After settling Yu Sigong, Zhu Changyang whispered a few words to Yin Kanwei and asked everyone not to make the matter public for the time being.
The group then flew up on their swords. They did not need to be careful to avoid the eyes and ears of the Demon Realm like they did when they came. They went much faster and soon arrived at Kunlun.
As soon as they arrived at the mountain gate, they were quietly and urgently invited to the Pavilion of Inquiry.
Wen Chuxue, Yan Jinxia and the others had already learned about the trip to the Demon Realm from the jade edict. They were all greatly shocked and at one point suspected that their jade edict had been hijacked by the Demon Cult.
Seeing them return safely, I finally felt relieved, but I still felt it was incredible and asked over and over again.
Wan Lizheng and Qiao Muxing then silently took out the harmonious and friendly photo of the century.
Then the entire Pavilion of Inquiry fell into a long silence.
Zhu Changyang had no intention of socializing, so he just said a few perfunctory words and left with an excuse, returning to the courtyard where he was staying to find Jie Li.
After Jie Li learned the truth about his spiritual roots, he was silent for a long time and finally said nothing.
That night, he temporarily handed over the work of the trade fair to a junior fellow student and hid himself, not seeing anyone except Zhu Changyang and Jun Shu.
Everyone was very worried, but they didn't ask too many questions for fear of upsetting him.
Two days later, the ten-day off-season officially ended, and the sect competition entered the final round of sixteen to eight.
Early that morning, the developer was doing parkour in the yard when he suddenly heard the gate being pushed open and Jie Li walked in with huge dark circles under his eyes.
"Meow!" The developer pounced over happily, jumped onto his shoulder, and rubbed his cheek affectionately.
The cat's meowing led the others out of the room, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the reasoning.
"Brother, you're finally back." Li Ying took out a box of instant noodles, "Are you hungry? I'll make you a bowl of noodles."
"No, I've already eaten." Jie Li shook his head, looked at everyone with sharp eyes, and said, "Let's go watch the game together."
Everyone was stunned and looked at each other in confusion.
Xuan Yang asked tentatively: "Whose game are you watching?"
Jie Li let out a mocking smile: "Of course it's my... 'former senior' competition."
"Brother, you have matured a lot." Li Ying touched his chest, "Your smile is so scary!"
Cleavage: "…"
Why are you pretending to be so timid, you monster
.
The competition is coming to an end, and every match is attracting much attention. The top leaders of each faction will basically come to the scene to watch.
Games for different groups will no longer be held simultaneously, with only one game scheduled for each time period.
The match scheduled for the first day happened to be Hou Shiyun's.
When the Industrial Sect and its entourage arrived at the main arena of the West Peak of the Questioning Heart, the place was already crowded with spectators, who were whispering to each other and analyzing and predicting the competition in a knowledgeable manner.
"I'm optimistic about Yu Ni in this match. Immortal Chili's performance has never failed since the finals!"
"Bullshit! Hou Shiyun has two top-grade spiritual roots, a spiritual spike of goodness and his swordsmanship. How can he not be able to defeat a few carps?"
"It's hard to say. On paper, the two are equally strong, but for some reason, Hou Shiyun made mistakes in the last two games. Yu Ni is more stable..."
Zhu Changyang raised his head and looked at the stage across the crowd. Both contestants had arrived.
Hou Shiyun was dressed in a brocade robe, standing opposite a woman in a golden and red gauze skirt. She was Yu Ni, a junior sister of the Qingshu Sect of the Dan Sect, also known as the Red Carp Immortal Master.
Yu Ni looked at her opponent with bright eyes and caution.
Hou Shiyun seemed somewhat uneasy, and kept looking towards the audience, as if he was looking for something.
Zhu Changyang followed his gaze and saw the leaders and elders of various sects standing in a group waiting to watch the game, and not far away were Yong Zhoutian's disciples.
The only one missing was Elder Hou.
Just as the game was about to begin, there was a sudden commotion on Yong Zhoutian's side. It turned out to be Elder Hou who appeared from the sidelines and hurried over.
All the disciples bowed and said, "Greetings, Elder."
Elder Hou did not respond, but walked to the side of the ring and bowed to the referee elder: "Excuse me, I have a few words to say to my son."
It is common for parents to give instructions to candidates before the exam and it is not against the rules, so the chief judge stepped aside.
Hou Shiyun hurried to the edge of the stage and looked at him. Elder Hou did not say anything, but just shook his head slowly.
Hou Shiyun's face darkened slightly, but soon returned to normal.
Elder Hou glanced at Yu Ni on the other side, thought for a moment, and suddenly held Hou Shiyun's hand and said, "Hold it, just in case."
Hou Shiyun felt something hard in his palm, and a look of joy appeared in his eyes: "Thank you, father."
Elder Hou then stepped back, walked to the sect leader's team, and stood with everyone else.
"The elder's love for his child is so touching." Taoist Huan Zhen from the Zhan Cang Sect raised his eyebrows and jokingly asked, "What treasure did you give to your son?"
Elder Hou said indifferently, "Just wait and see, Taoist."
Taoist Huanzhen was not amused and thought he was too aloof, so he didn't take it seriously. However, he noticed that two more people came over and was a little surprised: "The sect leaders are here too."
Elder Hou caught a glimpse of Zhu Changyang and Jun Shu from the corner of his eye, his face turned slightly cold, and he pretended not to see them.
In the past, Zhu Changyang would simply ignore him, but this time he walked over and took the initiative to greet him, "Elder Hou, I finally found you."
Elder Hou was a little surprised and asked coldly, "What's the matter?"
"It's nothing serious, I just want to return something." Zhu Changyang took out a square copper plate from his pocket, "This should be your sect's waist badge, right?"
The bronze plate was about the size of a coin, with the seal of Eternal Day painted on one side and the word "Yu" written on the other.
Hou Changlai's face changed: "Where did you get it from?"
This bronze medal is the identity card of Yong Zhoutian’s disciple.
"Oh." Zhu Changyang said casually, "My cat likes to play, and somehow ran to the border between Kunlun and the west two days ago. This is what it found there."
Hearing his words, a black head popped out of his pocket and nodded obediently: "Meow meow."
"Strange." Zhu Changyang pretended to be puzzled. "Which fellow of your sect's Taoist sign is this? How did it end up in the west?"
"Si Gong is so careless." Elder Hou snatched the bronze medal and pretended to be calm, "He was out for something two days ago. Maybe he lost it accidentally. I'll go find him and ask him."
Then he asked, "Besides this waist badge, have the sect leaders found anything else?"
"What else could it be?" Zhu Changyang looked puzzled and rubbed his head. "Shangzi, did you see anything else?"
The developer tilted his head, his face confused: "Meow?"
Zhu Changyang wrinkled his nose: "It seems that there is no."
Elder Hou: “…”
If he remembered correctly, this demon cat was very cunning!
Elder Hou looked at the pair of clear green cat eyes, but his heart was unsettled. However, he did not have time to think about it. He just listened to the referee's order and the game officially began.
A clanging sound of metal was heard on the ring. Hou Shiyun took the lead in attacking, and what flew out was a long sword with a spiritual tassel of good magic made from the feathers of a weaving bird hanging on the hilt.
The Shanfa Linghui had a great effect on the sword, and the sword intent suddenly exploded.
The people in the audience felt a strong breath coming towards them and cheered loudly.
Yu Ni was not in a hurry. She waved her long sleeves forward, and in an instant a cloud of red smoke appeared. The smoke quickly spread and enveloped the entire arena.
The mortal audience only felt their eyes blurry, vaguely saw carriages and horses moving on the stage, and the heroic soldiers raised their long swords to chop at Hou Shiyun, and immediately exclaimed, "There are so many people!"
"Wake up, that's an illusion." A kind-hearted cultivator waved his sword.
The mortal spectators came to their senses and took a closer look. They saw no carriages, horses, or soldiers there, but only a cloud of misty smoke.
This is the unique alchemy technique of Qingshu Sect, using elixirs to induce hallucinations.
The audience burst into applause again.
"Awesome! You almost fooled me!"
"As expected of you, the Red Carp Immortal Master!"
As they were talking, they exchanged more than a dozen moves on the stage. The two men were at the same level and fought evenly, with their spiritual powers surging.
Hou Shiyun was born into a weapon-refining sect. While wielding his sword, he took out magical weapons from his mustard seed bag as if they were free.
Yu Ni, on the other hand, rode on the clouds like a fairy descending to earth, lightly avoiding the sword's intent and creating all sorts of dreamlike wonders.
Zhu Changyang looked at him for a while, frowned slightly, turned around and pulled Jun Shu's sleeve, and asked in a low voice: "Did he lose his breath just now?"
"Yes." Jun Shu nodded, "His meridians are blocked, his aura is not integrated, there must be something wrong with his spiritual roots."
Previously, they had never paid attention to Hou Shiyun's competition. They only knew that he ranked well. Now that they knew the secret of his spiritual roots, if they paid close attention, they could see his abnormality.
Hou Shiyun was half a beat slow in concentrating his Qi just now, but since he practiced both sword and weapon, many people just thought it was the natural lag when switching between different methods.
Zhu Changyang's realm was slightly lower, so it was difficult for him to judge for a while, but Jun Shu saw the clues at a glance.
As he spoke, a burst of spiritual energy exploded on the stage again, and the whole audience burst into roars.
"Ah, it's the Red Gold Fish Dragon!!"
"Master Chili really refined this fish—"
Zhu Changyang turned his head and was immediately surprised to see a huge golden carp suddenly appearing on the stage.
The carp was about ten feet long, with golden-red scales and a long, sharp tail fin. It just floated in the air among the clouds, looking very majestic.
Studio:
[Wow, what a big carp! Repost and repost!!!]
[Master Chili, please bless me to successfully reach the shore! ]
[I told you guys not to be too skilled…]
This carp was not created by an illusion, but was fed and cultivated with elixirs.
The founder of Qingshu Sect passed down the method of nourishing the soul with elixir, but it requires extremely high comprehension and talent, and it often takes a hundred years for a disciple to master this method.
Yu Ni is the most outstanding disciple of this generation. A few years ago, he raised a carp that could fly.
The Red Carp Immortal Master got his name from this.
However, the carp she had refined before were only the size of an arm, but the carp that appeared this time was extremely large, and it was obvious that it had officially become a spirit.
Fish have spirits, so they are close to dragons, so people shout "fish dragon".
"How did Yu Ni do it? Isn't she only at the Nascent Soul stage? I heard that to refine an elixir that can make external objects spiritual, one must at least reach the realm of distraction—"
"Hey, how come you all forgot that Qingshu Sect bought a spiritual power rice cooker from Master Zhu two years ago. That rice cooker is so powerful. Now the alchemy level of Qingshu Sect has improved by leaps and bounds."
Studio:
[I really forgot about that pot... ]
[There is even a plot about rice cookers. How many legends have the masters left behind? ]
The author has something to say:
Chang Yang: I use the rice cooker to cook rice every day and I have forgotten that the rice cooker has this purpose!
(End of this chapter)