Chapter 414: Guarding the Nine Provinces

Outside Qingzhou, on the edge of Yang'an Commandery.

Ye Wenxuan hung suspended in the sky, like an immortal on a journey, her form hidden amidst the clouds and mist.

After leaving Mount Wutong, she had originally planned to go directly to the Wumiao in the Great Qian Imperial Capital to find someone.

She never expected to receive an unexpected piece of news on the road.

Demons and monsters had all left their lairs, intending to retaliate against Great Qian.

"So this is what you wish to do?"

Ye Wenxuan remained silent for a long time, then couldn't help but laugh aloud.

She devoted herself solely to cultivation; apart from acquiring necessary items, she had never in her life deliberately done anything to slay demons or eradicate monsters.

But as long as one's cultivation was high enough, the great demons within the Thousand Demon Cave would rarely dare to emerge and wreak havoc upon the world.

She only needed to lie quietly within the Water Curtain Immortal Cave, and the Southern Yang Sect would remain in a stable state; although there were still minor disturbances from demons and monsters, they ultimately caused no real harm.

Take Great Qian as an example.

For so many years, when had there ever been a risk of its destruction?

What is the situation now?

She gazed calmly at the distance, a few more feelings of emotion appearing in her eyes.

Just like now, even if she happened to pass by and saw it, she would absolutely have no thought of intervening.

Ye Wenxuan knew well what was of greater importance and what was of lesser.

If the Old Dog learned of her whereabouts and she was slain by him, the Southern Yang Sect would never again see the clouds part and the sun shine.

However, she did not mind watching a bit longer.

Later, she could use this scene to teach that young man she had never met what it meant to govern through non-action.

The perception of a Return to Emptiness realm cultivator was extremely terrifying.

Under her gaze, dense figures stepped out from the morning mist, marching toward this place.

"..."

At the county city gate, a duty officer who had just yawned.

In the next instant, his eyeballs nearly popped out.

"No, again?"

Just a short while ago, he had just seen a humanoid old wolf swagger in.

He was lucky enough to have kept his life.

Later, he heard that old wolf died a terribly miserable death, with its piercing howls filling the entire county city.

Nowadays, the world had become increasingly relaxed; it was heard that the imperial court had opened its treasure vaults and built the legendary immortal arrays everywhere in Yang'an Commandery.

Outside Qingzhou had even established a Martial Academy and was already considering recruiting disciples from various regions.

These demons and monsters, who knew not death, actually dared to invade?

The duty officer, looking at that huge ferocious beast approaching slowly, drew his sword with trembling hands: "W-what kind of demon is this? Retreat immediately!"

"..."

Watching that mortal draw his sword against the Demon King.

Ye Wenxuan fell silent for an instant, suddenly feeling that perhaps she had stayed in the mountains too long and had become somewhat unfamiliar with this world.

The opponent would likely need only a single breath to make this small duty officer turn to dust and vanish.

Just as she had thought.

The huge ferocious beast, its form massive, paused for a moment, then suddenly let out a deafening roar.

Roar!

A foul-smelling demonic wind swept violently toward the city.

That small duty officer, terrified, dropped his sword and covered his ears with both hands, yet he did not have his soul scattered and spirit destroyed.

It was only because a faintly visible light barrier blocked the way outside the county city.

"Get back here immediately."

Instantly, on the empty street, a figure clad in black armor with a red cape, holding an array instrument, shouted impatiently at that duty officer.

The Yang'an Commandery Demon-Suppressing General stared fiercely at the area outside the city.

Once upon a time, a single Howling Moon Demon King could plunge the entire Outside Qingzhou into a nightmare lasting years.

Now, this Demon King was merely a vanguard general.

Not long after, dense figures, their muscles rippling, walked step by step to the side of the county city; among them, the largest one seemed capable of swallowing the entire Tucheng in a single bite.

They were as majestic as Mount Wutong; merely their slow steps caused the earth to tremble violently.

Had it not been for the protection of the array formation, the entire county city would have long since collapsed into ruins.

And atop the head of that tallest gray elephant.

There stood three figures upright.

"Gulp."

The Yang'an Commandery General, trembling, took out a map; this was a map specially drawn by Miss Xu Xu Qinger for every commandery.

He compared them one by one according to the images on the map.

He nearly fainted.

Among them, the black bear holding a treasure vase was actually one of the legendary Ten Great Demon Emperors.

What merit did Outside Qingzhou possess to attract the attention of such existences?

"Crush them, flatten Outside Qingzhou."

The black bear looked forward with an air of calm indifference, not even willing to waste a glance of his peripheral vision on this tiny Outside Qingzhou.

If the Cave Master had not issued an order,

it would have had no interest whatsoever in paying attention to Great Qian.

In the black bear's impression, the Great Qian Wumiao was merely a poor, remote place attached to Mount Wutong.

Just at this moment,

Ye Wenxuan in the sky slightly frowned and looked toward the other side of the street.

She saw that the instant those numerous demons lifted their feet,

a spiritual pressure, like invisible water waves, gently rippled out, then with a boom, knocked them all flying.

At the end of the long street, a woman walked slowly; her pair of eyes seemed to have just healed, still covered by a layer of white film.

She wore a loose black magical robe, upon which the Nanyang patterns were exquisite and grand, as if truly containing a dazzling great sun.

"..."

Looking at that face she knew so well, Ye Wenxuan suddenly felt a sense of strangeness again.

The foolish Master Lingxi'er could display arrogance before most existences, but that absolutely did not include one of the Ten Great Demon Emperors.

Moreover, the opponent was not currently full of arrogance, but rather possessed a certain calmness that was hard to describe.

Looking again at the magical robe on Master Lingxi,

Ye Wenxuan silently glanced at the Nanyang she had embroidered on her own clothes, suppressed her original thought of leaving, and continued to watch.

"Who did this Emperor think it was? It turns out to be you, the fool who was beaten by Jin Chi time and again, clutching your head and crying."

The black bear, accompanied by two Demon Emperors, leaped from the gray elephant's back in advance.

After clearly seeing the appearance of the person before it, it was not only not panicked, but instead let out a mocking laugh.

"Hand her over to this Emperor! Kill!"

With that order given, the demons roared in unison and charged in.

Just at this moment, two more streaks of light rushed in from the distance; one wore the great cloak of a Zhen Mo Si Patrol Envoy, while the other was dressed in plain clothes.

The instant they landed, the bodies of two Demon Kings exploded and were blasted flying.

"Senior Master Lingxi, thank you for your trouble."

Chen Zhong lightly clasped his hands in a bow, and the person beside him also nodded respectfully.

In the motion, the aura belonging to the Transformation of Spirit Realm swept out without any concealment!

"It's no problem."

Master Lingxi shook her head, watched the two rush out to kill, casually waved her sleeve, and besides the black bear, swept up another Demon Emperor as well.

She was actually voluntarily wanting to fight two opponents alone.

"Hah."

Ye Wenxuan lightly exhaled a turbid breath, staring at that pair of half-blind eyes of her eldest disciple.

The opponent had obviously suffered a great defeat, yet had not returned to Mount Wutong to complain and cry to her.

However, judging by this action, it was completely different from the past.

And Great Qian, when did a new Soul Transformation cultivator emerge, and coincidentally right here?

While her thoughts drifted, the three were already engaged in a struggle with the Demon Emperors; the remaining Demon Kings, seeing this situation, all rushed toward Outside Qingzhou to kill!

"..."

The Great General of Yang'an Commandery took a deep breath and gripped the formation artifact with both hands.

Great Qian perhaps still had many places where the formations had not yet been built, but Yang'an Commandery was different, because here lay Bo Yun County.

That small county town was the hometown of Lord Shen.

Therefore, Yang'an Commandery was a great formation built by hand by several elders of the Xu family, plus Miss Xu Qinger.

The light curtain in the sky slowly became thick and dense.

Streaks of flowing light fell like fine rain of ox hair.

They perhaps could not harm true Demon Emperors, but for these ordinary Demon Kings, it was like a silent slaughter.

As the strong great demons just stepped inside, they felt their life force being rapidly drained away.

Stumbling with a foot, they crashed to the ground with a boom.

The courtyard before them shook violently, yet never collapsed; the young child held in the arms of father and mother widened his eyes, looking fearfully at the fierce beasts outside the door, only to find that the fierce beasts' expressions seemed even more afraid than his own.

Until the foul-smelling demon blood seeped into the soil, dyeing the entire street a dark red.

"..."

Ye Wenxuan silently watched everything happening below, and also looked at Master Lingxi, who was still holding her own while fighting two opponents.

The opponent actually had a brain now, knowing to rely on the protection of that magical robe, and skillfully employing various methods to cope.

The full-scale retaliation of the Thousand Demon Cave actually could not even get past this small, broken county town.

Is this still the Great Qian of my understanding?

Thinking of this, she turned and headed toward the direction of the Imperial City.

Having said she would not fight, she would not fight, even if below was the disciple who relied on her the most.

If one did not even have this much patience, then all those years of cultivation would have been in vain.

Demon calamities erupted in various places across the Nine Provinces.

And the situation was nearly the same as in Outside Qingzhou.

The seniors of Mount Wutong each guarded a place, while that young man treading on a mysterious sword roamed the various provinces, cleaning up the mess for his junior brothers and sisters.

Whenever that black robe with Nanyang patterns appeared, it meant blood staining the earth.

Of course, Nie Jun was not the one who killed the most ruthlessly.

In comparison, the Prison-Subduing Phantasm, which targeted only the Demon Kings, stood over ten zhang tall, its dark-gold feathered cloak enhancing it to nearly claim the lives of dozens of Demon Kings.

But what surprised the regional generals most was not this.

After all, the reputation of Mount Wutong cultivators was known throughout the land, and that Golden Body Phantasm represented Lord Shen.

What they could not understand at all were the dozen or so Soul Transformation cultivators who had suddenly appeared.

Every face was unmistakably familiar, yet the formidable aura radiating from them was deeply moving.

Hou Wanshan, the general of Li Province, sneered.

He glared enviously at his younger brother.

The man had been stuck in the Extreme Realm for years, yet somehow, overnight, he had ascended to Soul Transformation and replaced him as general—leaving Hou Wanshan with nothing to do but drift aimlessly in the sky.

It was clearly the Thousand Demon Caves' retaliation.

Yet even now, they had not captured so much as a single small city.

Instead, they rushed forward like moths into flame, one after another, to meet their deaths.

Watching the Golden Body Phantasm depart Li Province once more, dragging a pile of demon corpses behind it.

Hou Wanshan turned his gaze away, looking toward the tranquil and peaceful prefectures.

The slaughter beyond the borders of Great Qian seemed to affect not a single civilian in these prefectures—it was hard to imagine that just two or three years ago, they had seriously considered abandoning Outside Qingzhou over a single Hunyuan Realm demon wolf.

Yet.

Whether the Mount Wutong disciples, the sudden proliferation of Soul Transformation cultivators, or even those mysterious great arrays—

All seemed to stem from the figure stationed in the imperial capital.

Lord Shen, without fanfare, had truly achieved, single-handedly, the protection of the nine provinces' Li Min.

……

Meanwhile.

In the Wu Temple's Jia Courtyard, within the imperial capital.

Shen Yi took out the demon blood recently returned by Lady Qinghua; since the avian demon blood had long been exhausted, he paused for a moment and simply gathered all demon blood with even a hint of fire affinity to test.

After so many attempts,

his technique had grown increasingly refined.

Shen Yi looked with satisfaction at the pile of differently colored "Heavenly Phoenix Pills" now before him.

At least they hardly exploded anymore.

"…"

【Void Return. Heavenly Phoenix Imperishable Golden Body: Entry】

He swallowed one whole, opened his interface, and continued refining the Heavenly Phoenix Imperishable Golden Body.

Logically, he had the pills, his lifespan was sufficient, and the technique was flawless.

It was even his favorite body-refining method.

Yet he made no real progress.

【Twenty-nine thousand years: You consumed various mixed pills, using their potency to refine your spiritual body; you quickly exhausted their power, and your spiritual body solidified slightly further…】

Shen Yi fell silent for a moment.

This was clearly the follow-up technique for Void Return, yet it only elevated the Divine Sparrow Nirvana Method to a higher realm—its hidden abilities remained elusive.

He finally understood why he had felt that sense of constraint before.

Given Nanyang Sect's current state, it seemed unable to sustain true great cultivators anymore.

Both resources and celestial qi were alarmingly scarce.

At that moment,

Shen Yi abruptly closed his interface, and the purple-gold pill furnace descended from the air into his palm.

He turned his head and saw a slender, unfamiliar figure clad in white robes.

Tsk…

Having grown accustomed to his previous robe, Shen Yi had long forgotten the sensation of someone approaching silently from behind without his notice.

His body beneath the black robe tensed instantly.

Yet he made no immediate move.

Even without his robe, he was still a late-stage Soul Transformation cultivator—only one person in the world could achieve such stealth before him.

"I never imagined you could reach this point."

Ye Wenxuan did not waste words introducing herself; at their level, a single gesture was often enough to identify one another.

She walked to Shen Yi's side and silently gazed at the horizon.

Everything she had seen and heard on this journey had indeed astonished her greatly.

He had pushed every possible action to its absolute limit.

It was hard to believe this was merely a young man fresh out of training.

"Of course, I'm more curious about how you managed to summon all my useless disciples to Great Qian to guard against demons for you."

"What did you promise them to make them so easily forget their master?"

Ye Wenxuan glanced sidelong, thoughtful: "Precious pills? Or the Nanyang Sect elder's robe?"

Hearing her casual words, Shen Yi did not answer, only gave a faint glance toward the courtyard gate.

"…"

There, the young boy chewing on dried fruit suddenly froze.

Then he lowered his hand dejectedly and forced out a strained smile.

Qingfeng felt he understood his master well enough.

But he had never expected this.

That his fellow disciples, in his master's eyes, would be that kind of person.

Could it not be that they owed Shen Yi a debt of gratitude and wished to repay it by lending a hand? Besides, they never liked seeing demons and monsters wreak havoc on the common people; they had mostly just been on the mountain before, but now that they saw it with their own eyes, what fault is there in wanting to do something?

"Never mind, none of it matters."

Ye Wenxuan paid no heed to Qingfeng; with her realm, she had naturally sensed the presence of this little disciple long ago.

She had no intention of hiding from him, nor did she care whether Qingfeng would form any thoughts because of it.

(End of this chapter)