Chapter 615: Chapter 414: This Is Suspicious

Duan Shiling thought for a moment before continuing.

"It won’t be too late for us to go to the Blood Red Sect after the Purple Blood Pavilion makes a move against the Celestial Cloud Sect."

...

Dragon Demon Palace.

As soon as the high-level meeting at Ghost Head Castle concluded, a message was immediately sent here.

The one who received it was the Dragon Demon Palace Master.

The Dragon Demon Palace Master’s expression changed drastically upon learning the contents of the message from Ghost Head Castle.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Dragon Demon Palace Master went to find Elder Jin Daolei of the Black Dragon Hall.

"Fellow Daoist Jin, I have some bad news."

"Speak."

"A message came from Ghost Head Castle. It says that the strongest Cave Master of the Black Ghost Cave, a late-stage Core Formation cultivator, has been killed by the mysterious Spirit Refiner..."

The Dragon Demon Palace Master relayed the message in meticulous detail.

He even emphasized that the mysterious Spirit Refiner had dealt with the Black Ghost Cave’s strongest Cave Master quickly. It wasn’t a slow, drawn-out battle.

The difference between the two scenarios was a telling indicator of the mysterious Spirit Refiner’s power.

"The mysterious Spirit Refiner is already that powerful?"

Jin Daolei’s brow furrowed. He truly hadn’t expected the mysterious Spirit Refiner’s strength to have reached a level where they could quickly kill a late-stage Core Formation Ghost Cultivator.

If a late-stage Core Formation Ghost Cultivator stood before him, he was eighty percent certain he could kill them, but doing so quickly would be very difficult.

’Thinking back to when I was lying in ambush near the Dragon Demon Palace’s subordinate Foundation Establishment Influence, even if I had encountered an attack from the mysterious Spirit Refiner... based on this new information, it seems it would have been very difficult for me to kill them.’

Amidst the terrible news, there was one small silver lining.

That silver lining was that his decision back then had been correct. It was a good thing he had returned to the Dragon Demon Palace after hiding for a few years. Otherwise, his cultivation speed would have been far too slow.

"The mysterious Spirit Refiner possesses such strength, and we’re only learning about it now. This is a flaw in your intelligence gathering."

’Blaming us?’

’The Celestial Demon Sect and the Demon Spirit Sect were the ones who got wiped out, and they passed on too little information. How can he blame us for that?’

The Dragon Demon Palace Master complained inwardly, but he didn’t dare refute Elder Jin Daolei of the Black Dragon Hall.

Faced with this situation, he immediately changed the subject.

"No wonder the Black Ghost Cave and the Ghost-Controlling Sect withdrew half a year ago. It turns out they knew about the mysterious Spirit Refiner’s power all along, which is why they backed off."

"I’ve said it before: Ghost Cultivator Influences can’t be trusted."

"Yes, Fellow Daoist Jin is right," the Dragon Demon Palace Master said, nodding repeatedly.

The topic had been changed, but speaking of it made the Dragon Demon Palace Master feel rather distressed.

After the Black Ghost Cave and the Ghost-Controlling Sect withdrew, the pressure on them became immense.

With most of the Celestial Cloud Sect’s territory stabilized, they could devote more resources to dealing with the Dragon Demon Palace.

Now, a considerable portion of their territory had been seized by the Celestial Cloud Sect, with the Wind Ling Sect also taking some.

And regarding this situation, the Elder from the Black Dragon Hall was completely unconcerned.

Jin Daolei had shown no reaction whatsoever, focusing solely on his own cultivation.

"Fellow Daoist Jin, what should we do now?" the Dragon Demon Palace Master asked, looking at Jin Daolei.

"Don’t worry about the mysterious Spirit Refiner. I will contact my sect."

When it came to the possibility of killing the mysterious Spirit Refiner, Jin Daolei was quite invested.

The more powerful the Spirit Refiner was, the greater the merit for killing them. However, it was clear that the Spirit Refiner was no longer someone he could kill alone; he would need the cooperation of other powerful Elders from the Black Dragon Hall.

Seeing Jin Daolei already beginning to contact the Black Dragon Hall, the Dragon Demon Palace Master breathed a sigh of relief.

The more Elders from the Black Dragon Hall there were stationed at the Dragon Demon Palace, the more at ease he would feel.

...

...

「Three years passed in a flash.」

Over these three years, countless battles had erupted.

At Cloud Summit in the Celestial Cloud Sect, Fang Yun was looking over a message in his hand.

It was more good news.

According to their plan, they had completely seized another territory belonging to one of the Dragon Demon Palace’s subordinate Foundation Establishment Influences.

A key requirement for a territory to be considered ’completely seized’ was the establishment of a protective Grand Array.

These protective Grand Arrays were all personally arranged and constructed by Zheng Chunyu. Without their intervention, fully securing the territories would have taken much more time.

Fang Yun spread out a map and gestured over it a couple of times.

Two-thirds of the Dragon Demon Palace’s domain was now occupied by them and the Wind Ling Sect. Of that occupied land, the ratio between their holdings and the Wind Ling Sect’s was nearly eight-to-two.

For the Wind Ling Sect to have achieved this much was already quite impressive. In terms of overall sect strength, a large gap had already formed between them and the Wind Ling Sect.

’It won’t be long now. We’ll soon be able to strike directly at the Dragon Demon Palace itself.’

The Foundation Establishment Demon influence closest to the Dragon Demon Palace, on the border they shared with the Celestial Cloud Sect, had already been taken down.

The current situation could be described as precarious for the Dragon Demon Palace.

Over the past three years, the Celestial Cloud Sect had produced another Core Formation Cultivator, yet the total number of Core Formation Cultivators in the sect remained at fifteen.

This was because shortly after this new cultivator’s breakthrough, a Core Formation Cultivator within the sect had depleted their Life Span and passed away.

The Supreme Elder who passed away this time was Wang Lingwei.

With her passing, only one of the Supreme Elders from when Fang Yun first joined the Celestial Cloud Sect remained: Zheng Wuji, who had been the youngest at the time.

Compared to the previous Core Formation leadership, Zheng Wuji, being the youngest, stood to benefit the most from the sect’s recent changes. He had a very good chance of breaking through to the late-stage Core Formation realm in his lifetime.

The four senior sect leaders who had passed away before him had all died while at the mid-stage of Core Formation.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Fang Yun had now left the main sect and was on his way to the First Sub-Sect.

He was heading to the First Sub-Sect to discuss a matter of great importance: the annihilation of the Dragon Demon Palace, a Demon Cultivation Core Formation Influence.

As the territory they occupied within the Dragon Demon Palace’s domain reached a certain size, the time to destroy the Dragon Demon Palace was finally ripe.

When Fang Yun arrived at the First Sub-Sect, three people were already waiting for him.

They were two of the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Supreme Elders, Miao Qinghong and Zhou Beixing, as well as Supreme Elder Lin Caixuan from the Wind Ling Sect.

"Sect Leader."

"Sect Leader Fang."

"Mm."

Fang Yun nodded, gesturing for the three to sit down as he took the main seat himself.

After sitting, Fang Yun turned his gaze to Lin Caixuan.

"Fellow Daoist Lin, for the final operation against the Dragon Demon Palace, how many Core Formation cultivators does the Wind Ling Sect plan to commit?"

"Three," Lin Caixuan replied, then added, "If Sect Leader Fang requires more, the Wind Ling Sect can send additional Core Formation cultivators."

"Three Core Formation cultivators will be sufficient. There’s no need to send more."

In Fang Yun’s plan, the primary role of the Core Formation Cultivators in the all-out assault against the Dragon Demon Palace was to form a perimeter and prevent too many Demons from escaping.

As for dealing with the Core Formation Demons, he alone would be enough.

Every Core Formation Demon could provide a large number of Talent Points, and Fang Yun hoped to defeat all of them himself.

"Fellow Daoist Lin, if we truly need more Core Formation cultivators, our Celestial Cloud Sect will send them," Miao Qinghong added. In any case, the fact that the Wind Ling Sect could commit three was already good enough.

After they finished discussing the forces each sect would dispatch, they moved on to the specific implementation of the final assault on the Dragon Demon Palace.

At this point, Lin Caixuan voiced a concern she had.

"Don’t you all feel that the Dragon Demon Palace’s reaction to our advance has been rather weak?"

"That’s perfectly normal. Where would the Dragon Demon Palace find the extra strength to counterattack us now?" Miao Qinghong said, as if it were obvious.

In her view, the Dragon Demon Palace had already survived for far too long. If she had been the one formulating the strategy, it would have been annihilated long ago.

"The Celestial Demon Sect and the Demon Spirit Sect were both destroyed, leaving the Dragon Demon Palace as the only Demon influence here... I thought the Black Dragon Hall would more or less try to protect them, but they’ve been much quieter than I expected. If the Black Dragon Hall were helping the Dragon Demon Palace, their counterattacks against us would surely be stronger."

"Fellow Daoist Lin, based on what you’re saying, doesn’t that just mean the Black Dragon Hall isn’t helping the Dragon Demon Palace?"

"No, Elder Miao," Fang Yun said at this moment. "What Fellow Daoist Lin means is that this situation is precisely what makes it so suspicious."

Lin Caixuan nodded, indicating that Fang Yun had understood her meaning perfectly.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.