I Can Extract Divine Power

"Besides, whether it’s killing Shen Bai or seizing the Hundred Truths Remains, the temptation is simply too great for us."

"If Shen Bai doesn’t die, Nanxing Prefecture will inevitably rise, and our own room for survival will only shrink."

"This is an opportunity. It’s dangerous, yes, but for us, it’s an excellent one."

"That’s my thinking, but I don’t know what you two think. If we’re going to do this, we must be of one mind. There can be no dissent, or we’re bound to fail."

After Abbot Xuanzhen said this, he fell silent, patiently awaiting the replies from the Vice Dean and Qi Huang Taoist.

The reason was simple.

This undertaking was impossible without any one of them.

Only he could lure the Mysterious City over, and it was Qi Huang Taoist’s Feather Transformation Technique that could persuade the Vice Dean to act.

As for the Vice Dean, he was responsible for gathering resentful energy and providing manpower for the subsequent steps.

In other words, if any of the three were missing, the plan could not be fully executed.

The Vice Dean and Qi Huang Taoist glanced at each other, both falling into silence.

As for Qi Huang Taoist, he was eager for revenge and desperately wanted to kill Shen Bai.

However, everything had to be predicated on safety.

His superiors would indeed blame him, and killing Shen Bai was his only way out, but their blame wouldn’t be a death sentence.

But if he risked his life to kill Shen Bai, he could very well lose it.

Originally, with the Mysterious City in the picture, killing Shen Bai would have been much safer.

But now something had gone wrong with the Mysterious City, forcing him to hesitate.

These "Mysterious" phenomena were inherently abstruse. To this day, not even the strongest masters in the world understood where they originated.

Therefore, when an anomaly like this occurred, everyone had to be extremely cautious.

This was especially true when the anomaly involved a behemoth like the Mysterious City.

The Vice Dean was thinking the same thing.

The Wild Taoist Sect and the Wild Buddha Sect once formed a tripartite power balance with him in Nanxing Prefecture. But because they had tried to deal with Shen Bai and go after the Hundred Truths Remains, they had been severely weakened.

He wanted to kill Shen Bai, and even capture him for a thorough study.

But the question was whether it was safe.

If it wasn’t, then he didn’t want to take the risk.

If Xinhua Academy were to suffer the same fate as the other two, he too would be punished by his superiors.

So now, both of them began to hesitate.

To act or not to act—that was truly a monumental question.

When making such a high-stakes decision, the slightest misstep was like walking along a cliff’s edge—one wrong move and you would plummet.

Seeing the hesitation on their faces, Abbot Xuanzhen knew they were wavering and sighed silently.

"Gentlemen, we all rose from the bottom. The Wild Taoist Sect, the Wild Buddha Sect, Xinhua Academy—they are all cruel places."

"When we were young, we risked our lives. We weren’t afraid of death; we even dared to face it. It was that fearlessness, that desperate spirit, that brought us to where we are today."

"Now, that damn Shen Bai is like a mountain pressing down on us."

"No matter what, we have to level this mountain. Have we reached the Void Realm Peak only to become less courageous than we were in our youth?"

Abbot Xuanzhen said, his words slow and deliberate.

The Vice Dean remained silent, as did Qi Huang Taoist.

They weren’t afraid of death when they were young because they had nothing to lose.

As the saying goes: the barefoot are not afraid of the shod.

But now they didn’t have nothing; they had vast estates and held positions of great power and authority.

To risk death now just wasn’t worth it.

Seeing they were still silent, Abbot Xuanzhen knew a few words wouldn’t be enough to persuade them, so he continued, "It’s just a slow death, that’s all."

As these words left his lips, the Vice Dean was the first to look up, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Abbot Xuanzhen continued, "It’s only a matter of time before Shen Bai comes for us. Just because you don’t go after him doesn’t mean he won’t come after you."

"The deep-seated grudge between him and our three factions has escalated all the way from Shengyun County to Nanxing Prefecture, with the same result every time."

"Once he recovers, the moment he finds any clue leading back to us, he will strike us down with the force of a thunderbolt."

"Even at the Meridian Realm, he could fight us to a standstill. With that relentless recovery ability of his, he could survive indefinitely. If we wait until his strength increases further and he reaches the Unity Realm, the three of us combined won’t be his match."

"Better to suffer a short, sharp pain than a long, dull one. This is a gamble I think we should take."

Hearing this, Qi Huang Taoist suddenly recalled the scene inside the Shadow in the Painting, where Shen Bai had fought the two of them all by himself.

Although Shen Bai was constantly being injured back then, he had managed to hold his own against them, all thanks to that terrifying recovery ability.

’If I wait for Shen Bai to grow stronger, he’ll definitely come looking for trouble.’

’At that point, hiding would be useless. After all, there’s no such thing as a perfect secret. You can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can’t guard against one for a thousand days.’

’I won’t be able to defend against him forever.’

"Fine. I’m in."

Qi Huang Taoist had finally made up his mind. He then turned to the Vice Dean, his meaning unspoken but clear: he was asking if the Vice Dean was willing to do it too.