"Whether he is or not," Wang Luan interrupted their speculation, a vicious gleam suddenly flashing through his eyes.
"The ten billion he wants is our last chance. As long as we capture him and recover that Image Recording Stone, our Ten Thousand Flowers Sect will still have a thread of hope!"
"Yes, yes, exactly!" The other elders nodded in agreement, as though clutching at a life-saving straw.
As expected of their Sect Master-he had seized upon the crux of the matter at once!
Wang Luan immediately looked outside the hall. A ray of morning light had already pierced the horizon.
He promptly ordered, "There's little time left. Everyone, withdraw immediately, lest we scare him off!"
"Yes!"
Wang Xu accepted the order at once, but before she could pass it along, a Core Elder rushed in from outside, her face stricken with panic.
"Sect Master! Ancestor! Terrible news!"
"Why the panic?"
"The... the Emperor Pavilion Constable has arrived in Ten Thousand Flowers City!"
"What?!" Wang Luan cried out, so frightened that he leaped to his feet.
The Core Elders behind him shuddered all over in terror and collapsed in a heap.
"We're finished, finished, finished... We really are finished this time! Run! If we don't run now, it'll be too late!"
"All of you, stay right there!"
The Grand Supreme Elder slammed her dragon-headed staff against the floor, forcibly steadying her body as it shook like chaff in a sieve, and barked.
"Why are you panicking?!"
"If the Emperor Pavilion had truly discovered our Ten Thousand Flowers Sect's dealings with Demon Cultivators, their honored envoys would have descended upon the sect, not Ten Thousand Flowers City!"
"Yes, yes, exactly!"
Her words jolted them awake from their nightmare!
Like drowning people clutching driftwood, the elders nodded desperately in agreement. They frantically wiped