Chapter 1479: War of Words

After finishing his account, Wen Hua said worriedly, “They claim they suspect Tianxing Sect leaked the list of spies, but that is complete nonsense. You know perfectly well what happened with that list.”

Niu Youdao, who had listened without interrupting, replied, “Naturally I know. I was the one who arranged for this batch of exposed spies to be revealed.”

Even he had not expected that the cover he created while disposing of Gongsun Bu would end up becoming the Five Sacred Venerables’ excuse for moving into several sects.

Wen Hua was startled. “You arranged it? What do you mean? Have the Five Sacred Venerables discovered something?”

“Probably not. If they had truly discovered something, there would be no need for hesitation. They would already have moved against you. This is most likely only a pretext. Even without this incident, they would have found some other excuse. This one merely happened to land in their hands.”

Wen Hua was plainly on edge. “How can I not be nervous? Why would the Five Sacred Venerables personally take up residence in Tianxing Sect, as well as Xi Haitang’s Myriad Beasts Sect and Yan Zhutian’s Ling Sect?”

Niu Youdao said, “Senior Wen, you are too nervous. Nothing has happened on Gong Lince’s side at Zijin Cave. There is Qiyun Sect as well. Wu Chang has moved into Qiyun Sect, and I can guarantee Qiyun Sect has nothing to do with the Wuliang Fruit affair. As for Granny Xue, I’ve received word that she personally returned to the Sacred Realm to hold the fort there. The Five Sacred Venerables have clearly divided their responsibilities. They have some other objective.”

Wen Hua shot back, “How can I not be nervous? I’m right beneath Du Wuxu’s nose. Xi Haitang is right beneath Luo Qiu’s, and Yan Zhutian is right beneath Lan Daolin’s. One careless mistake could expose us. I only managed to find time to come here because I’m no longer Sect Leader and am not their main target. My son-in-law, Du Yunsang, is Sect Leader now, and Du Wuxu’s people are practically watching him without blinking. Xi Haitang and Yan Zhutian are probably in much the same situation. I doubt either of them could find an opportunity to come see you even if they wanted to.”

Niu Youdao could understand his feelings. With one of the Five Sacred Venerables sitting directly over him, it would be difficult not to live in fear.

And it was not only Wen Hua. Niu Youdao’s own nerves had tightened as well. If these men were exposed, could they truly refuse to speak unto death and keep from implicating him?

Naturally, he had never simply ignored the sects whose people had received Wuliang Fruits. He could not allow someone to be exposed while his own side remained completely unaware, waiting for the enemy to come wipe them out in one sweep.

He had already planted people inside each sect, with the assistance of those who had received Wuliang Fruits. Publicly, the reason was to make communication easier. In truth, if an accident occurred, those people were to send an emergency warning back to him.

There was no possibility that those Nascent Soul cultivators would expose themselves voluntarily. And under present circumstances, if subordinates of the Five Sacred Venerables discovered a problem, they would be unable to stop the Nascent Soul cultivators from fleeing. If one of the Five Sacred Venerables personally investigated and uncovered them, none of those men would simply sit still and wait for death. They would inevitably flee for their lives.

However weak a Nascent Soul cultivator might be compared with a Sacred Venerable, the commotion from a fight would certainly not be small. Niu Youdao’s embedded people would notice it and send warning in time.

And the moment that warning reached him, Niu Youdao would relocate immediately. He would never remain where he was and wait for the Five Sacred Venerables to descend and kill them all.

If matters truly reached that point, however, the consequences would be severe. Nanzhou would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

In the end, the early flowering of the Wuliang Fruit tree truly had thrown all his arrangements into chaos.

The Five Sacred Venerables’ sudden decision to move into these particular sects had been completely unexpected. He could not understand what they meant by it.

After calming Wen Hua for a while and sending him away, Niu Youdao immediately returned to the city. Inside the secret chamber, he summoned Lü Wushuang and recounted everything Wen Hua had said.

The information Wen Hua provided was relatively detailed, far more so than the furtive, anxious reports Xi Haitang and the others had managed to send. Niu Youdao told Lü Wushuang because she understood the Five Sacred Venerables better and might be able to infer something from the details.

The two sat opposite one another. Lü Wushuang thought for a long time, but her conclusion was much the same as before.

“Qiyun Sect forges artifacts, Ling Sect refines pills, Tianxing Sect makes talismans, and Myriad Beasts Sect commands birds and beasts. These four sects each possess exclusive arts within the cultivation world. No matter how I look at it, their specializations seem to be the reason the Five Sacred Venerables have taken control of them.”

“Could it be that, with the great sects slipping out of control, they intend to restrict cultivators’ access to weapons, pills, talismans, and certain spirit beasts? Yet that still doesn’t seem reasonable.”

“Can weapons really be controlled? There is no shortage of weapons already circulating among cultivators beneath Heaven. What use is controlling Qiyun Sect? Weapons last a long time, which is precisely why Qiyun Sect is less wealthy than the other three.”

“Control the supply of pills? Cultivators will not die without pills. At worst, their cultivation progress will slow drastically. The Five Sacred Venerables know perfectly well that someone is deliberately stirring trouble behind the scenes. If they forcibly restrict pills now, wouldn’t they merely give us an opportunity to incite the cultivators beneath Heaven? Besides, if they wanted to do that, they already control the Spirit Seeds collected from the Tiandu Secret Realm. Controlling the Spirit Seeds would be enough. There would be no need to act like this.”

“Control the supply of talismans? How much effect could that possibly have?”

“Control the trade in birds and beasts? Flying mounts are already restricted. What meaning would there be in controlling the rest?”

“The Five Sacred Venerables’ actions seem completely pointless. Yet I still feel the matter cannot be that simple. There has to be some purpose hidden behind this.”

Niu Youdao was equally puzzled. “Could it be that they don’t have enough people to control too many sects, so they chose to control only the ones with unique specialties?”

Lü Wushuang asked in return, “Do you think that would accomplish anything?”

Niu Youdao shook his head slightly.

The Five Sacred Venerables’ actions had genuinely confused him. He could rack his brains and still make no sense of them.

In the end, he made a decision. “Whatever their purpose is, let’s probe them first and see if we can force out some indication of what’s really happening.”

Before long, sects throughout the world began receiving letters issued jointly in the names of Lü Wushuang and Yuan Se.

The letters told the sects that the Five Sacred Venerables had seized control of Qiyun Sect, Ling Sect, Tianxing Sect, and Myriad Beasts Sect because they intended to cut off the cultivation world’s supply of pills and the like, thereby weakening the cultivators beneath Heaven step by step, making it easier to slaughter them gradually and preserve the Five Sacred Venerables’ rule over the world.

Lü Wushuang and Yuan Se claimed that they had openly broken with the Five precisely because they disdained such behavior.

The two also called on cultivators beneath Heaven to unite and eradicate the Five Sacred Venerables’ claws and fangs by every means available. They encouraged everyone to use assassination and ambushes to exterminate Misty Pavilion personnel wherever possible.

They emphasized that their struggle with the Five Sacred Venerables would continue until one side died, and claimed that the two of them would join hands to eliminate any of the Five they caught alone, one by one.

The moment the letters spread, the entire cultivation world was shaken into uproar.

The situation was different now. Everyone knew Misty Pavilion’s eyes and ears across the world were gone. Cultivators beneath Heaven had begun daring to openly discuss the affairs among the Seven Saints.

Everywhere, people debated contests for supremacy, conspiracy theories, and every other interpretation imaginable, each speaker sounding more convincing than the last.

Niu Youdao went further still. As another probe, he ordered part of the secrets in his possession thrown out into the open—the secrets his side had obtained earlier while inciting the various sects to capture Misty Pavilion personnel.

He released only part of them, not everything. Anything he believed might still prove useful in the future was held back.

The secrets that were exposed involved various disgraceful acts committed by certain Misty Pavilion personnel. They caused no small amount of internal turmoil. People inside Misty Pavilion became deeply unsettled, and some, fearing a miserable end and seeing that Misty Pavilion had already lost its formidable ability to hunt fugitives, simply betrayed the organization and fled.

The sects that had previously been incited into helping capture Misty Pavilion personnel were thrown into panic as well, because while exposing those secrets, Niu Youdao also revealed that such arrests had taken place.

The particularly wicked part was that he did not identify which sects had done it.

Every faction involved was left frightened for itself, worried that the Five Sacred Venerables or Misty Pavilion might come settle accounts with them...

At Qiyun Sect, among the pavilions on an isolated mountain, Wu Chang held the latest rumor report and read it. He gave a disdainful snort. “Looks like the people behind this are getting anxious. They don’t understand what we’re doing and actually think a trick like this can probe us.”

Hei Shi, standing beside him, was puzzled as well. He too could not understand the real purpose behind the Five Sacred Venerables’ actions.

He understood that the truth was probably known only to the Five themselves.

Even so, Hei Shi reminded him, “Sacred Venerable, these rumors are powerful. If we remain silent and appear to admit them by default, people may begin believing them. Some Misty Pavilion personnel now change their clothes before going out on business because they fear assassination.”

“In the past, everyone believed wearing Misty Pavilion’s uniform outside was impressive and prestigious. Now they regard it as dangerous.”

“Even if the other side is only probing us, I’m afraid we still have to respond.”

He could not help sighing inwardly at how suddenly matters had developed to this point.

Given the Five Sacred Venerables’ strength, resolving many problems should theoretically have been simple. They could, for example, offer benefits to the various sects. Would they really fear no one would come over to their side?

The key problem was that after several hundred years of rule by the Nine Saints, the true purpose behind everything they did no longer needed explaining.

No one would believe the Five Sacred Venerables’ promises. Everyone would regard any offer as a temporary expedient to make use of them, believing that when the time came to settle accounts, the Five would spare no one.

In the end, the only reason the situation remained stable, the normal flow of interests continued, and the world still belonged to the Five Sacred Venerables was their deterrent military strength.

As for popular support, they had lost it long ago.

All that was missing was someone with enough strength to resist them standing up and raising the call.

Offers of benefits and promises were probably words the Five Sacred Venerables themselves could hardly be bothered to speak anymore. Even they likely knew no one would believe them...

The Five Sacred Venerables’ response came quickly.

They truly could not afford to ignore the rumors.

On behalf of the Five Sacred Venerables, Misty Pavilion publicly promised cultivators beneath Heaven that Qiyun Sect, Ling Sect, Tianxing Sect, and Myriad Beasts Sect would continue supplying the cultivation world exactly as before. Everyone was warned not to believe rumors spread by people with treacherous intentions.

The Five Sacred Venerables also launched their own counterattack in this war of words—and, at the same time, a probe in the opposite direction.

They directly announced throughout the cultivation world that Lü Wushuang and Yuan Se had committed treasonous acts and attempted to throw the world into chaos, and that the Five Sacred Venerables had already crippled both their cultivation bases.

Anyone could kill them!

This was something the Five had long suspected. They intended to force Lü Wushuang and Yuan Se to come forward and prove whether their strength still remained.

If the two still possessed their strength, then to keep stirring the situation they would surely have to show themselves and prove it.

If they refused to appear, that would suggest their strength truly had suffered a problem.

At the same time, the Five sought to reassure both Misty Pavilion’s internal personnel and the sects that had secretly participated in capturing Misty Pavilion agents.

They declared that everything before this had been part of Lü Wushuang and Yuan Se’s conspiracy, and that regardless of whatever mistakes anyone had committed, all past offenses would be forgiven.

The Five Sacred Venerables’ statement genuinely did reassure the relevant parties.

Given their status, it was unlikely the Five would publicly slap themselves in the face after making such a declaration. At the very least, those people should be safe for the time being.

[End of Chapter 1479]