"Is this how the Beast Taming Sect treats its guests?" Mr. Bai's pleasant voice resonated between heaven and earth.
There was not the slightest trace of anger in it, yet it made the Guardian Azure Dragon feel an immense threat. The dragon glared at him with furious eyes.
Driven by defensive instinct, the Azure Dragon was on the verge of striking. At this critical juncture, a figure suddenly shot up from the ground into the air.
"Aaaahhhh!"
Accompanied by wretched shrieks, the figure flew straight up before Mr. Bai.
The tense, oppressive atmosphere was shattered in an instant.
Countless gazes between heaven and earth immediately converged upon that small figure.
"Ah, it's Xu Ke..." Mr. Bai smiled.
Xu Ke scratched the back of his head, feeling nervous and uneasy.
Even so, following what Li Fan had coached him to say, he asked bashfully, "Mr. Bai, why did you come? Did you come to see me?"
Before Mr. Bai could answer, a streak of blue light flashed in from the horizon and interposed itself between him and Xu Ke.
"Brother Lu Ya!" Meeting another old acquaintance in quick succession, Xu Ke grew very excited.
Seeing Lu Ya's guarded expression, a trace of helplessness flickered in Mr. Bai's eyes. "Lu Ya, long time no see."
Lu Ya asked, "What business do you have here?"
His tone was icy, brimming with wariness.
Unbothered, Mr. Bai said slowly, "I bear no ill intent on this visit. I came only to find the Beast Taming Sect, as there is something I require their help with."
Lu Ya hesitated, pondering in silence upon hearing this.
Just then, an aged voice sounded: "One who comes from afar is an honored guest. It is our Beast Taming Sect that has been remiss in hospitality."
An elder with white hair and white eyebrows materialized instantly.
"Grand Elder?" Lu Ya was startled.
Di Sanmo nodded in acknowledgment. Then, looking at Mr. Bai, he said, "Honored guest, please follow me. If there is anything the Beast Taming Sect can assist with, we will certainly cooperate."
This exceedingly courteous attitude left Lu Ya puzzled and somewhat hard-pressed to accept.
However, he respected his elders and teachers enough not to contradict him to his face.
"Then I shall extend my thanks in advance." Since one did not strike a smiling face, Mr. Bai also reined in the aura he emanated.
Following Di Sanmo, he vanished from sight.
"Huh? Why did he leave?" Xu Ke had assumed Mr. Bai would take him along, and he felt a bit dejected.
"I told you not to get too close to Mr. Bai! And yet you foolishly rushed forward the moment you saw him!" Lu Ya lightly patted Xu Ke on the head, scolding him.
"He isn't at all who he presents himself to be in front of us," Lu Ya said, gazing into the distance of the Beast Taming Sect with a somber look.
"Brother Lu Ya, why on earth do you say that?! Mr. Bai really is a great person!" Xu Ke was confused, but he spoke with utter sincerity.
"You... Sigh..." Lu Ya let out a long sigh. "Forget it. Since things have reached this point, I won't keep it from you anymore."
"After Ningyuan City was flattened, we were under Mr. Bai's..."
"Under his command, we rallied the people to save themselves. We also helped move all the wounded into the small dilapidated temple."
"However, on that day..."
Lu Ya drifted into his memories, his expression dazed.
"One of the wounded suddenly took a turn for the worse and was on the brink of death. Mr. Bai happened to be away, and with our skills, there was no way we could save him..."
"So we could only split up and search for Mr. Bai across the city."
Xu Ke interjected at this point, "Right, I remember now! That really happened back then. Shortly after that, your attitude toward Mr. Bai changed completely, Brother Lu Ya. Why was that?"
Lu Ya took a deep breath. "Back then, I searched everywhere and couldn't find Mr. Bai. It suddenly struck me that when I had been gravely ill before, Mr. Bai had taken me to his home to treat me. I had a faint memory that there seemed to be a basement in his house."
"I thought, could he be in the basement right now? After considerable effort, I finally found the entrance to the basement near Mr. Bai's home. Just as I was about to call out and ask, I caught a faint scent of blood drifting out. I assumed Mr. Bai had been injured, so without a second thought, I rushed inside. But what I saw..."
"What did you see?" Xu Ke was utterly gripped by Lu Ya's description.
"Corpses. A whole basement packed with mutilated corpses. And he was holding sharp knives, dismembering bodies and conducting an evil ritual. Do you remember Gouzi used to have several brothers? All of them had dog bodies forcibly sewn onto them," Lu Ya asked.
Xu Ke nodded.
"Back then, they vanished without explanation. I asked Mr. Bai, and he said he hadn't seen any trace of them either. But..."
Lu Ya ground his teeth and said, "I clearly saw them among those corpses in the basement!"
"This..." Xu Ke's eyes went wide. He could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Lu Ya continued, "The scene in that basement was like something out of hell. Even recalling it now, a chill runs through my entire body. Not only was the stench of blood nauseatingly thick, but the ground was dyed a dark, crusty red from all the gore. At the very back of the basement stood an extraordinarily bizarre, faceless statue!"
"Even though I only caught a single glimpse of it back then, it has appeared in my nightmares over and over. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you could never imagine what kind of sheer evil it was!"
"He seemed utterly shocked by my sudden intrusion. I reacted instantly, terrified that he would silence me to keep the secret. Without another word, I scrambled and crawled out of the hidden chamber. I fled back to the small temple like a madman, wanting to expose Mr. Bai's true colors. But his facade had always been too flawless! No one believed me!"
Lu Ya let out another long sigh.
"If we stayed by his side, we would certainly end up being murdered sooner or later. The only choice was to run! Unfortunately, no matter what I said, you were the only one willing to flee with me."
"Fortunately, we ran into Master on the road, and we finally found a home here in the Beast Taming Sect. Yet who could have thought that he would linger like a vengeful ghost and follow us all the way here?"
Seeing Lu Ya's tightly knitted brow, Xu Ke felt deeply conflicted.
"Could there be some sort of misunderstanding?" Xu Ke still tried to persuade him.
"A misunderstanding? What misunderstanding could there possibly be?" Lu Ya gave a cold snort.
"You saw him in person just now. Facing the Beast Taming Sect's Guardian Azure Dragon, a creature in the Dao Integration realm, his expression didn't even shift. You can imagine how terrifying his current strength is! To cultivate to such a height in such a short time—aside from trading for power through those evil sacrifices, I can't imagine any other way to achieve it!"
"Furthermore..."
Lu Ya paused briefly. "I investigated that bizarre faceless statue as well."
"It is the evil god worshiped by an ancient sinister sect, the Profound Heaven Sect! Remnants of the Profound Heaven Sect—every cultivator of our generation has a duty to eliminate them!"
Xu Ke had no idea what the Profound Heaven Sect was.
However, he certainly knew the real reason why Mr. Bai's cultivation advanced so rapidly.
Yet, the words had barely reached his lips when he suddenly recalled Li Fan's warning that "Heaven's secrets must never be leaked," and he could only swallow them back down.
Chapter 1079