Yang Qing looked upwards for a bit, then his gaze fell below him. There was nothing but mist below that obscured everything on the ground from view.
"I am.." he calmly answered as he took out the harbinger's call horn.
He looked to his left and right, where the four judges; Dai Chen, Zhang Qingge, Mo Liwei, and Wei Ying all nodded back at him.
He then looked behind him where Xia Ting and Yu Gen suddenly appeared waving their hands.
"Okay then.."
He immediately took a deep breath and then muttered a silent incantation that produced white sigil markings from the horn.
He tightly held the horn as his gaze pierced through the veil of mist below him. His pupils turned pure white with a green dao marking on them.
He could see a group of young ladies huddled together deciphering an old-looking scroll beneath a silver cypress tree with excitement in their eyes, at another end he could see young girls seemingly about 10- 12 years old admiring a senior of theirs producing a 20 foot water current from her sword play, and in another side there were two young ladies who looked to be in their late twenties and were in the early stages of the core formation realm who seemed to be exchanging pointers in the form of combat within an arena as other disciples cheered them on.
The area was brimming with life and if Yang Qing didn't have the yin-yang jade physique or cultivated the University duality indulgent of the myriad worlds cultivation art, he may have very well missed the air of resentment and anguish that floated within every inch of the area below, especially at the central place where it congealed to the point of creating faces filled with pain and torment, screaming.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm Any part of him that was still hesitant and resistant to eliminating the whole sect, disappeared the moment he saw the congealed air of anguish and sorrow.
Such a thing could only be formed in an area that has been littered with the souls of those who died bitterly and painfully to the end, and their number was in the hundred of thousands. Their resentment lingered afraid, tormented, and unable to move on.
For someone like Yang Qing who had an absurd sensitivity toward life essence, such resentment was as clear as daylight to him. He could even feel the fear that they had as they met their ends.
"What is it?" Dai Chen asked when he saw his look.
"The area is littered with the resentment of millions.." Yang Qing said with an apathetic look.
With zero hesitation he began the proclamation of the charge and sentence that would befall the Ice Emerald Sect.
..
The core region of the Ice Emerald Sect,
"Zhao Ju it seems we have intruders above us...."
The mature-looking lady with free-flowing white hair who had been seated in lotus position beneath the Wisteria tree hurriedly opened her eyes as she turned back to face the Wisteria tree which seemed to be the source of the voice that had spoken.
The voice was raspy and had a deathly chillness to it.
"Is it the ancestor of the Twin River Empire?" she asked with worry clearly written all over her face.
"It is not that old emperor, those who have just arrived are different. If his empire had people of their caliber, they would have already flattened the sect..."
The mature-looking young lady's pupils constricted in fear as she looked up.
"There are seven palace stage experts; three are in the first stage, one in the second stage, two in the third stage, and one is in the fourth stage. Each with foundations I've never seen before.
Even that coot would likely flee when targetted by them, and two of them were the two who had sneaked in here not too long ago..."
even with a raspy cold voice that was shaky and a tad bit inaudible at times, one could feel the wariness in the speakers.
"What do we do? Do you think they know?"
"With such a line-up, is it even in doubt?"
A long silence ensued as the mature-looking lady walked back and forth next to the tree.
"Could they be from the Order?" she muttered to herself horrified at the prospect of it, which felt like it was highly likely they were/
"Founder, what do we do!?!? ... I told you we needed to be careful, and things are not the same as back then... see now...the ORDER IS ALREADY AT OUR DOORSTEPS!!!!"
Even though it was just conjecture, she was dead certain those outside were from the Order. They were the only ones who fit the bill and could marshal the lineup outside.
"Calm down will you..where was this reasoning when what we did helped you break through to the palace realm and even increase your cultivation base to the third stage?"
the tone of the voice in the tree was rife with mockery as it said this.
"Stall for time using the array, use every precious resource available. With how much strengthening it has undergone over the years, it should be sufficient to stall them for an hour at least..that should buy me enough time.."
"Enough time for? Do we have a way out?" sect master Zhao Ju impatiently asked.
"Zhao Ju you need to master your emotions well, otherwise even with the special abilities of the Wisteria tree and the taotie destruction rebirth swallowing art, it will be hard for you to break through to the middle stages of the palace realm with such a shaky resolve.
You're the sect master, act as one.."
"I'm sorry founder.." said sect master Zhao Ju as she bowed.
"While the situation we are in isn't ideal, it's not unsalvageable either. The defector Yaozu brought back has dense pure yin energy, enough to support my breakthrough which will give me more capital to negotiate with our benefactor to help us out of this mess.
With his abilities, getting us out of this should not be difficult, but for that, I need to be indispensable to him, and increasing my strength is one such way.
I'm not that far off, so you need to do all you can to buy me as much time as you possibly can. The resources we have acquired over the years should be able to fully activate the formation, and if that isn't enough.."
"Sacrifice some of the talented disciples preferably those in the core formation stage," the raspy voice coldly said.
Sect Master Zhao Ju flinched on hearing the order, however, she immediately recomposed herself as she replied,
"Yes, founder."
"And Zhao Ju..." Just as the sect master was about to hurry away the voice suddenly spoke up.
"You need to be prepared for the chance that not everyone may make it. You need to resolve yourself to abandon your disciples..all of them. Depending on how things go, in the best case, I think I can only guarantee your life, and the other elders in the palace realm, and maybe Yaozu, who has some talent, but for the rest, we will have to abandon them, and everything that ties us to the sect.
Prepare yourself to abandon the sect.."
Sect Master Zhao Ju paused as she softly answered,
"Okay.."
The voice behind the Wisteria tree sighed as Zhao Ju disappeared from sight.
"I guess I should inform him. If he doesn't help us..."
Her interaction with the sect master, though seemed long, had lasted two minutes.
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