Shen Yuan regarded the corpse at his feet with an emotionless gaze before flicking his hand. “Burn it all. Let none remain to track it down to you all through some means.”
Bing Rong nodded her head in agreement. With Ling Yue’s signal, a few Silver Fox disciples specialized in illusions and cleanup sprinted over, swiftly beginning the process of collecting treasures and storage rings before destroying corpses and erasing lingering traces of spiritual signatures.
“Grand Elder,” Shen Yuan calmly said.
WOOSH!
“Yes, Young Master.” The Grand Elder hurriedly ran over in front of him and bowed.
“Lead your team and go finish off everything that existed of them. Take back everything of value from them while you are at it,” he calmly instructed.
“As you wish, Young Master.” The Grand Elder bowed deeply before turning around to leave.
“Ah yes, do not kill any innocent bystanders,” he added as he just remembered the fate of Silver Fox City civilians.
The Grand Elder paused and turned around. “You do not need to worry about that, Young Master. All the clans and sects have their headquarters in secluded places like ours. And we won’t attack cities outright; we will only kill the City Lords.”
Shen Yuan nodded his head. “That’s good enough then.”
The Grand Elder bowed one last time before taking her 50-person team and going to hunt.
“Ling Yue, Feng Lian, let’s go,” Shen Yuan said to Bing Rong and the others, turning away from the scene before heading towards the sect. “We have to see about relocating your sect as promised. We can’t stay here for long.”
Feng Lian hurriedly flew over and nodded her head, while Ling Yue followed behind him, swinging her tail from side to side.
“And bring Lian Fang to me. Even if she is not a member of your sect, she did good to notify me—about time I reward her for her loyalty,” Shen Yuan added while walking.
And soon, he took off to the sky, followed closely by Ling Yue and Feng Lian on both sides of him. Bing Rong followed a step behind, slowly observing the devastation caused by a single unit of around a hundred members.
Even from high in the sky, the acrid smell of smoke could be felt. Ahead, the Silver Fox Sect’s formation stood—an intricate wall of shining runes which Shen Yuan had previously breached with his spatial techniques.
Though it was now cracked and battered from the Crimson Wolf Clan’s assault, it was still standing for the moment.
As they came closer, the formation began to recede. Flickers of light rippled across its surface, parts of it closing down thread by thread.
From within, a handful of cultivators—those who had stayed behind when Shen Yuan took away the core force—were busy stabilizing the exit points while carefully dismantling the heavier layers of the formation. Continue your adventure with My Virtual Library Empire
One woman stood at the forefront, overseeing the process. She wore long, silver-and-black robes embroidered with fox motifs, her dark hair pinned orderly.
Though clearly fatigued from maintaining the sect’s defenses for such a long time, her body remained steady. This was Lu Mei, the acting sect leader in Feng Lian’s and Ling Yue’s absence, whom Shen Yuan had appointed in the past.
The moment she spotted Shen Yuan and his group approaching, she bowed with a mixture of relief and awe. “Senior Sister, Ancestor, Young Master Shen Yuan…” She trailed off, taking in the lingering aura of blood from the battle. “I’m glad you’ve come. We were close to getting breached—if you had arrived any later…”
Shen Yuan landed lightly before her. “No need for formalities. You did well holding out this long.” His gaze traveled around the sect grounds.
The sect was mostly intact with only a single damaged mountain. Shen Yuan conveniently ignored the peak and looked at the hurrying disciples who were taking care of the exhausted sect members.
Feng Lian stepped up beside Lu Mei, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You’ve done well in our absence, Lu Mei. You kept the sect formation intact as best you could. Now, the threat of the Crimson Wolf Clan is… well, it’s not there anymore.” A wry smile formed on her lips as she recalled the one-sided slaughter.
Lu Mei’s eyes widened, darting over to Ling Yue, whose fox ears and tail were still out in the open, clearly not wanting to hide her bloodline in front of Shen Yuan. “Then… we’re truly safe? Is this the reason they hadn’t attacked us in a while?”
“Safe for now,” Ling Yue nodded her head. “But we’re leaving this place regardless. The Young Master has decided we’ll relocate the entire sect.”
A flicker of hesitation flashed in Lu Mei’s eyes. “We’re… truly abandoning our ancestral land?”
Feng Lian gave her a helpless nod. “We have no choice. Our battle power will be exposed sooner or later. Nothing can be hidden forever. And the Crimson Wolf Clan also slaughtered our city—it won’t be good to stay here for much longer.”
Ling Yue added, “We owe our survival to Young Master Shen Yuan. We’ll continue following Young Master.”
Lu Mei took a deep breath and nodded her head in acceptance. “Then, I’ll issue the order. Many of the remaining members are preparing for an evacuation—shall I tell them to prepare?”
Shen Yuan looked at her curiously. “Remaining? Hmm,” he pondered for a short second. “I see, so a lot of disciples deserted the sect because they thought you didn’t have a chance as the core force of the sect was missing.”
Lu Mei’s expression turned dejected as she nodded her head. “Yes, Young Master. The majority of our disciples ran away as soon as they caught wind of the attack on Silver Fox City.”
Bing Rong looked at Lu Mei in pity—it wasn’t easy to be a sect leader of a sect whose entire core members were missing.
“How many members are still here?” Meanwhile, Shen Yuan’s focus was on something else.
She hastily replied, “Young Master, there should be around a thousand members overall.”
Shen Yuan smiled lightly and nodded. “That’s good enough. Tell everyone to gather at the central square of the sect. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Huh?” Lu Mei looked at him for a second. She thought he would be disappointed in her sect members’ unity, but instead, he asked this.
“Hurry up.” Ling Yue urged her to take action.
Lu Mei hurriedly nodded her head and turned to a group of disciples who were waiting for her orders and began relaying them tasks.
The disciples scattered to gather their fellow sect members to where Shen Yuan had wanted them, while retrieving everything of value from their rooms as well as from those rooms which were abandoned by the deserters.
…
Meanwhile, Fang Lian stepped out from a nearby pavilion. A faint sheen of sweat lay on her brow, as if she’d been helping reinforce the formation or assisting others in the sect.
Soon, she spotted Shen Yuan. She quickly approached him before bowing deeply. “Young Master!” she greeted, her voice filled with relief and happiness. “It’s good that you arrived when you did; otherwise, the formation would have collapsed at any moment.”