The area beneath the sect had already descended into chaos. Hundreds of disciples flew around in panic like flies, while the alarm bell by the bell tower rang just in time.
The disciples who had been cultivating flew out of their mountain ravines and cave abodes in a steady stream, surging toward the sect's square from every direction until the entire square was packed. Yet there was clearly no order or discipline to speak of.
I glanced back toward where the Purple Bamboo Demon had been, only to find that she had vanished without a trace. I was certain she had returned to the place where she had originally been sealed, hoping to reconnect with the yin-energy vein.
The scene before me told me that either Le Zhengling was plotting something even greater, or he had been deceived by the other major powers and was about to become the bridal gown for someone else.
I hurried down toward the sect, because I had already seen Wang Changhe stabilizing the disciples' emotions. As long as he could keep them calm, there might still be room for discussion. After all, a thousand elite disciples from a sect were enough to gather into a formidable force. Even against an army of a hundred thousand, they would have a high chance of breaking through.
I raced along the way. The bamboo forest outside the forbidden grounds had not withered, but the corruption of its yin energy was alarming. It was already comparable to the yin energy beneath the sea, utterly incomparable to how it had been before.
I soon reached the entrance to the square. Quite a few disciples swept past me, but they had no time to pay attention to me at all. They were trying to flee the island through the rear