Chapter 687: A Visit

The main mountain gate of the Wanxiang Sect.

A certain hall of the Martial Arts Hall.

Liu Fu stood before his opponent with a gloomy face, his spiritual sense transmitting: "Chen Er, why must you go to such lengths? What benefit did that Unlike Ning Zhuo give you to make you willing to offend Lord Yu Heya, and to be so stubborn as to accept my challenge?"

Unlike Ning Zhuo had hired a group of people to rent cave dwellings on the main mountain on a large scale, forcing Liu Fu to take the initiative to confess and

plead guilty to Yu Heya.

Yu Heya ordered his subordinates to go and cause trouble for these cultivators who were renting the cave dwellings.

This was the main mountain gate of the Wanxiang Sect; internal conflicts between cultivators were usually resolved through the Martial Arts Hall.

The Internal Affairs Hall was mainly used to handle major conflicts among members within the Wanxiang Sect.

For non-major conflicts, the Wanxiang Sect encouraged its disciples to resolve disputes through private martial arts duels.

Such a system was very much in line with the situation of the Fangxiang Sect.

There were simply too many people in the Wanxiang Sect! The friction between these people generated a great number of conflicts. If they were to adopt the governance methods of a conventional super-sect, it would inevitably require a large number of personnel dedicated to handling these disputes.

And such human-based governance would inevitably lead to widespread corruption, and even unjust, false, or wrongly decided cases.

After all, the Wanxiang Sect was not a cultivation kingdom; the latter could rely on officials to investigate and judge cases, utilizing divine insight and official power to cast spells, which often allowed the truth to be restored.

Moreover, in the period leading up to the Flying Cloud Assembly, people from all walks of life flooded into the main mountain gate, and in such a situation, there were even more people!

A large number of non-Wanxiang Sect cultivators would come here to stay briefly.

Therefore, a massive amount of disputes and conflicts would arise.

Regarding these, the Wanxiang Sect basically did not care, leaving them all to be handled privately by the parties involved.

Doing this, on one hand, saved a huge amount of governance costs, and on the other hand, it created a sect atmosphere of survival of the fittest,

ensuring that those who could stand out within the Wanxiang Sect often possessed formidable combat power!

With high combat power and a large number of personnel, irreconcilable conflicts would also appear internally, all of which led to the Wanxiang Sect being unable to restrain itself and fix its existence within old boundaries.

In order to avoid internal strife becoming too severe, the high command of the Wanxiang Sect would naturally shift internal conflicts to the outside world.

In this way, they could secure more space for internal members to maneuver.

Over time, the influence of the Wanxiang Sect continued to expand. Those who temporarily lost in internal competition would often choose to open outposts outside the sect in hopes of turning defeat into victory. This led to the Wanxiang Sect's reach extending further and further.

Therefore, when Yu Heya discovered that someone was interfering with the mountain he had selected, he naturally chose a martial arts duel to resolve the problem.

Most of the cultivators Unlike Ning Zhuo had gathered chose to avoid the fight, not daring to demand those ten mid-grade spirit stones, and voluntarily canceled their cave dwelling rentals.

But there were a few who were thick-skinned and accepted the challenge.

"Chen Er," who stood before Liu Fu, was one of them.

From Liu Fu's perspective, this was naturally very puzzling.

He had already found out that the slogan Unlike Ning Zhuo used to gather this group of bottom-tier cultivators was ten mid-grade spirit stones. Now, for ten spirit stones that were impossible to obtain, was Chen Er willing to throw his life away?

Examples of death in martial arts duels were not rare.

He did not know, however, that Chen Er was merely a temporary alias; his true identity was the old cook by Unlike Ning Zhuo's side.

The old cook did not speak, only beckoning to Liu Fu with his finger.

Liu Fu was furious: "Stubborn and unyielding!"

He waved his hand, casting ten talismans. The talismans ignited in mid-air, turning into water arrows that formed a wave of offensive,

covering the old cook.

The old cook's heart stirred, and he took out a "shield," holding it in front.

At the same time, the old cook stomped the ground hard, executing movement techniques to move rapidly.

Bang, bang, bang.

The "shield" was extremely flexible, moving with his thoughts, circling the old cook's body and intercepting all the threatening water arrows.

The old cook reached into his bosom and then sprinkled a handful of glutinous rice into the sky.

The glutinous rice grew wildly in mid-air, turning into giant, milky-white worms that surrounded Liu Fu.

Liu Fu's heart skipped a beat: "A Gu cultivator?"

Liu Fu took out his signature magic treasure, a sword box he had scavenged from the market.

He channeled magic power and opened the sword box, from which shot out streaks of micro-gold sword Qi.

The sword Qi was sharp, piercing through the worms, and with momentum unabated, it circled back to pierce them again. After doing this three or four times, a giant worm lost its life.

The old cook smiled inwardly.

Liu Fu using sword Qi to hit the giant worms was definitely a wrong move.

The old cook's original intention was to use them for consumption; Liu Fu expended a large amount of magic power to condense sword Qi, only to kill the worms, directly handing over the initiative of this battle.

If the sword Qi had been shot at the old cook, the old cook would inevitably have had to defend with all his might, leading to a stalemate.

But now, the old cook had no external pressure at all, easily freeing his hands to deal with Liu Fu.

He took out a gourd and sprayed out a large amount of golden oil droplets.

Thousands of oil droplets formed a rainstorm, covering Liu Fu.

Liu Fu had lost the initiative and could only channel his talismans to form a golden bell-like light shield to cover himself and temporarily stabilize.

The golden bell light shield was quite solid; the oil droplets smashed against it, shattering into pieces, with residual oil splashing everywhere. For a time, they could not break through.

"This is a talisman treasure." Shen Xi was watching the battle.

If it were a simple martial arts duel, it would not have attracted him at all. But because it concerned Unlike Ning Zhuo and his own influence within the alliance,

he had some interest.

Shen Xi: "What do you think, cousin?"

He took the opportunity to train Su Su Lingkou.

Su Su Lingkou did not hesitate: "Liu Fu is not good at fighting. He made two wrong choices: the first was voluntarily losing the initiative, and the second was appearing as steady as Mount Tai while actually turning himself into a target."

"Especially the first one." Su Su Lingkou shook her head, her face full of disdain, "Liu Fu actually used sword Qi to attack the worms; it's simply incredibly stupid!"

Shen Xi smiled slightly: "I can actually understand him. The methods of Gu cultivators have always been strange and bizarre; Liu Fu choosing to deal with these worms first can be considered a safe bet."

"It's just that his judgment is poor. Chen Er is not a Gu cultivator; he should have mastered some culinary arts."

The bystander sees clearly.

Shen Xi saw the details and identified that what the old cook was sprinkling were not Gu worms, but glutinous rice.

Su Su Lingkou: "Liu Fu is going to lose. This Chen Er must be Unlike Ning Zhuo's countermeasure."

"He has hidden the real expert among them. Yu Heya's subordinates won't let it go after losing the challenge. In the end, it's very likely that Yu Heya will be forced to take action himself."

"Hmm." Shen Xi nodded.

He focused on the battle and pointed at the old cook: "Cousin, I want to investigate him."

Shen Xi needed to determine whether the old cook was hired by Unlike Ning Zhuo at a high price or if he was a subordinate Unlike Ning Zhuo brought with him. There was a huge difference between the two.

As soon as he finished speaking, the old cook executed a winning strike, severely wounding Liu Fu.

After winning, the old cook did not leave the Martial Arts Hall. Next, there were a second and a third match.

Because it was a concentrated challenge, the Martial Arts Hall arranged the struggle between Unlike Ning Zhuo and Yu Heya's subordinates all in one place.

The two sides of the second martial arts duel were one tall and one short.

The tall one roared, his arm muscles knotted like the roots of an old tree, and with his fists clenched, he slammed them into the ground.

An earth python burst from the ground and rushed toward the short one.

The short one chuckled, his figure incomparably agile, leaping up directly onto the back of the earth python and charging head-on at the tall one.

The tall one snorted coldly, flying out a dozen talismans that ignited instantly,

the talismans turning into a large number of stone cones that shot toward the short one. The short one's speed increased sharply, leaving a trail of afterimages as he crashed head-on into the stone cones.

Amidst the barrage of stone cones, he constantly shifted, swaying left and right, actually dodging all the attacks and pouncing in front of the tall one. The tall one was good at long-range spell combat, and under the short one's close-range dagger attack, he soon could not hold on.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the tall one had to voluntarily concede.

Third match, fourth match, fifth match—

Yu Heya's side actually lost them all!

The one-sided result left Su Su Lingkou feeling very surprised.

Shen Xi's eyes flashed with brilliance: "Where did this Unlike Ning Zhuo find these experts? Cousin, investigate all of them thoroughly and find out their identities."

He realized he had underestimated Unlike Ning Zhuo's strength and couldn't help but think to himself: "I must re-evaluate this person."

At dusk.

"They all lost?" Inside the cultivation room, Yu Heya suddenly raised his head, eyes wide, staring at Liu Fu.

Liu Fu's face was pale as he stammered out the details.

At the end, he handed another visiting card to Yu Heya.

? co

The visiting card was still from Unlike Ning Zhuo!

Yu Heya frowned deeply, staring at the card. After a short silence, his brow relaxed, revealing a smile: "A mere Foundation Establishment, heh."

The impression of Unlike Ning Zhuo in his heart had changed slightly.

Although he was still just a small Foundation Establishment cultivator, there seemed to be a force behind him that required more attention in terms of overall strength.

Of course, not too much attention.

Yu Heya knew very well that the cultivators who had attached themselves to him did not possess outstanding strength.

He mainly cultivated the "Reverse Five Elements Demon Art," and his physical condition had been getting worse day by day; he still had to take the risk of breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage.

If they were elites among Foundation Establishment cultivators, they certainly wouldn't choose to attach themselves to him.

A ball of fire rose from his palm, burning the visiting card to ashes.

Yu Heya shook his hands and looked at Liu Fu: "The opponent came prepared, and you were caught off guard; it's reasonable that you were defeated."

He did not blame them, instead giving Liu Fu and the others a way out.

"Since that's the case, let's look for other ways."

"Unlike Ning Zhuo wants to gather loose cultivators on a large scale to move in here; there is a key link, which is the incumbent cultivator in the Internal Affairs Hall who is helping him."

"Warning, threatening, or bribing—in short, if we deal with this key person, it's very likely that Unlike Ning Zhuo will be silenced."

Yu Heya began to rack his brains.

He had already learned how Unlike Ning Zhuo was operating, so he saw one of the keys to this action.

As long as he broke this, he could bring considerable interference to Unlike Ning Zhuo.

But the next moment, Liu Fu revealed a bitter smile: "My lord, we just found the Internal Affairs Hall cultivator who is coordinating with Unlike Ning Zhuo."

"His surname is Cao, and he is called Cao Gui."

Yu Heya frowned immediately: "Which Cao?"

Liu Fu was an old man who had followed him, otherwise Yu Heya wouldn't have assigned the task of expelling cultivators to him.

Liu Fu nodded.

Yu Heya's brow furrowed even tighter: "It seems the opponent came prepared."

Back then, he had offended a figure on the main peak, the Cao family. To settle this problem, he had almost exhausted his family fortune.

Although the Cao family didn't take action against him, he was unable to compete for the position of Golden Core true disciple—how could the Cao family let an enemy

become a true disciple of the sect?

Unlike Ning Zhuo collected information in advance; money was not spent in vain.

This path was blocked, so Yu Heya thought of another way: "It's suspicious that these people can be used by Unlike Ning Zhuo. Go investigate your opponents and find a way to buy them off."

Because the Cao family was involved, Yu Heya dared not take any major actions.

He would rather spend money to avoid disaster.

Liu Fu nodded and left to carry out the order.

Half a day later.

Su Su Lingkou brought disappointment and reported to Shen Xi.

Shen Xi raised his brow: "You mean, you couldn't investigate them at all?"

Su Su Lingkou nodded: "Yes, it's like they just popped out of thin air."

Shen Xi revealed a grave expression.

Bringing some outsiders to the Wanxiang Sect was not rare.

Since they were not loose cultivators, this meant that Unlike Ning Zhuo was backed by a force.

In Shen Xi's impression, Unlike Ning Zhuo was immediately covered by a mysterious veil.

Liu Fu also brought a similar response to Yu Heya.

After Yu Heya dismissed Liu Fu, he pondered in silence.

This link was also a loophole.

Like Shen Xi, Yu Heya once again raised his evaluation of Unlike Ning Zhuo.

"Why would this person go to such lengths to make things difficult for me? Is it because I expelled him, causing him to lose face?" Yu Heya felt puzzled.

Solving the puzzle was very simple; confronting Unlike Ning Zhuo face-to-face would suffice.

However...

The visiting card had been burned by him!

Yu Heya had just felt regret when his eyes suddenly narrowed. By his hand, there was a visiting card, quietly placed there.

?!!!

Yu Heya was shocked beyond measure.

He had no idea when the visiting card had been placed by his hand.

Since the opponent could deliver a visiting card, couldn't they also approach him at will and take his life?

"Unlike Ning Zhuo, which force are you backed by?!"

Yu Heya unfolded the visiting card and read it quickly.

The content of the card was very simple; it was Unlike Ning Zhuo visiting Yu Heya to discuss the "Reverse Five Elements Demon Art."

Yu Heya was angered into laughter: "A mere Foundation Establishment cultivator wants to discuss the Dao with a late-stage Golden Core?"

This attitude of equal exchange made Yu Heya feel quite displeased.

But this time, he finally did not tear up the visiting card.

After deep thought, he summoned Liu Fu again: "Make arrangements; tomorrow, I will host Unlike Ning Zhuo, prepare some good wine and food."

Liu Fu: "Yes."

The next day.

Unlike Ning Zhuo arrived at the Rock Cave Dwelling on time as promised.

He was courteous and addressed Yu Heya as a senior, which made the latter's mood soften quite a bit.

After the pleasantries, Unlike Ning Zhuo stated directly that he had not wanted to get entangled here, and that taking the ten spirit stones and choosing another cave dwelling would be more convenient.

But Shen Xi had come to him with other important matters.

As for what the "important matters" were, Unlike Ning Zhuo also gave a brief introduction.

"So that's how it is." Yu Heya stroked his beard, expressionless.

Unlike Ning Zhuo: "Therefore, please rest assured, Senior Yu; although I borrowed the prestige of the Cao family, this matter is not the Cao family using my hand to make things difficult for you."

Things are often heard in reverse.

It also meant that if Unlike Ning Zhuo really wanted to deal with Yu Heya, he could have used this force even more ruthlessly.

Yu Heya looked at Unlike Ning Zhuo with a complicated expression: "What do you intend to do?"

Unlike Ning Zhuo changed the subject: "I have recently been studying the 'Reverse Five Elements Demon Art' and have some doubts that I need to ask you about, Senior."

Yu Heya snorted coldly, perhaps annoyed by Unlike Ning Zhuo beating around the bush, but he still stroked his beard and nodded slightly: "Speak freely." ===== CHAPTER 688 =====