Chapter 197: Chapter 197: This True Person Can Take the Position of Alliance Hierarch
Several strong practitioners were seated in the Black Mysterious Iron Hall.
The elder at the forefront, clad in a green robe, was imposing and dignified. Despite his advanced age, he was still full of vigor. He was none other than the Sect Master of Qingyun Sect, Qingyun Zhenren.
The person who had just locked eyes with Ye Feng was him.
The main reason for this was because Qingyun Sect disciples Bai Minglu and Xiao Fangu had been defeated by disciples from the Misty Sect on multiple occasions, causing Qingyun Zhenren to become the subject of ridicule by other Sect Leaders, which left him feeling rather displeased.
Of course, it was just displeasure.
Or rather, Qingyun Zhenren found Ye Feng disagreeable no matter how he looked at him.
If the Misty Sect had been a Star-Level Sect, Xiao Fangu and Bai Minglu’s losses would have been just that, losses. However, the key point was that when Huo Yunjie defeated Xiao Fangu for the first time, the Misty Sect was still a Lower Rank Sect, in the midst of holding a High Ranked Sect ennoblement ceremony.
An established One-Star Sect had repeatedly lost to disciples from a newly advanced High Ranked Sect, which was also Xiao Fangu’s former Sect.
Once the news spread, Qingyun Sect became the butt of the joke.
Especially during the last Sword Child ennobling ceremony for Mu Ruxue, where, during the toasting segment, Qingyun Zhenren was several times mocked by other Sect Masters, losing all face.
In conclusion, Qingyun Zhenren was very angry.
But after all, he was a Sect Leader of a Star-Level Sect. Though he felt displeased, he could not show it, lest others accuse him of lacking magnanimity.
“Humph!”
Qingyun Zhenren uttered a grunt, then picked up his teacup and drank moodily.
Ye Feng could guess why Qingyun Zhenren was acting this way and didn’t say much, as he took his seat beside the Deputy City Lord.
“Sect Master Ye, you’ve finally arrived,” said Yunhua Zhenren, the Sect Master of the Yunhua Sect, who was seated nearby, greeting Ye Feng with a cupped fist salute.
“Yunhua Zhenren, you’ve arrived quite early,” Ye Feng nodded in response.
After his smile faded, he began to look around.
This Black Mysterious Iron Hall was very ancient, at least a thousand years old, and around it were eighteen Black Iron thrones welded to the ground.
Leaders of Star-Level Forces from within a thousand miles radius, such as Qingyun Sect, Spirit Beast Pavilion, Liuyun Sect, Hundred Artifacts Sect, Yunhua Sect, Whitefloat City, Misty Sect, Sanyuan City, and others, were present.
Among them, Yunhua Sect and Misty Sect were not Star-Level Forces.
However, in everyone’s eyes, the strength of the leaders of these two Sects was formidable enough to justify their presence in the Black Iron Hall, and so they were invited as well.
“Now that everyone is almost here, let’s begin the meeting,” said the youthful-looking elder Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect, setting down his teacup and taking the lead in hosting this meeting.
“What exactly are we discussing at this meeting?” Qingyun Zhenren suddenly asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked directly at the Sect Leader of the Liuyun Sect.
“Naturally, it’s about the matter of the Demon City,” a weak and hoarse voice resonated from outside the hall, capturing everyone’s attention.
Ye Feng looked in the direction of the voice.
A middle-aged beauty in a purple robe was being supported into the hall by two maids. She was weak and pale, obviously having suffered a serious injury.
“Deputy City Lord of Shuiyang City!”
“Gong Qingqiu, are you all right?”
“What about the other cultivators?”
The various Sect Leaders stood up hurriedly upon seeing the beautiful woman.
Deputy City Lord Gong Qingqiu sank into a Black Iron throne, speaking feebly, “Please don’t worry about me, everyone. I am merely gravely wounded after being besieged by several Demon Generals. I won’t die so soon. My main purpose here is to brief you all on the crisis that has abruptly befallen Shuiyang City.”
On hearing this, everyone promptly sat down.
“We must start from what happened half a month ago.”
Gong Qingqiu began her tale.
“Half a month ago, everything in Shuiyang City was normal, and the Demon Subjugation Convention was proceeding smoothly, nearing victory.”
“However, a disciple from a certain Sect in the city accidentally stumbled into an underground cavern and released a Demon King that had been suppressed for many years, which led to disaster.”
Upon hearing this, all present were shocked.
Demon King!
That was an entity comparable to the Spirit Sea Realm. How could they, these One-Star Forces, possibly deal with it?
Ye Feng’s eyes narrowed slightly, surmising that what the beautiful woman was saying was true, and not to mention, the Black Bear Demon had also mentioned a Demon King seated within the Demon City.
Gong Qingqiu continued,
“After the Demon King emerged, it did not immediately attack Shuiyang City but remained dormant for some time, until five days ago, when it suddenly stormed into our city.”
“In that battle, the city lord perished on the spot.”
“Several Elders desperately self-destructed, holding back the Demon King, buying me time. Afterwards, I was besieged by several Demon Generals and only by paying a heavy price in grave injuries and lowering my cultivation level, did I manage to break through the encirclement.”
Upon saying this, Gong Qingqiu’s tears fell like rain.
The City Lord of Shuiyang City was her elder brother!
Yet, she could only watch helplessly as he was slapped to death by the Demon King, utterly powerless to resist. Countless people within the city were devoured by the Demon King, a sight too tragic to bear.
Upon hearing this, everyone clenched their fists.
“Even Prefect Gong, a powerful figure who stood shoulder to shoulder with me, couldn’t withstand a single strike from the Demon King?” Qingyun Zhenren’s hands trembled, and the corner of his eyes twitched.
“The Demon King is too strong, his demonic aura vast like the sea, endless. My brother was no match for him.” Gong Qingqiu, unable to contain her grief, began coughing violently.
“So, what should we do now?” Yunhua Zhenren couldn’t help but ask, his facial features nearly squeezing together in fear.
“With the Demon King sitting in Shuiyang City, just with our strength, even if we joined forces, we wouldn’t be a match!” Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect sighed.
If the Demon King were only at the peak of the Element Gathering Realm, then with everyone here taking action and the assistance of several small killing arrays, they most definitely could have overcome him.
But, this was the Demon King!
“I came here with another very important piece of news,” Gong Qingqiu said as she took out a piece of fox fur with three tails from her wide sleeves.
Everyone’s expression tensed upon seeing the fox fur.
“A Three-tailed Fox!”
“Could it be that the Demon Fox clan has reemerged?”
Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect and Qingyun Zhenren exclaimed in shock.
Ye Feng, having never heard of the Demon Fox clan, remained silent, wanting to hear what others had to say.
“You haven’t guessed wrong. Behind that Demon King is the Demon Fox clan, but that’s all I know,” Gong Qingqiu said as she put away the Three-tailed Fox’s fur and continued, “Now that Shuiyang City no longer exists and has become Demon City, I am left homeless. If any of you have the capability, then go take down Demon City!”
Having said that, she left the Black Iron Hall with the support of her two maids.
The remaining people looked at each other.
“Cough cough! Now that everyone is aware of the situation, next, we should discuss plans to deal with Demon City,” said the Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect.
“Deal with Demon City?” The Spirit Beast Sect Master and the Sect Master of Hundred Artifacts Sect looked at each other, both thinking the Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect was joking.
How could they fight the Demon King with just these people?
“The Demon King has taken over Shuiyang City, built Demon City, and is definitely aiming to build a Two-Star Rank force. If we do not act against it, we will surely be devoured by the Demon King,” the Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect said with a grave tone.
“Then we should ask for help from County King City; they will surely lend a hand,” suggested the Sect Master of Hundred Artifacts Sect.
“County King City may not take action,” the Spirit Beast Sect Master shook his head, “As long as they are not threatened or offended by County King City, those strong in the Spirit Sea Realm could hardly be bothered with the life and death of our sects. As for the Commandery Prince, he is likely busy trying to breakthrough to the Divine Origin Realm and won’t spare the time for such trifles.”
“Then what can we do?” The City Lord of Sanyuan City looked distressed.
“Why not ask for help from the Divine Wind Sword Sect?” Yunhua Zhenren weakly suggested.
“Pfft!”
Everyone else laughed.
Qingyun Zhenren shrugged his shoulders, scoffing, “What are you thinking? The Divine Wind Sword Sect has only a few at the Spirit Sea Realm, each of them cherishing their own lives. To expect them to take action against the Demon King is a sheer fantasy.”
“So what do we do?” The Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect was in a dilemma.
Without the Spirit Sea Realm leading them, how could they dare to contend with Demon City?
“Why the panic?”
Qingyun Zhenren suddenly smiled, saying, “I have an idea. We, the sect masters present here, could form a ‘Demon Subjugation Alliance’. Whenever a force is attacked by the strong from Demon City, other forces must rush to their aid. After all, we can’t confront the Demon King at this stage; all we can do is protect ourselves. What do you think?”
“That could work!”
All Sect Masters thought it was a good idea.
If several forces formed an alliance, unless the Demon King himself took action, they could have the strength to fight.
As Qingyun Zhenren said, the various sects were incapable of overthrowing Demon City, so the best they could do was to unite and preserve their lives first.
Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect said with a weird expression, “Forming an alliance is fine, but since we’re allying, we’ll definitely need to choose an Alliance Hierarch, as well as several Vice Alliance Hierarchs. Everyone here has considerable strength and is a candidate for Vice Alliance Hierarch. But who should be the Alliance Hierarch?”
Whoosh!
Qingyun Zhenren suddenly stood up, hands behind his back, chin lifted, exuding the strong aura of the sixth level of the Element Gathering Realm, and declared in a loud and clear voice:
“The Alliance Hierarch should naturally be the strongest among us. I am modest and would like to volunteer myself as the Alliance Hierarch!”
The moment he spoke, even Ye Feng was surprised to look at Qingyun Zhenren.
This man truly has thick skin!