It hurriedly shrank, becoming the size of a kitten in an instant.
Then it frantically licked Ye Chen's hand, looking eager to please, its large eyes darting toward the immortal pill from time to time.
Any girl in the bloom of youth would have melted at its adorably silly appearance.
Unfortunately, it had run into Ye Chen.
Ye Chen gave it a smack right on the forehead.
"That hurt so much!"
A clear, lilting young girl's voice came from the Qilin's mouth.
Then it clutched its head with two paws and glared at Ye Chen.
"I knew you could talk!"
Ye Chen curled his lip. "Have you thought over what I just said?"
"Well... as you know, I'm a sacred beast, a Qilin, with a noble bloodline and formidable strength, so..."
"One immortal pill for guarding the Ye Lineage for a thousand years!"
Before it could finish, Ye Chen named his price.
At this, its heart blossomed with joy.
It had been about to offer to guard them for five thousand years, yet Ye Chen had gone straight to a thousand.
The value of an immortal pill was immeasurable, and demonic beasts generally lived longer than humans.
A sacred beast's lifespan was at least a hundred thousand years. If it could reach the Emperor Realm, even a million years was not impossible.
A thousand years was not much to it.
Trading that for an immortal pill was an absolute windfall.
Once I earn all this brat's immortal pills, my strength might reach the Emperor Realm. Then I'll give his backside a good few smacks, strip him naked, and parade him through the streets!
It secretly entertained these thoughts.
"Have you decided?"
Ye Chen urged it.
"Yes, yes! It's a deal! You can't go back on your word and bully a little sacred beast like me!"
The Qilin hurriedly agreed.
Delaying even a second would have been disrespectful to the immortal pill.
Hearing this, Ye Chen broke into a radiant smile. "Deal!"
"Stay in my spirit beast pouch for a while first!"
Then, before it could react, he tossed it inside.
After putting away the spirit beast pouch, Ye Chen rubbed his forehead.
"It actually looked so happy!"
"I really don't know how its elders dared let something this stupid leave home!"
Their agreement was nothing but empty words. Even if Ye Chen broke it, there would be nothing it could do.
It could only work for him for free.
Still, he could not bring himself to do something like those capitalists would.
He had plenty of immortal pills anyway. He could just consider it clearing out inventory.
However, he rather doubted whether, even if it worked until it died, it could relieve so much as one hundred-millionth of his inventory burden.
"Ah, what a headache!"
With matters here settled, he prepared to head to the Falling Snow Sect. Before leaving, he glanced at Luo Chen, who lay a short distance away.
He was perfectly aware of everything that had just happened nearby.
He had inadvertently destroyed that man's lifesaving trump card, but he had also saved him from a life-or-death crisis.
That left neither owing the other anything.
If one really counted it up, witnessing him strike was itself an enormous blessing.
His path of cultivation would certainly be much smoother from then on.
Ye Chen shook his head with a faint smile, his figure slowly disappearing.
At the entrance to the Falling Snow Sect.
Ye Chen's figure shifted from illusory to solid in midair, his hands clasped behind his back.
His vast, boundless divine sense instantly enveloped the entire Falling Snow Sect.
From the elders and sect master down to the disciples and servants, even every flower and blade of grass, nothing escaped his perception.
At that moment, an erotic scene was unfolding inside the sect master's grand hall.
An old man and a woman were tumbling like phoenixes in a large bed, enjoying themselves immensely.
These two were none other than the Huayun Sect's grand elder and the Falling Snow Sect's sect master.
"Fornicating in broad daylight. Public morals really are declining!"
He had essentially confirmed that those two were the strongest in the sect. The old man was at the ninth level of the Heavenly Palace realm, and the woman was at the ninth level of Origin Core.
He pointed a finger, then spoke indifferently. "Perish!"
In an instant, everything in the Falling Snow Sect except the two people in bed was crushed to powder and scattered on the wind.
A vast empty expanse remained on the mountain, and at its very center were a bed, a quilt, and two naked bodies.
On the bed, the Huayun Sect's grand elder was still dazed, while Ximen Xue screamed in fright and hurriedly covered her proud assets with the quilt.
The two looked around in confusion. They had clearly been inside the grand hall just now, so why had they suddenly appeared in this place where not even birds would shit?
And why did their surroundings feel so familiar, yet seem to be missing something?
"Wait!"
As though something had occurred to him, the Huayun Sect's grand elder suddenly widened his eyes until they seemed about to pop out. "Could it be... could someone have erased... erased the entire sect without us noticing?"
His own thought gave him an enormous fright, but the scene before him was clearly just that.
Hearing his conjecture, Ximen Xue's lovely face lost all color, turning deathly pale.
The entire sect had been erased without either of them noticing a thing.
What kind of ability was this?
Not even the Saints of legend could manage that, could they?
Both were utterly terrified. The grand elder streamed cold sweat, a bone-piercing chill sweeping through his entire body until even his blood seemed to freeze.
He did not know what that incomparably powerful being intended. He trembled all over, yet did not dare move a muscle, afraid that the slightest misstep would make him disappear as eerily as the sect had.
In fact, Ye Chen had not deliberately concealed himself, but the two were so preoccupied with fear that they had not dared move at all.
Seeing the two looking as though their souls had been frightened out of them, Ye Chen sneered.
With so little ability, they had still dared set their sights on the Ye Lineage. They were truly courting death!
Then he wasted no more time. His divine sense pierced their minds and read their memories.
A moment later, their divine senses collapsed, and they breathed their last.
Ye Chen had also obtained the information he wanted.
He had not expected a fish from the Huayun Sect to have slipped through the net.
And the man did indeed have some brains; unfortunately, only his brains had grown, not his cultivation.
As for Ximen Xue, apart from her physical assets, she had nothing going for her.
Still, he had not expected the Falling Snow Sect to act so quickly, immediately dispatching people to cause trouble for the Ye Lineage.
At their speed, they should already have been there for quite some time.
An hour earlier, at the Ye Lineage.
Two beautiful figures appeared in the sky above the Ye Lineage's entrance.
One was the Falling Snow Sect's grand elder, High Person Xueqing, whose cultivation was at the middle stage of Origin Core.
She wore white palace robes and held a white horsetail whisk. Her face was exquisite, her skin like ice and bones like jade, giving her a distant air that kept others a thousand miles away.
The other was Ximen Xue's disciple and also the Falling Snow Sect's chief core disciple, Chen Xue, whose cultivation was at the late stage of Xiantian.
She wore a white dress, her face fair and flawless, her skin snow-white, and her delicate nose high and straight. In her hand was a long blue-green sword.
The two had come to demand an accounting and probe the Ye Lineage's strength.
"Where is the head of the Ye Lineage?"
High Person Xueqing spoke indifferently. Her voice seemed quiet, yet it reached every corner of Clearwater Town.
Most members of the Ye Lineage were hard at work cultivating, and the sudden voice startled them all.
They rose one after another and came to the entrance.
The lineage head, Ye Xuan, several clan elders, and Ye Yan stood at the Ye Lineage's entrance, their expressions grave.
Seeing those two figures high above them, looking at them as though they were ants, Ye Yan burned with even greater fury.
If he had not been unable to fly because he had yet to reach Xiantian, he would have flown up and taught those two a harsh lesson.
"Ye Lineage, do you... admit your guilt?"