This was a very strange phenomenon.
Although cultivators could live longer than common people, their cultivation base would decline in the decades or centuries before their death.
Starting from the Body Tempering realm, the body was the key to cultivators’ achievement. The realms of Mystic Enlightening, Sense Condensing, and Brahma Sea were all related to bodies.
When the body aged, meridians, dantian, and Sea of Qi would lose their vitality and potential to continue expanding, resulting in the stagnation of the cultivation base. At that moment, combat experience, life experience, schemes, and plots, as well as external forces were the keys for a cultivator to maintain his or her strength.
The problem was that Ji Tiandao was already very old, but why was he stronger than before?
Ye Tianxin could not figure out the reason no matter how hard she racked her brain.
“Why?” She lifted her head and summoned her courage as she stared firmly at Lu Zhou, who looked confident and calm. “I admit that I’ve misjudged you, but…you’ll have a hard time after capturing me!”
Just like that, they flew past mountains, rivers, and forests…
“Have you said enough?”
“Ah?”
Lu Zhou retracted the energy shield, save for the part in front of him.
Swoosh!
The wind immediately blew on Ye Tianxin’s face, making her unable to open her eyes, cutting at her skin like sharp blades and filling her with pain.
Meanwhile, in a corner of an unknown patch of woods…
The eighth disciple Zhu Honggong was slumped to the ground and kept wiping sweat from his face. A man was standing in front of him, who had a pair of sharp eyes and a feather fan in hand.
“It’s a good thing you came just in time, Seventh Senior Brother. Otherwise…I would have become cannon fodder,” said the eighth disciple with a lingering fear in his heart.
The handsome and graceful man was Ji Tiandao’s seventh disciple Si Wuya.
“Old Eighth, you’ve always listened to my advice. Why did you suddenly collude with Sixth Senior Sister?” Si Wuya asked while shaking his head.
Zhu Honggong sighed and said, “I’ve been having nightmares about Master hitting me recently. I’m scared…”
“Why are you so cowardly?”
“How about…I merge my Tiger Ridge Gang with your Crouching Dragon Darknet?” The eighth disciple slapped his thigh.
Si Wuya did not look at him but waved his feather fan and said, “Forget it! You’d better keep your little gang.”
“Why? You saw Master’s avatar. Sixth Senior Sister will certainly sell me out, and I will be finished!” Zhu Honggong showed a sad face.
“Ye Tianxin thought she could find out Master’s trump cards with this group of Divine Court experts. It’s simply a pipe dream. If Master really got weaker, she would not have gotten her turn to attack him.”
She was not the only person in the world who kept an eye on Golden Court Mountain.
“Seventh Senior Brother, did you see how many moves Master had used to kill fifteen Divine Court cultivators?” The eighth disciple swallowed and asked curiously.
“I don’t know.”
“Why? You are so clever!”
“Stop it. You call yourself the Evil King, and yet you also don’t know, do you?”
If truth be told, no one had dared to approach when the nine-leaf avatar loomed in the sky.
“Well, I can scare others with my title, but I’ll never dare to show off in front of my senior brothers,” said Zhu Honggong.
Si Wuya shook his head helplessly. He began to feel a little regret for persuading Zhu Honggong to leave Golden Court Mountain. This fool was such a drag.
When he found that it was getting late, he said, “From now on, you must sever ties with the Derived Moon Palace.”
“Ah? Why?”
“Ye Tianxin led orthodox cultivators to attack Master. She failed miserably, but she did not bring anyone from her Derived Moon Palace. What will the powers behind those cultivators think of this?”
Zhu Honggong nodded and said, “I understand now.”
Si Wuya sighed and continued, “When Master was pursuing Sixth Senior Sister, I briefly inspected the array she placed down. I found something wrong with the array’s pattern.”
“What’s wrong with the pattern?”
“If my guess is correct, Senior Sister Zhao Yue got cold feet,” said Si Wuya.
“Senior Sister Zhao Yue was there as well?”
Si Wuya nodded and said, “When she left Golden Court Mountain, I had already received the information. She had gone to the Derived Moon Palace. With Sixth Senior Sister’s temper, she must have drawn Fifth Senior Sister to her side. Senior Sister Zhao Yue is the best candidate to control the array…”
The eighth disciple was struck dumb when he heard that.
“Also, Pan Zhong is a deserter of the Clarity Sect. He had only learned the Three Yin Styles and is suffering from the bitter coldness that fills his body. Sixth Senior Sister used him as a bait to lure Little Junior Sister, which will most likely displease the Clarity Sect.”
“What about that Wang Fugui?” asked Zhu Honggong.
Si Wuya laughed. “This is a clever move from Sixth Senior Sister. Wang Fugui’s real name is Shen Yuan. He is an expert under Lady Jade, the consort of Great Yan’s emperor. Lady Jade is also the younger sister of the princess of the West, whom the emperor had married!”
“This…” The eighth disciple recalled everything now. The princess of the West was killed by their second senior brother, but everyone pinned the blame on their master.
“What Master did may displease Great Yan’s emperor, and it may even stir up a dispute between two states, resulting in a war. The people will suffer just because of the grudge between a few people,” said Si Wuya.
“Moreover, the fifteen Divine Court cultivators came from three different sects in the southern region of the Great Yan. Many years ago, the three sects’ earth-grade and below weapons were all destroyed by Master’s heaven-grade weapon. They never got their revenge, and now with their experts killed, there is a whole new enmity. What do you think the three sects will do?”
“These are all parts of Sixth Senior Sister’s plan?” Zhu Honggong found it hard to believe that even he was a part of the plan.
Si Wuya shook his head helplessly as he smiled and said, “Unfortunately, no matter how good the scheme is, it is meaningless in front of absolute power. Ye Tianxin could not have expected that Master could keep using Soul Chase. It is said that her crimson flying chariot is faster than a Nascent Divinity Tribulation expert flying at full speed. I wonder if this is real or not.”
The way Lu Zhou kept using Soul Chase had turned his perception upside down. What made him even more puzzled was that his fighting style was so fast that it gave Ye Tianxin little chance to lay out her plans.
The eighth disciple suddenly said, “No, I don’t want to be the gang leader anymore. I want to go back to my hometown! I’m not a good player like you all, but I can always hide!”
“…”
When Lu Zhou saw Bluesun Mountain and sensed Whitzard’s aura, he made a nosedive. As soon as he landed, he saw Little Yuan’er fly over, riding on Whitzard.
“Master!” Little Yuan’er called out. She was shocked to see Ye Tianxin beside her master, and she said, “Senior Sister? Bah! You are not my senior sister! You’re a traitor…”
Ye Tianxin opened her eyes with difficulty. It was hard for her to be in good shape with her dantian broken. She looked withered, as if her soul had been lost.
“Keep an eye on her.” Lu Zhou pushed Ye Tianxin to Little Yuan’er.
“I understand, Master!”
The timing was just right. The instant he pushed her out, the effect of the peak-form experience card disappeared.
Lu Zhou calmed down and quickly adjusted to his current state. Perhaps that had given her some indication, as Ye Tianxin sneered, “I never thought the mighty old villain would have such a sorry moment.”
Little Yuan’er refuted her, “You know nothing! Master is getting old. Can’t he take a break?” In the next instant, she realized that she should not have said that, and she pursed her lips and said, “Master, I didn’t mean to…”
Lu Zhou waved a hand and said, “It doesn’t matter.”
Ye Tianxin laughed. “If I were you, I would rush back to Golden Court Mountain at once. Didn’t you say that no one will dare to bully Golden Court Mountain as long as you are still alive? Haha! Unfortunately, Golden Court Mountain will change owners today!”
“You’re talking nonsense!” Little Yuan’er said angrily.
“Also, that Wang Fugui you killed is an expert under Lady Jade, and the fifteen Divine Court cultivators are disciples of the three sects in the southern part of Great Yan. Master, do you regret attacking me now? Don’t forget that I still have a thousand sisters in Derived Moon Palace. If I don’t return, they will definitely join forces with the imperial household and the three sects to attack Golden Court Mountain!”
Ye Tianxin felt much better after telling Lu Zhou everything.
Her voice became very light, but the look in her eyes grew tough. “If you regret it, then let me go. At the very least, I am still the owner of the Derived Moon Palace.”