Red-haired Ancestor was a stubborn and self-opinionated man. Normally, his powerful mana could cover everything. But now, as the doom approached and he found himself in a dilemma, his true rage erupted.

He lifted his foot and kicked a disciple nearby, sending him flying dozens of feet away, and shouted furiously, "It's all because of you, acting recklessly and violating the sect's rules, stealing my Five Elements Divine Fire Furnace to capture the Queen Mother Grass! Now you've brought so much trouble, dragging me into this mess!"

With these words, Hong Changbao and the others felt a chill in their hearts.

It wasn't disappointment but fear they felt, for Hong had seen Red-haired Ancestor like this for the first time in centuries.

Red-haired Ancestor was normally very good to his disciples, as long as they flattered and agreed with him, he would usually fulfill any request.

But once he became angry and started blaming others, he would often start with those closest to him.

Hong Changbao quickly knelt down and said, "Disciples are young and inexperienced, inevitably making oversights; please forgive us, master. What to do next is entirely up to master's decision!"

Others who had never seen Red-haired Ancestor lose his temper were puzzled why their usually favored senior brother seemed so frightened.

Seeing this, the clever ones also hurriedly knelt down, with Xin Chenzi kneeling behind Hong Changbao, his head bowed in silence.

"Of course, it is for me to decide, did you think you have a say?" Red-haired Ancestor's piercing gaze swept over each disciple, viewing them as the root of the trouble.

If they hadn't stolen the divine fire furnace, which was then taken by Shi Feiyang, Elder Kuzhu wouldn't have come to find him, and perhaps he could have avoided this calamity!

He wished he could chop all of them up, one by one.

Then, he sneered, "I have calculated that those two youngsters will surely come back to save the other four. Let's capture and bring them all back to Elder Kuzhu to handle! As for their seniors, huh!

If they want to die, they can just come and try my Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Divine Saber. I'll kill one as they come, and two as a pair. When it has drunk its fill of fresh blood, it will be just perfect for transforming demons!"

Years ago when he captured Elder Kuzhu's body and tried to stealthily eliminate Wei Bagong, he had acted similarly—hot-headed, disregarding everything, desperately fighting against his enemies, creating a chance of survival from the hopeless situation!

Making a decision, he waved his hand and a swath of blood-red clouds rose from the ground, enveloping everyone and lifting them up through the clouds, then swiftly flew back to Red Wood Ridge Sky Dog Cliff.

Back in the cave, he threw four corpses in front of Elder Kuzhu, impatiently saying, "I've only captured these four."

Elder Kuzhu internally cursed him as useless, berating him for capturing these four instead of Shi Feiyang's disciples. Where were Shi Feiyang's disciples?

This outcome deviated from his prior calculations; he had foreseen that Red-haired Ancestor would bring back Shi Sheng.

Even though Shi Sheng hadn't been brought back, he held the Heavenly Heart Double Rings, of which the Yin Ring had been traded from the Green Emperor's son and had been sacrificially refined by him for many years.

Shi Feiyang had obtained the other, the Yang Ring, from Shaqing Immortal Mansion, previously belonging to a Fallen Immortal. After re-refining and merging them, he planned to pass them to Shi Sheng.

Although he couldn't just take them back immediately, as long as Shi Sheng used it, he would sense it and could set up a Dharma Platform here to retrieve it through casting.

However, the Dharma Platform had been set up, and he had waited a long time but never sensed Shi Sheng using the Heavenly Heart Ring, and Red-haired Ancestor and his group had returned with four irrelevant dead bodies.

He hadn't captured the people, nor had he reclaimed the artifact, so this initial misstep greatly impacted his subsequent plans. With this mistake, everything else had to be recalculated!

Elder Kuzhu, feeling bitter with anger, recalculated, "I have calculated that it won't be long before that Evil Dragon appears. The array you've set up in front of the mountain is impressive, but it won't stop it. I'll help you set up another formation."

Red-haired Ancestor had set up a triple layer of arrays in front of the cave, intended to guard against their enemy, Evil Corpse Gu Chen, supposedly foolproof.

Elder Kuzhu said it was insufficient. Leading Red-haired Ancestor out of the cave, he took a brief look and threw his bamboo staff into the air, splitting it into six pieces in mid-air, which then split into thirty-six.

Years ago, he had found thirty-six dead bamboo stalks in a bamboo forest on East Pole Great Wilderness Mountain, which had died unknown thousands or millions of years ago.

Realizing they were natural spirit roots, exceptional Innate treasures, he had used Immortal Energy and True Yuan to refine these spirit bamboos in that bamboo forest. One day, he unearthed the Kuzhu Zen Scripture underground in the forest, and after sixty years of effort, he finally revitalized them, turning them into jade-like spirit bamboo.

This was how he earned his title "Elder Kuzhu." After collecting the spirit bamboos, he used thousand-year-old divine skills to refine them into Taiyin Green Spirit Bamboo, endowing them with even more remarkable uses.

Later, he delved deeply into "Kuzhu Zen," reincarnating and visiting Central Earth every sixty years. His body was hidden in the Wuzhong Ridge of Great Wilderness Mountain.

He had no disciples to guard his cave, so he used these bamboos to arrange formations to protect his corporeal Dharma Body.

For so many years, there had never been a single failure.

Yet, a few years ago, Qi Shuming casted his spells and traveled through unnoticed, bypassing the Spirit Bamboo Formation to arrive right before him.

Thinking back, he had entered the Demon Realm at that time, his whole body like a rock, and the Spirit Bamboo Formation was extremely formidable. He couldn't free himself, and outsiders couldn't enter. He would have to sit till the end of time, and once the final tribulation arrived, his body and soul would be destroyed, completely wiped from existence.

Fortunately, Qi Shuming was able to get in, but this also indicated that the formation had flaws. Although it was unmanned at the time, being an "empty formation," the fact that someone could directly traverse through it was utterly chilling.

Afterward, Elder Kuzhu meditated deeply and repeatedly refined the formation several times, enhancing its power significantly from what it originally was.

Those green bamboos split into thirty-six pieces, formed a formation in the sky, flickered briefly, shot into the ground, and disappeared from sight.

The Red-haired Ancestor deliberately did not cooperate in setting up the formation, thinking to himself that his own triple-layered formation would activate immediately upon being triggered. With your mana being potentially only slightly superior to mine, I don't believe you can suppress my triple formation by layering another formation on top!

However, the true strength of Elder Kuzhu now was indeed unfathomable; he didn't even trigger the original triple formation and casually completed the setup of the Taiyin Green Spirit Formation.

Regarding Lin Han and Shi Sheng, only the two of them had escaped, watching from a distance the Red-haired Ancestor fly away. The two sighed anxiously and dared not delay, hurrying to Baiyang Mountain to find Shi Feiyang.

Upon seeing the two, Shi Feiyang said, "The Qingcheng Sect, the Snow Mountain Sect, and Divine Camel Yi Xiu—if no one else informs them, they will naturally learn about this matter within three days at most. This matter ultimately originated from us; you two made your escape, but those who came to help were afflicted. We can't wait for the elders of the three families to initiate the rescue; that would look really bad. We need to rescue them before that happens!"

Lin Han and Shi Sheng nodded, "Master's teachings are right. We discussed it on our way here as well, but we are no match for the Red-haired Ancestor. Perhaps we could use some strategies to attack him from an unexpected direction. Our calculations show that this matter is very complex, with other powerful figures besides the Red-haired Ancestor likely to take action."

Shi Feiyang nodded, "Correct, it's very good that you've thought of this."

He reasoned that if Elder Kuzhu was lying in wait and he only sent his disciples to Red Wood Ridge, there was no chance of rescuing anyone. But if he also went to Red Wood Ridge to lead the rescue, Elder Kuzhu would come to Baiyang Mountain and capture Mo Zhui and the others.

Indeed, according to the auguries, Elder Kuzhu's real target was Mo Zhui and his companions.

He could have taken Mo Zhui and the young ones with him, but in doing so, Elder Kuzhu would trap the entire Little Kingdom, using everyone as hostages… That old reprobate always acted alone, without any vulnerabilities. Back in the day, he did have a vulnerability when he sought help during his tribulation, which Shi Feiyang seized upon to destroy his physical body, but he had since restored it, leaving no vulnerabilities.

Nonetheless, Shi Feiyang was not without opportunities. Clearly, Elder Kuzhu was also apprehensive of him, not willing to confront him directly but instead adopting a strategy of attacking where Shi Feiyang was unprepared.

He planned to avoid Shi Feiyang's "solid" and target his "void," but Shi Feiyang could also switch it around, avoiding his own "void" and directly confronting his "solid."

He casted spells to disrupt the Heavenly Number, confusing Elder Kuzhu about whether he would stay at Baiyang Mountain or accompany Lin Han and Shi Sheng to Red Wood Ridge.

Then, under a thick layer of deceiving illusions, he left a tiny clue for Elder Kuzhu, indicating that he would definitely go to Red Wood Ridge, hence drawing him to Baiyang Mountain!

After doing all this, Shi Feiyang still remained at Baiyang Mountain, invisible and undetectable, using the Heavenly Mirror to hide his presence from everyone.

Next, he released the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon, giving them the Heavenly Demon Nine Swords to follow Lin Han and Shi Sheng to Red Wood Ridge for the rescue mission.

The nine demons merged into one, transforming from a curvaceous beauty into a man, assuming the appearance of Shi Feiyang, holding the Circulation Hunyuan Umbrella opened above his head.

The umbrella, nurtured by Shi Feiyang over the years and imprinted with his spirit, used by Shi Feiyang to invoke the changes of the Circulation and reverse the Heavenly Number, rendered it impossible to track anyone beneath the umbrella. The demon, holding it, impersonated him to Red Wood Ridge. Elder Kuzhu, being of a lesser path, Shi Feiyang did not believe he could detect the flaw.

Holding the umbrella, the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon set out with Lin Han and Shi Sheng, rushing toward Red Wood Ridge Sky Dog Cliff.

When they were a hundred miles away from the vicinity, the demon surveyed the undulating mountains ahead and the lonely Sky Dog Cliff towering above the rest, then suddenly stopped.

Lin Han and Shi Sheng, anxious to rescue others, said, "Master… Master, why have we stopped?"

In their hearts, they still had a deep aversion to demons, but this demon was nurtured by Shi Feiyang, almost like a servant, though possessing much greater divine skills and powers than themselves.

The two didn't know how to address this demon, nor how to interact with him.

The demon pointed with his hand, "Before that Sky Dog Cliff, someone has set up an extremely fierce array. Even I cannot break through it."

Shi Sheng was momentarily stunned, "Master, before leaving, gave me Suiren's Drill, saying it could break the opponent's formation."

The demon shook his head, "Still not enough! We need to put another feint in place."

As he spoke, the demon directed them toward a different direction.

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