The situation was even worse than anticipated.
It was not just the Congyun Sea.
Throughout the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, illustrated booklets of Senior Sister Zhao were circulating in secret.
Cultivators possessed their own pride.
Naturally, none of them would go around advertising that they were secretly browsing such illustrated booklets.
Yet the booklets' contents were truly captivating.
So long as one's willpower was not exceptionally unyielding, basically anyone who viewed them would be plunged into endless stray thoughts and a restless mind.
Even if they found fellow cultivators to vent their desires, the lust could never be satisfied.
They only craved to see more booklets about Senior Sister Zhao.
And at that very moment, even more explicit and vivid corresponding booklets would always appear in the shadows.
Guiding them along step by step, enticing the cultivators toward the abyss.
Most crucially, the timing had been chosen impeccably.
From top to bottom, the attention of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was entirely focused on the momentous induction examination.
No one noticed that, quietly and unnoticed in forgotten corners, an extremely perilous thing was silently spreading through the Alliance.
"Are they already impatient and beginning to test the waters?"
"Have they already sensed that Chuanfa has left the Xuanhuang Realm?"
Ji Shaoli wore an inscrutable expression.
The methods of a Longevity Heavenly Venerable—even one among the weaker in the Longevity realm—were a dimensional strike to ordinary cultivators, virtually impossible to defend against.
Even the Dao Integration realm fell within the scope of "ordinary."
Thus, Li Fan was not in the least surprised that He Zhenghao had fallen victim.
Even though He Zhenghao was deeply devoted to his wife and daughter, after viewing the erotic exploits of Senior Sister Zhao, his soul had been utterly hooked away.
One had to realize that although Daoist He no longer caught Li Fan's eye nowadays, he was actually an outstanding figure among cultivators.
Without power or influence, he had clawed his way up entirely on his own. In the face of suppression, he had still managed to become an island garrison, had achieved notable accomplishments in the way of formations, and could laugh and converse freely with numerous formation masters of the Formation Planning Hall...
How many cultivators across the world fell short of him!
Yet when facing Senior Sister Zhao's illustrated booklets, even He Zhenghao had ended up like this. The performance of other cultivators was easy to imagine.
"This is a hundred times more dangerous than any Mind-Ascending Immortality Pill."
"The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is actually letting it spread without noticing in the slightest."
"Should I give them a warning...?"
Ji Shaoli was somewhat undecided.
Even if he wanted to see the Alliance suffer a crushing defeat and reveal its final trump cards, he still harbored a trace of wariness in his heart toward the methods of Heavenly Venerable Yixin.
"The Alliance should have its own way of dealing with it. There is no need for me to worry."
After a moment of contemplation, Ji Shaoli ultimately abandoned the idea of meddling.
He chose to remain a bystander.
He merely exhorted the cultivators in the Mutual Aid Association never to look at any illustrated booklets out of fleeting curiosity.
At the same time, he closely monitored the quiet changes transpiring in secret.
Soon, however, Ji Shaoli realized that he had still underestimated the capability of Heavenly Venerable Yixin.
As the old saying went, curiosity killed the cat.
Knowing the danger did not mean one could completely sever the temptation.
Moreover, precisely because they had learned beforehand that the true protagonist of the booklets was one of the Xuanhuang Realm's apex powerhouses, a ruling Heavenly Venerable of the Five Elders Association...
They only grew increasingly curious about the contents of the booklets.
At the same time, they harbored a sliver of wishful thinking and self-confidence.
*It's just a single glance, what could possibly happen...?*
Once such a thought arose, it would not disappear.
Instead, with the passage of time, it grew day by day, leaving their minds in a daze.
When desire went unsatisfied, it swelled without restraint.
By the time Ji Shaoli noticed something amiss, three members of the Mutual Aid Association could no longer endure it.
They had secretly procured the booklets and pored over them in private.
While alarmed, Ji Shaoli had no choice but to lock them all in dark confinement rooms, supervising them as they purified their minds.
"Truly impossible to guard against."
Listening to the voices filled with resentment and curses drifting from the darkness, and observing their behavior that bordered on demonic madness, Ji Shaoli's expression shifted repeatedly.
"This is only the early stage, and I severed the influence immediately."
"As for those cultivators who are deeply ensnared..."
Ji Shaoli felt a faint chill inside.
"Though Senior Sister Zhao might be slightly weaker in actual combat, her influence over cultivators is truly not beneath that of any Heavenly Venerable."
To prevent more people within the Mutual Aid Association from succumbing, Ji Shaoli simply recalled all of them and sealed Haixuan Island once again.
"In any case, there is still some time before the induction examination. I refuse to believe the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is completely oblivious to this."
"Let's see how they deal with it."
Just as Ji Shaoli had expected, when more and more cultivators fell under the influence of Senior Sister Zhao's booklets, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals eventually detected clues.
And the countermeasure adopted by the Alliance truly taught Ji Shaoli a lesson.
They did not make a grand display of banning the booklets' circulation.
In fact, the authorities did not even mention the booklets' existence.
Instead, virtually over the course of a single day, thousands of different secret texts suddenly circulated throughout the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
All of them were books and scrolls that had previously been banned and forbidden from circulation and trade.
They included the *Illustration of Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable Forcibly Seizing the Taishang Primordial Scripture*, which Li Fan had seen before, as well as the *Chronicle of the Demon Infant Wangyou Devouring Father and Consuming Mother*, the *Illustration of the Scholar Speaking Recklessly and Halting the Flow*, and so forth...
There were written volumes and pictorial records alike.
Their contents were bizarre and fantastical, none quite the same, and some even contradicted one another.
Yet they shared a single common thread:
They were all about the five Longevity Heavenly Venerables of the Five Elders Association.
One had to understand that previously, cultivators in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals only knew that these five Longevity Heavenly Venerables existed in the Five Elders Association. Beyond that, they knew nothing at all.
Now, with so many sensational secrets suddenly bursting into the open, their attention was naturally captured.
Very quickly, the contents of these secret texts became the hottest topic across the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
No matter where one went, cultivators could be seen discussing them everywhere.
Even those who rarely involved themselves in worldly affairs paid close attention amidst this atmosphere of universal discussion.
Ji Shaoli also discovered that under these circumstances, the allure of Senior Sister Zhao's booklets had unwittingly diminished.
Among the secret texts released by the Alliance, there were naturally many concerning Heavenly Venerable Yixin.
They did not deliberately tone down the erotic elements; rather, while describing her rise from humble beginnings and her feats of reviving her sect, they mixed in plenty of blood-pumping material.
Yet, alluring though they were, when compared to the booklets circulated by the Five Elders Association, they lacked that fatal, hypnotic pull.
After reading them, cultivators would not lose their appetite or sleep.
After a spell of excitement, the novelty naturally faded.
Ji Shaoli grew pensive. "Once the veil of mystery is lifted, the allure drops by several tiers."
"After reading them once, reading them again feels completely flavorless. And that is despite the fact that they don't know the booklets about Senior Sister Zhao released by the Alliance and the Five Elders Association are two entirely different things."
"Of course, this atmosphere of universal discussion is another barrier in itself."
Chapter 845