CHAPTER 924: CHAPTER 910 WHACK-A-MOLE

"Quick, you two, sound the alarm!"

With Yan Wuji’s exclamation, the faces of Heavenly Net Sect Master Wug Mengshan and Qingyun Castle Master Yun Chongxiao both changed drastically, immediately understanding Yan Wuji’s meaning.

Since this assassin was most likely sent by the Sun and Moon Divine Sect, their aim should be to weaken the power of their three families at this critical moment.

Now that the actions of the Longevity Sect have failed, their target might very well shift to the Heavenly Net Sect and Qingyun Castle.

Almost simultaneously, several talisman communications shot out from their palms like thunderlight.

"That old fox Jian Qianxiong, I didn’t expect him to act before us, and now his Sun and Moon Divine Sect is targeting us!" Looking at the four corpses on the ground, Yin Changsheng’s face twisted with rage.

"Elder Yan, Sect Master Yin, I’ll return to Heavenly Net Sect first, and we will discuss the bigger plan later!" Wug Mengshan said, unable to rest easy.

"Me too!"

In the next instant, Yun Chongxiao and Wug Mengshan soared into the sky together.

Strangely, the red-haired youth Pei Wei, who had been inspecting the bodies, suddenly stood up and transformed into a streak of crimson light, ascending into the sky.

"Protector Pei, you are going..."

As Yin Changsheng loudly questioned, Pei Wei had already disappeared, leaving Yin Changsheng there, his mind filled with frustration.

This Upper Realm Envoy brought in at a critical moment was truly a living ancestor, indeed!

.......

In a silent chamber deep within the headquarters of Heavenly Net Sect, Second Elder Wuy Chuo, who was meditating, suddenly furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes opened with a fierce glare, and the overwhelming power of his Divine Soul spread out like ripples in water. Sensing an anomaly, his expression turned to extreme alertness.

Almost simultaneously, the wooden floor in the corner of the room suddenly exploded. Hearing the noise, Wuy Chuo’s eyes fixed intensely on the spot, just in time to see a head emerging from the ground.

The eyes of the person began to shine with a strange light, and two dark crimson beams shot straight toward Wuy Chuo.

Sensing the terrifying power waves contained within the dark crimson beams, Wuy Chuo exclaimed inwards while simultaneously, the power of his Divine Soul erupted around him like a volcanic explosion.

"Soul Guide!"

With a gentle wave of his hand, Wuy Chuo’s Divine Soul Power wrapped around Ye Zhen’s two beams of Soul Refining Divine Light like silk threads. As he exerted a little strength, the direction of Ye Zhen’s beams deviated slightly.

However, just as Wuy Chuo’s Soul Guide technique exerted its force, the two beams of Soul Refining Divine Light still slammed into Wuy Chuo’s forehead.

Though instead of entering the center of his forehead, they struck the sides.

Instantly, Wuy Chuo’s gaze darkened, the brilliance dissipated, and his body slowly crumpled to the ground.

"The Soul Guide technique of the Heavenly Net Sect Second Elder Wuy Chuo truly lives up to its reputation. It could actually deflect my Soul Refining Divine Light. If there had been more distance, I might really have missed him!"

While marveling, Ye Zhen approached to retrieve Wuy Chuo’s storage ring. As his Divine Sense flowed out, he was about to extract Wuy Chuo’s remaining Innate Soul Light when a series of talisman lights suddenly descended from outside, floating above the talisman lead on Wuy Chuo’s chest.

Ye Zhen’s expression changed as he swept his Divine Sense over a few talisman messages he retrieved, his face changing dramatically.

In the shortest time possible, Ye Zhen extracted Wuy Chuo’s Innate Soul Light, which was of the Fifth Stage Establishment Realm cultivation level, sealed it, and tossed it into his storage ring.

With a stomp of his foot, as the floorboards flew, Ye Zhen’s figure sank into the ground and disappeared.

Ye Zhen had initially hoped to find another target within the Heavenly Net Sect, but after making a circuit around the headquarters, he was left thoroughly disappointed.

Although it was already the Hour of Chou, the quietest time of the night, the entire Heavenly Net Sect had erupted into chaos due to the alarm talismans and orders from Sect Master Wug Mengshan.

These alarms and commands were exactly what Ye Zhen had received in talisman form right after killing the Heavenly Net Sect’s Second Elder Wuy Chuo.

The first talisman message immediately raised the alert level within the Heavenly Net Sect to the highest.

The second message ordered the skilled martial artists of Heavenly Net Sect to pair up cautiously to prevent further assassinations.

The third message, supplementing the second, instructed all skilled practitioners to extend their Divine Sense cautiously and be wary of the underground.

If the first two messages were not much of an issue, the third brought a deadly blow to Ye Zhen’s assassination plan for the night, making it almost impossible to continue.

Like a boiling pot, the martial artists in Heavenly Net Sect formed groups of threes and twos, their layers of Divine Sense sweeping in all directions.

Particularly they focused on the underground.

Although Divine Sense penetration belowground suffered great loss due to physical obstacles, requiring much greater energy compared to void sensing, a martial artist capable of extending their Divine Sense to a hundred meters in the void might only reach two or three meters underground at best, and not for long unless trained in some special Daoist Schools.

This crisscross scanning of the underground with so many Divine Senses forced Ye Zhen to avoid getting within ten meters of the surface.

Since occasionally, some Divine Senses might penetrate six to seven meters belowground. Those were likely the Divine Senses of the Establishment Kings.

"Looks like the Longevity Sect has high-ranking individuals who could detect the subterranean attacks from subtle clues and specifically alerted about monitoring underground and using Divine Sense perceiving. They probably figured out that I was performing the assassinations through the stealthy Earth Escape Technique!" Ye Zhen pondered underground.

Indeed, all the previous four assassinations by the Longevity Sect were engineered by Ye Zhen.

The Longevity Sect’s power has surged now, and Yin Changsheng had clashed with Ye Zhen before. Ye Zhen’s primary assassination targets are the experts of the Longevity Sect.

The first one Ye Zhen took out was an old acquaintance, the Four Divine Generals Jio Ling, and then he eliminated a Martial Artist at the Third Stage of the Establishment Realm.

Ye Zhen’s original thought was to finish off the survivor of past battles, Second Divine General Demon Blade Gongsun Li, but unfortunately, without a detailed map of the Longevity Sect, he couldn’t find him after a round and casually took out a Martial Artist at the First Stage of the Establishment Realm.

Only Kings of the Establishment Realm can become Ye Zhen’s assassination targets.

What Ye Zhen didn’t expect was, during the assassination, by a stroke of luck, he was spotted by a covert guard who raised the alarm. Then, Ye Zhen quickly found a target to eliminate in the shortest possible time.

Then, there was no more opportunity.

The experts of the Longevity Sect, alerted by the warning, were almost all on guard, standing back-to-back in groups of three, leaving Ye Zhen with no chance to strike.

After searching for an opportunity within the Longevity Sect and finding none, Ye Zhen simply left the Longevity Sect and hurried to the territory of the Heavenly Net Sect.

After all, the main goal of this midnight hunting was to weaken the peak forces of the three sects, so taking out experts from any sect would have the same effect.

Qingyun Castle is far outside the city, and the Heavenly Net Sect is the closest to the Longevity Sect.

Unexpectedly, just after taking out an elder of the Heavenly Net Sect, the alarm was raised, and the Heavenly Net Sect reacted more intensely than the Longevity Sect, immediately activating the Sect-Guarding Great Formation.

After another round, Ye Zhen left the territory of the Heavenly Net Sect somewhat helplessly.

According to Ye Zhen’s thinking, since the Heavenly Net Sect already issued a warning, there is a high probability that Qingyun Castle would also be warned and increase their vigilance.

However, Ye Zhen still wanted to try his luck.

That whole night, Ye Zhen took down a total of five Kings of the Establishment Realm, but only two and a half were considered real targets.

The Heavenly Net Sect’s Second Elder Wuy Chuo with Cultivation at the Fifth Stage of the Establishment Realm was powerful, counted as one, and the Longevity Sect’s Four Divine Generals Jio Ling, a powerful figure at the Fourth Stage of the Establishment Realm, counted as another.

Another unknown Martial Artist at the Third Stage of the Establishment Realm from the Longevity Sect, counted as half.

As for the two Martial Artists at the First and Second Stages of the Establishment Realm that Ye Zhen casually eliminated, they weren’t considered targets at all.

Ye Zhen was still halfway short of the goal of eliminating five Kings of the Establishment Realm, so he planned to try his luck at Qingyun Castle.

However, the Heavenly Net Sect’s reaction was too intense, almost all the martial artists of the Heavenly Net Sect were alarmed.

Teams composed of several martial artists started patrolling the sky, their vigilance almost illuminating half of Qinglan Martial City along with the patrolling martial artists of the Longevity Sect in the distance.

Of course, these people couldn’t discover Ye Zhen, but they forced Ye Zhen to remain in underground escape.

In the middle of the night, with such huge commotion by both top-notch powers, all the martial artists unanimously went into dormancy.

In this situation, anyone who ran into someone else was unlucky. If Ye Zhen rashly flew into the sky, he would definitely be intercepted and questioned.

Although Ye Zhen wasn’t afraid of those patrolling martial artists, if the strong experts of the two powers rushed over upon hearing the news and surrounded him, it would be a big problem.

So, Ye Zhen simply continued his underground escape, heading towards Qingyun Castle outside Qinglan Martial City.

It was just as Ye Zhen was escaping out of Qinglan Martial City that the figure of the Heavenly Net Sect Master Wug Mengshan, who had just arrived at the Heavenly Net Sect, suddenly shook a few times, his face turning pale in an instant!

"What, Elder Wu Chuo was killed.... did I still come too late?"

At that moment, Wug Mengshan felt a pain akin to spitting blood.

Previously, during the contention for Red Fire Martial City, the fall of a Life-taking Lady already made Wug Mengshan heartbroken to the extreme.

Since the Heavenly Net Sect fell from grace a hundred years ago after being besieged by four factions due to its arrogance, the Life-taking Lady was a new powerhouse, while the Second Elder Wu Chuo was one of the only few surviving experts from the battle a hundred years ago.

He was one of the most valued and relied upon old-generation experts.

Unexpectedly, he had fallen today, was assassinated, and they didn’t even know who the killer was....

"Who did it, who did it, get out here, get out here!"

In extreme anger, Wug Mengshan roared out, "Don’t let me find you, or I’ll tear you to pieces, into pieces!"

Wug Mengshan’s roar echoed throughout the entire Qinglan Martial City at that moment.

Almost as the roar reverberated, Ye Zhen, just outside Qinglan Martial City, couldn’t resist emerging from his underground escape and took a long breath of fresh air.

Although the Earth Escape Technique left no trail underground, the pressure from the earth was indeed uncomfortable, it’s better on the surface.

As Ye Zhen emerged, his body soared into the sky, planning to first approach Qingyun Castle and then enter the earth again to repeat his tactics.

But just as Ye Zhen shot up to the sky, a mocking laughter suddenly sounded from the sky.

"So it turns out you ground mole still have to return to the surface, huh? I thought you’d stay underground forever!

I was getting ready to whack a mole, didn’t expect you to come out first!"

Suddenly, Ye Zhen’s face changed dramatically! (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, and your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com for reading.)