Chapter 192: She is a Mighty Expert of the Shentong Realm
Cheng Hong Ling and her party soon arrived at the Yuxiao Sect. Everything before her gave her a feeling of being in a different world. Three months ago, this place was full of tall buildings, bustling with people, and filled with shouts of vendors, comparable to some prefectures and capitals.
And now? Ruin as far as the eye could see, houses collapsed, trees melted, and the remaining walls were covered with a thick layer of ash. Not a trace of green met the eye, as if it had been ravaged by a great forest fire, or as if ten thousand years had passed, and time had corroded everything.
Looking at everything before her, Cheng Hong Ling inexplicably thought of the ruins in the dense forest she had seen before. The two were so similar.
‘Could that place also have been caused by this cat demon? But that’s not right! Cat demons cannot cultivate Yin Energy.’
Cheng Hong Ling furrowed her brows slightly.
“How strong is that cat demon?”
Mu Ruoyi asked with her small mouth slightly agape.
“Calling it a cat demon is probably not accurate! To be precise, it should be called a cat spirit.”
Elder Zhou corrected from the side.
“What do you mean?”
Mu Ruoyi asked doubtfully.
Elder Zhou did not answer. With a casual wave of his hand, a blade formed of condensed flame shot out, slicing an old main pillar by the roadside ruins in half.
As Mu Ruoyi was still confused, she was shocked to find faint black smoke emanating from the cut surface of the pillar. That was actually visible Yin Energy.
“When we first arrived, there was still a lot of Yin Energy remaining here. This ruin before our eyes was purely corroded by Yin Energy. This indicates that it was not a cat demon that destroyed the Yuxiao Sect, but a ghostly creature of the Fiend realm, so calling it a cat spirit is more accurate.”
Elder Zhou explained immediately.
Cheng Hong Ling’s pupils contracted slightly. If this place was also corroded by Yin Energy, then it was possible that both ruins were made by the same person.
“Little Sister Hong Ling, do you remember? We also saw ruins in the dense forest that had just been corroded by Yin Energy, and the situation here is exactly the same. Could it be that this cat spirit also did it?”
Mu Ruoyi reacted quickly, her expression changing slightly.
Cheng Hong Ling did not answer. Her expression had become unusually serious. The ruins in the dense forest had just been formed, which indirectly meant that the cat spirit had not gone far and was still lingering around the Yuxiao Sect.
“You’ve seen ruins like this before?”
Elder Zhou asked casually, seemingly not surprised at all.
“Yes! Just on the way here, and it had just formed. Does this mean that the cat spirit hasn’t gone far?”
Mu Ruoyi asked uncertainly.
“Yes!”
Elder Zhou replied without hesitation, then explained, “Actually, ever since the Yuxiao Sect was destroyed, ruins like these have appeared around here every day.”
“Then why is she still staying here?”
Mu Ruoyi quickly asked.
“To kill cultivators! Although I don’t know where the ruins you saw are, I can be sure that it was a camp of a sect before, because we investigated, and the previous ruins were all formed by that cat spirit killing cultivators.”
Elder Zhou’s expression also became increasingly solemn.
“What? No wonder we weren’t obstructed there!”
Mu Ruoyi gasped, taking a breath. If they had walked a little further, they would have run into that cat spirit, and the consequences would have been unimaginable.
“Why does she have such great hostility towards cultivators?”
Cheng Hong Ling asked after pondering for a moment.
“Who knows?”
Elder Zhou smiled helplessly.
“Since you know she’s still lurking around here, why do you dare to stay here?”
Mu Ruoyi asked curiously.
“Junior Cousin Mu is joking. Cultivators are all going against heaven’s will. If they shrink back at the slightest difficulty, how can they go against heaven’s will?”
Elder Zhou retorted.
Mu Ruoyi was speechless. Although this guy’s character was a bit poor, his courage was not small. No wonder the HuXiao Sect had developed so smoothly.
The group continued forward and soon arrived at the HuXiao Sect camp in the back mountain. It was located near the dungeon, and it seemed to be deliberately chosen.
Cheng Hong Ling looked around and found that the HuXiao Sect seemed determined to succeed this time. In addition to the Four Great Elders, there were also over a hundred disciples, densely distributed in various places.
“The HuXiao Sect is nothing more than this. So many people have been stationed here for so long, yet they haven’t found that Nine Nether Demonic Cat.”
Cheng Hong Ling couldn’t help but sneer.
“Junior Cousin Cheng thinks too simply. The Yuxiao Sect is not small in area, and the Nine Nether Demonic Cat’s spiritual sense cannot probe it, so these hundred or so people are not many at all.”
Elder Zhou couldn’t help but defend himself.
“The Nine Nether Demonic Cat cannot be probed by spiritual sense?”
Cheng Hong Ling subconsciously asked.
“Yes, it’s related to their fur. Little Sister Hong Ling, you can try probing Pang Pang.”
Mu Ruoyi, afraid of her little wife making a fool of herself, quickly interjected.
Cheng Hong Ling was skeptical. Her spiritual sense immediately spread towards Pang Pang, and she found that she couldn’t probe anything. She was immediately amazed.
“Junior Cousin Cheng, this is the consequence of staying in the HongHua Sect. Your knowledge is shallow, and you can only be a frog in a well.”
Elder Zhou taunted without any regard for politeness, clearly wanting to provoke Cheng Hong Ling.
“You…”
Cheng Hong Ling’s eyebrows shot up. She barely managed to suppress her urge to kill.
The four of them walked into the tent, and the other two elders of the HuXiao Sect also followed.
“Alright, before we start the operation, let me tell you about the situation of the Yuxiao Sect! According to an insider, that Nine Nether Demonic Cat has always been locked in the innermost part of the dungeon. However, we have searched there several times before. Except for ashes all over the ground, leave alone cats, we couldn’t even see a cockroach. It was extremely corroded by Yin Energy.”
Elder Zhou introduced.
“Could the Nine Nether Demonic Cat already be dead?”
Mu Ruoyi speculated.
“It’s possible, but in the end, it’s ‘see the cat alive, see the corpse when dead,’ right? If we give up before confirming the specific situation, then what are we here for?”
Elder Zhou retorted.
“Then what do you plan to do?”
Cheng Hong Ling asked impatiently.
“This is what I think: if that Nine Nether Demonic Cat managed to survive, it must have escaped from the dungeon. Junior Cousin Mu, you can perform Mullinglong at the dungeon entrance, and its whereabouts will be clear.”
Elder Zhou suggested.
Everyone discussed it for a while, then nodded in agreement.
“The method is not bad, but there must be flowers, grass, and trees there.”
Mu Ruoyi reminded them.
“Let’s go take a look first.”
Elder Zhou waved his hand and led the way towards the nearby dungeon…
At this time, Qi Huang had already reached Sanyang County. Her speed was terrifying, like a sharp sword cutting through the horizon, heading straight for the Yuxiao Sect, completely ignoring the checkpoints set up by various sects along the way, because no one could catch up to her.
“Great Elder, did someone just break through?”
A cultivator in the Shentong Realm standing guard in the air asked his companion doubtfully.
“Second Elder, it’s best to pretend not to see. With such speed, it’s clearly a Mighty Expert of the Shentong Realm. Those swaggering fellows from the HuXiao Sect are in trouble.”
The companion said with schadenfreude. He was white-haired and his face was covered with wrinkles. With such cultivation, he looked so decrepit, he was probably four to five hundred years old.
“Shentong Realm? I didn’t expect a Nine Nether Demonic Cat to attract a strong expert of the Shentong Realm. I wonder who ‘he’ is?”
Second Elder looked in the direction Qi Huang disappeared, with a trace of awe on his face.
“There are only two or three Mighty Experts of the Shentong Realm openly acknowledged in the Xihui Dynasty. It doesn’t matter who it is to us, we can’t afford to offend them. Let’s leave this place now, lest we anger them and bring about our own demise.”
Great Elder shook his head helplessly and left directly, because he knew that with a Mighty Expert of the Shentong Realm interfering, others had no chance.
Qi Huang, as if in an unpopulated area, went straight to the Yuxiao Sect. Then, she landed in a secluded place and used her powerful spiritual sense to investigate the surrounding situation. Her scanning radius, which was as large as two to three hundred million li, allowed her to easily find her main body without any effort.
Qi Huang did not want to reveal her identity, so she did not rush out. Instead, she observed from afar, as the scent of the Golden Life Flower on her body was too unique. Cultivators’ senses were sharp, and they could easily smell it.
