Chapter 485: The Spirit Beast Gathering Is Canceled

That familiar face caught Lu Shengzhong utterly off guard. His heart went cold enough to tremble.

Even so, he kept his composure. Clinging to a sliver of hope, he pretended not to recognize Niu Youdao and continued flying onward.

“Brother Lu, why pretend not to know an old acquaintance when we meet?” Niu Youdao’s resonant voice, carried by spiritual power, rang out.

Uncle Chen emerged from the forest and blocked Lu Shengzhong’s path, forcing him down.

One look at the man’s speed was enough for Lu Shengzhong to know he was no match for him. And that call of “Brother Lu” proved Niu Youdao had come prepared specifically for him. He had walked straight into the net. There was no escape.

The reason Lu Shengzhong had betrayed one side after another was that he knew how to read the situation.

This time was no different. Niu Youdao had come personally; how could he possibly allow Lu Shengzhong to flee? So Lu Shengzhong did not put up some pointless struggle that would only make him suffer.

Standing atop a treetop and facing the expressionless Uncle Chen, Lu Shengzhong slowly turned to look toward Niu Youdao, who sat on the hillside tending the bonfire with an absent air.

He sprang into motion, swept over, and landed beside the fire. Then he sat down cross-legged opposite Niu Youdao with the flames between them. Raising a hand, he tore the disguise from his face and gave a bitter smile. “Master Dao. What a coincidence.”

By now, how could he fail to understand? The conversation he had overheard at the inn had been staged for his ears. It was meant to alert the snake by striking the grass and force him out of Myriad Forms City, where making a move would have been inconvenient. What truly frightened him was that Niu Youdao had even calculated which direction he would take after leaving the city and had waited for him here. That meant the other side had already taken his measure completely.

“Quite a coincidence.” Niu Youdao looked up. “I hadn’t heard anything from you in a long time and thought you’d died at Shao Pingbo’s hands. I never expected to run into you here. We’re old acquaintances, after all. You came and didn’t even stop by to say hello. That’s hardly friendly.”

Lu Shengzhong asked, “How did you find me? Because of Chao Shenghuai?”

Niu Youdao beckoned toward one side. Hou Qingtian appeared from the forest.

Lu Shengzhong turned, saw him, and was completely speechless. Only after a long silence did he look back and ask gloomily, “They’re your people?”

“More or less.” Niu Youdao smiled. “Zhu Jiang... to run into them even under that identity, you really were unlucky.”

Lu Shengzhong lifted his face to the sky and sighed. “All I can say is that my luck was bad.”

“Why blame everything on luck?” Niu Youdao said. “Even without this coincidence, did you really think you could hide after sending Chao Shenghuai after me? You already knew in your heart that Chao Shenghuai might not be my match. That’s why you added another layer by impersonating Zhu Jiang. If you’d truly been confident, why bother? You thought that if Chao Shenghuai failed without knowing who you were, I wouldn’t be able to guess who was behind it? Forget luring you out. As long as you were still in Myriad Forms City, I could have had Myriad Beasts Sect seal the city at any time and sift through everyone inside until you were found. I had plenty of ways to force you into the open. Did you really think you could escape?”

He tossed the branch in his hand into the fire. “The problem was yours. Don’t blame luck. Tell me, then. How much courage did Shao Pingbo give you that you dared come after me all by yourself?”

“I had no choice. I suspect I was poisoned with Xiaoyue Pavilion’s Spirit-Torment Pill...” Wearing a bitter expression, Lu Shengzhong recounted what had happened and why he had been forced into this course.

“So that’s how it was.” Niu Youdao nodded. “You’ve had a hard time of it.”

Lu Shengzhong said, “If you have a way to detoxify me, I can return to Shao Pingbo’s side and act as your hidden piece. Let me redeem myself.”

“You think that after making a move against me, you can simply return unharmed and Shao Pingbo will still trust you? The moment he sent you out alone, he had already treated you as an expendable piece. If I were you, I would have come straight to me at the beginning and laid everything out instead of waiting until you’d already acted, failed, and only then started talking about an antidote. I should be able to get the antidote from Xiaoyue Pavilion, but don’t you think it’s a little late to say this now?”

The instant he heard that Niu Youdao could obtain the antidote, Lu Shengzhong’s spirits rose. “Even if I can’t go back to Shao Pingbo, I can still do other things for you. You came here personally to wait for me. Doesn’t that mean there’s still room to negotiate?”

“I’ll give you one chance.” Niu Youdao looked at him across the flames. “Take one palm strike from me. If you can still leave here alive afterward, you may return to Myriad Forms City and find me.”

Lu Shengzhong stared at him in astonishment.

Their gazes met across the fire. Then, almost at the same instant, both men moved. They crashed straight through the bonfire, sending flames exploding in every direction.

With a heavy clash, Niu Youdao walked out through the scattering firelight, his expression calm.

Lu Shengzhong staggered backward again and again down the slope, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He stared at Niu Youdao in disbelief. He had never expected this latecomer to cultivation to have already surpassed him. Even more shocking was that when he had poured everything into his palm and struck Niu Youdao’s hand, he had found nowhere to bring his strength to bear.

A more violent reaction was already unfolding inside him. Two bizarre forces, one scorching hot and one bitterly cold, rampaged through his body, forcing him to desperately circulate his spiritual power to resist them.

Niu Youdao looked down at him from above and murmured to himself, “What a pity.” Then he flashed away, truly leaving Lu Shengzhong behind without another glance.

Uncle Chen, Hou Qingtian, and the others hidden in the surrounding forest emerged one after another and followed him away.

Lu Shengzhong slowly turned and sat down. Crossing his legs, he circulated his cultivation to dissolve the strange forces within him. Half his face had turned pale and the other half flushed red; frost was already forming on the hair along one side of his head.

A man suddenly swept out from the nearby forest and landed before him.

Lu Shengzhong looked up. His face twitched. He recognized a fellow disciple of Wuliang Mountain, and despair appeared in his eyes. He struggled to rise, turned his head, and screamed with all his strength, “Master Dao...!”

“By order of the Sect Leader: cleanse the sect. Traitors are to be killed without mercy!”

The man drew his sword as he finished speaking. A cold gleam flashed, and a head flew into the air.

After making a brief cleanup, the man picked up the severed head and flew away. The head had to be sent back to the sect. Claiming merit with it was secondary. More importantly, Wuliang Mountain intended to show it to the other disciples as a warning.

Wuliang Mountain wanted everyone to know that this was the fate of a traitor. Once someone betrayed the sect, even if he fled to the ends of the earth, Wuliang Mountain would hunt him down to the end.

Niu Youdao truly had come in person because he valued Lu Shengzhong’s abilities and wanted to keep him alive so he could still be useful.

Before making the capture, he had also had Wuliang Mountain’s people in the area notified so they could take Lu Shengzhong away for questioning.

Wuliang Mountain understood its own internal affairs best. Whether Lu Shengzhong had leaked any of the sect’s secrets was something Wuliang Mountain needed to interrogate him about directly and specifically.

But after Wuliang Mountain’s people arrived, they informed Niu Youdao that Sect Leader Gongsun Bu had long since issued orders to disciples everywhere to cleanse the sect. No traitor was to be spared.

Niu Youdao had been forced to weigh the matter carefully. He valued talent, certainly, but Wuliang Mountain was now his eyes and ears. Perhaps it truly did need an example.

Weighing the two sides against each other, Lu Shengzhong’s life no longer seemed so important. Niu Youdao could only sigh that it was a pity...

By the time he returned to the inn, dawn had broken. Guan Fangyi followed him into his room and said, “The Spirit Beast Gathering has been canceled.”

Niu Youdao, who had just set his sword in place, turned around in surprise. “Canceled? Why?”

“Old Six Xu just saw Myriad Beasts Sect posting notices around the city and came straight back to report it. The notices don’t say why it was canceled. They only apologize to all the visitors and say that every departing cultivator may collect one hundred gold coins upon leaving the city as a token of apology. Old Six Xu heard people discussing it. Apparently, something abnormal has happened in Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm. The entrance never closed on schedule and is still open. From what people are saying, they suspect the Gathering was canceled because of that.”

Niu Youdao froze. He and Guan Fangyi looked at each other, then his gaze slowly shifted toward Yin’er, who was sleeping on the couch.

She was asleep because Niu Youdao had secretly done something to keep her that way. Otherwise, she would have insisted on following him no matter what.

Guan Fangyi seemed to have reached the same suspicion. She asked softly, “Could opening the Gate of Life in that grand formation have truly opened the gateway to the Illusory Realm for good? If so, wouldn’t she be able to enter and leave the Illusory Realm whenever she wanted from now on?”

Niu Youdao could not be certain. He turned back. “Has it been confirmed that the entrance really hasn’t closed? Have Old Six Xu go take a look.”

“I already sent him to verify it.”

Niu Youdao paced around the room.

After waiting quietly for a while, Guan Fangyi said, “Keeping that other matter bottled up isn’t a solution either. I can’t eat or sleep properly without understanding it. If you have no objection, I’m going to speak with Uncle Chen. He’s been with me for so many years and has never done anything to wrong me. He’s risked his life to save me again and again. Whoever he really is, I have no intention of making things difficult for him.”

As it turned out, she did not need to seek him out. No sooner had she stepped outside than Uncle Chen came to her of his own accord.

After returning to her own room, Guan Fangyi smiled. “Something you need?”

Uncle Chen was calm and came straight to the point. “When I was injured and happened to meet you all those years ago, it was indeed deliberately arranged. Someone sent me to stay beside you and protect you. I have never done anything to wrong you, nor have I interfered with anything you did. You know that I have never involved myself in the operation of Fufang Garden. My task was simply to ensure that your life was never in danger. Nothing more. So you can rest assured that I bear you no ill will.”

Zhao Xiongge had already sent word to this side. Uncle Chen also knew that his identity had been exposed.

“Your task?” Guan Fangyi’s gaze flickered. Now that things had been laid bare, there was no longer much need to hide anything. She cared about only one point. “Who sent you to protect me?”

Uncle Chen shook his head. “There’s no need to ask. I won’t tell you.”

Guan Fangyi chuckled, then turned to look out the window, mockery in her smile. “I’ve never been popular with women. Most women would rather point at my back and curse me. There’s no chance some woman would be this kind to me. Uncle Chen, just which man is it? So mysterious, so devoted to me, yet somehow able to sit back and watch me fool around with other men?”

“I don’t know the reason,” Uncle Chen replied. “At first, I wanted to stop you from seeing other men too, but he stopped me. He said he had no right to interfere with which men you associated with. As long as you were happy, nothing else mattered.”

There was actually someone like that? Guan Fangyi frowned, suspicion written all over her face. She thought and thought but still could not identify him. There were several men she suspected, but no matter how she considered them, none seemed likely to be from the Demonic Sect.

Unable to resist, she asked, “Is he from the Demonic Sect?”

Uncle Chen shook his head. “I don’t know. There’s no point asking. I won’t tell you. If you think it’s no longer appropriate for me to remain here, I can leave. But I believe I should stay. My presence can only benefit you, not harm you.”

“Are you from the Demonic Sect?”

“I once was. I left the Demonic Sect long ago.”

After all that talking, not a single word he had no intention of revealing had slipped out. They had gone in a circle and ended up with essentially nothing.

The exchange gave Guan Fangyi no useful information at all and left an enormous mystery lodged in her heart.

As for whether Uncle Chen should stay or leave, she could not make a decision for the moment.

Still, there was one advantage to bringing everything into the open. Even if she allowed him to remain, it would now be perfectly natural to keep certain matters from him.

[End of Chapter 485]