second is that the dragon hunter simply wanted to get rid of Qin Gongjia, and had no need for the gold in the dragon's mouth. This possibility exists, but the probability is not high. After all, based on the existing clues, the so-called gold in the dragon's mouth is likely the life essence that Qin Gongjia, as a Gilded Dragon, spat out before his death. No one should underestimate the final essence condensation of an Intent Realm expert. The third is that the dragon hunter himself was seriously injured and could no longer carry out more actions and had to find a place to heal as soon as possible."

Thinking of this third possibility, an extremely bold idea sprouted in Ye Chuxiao's mind and gradually made his heart beat faster.

Although the Denglou Secret Art is easy to get started with, the further you go, the harder it becomes.

And the higher the cultivation level, the higher the number of layers you reach to the 'checkpoint.'

For example, Bitter Realm cultivators may have to enter a state of long-term hard work after five layers in order to barely improve one layer.

Taking Ye Chuxiao's current Wisdom Realm cultivation as an example, it would take him a lot of time to cultivate one layer, at least until the thirtieth something layer.

If he could imprison an Intent Realm cultivator within the ice lotus, then Ye Chuxiao would not only have an extra tool for cultivating Denglou, but also 'kill the chicken to get the eggs' afterward and obtain a copy of the Intent Realm cultivator's cultivation experience for free.

This was too rare!

"Wait, Dong Li, who was responsible for being the bait and setting up certain traps, has already been dealt with by me, so will this dragon hunt still come as scheduled?" Ye Chuxiao's thoughts turned again, and then he smiled wryly.

"It seems that I'm just overthinking things!" Ye Chuxiao sighed.

Things had come to this point, and there was no chance to regret and start over.

He hadn't grasped much information at all before, so it was normal for him to make a misjudgment.

Even if he didn't cripple Dong Li and kept him as a laying hen, Ye Chuxiao couldn't have let him go.

That would really be asking for trouble.

Putting away his distracting thoughts, Ye Chuxiao released Han Daohang and Feng Yuanlu and let them leave.

As for himself, he hid under a seaside cliff, where he set up multiple concealment formations in advance and quietly hid himself.

Although the probability had declined, what if...?

Time passed little by little.

Three days had passed, and having gotten used to the ebb and flow of the tide, Ye Chuxiao no longer had any expectations for the Dragonfall incident.

Until the fourth day, Ye Chuxiao suddenly felt something vibrating slightly above the sky, emitting hidden ripples.

Looking up, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but Ye Chuxiao felt that the stars revealed between the alternating black and white were larger than before... In a trance, it seemed as if they were flowing with starry tears.

"It's coming!"

"Someone is fighting...very strong!" Ye Chuxiao looked at his hiding place. Good, very safe.

To break his concealment, they would have to pull out the multiple linked great formations he had set up around him and then overturn the entire mountain.

"Unfortunately, Intent Realm cultivators form their own domains, and their aura and power can be controlled extremely subtly. Even in collisions, the aftermath is not easily captured. Simply looking with the naked eye or using the Law Eye can't see the specific battle situation. If I use spells, it will be obvious and I may be affected," Ye Chuxiao thought again.

But soon, Ye Chuxiao no longer felt regret.

Because the fight had already moved from the higher sky to descend.

A dragon with a mixture of cyan and blue fell from the sky first, crashing into the vast sea covered in blood.

Ye Chuxiao looked up and saw that it was a three-clawed Jiaolong (Flood Dragon) with wings, its aura floating, obviously about to die.

Judging by its collapsing spiritual light, it should have had the cultivation of the Wisdom Realm before.

Most of the wounds on its body were caused by claw scratches, and it should have been injured by another dragon.

"It seems that the dragon hunter has a backup plan."

"Dong Li didn't set up a trap as instructed to ambush first, so the dragon hunter arranged a traitor next to that Qin Gongjia?" Ye Chuxiao thought.

On the other side, in the sky, a white-bearded old dragon with golden lines flowing all over its body, and gold and white colors interspersed, was confronting a person holding a broadsword and wearing red armor.

After a moment, the two launched at the same time, turning into two streams of light colliding.

Even with Ye Chuxiao's current eyesight, he was having a little trouble keeping up with their speed.

Ye Chuxiao had seen Intent Realm cultivators take action.

And more than once.

But this time, he was still shocked by the collision between Intent Realm cultivators.

Perhaps because of the improvement in his realm, looking at the game of Intent again, his feelings were particularly different.

"The battle between Intent Realm cultivators, from the outside, seems to have been reduced to a simple comparison of strength and speed, but in reality, this is a collision of domains, and also a collision of will and self. Of course, at the same time, it is aimed at destroying the opponent's body, because the will of Intent Realm cultivators is extremely firm and difficult to conquer. Only the destruction of the body is feasible. Without the support of the physical body, even the strongest will is difficult to express, just like Mr. Nanshan, who has only the Intent Realm, but his body no longer allows him to be wanton."

"So, all collisions are for a fatal blow at a critical moment. Whoever reveals a trace first and has a flaw is in more danger," Ye Chuxiao summarized the parts that he could see through now, and then had a more definite concept of the cultivation direction of Intent Realm cultivators.

The battle was very fierce.

The dragon and the man were entangled and fighting.

Both sides were excited, and as the battle became entangled, Ye Chuxiao gradually saw the old dragon's support failing.

Old age was one of its weaknesses.

And the key was that its weaknesses were not only this one. There seemed to be a very deep wound under the old dragon's ribs, which had been seeping black poisonous blood.

This should have been done by the traitor next to it. The highly poisonous poison in the wound had been eating away at the old dragon's remaining life, causing some of its fierce offensives to always fall short at critical moments.