Chapter 98

The sect leader arrived, bringing only one person with him. The person was cloaked, making it impossible to see their appearance, and even divine senses were blocked, creating an air of mystery.

Bazhen was not surprised; he simply bowed to the two and said, "Disciple greets the sect leader and the hall master."

This was the hall master of the Black Conduct Hall, indeed someone who dealt with matters that should not be exposed to light, not even daring to show his face. Even if he walked around the sect with his face exposed, the people of the Black Conduct Hall might not recognize him.

Luyaoxiang followed Bazhen in bowing, and Luxiaodeng, mimicking them, also clasped her hands in greeting. However, it would have been very inconvenient if Ludan had been there, as he might have been silenced. They had called him away earlier.

Although she did not want to leave, Luxiaodeng was truly worried about whether the sect leader would be furious. After all, from now on, he would no longer be a member of the Cloud Sword Sect. This was also Bazhen's suggestion, as the matter was no longer something they could resolve. For safety, Ludan should leave as soon as possible. Not wanting to burden them further, Ludan bid them farewell and resolutely left on his sword.

Now that the sect leader had arrived, the three of them remained silent, waiting for him and the hall master to assess the situation first.

The two used their divine senses to scan the spirit boat and found that the warning array, which should have been triggered when the boat malfunctioned, had not been activated. The Void Sect seemed to be unaware, which meant the matter could be handled secretly.

"You two will come back with me and explain the entire situation. You were quite bold, killing so many people," the sect leader, Lianjing, glanced at the two of them, his tone not too severe.

"Yes," Luyaoxiang responded without arguing about the number of people killed, waiting to see them dismantle the boat.

The hall master did not act, seemingly afraid of being discovered using a particular sword. Instead, the sect leader dismantled the boat. He casually took out a white long sword, without any flashy moves, and casually slashed at the boat a few times in the air.

As soon as the sword was wielded, a strong wind blew, making it hard to open one's eyes. Luxiaodeng covered her face with her arm and squinted to see. With a clang, the sword was sheathed, and the wind ceased.

With a crack, the large spirit boat was neatly cut into four pieces, the cuts smooth and flawless. There were no dazzling tricks, just a simple and confident display of power, befitting a true expert.

Luxiaodeng's gaze shifted to the sword. This was the Vast Heaven Sword of Baiwu, indeed matching his austere and proud demeanor. In comparison, Qiqi seemed quite frivolous.

These few ordinary slashes by the Core Formation cultivator were observed by Luyaoxiang without blinking. Watching an expert's moves was a fortunate experience. They had countless experiences, and each move carried the wisdom of life and death. Whether one could learn from it depended on individual ability.

The spirit boat was divided into four parts, and the sect leader and the hall master each took two. Clearly, they were not interested in this trash. The sect leader said somewhat awkwardly, "Unfortunately, it's not a spirit boat transporting crystal fruits, or even spirit herbs. It would take a lot of time to process this broken boat."

Luyaoxiang and Bazhen remained silent, not wanting to mock the sect leader for lacking grace. He was just that kind of person, not at all concerned with his image.

The two thought this way, but Luxiaodeng did not. She jumped out and said, "Sect leader, this trash can be useful. If we break it into smaller pieces, we can use it to make fences. The Tian Dan Peak has many medicinal fields. If we use barriers to keep out birds and beasts, it will affect the absorption of heaven and earth's qi by the spirit herbs. But if we make fences, we can block the small animals without affecting the growth of the herbs, and it will look neat."

Lianjing looked at her with interest and asked, "What about the birds? The fruit-bearing spirit herbs are also their targets. We can't kill them all."

"Actually, it's fine if the birds eat a little. Their droppings can be used as fertilizer, but I don't know where they go. We can make wind chimes from this boat to scare them away when they sound," Luxiaodeng explained. Dealing with these things didn't require using barriers to cut off spiritual energy; there were simpler methods.

However, for cultivators, using trash to build fences for medicinal fields was less convenient than directly setting up barriers.

But Lianjing smiled, "That's a good idea. We'll have the disciples practicing Qi Refinement use it as practice to see who can make the most beautiful and effective fences to prevent theft."

Luxiaodeng looked at him in surprise, then turned to Luyaoxiang with a smile, "Great, the sect leader accepted my suggestion. Senior Sister, our medicinal fields will have fences, making it easier for me to pick herbs to eat."

She always broke through the barriers to pick the herbs she wanted, which made the disciples guarding the fields wonder who had intruded and why the herbs always had a few leaves missing. For some precious herbs, every leaf was counted, and they feared theft.

Because she always picked randomly, even though the amount was small, it still caused the disciples to worry about being scolded. Once the fences were built, it could be assumed that the herbs were eaten by animals, and a little loss would not be a big concern.

The sect leader looked at her in surprise and then laughed, "Yu Xiudan must be very hard-pressed with disciples like you. No wonder his alchemy skills haven't improved. If you were more considerate, it would make things easier for us."

"That's because the master is too clumsy. He will definitely get better in the future," Luxiaodeng quickly said.

"Let's go back. This is not a place to stay long," Lianjing knew about Luxiaodeng's habit of scattering pills and that Luyaoxiang had taken strange pills on that day. He initially thought they were Yu Xiudan's pills, just not officially completed, so he did not report it.

But after questioning Yu Xiudan, he found out that he knew nothing about it, not even why Luxiaodeng had so many pills. Managing disciples like this was unprecedented. Even if he focused on alchemy, he should not have let his disciples act so recklessly.

He had intended to call Luyaoxiang and Luxiaodeng to ask, but then he heard the hall master of the Black Conduct Hall report on the matter. The two of them had left the sect to help Ludan eliminate the Void Sect members. Ludan had been sent away to avoid further complications.

Before leaving, the hall master finally acted. He took out a strange object that looked like a gourd with a long mouth. Opening the lid, green smoke spewed out, spreading along the ground, causing the grass and trees to wither and the earth to crack. Even if blood had seeped into the ground, this would leave no trace.

The perfect handling was to make it obvious that something was wrong but find nothing. Truly, the hall master of the Black Conduct Hall was skilled, and the strange gourd was very useful.

With the matter resolved, Luyaoxiang took Luxiaodeng and followed the sect leader back to the Cloud Sword Sect. The hall master left before entering the mountain gate, likely using a secret path to return, as entering openly would be too conspicuous.

The two were directly summoned to the Taiyi Peak, not to the usual Taiyi Hall, but to a pavilion on a cliff top with a beautiful view, overlooking the mountain gate.

The pavilion was square, with bamboo curtains hanging on all sides. The floor was covered with a frost flower silk carpet, and there were low tables and cushions. As soon as the three entered, two attendants appeared, silently and quickly setting up tea, spirit food, and fruits, then leaving without a word.

Luxiaodeng placed the tripod in the corner, sat at the table, and carefully smelled the tea. Then, like a dog, she sniffed the pastries and picked up a small cake with pink petals, eating it while drinking tea.

She ate and then said to Luyaoxiang, who was standing beside her, "Senior Sister, the sect leader is truly different. The things he enjoys are unique. This tea has spiritual energy and tastes much better than the spirit grass soup I cook. The cakes are delicious, all made from spirit plants. Let's take them all back."

Luyaoxiang nodded, "Yes, good idea." It was just some food; the sect leader wouldn't be so petty, so she agreed without asking.

Lianjing couldn't help but laugh, "Luyaoxiang, you can sit down too. If you want to eat, I'll have the attendants pack some for you to take back."

"Thank you, sect leader. You are a generous and good person," Luxiaodeng quickly nodded, fearing he might change his mind.

"Alright, let's talk about why you killed all the Void Sect members. If you say it was for revenge for Ludan, I won't accept it. Give me another reason," he said, turning to Luyaoxiang.

Luyaoxiang bowed and said, "Sect leader, I was escorting Ludan out to prevent the Void Sect from ambushing him. They are despicable people, and the possibility of such an ambush was high. Indeed, as soon as we left, three of them followed us."

"I am not a forgiving person. We had already agreed that the Void Sect would not trouble Ludan, but they still followed us, which made me very uncomfortable. I decided to kill them here," she said frankly, as it was the truth and needed to be told honestly.

Lianjing smiled gently and asked Luxiaodeng, "What were you doing there?"

"Me?" Luxiaodeng was eating heartily. Hearing the question, she quickly said, "Sect leader, you must help me. I was staying in the sect, but they kidnapped me, saying they would take me back to the Void Sect and force me to hand over the pill formulas."

Then, she said angrily, "Later, the Void Sect's Core Formation cultivator became greedy and wanted to take me away secretly, so he killed everyone."

"Why did he want to take you alone? Bringing you back to the sect would have been more advantageous," Lianjing scanned Luxiaodeng with his divine senses, finding nothing unusual, absolutely nothing unusual.

He could see Luxiaodeng with his divine senses, unlike other low-level cultivators who could not. Because he could see her, he found nothing strange. If he couldn't, he would have immediately suspected she might be a spirit.

Luxiaodeng, unaware of his scrutiny, said earnestly, "He has a spirit fire and is also an alchemist. He probably wanted to refine pills himself."