Chapter 2344 - A List of Must-Kill Targets

Mu Bai sat by the cliffside, silent and lost in thought.

He didn’t understand.

We’ve been fighting the Church of the Black Cloud for years. Why did we decide to surrender overnight?

And why are my sectmates so happy about our imminent surrender?

He’d taken his saber off his back, and he now clutched it to his chest.

In the past, whenever his heart was ill at ease, clutching his weapon would calm him right back down.

But this time... it wasn’t enough.

His heart was in chaos.

The sect was his home. He’d have died before submitting to its enemies, but now... the sect had gone and surrendered first!

He couldn’t help but recall a famous phrase of the mundane world. “Your ministers are willing to die in battle, so why insist on surrendering first?”

Mu Bai would never have guessed that something like that would happen to him.

For a while, he felt completely lost.

Meanwhile, Su Yi sat casually amidst the distant sea of clouds, holding a jug of wine.

This was Opening Origins Daoist Sect territory, and it was covered in dense layers of formations.

But Su Yi’s arrival drew no attention. Even Mu Bai, who was only a thousand feet away, didn’t notice him.

“Your Excellency, his heart and mind are ill at ease. This isn’t a good sign,” transmitted the Blade of Heaven’s Loathing.

“It’s true. To him, what’s happening here today is a problem as grand as the heavens themselves,” said Su Yi. “But he’ll need to overcome this obstacle for himself. Only then will he understand on a visceral level that not everything in this world is black and white.”

The Blade of Heaven’s Loathing said with confusion, “But if he no longer strictly upholds the division between good and evil, won’t he have effectively abandoned his Dao?”

“No, he’ll have grasped reality. It’s only after understanding how the world really is that he’ll understand... just what kind of path it is that he seeks,” Su Yi said calmly. “If he can’t even understand something as simple as that, how is he worthy of your aid?”

“You’re absolutely right, Your Excellency,” said the Blade of Heaven’s Loathing. It understood.

His Excellency Su is basically using the disaster facing the Opening Origins Daoist Sect to test Mu Bai!

The outcome will determine whether or not Mu Bai is qualified to wield me!

“Upholding the differentiation between good and evil isn’t just a matter of fearless courage,” Su Yi said softly. “Wen Ruoxue was right. If Mu Bai wants to stick to his path, he’ll have to be even more villainous than villains.”

“Will you interfere in the Opening Origins Daoist Sect’s affairs on Mu Bai’s behalf, Your Excellency?” asked the Blade of Heaven’s Loathing.

Su Yi mulled that over, then said, “That’ll depend on his performance.”

He’d only just said this when something suddenly startled him.

......

Meanwhile, in her room, Wen Ruoxue was trying to use the secret method she’d been taught to refine a blank talisman.

Her slender fingers moved swathed in mysterious, inscrutable vestiges of the Grand Dao, which she continuously infused into the blank talisman.

But within just a few breaths of time, the blank talisman shattered and split.

Wen Ruoxue’s brow furrowed.

It’s just as that senior said. With my current cultivation, refining this talisman is extremely difficult.

But Wen Ruoxue didn’t give up. She took out another blank talisman, then tried again.

Her second attempt ended in failure, too. So did her third, and her fourth...

As time passed, Wen Ruoxue lost track of how many blank talismans she’d destroyed, but she still had yet to succeed.

That said, she’d obviously made progress.

She predicted that within three days, she ought to be able to refine a complete talisman!

But although Wen Ruoxue didn’t notice it, someone had been watching her every move from the shadows this entire time.

So, Luo Xuanji has been here this entire time.

Su Yi murmured to himself from the sea of clouds, a relieved smile on his face.

He wasn’t just wandering the Spirit Firmament Divine Continent aimlessly. Rather, he was using the talisman Luo Xuanji had once given him to track a faint, ethereal hint of her aura.

When he encountered Wen Ruoxue earlier, he guessed she might be nearby. Now, when he saw the talisman Wen Ruoxue was refining, he finally dared say with certainty that Luo Xuanji was hiding in the Opening Origins Daoist Sect!

Su Yi was naturally delighted. At the very least, this proved that Luo Xuanji was still alive, and she hadn’t been captured by their enemies!

I didn’t make this trip in vain!

Su Yi drank with delight.

He didn’t go to Wen Ruoxue or reveal any of this. He planned to keep watching in secret.

That very night.

Wen Ruoxue dragged her exhausted body out of her room. Mu Bai had been waiting outside this entire time, so she said, “Mu Bai, you don’t need to go back. Just stay here and meditate.”

Repeatedly refining talismans had been enormously draining.

“Elder, might I ask how you feel about the sect’s decision to surrender to the Church of the Black Cloud?” asked Mu Bai.

Wen Ruoxue pursed her lips. “You’ll know soon enough.”

With that, she turned and re-entered her room.

Mu Bai sat alone in silence well into the night. He couldn’t help but sigh.

It was obvious that he had a lot weighing on him!

It was also that very night that Wen Ruoxue’s master, Tu Youfang, arrived in a hurry. He told her that experts of the Church of the Black Cloud would arrive in three days to assume full control over the Opening Origins Daoist Sect.

Tu Youfang had come to urge Wen Ruoxue to leave as soon as possible! The faster the better!

But Wen Ruoxue staunchly refused.

There was nothing Tu Youfang could do. In the end, he just sighed and left.

That night, Wen Ruoxue refined talismans like mad. When she fully exhausted her cultivation base, she took the divine medicine she’d been saving for a life-or-death pinch to recover, then immediately resumed work on the talismans.

It was obvious that she saw the talisman she was working on as her only hope of saving the sect!

Mu Bai stood there in a daze, obviously lost in thought. He never meditated, nor did he sleep.

This, perhaps, was what it meant to be “unable to eat or sleep in peace.”

Su Yi saw it all. He could roughly guess what Wen Ruoxue was trying to accomplish, but he paid it no heed.

That night, he used the sky as a blanket and the sea of clouds as a bed and drifted off to sleep beneath the stars.

......

Just two days later, late at night, Wen Ruoxue successfully refined a talisman.

Her hair was tangled, and her face was pallid. Her cultivation was on the brink of drying up completely.

Nonetheless, she looked utterly excited.

She’d succeeded!

Without the slightest hesitation, she carved and shattered it.

Soon, she started anxiously pondering what would happen tomorrow when the Church of the Black Cloud assumed control over the sect. Would the man that mysterious senior spoke of really come to their aid? Would he even be able to get there in time?

Wen Ruoxue wasn’t certain, so she struggled to sleep. Her heart was in turmoil.

Meanwhile, in the sea of clouds, Su Yi looked at the talisman Luo Xuanji had given him back then.

A single word appeared on it: “Help!”

Su Yi glanced at it briefly, then put it away. He now knew with certainty that his guess was right on the mark; Luo Xuanji really was hiding near Wen Ruoxue.

If all was as he expected, Luo Xuanji was in extremely poor condition. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have needed him to help Wen Ruoxue.

After all, Luo Xuanji was the former ruler of a forbidden zone of the River of Epochs. In good condition, she could have crushed the Church of the Black Cloud with ease all on her own. What need would there have been for Su Yi’s help?

Moreover, she’d even needed Wen Ruoxue to refine the talisman on her behalf. It was thus obvious how bad Luo Xuanji’s condition was.

Su Yi soon noticed that Mu Bai, who’d been sitting there woodenly for two days straight, seemed to have made up his mind. He put away the saber he’d been clutching, and started meditating.

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel a bit eager.

Tomorrow, when the Church of the Black Cloud arrives, what kind of performance will Mu Bai put on?

I hope he doesn’t disappoint me.

Su Yi stretched languidly, then fell fast asleep.

......

The following morning.

An army of eight thousand experts of the Church of the Black Cloud appeared before the Opening Origins Daoist Sect. The army blanketed the landscape, and mere sight of them was enough to put enormous pressure on the Opening Origins Daoist Sect.

Qian Zhong, a high elder of the Church of the Black Cloud, personally led the army.

He was also a rare Seven-Tribulation Master God.

Even on his own, he was enough to suppress the vast majority of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect’s old-timers.

Over in the Opening Origins Daoist‘s camp, Sect Leader Ling Qingfeng led a group of higher-ups through the gates to welcome the invaders.

The Church of the Black Cloud would assume full control of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect today!

All seventeen thousand members of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect had gathered in a massive ritual ground.

All of them were nervous.

The arrival of the Church of the Black Cloud was sure to determine all of their fates.

At the far end of the ritual grounds stood the grand hall that represented the highest authority of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect.

High Elder Qian Zhong sat upright in his seat, his eyes cold and indifferent as he gazed down at everyone else present.

Other experts of the Church of the Black Cloud stood around him, like stars clustering around the moon.

The higher-ups of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect, meanwhile, accompanied them meekly by the sidelines.

The atmosphere was stifled and silent.

One after another, people carried in massive chests and set them at the front of the hall.

By the time they’d finished, there were a full three hundred bronze chests in total!

“Reporting to Ancestor Qian Zhong, this is all of the treasure in our coffers,” a white-haired old man said respectfully.

Luo Song, the grand elder of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect.

”Open them,” Qian Zhong said with a wave.

Soon, all three hundred boxes had been opened. Resplendent treasure light instantly soared into the firmament.

All manner of treasures were on full display before the crowd.

This was the entirety of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect’s wealth!

Who knew how many hearts ached? They felt as if their hearts were dripping blood.

Even the disciples felt indescribable humiliation.

But none of them dared to say anything.

Qian Zhong scanned the treasures, then said, “The Opening Origins Daoist Sect’s coffers surely aren’t this meager?”

Many of the Opening Origins Daoist Sect’s higher-ups looked stricken. Sect Leader Ling Qingfeng was just about to explain when Qian Zhong waved. “Going forward, everything in the Opening Origins Daoist Sect belongs to us. What do mere external items amount to?”

His gaze silently frosted over. “I came here in person today to exterminate a handful of irredeemable villains and avenge the Church of the Black Cloud experts they’ve killed over the past three years!

“I have with me a list of names for execution. Everyone on it is to step forth, one by one!” Zhong Qian took out a jade slip, then passed it to the middle-aged scholar beside him. “Read them out loud.”

“Yes, sir!” The middle-aged scholar nodded his acknowledgment, then announced the names, one by one.

As he read off the names, the crowd shifted. The atmosphere was instantly anxious and oppressive as could be.

Sect Leader Ling Qingfeng and the other higher-ups were visibly uncomfortable.

When he heard the name “Wen Ruoxue”, Mu Bai, who was standing amidst the crowd, felt his heart clench.