Chapter 75: Is he really a traitor?
“Kill them?”
Senior Brother Zhang was startled and reprimanded tremblingly, “Pan Shang, do you not want to live? Guardian Guo only asked us to watch them.”
“What are you afraid of? Guardian Guo and the others have already gone to find the snake’s nest. If we quietly deal with these villagers, we can tell them that these villagers were killed by evil spirits.”
Pan Shang boldly proposed.
Senior Brother Zhang wanted to say more, but as he looked around, he saw glimpses of expectation on the faces of his junior brothers, and he hesitated.
“I don’t think Junior Brother Pan’s proposal is wrong. These villagers will die sooner or later anyway, so it’s better to deal with them sooner rather than later to avoid dragging us down.”
“Yes, there are twenty to thirty of us unlucky ones assigned to serve these bumpkins. The other disciples are free to go wherever they want every day. Why? As long as these bumpkins disappear, we will be completely liberated.”
“We have been here for a full half month, during which more than ten senior brothers have lost their lives. If we don’t find a way, we will be wiped out sooner or later.”
……
Voices supporting Pan Shang sounded one after another.
Pan Shang suddenly gained confidence, so he stood up and shouted energetically, “Since that’s the case, then all you senior brothers follow me inside and kill…”
Before he could finish speaking, Pan Shang found something flashing before his eyes. He was wondering, and suddenly felt a chill on his neck, and his vision began to spin continuously.
The senior brothers were about to “rebel,” but unexpectedly saw Pan Shang’s head suddenly fall from his neck, spewing blood like a pillar. They all turned pale with fright and retreated in succession.
“Yes, all these villagers must die, but how they die is not for you to decide.”
At this moment, a middle-aged man’s voice rang out.
The disciples looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall, thin, and gloomy-faced middle-aged man walking out of the darkness with a sword.
“I’ll say it again, you only need to watch this place. If anyone disobeys the order again, that person will be a warning.”
The middle-aged man sheathed his sword and tucked it back into his waist.
“Yes, yes, yes, Guardian Guo!”
The surrounding disciples were so scared that their souls fled their bodies, and they said tremblingly, not daring to look up.
……
On the morning of the third day, the higher-ups of the HongHua Sect temporarily summoned the disciples of the sect to depart. Most of them did not know where they were going, they just vaguely received horses and supplies.
Outside the main gate of the HongHua Sect, Cheng Hong Ling’s “clone” was following the team, but Cheng Hong Ling herself was nowhere to be seen.
Several high-level figures were not overly surprised, as this was a decision made on the spur of the moment. Qi Huang was instructed to publicly announce that she was going into seclusion, and then secretly leave. This was to prevent any ill-intentioned individuals from taking advantage of the situation, as the HongHua Sect was now just an empty shell.
Qi Huang arrived at the foot of the mountain in advance and then quietly followed the team, reporting the situation to her main body from time to time.
In this way, the group from the HongHua Sect rode their horses towards Panshan Village. For the sake of caution, they all changed into casual clothes before departing, so they did not attract much attention from passers-by along the way.
The high-level figures left to guard the sect were only two elders and Cheng Hong Ling, who was in seclusion.
At noon on the third day, the group arrived at the county town where Panshan Village was located. After a brief replenishment of supplies, they entered the mountains.
With He Yong as their guide, there was no need to worry about the route. The only things to be wary of were the demons, ghosts, and snakes along the way.
“Snakes? Are there many snakes here?”
Ruan Lingyu couldn’t help but ask He Yong.
“Yes, there are many small snakes lurking in the woods, and they are very venomous. If you are bitten, you will die within two to three hours! Many people in our village have died from this over the years! I heard from the people of the HeYi Sect that these snakes are all born from that giant snake that can fly into the sky.”
He Yong explained the situation in detail.
The female disciples around were all terrified upon hearing this. Although they were cultivators, they were still women.
“A giant snake that can fly into the sky? That should be the demon snake in the Huashen Realm.”
Ruan Lingyu whispered to her senior sisters.
“Little brother, I heard that snake is very big, is that true?”
Ruan Lingyu then asked again.
“Yes, very, very big! Even when coiled in the clouds, it looks like a small mountain. Its eyes shoot out a blue light, like two large lanterns, and they roll around like millstones.”
He Yong’s face showed a hint of fear.
The few female disciples turned as pale as paper when they heard this.
“My fellow junior sisters, don’t listen to his nonsense. Where in the world is there such a big snake?”
Wang Zong, who was nearby, couldn’t help but comfort them.
“I’m not talking nonsense, I saw that snake with my own eyes.”
He Yong quickly explained, while also cautiously glancing at Cheng Hong Ling, afraid of being misunderstood by this fairy who was too beautiful to be real.
“It’s like a small mountain above the clouds. If it’s really that big, the HeYi Sect should have found it by now, right?”
Xu Mei speculated.
“No, although the people from the HeYi Sect have been looking for that big snake, they haven’t found it yet.”
He Yong replied.
“That’s strange, such a big snake should be hard to hide.”
Xu Mei couldn’t help but ponder.
After entering the mountain, Qi Huang took the lead, flying at an altitude of fifty zhang above the ground, constantly scanning the situation in the forest below with her Spiritual Sense, and reporting any danger to her main body immediately.
The reason for fifty zhang was simple: the maximum detection range of Guiyi Realm experts was around forty zhang. Her altitude ensured that she could detect others without being detected herself.
Cheng Hong Ling walked at the forefront of the team. With her highest cultivation level, she was responsible for clearing these dangers.
Along the way into the mountain, they encountered some obstacles. Besides occasionally encountering a few stray ghosts and spirits, the most common were poisonous snakes.
These poisonous snakes were ice-blue all over, large and small, the largest being as thick as a bowl. After observing them, several high-level figures in the sect quickly determined that they were young Blue Scale King Snakes.
“There are so many Blue Scale King Snakes. If we capture them all and let them crawl around the HongHua Sect, wouldn’t we have an endless supply of Blue Scale Stones?”
Shen Yuan said wishfully.
“You are too naive. Only when the Blue Scale King Snake’s cultivation reaches the Guiyi Realm or above will its body secrete that strange bodily fluid, so these small snakes are completely useless.”
Qin Quan, who was nearby, couldn’t help but chuckle and explain.
“You girl, if Blue Scale Stones were that easy to obtain, how could they be so precious? Are you looking down on your Master?”
Xu Mei, who was beside her, also reprimanded her. After all, the Blue Scale Sword she gave to her beloved disciple had less than one-tenth of the Blue Scale Stones.
Shen Yuan was immediately ashamed and dared not speak casually anymore.
Qi Huang had been flying ahead of the team. Following the direction indicated by her main body, she soon arrived above Panshan Village and then used her Spiritual Sense to scan downwards.
Upon scanning, Qi Huang felt both amused and annoyed. She was annoyed that, as He Yong had said, only twenty to thirty weak and infirm people were left struggling to survive in the village. She was amused that the people from the HeYi Sect were so stupid. Besides placing about twenty decoys at the entrance of the village, they had ambushed the rest outside the village, completely unaware that they had already been discovered.
In fact, the people from the HeYi Sect were not stupid. They simply did not expect that there were people in the HongHua Sect whose Spiritual Sense had reached the Huashen Realm.
‘What is going on? Did they know in advance that someone was coming to rescue these villagers?’
Seeing the situation below, Qi Huang couldn’t help but feel suspicious. After thinking about it, she could only come up with one possibility: there was a traitor in the team.
Qi Huang’s mind conjured up faces one by one, and then ruled them out one by one. She quickly locked onto the most suspicious person, which was He Yong.
Why? Because this guy’s appearance was too bizarre. The HeYi Sect had sealed off the village so tightly that not a drop of water could leak out. How could an ordinary teenager get out? Even if he did get out, how could he have reached the outside world safely? She had clearly seen the dangers on the road just now.
Of course, suspicion was just suspicion. It was too early to draw a conclusion without concrete evidence. However, the most important thing at the moment was to notify the team to stop advancing, otherwise they would fall into a trap.
Qi Huang immediately transmitted a message to her main body, asking the team to stop advancing and briefly explaining the situation of Panshan Village.
‘Could that He Yong really be a traitor?’
Cheng Hong Ling did not expect such a result either, so she used her Spiritual Sense to scan He Yong again.
