Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

Chapter 395: Chapter 376: To Eat and Be Eaten

BOOM—!

Lin Qingfeng commanded his Sword God Avatar to perform a sweeping strike. The brilliant light of its blade forced back Mr. Youquan and Xuehe, foiling their sneak attack. With a backhand palm strike, he then shattered Mr. Celestial Sword’s azure lightning.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the battlefield.

The elder from the Profound Talisman Sect, the old monk from the Golden Light Temple, and the old woman from the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons had just arrived. They watched the platinum avatar in the center of the fray holding its own against three opponents. Their eyes flickered, each harboring ulterior motives, and they all tacitly agreed to bide their time.

The old monk from the Golden Light Temple was clad in a golden thread kasaya and held a violet-gold alms bowl, exuding an overwhelming aura of precious magical artifacts.

He watched the battlefield and chanted a low Buddhist mantra. "Amitabha Buddha. That young man’s Sword Intent is overwhelming; he’s not holding anything back. Mr. Youquan and Celestial Sword are already committed. If we join in now, a victory would just be gilding the lily, and we wouldn’t get much of the spoils. But if we lose, we’d be sacrificing our own foundational treasures. Why don’t we... let peace prevail for now and just watch their struggle?"

The old woman from the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons lightly tapped the air with her snake-headed staff, her expression inscrutable. "They’re the ones who started this mess anyway. It won’t be too late for us to ’lend a helping hand’ after they’ve beaten each other to a pulp. If we jump in now, we might just end up chipping our own teeth, and that would be a shame."

The elder from the Profound Talisman Sect stood atop a floating Spirit Talisman and narrowed his eyes. "However, the handover of Anhe City was decreed by our superiors. I’ve heard the other two designated cities have already been turned into blood sacrifices. Now that there’s a problem here, if our superiors decide to assign blame..."

However, before they could come to any sort of agreement, the three cultivators in the thick of it were hardly going to let them watch the show from the sidelines.

"Have you seen enough?!"

A sword strike from Lin Qingfeng had sheared off half the sleeve of Mr. Celestial Sword’s avatar, leaving him flustered and enraged.

As he scrambled to parry the attacks, he whipped his head around and roared at the three spectators on the sidelines:

"Profound Talisman! Golden Light! What are you waiting for?! Do you really think you can wash your hands of this?!"

Xuehe twisted the knife with a sinister sneer. "If today’s deal isn’t completed... aren’t you afraid of the blame from our superiors?! They may not care whether we pawns live or die, but you don’t dare disobey their commands!"

"Do you all think that as long as you don’t get involved, this has nothing to do with you? Have you forgotten your place so soon after crawling your way up from the lower-tier sects?!"

Mr. Celestial Sword chimed in, his voice sharp. "If the three of us really can’t take him down, worst-case scenario, we burn our vital essence and escape! We can claim we did our best. We’ll lose a bit of face, sure, but we can make some token sacrifices back home to secure our sects’ current standing. But you?"

"Something’s gone wrong with this territory. For the sake of the grand plan, our superiors might just designate a few other cities for the transaction. But you lot? You showed up and then chose to stand by and do nothing. If our superiors find out about that, do you really think you’ll be able to hold on to your positions?!"

At these words, the faces of the three onlookers turned pale.

In the ruthless Cultivation Realm, the hierarchical barriers between sects were incredibly rigid.

The few behemoths at the very top set the rules and played their games on a grand chessboard. Their so-called "war between the righteous and demonic paths" was nothing more than lip service to them.

The sects at the very bottom were "lucky," in a sense—they weren’t even qualified to set foot on the battlefield. Instead, they were exploited at every level and forced to pay crippling taxes.

As for the lower-tier sects, they were nothing but "cannon fodder." To enact the decisions of their superiors, they had to send their own disciples to fill the meat grinder of the so-called "Great War of Good and Evil." Recently, due to the incident with the immortal vine and a subsequent beast tide of questionable authenticity, the two factions had temporarily ceased hostilities and even formed an alliance to avoid needless internal conflict.

And it was only by enduring untold hardships, sacrificing countless disciples, and demonstrating endless loyalty that their sects had managed to crawl out of that "cannon fodder" quagmire, where they could be sacrificed at any moment, to their current position as "pillars" of the middle tier.

Although they still had to pay tribute to their superiors, they had at least gained the privilege of "collecting taxes." For example, they could demand far more from the lower-tier sects than what their superiors required, keep a cut for themselves, and then pass the required share up the chain.

Their sects now possessed the power to "devour" rather than merely "be devoured." While they still had to send some of their own to their deaths as a show of fealty, the numbers were far fewer than before. If they were looked upon favorably by their superiors, they might even be promoted into an upper-echelon sect and enjoy the spoils of carving up the lower tiers.

They had come merely to watch the show and act as witnesses, never expecting to be dragged so deep into the affair.

If their "incompetence" on this matter earned them the scorn of their superiors and they were cast back down to their former station, to be preyed upon at will...

That was a fate worse than death. ’We never should have come!’

...

"So be it! So be it!"

The elder from the Profound Talisman Sect was the first to yield. He let out a long sigh, his face a mask of grief and indignation.

He had no intention of attacking directly, however. ’After all, it would be a shame to chip my own teeth in a fight. Better to talk than to fight. And with six Nascent Soul experts present, surely we can all sit down and negotiate.’

"Young friend!" the elder from the Profound Talisman Sect called out. "We have no intention of making an enemy of you! Regarding the matter of Anhe City, if you’re willing to take a step back, we can help you find replacements elsewhere, whether you want to use these mortals as blood sacrifices or enslave them. Why be so fixated on Anhe City? What do you say?"

The old monk from the Golden Light Temple quickly chimed in, painting a pretty picture with a solemn, dignified expression. "Amitabha Buddha! Mr. Lin, it is better to resolve enmity than to create it. If you are willing to stand down, I am willing to sponsor your official entry into our Righteous Alliance, giving the Guixi Sect a legitimate ’standing’! The only issue is that Anhe City was specifically designated by our superiors as a city to be ceded for blood sacrifice. If they hold us responsible for this failure, it will not end well for you or for us."

Seeing the other two make their offers, the old woman from the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons nodded. "We will not stand idly by, either."

She stated her position simply. ’The compensation is supposed to be from the righteous path to the demonic path anyway,’ she thought. ’No need for me to get mixed up in their empty promises.’

’Besides,’ she mused, ’with six Nascent Soul experts here, even if he has heaven-defying power, he should know when to accept a favor, right?’

...

As the three newcomers spoke, Celestial Sword, Mr. Youquan, and Xuehe, who had been on the attack, tacitly fell back. Together, the six of them formed a hexagonal encirclement.

But Mr. Youquan was more nervous than anyone.

’Something’s wrong... This kid is far too calm. He couldn’t be baiting a trap, could he?’

The ominous feeling in his heart grew stronger.

He had already decided on a worst-case scenario.

’If the fight starts again and we’re still evenly matched, then I’ll just have to abandon this Second-Life Body.’

’No matter how disastrous the battle becomes, my true self must not be harmed.’

He appeared to stand united with the other five against a common foe, but in truth, he had already withdrawn most of his focus to secretly prepare a Secret Technique.

’I could write off our earlier failure to the enemy being exceptionally powerful. But if we’re still only evenly matched now, well, my fellow cultivators can’t blame me for what I do next. And if my Second-Life Body dies, at least I’ll have a good excuse for our superiors.’

Meanwhile, the Corpse-Driving Sect was still on its way.