Therefore, the deacons did not pay much attention to this matter.
But just now, they realized that something bad had happened. The immortal sect's soul-binding formation that covered the 100-mile desert was broken. They then used the water mirror to investigate the current situation of the 100-mile desert, but only saw this half-collapsed empty city.
"The formation has been broken. This is no small matter. If the matter of Baili Desert is leaked, it may affect the incense offerings."
"This secret place in the Baili Desert has existed for forty years. It has already come to an end. Even if it is not broken today, the formation will be dismantled in the future when the remaining troops in the isolated city are wiped out. Now it is just a little earlier."
"So where are the soldiers and civilians in the city? Are they dead or have they escaped? Does Elder Qingzhuo want to give an explanation?"
"Don't say too much. Elder Qingzhuo is handling this matter personally. When Elder Qingzhuo returns, he will definitely give the sect a reply..."
As he said this, a rainbow light flashed in the sky. It was Taoist Qingzhuo.
The paleness on his face was gone, but his expression was as calm as water. He looked as majestic and imposing as before.
"This sect's secret realm has already reached its end. Today I will break it. Do you have any objection?" Taoist Qingzhuo said calmly.
A stone sword flew out of his hand and floated in the air, emitting a faint glow.
In his eyes, Jian Zexian was more valuable than three hundred old soldiers and half of the women, children and the elderly in the city.
The latter are just some soldier souls, while the former... .
Jian Zexian has already proved his own extraordinaryness. Even if he is trapped in an isolated city in the desert, he can still achieve immortality.
Even if he turned his body into a sword, he could still break through the immortal sect's formation and injure Elder Qingzhuo.
"..No objection." This was the only answer the deacons could give.
With Elder Qingzhuo's status and position, he acted arbitrarily and the sect's deacons could not say anything.
after all.
Elder Qingzhuo was one of the elders who originally arranged the Hundred Miles Desert Immortal Gate formation. This secret realm was originally his work.
Elder Qingzhuo had no intention of talking to them any more. He just appeared and said a few words, then turned into a rainbow again and left.
The rest of the deacons could only flee in all directions. Elder Qingzhuo's attitude was clear, and they had no right to interfere.
Daozhen's eyes flashed with a strange light, as if he was thinking about something.
Elder Qingzhuo's figure turned into a rainbow and flew above the sect.
He is already injured at this moment, and must return to the cave as soon as possible to take healing pills and heal his injuries as quickly as possible... .
But before reaching the cave, he saw a rainbow light blocking his way and a familiar figure emerged.
"Brother Qingzhuo, how are you?"
The person who spoke was also an old Taoist with white eyebrows. He was Qingyi, the master of Daozhen and Daoxu, and the elder of the immortal sect who had been stationed in the imperial capital for many years.
"Senior Brother Qingyi." Taoist Qingzhuo frowned but remained expressionless as he bowed.
"Brother, aren't you busy with worldly affairs? How come you have time to return to the mountain gate today?" asked Taoist Qingzhuo.
Elder Qingyi had previously claimed that he was busy with affairs and sent a message to Taoist Qingzhuo to handle the affairs of the Baili Desert on his behalf.
Now that the matter of Baili Desert has come to a conclusion, he came back to the sect in a swagger
"The matter of building momentum for King Qin has been handled properly. Perhaps we can establish an underground fairyland in the near future. I heard that Junior Brother destroyed the sect's secret realm, the Hundred Miles Desert?" Taoist Qingyi smiled:
"I see that Junior Brother's breath is weak. Could it be that he was injured in the Hundred Miles Desert?"
Taoist Qingzhuo frowned deeply and said in a cold voice:
"Brother, are you kidding me? There are only the remnants of the former Great Yan army in the desert, all of them are just ordinary warriors. How can I, a great elder of the immortal sect, be hurt by ordinary people?"
What a joke, how could he admit it
Ordinary warriors have always been poor and weak, and are not looked upon seriously by immortal monks.
In the past, Taoist Qingyang of Xuantian Sect in Nanzhou died at the hands of Martial Saint, and as a result, the entire Xuantian Sect was looked down upon by the other eight immortal sects.
Just like when the Chinese national football team wins one day, others may not think that the national football team has made great progress, but rather that the opponent has suffered a setback.
If Taoist Qingzhuo was injured by a mortal, how would he save his reputation if the news got out? He would probably become a laughing stock among the immortals.
Besides, this is not a question of face at all... .
Because Elder Qingzhuo was really injured and his foundation of Taoism was damaged.
"Yes, I worried too much. It seems that my junior brother is in good condition." Elder Qingyi laughed, glanced at the stone sword in Elder Qingzhuo's hand, and found an excuse to say goodbye and leave.
It was not until his figure turned into a rainbow and disappeared into the sea of clouds that Qingzhuo Taoist withdrew his gaze.
"Qingyi was waiting in front of my cave. Did he see that my foundation was damaged? Was he reminding me out of kindness?" Taoist Qingzhuo frowned and looked inward, somewhat puzzled:
"If my injuries are so obvious that he can see through them at a glance, then I must immediately retreat and heal. There is no time to lose."
Anything that damages his foundation must not be exposed, even within the Da Dao Sect.
I just don't know whether Elder Qingyi is giving him a kind reminder or trying to trick him.
Taoist Qingzhuo did not hesitate any longer. He entered the cave with the stone sword in his hand, activated the cave's protective formation, and prepared to go into seclusion.
The damage to his foundation of Taoism is of no small importance at this time. This is not just a matter of face. To put it in a bigger picture, it may even damage his status as an elder.
In this era of declining spiritual energy, except for a very small number of extremely talented immortal geniuses, the vast majority of immortal practitioners who have reached a high level of cultivation can only rely on incense and talismans to assist their cultivation if they want to make further progress.
In the past, when spiritual energy was abundant, immortal cultivators who wanted to break through often had to take elixirs such as Foundation Establishment Pills and Nascent Soul Pills to assist in the breakthrough.
But in this day and age, many cultivators are no longer able to break through by relying solely on alchemy, and what they need is a huge amount of support from mortals.
Therefore, the number of high-level cultivators in the immortal gate is limited. The number of great cultivators in the Dao Sect is basically equivalent to the number of first-tier immortals in the main hall of the Taoist temple of the immortal gate.
This is also one of the main reasons why Elder Qingzhuo values Jian Zexian so much.
Anyone who can embark on the path to immortality in a haunted place like the Baili Desert must be a rare genius in the path of immortality.
"My foundation of Taoism has been damaged... If Qingyi or other people in the sect really find out, my position as elder will be unstable." Taoist Qingzhuo said to himself.
Elders are already high-ranking members of the sect, so naturally they are not common people. Anyone can become one and anyone can take the position.
But the overall environment is already very competitive. In this era, there is a lack of spiritual energy and many things are lacking, except for talent.
There are several up-and-coming talents in the Da Dao Sect who are stuck at the bottleneck. If they can obtain the immortal status of Elder Qingzhuo and receive the nourishment of incense and worship, they will indeed have a great hope of replacing his position in the sect.
so
The fact that Taoist Qingzhuo's foundation of Taoism was damaged and he was injured at the hands of an ordinary warrior cannot be known to outsiders until his injuries recover.
He might be worrying too much about losing his position as an elder. If the truth were to be revealed, he would at most be ridiculed by the other elders... But Taoist Qingzhuo did not want to take any risks.
"Logically speaking, if I want to keep this secret, I should kill all the mortals who know about this..."
“But what about Qiao Shui…” Taoist Qingzhuo frowned.
If he returns to the sect, he will be an elder whose foundation of Taoism is damaged. As long as he retreats to heal his wounds, regulate his breathing and rest for a period of time, he will have hope of recovery.
If he went to Anxi Pass and massacred the soldiers and civilians of the isolated city, angering the hot-tempered Qiao family, the consequences would be even more serious.
Even if the Qiao family only had a 10% chance of exchanging one for one, it would be a huge loss for Taoist Qingzhuo who looked down on ordinary warriors.
"Having said that, it would not be appropriate to allow the soldiers and civilians of Lonely City to spread this matter in Zhongzhou."
Elder Qingzhuo was thinking about a countermeasure. His own foundation in Taoism was damaged, so he naturally could not go into battle personally to deal with mortals.
Then, let the younger disciples take action on your behalf
This is not impossible, but if we want to deal with the soldiers and civilians of the isolated city, we will probably get into trouble with the Qiao family again. And the best way to deal with the Qiao family is not to do it personally.
Worldly affairs are worldly.
Ever since Emperor Yonghe held the Human King Sword, the Da Dao Sect began planning to let the King of Qin step to the forefront and handle worldly affairs.
With the Immortal Sect personally building up momentum, the King of Qin is now becoming more powerful and has already established a territory in the Central Plains of Da Yan. So it would naturally be better to let the King of Qin take care of these worldly affairs.
If the King of Qin can handle it, then he can handle it. If he can't, then let him use a few lives to test the Qiao family's background. Then Taoist Qingzhuo can use immortal methods to personally kill them. With these two sets of combined punches, I think it will be foolproof...
...
The night is deep.
But the entire Anxi Pass, as well as the small town outside Anxi Pass, were brightly lit and shrouded in the sound of weeping.
There are about a few hundred households in the small town outside Anxi Pass. Except for a few merchants, almost all of them are families of former Dayan soldiers who call this place home.
When Qiao Mu entered the customs in the past, he delivered letters to these hundreds of families. But today, their letters received unexpected responses.
Mr. Hai was still waiting in this small town, and reunited with Captain Hai from Lonely City. They were the two sons of Hai Wuya. They met again after forty years, and looked at each other in silence.
However, there are only a few people among the few who can reunite with their family like the Hai brothers.
After all, there are only 300 old soldiers left out of the former 100,000-man army, and naturally not many of them can wait for letters from home and see their loved ones again.
There are more people like Mrs. Bai, who have been waiting in Anxi Pass for forty years, waiting for news of death.
Forty years is a very long time for mortals. Even if a person is still alive, most of the time things have changed.
The old man in the armory, with only half of his face left, looked a little sad. He was not worried about himself, but about the women and children who followed the old soldiers out of the desert.
These women and children are different from the remnant troops of Dayan.
Most of the Western Expedition Army were recruited from Zhongzhou and nearby states, while the people in the isolated city were locals.
If the old soldiers still have a hometown to return to, whose existence is unknown, then the people in the lonely city are actually homeless. Although the lonely city in the desert still exists, such a ghost place is not suitable for living at all, and no one wants to go back.
Although many of these women, children, the disabled and the elderly died in the past forty years, there are still quite a few of them... For Zhongzhou today, it is not easy to accommodate the sudden increase in half of the city's women and children.
The Qiao family, headed by Qiao Shuangsen, used a lie to weave a false hope for the lonely city, allowing them to hope to get out of the desert and get rid of their past illnesses.
Who would have thought that after sacrificing several members of the Qiao family, they would actually come out of it.
But where should they go next
No one has the answer.
Qiao Mu reopened Qiao Xiaoming's brain and injected new granulation tissue, allowing him to continue "living".
He walked towards the inn in the town. After being isolated in his dream for five years, he felt inexplicably tired when he returned to reality.
His body had recovered to its best condition, but his mental state was not very good.
As soon as I entered the inn, I ordered a pot of Shaodaozi wine and a bowl of longevity noodles. I found an empty eight-immortal table in the corner and stared at the noodles on the table in a daze.
Since Yancheng, he has liked to order longevity noodles every time he celebrates his birthday, and now this bowl of longevity noodles...
"How old am I now?" Qiao Mu looked at the old face reflected in the cup and counted on his fingers.
It turns out he is 210 years old.
It is rare for a person to live to be seventy years old, but he has already lived three lifetimes of being seventy years old.
There were a few drinkers at the next table, who seemed to be tourists passing through the town. They were in high spirits and talking excitedly.
"It is incredible that there are still remnants of the alien war that happened forty years ago that have survived to this day..."
"I never thought that there would be such an iron-blooded lone army in this world. When the Great Yan had forgotten them, there were still people holding on. If I hadn't seen those white-haired soldiers with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it!"
"Those old soldiers have suffered... But at least they're still alive, that's a good thing! They deserve to live a hundred years!"
"It's getting better. Everything is getting better. Ever since the death of the man-eating demon of the Martial Saint, everything has been getting better."
"The Martial Saint suppressed the martial arts world for forty years, and now, only a few months after his death, the martial arts world in Jiuzhou is thriving. The backbone of Jiuzhou is not only defended by the remnants of the former army, but also by the Qiao family and the newly rising King Qin."
"King Qin is also a strange man. He was the first martial artist to step forward after the death of the Martial Saint. He resolutely took up the banner of using martial arts to defeat the immortals, and even caused the strange people of the Dao Sect to suffer losses after hearing about it."
"Even our Majesty was pleased. He allowed the King of Qin, who carried the banner of the warriors of the Nine Provinces, to be granted territory and to establish a new 'Daqin Prefecture' in Zhongzhou. The wealthy man in the imperial capital, Li Gongde, generously donated money. Now the Daqin Prefecture has been rebuilt and is thriving."
"Speaking of which, these residents who left the lonely city are quite pitiful. If they have nowhere to go, they can just go to the newly established Daqinfu City, which is also a way."
Qiao Mu sipped his noodles quietly, occasionally listening to the travelers' idle chatter. He then realized that during the one or two months that he was trapped in the isolated city, a lot of things had actually happened in Zhongzhou.
"King Qin? I haven't heard of him before. If someone can really carry the banner of martial arts, it would be a good thing."
Qiao Mu was a little tired. He didn't ask any further questions and just ate his noodles.
At this moment, someone at the next table suddenly slammed the table with a bang, which attracted the attention of other people in the inn, and even the other drinkers forgot to speak.
Qiao Mu glanced sideways and saw two familiar faces.
They were the two brothers, Captain Hai Siyuan and Mr. Hai.
The two of them hugged each other and cried in the inn, telling each other about the past.
At first, it was Captain Hai who was talking about the forty years of blood and tears in the lonely city in the desert.
After Captain Hai finished his brief talk, he couldn't wait to ask Mr. Hai about the current situation in Dayan.