Chapter 163: A Cataclysm for the Three Great Sects

"Are you done yet?" Qu Xiu sniffed and looked at the young man beside him.

The young man was the youngest elder of the Qinghe Mountain Inner Court, named Bai Ru, and he was holding a Luopan compass in his hand.

Tonight, the rotation frequency of this Luopan compass was extremely abnormal, which indicated that another fiend had arrived at Qinghe Mountain. The last time such a violent tremor was triggered was by Wen Jingeh's spirit carriage.

Today's tremor was even more severe than the last one. "Mountain Master, the elder told me that you know the reason why we are doing this to no avail."

"Didn't Master say when he was alive that you must all listen to me?"

"Yes," Bai Ru nodded. "But the former Mountain Master also said that if your leadership is flawed, we who are still alive are allowed to kill you and take your place."

"Not anymore." Qu Xiu looked at the snowflakes in the sky. His shoulders were almost covered with snow, but the snow melted quickly on his shoulders due to the heat emitted by his body.

The mountain air was very cold, and it quickly condensed on his shoulders again, with the final result that Qu Xiu's clothes had frozen into a thick and hard shell.

"Have you ever seen snow on Qinghe Mountain before?"

"It hasn't snowed on Qinghe Mountain for a hundred years."

"The God-Fiend War ten thousand years ago gave birth to the Xuanxun Sect, and an even earlier divine war gradually developed the Esoteric Treasure Sect. Do you know what the Esoteric Treasure Sect likes to drop?"

"What?" These matters were equivalent to the sect's deepest secrets, and there was no way Bai Ru could know.

"Maple leaves, or rather, leaves stained with blood.

The year the monk under the moon began to go mad, he saw maple leaves, and later rumors spread in the outside world that he had defected.

The first place he arrived after leaving the Esoteric Treasure Sect was not the Northern Fiend Realm, but my Qinghe Mountain. He came together with the Diviner. That year, I was hiding in my Master's cabinet, and I had the privilege of hearing the whole story.

They said a mistake had been made, that the one chosen by the entity in the heavens was the now half-mad, half-sane Sorrow-Joy Buddha. Therefore, the monk under the moon died on the very first day he entered the Northern Fiend Realm."

"You mean this snow is falling for you?" Bai Ru said thoughtfully. The Esoteric Treasure Sect was close to the Northern Fiend Realm, where the weather was extremely cold, and most leaves withered before their buds could even grow; the saying that maple leaves fell from the sky simply did not hold up.

The snow on Qinghe Mountain was the same. The weather on Qinghe Mountain was scorching hot, and although nights were coolest, they were never cool enough to bring about a sudden snowstorm from the heavens.

"It's not for me." Qu Xiu lay down on the snow-covered ground, his teeth chattering from the cold, yet he did not use his profound energy to resist. "It's falling for Wen Jingeh."

"She is a person of the Xuanxun Sect; shouldn't it fall on the Xuanxun Sect?"

"She does not belong anywhere." Qu Xiu recalled what his Master had said back then. "She is a variable. The upheaval of the Xuanxun Sect a hundred years ago was embodied in Ai Fengling."

"The youngest disciple of the late Master Diviner?" The pointer of the Luopan compass had locked onto a certain direction, where only a single courtyard had anyone residing in it—the courtyard where Wen Jingeh lived.

"Precisely." Qu Xiu let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Did you think everyone is as useless as your Mountain Master? The Xuanxun Sect used to be full of talents, and now only Shan Hongxing is left as a normal person."

"What do you mean?"

"The great calamity of the three major sects!" Qu Xiu clicked his tongue. "You wouldn't understand even if I told you. When you can replace me one day, you will understand."

"Is the Mountain Master joking?"

"Whether I am joking or not, you can verify it yourself. As for this position of Mountain Master, I really disdain to hold it, but Master and the others cannot have died in vain!"

Bai Ru was silent for a moment. According to the plan, he was supposed to lead people to Wen Jingeh's courtyard to capture the fiend cultivators, but, "Mountain Master, this snow is falling inexplicably. If you don't use your profound energy to protect your body like this, I'm afraid you will fall ill."

"It's fine. Some things can only be accomplished once I fall ill; I need to hide myself." Qu Xiu swept the snow on the ground onto his body, thinking of what Wen Jingeh had said. "Besides, that place is boring, and it's useless for me to go."

"Then should your subordinate go over there?"

"Just brushing up our presence is enough. Our Immortal Wen is capable, and that fiend god is still within her control." Qu Xiu buried himself in the snow as he spoke.

Bai Ru sighed, took an iron shovel out of his storage pouch, and began to shovel the snow, piling it onto him shovel by shovel. When he finished, he smoothed out the surrounding snow to make the place look normal.

"Thanks." A muffled sound came from beneath the snow, and Qu Xiu's breath was as weak as gossamer, as if he were dead.

"Just make sure you don't actually freeze yourself to death."

"Rest assured, when Wen Jingeh leaves, the snow will melt, and I will be able to come out around then."

Bai Ru's figure paused, and he almost slipped on the snow. "Fine! Take your time playing. Elder Qu and I will prepare your funeral arrangements for you."

Whether Qu Xiu had fallen asleep or frozen unconscious, Bai Ru did not hear a reply from the person behind him. He quickened his pace; if he returned too late, this blockhead might actually freeze himself to pieces.

The disciples brought out by the Zhengyang Daoist were all cut from the same cloth. In the past, there was a bunch of chatterboxes who spoke endlessly, while Qu Xiu was a chatterbox who constantly went missing. None of these people were quite normal.

"How much do you know about the three major sects?" The Master of the Aranya Gate's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that all those things mentioned during the day had been spread out?

Why did this bunch of people all have such big mouths?

The Master of the Aranya Gate cursed himself inwardly. If he hadn't run his mouth so much, he probably wouldn't have been invited here at this moment, right?

"May I ask why Immortal Wen is asking this?" This person was named Kong Bai, the Palace Master of the Senli Palace, and he was the very one who had refuted the Master of the Aranya Gate several times.

Wen Jingeh did not play any mind games with them and tossed out a projection stone.

She had collected quite a few of such stones after waking up and had also distributed a fair number to her disciples, to the extent that Wen Jingeh now liked to project recording stones everywhere regardless of whether she had business or not.

With both sound and image, the few people in the room who had participated in the discussion during the day all kept silent, looking like elementary school students caught skipping class, staring gloomily at the tips of their own shoes in a daze.

"I want to know which of you in this room is acquainted with my Master, the Diviner. Certain words must have been arranged from the very beginning. How could an outsider know so many sect secrets?"

Cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the Master of the Aranya Gate. He glanced sideways at the young Palace Master of the Senli Palace. Kong Bai looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, appearing quite conspicuous among this group of people.

People in the Xuanmen school never judged by age; they valued individual strength more. This young man's ability to sit here representing a sect and converse with everyone already demonstrated his capability.

"And you, you must have taken the instructions of your elders and deliberately played devil's advocate against the Master of the Aranya Gate, right? Your purpose was for someone to spread today's events, only you didn't expect that instead of watching the disciples' trial, I was sitting right on the gazebo where you were gossiping, basking in the sun."

Everyone remained silent.

"Lu Wei, how about I take you to find Little Ge?"

"Little Ge..."

Wen Jingeh had already figured it out. Little Ge—no matter which character "Ge" it was—had a certain connection with her present self.

"Little Ge..." A thread of blood appeared in Lu Wei's vacant eyes. The aura of the fiend god erupted at this very moment, and everyone in the room except Wen Jingeh was so frightened that they did not even dare to draw a full breath.