Chapter 675: It's Actually Him?

The Three Yin Sect's Daoist temple was built inside the Dragon Burial Pit, ringed by mountains on three sides. Only a narrow gap opened to the north, drawing river water into the valley to bring the entire terrain to life.

There were clearly masters among the sect cultivators. The moment they arrived, they erected a ritual altar in the north, using Command Flags and a mystic altar to seal the only exit.

Ancient feng shui hinges on the movement of wind and the flow of water. By blocking the terrain's vital eye, they clearly had no intention of leaving me the slightest chance of escape.

'Things are looking dicey this time.' Clutching the Ten Directions Talisman Order, I crept toward the northern mountain, my confidence sinking with every step.

The key to this clash didn't lie with me, but with how soon Wang Shi could refine the Yang Talisman.

'Sitting in the eye of the formation, Wang Shi can wield a tenth of the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation's power. Even if I wanted to kill him right now, I'd have to think twice.' He was refining the Yang Talisman much more slowly than I had expected. That was precisely why a trace of suspicion had crept into my mind—though it was only suspicion, since he had no reason to betray me.

'If you employ someone, do not doubt them; if you doubt them, do not employ them. If he needs time, I'll give him time.' I climbed the northern mountain, tucked myself among the jagged rocks, and used my Judging Eye to peer through the thick fog at the ritual altar set up across the gap.

Roughly half an hour later, figures began appearing one after another beyond the mountain's perimeter.

They were dressed in all manner of attire—some in sharp suits and leather shoes, some in Daoist robes, and others in coarse sackcloth like ascetic monks.

With a quick glance, I counted at least six or seven figures walking in the lead. They exchanged occasional words, their expressions grave, most of them wearing troubled frowns.

'Just these few people managed to set up a grand formation for sealing the mountain in a single morning?' No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than I spotted more cultivators in light-colored Daoist robes farther back—roughly twenty of them in all.

'Are all of them disciples of the Five Great Upper Sects?'

A closer look made it clear that those trailing cultivators in light-colored robes held a much lower status than the leading figures.

They carried all sorts of ritual implements and Command Flags on their backs. Some cradled statues of the Three Pure Ones, while others worked together to haul offering tables.

'The cultivators in the back don't have high cultivation realms. Their eyes are murky, and while they're solidly built, they lack the nimble grace of true practitioners—nothing to worry about.' I focused my attention on the leading cultivators. Each was dressed differently, and the most striking among them was a middle-aged Daoist walking along the far left edge.

He wore a gold-threaded Daoist robe that looked grand and dignified, yet his face was extremely dark. His exposed fingers were clenched into tight fists, as if a volcano of rage was pent up in his chest, ready to erupt at any second.

'That middle-aged Daoist's robe looks a lot like what those juniors from the Golden Mountain Sect wore. Could he be the Dao Zheng of the Golden Mountain Sect—the master of Wei Jianming and the others?' Watching his demeanor, I grew even more certain of my guess. 'With all his second-generation disciples lured to their deaths, I would definitely go on a rampage if I were him. This old Daoist actually has impressive self-restraint.'

Of course, I only dared crack jokes like that while hiding inside the grand formation. Outside it, he probably wouldn't even give me the chance to speak before killing me on the spot.

I kept watching. Among the seven cultivators walking in front, aside from the man I suspected to be the Golden Mountain Sect's Dao Zheng, several others stood out as well.

Beside the middle-aged Daoist stood a wizened, skinny old man who looked even older than Xu Yan. Instead of Daoist robes, he wore coarse hemp clothes, with two strings of Golden Bells hanging from his waist that jingled incessantly with every step.

What drew my attention to him wasn't his advanced age, but the fact that every time those bells chimed, a wave of dizziness washed over me even from inside the grand formation—as if my soul would fly right out of my body the moment I closed my eyes.

'This old man is deeply eerie. I can't get a read on him at all.'

To the old man's right stood a Daoist in blue robes holding a Ruler of Tianpeng. Lingering yin energy coiled around him, and the faint weeping of Little Ghosts echoed from inside his sleeves, giving him a thoroughly sinister air.

'A Ghost Cultivator? A Maoshan Yin Master?' I reached that conclusion because a young man was trailing right behind him, his head bowed slightly as though he had committed a grave mistake. From the curve of his brows, I could faintly recognize him as Leng Qingxuan. 'Is the one holding the Ruler of Tianpeng his master? Counting the Dao Zheng of the Golden Mountain Sect, it looks like everyone who came this time is on the same level as Xu Yan.'

I had a good grasp of how strong Xu Yan and Lu Jingxiu were. Going by that benchmark, my odds of winning were slim to none.

Walking abreast of Leng Qingxuan's master was a Celestial Master in dark ink-green Daoist robes. That attire was just as familiar to me—it was identical to what Xu Yan wore. This man was from Qingcheng.

The two men on the far right kept their distance from those five, and what puzzled me was that neither of them wore Daoist robes.

One of them wore a suit and leather shoes, looking no different from an ordinary office worker. Frankly, his bearing didn't hold a candle to the Celestial Masters; if not for the occasion, I would have taken him for a salesman here to pitch a product.

As for the last person, he baffled me even more—because he turned out to be an old acquaintance.

Tall and composed, he was well past fifty, yet the years hadn't left a single trace upon him.

I had met this man more than once. I didn't know his full name, but I knew what so many people respectfully called him—Elder Chen!

'What is he doing here?' The instant I saw the old man, I froze. This was completely beyond anything I had anticipated.

'Something's wrong! Something must have happened in Jiangcheng without my knowing!' Through the thick fog, I stared fixedly at Elder Chen, my expression shifting between light and shadow.

Before the Deep Dream Layer livestream began, he was the one who had sought me out on his own initiative to ask me to save Ye Bing. In fact, half the reason I finally made up my mind to enter Ye Bing's Dream Realm was because of him.

'Why would Elder Chen show up here? Which faction does he represent?'

Questions flooded my mind. Elder Chen was the founder of Heaven's Gate, a renowned philanthropist, and a retired university professor. Even though I didn't know what subject he had taught, didn't this man have a few too many identities?

My thoughts turned back to the Plush Bear's Dream Realm. In the real Chen Jiuge's dream, Elder Chen had appeared as the Faceless Man. At the time, I had deduced that Elder Chen represented an omnipotent god in Chen Jiuge's heart, which was why a faceless figure stood in for him. Thinking back on it now, I suddenly realized my earlier reasoning had missed the mark.

'There's way too much wrong with this Elder Chen.'

Back during that livestream, a suspicion had taken root deep in my mind: could Elder Chen actually be the Two-Faced Buddha, or at least someone on the Two-Faced Buddha's side?

Special fate patterns were exceedingly difficult to screen for, yet every single one of the Two-Faced Buddha's subordinates possessed a special fate pattern. When it came to finding children with special fate patterns from a young age and raising them in secret, I really couldn't think of any place better suited to pull that off than an orphanage.

That was the first point. The second was what I encountered in the Deep Dream Layer.

The Traitors had reached an agreement with the Two-Faced Buddha and wanted to recruit me. However, since they had a very hard time leaving the dream and had no way of tracking me down, their only option was to get me to enter the dream and come to them on my own.

In that light, Elder Chen's actions looked deeply suspicious. Appealing to emotion and reason, he had persistently urged me to enter the Dream Realm. Thinking about it now, that was very likely no coincidence—it had been orchestrated from the very start!

I narrowed my eyes and touched my wrist; the string of Buddhist Prayer Beads Elder Chen had given me still hung there.

Those Buddhist Prayer Beads contained merit and could subtly shift my luck, making them immensely useful to me.

'It's not foolproof. Once I leave, I can't keep this string of Buddhist Prayer Beads either.'

Snapping out of my initial shock, I quickly thought of a countermeasure. I had long suspected that Elder Chen was not a simple man, but I had never imagined his background would be so incredibly far beyond my expectations.

To figure out Elder Chen's identity, I risked exposure and crept several dozen meters closer to the edge of the fog.

Adjusting my breathing, I used the Breath Listening method from this position to barely make out their conversation.

The seven leading cultivators gathered around the ritual altar, letting the menial disciples trailing behind them fan out outside the grand formation. Basically every few dozen meters, a sect disciple stood guard holding a Command Flag.

'They really are sealing the mountain. Why would they expend so many resources to target me? Didn't I tell Leng Qingxuan that the real culprit is the Two-Faced Buddha?' I watched Leng Qingxuan standing behind the Maoshan Yin Master, his head hanging low and his spirits visibly deflated. 'Leng Qingxuan isn't the scheming type, and he had no reason to hide my words from his sect. That means someone must have pulled strings behind the scenes! It caused the sect cultivators to skip Xinhu entirely and use their full force against me!'

My brows arched up. I watched Elder Chen in the crowd, locking my gaze onto him.

'Just what kind of ability does this old guy have to sway the judgment of the Five Great Upper Sects?'

While I was mulling this over, a Daoist in brocade robes stepped out from the mountain woods north of the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation. He carried himself with the refined elegance of an ancient scholar.

None of the cultivators around the ritual altar looked surprised to see him; it seemed they had anticipated this.

The middle-aged Daoist suspected to be the Golden Mountain Sect's Dao Zheng even greeted him. "Profound Truth is peerless in both talismans and formations, and seeing it today, the reputation is well deserved. Setting up such a massive array in a mere two shichen—I, Yinglong, truly admire your skill."

"You are too polite, Fellow Daoist Yinglong. The terrain here is extraordinary, and Jiangcheng itself is a thousand-year-old ancient city with the remnants of an eighteen-li feng shui grand formation surrounding it. I merely relied on that existing array and made a few minor adjustments—hardly anything worth boasting about." The scholarly Daoist in brocade robes sounded modest on the surface, yet an unmistakable firmness underlay his gentle words.

'They borrowed the ancient feng shui formation around Jiangcheng? Do these guys have a death wish?' Hidden within the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation and relying on the fog it created, I eavesdropped on their conversation and gradually pieced together the identities of several of them.

The scholarly Daoist in brocade robes was Lu Chen's martial uncle, a master at both laying and breaking formations named Ye Qingqiu.

The middle-aged Daoist in the golden robe was Xu Yinglong, the Dao Zheng of the Golden Mountain Sect. My guesses about the others behind him were pretty much on the mark as well, leaving only two men I wasn't entirely sure about.

The man in the suit hadn't uttered a single word from start to finish, making it impossible to deduce his identity. The other was Elder Chen; he spoke very little, and I only gathered from passing remarks in the others' conversation that he seemed to have ties to Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple.