Chapter 537: Blood Spilled in Xinghai, Seeking the True Spirit

While Wang Sheng was drinking and chatting with the trio, the entire Xinghai Sect was in an uproar. Rocked by waves of tension and internal storms, the sect had begun hunting for spies.

Their stance was clear: anyone caught would be crushed on the spot.

The defensive array had been fully activated inside and out. Without the sect master's command, no one was allowed to leave.

Yao Xingzi wasn't a Heavenly Immortal who didn't know anything else but cultivation, though. He surprisingly displayed a rare side of strategic wisdom and offered the spies one chance.

"Anyone who steps up and confesses their crime will be spared from death. Those who choose to keep hiding will be obliterated as soon as they're exposed."

No one stepped out at first, but once the investigation began, many cultivators started panicking. The vice sect master didn't use illusion arts to confuse minds and extract confessions for once. Instead, Yao Xingzi took out a treasure shaped like an Eight Trigrams disk. He then activated it, causing it to expand into a circular, ten-meter-wide plate on the ground.

Disciples entered first. All sixty-four trigrams appeared slowly, containing profound and boundless mysteries.

A disciple stepped into and sat cross-legged at the center of the disk, which then revealed his trigram and fate. Yao Xingzi asked a few simple questions, and the disciple answered truthfully. The disk showed no anomaly, which meant he passed the test.

This way of identifying spies was unheard of not only outside the Xinghai Sect but even among its elders. Yao Xingzi had clearly become truly enraged and was determined to cleanse the sect thoroughly.

Meanwhile, Wang Sheng was still busy chatting with the three, missing the entire spectacle.

Twelve core disciples soon passed safely, and many cultivators began doubting whether this method worked at all. At that moment, a calm-faced male disciple entered the disk and sat down.

Yao Xingzi asked gently, "How long have you been in the sect?"

"One hundred sixty-two years, Sect Master."

"Have you ever communicated with other celestial gates or engaged in any act of betrayal? Do you harbor disloyalty toward the Xinghai Sect?"

"Never. I've never—"

The disk under him flashed a faint red. The rotating trigrams hinted at something ominous.

Yao Xingzi narrowed his eyes. With a sudden sweep of his sleeve, he blasted the man into the air and out of the palace. Before he could utter a word, his body exploded, and an invisible hand clasped around his Primordial Spirit in midair.

Blood splattered before the palace. Celestial soldiers immediately restrained the Primordial Spirit.

Yao Xingzi calmly said, "The deeds of whoever steps into the disk are inscribed into the trigrams. I advise those harboring disloyal thoughts to confess now. Lishang, interrogate his Primordial Spirit."

The vice sect master agreed and rushed out of the palace. Soon, Lishang returned with the weakened Primordial Spirit and gave a clear report of its origin.

"He was once an unaffiliated practitioner. Before becoming an immortal, one of the Fengli Sect's elders noticed him, taught him immortal arts similar to our sect's arts, and planted him among us. In his one hundred sixty-two years of stay with us, he has stolen seventy-two parts of our secret arts and sent out thirty-two reports.

"Most grievous among them was the location of the sixth disciple from your lineage, Sect Master. That led to him being ambushed and killed while traveling."

"Wan Lin..." Sorrow showed in Yao Xingzi's eyes. He waved his sleeve. "Throw him into the Lilong Pool to feed the mountain-guarding celestial beast!"

"Yes, Sect Master."

Lishang dragged the Primordial Spirit away.

Yao Xingzi then swept his gaze around. "I repeat: confess now, and if your crime isn't too grave, you will be spared."

The disk before him continued glowing mysteriously. A few low-rank elders had already grown pale, and several disciples had started edging backward. The newly recruited Protectors were the calmest. Since the matter had nothing to do with them, they were outside the scope of today's interrogation.

The ground in front of the Xinghai Sect's palace was soaked in blood the entire day.

When Wang Sheng returned with Linyuan after sending off the three, Linyuan recounted everything that had happened during the long day of interrogations, shocking Wang Sheng. In a single day, they had exposed twenty-five spies among the disciples and elders and executed most of them. The sheer number of traitors revealed just how dire the Xinghai Sect's situation had been.

Since the celestial soldiers and Protectors weren't part of the sect's core and had no access to sect secrets, Yao Xingzi didn't investigate them.

"The sect master has decided to hold a sect-wide assembly three days from now to officially appoint you as elder and administrator." Linyuan smiled. "This will also help lift the mood. Too many have died in the last two days.

"While rooting out the spies lifted the sect's overall spirits and filled everyone with hope that the Xinghai Sect could finally shake off its decline, it also left many disciples feeling deeply uneasy. What do you think we should do next, Young Friend Pi?"

Wang Sheng thought for a moment. "Clearing out the traitors is a warning to the sect. That is a good display of authority. Now, instead of rewarding me, the sect master should make the ceremony focus on rewarding disciples and elders based on their contributions over the years.

"No need to give too much; Spirit Stones will do. If we give out treasures, they might not suit the members' tastes. It's better to just let them take the stones to the markets of Xinghai City and have them buy whatever they want. It would also help the city's commerce. Anyway, the point is, after making a show of strength, we must now show grace."

Linyuan smiled. "You truly bring clarity, Young Friend. We certainly overlooked this. Managing a celestial sect takes far more effort than I imagined."

Wang Sheng sighed quietly, then smiled faintly. "All the Xinghai Sect lacks is just a person or two with ambition for power. We cultivate the Dao Heart, which follows the Great Dao, yet we never pay enough attention to the hearts of people.

"This is completely normal, though. It's not just the sect master and vice sect master who are enamored with the Great Dao. Many celestial sects are in similar situations. Everyone gathers together simply to cultivate in peace."

Linyuan nodded. "That's true. Even now, everyone in our sect still thinks only of two words: peaceful cultivation."

"The people from my hometown can't compete with the thirteen qi planets' level of cultivation, but our mortal Dao of Strategy is quite impressive. It reminds me of an old saying that fits us cultivators and celestial sects very well."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"Only by being prepared at all times to face your enemy can you truly avoid war from breaking out. The moment you turn numb and put down your guard is the moment your enemy presses a spear to your throat."

Linyuan froze for a moment. After pondering it carefully, he found that the simple saying was perfectly suited to the Xinghai Sect's current situation.

Without noticing, the two had already flown back to Wang Sheng's pavilion. After bidding Linyuan farewell, Wang Sheng watched him clasp his hands in a Daoist salute and hurry off to Yao Xingzi's residence.

***

What are all these things?

Wang Sheng knew that he carried the great heavenly fate of the Heavenly Court, but he had never taken it seriously. He assumed that heavenly fate was nothing more than a theory of destiny, hardly worth believing. If he had never started cultivating, he might truly have believed that divine spirits existed to rule the fate of mortals.

However, walking the immortal path, he understood that gods were no more than powerful cultivators. Even the Heavenly Court's righteous gods were simply the members whom it had appointed to carry out the Great Dao's missions, which included maintaining order and operating the Three Realms properly.

The so-and-so gods, or the gods of this and that, were merely strong individuals establishing their own territories for their own enjoyment or advancement—

ahem.

Those self-proclaimed deities absorbed incense power to help themselves break through or simply enjoy their long immortality.

That was all they were.

Wang Sheng naturally respected the powerful. However, behind that respect was the ambition to one day stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

From his perspective, heavenly fate was just some kind of mark that the Great Dao had imposed upon him due to the manipulation of cultivators so powerful that they had no limitations. His own fate would always remain in his own hands.

If someone appeared out of nowhere shouting that he carried an immense heavenly fate and could achieve peerless greatness, he felt that he'd likely draw his sword and end his own life right then and there. He refused to believe in such a destiny.

He wouldn't really resort to such extreme measures, though. It was only a figure of speech.

Aside from the blood jade, the other items in the storage artifact were quite useful. They were exactly what Wang Sheng lacked at the moment.

One of them was a communication jade talisman that could contact a talisman that was paired with it. Wang Sheng planned to use it shortly to ask the other three where they were and whether they had settled in.

There was also a one-person Shadowless Shuttle and a pendant that looked somewhat feminine. Holding it in his hand, he took a moment to examine it carefully before concluding that it wasn't his senior sister's. Rather, it was an immortal treasure that could conceal one's aura and imitate the aura of other cultivation realms, useful for travelling outside the sect.

There were several other trinkets in the storage artifact that also hid auras. The trio had clearly considered many possible risks before leaving the wormhole.

Wang Sheng sighed a little and looked down at the pendant in his hand. After sitting quietly for a moment, he could not help but smile faintly. He probably looked like every other immortal who had started grinning like a fool, and that was putting it lightly.

It was fortunate that his senior sister had not followed him here. He had no real ability to protect himself yet, let alone protect her. It didn't matter even if her cultivation progressed much more slowly than his because she was on Earth. As a man, he had to shoulder responsibility. Until he could establish a stable place to settle down, he wouldn't bring his senior sister and master here to cultivate.

He stood up and picked up the communication talisman. After injecting immortal power into it, he soon heard voices from the other side.

—Brother Sheng—

uh,

I mean... Brother Pi used the talisman! Did something big happen already?

Shi Qianzhang sounded quite far but grew closer and closer. Liu Yunzhi's voice came in from the side as well. The other talisman was clearly with Huai Jing.

Wang Sheng smiled. "Nothing major. Have you three settled in? Did you shake off anyone tracking you?"

The trio's answer came simultaneously.

—

Uuuuuuh...

"What happened?"

Huai Jing slapped his bald head and let out a mutter.

—I did tell Fei Yu that each communication talisman only works three times, right?

—Probably not.

—Pretty sure you didn't.

Wang Sheng was rendered speechless. However, since it had already been used, the four chatted briefly. After confirming that none of them had been exposed, he asked once more how they had slipped into Xinghai City. The three stammered again, unable to give a clear answer.

Soon, the talisman flickered softly, and the connection broke on its own. It had been depleted.

Wang Sheng played with the jade talisman, his eyes showing a hint of calm.

Time to cultivate!

With his friends now nearby, there was no better time for him to grow stronger.