“L-Lord Sect Master, what happened?” Zhu Mingyu asked He Mingde hesitantly.
This scene was too bizarre. In broad daylight, with thousands of pairs of eyes watching, the prisoners actually vanished without a trace.
“Scram! Useless thing!” He Mingde snarled irately, sending Zhu Mingyu flying with a slap.
He naturally knew that Zhu Mingyu could not be blamed for this. Even he, a late-stage Soul Sea Realm martial artist, fell into the grand array imperceptibly, let alone the Sea Transformation Realm Zhu Mingyu.
But He Mingde was gloomy to the max right now and just happened to need an outlet to vent. At that moment, Zhu Mingyu came forward insensibly. Served him right to have a tough luck.
Furthermore, this kind of thing needed somebody to take the blame. Zhu Mingyu was responsible for guarding the prisoners this time. Now that the prisoners were gone, he obviously became the best scapegoat.
“You dunce! Can’t even watch the prisoners! What do I want you for?” He Mingde said in a deep voice.
This blow of his directly beat Zhu Mingyu to heavy injuries, and he could not even speak.
He Mingde looked at the sect protecting grand array before his eyes and mused for a long while because slowly spitting out several words, “Army, withdraw!”
Ye Yuan was seriously too abnormal. Hence, He Mingde did not have the courage to challenge this grand array.
Ma Yi’s, He Jun’s, and Liao Wenguang’s incidences were still vivid in his mind. If even he, the sect master, died to it as well, the Purple Mansion Sect would be in a complete disarray.
Hence, He Mingde chose to withdraw in the end!
It was just that He Mingde did not know he missed the one and only chance to breach the sect protecting grand array.
. . . . . .
When Skymaple and the rest were carried into the Tranquil Cloud Sect by the stone ape clan, they felt that this was like a dream.
“Martial Uncle, are we . . . dreaming? We actually . . . returned to the Tranquil Cloud Sect again!” Luo Qingfeng said tremblingly.
Skymaple had a face full of shock as well as he said, “Yeah. It’s really like a dream! I even thought that we’d die horrible deaths this time. I didn’t expect that in a twinkle, we actually returned to the Tranquil Cloud Sect!”
“Just . . . Just what in the world happened? Why did those Purple Mansion Sect people have no reaction at all when we were brought out? This . . . This is too unbelievable!” Xiao Jian still did not dare to believe it until now.
“And these stone apes . . . what’s going on?”
Before long, they arrived at the central area of the formation. When Mo Yuntian and the rest of the disciples saw Skymaple and the rest, they immediately froze.
“G-Grand Elder, Sect Master, Master . . . you all . . . you all . . .” Mo Yuntian had a look of disbelief.
They were still worrying about Ye Yuan. Who knew that in the blink of an eye, Skymaple and the rest actually showed up before their eyes. This gave them an extremely unreal feeling.
“Yuntian . . . you . . . you’re actually still alive!”
When Xiao Jian saw this eldest disciple, his eyes unwittingly turned red and was actually about to shed tears.
Skymaple and the rest were similarly dumbfounded with shock. Originally, they thought that Mo Yuntian these people all died in the mystic realm. Now, they actually came back perfectly unscathed. Furthermore, their strength all had improved.
“Yuntian, can it be that you saved us?” Xiao Jian said in astonishment.
Mo Yuntian shook his head and said with a bitter smile, “How could we have such capabilities? This one month plus, it was Ye Yuan alone holding up the overall situation!”
“Y-Ye Yuan? Where is he?” Xiao Jian exclaimed in surprise.
Skymaple and Luo Qingfeng exchanged glances and thought the same thing.Indeed it’s Ye Yuan!
Actually, at the Towering Peak, the two of them already had speculations in their hearts. But hearing Mo Yuntian’s reply personally right now, they still felt tongue-tied from the shock.
“Ye Yuan he . . . ” Mo Yuntian said somewhat hesitantly.
He really did not know where Ye Yuan went. Logically speaking, having rescued Skymaple and the rest, Ye Yuan should have returned. But Ye Yuan did not make an appearance after so long.
“Ye Yuan forcefully deployed the Greater Confounding Formation. Currently, his essence energy and soul force are consumed greatly, and he already fell into a coma.”
At this time, a gorgeous figure appeared in the sights of everybody. It was precisely Yue Mengli.
Although Yue Mengli’s appearance was ugly, after coming into contact frequently, her every action had a noble grace. The Tranquil Cloud Sect disciples actually could not give birth to any disgust towards her.
“What? Ye Yuan he . . . is he alright?” Skymaple exclaimed.
Yue Mengli shook her head and said, “Ye Yuan prepared long ago. There isn’t any major issue. But he probably can’t meet with anyone these few days. He asks you all to settle the sect’s internal affairs first. After he leaves seclusion, he’ll naturally meet with you guys. Oh, right, the Purple Mansion Sect has already retreated. The Tranquil Cloud Sect is safe for the time being.”
As she said, Yue Mengli was wonderstruck in her heart too.
Ye Yuan took into account virtually everything. If He Mingde personally cracked the formation at this time, without Ye Yuan’s management, the grand array would simply not be able to endure.
But after witnessing Ye Yuan’s bizarre means, He Mingde simply did not dare to easily attack the formation, and he actually led the Purple Mansion Sect disciples to withdraw!
This empty fort strategy was simply sung unprecedented in history, and it was unrepeatable after!
These few days, she had accompanied Ye Yuan to set up the formation constantly and also had many interactions with Ye Yuan.
Yue Mengli discovered to her shock that Ye Yuan was simply a genius!
From the day that he used the sect protecting grand array to defend the Tranquil Cloud Sect to the death, he already predicted the situation today.
Slaying two middle-stage Soul Sea Realms domineeringly before was for the sake of making He Mingde be in awe; it was to make him not dare to make any move rashly!
Such scheming strategy was simply heaven-defying!
Finished talking, Yue Mengli gave a graceful bow to everyone and left.
The Greater Confounding Formation was born from the Asura Confounding Formation. But it was much more powerful than the Lesser Confounding Formation that Ye Yuan used in the Fierce Gale World.
Just to set up this grand array, Ye Yuan used five days’ time. This was even the result of making use of the profound artifact, Profound Ice Flag.
Ever since Ye Yuan exited seclusion, he would disappear for a period of time each day. It was to go in front of the gates to set up the Greater Confounding Formation!
Ye Yuan linked up the sect protecting grand array and the Greater Confounding Formation ingeniously. Moreover, the setup range was massive.
This Profound Ice Flag was really a supreme Formation Path treasure. It should be the treasure that Lu Linfeng left behind for the sect before ascending. Using it to set up the grand array was really twice the result with half the effort.
It was also precisely due to the Profound Ice Flag’s assistance that Ye Yuan could complete the setup of this Greater Confounding Formation and deploy it.
The Profound Ice Flag and the Greater Confounding Formation that came from the Asura Confounding Formation were well-deserving of being supreme lower realm treasures that the Grand Yan Divine King left behind. Furthermore, matching these two items together actually had indescribable might. It could make He Mingde, an expert of such level, fell into the grand array unknowingly.
With Ye Yuan’s present strength, deploying and maintaining this grand array was still too forceful.
Plus, he even forcefully used the Thousand Flowing Petals at the final juncture and severely injured Lin Chao. This caused his consumption to be even greater as well.
After Yue Mengli left, Skymaple said with Mo Yuntian, “Come, come, Yuntian. Have a good chat with me about your experiences these few months.”
Mo Yuntian nodded to acknowledge and recounted the various events that happened during this period of time for Skymaple and the rest.
Only then did Skymaple and the rest know just the sort of sky-rocking incident happened in these few months.
Even though they were imprisoned in the Heavenly Sky Sect these few days, they were very perplexed the entire time. They were unaware how the Purple Mansion Sect had such strength.
Only now, hearing that there was actually an existence like the Fierce Gale World, did they come to a realization.
Hearing about how Ye Yuan actually slew three Soul Sea Realm powerhouses with the sect protecting grand array again, they were astounded until their jaws nearly fell off!
[0] Title comes from the Chinese Thirty-Six Stratagems. It means bluffing the enemy by putting on a bold front to conceal a weakly defended city.