Chapter 428

Su Ming knew it was a trap, yet he entered anyway, for two purposes.

First, to slay the half-step Sixth-Turn elite monster and complete the Sword God class-transfer quest.

Second, to obtain that Epic-grade soul banner and hand it over to Ji Yao to use!

With Wan Wu present, even if the enemy had two Venerables, they could still fight.

If all else failed, he would call for backup.

The current Su Ming was no longer the lone wolf he had been back then.

He now had companions he could trust.

In this life, he had already carved out a path different from his previous one.

Soon, led by Cui Wu, the group arrived at the sect's main hall.

This main hall was not luxurious; it was built from heavy profound stone, engraved with secret runic scripts to reinforce its strength.

The interior was extremely spacious.

Su Ming used his Eye of Insight to examine it.

He realized that the core runes of the sect-protecting array were carved into every brick, tile, stone, and pillar of this hall.

"Hey, Su Ming, this place feels so eerie..." Ji Yao stepped forward, clinging to Su Ming, and whispered.

"And the clothes they're wearing look just like what people wore in our Blue Star's ancient times," she said softly.

Su Ming nodded.

The background setting of this world was indeed very similar to ancient Blue Star.

As soon as they entered the hall, Su Ming saw two people sitting cross-legged, eyes closed in meditation.

One was an old man in yellow robes the color of earth, his face aged, with a long staff strapped to his back.

The other was dressed in long purple robes, his expression calm.

"Great Elder, Second Elder," Cui Wu said, stepping forward.

"I have brought a few passing cultivators; they wish to rest in our sect for a while."

Upon hearing this, both the Great Elder and the Second Elder opened their eyes.

They scrutinized Su Ming and his group.

The moment they saw Wan Wu, both their eyes lit up.

"A Venerable!?" the yellow-robed Second Elder exclaimed in shock.

He noticed his lack of composure and slowly reined in his shock and joy.

"You all are from out of town, aren't you?" he asked with a smile.

"Why do you ask?" Su Ming replied with a calm expression, standing with his hands behind his back.

"Because..." the Second Elder grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"The local cultivators around here are all terrified of our Mountain Mausoleum Sect; even Venerables dare not enter our gates!!"

He stopped pretending entirely, his attitude shifting drastically.

"Hahahahaha!!"

"And you lot can only be outsiders."

"Since that's the case, even if you have backing from a major power, it won't matter—distant water cannot quench a near thirst!"

The purple-robed Great Elder couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

"Good."

"Cui Wu, you've done well."

The two elders stood up abruptly.

All the calm in their eyes had completely dissipated!

Their gazes turned greedy and bloodthirsty.

Cui Wu let out a cold laugh, stepped away from Su Ming's side, and joined the two elders.

His eyes were cold; the gentle, scholarly demeanor from before was gone.

Cui Wu looked at Su Ming, his eyes flickering with a ghostly light.

"Heh, Big Brother, Second Brother, that middle-aged Venerable isn't the biggest surprise."

"This young friend here, despite his youth, is likely also at the Venerable realm."

"He is the most perfect human vessel."

As he spoke, he glanced at Su Ming.

Upon hearing this, the two elders were deeply shaken.

"Wh... what!"

"He looks barely twenty, yet he has broken into the Venerable realm?"

"What kind of heaven-defying talent is this?"

"He is truly a heaven-sent immortal-grade furnace."

The two elders' voices trembled, shock and excitement rising in their hearts simultaneously.

They could no longer hide their smiles.

Ni Shuang had a simple personality; having grown up in the apocalypse, she rarely interacted with others.

Thus, she hadn't noticed much amiss along the way.

Now, she realized something was truly wrong.

"Hey, you old men, what are you talking about? Didn't you say you were going to host us!" she said, confused and angry.

As she spoke, the ice energy she had been brewing in her hands blossomed into a dozen long spears, hovering in mid-air and pointing outward to protect the group.

"Heh, little girl, our hospitality consists of flaying your skin and pulling your tendons to make you a part of our 'Sect Master' lord," Cui Wu sneered.

"You have the strength of the Golden Core realm, don't worry, we won't waste your corpse."

The Golden Core realm he spoke of was equivalent to the strength of a Fifth-Turn class-transfer player.

Hearing the elders, Su Ming, Yan Ze, and Wan Wu remained calm.

They had already communicated privately and knew a battle was coming.

"Su Ming, it looks like we have to fight them!" Ji Yao said, her expression tense as she drew her staff to summon the undead.

She had thought this was a righteous sect because Cui Wu had seemed scholarly and measured in his speech.

Now it was clear they were an evil sect through and through!

"Indeed, let's fight with everything we've got!" Yan Ze said.

Jiang Yunqing hurriedly cast spells to apply buffs to everyone.

As a Fifth-Turn Soul Support Archmage, her buffs were not only group-wide but also extremely potent.

Instantly, Su Ming's stats all increased by about 15%!

Su Ming's gaze was icy, his posture firm.

"I thought you'd keep up the act for a while longer; I didn't expect you to drop the mask so quickly."

He said with a calm smile.

In the sky, Xiao Ming was circling, providing Su Ming with high-altitude vision.

He could see hundreds of sect disciples, weapons in hand and techniques activated, converging on the main hall.

It was a full-scale encirclement!

"Haha, you youngsters, you've gone deep into our sect's main hall—there's no escaping now!"

The three elders laughed.

Then, they abruptly formed hand seals, activating the sect-protecting array.

In an instant, all the carvings on the stone pillars of the main hall began to glow.

A dark purple film emerged, sealing and shrouding the entire mountain; no one could escape, and no one could attack from outside.

At the same time, other arrays began to glow, suppressing the stats of Su Ming, Yan Ze, and Wan Wu.

The Second Elder smiled coldly, killing intent sharp in his eyes.

"A young Venerable and a middle-aged Venerable, two Venerables together."

"If we were outside, we might find it hard to take you down and would have to weigh our options."

"But this is our sect, our territory."

"We have long since laid out various arrays to suppress the outsiders we lure here."