Chapter 295: Apprenticing to Yao Qingxuan

"What? Tang Wanzhou?"

Li Youyi was bewildered, not understanding why she would ask this.

Yao Qingxuan saw that Li Youyi was truly completely unaware, and her willow-leaf brows immediately furrowed, her gaze filled with suspicion.

For the past two months, Li Youyi had been hiding in the Nanqing Palace, cultivating in seclusion, peaceful and carefree. She, however, had been playing a game of cat and mouse with Tang Wanzhou in the outer regions of the General Altar. Although she held the upper hand, firmly suppressing Tang Wanzhou and catching up to and wounding her several times, she had never been able to capture her.

A thousand years ago, the catastrophe that erupted in the Lingxiao Life Realm left the land unrecognizable; mountains collapsed and rivers changed course.

It was during that time that the Twin Rice Sect accidentally discovered the entrance to the underground immortal mansion, opened this immortal secret realm, and obtained the infinite treasures left behind by the ancient Po Jialuo Sect.

Because the Chan Hai Guan Wu had always forbidden the planting of Benevolent Rice in the Lingxiao Life Realm, the Rice Sect was weak at the time and could only hide and survive, bit by bit excavating the secret realm, exploring the treasury, and battling the fierce insects, departed spirits, and unknown anomalies within the underground immortal mansion.

This matter was of great importance, and they dared not let too many people know.

The process of exploration and excavation was the process of the Twin Rice Sect growing stronger step by step.

But the underground immortal mansion was too vast, like a hollow sphere with a diameter of several thousand miles, built by the ancient Po Jialuo Sect for at least twenty or thirty thousand years. It contained countless dangers, endless mysteries, and an endless stream of treasures and resources.

The Twin Rice Sect had spent a thousand years exploring and building, yet they had only cleared the area of several hundred miles near the entrance, completing the transformation and construction. In terms of volume, it occupied less than one percent of the entire underground immortal mansion.

The giant figures in the sect naturally had ventured further, but various dangers emerged one after another, requiring them to set up defensive arrays step by step, and then expand and digest the area.

They dared not cause too much commotion or create tremors that would be detected by the transcendent beings of the Lingxiao Life Realm.

The speed of transformation and construction was countless times slower than simple exploration.

In some places, even the Rice Ancestor was very wary and needed to bypass them.

Of course, the entrance the Twin Rice Sect used to enter the underground immortal mansion was not the one blasted open by Qilin Zang a year ago with a supreme artifact. It was located elsewhere.

In fact, the Twin Rice Sect was completely unaware of the entrance Qilin Zang blasted open; it happened to be in the furthest reaches of their explored area.

It was precisely because they were played by Qilin Zang that the Twin Rice Sect was forced to gradually show its fangs from hiding, reveal itself to the public, and implement its plans ahead of schedule, with activities becoming more intensive.

Normally, they were prepared to wait until the Snow Sword Tang Ting moved south, the Zuoqiu Gate moved north, and the world's righteous armies destroyed the Lingxiao Palace, before coming out to clean up the mess and pluck the final fruits of victory.

Because of Qilin Zang's interference, all the plans of all the forces in the Lingxiao Life Realm, both overt and covert, spiraled out of control.

These past two months, the pursuit of Tang Wanzhou by Yao Qingxuan had taken place outside the arrays in this area of the General Altar that had already completed construction.

Array after array, layer upon layer, like a thousand-layer cake, had been built over a thousand years, shrouding the entire General Altar.

But it was not impenetrable. Yao Qingxuan suspected that Tang Wanzhou had already found a gap and escaped inside.

Seeing the peerless beauty before him with an uncertain expression, Li Youyi tentatively asked, "Has Tang Wanzhou escaped from the Divine Prison, or has she never been caught?"

"Why? Are you very happy in your heart to know she is on the run?" Yao Qingxuan said.

"Tang Wanzhou is my friend."

Li Youyi did not deny it. Making low-level excuses in front of a giant of the Longevity Realm would only make her look down on him.

Yao Qingxuan said, "You care so much about your own friend, but do you know that your other two friends might be suffering inhuman torture at this moment? Can you even care about them all?"

Li Youyi's expression tightened: "What does Senior Yao mean?"

Yao Qingxuan and An Xianjing were both dressed in plain white, unstained by dust, but their personalities were one clear and one quiet, one cold and one gentle.

This wonder woman who once captivated the world had the same long, straight, beautiful legs as Yao Yin, a very high waistline, and upright breasts. Her demeanor was even better. Walking in front, she was filled with a fragrant breeze, her immortal skirt fluttering as she stepped into the light gauze of the rice fields.

Li Youyi followed closely behind, pursuing the question: "Does Senior mean, perhaps, two of the people captured two months ago?"

Although he always addressed her as "Senior," many times he felt dazed, feeling that she was just an older Yao Yin; they were truly too similar.

Of course, now that he was in danger and the other party was a ruthless figure, Li Youyi naturally dared not offend her.

In the blood field, the Golden Rice was growing astonishingly.

From the three feet tall of two months ago, it had grown to over three meters, several times larger.

The golden light it emitted was even more brilliant, with over a dozen leaves full of golden texture, sharp as sawteeth, and the life Qi inside was vigorous.

It was completely different; it felt as if it could truly grow extraordinary geniuses to crush all human experts.

On Yao Qingxuan's cold, jade-like face, a charming, shallow smile appeared at this moment, and anticipation grew in her heart, before she stopped the smile: "You didn't use your own blood to water it, did you?"

"No, I used the light and shadow of the Fusang Divine Tree to give it light. I used magic power to provide it with better breathing."

"It is the heart's blood of you and Hall Master An. If I were to water it with my blood, it would be a desecration of you two."

Li Youyi took the opportunity to mobilize a wisp of magic power, which flew from his fingertips and turned into clouds and mist, shrouding the Golden Rice.

Following this, the Golden Rice began to breathe at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"You are thinking too deeply and looking for trouble for yourself. On the path of cultivation, there will be countless times when you bleed, either staining the earth or being collected by others. If watering a plant makes you so conflicted and wary, then your state of mind must be a mess. When will you ever be clear and transparent?"

Yao Qingxuan cut her slender, jade-white wrist and sprinkled blood into the rice field.

She also had Li Youyi take out a cold jade bottle and fill it with a bottle for watering over the next two months.

On her wrist, brilliance flashed, and the wound disappeared.

"The person you asked Hall Master An to help find—there are big things happening outside, and she has no time to help you. Before leaving, she asked me to help you find them, saying that if you have a weakness, you can better help her raise the rice."

Yao Qingxuan continued: "That person was imprisoned in the Divine Prison. When the people I sent found the Divine Prison, he had already been taken away by the Fourth Divine Son, Wang Shu. Also taken away at the same time was that inheritor of the Tuoba clan from the Northern Territory."

Li Youyi's eyes narrowed slightly.

He naturally knew about the grudge between himself and that Fourth Divine Son.

Without guessing, he knew that Wang Zhi and he must be Rice-man brothers; the two looked exactly the same.

"He doesn't dare to break into the Nanqing Palace, so he is using my two friends to try to force me to walk out."

Li Youyi looked at Yao Qingxuan's indifferent appearance: "Soldier against soldier, general against general. I guess that puppet straw man, even if it comes from the Heavenly Principle Hall, is not controlled by an elder figure. It is highly likely to be Wang Shu. In order to deal with me, he didn't even put you, a Venerable, in his eyes."

Yao Qingxuan raised her head slightly and looked at Li Youyi, who was half a head taller than her, and gave him a cold glance: "Is this the level of the God-hiding people of the Nine Li Hidden Gate? Using such a straightforward way to utilize a giant of the Longevity Realm?"

Li Youyi quickly explained: "Senior throwing the sword was certainly powerful. But isn't it also putting the potential struggle out into the open?"

"Seeing one spot, one knows the whole picture. Inside your Rice Sect, it is definitely not a monolithic block; there must be struggles for interests and power."

"This time, the other party suffered no losses and will only be suppressed for a while. It can be expected that soon, they will definitely test Senior's bottom line again and disintegrate Senior's prestige as a Venerable."

"Once this head is opened, will the seven great elders of the Southern Territory who take orders from Senior, and the people below, feel that Senior is strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and develop different hearts? And will the people above in the Divine Sect feel that you, Senior, are incapable?"

With Yao Qingxuan's status, since she sent someone to find Qi Xiao, how could the people sent out not go to Wang Shu to demand the person?

There was only one explanation.

They went, but Wang Shu did not give them face.

Yao Qingxuan previously deliberately said "your friends might be suffering inhuman torture," actually to provoke Li Youyi's nerves, wanting to push him out to fight Wang Shu.

Li Youyi naturally obeyed and followed her line of thinking.

Yao Qingxuan stared straight into Li Youyi's eyes; her pupils were like two cold stars.

Li Youyi met her gaze for a moment, then quickly bowed and saluted: "With Senior's status, you naturally disdain to deal with a mere Wang Shu. Give this junior an identity, and this junior will solve your worries and make the provocateur pay the price."

"What identity do you want?" Yao Qingxuan said.

"I am as close to Yao Yin as a brother and sister; I can be Senior's disciple."

Li Youyi knew very well that to escape the General Altar, he had to take it step by step.

The first step was to obtain an official identity that allowed him to walk freely in the General Altar; otherwise, being trapped in the Nanqing Palace was equivalent to sitting and waiting for death.

Yao Qingxuan said: "You want to join the Divine Sect?"

"The Divine Sect has done nothing to wrong me. Hall Master An and Senior Yao are even more benevolent, which has greatly changed my impression of the Divine Sect and made me feel a desire to follow."

Li Youyi recited clearly and roundly: "The Twin Rice Sect, invincible in battle. The Ancestor of the Rice Sect, literary and martial, for a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations, unifying the world."

Yao Qingxuan was dazed for a moment: "It seems you have taken what I said before to heart! But if I ask you where the Nine Li Hidden Gate is hiding, how will you respond?"

Li Youyi said: "I will not betray the Nine Li Hidden Gate."

"Then where is your sincerity in joining the Divine Sect?" Yao Qingxuan said.

Li Youyi was just about to say some high-sounding words to show his integrity and backbone.

Yao Qingxuan said first: "If those old guys in the sect ask, you can push it onto me. If you can't push it past them, you can just tell them directly."

"Lizhou has always been the edge of the world. The Divine Sect currently does not have the energy to target the Nine Li Hidden Gate. The direction of the world's situation is in Lingxiao City, the Far West Ash Region, the Demon Clan, the Zuoqiu Gate, the Snow Sword Tang Ting, the Leixiao Sect, the Zhu Gate, the Long Gate... The Nine Li Clan and the Nine Li Hidden Gate, which have always been weak, have to be ranked after the tenth."

"With the character of the clan leaders of the various Nine Li tribes who are good at enduring and willing to be cowardly, it is also a way of preservation."

Li Youyi was completely stunned, his eyes flickering, and he really wanted to ask the question that had been lingering in his heart.

You must know, the first time Li Youyi heard of the "Twin Rice Sect" was from the Hidden Lord.

He claimed that a Hidden Elder had sent back news that he was being targeted by the Twin Rice Sect. He also claimed that the Hidden Elder was investigating the reason, wanting to resolve the danger in advance.

It can be seen that there must be a Hidden Elder lurking in the Twin Rice Sect.

And if the person targeting him was An Xianjing, why could the Hidden Elder get the news so quickly?

It must be that they were very close to An Xianjing.

So Li Youyi had long been guessing, could Yao Qingxuan be that Hidden Elder?

He had never dared to ask. One reason was that when Yao Qingxuan first appeared, she was very intimidating, her actions were ruthless, and the ground was full of corpses. Li Youyi was very wary of her at the time, viewing her as a female demon.

The second is that her talent was too high, and Li Youyi felt that Old Li might not be her opponent either. Even if she were really a member of the Hidden Gate, it should be the Hidden Lord of the previous cycle.

The third is that Li Youyi was very worried that after asking, he would instead expose the secret that the Twin Rice Sect was hiding a Hidden Elder, bringing danger to the Hidden Elder.

The fourth is, if Yao Qingxuan were a Hidden Elder, why not avoid suspicion?

Logically, she should have sent Li Youyi directly to the Divine Prison, or thrown him to An Xianjing immediately, trying her best not to get involved.

Li Youyi asked: "Is Senior Yao not curious about where the Nine Li Hidden Gate is hiding?"

"Not curious!"

Yao Qingxuan added: "Accepting you as a disciple is equivalent to me having to bear all the consequences of your actions."

"I want to plant a Death Spirit Fire in your body. If you dare to do anything detrimental to the Divine Sect, I can make you vanish into thin air with a single thought. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, I can find you."

Li Youyi could not be sure of Yao Qingxuan's identity, but he could be sure that his Dao-protecting wife should be able to block her Death Spirit Fire.

Therefore, he said: "Senior, rest assured, this junior knows the weight of things."

"Still calling me Senior?"

Li Youyi followed Yao Qingxuan out of the Nanqing Palace, preparing to go to the Spirit Valley Hall to participate in the assessment for true disciples.

Having a Venerable-level figure lead him personally was equivalent to vouching for him. Coupled with the relationship between Yao Qingxuan and the Hall Master of the Spirit Valley Hall, the assessment was naturally just a formality, just to confirm that he had the cultivation of a Spirit Reader.