The Hidden Hand, the Shadow of the Sect of Elucidation

The battle ended, and everything Returned to Calm.

With a sweep of her sleeve, Qiong Xiao used her mana to draw over the wreckage of the immortal vessel, along with the storage treasures scattered after Huo Teng and the others' deaths, piling them all before Lin Feng.

The fragments of the immortal vessel were already worthless, but the storage rings and magical treasures still counted as spoils of war.

Especially since Huo Teng, as the young master of the Fire Spirit Immortal Sect, should have possessed no small fortune.

"Master, these are the spoils of war."

Qiong Xiao spoke respectfully, awaiting Lin Feng's decision.

Lin Feng could not even be bothered to lift his eyelids. He merely waved a hand impatiently.

"Just a pile of junk. Deal with it yourself."

It felt like casually swatting a few flies to death—no one would care how much dust was stuck to a fly's legs.

"Yes, Master."

Warmth filled Qiong Xiao's heart. She had long grown accustomed to her master's manner.

In her master's eyes, perhaps everything other than Innate Spirit Treasures was no different from trash.

She said no more and silently began sorting through these so-called "junk items."

Huo Teng and the others' storage rings held quite a few Spirit Stones and pills, but their grades were pitifully low. Qiong Xiao was too lazy to Take Another Look.

The only thing that interested her was Huo Teng's ornate storage bracelet.

Her divine sense entered it. The space inside was quite vast, with materials and immortal artifacts piled up like mountains. Among them were many rare fire-element materials, and even a fist-sized piece of True Sun Gold—a pleasant surprise.

Qiong Xiao sorted these items into categories, intending to organize them into her master's treasury later.

Just as she was about to put away the bracelet, her divine sense inadvertently swept across an inconspicuous corner within it.

There seemed to be a hidden compartment there.

With a thought, Qiong Xiao opened the hidden compartment, which had been sealed by a special restriction.

Inside, there was no earth-shattering magical treasure, nor were there any incomparably precious pills.

There was only a Jade Talisman.

A Jade Talisman that was warm throughout, ancient in design, and utterly unremarkable at first glance.

Yet when Qiong Xiao's gaze fell upon the character engraved on its face, her pupils suddenly contracted.

It was an ancient character with a sharp brush tip, containing Dao resonance that expounded the supreme principles of heaven and earth.

—Elucidation!

Boom!

It was as though thunder had exploded in Qiong Xiao's mind.

All color drained from her face in an instant, leaving it deathly pale.

Elucidation!

The Sect of Elucidation!

As a former Core Disciple of the Interception Sect and one of the Three Immortal Maidens, she was far too familiar with—and far too sensitive to—that character!

They were the Interception Sect's mortal enemies, the chief culprits behind the Interception Sect's fragmentation, the breaking of the Myriad Immortals Formation, and the Death and Dao Dissipation of countless fellow disciples!

Why would the young master of the Fire Spirit Immortal Sect have a Jade Talisman representing the Sect of Elucidation hidden among his storage treasures?

An icy chill rose from the soles of Qiong Xiao's feet and rushed straight to the Crown of the Head.

In that instant, she understood.

None of this was a coincidence!

This seemingly ordinary act of provocation was actually connected to that colossal entity!

At the thought of the terrifying power represented by the words "Sect of Elucidation," and that Saint who stood lofty above all, wielding Heaven's Dao of slaughter, Qiong Xiao's heart sank uncontrollably.

She was not afraid of death, but she feared bringing a heaven-shaking calamity upon her master!

This was no longer something a Fire Spirit Immortal Sect or an East Sea Dragon Palace could compare to.

This was the lineage of a Saint!

Qiong Xiao did not dare delay A Single Bit. Holding the Jade Talisman, which seemed to weigh ten thousand jun, she hurried to Lin Feng's side, her voice carrying an uncontrollable tremor.

"Master!"

Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes. Seeing Qiong Xiao's pale little face and the panic filling her eyes, he could not help but raise an eyebrow slightly.

"What has you so alarmed?"

Qiong Xiao held the Jade Talisman up with both hands and presented it before Lin Feng. With difficulty, she said, "Master, look at this... Behind the Fire Spirit Immortal Sect, I fear... I fear it is the Sect of Elucidation!"

She stared fixedly at Lin Feng's face, her heart lodged in her throat.

She was afraid—afraid of seeing even the slightest trace of gravity on her master's face.

Because that would mean that the Sect of Elucidation, that colossal entity, was a tremendous threat even to her master.

Lin Feng's gaze finally fell upon that tiny Jade Talisman.

He did not take it at once, merely casting it a faint glance.

With that single glance, an invisible divine sense had already pierced through every restriction and secret within the Jade Talisman.

In an instant, he understood the entire chain of cause and effect.

So that was it.

This Fire Spirit Immortal Sect was nothing more than an idle chess piece the Sect of Elucidation had placed in the Eastern Sea.

And this unfortunate Huo Teng had not come here to sightsee, but under the orders of a certain Golden Immortal of the Sect of Elucidation, to investigate the Ancient Cave Mansion that was about to emerge.

The Sect of Elucidation had clearly also calculated that a great opportunity would appear in the Eastern Sea. They wanted to seize it before anyone else and claim it for themselves.

As for why they had targeted him and Qiong Xiao, they had likely sensed the faint, elusive aura of the Interception Sect around Qiong Xiao and intended to conveniently wipe out these "remnants of the previous dynasty."

Everything connected.

Seeing Qiong Xiao's little hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned pale, Lin Feng's lips suddenly curled into an amused arc.

At last, he reached out and pinched the Jade Talisman between his fingers, gently rubbing it.

Qiong Xiao's heart rose higher and higher with his movements.

She drew a deep breath, gathered her courage, and persuaded him in a voice scarcely louder than a mosquito's buzz. "Master, the Sect of Elucidation is immensely powerful. Yuanshi Tianzun stands behind them, and each of the Twelve Golden Immortals possesses vast divine abilities. We... we should avoid their edge for now. Let us leave the Eastern Sea first and make plans at leisure?"

In her eyes, this was the safest choice—and the only one.

To directly confront a Saint's lineage?

What a joke.

Even the Interception Sect, once a gathering where Myriad Immortals Came to Court, had met such a miserable end. Much less the two of them now.

However.

After hearing her suggestion, the smile on Lin Feng's face deepened.

He looked at Qiong Xiao as though he were looking at a little cat worrying that the sky might fall.

Next Second.

In front of Qiong Xiao, Lin Feng lightly rubbed his two fingers together.

Crack.

A faint, almost inaudible crisp sound rang out.

That Jade Talisman of the Sect of Elucidation, forged from special immortal jade and capable of withstanding the full-force strike of a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, simply... shattered.

It turned into the finest powder, sifting down from between Lin Feng's fingers. A gust of sea wind blew through it, and it vanished completely between heaven and earth, not even a trace left behind.

Qiong Xiao's eyes flew wide open, and at this moment even her breathing stopped.

Her mind went blank.

Shat... shattered?

That Jade Talisman representing the dignity of a Saint's lineage had been crushed by her master as effortlessly as crushing a biscuit?

Did he not know what that represented?

It meant an unending struggle to the death with the Sect of Elucidation!

Just as Qiong Xiao's worldview was about to collapse, Lin Feng's calm voice, carrying a hint of laziness, slowly rang out.

"And what if it is the Sect of Elucidation?"

Those few plain words seemed to contain an unparalleled domineering force that scorned the Three Realms and held all things beneath its notice.

Qiong Xiao abruptly raised her head and stared blankly at her master's profile.

Lin Feng's gaze remained fixed upon the place where sea and sky met, as though that so-called Saint's lineage was less interesting than the scenery before him.

"If they provoke me,"

He paused. His voice remained calm, yet the waves throughout the Eastern Sea seemed to freeze At This Moment.

"Even if a Saint comes in person, they will have to give me an explanation."

Rumble—!

Qiong Xiao's entire soul felt as if it had been struck by a bolt of Chaos Divine Thunder, buzzing violently.

Even if a Saint came in person, they would have to... give an explanation?

Those words were like an unparalleled divine hammer crashing brutally into her heart, smashing every understanding she had ever held about "Saints" to pieces!

What was a Saint?

They were embodiments of the Heavenly Dao, imperishable through ten thousand tribulations, their words manifesting as law—supreme beings whom all living things could only look up to!

Yet in her master's mouth, a Saint seemed to be merely someone who "needed to give an explanation"?

Qiong Xiao stared blankly at Lin Feng.

As she looked at this man who had remained calm and unruffled from beginning to end, as though nothing in the world could ever move him—

At that moment, all her fear of the Sect of Elucidation, her awe of the Saints, and her worries for the future vanished like smoke.

Replaced by them was an unprecedented shock and fervor that sank deep into her bones!

This was her master!

This was an unrivaled powerhouse who looked down upon the world and feared nothing!

What Sect of Elucidation? What Saints?

Before her master's towering figure, they all seemed so small, so utterly beneath mention.

At last, Qiong Xiao's suspended heart completely settled.

It did not sink into an abyss, but into a warm ocean called "Lin Feng," called "worship."

There was nothing else on her mind.

Lin Feng's figure was reflected in her eyes, which shone with a light unlike any before.

From now on, there would no longer be any distinction between the Sect of Elucidation and the Interception Sect in her world. The two words "master" were her entire Dao.