Once the others entered the stone hall, the incarnation descended to the foot of the mountain. After waiting a short while, he spotted two figures flying in from the distance: Fang Ting and Zhao Songqiao.
"Junior Brother Zhang, sorry to keep you waiting."
Zhao Songqiao cupped his hands, looking somewhat tense.
The incarnation led the two as they turned and flew inward. Unexpectedly, just as they reached halfway up the mountain, a flash of green dropped before them with a whoosh, revealing a rather short, plump man.
"Ah! Disciple pays respects to Martial Uncle!"
Feigning a startled reaction, the incarnation hurriedly bowed in salute.
The short, plump man was one of the Landou Sect cultivators who had traveled with them, with a cultivation slightly higher than the Daoist boys. The incarnation only knew he was a true disciple of the Five Elements lineage, not his name.
"You must be the disciple Martial Uncle Huayang brought into the sect, right? Who are they, and what are you bringing them inside for?" The plump man raised his chin and asked with a furrowed brow.
The man actually seemed to recognize the incarnation.
Fang Ting and Zhao Songqiao stood stiffly in place.
With a quick turn of thought, the incarnation replied, "In response to Martial Uncle, they are disciples of Senior Chen from Yanmiao Pavilion. Her name is Fang Ting, Senior Chen's personal disciple. She is this junior's friend and came looking for me."
"Fang Ting?"
The plump cultivator seemed to recall something. He looked Fang Ting up and down, his eyes darting as a teasing grin spread across his face. "I'd heard long ago that the wish Martial Uncle Huayang never managed to fulfill might actually be accomplished by a junior in the Qi Refinement stage. Haha..."
"Keep at it!"
The plump cultivator clapped Zhang Yue's shoulder, wearing a knowing grin, then streaked away in a flash of light.
The incarnation blinked, realizing the implied meaning behind the fat man's words. He instinctively glanced at Fang Ting, only to see her head bowed almost to her chest, her ears glowing like rubies.
"Ahem..."
Zhao Songqiao cleared his throat softly and said, "Junior Brother, Junior Sister, shouldn't we be getting on our way?"
...
Beyond Dongming Island, a patch of water was shrouded in shadow.
Several figures sat cross-legged within the darkness. One of them was none other than the youth surnamed Fang who had previously set a trap for Qin Sang.
"Eldest Senior Brother, the time is about right. Now that Dongming Island has emerged and the grand formation's power is greatly diminished, it's time to make our move. If we wait any longer and more of those old Core Formation bastards from the sects arrive, things will become troublesome."
A black-robed man opened his eyes and spoke in a deep voice.
At this point, another middle-aged cultivator with a sullen countenance asked, "Second Senior Brother, how is the hidden mole you planted doing? If we need to rely on him, there can't be any slip-ups."
"Rest assured! He will be prepared before we even arrive," the black-robed man said with complete confidence.
"That's good. That object really is on Dongming Island. Had I known, we wouldn't have bothered with those Douniu Peak outcasts! That damned human not only killed Fourth Senior Brother, but also spread word all over Tianxing Island, completely ruining Fourth Senior Brother's scheme there. The human experts we originally recruited became wary, forcing us to abandon them. If we had just led them to attack Dongming Island directly, given our strength, we'd have had a good chance of forcing our way in and seizing the item."
The middle-aged cultivator spoke with resentment.
"Are you saying this seat made a mistake?"
The youth surnamed Fang snapped his eyes open, killing intent flaring in his gaze as he stared coldly at the middle-aged cultivator.
"Junior Brother wouldn't dare! I only hate the culprit who killed Fourth Senior Brother and Youngest Junior Brother, so it was a slip of the tongue..."
The middle-aged cultivator shuddered. Terrified, he dropped to his knees at once and stammered explanations.
"Ninth Junior Brother spoke without thinking. He's always been thoughtless, Eldest Senior Brother—pay him no heed. That human cultivator is merely in the mid Core Formation stage, yet he has repeatedly offended our Black Snake Mountain. Sooner or later, we will extract his soul, burn him day and night with yin fire, and settle every single score!"
The black-robed man hastily stepped in to smooth things over, then pointed at the middle-aged cultivator and berated him. "What do you know anyway? If we hadn't captured the remnants of Douniu Peak, how could we have confirmed that the object was kept on Dongming Island? Furthermore, Eldest Senior Brother was wary of the Landou Sect's other Nascent Soul Patriarch all along, which was why he didn't act rashly. It was only from the mouths of the Douniu Peak remnants that we learned that very man was the progenitor of the Douniu Peak lineage, and that the turmoil back then was caused by him! It led to internal strife within the Landou Sect, gravely wounding their vitality; not only was the Douniu Peak lineage banished, but that Nascent Soul Patriarch also suffered severe injuries and perished. Damn the Landou Sect for concealing the truth all this time, claiming he was merely in secluded cultivation."
A dwarf, only half the size of an adult, suddenly gave an eerie cackle. "It's no wonder the Landou Sect kept this sealed tight, not to mention that it involved the death of a Nascent Soul Patriarch. Douniu Peak's cultivation methods are ordinary enough, but the Lightning Command Technique paired with them is truly exquisite and extraordinary. If the Landou Sect had been able to secretly raise a cohort of cultivators adept in this Daoist art, it would have been a devastating weapon."
"No matter how exquisite a Daoist art is, if it cannot be cultivated, it's no better than scrap paper. Isn't this exact matter what brought the Landou Sect to its current state?"
The black-robed man sneered dismissively, his brow knitting slightly. "Tenth Junior Brother, I recall you kept a copy of the Lightning Command Technique back then. Could it be you want to cultivate it too? Be careful not to turn yourself into a madman!"
The dwarf gave a dry laugh. "I have no desire to live in constant fear like them, hiding away in an abode like an undersea coffin of profound ice. I only kept the art to study and see if there is anything we can borrow from it."
The black-robed man's expression softened slightly. "Eldest Senior Brother and I will present this art to Master in due course. With Master's discernment, he should be able to glean something useful for us, and we can seek his guidance then. Don't cultivate it on your own, lest something go wrong."
"Thank you for the reminder, Second Senior Brother. Junior Brother understands!" the dwarf said, cupping his hands.
The black-robed man turned back to the youth surnamed Fang. "Eldest Senior Brother, taking the corpse puppets into the tiger's den is perilous; you must be cautious. Core Formation cultivators from various sects have gathered on the island. If you cannot obtain the item by trickery, detonate the corpse puppets decisively and retreat as the opportunity arises. Cultivators from outside the Landou Sect will assume it's Landou Sect's internal affair; amid their shock and uncertainty, they won't react quickly, and that will be our chance."
Hearing this, the group's gazes naturally fell upon the two figures standing behind the youth surnamed Fang.
Both kept their eyes tightly shut and remained silent, like inanimate objects.
Strangely, their auras were indistinguishable from those of normal living people.
Even more astonishing were their identities: they were none other than the Douniu Peak outcasts captured back then. Yet now, they obeyed their enemy's every command like two bodyguards.
"It's a pity Master only bestowed two blood corpse bugs. If we had a few more to control several Core Formation corpse puppets to self-destruct and trap and kill all the cultivators on the island, we wouldn't have to go to such trouble," someone grumbled quietly.
The black-robed man glared fiercely at him. "Do you really think raising an exotic insect like the blood corpse bug is that simple? Master spent untold years breeding them, and only with the aid of bug-taming secret arts did he barely manage to elevate them to the third transformation. If there were a few more, our Black Snake Mountain would probably be bankrupted."
"Enough nonsense. This seat is leaving now. We must obtain that object this time. If anyone slacks off and causes a blunder, this seat will skin him alive!"
The youth surnamed Fang gave a cold snort and flew out of the shadows with the corpse puppets.
Chapter 894