“So it was someone pulling strings behind the scenes.
Just now, I sensed a trace of Dao resonance and followed it.
But a Saint made a move and obscured the heavenly secrets for this person. I could only rely on the power of the Taiji Diagram to barely give him a scare…”
Above the clouds, Xuandu gave a brief explanation. The elderly Daoist next to him furrowed his brow and sighed softly.
Compared to Xuandu’s rather casual attire and gentle demeanor, the old Daoist was dressed with great attention to detail—from his robe, hair crown, and boots to the horsetail whisk in his hand—all giving him the appearance of a sage removed from worldly affairs.
Yet this elderly Daoist treated Xuandu with extreme respect. He spoke with a faint smile and even leaned forward slightly when addressing him.
The old Daoist then asked, “Senior Brother, what do you think we should do next?”
“You should head over to Duxian Sect and help settle the trouble there,” Xuandu replied with a smile. “If you’re too late, they might have already driven out the invaders—and there’d be no glory left for you as their founder!”
“Once you’ve handled the situation at Duxian Sect, remember to bring back the corpses of those Golden Ao Island cultivators. We still need to make a trip to Golden Ao Island later.”
“Corpses…”
“Alas,” the old Daoist sighed with a guilty expression. “To trouble Senior Brother like this again—truly, I was too careless.”
Xuandu waved it off and urged him on.
“Ah, it’s nothing. Go on. Since you founded that sect, you’re now tied to it by karma. You’ll need to be more diligent in the future.”
“I will heed your advice, Senior Brother.”
This old Daoist, known as Perfected Lord Duer of Mount Kunlun, bowed respectfully once more to Xuandu. Without delay, he activated his spatial arts and vanished instantly.
In a matter of moments, crossing thousands of miles with clouds rising and falling beneath him, he arrived high above the Duxian Sect.
Looking down, he saw light swirling around the main peak and blood staining the area in multiple places.
Perfected Lord Duer was instantly enraged.
The qilin beast he had saved and settled there during ancient times was now seriously injured, its old wounds reopening.
One of his few named disciples who had finally reached the Golden Immortal stage—someone he could show off to the other Kunlun elders—was now being besieged by two attackers and was injured.
With a flick of his whisk, Duer exerted pressure over the entire sect.
Then, taking a deep breath, he activated his divine power: Qi of the Dual Energies Within, his nostrils flaring as he let out a thunderous, muffled snort.
Below, the three false Golden Immortals who had attacked the sect coughed up blood simultaneously, their souls nearly shattered.
Ancient Golden Immortals were not to be trifled with.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Li Changshou, who had been observing the situation through his paper avatars and cleaning up the battlefield, suddenly brightened up.
The big guns had arrived!
With a thought, he shut down the inner defensive formations of Little Qiong Peak, leaving only the outer layers around the pill room active.
Inside the sect, his second and eighth “Heaven-grade” paper avatars reverted to their flat form, their immortal power dispersing as mere spiritual energy.
Having reset the battlefield perfectly, Li Changshou calmed his mind, as though nothing had ever happened.
Near the geolocation array’s drop point, in the hillside cave where the sect’s disciples were hiding—
Five enemies lay scattered, unconscious; the Peng demon he’d hypnotized snored loudly nearby, as if everything had frozen the moment Youqin Xuanya threw her poison pill.
Youqin Xuanya herself lay on the ground, surrounded by fallen flying swords, while Ling’e was slumped beside her in what looked like a bad fall.
A true “face-plant into the bushes.”
No helping it—Li Changshou had meticulously reconstructed the crime scene.
The unconscious “Li Changshou” beside Ling’e slowly sank into the earth, transforming into a paper figure.
Silently, the jade hairpin above Ling’e’s head shattered. Li Changshou reappeared beside her, quickly retrieved the buried paper clone, then lay down again and pretended to be unconscious.
He mentally reviewed the entire operation, checking for any oversight.
After this battle, if his guess was right, the Duxian Sect would have a whole slew of new mysteries.
Unknown heroes had sacrificed themselves to protect the sect…
And then there was that wandering old Daoist who showed up out of nowhere and instantly killed the enemy Heavenly Immortal before leaving unhurriedly.
The only real risk was that Elder Wan Linjun might have figured something out—
And, of course, that Youqin Xuanya knew far too much.
He’d need to talk to Wan Linjun soon and also give his “toxic junior sister” a proper lecture on life and philosophy.
Li Changshou was feeling quite pleased with himself.
Not because he had killed a Heavenly Immortal and obtained a high-grade postnatal spiritual sword and a precious poison-warding orb…
Nor because he’d helped hold the Duxian Sect together in its time of need.
He was content because the sect genuinely had a living, breathing founding ancestor.
That thunderous snort just now—wasn’t that the same divine power used by the Hum and Ha Generals in the Investiture of the Gods?
Perfected Lord Duer was supposedly the master of the “Hum General.”
After this ordeal, the Duxian Sect had cemented its status as a true lineage of the Human Teaching. No matter how weak or unimpressive its future disciples might be, it now had real backing.
His roots had grown much deeper.
Too bad the legendary Grandmaster Xuandu hadn’t shown up—if he had, the effect would have been even more impressive.
Who knows, the Duxian Sect might have even been relocated from the Eastern Continent to the Central Continent…
That said, this might have drawn the attention of the Mosquito Daoist.
Strangely, Li Changshou’s sense of joy began to fade, replaced by a creeping feeling of dread.
How could he avoid being targeted by the Western Church?
Thinking of this, Li Changshou couldn’t help but recall that coastal village in the South Sea that always gave him the chills.
He’d been too busy dealing with the invasion to check on it lately…
He made a quick divine calculation, and the expression on his unconscious “face” twitched.
His incense merit… had doubled again compared to two years ago.
What the hell?
Was the bear tribe in that village seriously getting this much profit from promoting the South Sea religion?
He secretly probed further, and almost really passed out.
One thousand six hundred and twenty-one temples…
And more than ten new statues of himself were being erected…
Worse still, he sensed that the South Sea cult had clashed with another minor sect, triggering large-scale conflicts.
What kind of situation was this?
Li Changshou’s mouth twitched, unsure what to say. He could only lie there and continue playing dead.
Now he started to wonder—if his followers kept getting into violent fights, would that hurt his merits or fortune?
Ugh…
What disciples? Like hell they are!
From this moment on, he doesn’t know any “South Sea Sea God” at all!
He’d better find a way to change his appearance—
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1