A Confusing Game

Li Qingjun glared at her ancestors.

Li Duanxuan raised his hand, as if to strike.

Li Qingjun instinctively covered her head.

He raised his hand halfway, then realized the movement was too serpentine, not at all like Qing Jun. He didn't know how he'd caught it... maybe it was from Qin Yi getting infected? So he lowered his hand, stubbornly continuing to glare at his ancestors.

The result was unexpectedly cuter.

Li Duanxuan chuckled, then withdrew his hand as if to pull it away, laughing, "If I'm a tortoise, then what are you? Why are you insulting someone like that... It's truly a case of hurting yourself as well as your enemy..."

Li Qingjun insisted, "Regardless, according to Qin Yi, this is called the Ultimate One-for-One Exchange."

Li Duanxuan was at his wit's end with her, and shook his head, saying, "Fine, I'll go with you this time. My descendants... although I don't want to take care of them, they won't be bullied by anyone."

Li Qingjun was overjoyed. "Master is wise!"

"Don't give me that. I will go, but I won't associate with you. I will handle things my own way."

As a result, Li Qingjun was even happier.

Isn't this better?

Seeing her adorable expression, Li Duanxuan chuckled and said, "Actually... if I told you that this matter didn't require my involvement at all, would you believe me?"

"I don't believe it," Li Qingjun said. "If the Taiyi Sect gets involved in full force, Qin Yi and I simply can't withstand it."

Li Duanxuan said leisurely, "But your niece belongs to the Witch God Sect."

Li Qingjun stared wide-eyed in surprise.

What kind of development is this?

"Do you know that the conflict between good and evil has not only not subsided over the years, but has actually intensified?"

"Hmm, we can roughly see some of it." Having met the chess fanatic, Li Qingjun and Qin Yi knew that the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace was not under any pressure for the time being. The chess fanatic even had time to run around, which meant that the Witch God Sect could not spare any effort to put any pressure on the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace.

This shows that the struggle between good and evil is still ongoing and has not subsided.

But none of them realized that the main protagonist of this whole affair wasn't the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace at all, but rather the Taiyi Sect. The Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace was merely a spectator...

After listening to Li Duanxuan's explanation for a long time, Li Qingjun finally understood the general situation.

Originally, the Taiyi Sect implied that several affiliated Outer Sects had participated in the Great Qian Dynasty's establishment of a new regime, which was quite normal. Throughout history, there have always been immortals who, "for the sake of the common people," supported "enlightened rulers" to end the chaos of the world.

Ye Bieqing had done this before, but Qin Yi later learned that his original intention had nothing to do with "for the sake of the common people" but was to try to add the spirit of the mountains and rivers and the National Luck of the nation to his painting.

The Taiyi Sect is similar this time, saying "choosing a master for the common people" and "ending the chaos as soon as possible," but there are actually deeper reasons behind it.

The deaths of three of the most outstanding young disciples, including Gu Xin, in the Blood Nether Realm were not simply the loss of a few soaring-level cultivators; rather, they represented a severe blow to the sect's future generations.

In the cultivation world, the master-disciple relationship is a continuation of the Daoist lineage, which in some ways is even more important than bloodline descendants. Many people would rather never take a disciple than have a useless one who would bring shame and embarrassment, not to mention potentially affecting their reputation and even their luck, causing lifelong misfortune. Therefore, many people travel through the mortal world for many years to slowly search for a disciple, and even if they find someone they like, they must go through several tests before finally establishing a master-disciple bond.

However, for sects, they have no choice but to seek out talent, otherwise they will be unable to compete with others, and the decline of one sect will easily lead to their eventual weakening. Therefore, sects have dedicated personnel to recruit promising talents, and they cannot simply wait for fate to bring them together.

Outstanding genius disciples are hard to find; where in the world are there so many geniuses?

A disciple with Spirit Roots, good fortune, virtuous character, and a virtuous heart is so rare that one might not appear even once every few thousand years. Therefore, many Righteous Path sects have had to abandon their perfect requirements and only need Spirit Roots, since virtue and character can be cultivated...

Therefore, it's understandable that people like Gu Xin aren't exactly good people.

Even Gu Xin and his group were already struggling, and this time they've been cut off like this. How easy is it to make up for it in the short term?

There is a most direct way to solve this problem: directly leverage the power of the nation.

If you are the national Imperial Preceptor, recruiting promising talents is incredibly easy. Of course, as everyone knows, there are also many drawbacks. The Taiyi Sect also knows that it cannot directly participate in the competition, so it allows its Outer Sect to participate.

In previous years, there was some competition among various factions, with similar goals, but the outcome was limited to the Outer Sect level. Those above would just laugh it off, and that was it. There were even times when Outer Sect cultivators were riddled with arrows by purely human forces, but everyone would just shrug and sigh, "Fate is in their hands," remaining quite detached.

This time, the Taiyi Sect was determined to win, which changed the nature of the situation. Other factions refrained from intervening out of consideration for others. Ironically, several of the Taiyi Sect's Outer Sect's supported forces were completely defeated by the Great Qian Dynasty. In a situation where "fate was on their side," the Taiyi Sect finally couldn't resist intervening personally.

At first, they maintained some semblance of restraint, only sending a few Cloud-Soaring cultivators to inflict a major defeat on the Da Qian Army and seize a city. However, when the second battle began, several Witcher arrived from the Da Qian Army's side.

Li Wuxian invited the Witch God Sect, and it seemed that he had been preparing for this for a long time.

The battlefield on earth has completely turned into a battle of immortals. If Qin Yi saw this, he would definitely think of "Investiture of the Gods" immediately.

This time, the Taiyi Sect suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Witch God Sect, and its higher-ups finally couldn't resist taking action.

If it were any other family, we could negotiate, but it's the Witch God Sect?

Wasn't the blame for Gu Xin and the others dying in the Blood Nether Realm on the Witch God Sect? The conflict between the righteous and demonic factions hasn't even subsided in recent years, and now they're interfering in the human war as well. This is intolerable! Do they really think our Taiyi Sect is made of mud?

The conflict between good and evil escalated, with the Taiyi Sect becoming the main protagonist, engaging in fierce battles with the Witch God Sect on various battlefields, both in the human world and beyond.

"In terms of size, the Taiyi Sect is certainly no match for the Witch God Sect, but we are allies. If we put pressure on each other together, as long as Witch God Sect doesn't come out, we will actually have the upper hand," Li Duanxuan said. "Later, I realized that the Witch God Sect was actually helping Wu Xian. Our Penglai Sword Pavilion has been holding back these days and hasn't made a move. The Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace is probably in a similar situation and has already begun to stand aside."

Li Qingjun was both amused and exasperated. Originally, the feud between Qin Yi and the Witch God Sect was primarily between Qin Yi and her, meaning that the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace and Penglai Sword Pavilion were the core enemies of the Witch God Sect. But now the tables had turned, and the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace and Penglai Sword Pavilion had both entered spectator mode.

This is a typical example of the effects of cause and effect. The interruption of the Taiyi Sect and the previous grudges, coupled with Li Wuxian's identity and relationship, completely changed the course of the matter, leading it in a direction that Qin Yi had never imagined before.

"So..." Li Duanxuan said meaningfully, "Now you know why I'm acting on my own, right? If this matter goes wrong, it could turn into our two families helping the Demon Sect fight against our Righteous Path allies. We must be careful in our actions. If we really want to kill the people of the Taiyi Sect, we must not let anyone know. We must even try to erase the divination results..."

Very good. Helping the Demon Sect fight against the Righteous Path allies is no problem for them. They just want to be clean. This shameless style is indeed the ancestor of the Li family.

Li Qingjun was extremely pleased. "Yes, Master."

Li Duanxuan said, "Isn't the biggest problem now the Witch God Sect's feud with Qin Yi? Things have gotten to this point, and it's hard to tell who's friend and who's foe. Being cautious in taking action isn't just a matter of concealment; it's about thinking things through before acting. If things go wrong, it's no different from helping the enemy slap themselves in the face."

Li Qingjun pondered for a long time before finally sighing, "Now I understand why the chess fanatic senior told Qin Yi to observe more, act less, and not get involved in the game."

"This is a perplexing game where friend and foe are indistinguishable. The player is actually a thirteen-year-old girl. It's truly astonishing." Li Duanxuan stroked his beard. "She has my blood on her. She's definitely different."

Li Qingjun said, "I have your blood too, why am I not as smart as you?"

"There's nothing we can do," Li Duanxuan. "Even if we have two children, one might be smart and the other an idiot."

"That idiot is the one influenced by your bloodline," Li Qingjun said irritably. "She's so Monstrous Fiends, you should probably consider how much of it is influenced by your past life."

Li Duanxuan narrowed his eyes.