The flames meant the man in black had already withdrawn. There should be no great trouble.
Lu Changfeng nodded. "Yes."
He, too, wanted to see what secrets still lay within the Sun-Burning Temple.
Before leaving, he specifically instructed the Inner Guard to secure the poison manuals and medical texts, then followed Princess Taiping as she swam out of the river passage.
There was little left to guard beneath Jade Pillar Peak. The children and apes had all been brought back, and most of the Tai Sui's roots had been taken away. Even if someone harbored ill intentions, they could not destroy the Blood Tai Sui. Its only weakness was fire, but even that was relative. For an "exotic beast" that could regenerate after being cut apart and was all but immortal, nothing short of ten days to half a month of burning could destroy it completely.
And in that time, anyone who dared make a move could be hacked into ten thousand pieces eight hundred times over!
Thus, Taiping left only a small contingent of elite Inner Guards to keep watch in secret, while she personally led the main force toward the Sun-Burning Temple without concealing their movements. This, too, was a strategy: creating the illusion that "the heart of the treasure is now at the Sun-Burning Temple" to draw the attention of potential enemies.
They used their lightness arts to race through the night.
From afar, Lu Changfeng saw flames soaring into the sky in the direction of the Sun-Burning Temple, staining that stretch of sky an eerie orange-red.
The mountain fire had alarmed many dignitaries and cultivators at the estates near Zhongnan Mountain. Figures could faintly be seen watching from distant ridges.
Yet when they recognized the murderous Inner Guards of the Princess's Residence, all clad in matching