Chapter 20: The Devil's Trail
In an instant, everyone's gazes fell on this inconspicuous Big Bamboo Peak disciple, Tian Yanyu and Su Ru glanced at each other, Su Ru smiled faintly and nodded.
The Big Bamboo Peak crowd was all smiles as they all gathered around, Lu Daxin heavily patted Zhang Xiaofan's shoulder and laughed, "Brat, can't tell you're so lucky!"
Zhang Xiaofan scratched his head and spat out his tongue, his heart had changed from the initial surprise to surprise. On the side, Du Bishu suddenly slapped his head remorsefully and said, "I should have known that I should have made a bet on who drew this number one sign just now, hey, it must be a big cold, through and through!"
"Go go go," Tian Ling'er spat at him and turned her head to Zhang Xiaofan, "Xiaofan, it's useless if you make it to the second round anyway, why don't you give me this signature!"
Zhang Xiaofan didn't expect his senior sister to say this, and froze for a moment, "Oh", and handed over the note with "one" written on it.
Song Daren's face changed slightly, looked around and whispered, "Junior sister, don't fool around."
Tian Ling'er "puffed" a laugh, colorful like peach blossoms, like jade also like face side two cheeks slightly red a little, stretching out the green onion-like fingers, in Zhang Xiaofan forehead gently flicked, said: "Little fool, I'm just joking with you."
Zhang Xiaofan blinked and laughed out as well.
At this time, on the side of the elders, Daoist Cang Song frowned for a moment, and then said aloud, "Good, since the drawing of lots has been completed, all disciples will come to me later to report their names according to the number of the lots, and later on, that will be posted on a red list, so you will know who your opponents are. Now, please ask the head master to speak."
The disciples who were originally a bit boisterous quieted down when they heard that the Sect Leader, Daoist Xuan Zhenren, was going to come out and speak.
Daoist Xuan Zhenren stood up from his seat and walked slowly in front of the crowd, his gaze swept towards the disciples, then he said, "Gentlemen, you are all the elites of the younger generation in my Qing Yun Sect, and your qualifications and talents, are all outstanding. In the future, it is very likely that the head of the various veins of the Qing Yun Sect, the elders, and even my position as the Sect Leader, will be taken up by the best amongst you."
The crowd of Qing Yun disciples shrugged, and many of them had looks of yearning excitement on their faces.
Daoist Xuan Zhenren revealed an amiable smile and said, "Of course, if you want to reach this step and sit behind me in the positions of these Head Elders, you guys will need to redouble your efforts."
The crowd said in unison, "Yes."
Daoist Xuan Zhen Zhen's hand covered his long beard, nodded, and said with a straight face, "My Qing Yun Yi Sect, from the beginning of the establishment of the sect by the ancestor Qing Yun Zi, has always been a famous and righteous sect, and nowadays it is even more of a leader of the righteous path in the world's cultivation paths. Nowadays, the righteous path is flourishing, the evil devils are retreating, and the world is enjoying peace. But the devil's remnants, treacherous and vicious, its heart is not dead, these years and seems to have a stupid trend, when this time, it is more necessary for us in the righteous way to hold the road to weed out the traitors, so all of you must concentrate on cultivation, firm will, as long as we are strong and self-supporting, then the evil and the devil's foreign way will have no opportunity to take advantage of it!"
The disciples said loudly, "I honor the teachings of the Sect Leader!"
Daoist Xuan Zhenren smiled with his head and said, "Good, good. There's another thing that I'll announce to you all, in order to encourage the disciples of the Green Cloud Sect to work hard towards the Dao and motivate their cultivation, I've discussed this with the Head Elders and have decided that starting from this Seven Veins Martial Tournament, each time after the Seven Veins Martial Tournament Grand Trial, a small reward will be given to the winner at the end of the day."
"Ah!!!" There was a commotion amongst the Qing Yun disciples.
Dao Xuan Zhenren looked at these young disciples and smiled, "This time, the prize will be the 'Hexagram Mirror'."
"What is it?" Zhang Xiaofan froze for a moment, having never heard of this thing before, and couldn't help but look to his side, only to see that Tian Ling'er, Du Bishu and the others were also at a loss, while the other young disciples from the other veins around him seemed to be not quite sure about it as well.
However, disciples who had been initiated for a longer period of time such as Qi Hao, Song Daren, and Wen Min changed their faces, and a rare excitement and yearning appeared on their faces.
Tian Ling'er and the others also noticed at this time that Eldest Brother and the others seemed to know something and leaned over to ask quietly, "Eldest Brother, what is the Hexagram Mirror?"
Song Daren said in a low voice, "The Six Harmonies Mirror is a magic treasure passed down from the 10th generation ancestor of this sect, Master Wufangzi, the real person, I have never seen the exact appearance, only that I have heard from my master before that it is one of the wondrous treasures of this sect, it is extremely powerful, and even more marvelous, as long as the wielder's spiritual power is strong enough, the Six Harmonies Mirror will be able to reflect all the attacks, and thus will stand undefeated."
Everyone's mouths opened wide, Du Bishu even stuttered a little, "Then, wouldn't that be invincible?"
Song Daren shrugged his shoulders and said, "Anyway, I'm not quite sure exactly what it looks like, but Master said it's always not wrong, and this time," he glanced at Daoist Xuan Zhenren, lowered his voice, and said, "It looks like this time, Sect Leader and Master and the others seem to have put in a lot of blood! "
The faces of the crowd were a little odd, most of them seemed to be secretly swallowing their saliva, it seemed that with the strange treasures in front of them, even people who cultivated the Way could not help but be greatly moved by their mortal hearts.
Daoxuan real person paused for a while, smiling at the young disciples discussing, after a while he said, "Well, that's it in general, you guys go back and rest a bit, tomorrow morning, the Seven Veins Martial Arts will start the competition."
The Qing Yun disciples saluted in unison and said, "Yes, Sect Leader True Lord."
Daoist Xuan Zhenren nodded and said, "You guys go!"
The disciples gradually all retreated, so only the seven chakra heads of the Qing Yun Sect and a dozen or so elders remained in the main hall.
Daoist Xuan Zhenren turned back to those elders and smiled, "Senior brothers, you should also go back to rest early! Starting tomorrow, there will be multiple competitions that will still require a lot of your attention!"
Some of those elders are full of white hair, wrinkles, some are looking young and tight, face with skill, at this moment heard the words of Daoxuan real person, one by one without saying too much, then one by one went out, to the end, the jade clear hall, only the seven veins of the Qingyun door left the head of the throne.
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen slowly put away the amiable smile he had been putting on his face, his gaze swept over the other six people sitting on the chairs, and faintly said, "Alright, now there are only seven of us."
Shang Zhengliang, the head of the "Chaoyang Peak" sitting on the right frowned and said, "Senior Sect Leader, do you have anything to say to us?"
Daoxuan Zhenren nodded, his face expressionless as he slowly said, "I just went to see Spirit Dignity."
At these words, everyone's faces changed.
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Walking down the steps, the disciples were still trembling with fear as they passed by the Aqua Pool, only this time that Water Qilin was sleeping peacefully, and there was no more movement.
After the rainbow bridge, back to the "sea of clouds" that is like a fairyland on the huge square, Lin Jingyu and Zhang Xiaofan said a few words, and then with the dragon's head peak line of disciples to go.
Zhang Xiaofan watched him walk away before walking back to the Big Bamboo Peak group of people, listening to Song Daren said some precautions to each person with the accommodation situation later, Zhang Xiaofan listened to listen, suddenly remembered a thing, lost his voice and shouted: "Oops! Oh no!"
Everyone was taken by surprise, Tian Ling'er stood beside him and said in surprise, "Xiaofan, what's wrong?"
Zhang Xiaofan looked around and said anxiously, "I just focused on talking to Shocking Feather, I forgot about Little Gray, and now I don't know where it ran off to?"
The crowd then remembered, really did not notice the gray-furred monkey's traces, then have to look around, only to see the white clouds, the disciples of all veins gradually dispersed, but there is no shadow of any monkey little gray.
Zhang Xiaofan heart anxious, since two years ago from the valley of the small gray brought back, these two years a person a monkey (later also added a big dog big yellow) with the house and live, deep feelings, see this Tongtian peak towering into the clouds, up and down the place is incredibly large, in case the small gray ran to some place to find wild fruit to eat, but how can find it?
Is in a hurry, Zhang Xiaofan suddenly heard the other side of Tian Ling'er "eek", turned his head to look, only to see Tian Ling'er show a smile, pointing ahead, laughing: "You guys see."
The crowd looked, could not help but laugh, only to see the small gray peacefully sitting on the back of Tian not easy to raise that big yellow dog, mouth "squeak squeak squeak" barking, to Zhang Xiaofan waved the monkey paw, and force to run here big yellow dog mouth tightly closed, actually biting a do not know where to get a meat bone.
After not long, big yellow pack small gray ran to the front, small gray three two jump to Zhang Xiaofan shoulder, Zhang Xiaofan rushed to touch its monkey head, put on the angry face said: "Where have you run to?"
Little gray is not afraid, smilingly pointed to the ground is lying on the ground chewing meat bones of rhubarb, "squeak" sound pointing gestures more than draw.
Zhang Xiaofan looked for a long time, and suddenly said, "Where did this meat bone come from?"
Little Grey sniffed and made another gesture while pointing in a direction at the end of the square, and Zhang Xiaofan looked towards Song Daren, only to see Song Daren quickly look around, his face rather embarrassed and amused as he lowered his voice and quietly said, "That's the kitchen where the disciples of the Long Sect eat."
The crowd was dumbfounded, then they all laughed out and shook their heads, Song Daren led the way to the other side and said, "Let's go to the resting sheds as well! By the way, Junior Sister, you're a woman, it's been arranged for you to live with all the Junior Sisters of the Little Bamboo Peak, you don't have a problem with that, do you?"
Tian Ling'er shook her head and laughed, "I had wanted to chat more with Sister Wen Min, while at the same time so that I can help you put in a few good words for Eldest Senior Brother!"
The crowd laughed, Song Da Ren's face reddened, pretended not to hear, and walked out in big strides, with the crowd behind him laughing and talking.
The last Zhang Xiaofan did not get involved, but glared at the gray monkey on his shoulder and said, "Dead monkey, in the future, you run off to be a thief again, see how I treat you."
The little gray "squeak squeak squeak" barked a few times, grinned and laughed, and did not know if he did not understand! Or it simply didn't take Zhang Xiaofan's words to heart.
Zhang Xiaofan scolded it a few more times, walked forward, walked a few steps, and then remembered something, turned his head and said loudly, "Hurry up and go, dead dog, just know how to eat!"
Big Yellow, who was lying on the ground gnawing on a meat bone, managed to raise his eyes and watched the crowd walk far away before he stood up, picked up the half gnawed meat bone and lazily chased after it.
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On the Jade Clearance Hall, the seven chairs of the Qing Yun Sect were gathered here, and at this time, their attention was attracted by Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen.
The head of the "Sunset Cloud Peak", Daoist Tian Yun, stood up first and said, "Sect Leader, can you see what happened to Spirit Dignity just now?"
Daoist Daoist Xuan sighed and slowly said, "I've carefully inspected it, and there's nothing strange about Spirit Dignity."
"What?" Surprise surfaced on the faces of all the Heads.
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen looked at these fellow disciples and said, "Indeed, I have repeatedly looked at it a few times, and everything is as usual with the Spirit Dignity, I really can't figure out why it would suddenly have such great anger, and on the other hand, it disappeared so quickly!"
Tian did not easily ponder for a while and said, "I see that the Spirit Dignity's target of attack seems to be a group of young disciples, could it be that someone has angered it?"
Master Shui Yue, the head of "Little Bamboo Peak", said, "Impossible, if the disciples were really angered by the Spirit Elder, how could the Spirit Elder give up after a single strike?"
Shui Yue looks quite beautiful, but when she speaks, her voice is cold, as if it carries a trace of cold air, Tian Yanyuan glanced at her and stopped talking.
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen shook his head and said, "Spirit Dignity is an ancient spirit beast, its nature is already psychic, in the past thousand years, there has never been such a sudden disorder, there must be a reason for it."
Sitting on the left side of the "wind back to the peak" first seat, two sideburns white, in the seat of the seven people look the most pale Zeng Shuchang opened his mouth: "Could it be that the head of the senior brother's heart has already been determined?"
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen sighed lightly and said, "I am not hiding anything from you all, I am also at a loss as to what to do about this. But the spirit is my Qingyun door Zhenshan spirit beast, not trivial, I would have liked to use the door of the secret 'psychic art' to find out, I did not expect ... ... ..."
Said here, Dao Xuan real suddenly stopped, the people next to listen to half, suddenly heard him not to say, Tian not easy to first ask: "Sect master brother, what's wrong?"
Dao Xuan Zhenren face embarrassed color, said, "This psychic art is a side skill, but with it can communicate with the Spirit Elder a little, I did not expect that when I was trying to use it, the Spirit Elder it actually has fallen asleep, and I can not be able to do it."
The crowd was dumbfounded.
Daoxuan real person dry cough two sound, positive color: "This matter need not worry, to be Spirit Esteem wake up, we will then think long and hard. And right now, there is another matter that I would like to discuss with all senior brothers."
Seeing that Daoist Xuan Zhenren's face was serious, and it seemed that it was not a small matter, all of them put away their smiles and sat down with a straight face.
Daoist Xuan Zhenren also sat back in his seat and pondered for a while before saying, "Everyone, do you know that there is an 'Empty Mulberry Mountain' three thousand miles away in the east?" (Note 1)
The crowd froze, and Daoist Cang Song first came back to his senses and said, "Could Sect Master be talking about the Empty Mulberry Mountain with the 'Ancient Cave of Ten Thousand Bats' on it?"
Daoist Xuanyuan Zhenren nodded and said, "Precisely."
Zeng Shu Chang frowned and said, "I heard that the 'Ancient Cave of Ten Thousand Bats' is a huge natural cave that goes straight into the ground, unfathomably deep, where it is cold and damp, and only countless bats are born in it, and it is said that there are even millions of them. This kind of barren land, how come senior brother mentioned it?"
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen slowly said, "All of you do not know, although this Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Cave looks like it is not close to humans and animals, but eight hundred years ago, it was an important stronghold of the Devil Cult. It was cold and damp in that ancient cave, which was just right for those evil devils to cultivate demonic techniques. Later on, under the siege by my righteous people, the devilish sins retreated in defeat and left, and this place was then deserted."
Master Shui Yue spoke coldly, saying, "Then what is the meaning of the Sect Master bringing it up again at this moment?"
Shui Yue spoke to Dao Xuan in this manner, his attitude could be said to be quite unfriendly, but everyone here knew that Grandmaster Shui Yue had never been like this when speaking to people.
Daoxuan real person also does not take it to heart, only sighed, said: "Water moon senior sister do not know, just half a year ago, I got burning incense valley a transmission, said recently in that ten thousand bats ancient caves nearby, seems to have again the remaining signs of activities of the devil sect, and this to seek my opinion, I think about it, then make two disciples Yi Cai rush to empty mulberry mountain to check it out. "
Chaoyang Peak Shang Zhengliang heard, laughed: "This is not good, Xiao Yicai master nephew talent, cultivation is profound, is really the best in the Qingyun Sect, in the last seven veins of martial arts test is to win the laurel and return. With him there, what else can't be done?"
Daoist Xuan Zhenren smiled faintly and said, "Elder brother Shang is overrated, but after Yi Cai went to the Empty Mulberry Mountain, a few months later, there was a transmission coming back, saying that they did discover that there were people from the Devil Religion who were operating near the Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Cave, and that their purpose, however, was even more astonishing."
Everyone was taken aback, and Zeng Shu Chang said, "What?"
Daoxuan real face calm, can't see what joy and anger, said: "According to Yat Cai letter said, he captured a devil sect disciples, from its mouth to force out, the original ten thousand bats in the ancient cave in eight hundred years ago is a branch of the devil sect 'refining the blood of the hall' of the head office of the church, the refining the blood of the church at that time, is one of the five major forces of the devil sect, but after being destroyed by the devil sect, the blood of the church is not a strong, and it is one of the five major forces of the devil sect. But after it was crushed by my righteous ancestors, it fell into ruin, and the Ancient Cave of Ten Thousand Bats was deserted."
"But I do not know how, in recent years, has been style decline for a long time the refining blood hall seems to have raised signs, and in the refining blood hall in the rumor, that year, ten thousand bats in the ancient cave battle, although the refining blood hall of the main characters are all ambushed in my righteousness under the sword, but in the ten thousand bats in the ancient cave, but there is a hidden very dense hidden treasures in the cave, inside there are many rare and exotic treasures, the demonic book of the evil scrolls, and have not been found. "
Speaking here, everyone had understood, Cang Song Daoist sneered and said, "Evil demons, delusional!"
Daoist Xuanyuan shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about whether this rumor is true or not, but as far as I know, after that battle eight hundred years ago, it is true that the righteous people didn't find any secret caves and treasure vaults in the Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Cave. The others are fine, but if there really is this secret treasure cave, I'm afraid that there will be a great evil thing in it, but it's something that we must not fail to guard against."
Everyone looked towards Daoxuan, and Daoist Tianyun said, "Senior brother, what great evil thing are you referring to that is so important?"
Daoist Daoist Xuan looked at all the people around him and said in a deep voice, "The Blood Devouring Pearl!"
The crowd shrugged, and Daoist Cang Song was surprised, "Didn't this evil object disappear long ago with the death of Old Man Blackheart?"
Daoxuan real person shook his head and said: "Otherwise, although the black heart old man died, but the blood devouring bead may not be gone in the world. Like this great evil things, idle generation can not grasp, the devil sect demon if the cultivation is not enough, will collect it is not known. And when the black heart of the old man origin is in the devil's blood refining hall lineage, so I speculate, it is likely that the blood devouring bead is in this secret hole."
The crowd heard the words of Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen, a moment of silence, a long time, but that cold Water Moon Master opened his mouth: "Then the head of the senior brother intends to do?"
Dao Xuan Zhen Zhen said, "After I received Yi Cai's message, I immediately informed the Burning Incense Valley and the Heavenly Sound Temple, and soon these two large sects also returned the word, saying that they will also send their best disciples to the Empty Sang Mountain to stop the devilish villains, holding the way to weed out the traitors."
Tian Yiqiu frowned, "Then what does Sect Leader Brother mean..."
Daoxuan real face showed a smile, said: "To say the least, this time is also a rare opportunity for training, my Qingyun Sect of young talent, but most have not gone out to cultivate, and over the years the world is stable, and has never been confronted with the demon sect of the demon. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Seven Veins Martial Arts, I intend to send the top four young disciples to the Khongsang Mountain, on the one hand, you can stop the demonic sect of perversion, on the other hand, you can also practice experience, long insights. And..."
He put away his smile, his face turned serious, said: "And I heard that in the last hundred years, Tianyin Temple and Burning Fragrance Valley have produced a few outstanding outstanding disciples, talent is impressive, we sit back and do nothing, I'm afraid that in the future the position of the leader of the righteousness of the road will be difficult to protect. If this happens, I, Daoxuan, will not have the face to meet the generations of ancestors!"
Everyone nodded their heads together, and Daoist Cang Song first said, "Senior Sect Leader is far-sighted and extremely right."
Daoxuan looked at all the head masters and said, "Since this is the case, all of you are the ones who have no more opinions."
All of them nodded their heads in agreement.
Daoist Xuanyuan said, "Good, then it is so decided. In the Jade Clear Hall, a residence has been arranged for all senior brothers, so please go ahead and rest!" With that, he slapped his palm three times, and several Daoist children immediately turned in outside the door. "You lead all of you first seers to your rooms to rest."
The dao children answered, and each of the Head Chairs stood up, bowed to Dao Xuan Zhenzhen, and followed.
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Note 1: From the fourth book of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the "East Mountain Classic": the first of the two eastern sub-canons is said to be the mountain of Khongsang, which is bordered by the Eclipse in the north, and looks to the east at Frustrated Wu, to the south at Shaling, and to the west at Mendze.''
