CHAPTER 475: AN ILLUSION?

Chapter 475: An Illusion?

...

Watching Chen Huaian and Wang Shouyi retreat from the battle formation, Hua Jin on her carriage nodded slightly in approval.

Chen Huaian, not bad.

A man with guts.

She had originally thought his reluctance to stay in the Immortal Palace was due to laziness and dislike of restrictions.

But now it seemed Chen Huaian was simply a warmonger at heart, avoiding the palace because there weren't enough fights to be had.

Fighting was good! She loved troublemakers like him!

Wang Shouyi had exactly this temperament - never backing down from a fight. That's why she kept promoting him.

...

The Celestial Jade Marrow didn't remain where it formed.

Instead, it shot out in three different directions like rays.

One piece flew beyond the Great Derivation Heavenly Mechanism Array. Though it traveled far without interference, several obscure elders from Kunlun Immortal Palace and Great Thunder Temple suddenly made their move once it nearly disappeared from sight, vanishing into the darkness in flashes.

Soon after, intense battle sounds echoed from the horizon.

Among the Wind Spirit Sect's ranks, Zhang Yibai narrowed his eyes at the departing elders.

Beside him, Li Zongsi felt foreboding seeing his sect leader's expression.

"Sect Leader, why are you looking that way? You're not thinking of going after that piece outside the array, are you?"

After a moment's silence, Zhang Yibai lowered his gaze to Li Zongsi: "Why not?"

"Sect Leader, you mustn't! Those old men are clearly powerful. You'll die!"

Li Zongsi pleaded desperately.

After finally obtaining good cultivation techniques, environment, and teachers, he didn't want to lose everything now!

"Don't worry, this sect leader won't die." Zhang Yibai shook his head with a smile, tearing off his suit to reveal iron-cast muscles: "Your mission is to retrieve a medium-grade Celestial Jade Marrow. Don't disgrace Wind Spirit Sect."

"But Sect Leader—"

Li Zongsi tried to protest.

BOOM!

Only the crater from Zhang Yibai's stomp remained as he shot off like a cannonball, disappearing instantly.

"Sigh, we're doomed. Why won't Sect Leader listen?" Li Zongsi stared gloomily at the crater.

From what Zhang Yibai usually displayed, his strength capped at Nascent Soul.

Those elders definitely surpassed Nascent Soul - he'd bet some were Great Ascension cultivators.

A Nascent Soul against Great Ascension? Wouldn't he be flattened instantly?

"Fine. Damage control it is."

Taking a deep breath, Li Zongsi turned to his disciples: "All disciples - weapons ready!"

CLANG!

With synchronized metallic sounds, two-meter-tall muscular men raised their Cangyun M4 rifles.

"Target: Celestial Jade Marrow!" Li Zongsi pointed and roared: "Charge!"

...

The remaining two pieces stayed within the array.

One was secured by Kunlun Immortal Palace's direct disciples, the other targeted by Great Thunder Temple's Buddhist cultivators.

Other sect Ascenders initially tried competing, but after several bloody examples were made, they could only watch longingly from sidelines.

"Where's Senior?"

Wang Shouyi searched for Chen Huaian.

In just a blink, Chen Huaian had vanished.

He hadn't joined the Great Thunder Temple's scramble for the treasure either - disappeared into thin air.

"Wait, Senior's too cunning to just leave. He must be hiding among the monks, waiting to strike!" Wang Shouyi's eyes narrowed with a smirk: "Then to find him, I just need to tail the monks. We'll team up to snatch their medium-grade Celestial Jade Marrow!"

Thus resolved, Wang Shouyi latched onto the monks like glue.

He didn't attack, just followed persistently - fleeing when they turned aggressive, sticking close when they stopped. This back-and-forth left the jade-guarding monks as uncomfortable as having swallowed flies.

"Let him be!"

The lead monk glared at the slippery Wang Shouyi and sighed.

"That's Kunlun's Wang Shouyi - fought him before. Truly their younger generation's strongest. Catching him would divert half our strength, risking the jade!"

"But—" another monk protested resentfully.

"No buts! Once we deliver it to our side, what can one man do?"

The Celestial Jade Marrow appeared small but weighed like a mountain.

While moving mountains posed no challenge for Great Ascension Ascenders, Golden Core and below cultivators needed coordinated efforts to transport it.

...

Wang Shouyi was wrong.

Chen Huaian wasn't tracking the monks - he'd found a corner to stealthily boot up his Electronic Girlfriend game.

Nearly missing Li Qingran's message last time at Mount Tai due to low battery wouldn't happen again.

Even if it might just be Li Qingran missing him, he had to check.

What he found shocked him.

"All Hundred Thousand Mountains' demons are invading Cangyun Realm? Threatening Moon Shadow Sect? There's even a traitor collaborating with them?"

"One day away and the sky's fallen?"

Chen Huaian was dumbfounded.

This was serious.

But a traitor? Impossible in Moon Shadow Sect...

"No matter. Let's calculate!"

Chen Huaian activated Heaven's Calculation.

"Identify Moon Shadow Sect's traitor collaborating with demons!"

The jade could wait - internal threats came first.

[First calculation today - free!]

Cangyun Realm's skies churned violently.

In the sect hall, cultivating Li Qingran smiled faintly at the sky, sensing something.

At Hundred Thousand Mountains' edge, Tu Shan Yue stared gravely at the golden Thunder Eye within funnel clouds.

"Cangyun has such powerful cultivators? Able to invoke Heavenly Dao's power to glimpse fate..."

She felt unseen eyes from that golden vertical pupil.

A strangely familiar sensation...

Like she'd felt it from someone before.

"An illusion?"

Tu Shan Yue murmured.

For demons just emerging to encounter this boded ill.

...

[Calculation complete!]

Chen Huaian's eyes sharpened in his corner:

"Let's see who betrays Moon Shadow Sect!"

[Traitor: Chen Huaian]

Chen Huaian: "(°Д°) Huh???"

...