Chapter 372: Dissolving the Azure Cloud Sect!
Beihai, Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling.
The true-transmission disciples all knelt obediently on both sides, while Shion sat quietly at the very front, holding in her hands the intelligence reports she'd had Bingtang collect over this period.
But Shion, sitting there, would occasionally shift unnaturally, touching her own neck.
As if there were something on it.
The true-transmissions gazed at Lady Bingtang, watching as she held a coffee cup in her hand, her gaze also drifting over Sect Master Shion's fair neck, yet without the slightest trace of panic.
Earlier, while Keke was using the Sect Master's body and taking a bath, several of them had secretly left some marks on the Sect Master's neck. After all, that neck was genuinely tempting, enough to make one want to bite it.
But then the Sect Master suddenly returned, and they all caught a beating for it.
Afterward, the Sect Master had warned them with unusual severity:
"Stay far away from Keke, all of you."
Although it seemed the Sect Master had misunderstood something... but if they explained that it wasn't aimed at Keke but rather that they'd been caught showing disrespect to the Sect Master, the situation might have been even worse. Everyone could only play dumb.
Now that the Sect Master had returned, still seemingly angry, no one dared to speak. They just sat quietly, carefully observing the Sect Master's demeanor. Only Bingtang remained perfectly composed, occasionally refilling the Sect Master's cup and pouring tea.
Anyway, she was pulling that "red sleeve adds fragrance" routine again, being all intimate beside the Sect Master as if nothing had ever happened.
Clearly, she was the one the Sect Master had scolded most harshly earlier.
As the administrator of the true-transmissions, she should have been the one restraining them from acting recklessly.
Instead, she'd not only allowed the true-transmissions to do whatever they wanted with Keke, but had also been the closest one to Keke herself.
The Sect Master was naturally quite displeased with Lady Bingtang.
But honestly, even with that displeasure, the Sect Master hadn't actually said anything too harsh.
When they'd come out of the hot spring hall, Bingtang had clung to the Sect Master the whole time, wiping away water droplets, dressing her, fixing her hair. Even when scolded, she just smiled cheerfully and said, "I was wrong, just forgive me, won't you?"
Anyway, when it came to Lady Bingtang, the Sect Master never really had a good solution. As long as Bingtang begged for forgiveness in that soft, sticky way, looking pitiful and admitting her faults, the Sect Master could only go quiet after a few words, falling into silence.
Although she had no way to deal with Bingtang, she certainly had ways to deal with the rest of the true-transmissions.
Earlier, several of them had just come out of the hot spring hall, bodies still dripping wet, hair even still damp with water.
Actually, if they'd wanted to, with the strength of Azure Cloud Sect disciples, they could have dried themselves with mana at any moment.
But Qinghua had whispered to Yumo along the way, discussing how they'd give the Sect Master a wet-clothes seduction. So the two of them hadn't dried themselves at all the entire way.
Although the Sect Master hadn't spared them a single glance, the two of them busied themselves tugging at each other's soaked clothes, trying to create that see-through effect, thoroughly enjoying their little game.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf had no idea what they were doing, but they thought it looked fun and started copying them.
As a result, midway through, Six Leaf shook her hair and started sneezing.
Wei Ting immediately found an outlet for her frustration and grabbed Qinghua for a thorough scolding.
Then she pulled Qinghua aside for another round of "special training."
By the time she came back, Qinghua was completely sprawled on the ground, having laid out a blanket and flopped face-down onto it.
Yumo poked her from the side, and Qinghua started crying out, "Ouch, ouch."
The Sect Master was always the most merciless with her hands at times like this. As for injuries, there wasn't a single visible one.
But her whole body ached terribly.
And by some strange coincidence, it would all be gone the next day. In the Azure Cloud Sect, everyone jokingly called the Sect Master the "Great Wilderness Sky-Sealing Eightfold Wandering Dragon Gynecological Divine Hand."
After all, after that kind of soreness passed, not only would one's realm improve, but minor physical ailments would be cured too.
Some people, after getting beaten, would have their soreness vanish by the next day, and even their menstrual cramps would disappear along with it.
That was how the Sect Master earned the beautiful title of "Gynecological Divine Hand."
There were even disciples who privately worshipped the Sect Master as the "Slayer of the Crimson Dragon Venerable." Whenever they felt unwell, they'd open the Magical Girl Idol Project app, pull up the Sect Master's card art, prop their phone up, and kneel three times with nine prostrations.
Considering that the path of revering deities was also one of the Azure Cloud ancestors' three thousand great paths, Bingtang let these little antics slide.
Supposedly, it actually worked after praying.
But for Qinghua, she didn't need that kind of treatment. As for universal ascension, at the true-transmission level, even getting beaten black and blue by the Sect Master made it hard to advance. She could only comprehend things through battle.
So this soreness was genuinely a full day of pointless aching.
Yumo poked at her from the side. Once Qinghua gradually adapted and stopped making noise, Yumo, as if feeling competitive, grew unwilling to be outdone herself. She sat directly down on Qinghua's back, causing the true-transmission who'd previously messed around using her body to roll her eyes back and pass out.
Then, realizing she might have gone a bit too far, Yumo carefully tried to cover Qinghua's head with her skirt, so no one would see that she'd knocked Qinghua unconscious.
"Yumo."
But Lady Bingtang was always watching them, there was simply no hiding it.
"Qinghua was just disciplined by the Sect Master, and now you're tormenting her again? If her body really breaks down, you'll have to take care of her for the rest of your days."
Yumo immediately shrank back, "I, I'm sorry."
She quickly turned to massage Qinghua's shoulders, and Bingtang continued, "Hurry up and dry off that water. Soaking wet like that, isn't it uncomfortable? You're not that old, and even if your clothes cling to you, it doesn't do much."
Qinghua happened to wake up at that moment, and upon hearing Lady Bingtang's words, she immediately felt indignant.
Completely disregarding the fact that Lady Bingtang had scolded Yumo on her behalf, she said, "I don't think so, Lady Bingtang!"
"Heh heh." Qinghua awkwardly rolled over, grabbed Yumo's wrist, and then displayed Yumo's belly. "Look at this spot, Lady Bingtang. The belly is pressed against the wet cloth, with just a hint of skin showing through the water stains. Touch it and there's warmth. When you rub it, you can't even tell if it's fabric or skin. Absolute seduction factor maxed out..."
Yumo was flushed red by her words, but her gaze flickered, and she didn't pull away.
Bingtang just let out a sigh, "Still not beaten into obedience, are you? If you want the Sect Master to touch you, you'll have to get beaten. Give it up."
"Earlier in the hot spring hall, Lady Bingtang, you were the closest. You got to feel every inch of the Sect Master's body, so of course you don't care..."
"Don't talk nonsense." Bingtang interrupted her lightly, "I was just helping Keke wash each other's bodies."
"Wow, that sounds so nice when you say it."
"Th-that's right, sh-shameless..." Yumo quietly took a jab at Lady Bingtang.
Actually, when they'd entered the bathhouse, everyone could get close to the Sect Master, and intimate contact with the Keke-controlled Sect Master wasn't difficult.
But once they entered the bath pool, Bingtang naturally had a barrier around her, which allowed her and Keke to have a private conversation, greatly advancing their relationship.
Yumo was frantic outside. She could turn into wind and slip in, but with Bingtang there, she'd probably get frozen the moment she entered.
Of course, Bingtang later opened up the restrictions, letting Keke mingle with the other true-transmissions and mess around in the bath.
"Lying on Keke's lap pretending to sleep, and sneakily biting her thigh while faking it, Yumo, you don't exactly have the right to call anyone else shameless."
Having her actions called out by Bingtang, Yumo immediately turned bright red and could only pull her hood down to hide her expression. "I, I was asleep. Yumo was really asleep!"
"And what about pretending to slip in the pool, grabbing Keke's ankle underwater, and endlessly tickling the sole of her foot?" Qinghua immediately reached out and delivered the finishing blow. "In the end, everyone ended up falling over and drinking a mouthful of bathwater!"
"Dandelion's Heart, known to all true-transmissions!"
Yumo's shoulder massage suddenly applied fierce pressure, causing Qinghua to let out a scream.
"And Qinghua." Bingtang continued organizing the documents and handing them to the Sect Master, "Don't go filling Keke's head with strange knowledge. The sect already has enough trouble as it is."
"That's right, that's right." Little Yumo immediately nodded like a pestle pounding garlic. "Y-you, helping those Disaster Control Bureau girls scheme, what's your game!"
"No way, I only taught her how to make those girls who like the Sect Master confess their feelings, and then let the Sect Master ruthlessly reject them!" Qinghua laughed darkly. "Wahahaha, how could I possibly do anything to harm the Azure Cloud Sect's interests? Those fox spirits from the Disaster Control Bureau, every last one of them must be driven out!"
Just as the Azure Cloud Sect disciples were heatedly discussing how to counter the Disaster Control Bureau's Magical Girls.
Shion, over there, saw a piece of news and furrowed her brow. "This."
"A report on the romantic relationships between Jiang Si and all the true-transmissions of the Azure Cloud Sect. What is the meaning of this?"
This official news article was undoubtedly generating absurdly high traffic on the website.
"Why would you let this kind of fake news affect our Azure Cloud Sect? How have you been doing your job?"
The true-transmission disciples all quieted down. When the Sect Master spoke like this, it meant the problem was serious.
Bingtang, however, didn't seem particularly flustered. She just spoke in a gentle, apologetic tone: "During the press conference, Keke said a little more than she should have, and the media blew it out of proportion. I was busy preparing the intelligence you asked me to find earlier and didn't have time to deal with it. My apologies."
Hearing that it was Keke who said it, Shion's furrowed brow relaxed slightly. She casually closed the webpage. "Oh, Keke. Well, nothing to be done about that then."
The disciples all breathed a sigh of relief.
Qinghua couldn't help but look at Lady Bingtang with a hint of admiration.
As expected of Lady Bingtang, a celestial being. She'd made the Sect Master yield without being servile or overbearing.
Over there, Six Leaf couldn't hold it in any longer and raised her hand to ask: "Sect Master, Sect Master! On this trip to the World Tree, did you see anything fun!"
Among the true-transmissions, only Six Leaf had a playful heart. She'd been dying to speak for a while, and now that she saw her sister no longer holding her back and had a chance to talk, she raised her hand and asked curiously: "Are there Immortals on the tree? Are there snakes? Are there Vermillion Birds and Azure Dragons? Are there ginseng fruits? Are there Ruomu trees? Are there sources of formless and colorless? Are there Immortal King burial shrouds? Are there Nascent Soul Transformation fruits? Are there omniscient information beings? Are there three trash authors? Is there a starting point?"
"Too many questions!" Four Leaf patted Six Leaf on the head.
Six Leaf had been thinking about this the whole time but could never find the opportunity to ask. Now she naturally couldn't wait: "Or was there other fun stuff?"
Several true-transmissions all looked toward Jiang Si with curiosity.
Although they bickered and squabbled on a daily basis, competing over who was the true-transmission the Sect Master loved most, in reality they weren't that old. They were still at an age fond of play. Upon hearing there might be something fun, they all quieted down, staring at their Sect Master with anticipation and curiosity.
Every previous trip away had always brought back some novel trinkets.
Things like world bubbles, or Chongxu's crowdfunded Mental Landscape Space, the true-transmissions had naturally treated them as toys and studied them for a long time.
This time, having gone to the Magic Kingdom and the World Tree, there should surely be something even more fun.
Yet unexpectedly, the Sect Master only said casually, "No."
Six Leaf immediately drooped her head, wrinkled her nose, and tears nearly welled up in her eyes. "Oh..."
She retreated into her sister's arms, but still couldn't help mumbling quietly, "How can there be nothing? The World Tree is so~ big. There should be something fun on it, right..."
It wasn't just Six Leaf. Qinghua and Yumo both had looks of disappointment on their faces as well, though being a bit older, they hid it better.
Bingtang leaned slightly close to the Sect Master's ear. Though images of intimate cheek-to-cheek moments floated in her mind, with so many children around, she didn't dare be too blatant. She just breathed warmly near the Sect Master's ear. "Want me to comfort them a little?"
Hearing Bingtang's words, Shion's gaze lingered on the documents, but she ultimately pulled her attention away. She set down the papers in her hand, then patted herself down.
Finally, she pulled out a piece of crystal.
When she'd left from Magical Girl Chiba's place, she'd casually chipped a piece off.
That thing should have been made by Chiba herself, a rather special type of mana crystal.
"I picked this up on the World Tree."
Anyway, Chiba wasn't human, so it counted as abandoned property.
Six Leaf wasn't so easy to fool though. She blinked her watery eyes, forcibly sucking her grievance and tears back in. "Is, is this fun?"
So Shion casually tossed it, and the crystal expanded slightly.
Within the crystal, a Mental Landscape Space emerged.
It was actually Keke's Endless Fire Domain.
The other true-transmission disciples immediately perked up with interest. They crouched around it curiously, poked at it, and all ended up getting burned.
"This thing can fix a Mental Landscape in place. I haven't figured out the usage yet. You can study it yourselves."
Chiba, having abandoned her identity as a Magical Girl, should by all logic be utterly incapable of unfolding such a complete Mental Landscape.
Without being a Magical Girl, even Personal Reality was hard to solidify, let alone a Mental Landscape. But as the Corpse Emperor of Immortals who had pioneered the path of the Dao for Magical Girls, she was ultimately different after all.
She'd casually crafted this little trinket capable of storing a Mental Landscape.
Six Leaf finally smiled, and then Yumo and Qinghua also crowded over. Several true-transmissions played with it while pondering the crystal's uses, including how to make them and how to expand their applications.
The thing Azure Cloud Sect disciples learned most from her was still her way of thinking.
Once the disciples had been taken care of, Bingtang stood behind her, affectionately massaging her shoulders. "The Sect Master has worked hard, worked hard. Wherever she goes, she still thinks of her disciples."
"..."
Shion silently continued reading through all the documents, then asked, "Is this everything?"
"Mhm, this is everything."
Hearing the Sect Master getting down to business, Bingtang immediately dropped her playful demeanor. While kneading the tender flesh of Shion's shoulders, she said, "Most of it came from the name rosters obtained from the Disaster Control Bureau. For the areas under the Bureau's jurisdiction, I also had idle inner sect disciples go along with the Bureau to take inventory. Speaking of which, Bai Mei's two disciples performed remarkably well."
"Who?"
"Qianjing and Shui Ling from Jiangming City."
"Who?"
"Oh, haven't you met them before? Bai Mei has four disciples in total, and Ruo Yun from the Saint Hall also came out of Jiangming."
"Oh."
Shion finally recalled a little. But what ancient, outdated characters were these?
Only ghosts would remember them.
Azure Cloud disciples who still hadn't stepped into Full Bloom had no real qualification to stand before her.
Even merely uttering their names was an offense to Shion.
It was only because Bingtang was the one speaking that she couldn't be bothered to nitpick.
"Anyway, Qianjing and Shui Ling followed the Disaster Control Bureau's Magical Girls across more than ten cities, from Chenming, Zengcheng, Nanning to Zhujiang, Yichang, Yingze. They made extensive corrections to the current roster. Personnel-wise, there's basically no problem."
"As for the Chongxu side, Thousand-Pinweed already found Su, Sonora, and Jialan among the Magical Girls. Although Black Keke wasn't found, Jialan insists she's dead. But since Black Keke isn't a Magical Girl, she's not in the records, so no need to look for her."
Speaking while explaining, Bingtang continued, "As for the other old worlds, White Fox is no longer a Magical Girl, but there's still potential, so she's been placed under restriction. The Saint Hall's Magical Girls have all been accounted for. The worlds that can be detected as non-Dregs have long been tallied. As for the remaining Magic Kingdom, we don't know much. Keke, Silver Lotus, An Shiyu, and Mùjǐn are all over there. The local Magical Girls of the Magic Kingdom are beyond our knowledge..."
"Don't worry about it."
Shion waved her hand. "They're all just reflections. Can't really call them Magical Girls."
"That's good then." Bingtang's expression relaxed. Her arms slipped through from Shion's shoulders, directly embracing her from behind, and she whispered, "Six thousand two hundred and some in total. But if we count those Remnant Soul Magical Girls, it'd be even more."
"That's enough."
Shion tidied up the documents. Though she didn't have the ability to remember everything at a glance, a single sweep was roughly sufficient.
Bingtang rested her chin on the Sect Master's shoulder, reaching out to catch a few documents that were about to fall while urging the Sect Master to put them away quickly. At the same time, she asked with some confusion, "What's wrong, Sect Master? Suddenly having us collect information on all Magical Girls. A population census at a time like this isn't easy. A lot of hidden independent Magical Girls took considerable effort to find."
"Nothing."
After tidying up all the documents, Shion stood up. Bingtang, lying on her back, stood up along with her, not finding it strange at all.
With a little "heave-ho," Bingtang jumped up directly and wrapped her legs around Shion. "Sect Master, carry me. I'm tired."
"The true-transmissions are still here."
"It's fine, they're all used to it by now."
She used to think doing this in front of the kids was embarrassing.
Shion didn't mind though. Bingtang was light as a feather, hardly any burden at all.
She hooked a hand under Bingtang's thigh, still wearing those stockings she'd specially designed for Jiang Si. The cool, smooth, silky texture almost made Shion's hand slip.
"You've gained weight."
"I have not!"
Bingtang bit the Sect Master's ear in frustration. Shion glanced at the ancestral hall inside the Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling.
The many memorial tablets of the Azure Cloud ancestors made her feel slightly dazed.
"What's wrong, really?"
Bingtang's voice came again, tinged with worry. "What exactly are you planning? Tell me. You're being so mysterious, I can't even help you with preparations on my end. Right now, the Azure Cloud Sect can accomplish anything."
"I want to dissolve the Azure Cloud Sect."
Bingtang's voice vanished in an instant.
The air seemed to congeal into solid ice, carrying a bone-piercing chill. Even breathing felt painful.
The true-transmissions who'd run over to the ancestral hall to study the crystal were still chattering noisily.
They'd gotten into a fight over whose turn it was to play with the crystal, even knocking the memorial tablets flying.
Then they scrambled to pick them up and put them back, closing the ancestral hall door.
Bingtang took a deep breath, and that breath of frigid air was exhaled directly into Shion's ear canal. "Why? What, exactly, are you dissatisfied with?"
"Nothing to be dissatisfied with. It's just that it no longer has any meaning."
Shion's tone was no different from usual. "I am now about to step into a higher realm. The Azure Cloud Sect is no longer of benefit to me. On the contrary, it has become a stumbling block."
"Why? What's the reason?"
Shion gazed calmly into the distance.
"I am going to hold a grand sacrifice to the world."