Chapter 228 : Ice Spiritual Energy
Bei Luo heard Su Hao's shout too late; his punch, infused with his full spiritual energy, had already been thrown and couldn't be recalled. In an instant, the leader fell, giving no one time to react.
It seemed like he couldn't take a hit?
Bei Luo himself was stunned for a moment, then realized he might have made a mistake, his face immediately showing embarrassment: "This, Senior Brother Su..."
Su Hao showed some helplessness but didn't seem inclined to blame him, waving his hand to indicate Bei Luo need not say more. He then stepped forward to the leader's corpse and, to be safe, directly used his sword to lift the mask from the person's face.
It was an utterly ordinary face, yet in a sense, quite distinctive—the leader's appearance was mediocre, without any special features, normally the type to be lost in a crowd. However, he had practiced a special cultivation technique, and now his face was a greenish-white with sunken flesh. Though not yet resembling a skull, it clearly showed he had practiced Nine Abyss Sect's techniques.
"He's from Nine Abyss Sect," Su Hao said without surprise. Then he noticed the leader's tightly clenched right hand and, after some thought, tried to pry it open with his sword but wasn't successful.
Bei Luo, eager to make amends, immediately said: "Let me try."
Su Hao didn't stop him. In fact, as the head disciple of a peak, Bei Luo wasn't a reckless person. Though he had accidentally killed the man earlier, that was merely coincidence. Now, facing the enemy's corpse, he maintained sufficient caution.
Finally, Bei Luo opened the person's hand, revealing a small wax ball in his palm—these wax balls were used for message transmission. When crushed, the sealed spiritual energy inside would transform into text, readable once before dispersing without leaving any trace.
"This..." Bei Luo held the wax ball, frowning.
Su Hao reached out to take it, holding it between his fingers and examining it for a moment. Naturally, nothing could be discerned this way, and the contents of the wax ball could only be viewed once. Finally, he closed his palm around the wax ball: "Let's go see the Peak Masters." After a pause, he looked at the bodies in the rain: "Bring these along as well."
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The battle in the rain ended quickly, not causing much commotion, especially with the rain concealing the traces. However, since the battle occurred within the base, it naturally alarmed many people—at least those who needed to know learned about it immediately.
So by the time Su Hao and the others arrived at the spirit ship with the wax ball and corpses, the three Peak Masters had already gathered to wait.
Su Hao led the group in a bow: "Disciples pay respects to the three Peak Masters." After the salutation, he straightforwardly related what had happened, finally presenting the wax ball: "This was obtained from the leader's hand. When he saw the situation turning against him, he intended to destroy it. Disciple believes what's sealed in this wax ball must be extremely important."
Peak Master Qingxu nodded and took the wax ball, then swept his gaze over everyone present—the room still contained only the three Peak Masters and several true disciples, all trustworthy people.
Probably feeling there was nothing to hide, Peak Master Qingxu crushed the wax ball in front of everyone.
The next moment, a spiritual light flickered, and white spiritual energy transformed into characters. However, these characters were like a jumble of code, forming neither words nor sentences, leaving everyone bewildered... Those present understood that this wasn't random code but rather an encrypted message. While meaningless to outsiders, it would certainly convey clear information to the intended recipient.
After a brief moment, the white spiritual energy dispersed, and those chaotic characters vanished with the wind. Regardless of whether anyone had memorized these characters or could decipher them, what drew more attention now was the spiritual energy itself.
Zhong Heng first murmured: "Ice spiritual energy..."
These three short words fell into the ears of everyone present, hitting their hearts like a heavy hammer—different spiritual roots produced different spiritual energy attributes; for example, metal spiritual roots produced metal spiritual energy. But the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth were just the basics. Beyond these, there were wind spiritual roots, lightning spiritual roots, ice spiritual roots, and others, all considered variant spiritual roots.
Single spiritual roots were already one in ten thousand among cultivators; variant spiritual roots were even more special and rare, truly as scarce as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Currently, Xuanqing Sect had only two cultivators with ice spiritual roots: one was Peak Master Qingyu, and the other was Yun Qingyue.
As their disciple and junior brother respectively, Zhong Heng was naturally very familiar with ice spiritual energy, but even without his comment, no one would have misidentified it.
And as everyone knew, Yun Qingyue was currently in seclusion...
Inevitably, everyone's gaze silently fell on Peak Master Qingyu, even Qingxu and Qingyuan glanced at her. Fortunately, Peak Master Qingyu's Dao heart was firm, and she remained unmoved under everyone's gaze.
Qingxu was the first to cough lightly, then stated with certainty: "Those demonic cultivators are quite cunning. The wax ball must be a trap."
With these words, Su Hao immediately agreed: "Uncle Master Qingxu is right. The wax ball itself is fragile, and destroying it along with the spiritual energy inside wouldn't be difficult. Yet the leader took out the wax ball without immediately destroying it, instead letting us notice it, and ultimately letting it fall into our hands—there must be a trick here."
Bei Luo also reacted, immediately concurring: "That's right, and the man died too easily."
Others also spoke up: "There are more than just one or two ice spiritual root cultivators in the world. Who knows if there are any in the demonic sects?"
Whether doubting or defending, Peak Master Qingyu's expression never changed, as if what was happening before her was merely a farce. As for setting up a trap to frame her, she found it even more ridiculous.
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Infiltrations into the base were never isolated incidents; the Buddha Sect and Tiandao Sect, stationed adjacent to Xuanqing Sect, also experienced problems one after another. However, the suspicious ice spiritual energy didn't appear again—the two sects were simply caught unprepared and fell victim to the demonic sects' schemes. Whether through death, injury, or poisoning, it ultimately caused anxiety throughout the base, creating a tense atmosphere.
Finally, exasperated, the leaders of the three sects gathered.
Tiandao Sect's Grand Elder had never been known for his good temper, and the sect had lost the most disciples in the Canglán Secret Realm. Now feeling targeted again, he was absolutely furious. As soon as the three sects met, he took the initiative and proposed: "This can't continue. Why don't we strike first?"
Hearing this, Dharma Master Huiming recited a Buddhist invocation, seeming neither for nor against it. In fact, everyone in Buddha Sect, from old to young, had roughly the same temperament—rarely taking the lead in matters big or small, accustomed to following the crowd.
Compared to Tiandao Sect, Xuanqing Sect, which had killed Chu Yang, naturally attracted more of the Nine Abyss Sect Leader's hatred, and had experienced the most incidents among the three sects in recent days. Peak Master Qingxu was also growing weary, so he and the Tiandao Sect Grand Elder immediately reached an agreement.
The three sects decided on a target and then formulated a battle plan—the previous chaotic battle wasn't worth mentioning; in fact, whether in military confrontations or conflicts between righteous and demonic paths, the ever-changing battlefield required careful planning. More importantly, through the subtle guidance of Xuanqing Sect's Peak Masters, the three sects' hatred was directed toward Nine Abyss Sect.
Now that the three sects had decided to take the initiative, Nine Abyss Sect naturally became the first target, bearing the brunt of everyone's focus.
Peak Master Qingxu's gaze flickered slightly, but he still offered a warning: "Nine Abyss Sect's recent activities have been unusual. I've received some uncertain information suggesting the Nine Abyss Sect Leader may personally appear. It would be best for everyone to be cautious during operations."
Tiandao Sect and Buddha Sect were unaware of this. They had assumed everything was like before, just routine skirmishes. Even though they as sect leaders personally participated in battles, it would never involve Grand Achievement realm sect leaders—the Crimson Blood Sect Leader was quite laid-back and didn't like to get involved in these matters, but if the Nine Abyss Sect Leader came, that would be different.
The Tiandao Sect Grand Elder had a sudden realization, with a slightly reproachful tone: "No wonder Xuanqing Sect dispatched a Supreme Elder."
Dharma Master Huiming recited another Buddhist invocation and responded: "Thank you for informing us. This old monk understands."
Peak Master Qingxu didn't mind their attitudes; after all, he was merely offering a reminder, since even they weren't certain if the Nine Abyss Sect Leader had truly arrived. This warning was already the extent of his duty.
With the discussion concluded, Peak Master Qingxu didn't linger and quickly returned to the Xuanqing Sect base to begin making arrangements.
That night, disciples from the three sects gathered in one place, led by elders from each sect, and launched a lightning-fast surprise attack on Nine Abyss Sect's magic vessel. However, things didn't develop as they had anticipated. When the three sects' forces boarded Nine Abyss Sect's vessel, they discovered that apart from some minor figures, there were no important personages on board.
They had struck at emptiness and were nearly trapped on the magic vessel. After finally escaping, they were ambushed once more by Nine Abyss Sect's demonic cultivators. Although their superior numbers prevented major losses, this incident left the righteous path with egg on their face.
Meanwhile, on another magic vessel not far from Nine Abyss Sect's, the Crimson Blood Sect Leader stood at the bow, watching this farce from a distance.
Her gaze swept through the righteous forces, not finding that familiar figure, so she turned back reassured—Qingyu hadn't come, so what did this farce have to do with her?