The Plot Revealed

In the corner, Bai Yi cast a glance at the gray-robed woman who had been the first to fly off.

He slowly fell behind the others, quietly spreading his Divine Sense. With a range comparable to that of a Late Qi Refining cultivator, he indeed spotted several figures in gray robes behind the crowd, just like himself.

They trailed far behind. When they met one another's eyes, they merely nodded, without the slightest other emotion.

"Looks like that Yinshan Sect rogue cultivator was telling the truth."

"All these people were hiding in various places, gathering here in the Blue Mountain Secret Realm only after obtaining their sect tokens."=

Bai Yi thought to himself. He then followed the example of the gray-robed rogue cultivators around him, hanging back like a prison guard stationed at his post.

Along the way, he calmly nodded to the other gray-robed rogue cultivators who glanced over, pretending to reveal a corner of the coffin-shaped magical artifact at his waist by accident.

The crowd quickly climbed. The more than ten kilometers of steep, rugged mountain path was as easy as flat ground before these cultivators. Their lightness techniques for flying through the air were truly extraordinary.

In just half an hour, they reached the spot halfway up the mountain where light was rising.

A section of the cliff face had collapsed. Rosy light shimmered at the cave entrance, and Spiritual Power swirled like mist. On the exposed rock face at the opening, a tree laden with scarlet fruit grew at an angle, Spiritual Power encircling it.

"Are those Vermilion Fruits?!"

"They're brimming with Spiritual Power, and their cores are scarlet. Judging by their appearance, they're at least twenty or thirty years old!"

Watching the Vermilion Fruit tree sway on the cliff, the Rogue Cultivators halfway up the mountain grew increasingly feverish.

Twenty- or thirty-year-old Vermilion Fruits, if entrusted to an Alchemist to refine into Vermilion Fire Pills, would be enough to help them refine the impurities in their Spiritual Power, strengthening their foundations further.

Even if they didn't eat them, selling each fruit would fetch two or three hundred thousand Spirit Value.

At the back of the crowd, Bai Yi looked at the cave entrance and the Vermilion Fruit tree in the distance, both suffused with Spiritual Power after the formation restriction on the cliff had been broken.

The scene looked perfectly normal, yet his heart suddenly tightened.

"Something's wrong."

"In Dao of Alchemy class, they said Vermilion Fruits belong to Yang, and grow in areas with red flames. When the fruits ripen, Fire Spiritual Power should surge all around them..."

Recalling what he had learned in Dao of Alchemy class, Bai Yi looked again at the calm Spiritual Power on the cliff. His heart sank.

Like him, several people in the Rogue Cultivator group sensed that something was wrong. They were just about to shout a warning when-

The people at the very front had already entered within fifty meters of the cliff. A few of them had even mounted their Hoverboards and were flying straight toward the Vermilion Fruits.

"Haha, these Vermilion Fruits are mine!"

"With these Vermilion Fruits, even I, Liu Niu, might be able to break into Late Qi Refining!"

Staring greedily at the Vermilion Fruits, now within arm's reach, Liu Niu controlled a jade blade with his Spiritual Power and sent it toward the trunk.

The instant the jade blade made contact, the surroundings abruptly changed before everyone's eyes.

The misty Spiritual Power and dazzling rosy light vanished. In their place was darkness, with rocks faintly tinged with blood beneath it.

A few scattered white bones came into view among the cracks in the rubble.

The jade blade shattered. Liu Niu looked over in terror. There was no Vermilion Fruit tree before him at all-only a skeletal corpse that had been rotting for who knew how many years.

The skeleton suddenly arched upright. Its bony arms seized Liu Niu and pulled him into its embrace. It bit through his neck, chewed his flesh, and crunched his tendons and membranes.

A blood-red light enveloped the area. As the Rogue Cultivators stared in panic, streams of blood gushed from underground like springs, tracing a bizarre, inscrutable pattern in crimson.

"It's a Demonic Dao Grand Formation!"

"Run! Rogue cultivators have infiltrated the area!"

The Bloodlight Formation, spanning nearly two hundred meters, spread outward and closed in. Countless skeletons crawled out of the ground, swarming like locusts to bite the Rogue Cultivators trapped inside.

Outside the Bloodlight Formation, more than twenty rogue cultivators who had been hidden for a long time emerged from both sides of the cliffs.

Yin Corpses, ghostly shadows, and blood arts appeared one after another, attacking the few Rogue Cultivator groups outside the formation who had sensed something amiss and held back.

Bai Yi glanced around at the rogue cultivators rushing forward to attack. The Heart-Questioning Sword beneath his gray robe trembled for several seconds. Recalling what the gloomy man had said about their leader, he sighed inwardly, then calmed himself.

He pushed the Spiritual Power and Divine Sense suppression of his Dao Robe to the limit, quietly hiding in a crevice in the mountainside.

"With my strength right now, going up against an ordinary Seventh Layer of Qi Refining cultivator is already my limit."

Bai Yi held his breath, his eyes fixed on the few Rogue Cultivator squads outside the formation that were being surrounded and attacked.

Against nearly thirty rogue cultivators who averaged around the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining and practiced Demon Sect techniques, the weaker cultivators in the squads held out for barely ten minutes before ghostly shadows and white bones devoured all their Essence Blood.

But once all the weaker Rogue Cultivators had died, the rest, led by several Sixth Layer of Qi Refining squad captains,

held single-soldier particle cannons and blasted in every direction. The Armed Mechanical Dogs coordinated with their respective Magic Arts, and for a time the overwhelming firepower made it difficult for the rogue cultivators surrounding them to get close.

"Hmph, a bunch of useless trash!"

Amid a cold snort, two old men dressed in black robes, with graying temples and deeply furrowed faces, slowly stepped out.

Seeing that the others had failed to surround and subdue them for so long, the old Yinshan Sect man on the left extended a skull staff soaked in blood from beneath his black robe. As billowing Yin Spiritual Power like black fog surged around it, more than ten black skeletons took shape, clad in ragged armor and wielding blades, and flew out to attack.

"A rogue cultivator at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining..."

Feeling the aura emanating from the old Yinshan Sect man, Bai Yi's pupils contracted slightly.

Although he had suspected that much of what those rogue cultivators said was false, he hadn't expected the leaders this time to be two old men from the Blood Demon Sect and Yinshan Sect. Their strength had likely reached the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining.

This was a city Secret Realm distributed by the Immortal Alliance, and yet rogue cultivators at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining had somehow infiltrated it.

Outside the Bloodlight Formation, more than ten skeletons wielding blades howled past. With a single slash, they cut through the particle cannons that had previously kept the other rogue cultivators from advancing.

Wherever the ghostly shadows passed,

even the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining squad captains leading the groups were killed in a single encounter, their Essence Blood and souls taken from them. They collapsed to the ground as dried-out skeletons.

After dealing with the Rogue Cultivators outside the formation, the old Yinshan Sect man dispersed the ghostly shadows, took out a purple bottle from his robe, and tapped it with his Blood-Colored Bone Staff.

The Essence Blood and souls swallowed by the ghostly shadows earlier turned into blood-colored liquid and flowed into the purple bottle.

"Not bad. Once we refine the Essence Blood and souls of those Rogue Cultivators in the formation, it'll be enough to open the residence."

The old Yinshan Sect man shook the purple bottle, a trace of excitement flashing in his eyes.

It was said that the Blue Mountain Secret Realm had been separated from a Medium-Thousand Plane by the Immortal Alliance, and the owner of this Demon Sect residence had once been a disciple of a great Demon Sect in that Medium-Thousand Plane.

The manuals and resources hidden inside might let him advance further, break through the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining, and enter the Foundation Establishment stage.

Three hundred years of Foundation Establishment...

With his time nearly up, this residence was his final opportunity.

"Old Ghost Li, don't forget that my Blood Demon Sect is to receive four tenths of the share."

Hearing the Blood Demon Sect old man beside him, a thread of murderous intent passed through the old Yinshan Sect man's heart. He smiled lightly and said, "Of course. With the residence's owner's status, there's more than enough for the two of us to enjoy for a long time."

A quarter of an hour later, the Bloodlight Formation gradually dissipated.

Within its bounds, the earth was cracked and the ground lay in ruins. More than a hundred Rogue Cultivators had died there. Their bodies were shriveled, yet, strangely, not a trace of blood had flowed out.