A short moment later, this person softly whispered, “It can’t be, where is the command medallion? I clearly saw him place it in the storage pouch.” He then resentfully turned the bag upside down and tossed its belongings onto the ground, forming a pile of various inferior magic tools and a few low grade spirit stones.
Once the man clearly saw what was on the ground, his complexion turned deathly pale and his body suddenly flashed with green light. Without another word, he shot towards the hall exit in a streak of light.
A long sigh echoed through the hall. Soon, silver light flickered from every wall, enveloping them in waves of silver light and forming a huge barrier of light all around him.
With a cold snort, the man continued without any intention of stopping. He slapped his waist and summoned a jet-black pangolin spirit beast, striking at the light that blocked his path. With a m.u.f.fled bang, the spirit beast was repelled by the light barrier with the barrier completely unharmed.
In the man’s alarm, he suddenly gritted his teeth and spat out a blue trident from his mouth. In an instant, the magic treasure duplicated into two and combined together as a streak of large blue light before striking the light barrier. Then with a m.u.f.fled explosion, the blue light was reflected ten meters back before spinning to the ground.
“There is no need for Brother Gu to go through so much trouble.” The bald man’s voice echoed throughout the hall. “As this place is the core of the grand formation of the Yellow Dragon Mountains, it is only natural for it to be guarded by the most powerful restrictions. Don’t think that you’ll be able to leave.”
The blue light faded away to reveal the Controlling Spirit Sect’s Gu Shuangpu. However, his complexion was deathly white and his gaze was brooding, barely able to keep his calm. “So you didn’t die, you used a flesh puppet. I had heard that there was a mysterious cultivator amongst the Nine Nations Union that was adept at refining flesh puppets identical to oneself, where one cannot even differentiate the true person from the puppet. I didn’t actually expect this to be true.”
Then in a flash of white light, the bald man revealed himself from within the hall. He glanced at Gu Shuangpu from outside the barrier before turning his gaze to the ruined corpse on the floor. “Brother Gu knows much about the affairs of our Nine Nations Union as expected as well as the matter of doppelganger puppets. That’s right, what you killed was a corpse puppet that I had controlled. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator such as yourself was unable to tell any difference from its exterior.”
“Humph! Rubbis.h.!.+ If I hadn’t used my spiritual sense to closely examine your doppelganger out of fear of being detected, I definitely wouldn’t have been deceived. Besides, even if I meticulously cultivated the Twintailed Jade Serpent for several hundreds of years, its incredibly vicious poison definitely shouldn’t have been capable of killing a Nascent Soul cultivator alone.
I originally planned only to use the serpent to heavily injure you, but I had mistakenly overestimated the toxicity of the snake upon seeing you perish in a single blow. It seems I’ve become arrogant.” Gu Shuangpu spoke with an icy expression, but a trace of regret was betrayed from his eyes.
The bald man emotionlessly said, “Hehe! I had requested a puppet to be refined for me out of a moment’s fancy. I didn’t truly think that a dead corpse would actually be refined to my likeness. However, spending this corpse puppet to discover that Brother Gu was a traitor was well worth the spirit stones the puppet had cost.”
Gu Shuangpu’s cheek twitched and grew silent for a spell. But a short moment later, he icily said, “From your tone, you seemed to know that I would come find you and you had already prepared a subst.i.tute ahead of time. Could it be that you’ve discovered something amiss after I arrived at the Yellow Dragon Mountains?”
The bald man shook his head. “Of course not. How could I suspect an elder of the Controlling Spirit Sect without cause or reason. I was merely given a warning from someone else. I originally felt unsure of the matter, but now it has been made certain.” He then turned his head to the sides of the hall and shouted, “Fellow Daoist Han, Brother Ma, you may come out!”
When Gu Shuangpu heard this, he was no longer able to maintain his gloomy expression. Alarm was betrayed from his face.
Then in a flash of yellow light from both sides of the hall, a calm Han Li and a grave Old Man Ma walked out.
With a pained expression, the old man sorrowfully said, “I didn’t expect that Fellow Daoist Gu would actually do this. What kind of benefits did the Moulan offer you to do such a deranged thing?”
Gu Shuangpu stared at the old man and coldly snorted. “Deranged? I was originally from the Moulan tribes. How could my decision possibly be deranged?”
“You’re a person from the Moulan?” The party of cultivators couldn’t help but reveal surprise.
“Of course.” A maddened expression appeared on Gu Shuangpu’s face. “Did you believe that benefits were enough to rope in a Nascent Soul cultivator like me? You Heavenly South cultivators should realize how spa.r.s.e cultivation resources are in the Moulan plains.
There are countless talented low grade spell warriors that never progress in their cultivation due to a lack of spirit stones and medicine pills, and they turned to a pile of bones after only a hundred years because they lacked the optimal circ.u.mstances for cultivation. Why is that you Heavenly South cultivators were able to take such a good area, and us spell warriors must make due with a spa.r.s.e few spirit stones to use? So long as the Moulan acquire the cultivation resources of the Heavenly South, in less than a hundred years the number of spell warriors will double. With such vast strength, we’ll be able to defeat the Soaring Tribe’s Immortals, and rule over the entirety of the Moulan plains.”
When Gu Shuangpu said that, the others couldn’t help but glance at each other in dismay.
Han Li expressionly asked, “Defeat the Soaring Tribe’s Immortals? It seems the Moulan had suffered a decisive defeat by these Immortals, and now a majority of the Moulan plains are being held by these towards Immortal masters. Is that why you’ve staked it all in order to invade the Heavenly South?”
“How... How do you know of this?” Gu Shuangpu was stunned for a moment before suddenly something came to his mind and he viciously glared at Han Li. “You eavesdropped on my sound transmissions with Sage Le.”
Han Li expressionlessly said, “It seems Brother Gu had realized it quite quickly, but don’t blame me. Who was it that told you to so brazenly sound transmissions in front of me. With my slightly superior spiritual sense, I was just able to listen to your voice transmissions, and informed Fellow Daoist Lu of the matter.”
With a pale complexion, Gu Shuangpu rigidly stared at Han Li and resentfully said, “Good, very good! All of my secrets are leaked! I’ve been concealed in the Heavenly South for so long, yet it can’t be anything but unjust to fall to such a careless mistake. But to say that your spiritual sense is only slightly superior? Humph! Your esteemed self is far too modest. How could our secret voice transmission technique compare to common sound transmissions?
Unless your spiritual sense is as strong as a late Nascent Soul cultivator, there was no other way you could’ve eavesdropped on my conversation.”
Old Man Ma shouted in alarm, “Late Nascent Soul stage?”
The bald man was also alarmed and glanced at Han Li with amazement.
Han Li frowned. He didn’t think that this matter would unintentionally reveal the strength of his spiritual sense. But soon, he eased his brow and instead wore a relaxed expression, leaving the bald man and Old Man Ma feeling skeptical of Gu Shuangpu’s words. After all, it was a bit too outrageous for an early Nascent Soul cultivator to have a spiritual sense on the level of a late Nascent Soul cultivator.
The bald man reluctantly turned his gaze away from Han Li and icily gazed at Gu Shuangpu inside the light barrier. “Since we now know you are a spy, don’t blame us for being ruthless. Although I wish to spare your life and hand you over to the enforcers of the union, there is a great battle ahead of us; we do not have the option to keep you alive.”
Soon after, he flipped his hand and summoned a command medallion that flickered with silver light. He raised the command medallion into the air, shooting a beam of light at the barrier. The barrier cleanly absorbed the beam and began to flicker, suddenly s.h.i.+ning with countless silver flowers, each vastly beautiful.
Gu Shuangpu saw the silver flowers just like a poisonous insect and his expression grew unsightly. Without further thought, he quickly slapped several places around his body, placing several layers of various colored light around his body. At that same time, he pointed to the blue trident in front of it. It began to spin above his head and formed a barrier of blue light around him.
Once the silver flowers began to rupture and fill the light barrier, the bald man turned around with disinterest and solemnly spoke to Han Li and Old Man Ma. “Let’s go, there’s nothing good to see. Although his cultivation is high, he won’t be able to endure the restrictions for long, and will soon have his soul destroyed. We still have to deal with the aftermath. Although this person was a Moulan spy, he was still a Controlling Spirit Sect elder. We will have much explaining to do to the union.”