Chapter 757: The Earth-Breaking Sect
"You still dare deny it?"
Xiang Yi shouted angrily, his gaze cold as ice. "Cui Ji, do you think my blade is too slow, that I wouldn't dare kill? If you jeopardize the alliance's affairs, I’ll take your life first."
Sensing the heavy tension, the plump man quickly stepped between them and tried to smooth things over. "Daoist Xiang, please calm down. Daoist Cui must have been certain that it wouldn’t affect the mission, or he wouldn’t have acted. The ferocious beasts appeared so suddenly, and the situation was critical. You were still inside the stone hall, and there was no time to consult you..."
As he spoke, the plump man signaled at Cui Ji with his eyes.
"Daoist Cui, you were so eager to kill Daoist Qingfeng. I heard you’ve been stuck at a bottleneck for over ten years without any progress. Could it be that this man is your heart devil, and you’ve been unable to break through because of him?"
Cui Ji lowered his head to admit fault to Xiang Yi and shook it slowly. "This bottleneck has been unusually difficult. I’ve been worn down for years, nearly to the point of giving up. Then I heard there might be a rare spiritual herb in Seven-Kill Hall that could help me break through. I honestly don’t know if that heretic is my heart devil. Originally, I had no intention of killing him. The grudge from more than twenty years ago wasn’t something I couldn’t move past. But the moment I saw him on Desolate Island, I felt a surge of wicked fire that I couldn’t suppress. It likely does have an effect. Just in case, it was better to kill him than risk wasting the spiritual herb because of a heart devil."
The plump man nodded. "Daoist Xiang, both of us have followed orders and kept a close watch on the others. I even got close just now and quietly investigated. Apart from that cultivator surnamed Pan, the others appear clean. You said six people would be enough to break the array. Daoist Cui may have been impulsive, but luckily he didn’t interfere with the mission."
Seeing Xiang Yi’s expression ease a little, both the plump man and Cui Ji let out a soft sigh.
The plump man pointed at the half-destroyed corpse on the ground and asked, "Daoist Xiang, are you sure of his identity?"
"Earth-Breaking Sect."
Xiang Yi kicked the corpse of a giant beast. "See this Earth-Breaking Lizard? It’s a ferocious creature. In the cultivation world, only the Earth-Breaking Sect has the secret art to tame one. This lizard possessed strength at the late stage of the Demonic Core Realm, which is rare even within that sect. That alone proves this man held a high status.
"Moreover, he was hiding his strength. His cultivation was only slightly lower than mine. If not for the Divine Water-Wind Thunder bestowed by the alliance leader, I might not have been able to stop him."