Bao Wuji had left just a few seconds before the mountain closed, due to Aotian’s bad premonition.

As soon as everyone came out, he immediately isolated his group, including the couple, and took them into the sky without anyone noticing they had been there.

Aotian had reasoned that the powers of the central continent would certainly take notice of what had happened to the 12 powers. If his strange avatars, along with Mu Luyin and Lei Yun, appeared alive after that attack they had suffered, suspicion might fall on them due to how odd and extraordinary the circumstances were.

Of course, it was only a possibility, but Aotian didn’t think it was worth the risk just to slap someone in the face.

Bao Wuji’s gaze fell upon the people in the crowd, most of them uncomfortable with what would happen next.

After all, they still carried slave seals on their bodies. And those who didn’t, the ones belonging to the 12 powers, had not seen even a trace of the Silent Cadaver Orchid.

But this was a hundred times worse for those with the seal, since if they didn’t find the herb, they had been promised a group execution, while the group belonging to the 12 powers would at most receive a reprimand for failing to find it.

Aotian ignored them and focused on a certain girl in red among the crowd, Feng Tianfei, who despite her arrogant aura, looked somewhat gloomy for having failed the mission.

‘Should I finish her off?’ he wondered, since the girl was clearly an enemy, and a rather cruel one at that.

But after thinking for a moment, he shook his head.

‘Lei Yun and Mu Luyin are here now. If I kill her, they will notice, and even if not immediately, when they hear news in the future they will suspect. It isn’t good for an older generation like Bao Wuji and the elders to assassinate juniors. It would also raise suspicion for the central continent, wondering why a powerful man killed some weaklings without explanation. Besides, without the 12 ancestors, her good days and those of her sect are already numbered.’

He reflected and let it go.

Of course, only because she hadn’t caused any harm to the avatars—otherwise Aotian wouldn’t have thought twice before crushing her.

‘Hehe… I may not kill, but I can still charge some interest.’

Bao Wuji’s eyes shone and, suddenly, the storage rings of everyone belonging to the 12 powers disappeared.

Right after, a wave of spiritual energy vibrated in the air, containing the release commands for the slave seals.

An uproar broke out among the crowd when the rings of the 12 powers vanished, and especially when all the others felt the seals in their dantians dissipating. Once again, they were free.

And it didn’t end there, for a small message was also transmitted directly into the minds of those who bore the seal:

[“The 12 Soul Formation ancestors have fallen. You may go!”]

With that done, Aotian waved in satisfaction.

‘Just one last thing. For my efforts, you shouldn’t mind if I take some rewards, right?’

Amused, he let Bao Wuji’s energy infiltrate the storage rings of everyone, searching through them and pulling out some items that might be useful.

While examining, something in particular, inside the ring of a middle-aged, fierce-looking man, made Aotian’s body freeze.

“No way!” he couldn’t contain himself and spoke aloud in his main body, trembling with excitement.

His fists clenched, and a wide smile appeared on his face.

For what he found inside one of that man’s storage rings was a lotus-shaped herb, dark blue, its body covered in tiny white specks like stars in the sky, exuding a Nascent-Tier aura.

‘Transcendent Sky-Lotus! Damn, who said my luck abandoned me!’ He nearly jumped up to dance in sheer joy, for that herb could increase the qualifications of a spiritual root, which had been his goal the entire time in that mountain.

Soon, the lotus disappeared from the man’s ring. Aotian didn’t feel guilty for stealing so blatantly, for not only had he freed them all from the slave seal and spared them from death, but that man had also been among those who tried to ambush him earlier, when the avatars had just entered the mountain.

With no burden on his conscience, he made a few more “purchases” from the storage rings, but didn’t take much. After all, what he had already obtained in that Formation-Tier sect was enough to make him quite wealthy.

With nothing else to do, he controlled Bao Wuji to gather the allies and leave.

…

Feng Tianfei was having a terrible day. She knew that the mission to find any clue about the Silent Cadaver Orchid had most likely failed.

The mission itself was only to discover the herb’s existence in the mountain, for if it truly existed, it would certainly be guarded by a Shadow Beast of similar level, something she, even with everyone’s help, had no way of dealing with.

Now she could only place her hopes on those enslaved cultivators she despised, hoping that at least with their great numbers they might find some trace.

When she was about to shout in frustration and order those people to report and hand over everything they had before their tragic end, she suddenly felt something strange—her finger seemed lighter.

Lowering her head, to her horror, she saw her storage ring was gone.

“Where’s my ring?!”

A scream was heard, but it didn’t come from her.

Feng Tianfei turned her head and saw that one of her companions had also lost his ring.

“Ah?! Mine’s gone too! Wait, my pouch with the other rings is gone as well!”

Another cry echoed, triggering an uproar in the crowd. Read complete version only at novel⸺fire.net

Feng Tianfei quickly checked and realized her pouch was also gone.

“Bastard! Who was it?!” She clenched her teeth in fury and began looking around, but all her allies had also lost their rings and pouches.

Normally, cultivators carried only a single storage ring, but since even the highest quality ones had limited space, during exploration journeys it was common to bring extra pouches with rings, which made it easier to transport a large amount of goods and beast corpses.

Of course, rings were not cheap, so one needed either financial backing or a good cultivation level to adopt such a practice.

While the girl in red searched nonstop for the culprits, she realized that, aside from her allies, everyone else seemed not to have lost their belongings. This immediately darkened her expression.

She was about to call over some of those third-rate cultivators in her eyes to interrogate them, since she had no intention of letting the culprit escape, nor of granting them a quick death. No, she wanted to take her time dealing with whoever had done this.

But then, suddenly, they all seemed to rejoice and began fleeing out of nowhere.

“Hey! What are you doing?! Do you want to die?! Stop right now!!” she shouted angrily and immediately activated the slave seals of several people in front of her, wanting to use them as an example.

But her energy passed through them and… nothing.

Her ruby eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, stunned.

The men, who had felt that energy pass through them, turned and glared at her with eyes red with fury.

If they had still carried slave seals, they would have turned into corpses in that instant.

One of those men, hot-tempered, immediately felt his blood boil and could no longer hold himself back.

“You stupid bitch! Disgusting woman, even if you stripped naked and shook your ass in front of me, I’d still be disgusted to touch you! You’re a ****, you deserve ***, I hope you and your whole family ***…”

The man’s mouth ran faster and faster, and all the venom he had stored in his heart was spat out without restraint.

Feng Tianfei froze, her eyes wide. It was the first time in her life she had heard such words.

But soon the constant rebuke jolted her awake, and her body trembled as her eyes turned blood-red with intense hatred.

“Go to hell!!” she roared, cutting off the man — who seemed to have his own dictionary of insults — with a furious bellow.

The seals in her hands were created to kill him and everyone around. But the man, even while cursing, had already prepared an attack, and immediately launched it upon seeing her act.

Soon, the girl crushed his spell with her own, easily, but others came and destroyed hers.

They were people from the other side, also enemies, and they dared to attack her as well.

Seeing multiple spells flying her way, Feng Tianfei was startled, but her allies quickly appeared to counterattack.

A battle broke out, spells rained down from both sides, but it quickly ended when those people withdrew.

Although they believed the ancestors of the 12 powers might truly have faced trouble as the message they received claimed — since someone had freed them from the slave seal and many had begun fleeing, while those ancestors hadn’t reacted at all — they still weren’t sure of the true extent of the damage the other side had suffered.

And even if it were true that the Twelve Powers had lost their ancestors, as the saying goes, a thin camel is still bigger than a horse.

Therefore, those men would not risk antagonizing the 12 powers in a full-scale war; after all, they knew very well their place in the world.

“Goodbye, red-haired bitch!”

“You’d better hang yourself and try to be someone better in the next life, because in this one there’s no chance!”

“Hag!”

Seeing them fleeing, not forgetting to insult her from afar, Feng Tianfei nearly went insane with rage.

“Ancestors! Please! Kill them!! Kill them!! Kill them!!” she screamed shrilly, clenching her fists at her sides, her eyes seeming to spit fire. Never in her life had she been so humiliated, even less so by third-rate cultivators.

But all she received in response were more jeers, as all those people departed.

Her beautiful face paled, and she finally realized that something must have gone terribly wrong.

…

Far away, 12 people were being wrapped in spiritual energy by an old man in golden robes with a gentle demeanor.

“So you want to join our sect?” Bao Wuji asked, looking at Mu Luyin, who nodded seriously.

“Yes, senior. But before speaking about that, I would like to apologize for my prejudice and narrow-mindedness from before toward the seniors.” The girl nodded sincerely, then turned to the elders, cupped her fists, and bowed deeply in apology.

Even while wrapped by Bao Wuji’s spiritual energy, they could move normally, as they were only being carried, not restrained. Thus, she was able to bow naturally.

“Seniors, I know I was very rude, but it was all due to my preconceived notions of the world. I never had any intention of antagonizing the veterans out of malice or ulterior motives,” she spoke sincerely, and Aotian, through Bao Wuji, noticed it.

He already knew this in his heart, so with that apology, the dissatisfaction he hadn’t even realized he carried toward her dissipated considerably.

The avatars simply nodded indifferently, calmly telling her that she could rise, that it was fine.

Bao Wuji, seeing that things had calmed down, nodded and took the lead.

“It’s not a problem for you to join. After all, you are a talented girl and don’t seem to have a bad heart. But tell me, why did you suddenly decide to join?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep