Chapter 191: CH. 191 | The Mysterious Cultivators
***
The rumbling bursts of spiritual energy kept coming without pause, throwing everyone into panic, no one sure what to do next.
Lucky for them, the sect’s protective barrier held out longer than expected. Its strength matched that of a Mid Soul Formation cultivator, making it tough to break through.
"Master Wu!"
"There are more cultivators coming in from the north!" Li Huan reported.
Wu Yue turned to look, her cultivator’s eyes spotting three Core Formation cultivators flying in, covered in wounds, their qi flow unstable and erratic.
"Open the northern section of the barrier, let them through."
"Have the disciples from the Meridian Recovery Hall handle them right away," Wu Yue ordered, and Li Huan listened closely, taking it all in.
It wasn’t just Wu Yue. Everyone at the Lingxian Sect was working nonstop without a moment’s rest. Out in the main courtyard, disciples from the Formation and Array Hall kept repairing the barrier wall, led by Ya Fei.
Elsewhere, Luo Mei and her hall’s disciples focused entirely on brewing pills. Her disciples refined pills to help restore energy and essence, while Luo Mei herself concentrated on pills meant to help others break through to the next stage.
Ji Xue and her disciples from the Meridian Recovery Hall rushed back and forth, treating wounded cultivators, whether they’d been injured in battle or while fleeing from the Yuanmo Sect.
Yun Yun stayed focused on refining artifacts and using them to strike at anyone outside the barrier, while An Yue drilled a technique meant to send her disciples out on an expedition to rescue other cultivators.
An Xiao was helping Wu Yue. The two of them were in charge of running the sect while Lin Tian’s clone was in closed door cultivation, recovering from injuries far too severe to ignore.
An Xiao arrived along with Li Qingxue and Han Xin, the three of them returning after completing an important task, mapping out territory untouched by the Yuanmo Sect.
Wu Yue turned around to face Li Qingxue, "Did you find anything, Sect Leader Li?"
Li Qingxue nodded, glancing briefly at Han Xin, who responded with a simple nod of his own.
"One of my disciples heard a rumor that the Yuanmo Sect’s Offering Hall in the northeast has been destroyed."
"What?!" Wu Yue exclaimed.
"When my disciple went to check it out, the rumor turned out to be true. But he hasn’t been able to confirm who did it," Li Qingxue answered.
"It’s possible whoever did this holds a grudge against the Yuanmo Sect too. If we can find them and convince them to work with us, we’d have a real chance of surviving," Li Qingxue continued.
Wu Yue nodded slowly, several times over. The Yuanmo Sect’s Offering Hall was heavily guarded by young elders and senior elders whose cultivation bases reached Nascent Soul.
If that demon tower really had been destroyed, then whoever attacked it had to be an extremely powerful cultivator.
"Could it be cultivators from another kingdom helping us out?"
"Not a chance. The crimson barrier wall is still up, nothing can get in or out."
"Which means whoever did this was already here in the Qin Kingdom," Li Qingxue said.
BLAST!
A massive fiery explosion erupted just outside the Lingxian Sect. Cao Ying flew back into the sect looking exhausted, and Wu Yue and the others immediately shot off, arriving in the sky above the sect’s front courtyard.
"You managed to drive them off," Wu Yue said.
"No."
"They pulled back on their own," Cao Ying replied.
"Pulled back? Why would they do that? This is the first time they’ve ever called off a siege," Han Xin said, startled.
"I don’t know, but I caught something. They were talking about their demon tower," Cao Ying said.
"Do you know anything about this, Wu Yue?" Cao Ying asked again.
"Just a rumor, that some powerful cultivator destroyed a demon tower in the northeast."
"What?!"
"But destroying a demon tower is incredibly difficult, even for a Soul Formation cultivator," Cao Ying said.
Wu Yue nodded. She explained that the rumor was still an unsolved mystery, no one knew the identity of the cultivator responsible.
"Could it... could it be Lin Tian?"
"He’s the only one crazy enough to pull off something that should be impossible," Cao Ying said.
Li Qingxue stepped forward, standing beside Wu Yue, "I haven’t heard anything about him. He’s been missing, stuck in that valley dimension for ten years."
"We can’t just ignore that possibility, can we?" Cao Ying asked, "If you ask me, Lin Tian is the only one who could actually beat the Yuanmo Sect."
Wu Yue let out a quiet breath, lifting her head to look at the sect’s barrier wall, still standing, still being repaired continuously by the disciples of the Formation and Array Hall.
"We can’t pin our hopes on a maybe. We need to work with the facts we actually have."
She glanced down below, where a number of sect leaders were being treated and nursed back to health, including members of the Qin Sect Alliance.
It wasn’t just sect leaders either. Clan leaders were there too. Wu Yue spotted Zhu Wei cultivating nearby, working to recover from yesterday’s battle.
Wu Yue’s attention shifted toward Mount Tianzun, home to the Technique and Weapon Hall, led by Elder An Yue.
Among Lin Tian’s five core disciples, only An Yue stood one step away from Nascent Soul. The rest remained stuck at Mid Core Formation.
The reason they couldn’t break through faster wasn’t a lack of resources, it was a lack of time. Over the past few years, the Yuanmo Sect’s attacks had come relentlessly, day after day, leaving no room for proper cultivation.
Li Qingxue looked down toward the sect’s main hall, "If only Lin Tian’s clone had recovered by now, maybe we’d have some idea where he actually is."
Wu Yue drew in a long breath, then let it out slowly. She looked over at Li Qingxue, Han Xin, and An Xiao.
"There are plenty of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Lingxian Sect right now, but we’re the only ones fit enough to move."
"Lin Tian’s clone can’t give orders right now. So I will."
"Do you have a plan?" Li Qingxue asked.
"That mysterious cultivator... there’s a good chance he’s targeting the other demon towers next. There are only four left, and we know exactly where they are."
"I want us to head there and keep close watch on the situation. If any of you find something, come straight back to the sect and regroup."
Wu Yue produced a summoning token. With it, they’d be able to communicate with each other and keep track of what was happening at each location.
"And what about the sect?" Cao Ying asked.
Wu Yue turned to look at Cao Ying, the sect’s only Soul Formation cultivator, Mid Soul Formation to be exact.
"The Yuanmo Sect is going to keep its people focused on protecting what matters most to them. That’s the demon towers."
"The threat to the Lingxian Sect should ease up for now, which means everyone here can focus on cultivating and getting back to full strength."
"I need you to stay here and hold down the sect."
Cao Ying let out a breath. She couldn’t push herself to go anyway, not in her exhausted state, not with how much primordial qi she still needed to recover.
She listened and accepted what Wu Yue wanted from her.
"Understood."
"Time to go find that mysterious cultivator."