Having settled their plan, the two sects flew back the way they had come.
Since they were flying back, they encountered no traps, making for a smooth journey. Meanwhile, Tang Jie, who was taking the Celestial Maze Formation’s asteroids back, had to go through all sorts of detours, so he would definitely get to the exit more slowly than the two sects.
So long as they guarded the exit, Tang Jie would walk into the trap all on his own.
The plan was an excellent one, and in truth, Tang Jie anticipated that it would take a long battle for him to overcome it, perhaps even that he would have to drag things out until the Court of Myriad Domains was about to close. It wasn’t like they could block the exit forever. At that time, he would use Reflections of Floating Life to escape.
But the situation developed in an unexpected direction.
As the two sects were flying back, they saw a handsome scholar.
The scholar was followed by a horse and was casually strolling through the void, occasionally looking around at the vast emptiness as if this was some scenic sight.
The sects instinctively glanced at the scholar.
Anybody who could enter the Court of Myriad Domains could not be an ordinary person, with the weakest being at Violet Palace. But with one glance, they saw that this person was only at the Mortal Shedding Realm.
One cultivator rubbed his eyes and looked again, his eyes now flashing with lightning. This person cultivated a profound vision-based Divine Connection, and only Dao Arts like Reflections of Floating Life could hide from his eyes.
But the man was still at the Mortal Shedding Realm, with no disguise whatsoever. Meanwhile, the horse behind him was shockingly a Void Returning Heavenly Horse.
But everyone knew that a man that could have a Void Returning Heavenly Horse following him could not be a mere Mortal Shedding cultivator. This man had simply used some method to hide his real cultivation level.
With no confidence, they looked to their leaders.
The four True Immortals gave each other weird looks.
Meanwhile, the scholar walked up to the four and bowed. “Might I ask if there is a passage to the Nether Domain up ahead, containing countless Wandering Souls?”
The four True Immortals said in shock, “Who are you, and how do you know this?”
The scholar ignored the question and muttered, “Then this is the place? What happened to the snake? Right, you guys must have driven it off. Although that dumb snake was a survivor from Remote Antiquity, it was no divine beast. All it had was its age, so it was naturally no match against you guys. But why did you come back? The Nether Domain passage is only open for a limited amount of time, and you just need to outlast it. Four True Immortals and ten-some Earth Immortals—let me calculate… mm, enough to get through half of the traps. If all of the traps of the Celestial Maze Formation are undone, the formation will open on its own, revealing the hidden place. If they didn’t mind casualties and used these Violet Palace juniors as bait, they could get through the majority of the traps, but all of them would be extremely difficult. With me, they would be able to break them all. What do you think about working together, breaking through that scoundrel Yu Cheng’s traps and plundering his tomb?”
After muttering to himself for a while, the scholar suddenly smiled, but this made the blood of the cultivators from the two sects run cold.
“Using Violet Palace juniors as bait”? It sounded like he wanted to sacrifice all the Violet Palace cultivators here to break this “Celestial Maze Formation”.
“Such audacity!” a Soul Projection cultivator roared.
He threw a black bolt at the scholar.
This black bolt was actually a treasure the cultivator had refined for many years. It was extremely corrosive, able to instantly melt a person down into blood. One could see that even though this cultivator lashed out in rage, he was still being extremely cautious.
The others, wanting to see just how powerful this scholar was, didn’t try to stop him.
The black bolt struck the scholar’s face like it had hit a pool of water, creating a series of ripples. But even water should have erupted in mighty waves after such an impact, yet this black bolt simply disappeared into the scholar’s body like a stone thrown into the ocean.
Gone, vanished, devoured!
Everyone was stunned.
The scholar turned to the cultivator who had attacked him and smiled. “Ah, so it was Pentacolor Divine Sand made from Winter Star Metal and Thousand Light Stone. Alas, the method of use is rather inexperienced, and there are several parts missing. Some parts must have gotten lost over the many years of transmission. You should…”
He began to instruct the cultivator on the correct way to refine the Pentacolor Divine Sand.
The cultivator was both stunned and delighted.
As the scholar had said, he had obtained the method to craft the Pentacolor Divine Sand by chance many years ago. Although he had his own legacy, he still wanted the Pentacolor Divine Sand to increase his personal power. Even so, after all these years, he had only succeeded in crafting this corrosive black sand, far from the complete Pentacolor Divine Sand, and even farther from a Five Elements Dao armament. The reason for this was that the method wasn’t complete.
This scholar was now teaching him the correct method, and it all made sense and matched with what he already knew. He was so excited that he forgot he had just tried to kill the man and attentively listened.
The scholar seemed to have gotten tired of talking, saying, “Forget it. I have the crafting method for the Pentacolor Divine Sand right here. Go ahead and look it over.”
He took out a tablet made of jade and offered it.
The cultivator instinctively took it, at which Whitebrow Shao frowned. He couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong here, but he also knew this cultivator had been obsessed with the Pentacolor Divine Sand for many years, and also wanted to see what this scholar was capable of, so he let the exchange happen. Meanwhile, Yan Beiqiu inwardly scoffed. This person uses the Pentacolor Divine Sand, and that scholar just so happens to have the method to make it? There’s definitely something fishy going on.
The cultivator took the jade tablet. Cautious, he first examined the tablet for anything suspicious, and then he asked Whitebrow Shao to confirm that everything was okay. Only then did he slap the tablet, upon which a light flew out and entered his mind. As he read the contents, delight appeared on his face. It was clearly the crafting method for the Pentacolor Divine Sand.
Everyone was flabbergasted to see he was fine.
Someone couldn’t stand it anymore and accused the scholar, “You there, what exactly are you up to?”
The scholar chuckled. “If you like it, you can get the same treatment. You have a sonorous voice like a clap of thunder, and your blood energy is vigorous, so you clearly cultivate an art emphasizing blood energy. I happen to have a method for refining a Holy Blood Pill, a medicine used often by body cultivators of High Antiquity. I will gift it to you, and you can have someone refine the pill for you when you get back. You will definitely benefit from it.”
He sent over another jade tablet.
This muscular man was from the Stellar Net Gate, and he was startled by the scholar’s behavior. He examined the jade tablet and found no problem with it, and then he looked to Yan Beiqiu. She also scanned it with her divine eyes and found nothing, so the man began to read the tablet. He was ecstatic to find that it was real.
Since Whitebrow Shao and Yan Beiqiu had both found no problem, everyone came forward to ask for instruction.
Their thoughts were very simple. If even a True Immortal couldn’t find a problem, it could mean only one of two things. The first was that there really was no problem, which was naturally the best. The second was that there was a problem, but the person behind it was stronger than a True Immortal.
But only Gold Immortals were stronger than True Immortals, and if that was the case, everyone put together was no match for him, so there was no need to resort to schemes.
As the cultivators from both sects sought instruction, the scholar answered all questions and showered them with gifts. It seemed like he was hiding a Mustard Seed Bag in his clothes, as he was able to take out anything and everything.
Shockingly, as he issued gifts, his cultivation level began to rise.
He rose from Nine Revolutions Tier to Cognitive Creation, then Celestial Heart, Heart Demon, and then to Soul Transformation. It seemed like he was soon about to break through into Violet Palace.
Whitebrow Shao realized that something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what, and his heart was seized by an inexplicable terror.
As he looked at the scholar surrounded by cultivators, he suddenly tensed up.
Strange—what happened to me?
Weren’t we chasing that brat?
Why is it that some person offering arts and techniques has everyone rushing to accept his offer, and why didn’t I do anything to stop it?
As Whitebrow Shao put up his guard, Yan Beiqiu’s aura also began to rise.
These two were the captains of their respective groups, as well as the strongest, so they both regained their senses at the same time.
His eyes flashing with killing intent, Whitebrow Shao roared, “An excellent confusion art to confuse the soul and bewitch the mind, so subtle that even this old man fell for it! All of you, back away at once!”
His last words were to his subordinates.
This thunderous roar boomed in everyone’s ears, shaking them out of their trances. They all looked in shock at the scholar, wondering how they had fallen for his trick and vigilantly retreating.
The scholar stopped distributing his texts and waved his hands in denial. “Not at all, not at all. Confusing the soul and bewitching the mind are two different things that can’t be compared at all. Confusing the soul involves an outside force sowing chaos in the Divine Soul. Words are a psychological attack meant only to assist the outside force in penetrating the soul. Bewitching the mind, on the other hand, involves using various methods to pique your desires, causing you to trip over yourself. Words and psychological attacks are the primary method, with spell arts serving as a support, and one works from the inside out. The effects aren’t as apparent as the former, but that’s because it is much more subtle. This one used a mind-bewitching art, not a soul-confusing one—remember that!”
“So bold! What exactly did you do to us?” a cultivator shouted. Everyone was nervous after realizing that they had been inexplicably put under his spell.
The scholar chuckled. “Don’t be afraid. This one didn’t do anything lethal. On the contrary, I shared some of my cultivation with all of you. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have failed to suppress my cultivation, which caused these two to see the flaw in my disguise.”
Sharing cultivation, suppressing cultivation?
Everyone was dumbstruck.
Whitebrow Shao realized something and scowled. “You gifted cultivation? What kind of cultivation?”
“Naturally, the supreme demonic energy this one has cultivated for ten thousand years.” The scholar threw his head back and laughed.
As he laughed, a purple-black energy began to leak out of his body, swiftly engulfing him in a demonic cloud. Transforming along with him were that Void Returning Heavenly Horse and the several dozen cultivators he had given gifts.
Black smoke erupted from these cultivators as they began to scream in unison.
“Demonification!” Yan Beiqiu cried out. “Not good—he’s a demon!”
Whitebrow Shao looked at the seething purple-black demonic energy with despair in his eyes. “No, he’s a Demon Sovereign!”