By now, the four, now three, grandmasters had returned to the commandery city of Ruyi. They had arrived in the governor’s estate to see the Marquis of Ruyi.
The Marquis of Ruyi paced around with his hands behind his back. His face was terribly sunken. Originally, he thought it had already been overkill to send the four grandmasters together and success was guaranteed.
Yet, not only did they fail to kill the wretched daemon, but they had even lost one of their own instead! They were Golden Core cultivators after all! They could not be compared with Foundation Establishment cultivators. Wen Zhengming and his Pine Sough academy could be regarded as one of the foundations of his reign, but now, it had been forcefully severed from him.
“Did you fall for an ambush of the daemons?” the Marquis of Ruyi cast aside his guilt and asked. This was the most reasonable explanation.
The scholar in white shook his head. “It was only the spider daemon, the moon demon, and a skeleton monster.”
“Just by them, just-” The Marquis of Ruyi’s eyes widened. He raised his hand and pointed right at the scholar in white’s face before letting out a snort and lowering it heavily.
The scholar in white felt extremely displeased inside. We only became involved in this mess because of your orders. Now that junior brother Wen has suffered a horrible fate, not only do you give no comfort, but you instead blame us.
As the leader of the four grandmasters, he was different from Wen Zhengming’s stubbornness and frankness. He had always been known for his great pride, so he clasped his hands.
“My junior brothers and I will avenge junior brother Wen. We’re just giving a word of advice to the marquis right now to be careful of what the moon demon is capable of. We’ll be taking our leave then!”
“You- fellow Tang, how can you say that? Fellow Wen’s revenge is also my revenge…”
“Marquis, sir Liu of the Clear River prefecture has something urgent to report,” at this moment, the envoy reported again.
“Get him to wait! He’s utterly imcompetent!”
The Marquis of Ruyi became even more displeased over how Liu Zhangqing had handed the Watermirror disc to the moon demon, but he forgot that if it were not for his command in the past, Liu Zhangqing would have never done that.
It took the Marquis of Ruyi tremendous effort before he managed to pacify the three grandmasters. The scholar in white said, “It would be best for the marquis to see prefect Liu. Perhaps it might be related to the moon demon.”
“Then let’s hear it together.”
The four of them arrived in a secret room behind the governor’s estate. The Marquis of Ruyi heard from Liu Zhangqing and spoke with a sunken face.
“What! You say the moon demon is refining the Clear river? There’s no need to worry. I’ll send people over right now. We’ll definitely kill the wretched daemon this time.”
Not only did he not worry, but he instead felt it was a rare opportunity now that the moon demon had come to the surface. This wretched daemon sure was insatiable. He had grown arrogant with his success. The Clear river was not that easy to refine.
“But sir, the moon demon has almost refined half of it already!”
The Marquis of Ruyi immediately lost his temper. “Why do I even keep you around!? I order you to stop the moon demon regardless of the price. Otherwise, there’s no need for you to remain as the prefect. I’ll be heading over right now!”
The figure of the Marquis of Ruyi vanished, and Liu Zhangqing backed out of the room. He was irritated.
Stop the moon demon? How am I supposed to stop the moon demon? Even the four grandmasters you sent were helpless against him. I’m just a measly Foundation Establishment cultivator. What can I do?
The Marquis of Ruyi’s orders were absolute, so all he could do was hold a meeting with the school leaders. However, he had already made up his mind to avoid the Clear river at all costs.
In the world of cultivation, obstructing a person’s cultivation led to grievances even more severe than killing their parents or stealing their wives. The moon demon definitely would not be soft-hearted this time. Once they caught his attention, they were probably done for.
His position as the prefect was important, but it could not be more important than his life.
Even prefect Liu who had his title directly conferred to him by the Marquis of Ruyi was thinking like this, so it was as clear as day what the other school leaders and powerful members of the academy thought.
There were plenty of courageous people among them, but who would be willing to do something useless that would clearly bring about their own destruction? The moon demon had already taught them a bloody lesson with how Yang Pinghu of the Clear Court sect ended up.
“Actually, we don’t need to directly confront the moon demon. We only need to interfere with his refinement process. With how long the Clear river is, we can go upstream and wreak havoc while he’s in the middle section right now. We can delay him until the reinforcements of the Ruyi commandery arrive.”
The Marquis of Ruyi’s orders could not be defied, so someone came up with an idea. The idea had a degree of safety, so they all agreed to it reluctantly before dispersing.
Han Tieyi stood up suddenly, only to see Hua Chengzan still seated, without any intention to move. Thinking about how even the greatest brain of the Clear River prefecture had remained silent during the intense discussion earlier, he cast a questioning gaze at him.
“If only it were that simple.” Hua Chengzan smiled helplessly. The idea was far too simple, so simple that anyone could think of it. There was no need for him to speak up about it, but would he really not think of it?
The figure with drifting, scarlet hair appeared in Hua Chengzan’s head. He was bold enough to continue with his actions that garnered condemnation from everyone whilst in the eye of the storm, so he was clearly rather confident. If a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators tried to stop him, they would probably pay with their lives.
The cultivators arrived at various places throughout the Clear River prefecture, preparing to wreak havoc.
Huge, vicious skeletons burst out of the water, kicking up great waves and blocking their paths. Xiao An’s twenty-one Skeleton Demons were scattered along the river to watch over Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan had issued an order too. “Apart from the father-son duo of the Han family and Hua Chengzan, kill the others without mercy.”
Familiarity is familiarity, but if you insist on working against me, don’t blame me for being ruthless.
In the beginning, the cultivators did not take these skeleton demons that were clearly under someone’s control seriously, but as soon as they clashed, they realised they were absolutely wrong.
When their spiritual artifacts landed on the skeleton monsters, they could only produce a few sparks. Only arcane artifacts could leave behind some marks on them. However, once these monsters approached them, they would tear through their protective spiritual qi in a single stroke.
Having been refined again and again by Xiao An, every single Skeleton Demon now possessed tremendous physical strength. They could move as swiftly as the wind, and they had absolutely no weaknesses or flaws either. Even clashing with late Foundation Establishment cultivators posed no issue.
Compared to the Marquis of Ruyi’s mission, their own lives still took priority. These cultivators had originally planned to strike and run. They refused to remain in the same place, just in case they angered the moon demon, making him directly fly over and destroy them. Now that they ran into such powerful monsters, they became even more afraid to stay put. They fled as soon as they made contact.
Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 501-Chapter 600)
Dream Teller's books
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 1-Chapter 100)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 101-Chapter 200)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 201-Chapter 300)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 301-Chapter 400)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 401-Chapter 500)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 601-Chapter 700)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 701-Chapter 833)