Seeing this, Jing Fanyu, who had been watching Wu Fei all along, paused in his smile, then found an excuse to follow as well.
Wu Fei concealed his aura and trailed a short distance behind Liu Yuexuan. The direction she was heading was indeed where the attendants were preparing the Dao Comprehension Tea.
"Fellow Daoist Liu." As they approached the place where the Dao Comprehension Tea was being prepared, Wu Fei suddenly spoke and revealed himself.
An unmistakable look of surprise appeared on Liu Yuexuan's face, and she quietly tucked her hand farther behind her back, clearly looking guilty.
"What do you want?" Her gaze was wary, with a trace of dislike deep in her eyes.
Wu Fei's gaze swept over her hand. "There are a few things I would like to ask you, Fellow Daoist Liu. That night in the inheritance tomb, when we split up to look for Junior Brother Jing, did you find him?"
Naturally, Liu Yuexuan had not found the protagonist. Wu Fei was only asking to stall her. If his guess was right, the thing in Liu Yuexuan's hand was what would expose the protagonist's identity as the Devil Venerable at the Heavenly Dao Assembly.
At Wu Fei's mention of that night, a flash of hatred crossed Liu Yuexuan's face. She said bluntly, "What business is it of yours?"
Wu Fei inwardly narrowed his eyes. It seemed something unpleasant really had happened that night. Just what had happened to make Liu Yuexuan hate Jing Fanyu?
Just as Liu Yuexuan finished speaking and was about to turn away, Jing Fanyu's voice suddenly rang out.
"Senior Brother Wu Fei, Junior Sister Liu, what are you doing here?"
At the sound of Jing Fanyu's voice, Wu Fei's expression remained unchanged. He had long since noticed the protagonist following behind them. Hatred rose in Liu Yuexuan's eyes, however, and she tucked her hand farther behind her back again.
Taking in her every movement, Wu Fei turned and replied, "I happened to run into Fellow Daoist Liu, so we exchanged a few words."
"I see." Jing Fanyu nodded. "The Tribulation Transcendence Stage senior's lecture on the Dao is about to begin. Senior Brother Wu Fei, Junior Sister Liu, you should hurry back."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a clear ringing of bells came from the summit of Flame Spirit Mountain. At the same time, a group of attendants nearby carried the Dao Comprehension Tea up toward the summit.
Seeing this, Wu Fei nodded slightly. "The bells have rung. Let's head back together."
Liu Yuexuan's expression turned rather ugly. She shot the two of them a vicious glare and left resentfully.
Neither of the two men she had glared at cared in the slightest. One was pleased to have stopped her from tampering with the tea, while the other's attention was entirely on the serene, white-robed Buddhist disciple.
The bells rang throughout Flame Spirit Mountain, only stopping once all the cultivators had taken their seats and a cup of Dao Comprehension Tea had been placed before each of them.
The tea was clear, its fragrance faint.
Dao Comprehension Tea lived up to its name. Merely smelling its delicate fragrance cleared the mind. That fragrance seemed to turn into a gently flowing stream, slowly washing against the bottlenecks encountered in cultivation.
There was also a Tribulation Transcendence Stage senior lecturing on the Dao. Combined with the Dao Comprehension Tea, it allowed the listeners to understand their own Dao.
Wu Fei had also been immersed in comprehending the Dao, but as the three-hour lecture neared its end, the space between his brows suddenly twitched, and an ominous premonition rose within him.
He abruptly opened his eyes and looked toward Jing Fanyu, who was seated near the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect, his brows tightly furrowed.
What exactly was this ominous premonition that filled him with such unease? By rights, since Liu Yuexuan had failed to tamper with the Dao Comprehension Tea, the protagonist should not be exposed this time, unless...
Unless the Heavenly Dao had another means!
Wu Fei's mind jolted slightly, his gaze fixed firmly on Jing Fanyu.
Sure enough, in the next instant, a wisp of Demonic Qi suddenly seeped out of Jing Fanyu's body and coiled around him. Then, as though a switch had been flipped, countless streams of Demonic Qi poured uncontrollably from his body, churning ceaselessly around him.
The towering Demonic Qi immediately roused every cultivator in the square from their comprehension of the Dao.
"Where did such powerful Demonic Qi come from?!"
"Senior Brother Jing?!"
A female cultivator's scream drew everyone's eyes toward the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples. At that moment, everyone in the Heavenly Sword Sect, from its sect master to its disciples, was staring in disbelief at Jing Fanyu, the sect master's True Disciple, who was shrouded in Demonic Qi.
His aura had already risen from early Spirit Transformation to mid-Mahayana.
And this aura... why did it seem somewhat familiar?
One cultivator looked at Jing Fanyu and, in a flash of inspiration, could not help widening his eyes and exclaiming:
"Devil Venerable Yin Fan?!"
Author's note:
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 15: Buddha delivers all beings (typo fixes)
The cultivators erupted into an uproar!
The True Disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master was actually Devil Venerable Yin Fan?? And judging by his aura, Yin Fan was actually at mid-Mahayana!
Watching Yin Fan instantly become the target of everyone's hostility, Wu Fei frowned almost imperceptibly.
The protagonist's identity as the Devil Venerable had still been exposed. It seemed the plot that was meant to happen would happen eventually. Stopping Liu Yuexuan alone could not prevent it.
"Heh..."
As the Demonic Qi around him revealed itself uncontrollably, Yin Fan's expression grew somewhat dark. Faced with everyone's stares, he could not help letting out a cold laugh. In particular, seeing the disbelief on certain people's faces brought a measure of satisfaction to his heart...
Yet he deliberately avoided looking toward the Buddha Spirit Sect. Yin Fan dared not imagine what kind of look Wu Fei would be giving him now, and could only deliberately avert his gaze...
The Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master finally came to his senses, his expression exceedingly ugly. "How could you be Devil Venerable Yin Fan? Clearly..."
"Clearly, the Heavenly Secrets Fate Disc said that this venerable one was the only person who might ascend in the next tens of thousands of years, is that it?" Yin Fan's tone was icy.
Shock appeared in the Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master's eyes. "How did you know?"
The other cultivators who had known nothing of this all widened their eyes at those words. The fact that the Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master's True Disciple was a Devil Cultivator was already shocking enough, and now they were mentioning the "Heavenly Secrets Fate Disc" and "ascension"...
Since he had already been exposed, Yin Fan simply raised his hand. The Devil Venerable's black robes appeared on his body, while the mask the Devil Venerable habitually wore lay in his palm.
This sight finally shattered the Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master's last shred of hope.
Yin Fan was quite pleased by his reaction. "Master, do you know when I fell to the demonic path?"
"When the people of my Heavenly Clear City were being brutally slaughtered one by one by Devil Cultivators," Yin Fan's gaze swept over the leaders of the righteous path, his voice as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice, "while you hid in the void and watched indifferently, I had already fallen to the demonic path."