Tang Yan glanced over at Xu You and Wei Lianyi again, but even after watching for a while, he saw no one wearing pink enchanted robes.
He could not help asking the system inwardly.
[Xu Zhenzhen actually didn't come? Wasn't this competition supposed to be her big moment to shine?]
The system replied, [Xu Zhenzhen was locked up by Xu You ages ago. He even used her to capture Jiang Liu'er. Jiang Liu'er is being tortured in Pill Peak's Blood Prison right now.]
Jiang Liu'er had used a sinister secret art to transfer the aura of Wei Lianyi's bloodline onto her own daughter.
Not only had she tricked Xu You into raising her daughter for decades,
she had also turned Xu You's biological daughter into a Medicine Puppet and tortured her for over ten years.
Worse still, when Xu You's cultivation partner had given birth, Jiang Liu'er had ruthlessly murdered her.
With all those grudges piled together, Xu You hated Jiang Liu'er to his very bones.
Even Xu Zhenzhen, whom he had doted on as she grew up, had fallen out of favor. He had sealed her cultivation and locked her in the Shadow Prison, a dungeon that never saw daylight.
Hearing this, Tang Yan could not help inwardly snarking again. [Fuck, this plot has gone so far off the rails it couldn't find its way back in a million years.]
[In the original plot, Xu Zhenzhen caused endless trouble, and the female lead nearly died because of her several times. Peak Master Xu wasn't supposed to completely turn against her for another five years. Tsk, tsk.]
Across from him, Xu You's hand trembled around his teacup as he heard those thoughts.
Along with even greater guilt and heartache for his precious daughter Wei Lianyi, he felt a deeper hatred for Jiang Liu'er and Xu Zhenzhen.
Wei Lianyi listened calmly, noticing the profound heartache and guilt in her father's eyes.
She slowly smiled and said nothing.
Her father might have been a little dim and easily deceived,
but he treated her very well. The moment she returned, she had received more care and attention than ever before.
The things Junior Brother Tang mentioned had not happened yet. Naturally, she would not resent her father over things that had never occurred.
Wei Lianyi's silence only made Xu You ache for her all the more.
Even the Sect Leader and the Peak Masters felt immense affection and sympathy for this newly recovered niece.
Xu You's direct disciples silently vowed to protect their little junior sister.
They would never let that impostor Xu Zhenzhen bully her again.
Once Tang Yan's inner voice quieted, everyone focused on watching the matches in the arena.
Tang Yan leaned lazily against the back of his chair, intently watching his senior brothers and sisters compete.
[Once I get that opportunity and grow a new spiritual root, I'll take up sword cultivation too. This is a perfect chance to watch and learn.]
[The Ten Thousand Swords Sect really deserves its reputation as a sect of battle maniacs. They're all fighting lunatics. Tsk, tsk, look at them go, throwing every sword move they have at their opponents like their lives don't matter.]
[It's honestly exhilarating. Really gets the blood pumping.]
The cultivators fighting in the arena all unconsciously puffed out their chests.
Of course! It was only a fight. Disciples of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect had nothing to fear.
[Is it because the Ten Thousand Swords Sect's disciples are such badasses and the demons' natural enemies that those demonic traitors keep targeting them?]
[By the time the demons make their comeback, these gifted disciples will have been all but wiped out. Dead, crippled, or driven mad.]
[Not even one in ten direct disciples survives. Master's Sect Leader Peak has it even worse. Every direct disciple dies, and even Master's own cultivation plummets. He develops an inner demon and gets stuck at the Body Integration stage.]
[No wonder the Ten Thousand Swords Sect falls from a top-tier sect to a third-rate minor sect in just twenty years.]
Those few brief remarks left everyone who could hear Tang Yan's thoughts with their hearts in their throats.
Fu Shouci and the Peak Masters frowned so deeply they could have crushed flies between their brows.
The disciples in the arena involuntarily slowed their sword strikes.
Even Liang Qiu's eyes were filled with grave concern.
The Ten Thousand Swords Sect would actually become a third-rate minor sect in twenty years?!
Then what about his Divine Medicine Sect?
Thinking of the information that little brat Tang Yan had revealed, Liang Qiu could not help worrying deeply about the Divine Medicine Sect's future.
A thousand years ago, war had erupted once more between immortals and demons, engulfing countless cultivation realms.
The Immortal Spirit Continent had been one of the continents hit hardest.
Besides losing countless mighty cultivators, it had paid an even more devastating price: the path to immortality had been destroyed, and the Ascension Stairs had shattered.
The Immortal Spirit Continent had not witnessed the magnificent sight of a mighty cultivator ascending for a thousand years.
Many powerful cultivators who had reached the Half-Step Ascension stage had no hope of ascending.
They could only enter prolonged seclusion, letting their Divine Sense retreat into an ethereal state and ignoring all outside affairs, to weather the life-and-death tribulation of being unable to advance any further.
The Ten Thousand Swords Sect's three supreme elders at the Half-Step Ascension stage were examples.
Heavenly Venerable Yinsu, who was closest to true Ascension, had already been in closed-door seclusion for five hundred years.
As for the Demon Clan,
the younger disciples knew little. They only knew that every major region of the present-day Immortal Spirit Continent, apart from the Mortal World, contained ruins of the Immortal-Demon War.
Demonic energy ran rampant within those ruins, and spiritual energy was entirely absent. They were death zones for cultivators: enter and die, stay away and live.
Suppression formations surrounded the war ruins. Every ten years, each major region had to dispatch people to guard or repair those formations.
Fu Shouci, Liang Qiu, and the other powerful senior figures knew a little more than the disciples.
As early as fifty years ago, they had detected violent fluctuations in the demonic energy within the war ruins.
At the time, they had reinforced and improved the suppression formations to prevent the demonic energy from spreading and corroding the surrounding lands.
They also knew that some vile Demon Clan remnants from a thousand years ago still lurked on the continent.
Over the years, the sects and great clans had tacitly worked together to suppress those hidden remnants of the Demon Clan.
But never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that the Demon Clan would one day make a comeback!!
Fu Shouci, Liang Qiu, and the others inwardly sucked in a cold breath, utterly horrified!
Everyone, including Xiao Jixue, listened quietly and intently for any further thoughts from the person beside them. Feng Sheng and Li Mo even stopped eating their spirit melon seeds.
The disciples in the arena began slacking off too.
As for the disciples below the Golden Core stage, who had no idea what had happened, they stared at their senior brothers and sisters loafing around in complete bewilderment.
What had happened?
Their senior brothers and sisters had just been fighting tooth and nail. Why had their attacks suddenly become so much weaker, almost as though they were just going through the motions?
And the elders weren't doing anything about it?
Yet even after waiting a long while, no one heard that familiar voice again.
Everyone: ...That was it?
"Hah, ptui! Junior Brother Lin, take this!"
"You little punk! You dare ambush your senior brother?"
"..."
In an instant, sword light blazed across the arena as the disciples traded furious blows, hammering away as though their lives meant nothing.
Meanwhile, Fu Shouci and the other senior figures were so anxious they nearly started tearing their hair out.
When would the Demon Clan make their comeback?
Were there Demon Clan traitors hiding in their Ten Thousand Swords Sect?
Come on, tell them more about the Demon Clan!!
He had just unleashed a thunderous barrage of revelations, all sparks and lightning.
Their hearts were now dangling in suspense, and suddenly he had clammed up completely. Damn it!
Fu Shouci hated it! He hated his fifth disciple's rotten habit of leaving things half-said.
Tang Yan had no idea that his few stray thoughts had thrown so many people into turmoil.
He happily continued watching the matches in the arena.
The system spoke again. [Host, host, I've detected some juicy gossip about Xu Zhenzhen. Want to hear it?]
Tang Yan's beautiful, peach-blossom eyes instantly lit up. [Yes! Tell me, quick!]
Feng Sheng's eyes sparkled too. She grabbed another handful of Spirit Melon Seeds, remembering to grab a couple of handfuls for Li Mo and Cui Yishu beside her as well.
The other direct disciples all sat up straight, excitement flashing through their eyes.
Here came the gossip! Here it came!
Hahaha, Junior Brother Tang was back with his juicy gossip!
They could talk about how they would die later. Right now, gossip came first!!!
Before you continue