CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 309: THE BIGGER THE COMMOTION!

"Senior Brother, do you know when we fell into the ambush?"

Qi Xiu’s eyes flickered as he glanced at the great demon’s corpse, carried single-handedly by Kongwen. This Brother Kongwen truly deserves to be the head of Dachan Temple’s Weituo Courtyard, Qi Xiu thought. It seems he must have been the first to awaken from the illusion and even effortlessly dispatched a great demon from the Blood-Stained Peak.

"The moment we stepped out of the formation," Kongwen replied. "That wind carried a potent, bewitching demonic fog. Thanks to my Child’s Golden Body, which protects me from all poisons, I wasn’t led astray. After you all fell under the illusion, demonic vines burst from the ground and whisked you away into the Ten Thousand Caves Mountain. I chased after you but still couldn’t catch up."

With a casual flick of his wrist, the great demon corpse Kongwen carried ignited with brilliant Buddhist fire. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a round lump of dark-gold ointment, which he swiftly collected.

"This demonic fog must be the work of a Dao Expert. Even if it wasn’t a Dao Expert in their Dao Body acting personally, there must be a demonic cultivator manipulating magical treasures of this level from behind the scenes. We must find Zhao Zaiyang and the others quickly; the longer this takes, the more dangerous it becomes."

Qi Xiu surveyed his surroundings. His view was filled with an endless, vast Forest Sea, eerie and seemingly alive. It constantly squirmed, sending chills down his spine, as if tiny insects were crawling on his skin.

"Indeed," Kongwen said. "Each cave in the Ten Thousand Caves Mountain has a different environment, and nearly all of them are interconnected and immensely vast. We must be very careful."

After these few words of caution, Kongwen and Qi Xiu went their separate ways.

A setback right at the start, Qi Xiu thought. An invisible pressure made him feel a faint unease, a bad premonition inexplicably stirring in his heart.

「Outside Ten Thousand Caves Mountain.」

A transcendental standoff was unfolding quietly.

One side consisted of otherworldly Dao Experts from Dianchuan Province. They were clad in resplendent robes that shone with countless rays of dawn light and held glowing magical treasures. Their bodies exuded a mighty righteousness, like surging rivers, and with determined and profound gazes, they watched the grimacing demons and evil spirits on the opposite side.

The other side was a chaotic dance of demons, adorned with fur and horns. Each displayed their divine skills, their malevolent auras as dark as clouds covering the sun, enveloping the whole valley. Their eyes glinted with bloodlust and cunning, and a wild, rebellious aura compressed and warped the air around them.

At this moment, two vastly different yet equally complex auras collided fiercely in the void. It was like the Yin Yang Dual Qi of heaven and earth wrestling, brutally tearing the once tranquil sky in two.

A massive rift cut through the heavens, resembling an invisible, gigantic sword hanging between heaven and earth, making onlookers’ hearts palpitate. Numerous terrifying phenomena emerged with the clash. The entwined auras of both parties formed majestic storms of vital energy, shaking every inch of space. This caused the surrounding rocks and vegetation to tremble, filled with an overwhelming sense of oppression.

"Do you beasts seek war?"

A figure stepped forward slowly. He had a bare, sculpted upper body, muscular and fit, with a fierce flame burning above his head. This demon’s body was covered in cracks, with what looked like molten lava flowing within them. The fiery, intense aura made the surrounding hundred miles exceedingly dry and hot. Behind him, a colossal volcano with ten craters faintly emerged, exuding a terrifying aura of destruction. It was Red Stream Sovereign Ji Jing, one of the six rulers of Divine Sorrow Ridge!

"War? Am I supposed to fear you?" a Dao Expert from the Nature Banner, holding a scythe, retorted as he walked out slowly, ignoring Red Stream Sovereign Ji Jing’s oppressive, world-destroying aura. "Don’t forget about your so-called Lord of Night Peace; he’s currently held captive by my Nature Banner. How about I grab you too and send you to keep him company?"

His eyes crinkled in a smile as he squinted at Ji Jing on the opposing side. He swayed an ancient, worn scythe up and down, as if he intended to mow down the demon sovereign’s head like grass.

"It seems you wish to instigate a great war within the Dao Body Realm," Green Hill Ruler said, lifting her beautiful eyes as she gathered her luxurious green garb. Her words directly pushed the Dao Experts of the Human Race onto a moral high ground.

"Clever little fox, you sure know how to pin labels, don’t you?" a Dao Expert from the Ingenious Mechanism Sect coldly sneered, completely unimpressed by Green Hill Ruler’s approach. "Who said we wanted to start a war? Have we made a move? I quite like staying here. Is that not allowed? Is this your land? If you’re not happy, leave now; we certainly won’t stop you. Not leaving? Then shut that foul mouth of yours!"

His sharp and harsh tone was strikingly similar to that of their sect leader, Li Chanchan.

"What the hell?!"

"Yeah, what the hell to *you*?!"

"What are you looking at?"

"I’m looking at you, so what?"

「In the wilderness.」

The Dao Experts from both sides were shouting at each other at the top of their lungs, their curses echoing for thousands of miles. They were so close that their spit almost reached the others’ faces, yet no one made a move.

But as time passed, the Demonic Cultivators began to falter. The Human Race’s representatives from Dianchuan Province, apart from one great scholar from the Great Righteousness Academy, had mouths so foul they unleashed a torrent of creative insults, never repeating themselves even after an hour. The Human Race’s vast everyday experience in such matters was now a great advantage. The Dao Experts unleashed their true natures, spouting whatever was most offensive and striking where it hurt the most.

In contrast, the demons could only repeat simple threats: "I will kill you! I will eat you! I will flay you..."

Both in content and form, they were outmatched. Finally, several demon sovereigns, who usually held themselves in such high regard, were berated into silence. They stared with dumbfounded gazes, looking as if they were on the verge of a stroke.

"You young whelps, overconfident in your verbal tricks, warrant discipline."

Just as several demon rulers were stunned into silence by the scolding, a grand and sonorous voice suddenly echoed throughout the heavens and earth. This voice was majestic and solemn, like the wrathful roar of gods from above the Nine Heavens, or the bellow of primordial force at the dawn of the universe. It broke free from the shackles of time and space, instantly resounding in every corner. It reverberated among the clouds, causing birds to scatter in panic. It rolled through the depths of the oceans, making whales cry out and waves churn. A fearsome pressure, like that of a monstrous tsunami, swept over everything in an instant. As the sound spread, the entire land seemed to tremble. The rolling mountain ranges were pressed lower, and towering ancient trees bent their trunks, as if bowing in respect to this supreme existence. The air filled with a heavy pressure, as if thousands of mountains were stacked upon one another, making it almost impossible to breathe.

The moment this sound arose, all other sounds were instantly overshadowed. Between heaven and earth, only this voice echoed.

The Human Race’s Dao Experts immediately felt a tremendous pressure, like a mountainous tsunami, sweeping over them.

The void flickered.

Suddenly, a muscular and fierce figure appeared. His upper body was bare, his eyes faintly shone with golden light, and his shoulders were as broad as a swathe of the azure sky.

It was Fuyao Great Saint—Cao Wuji.

The moment this last pure-blood great roc of the Great Roc Clan appeared, an intensely strong and domineering aura instantly took control of the entire heavens and earth. An endless, heavy shadow loomed over the several Dao Experts of the Human Race.

"Fuyao Great Saint, you dare to come to Dianchuan Province personally? Do you not fear that the Great Roc Clan will be wiped out because of this?"

A lazy and casual voice lightly brushed away the Fuyao Great Saint’s terrible pressure. Still in those grey-blue robes, Dongfang Qing rubbed his eyes and yawned, looking as though he had just woken up.

"Dongfang Qing?" Cao Wuji laughed loudly three times upon seeing him. "Heh, you’re a somewhat talented kid. Back when your master was alive, I fought him, and we were evenly matched. What now? The master couldn’t do it, so the disciple comes to take his place? Shall we test your strength first?" As he spoke, those sharp eyes, which seemed capable of swallowing heaven and earth, suddenly burst forth with a terrifying aura that shook the firmament.

"Test my strength? Are you serious?" Dongfang Qing stretched lazily, looking at Cao Wuji with a smile. The moment he straightened his back, the vast void behind him suddenly shook.

A city harnessing the radiance of myriad Dao, like a world of immortal thunder—an immeasurably huge fortress—emerged, half-visible, from incredibly dense black clouds.

It was the Sect-Defending Divine Artifact of the Shenxiao Sect—the Nine Heavens Shenxiao Thunder City!

Cao Wuji squinted at the Nine Heavens Shenxiao Thunder City. Its full size was unknowable, half-hidden in the void and half-exposed, yet its mere immobile presence exuded a terrifying aura. He smirked. "So this is all the ancestral grace your Shenxiao Sect has left."

The clash of auras between the two Primordial Spirit experts spread an infinite and chaotic energy throughout the heavens and earth. Under the disturbance of these auras, the foreign energy around Ten Thousand Caves Mountain—which seemed like a living entity and out of place with the surrounding natural world—was forced out.

"Hm?" Cao Wuji exclaimed lightly, slightly turning his body. His keenly perceptive eyes instantly caught the swirling foreign auras. His face darkened subtly. He then turned to look at the six great rulers behind him. Feeling his piercing gaze, like a sword thrusting into their hearts, the six rulers trembled and nearly knelt on the spot.

No wonder they’re staging such a farce, Cao Wuji thought, instantly understanding the truth of the matter. He sneered and waved dismissively at Dongfang Qing. "Today, we won’t fight. Dirtying my hands over such a sordid affair is beneath me."

Having said that, the Fuyao Great Saint walked to an old tree, sat under it, closed his eyes, and feigned sleep.

"Sect Master Dongfang, thank goodness you arrived in time," the Dao Expert from the Nature Banner said, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead and grinning sheepishly. If Dongfang Qing hadn’t arrived just in time, the Fuyao Great Saint might have devoured them in a single mouthful, leaving them with nowhere to seek justice. For beings of such caliber, rules were but flimsy constraints. After all, they stood at the very apex of this world.

"Have those kids gone in?" Dongfang Qing asked, nodding slightly, inquiring about Qi Xiu and the others’ whereabouts.

"Yes," replied the Dao Expert from the Nature Banner. "Your calculations with the old flag master were very accurate; Divine Sorrow Ridge indeed had its defenses up. The moment those kids stepped in, these six demon rulers arrived right after. If we hadn’t arrived in time to allow them into the mountains, those kids probably wouldn’t have returned."

"Good. The stage is set," Dongfang Qing said. He slowly turned, casting his gaze toward Ten Thousand Caves Mountain, while glancing at Cao Wuji, who was feigning sleep, and the six demon rulers with their grave faces. "Now, as for the show that follows, they’ll have to watch it whether they want to or not."

The plan discussed in the white jade tower had been overturned the very day after it was settled. However, the details of this reversal and its outcome were not communicated to the prince from Shangjing, nor to Yu, the Cliff Master, who seemed to have become rather talkative lately.

Keep it secret? Investigate privately? Did they truly believe the demons were such fools?

In the deliberations among the older generation of Primordial Spirit experts, like Dongfang Qing and Zhao Gengyun, all agreed that this matter couldn’t be handled with mere minor skirmishes. On the contrary, the bigger the commotion, the better! The entire Dianchuan Province, perhaps even the Great Xuan Dynasty and the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, needed to turn their attention to this. The situation had to ferment to a point of no return.

Then, in full view of the public, as long as it was confirmed that the demon side was indeed summoning an Outer Realm Evil God... this battle would be as good as won!