339: Five Elders Gate

Chen Xuan stood suspended above the Nine Heavens, his robes flapping loudly in the wind, but his eyes were as bright as stars, and the hand seals he formed with his fingertips became increasingly rapid.

This method works!

Beside him, Master Qing Xuan gazed at the soaring light screen for a long time, his heart filled with shock and doubt.

What kind of Formation is this? It's unheard of!

Though it was only a prototype, it already exuded an unfathomable pressure that made his scalp tingle, as if he were witnessing a turning point in the world's power structure with his own eyes.

"Nine Heavens as the screen, star tracks as the guide, nine evils as the lead...!"

Chen Xuan formed the hand seals while chanting under his breath, though in his own eyes, he looked more like a swindling charlatan.

The moment the chant concluded, the Demon Suppressing Towers began to vibrate violently. The evil-suppressing power stored beneath the towers surged forth, transforming into brilliant pillars of light that pierced the clouds, echoing the light pillar of the first Demon Suppressing Tower. Nine pillars of light intertwined in the sky, weaving a celestial map across the heavens that resonated faintly with the stars above.

With a casual wave of his hand, Chen Xuan shot nine streaks of spiritual energy from his palm toward the nine selected Demon Suppressing Towers. The originally clear sky was gradually covered by dark, heavy clouds, with only those nine pillars of light piercing through, shining brilliantly like pillars supporting the heavens.

Chen Xuan kept his eyes closed, continuously taking out Flat Peaches to consume.

He needed to precisely regulate the evil-suppressing power of the nine Demon Suppressing Towers to achieve a perfect balance before he could draw upon the power of the Nine Heavens' star tracks. This was a long process, and the spiritual energy consumption during this period was unimaginable.

Though Chen Xuan could have chosen to take an azure spirit pill to restore his spiritual energy... it wasn't necessary, truly not necessary!

While these Flat Peaches were a bit slow to take effect, they weren't entirely useless; eating ten or twenty of them was enough to sustain him.

He could clearly feel that the evil-suppressing power of every Demon Suppressing Tower was now under his control, flowing slowly like nine docile giant dragons following his guidance... The Five Elders Gate was jointly established by the five great families: Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu, and Zhao.

Because the heads of the Liu and Zhao Families failed to escape unscathed from the previous battle at Yaoshi City and met their end, the current decision-makers of the Sect were only the Li Family Clan Chief Li Cangxuan, the Wang Family Clan Chief Wang Jinglei, and the Zhang Family Clan Chief Zhang Mochen.

At this moment, inside the Sect Main Hall where sandalwood incense curled in the air, the three were holding an emergency meeting.

Li Cangxuan stroked his long beard and sighed softly, "To think it would eventually come to this."

"We have done all that is humanly possible and left the rest to fate."

Zhang Mochen's gaze swept over the two of them as he snorted coldly, "If the Xuanxu Tower Master were still here, today might have been a different story. What a pity; such great talent was ruined by the schemes of you four."

"There is no need to mention past trifles!"

Li Cangxuan interjected, "Instead of obsessing over that, why not plan our current path of retreat? Back then, it wasn't that we didn't give Xuanxu a chance. As long as he was willing to be branded with a Slave Seal and swear loyalty to the Sect, forget a path to Breakthrough to the Body Integration Realm, what would it matter if we gave him even more preferential treatment? But he chose to refuse; such an end was his own doing."

"You call that a chance?"

Zhang Mochen sneered, his face full of ridicule, "If I carved a Slave Seal onto your Divine Soul and then guaranteed with my character that I wouldn't act recklessly, would you be willing?"

Li Cangxuan was so provoked that his anger flared, and he slammed the table as he stood up, retortly gruffly, "Old man Zhang, what do you mean by that?"

"Are we supposed to just allow a Body Integration Realm expert to exist within the Sect without any constraints?"

"Even the kings at the foot of the mountains know to keep the tallies of power firmly in their grasp. If Xuanxu were no longer content to just be a Tower Master of the Demon Suppressing Tower after breaking through to the Body Integration Realm, who could stop him then? Who would dare? Or are you saying your Li Family is willing to voluntarily give up power?"

Wang Jinglei, who had been listening silently, finally chimed in: "The matter regarding Xuanxu back then was decided by a five-person vote; there's no point in talking about it now. Moreover, having one more Body Integration Realm expert might not necessarily change the current situation.

The ones leading the Yao Race are three Body Integration Realm Great Yao! Especially that woman; I estimate she has already reached the Body Integration Late Stage."

"Instead of talking this nonsense."

Wang Jinglei pointed a finger toward the sky, "You'd be better off praying that Great Love Immortal Venerable and the others can defeat those three Yao Venerables. When that time comes, solving this crisis on the Rain God Continent will be as easy as snapping one's fingers."

Li Cangxuan suppressed his anger and said coldly, "Back to the point. Now that the fall of the Rain God Continent is a foregone conclusion, within the Sect, I only want that heaven-rank magic treasure, the Heaven-Rending Sword. Everything else belongs to you two."

Wang Jinglei immediately smiled and said, "Then I want that Heaven-rank Divine Ability! As for the remaining Earth-Grade Magic Treasures and the various treasures in the Alchemy Pavilion, they will all go to your Zhang Family, old man Zhang."

"I seem to remember there were also three bottles of eighth-grade elixirs."

Zhang Mochen fell silent for a moment before saying in a heavy voice, "So the two of you intend to abandon the more than thirty thousand Disciples of the Sect?"

Li Cangxuan and Wang Jinglei looked at each other and were about to speak when suddenly—

*Boom!*

A deafening explosion occurred, and the entire Five Elders Gate vibrated violently. Tables and chairs shook incessantly, as if an earth dragon were turning over.

"Elder, Great Yao are attacking."

An Outer Sect Elder rushed into the hall, reporting with a panicked expression.

Li Cangxuan and the others could no longer bother with their dispute and rushed out of the hall together. However, the sight before them instantly made them feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, their bodies turning cold.

In the sky outside the Five Elders Gate, tens of thousands of Yao Race members were lined up like a tide, attacking with surging Killing Intent.

High in the sky, a massive Black-Feathered Great Peng circled with its wings spread. With every flap of its wings, sharp bursts of spiritual energy bombarded the Sect's Mountain-Protecting Array. And the leader of the Yao Race, holding a folding fan, was precisely that Body Integration Realm Great Yao who had once revealed his Natal Yao Form and smashed a huge hole into Yaoshi City!

"These beasts, how could they move so fast!" Li Cangxuan was shocked and furious.

"What are we waiting for? If we don't flee now, when will we?"

Before he finished speaking, Li Cangxuan and Wang Jinglei had already turned and flown toward the back of the hall on the wind, leaving Zhang Mochen standing there stunned.

The three of them knew the details of their own Mountain-Protecting Array perfectly: at most, it could only block the combined attack of ten Void Refining Realm experts. But if it encountered a Body Integration Realm Cultivator, it was only a matter of time before it was breached.

Zhang Mochen looked toward the Sect's square at those Disciples who were lost and confused, gazing up into the sky.

The Mountain-Protecting Array vibrated violently again, the cracks on the light screen becoming denser. A shockwave of spiritual energy swept across the square, and several Disciples were immediately sent flying, spitting blood, their lives hanging by a thread.

The entire Sect had already fallen into chaos!

At that moment, a green shadow flashed to Zhang Mochen's side like a ghost. With a graceful figure and fluttering robes, she looked directly at the man before her: "Zhang-lang, what do you plan to do?"

Zhang Mochen was silent for a moment before slowly looking up: "If our generation had even half the spirit of the ancestors who founded the Five Elders Gate, we wouldn't have ended up like this."

As he spoke, he suddenly clenched his fist. Spiritual energy surged around him, a brilliant green light erupted from his palm, and a lustrous long sword appeared out of thin air.

The woman spoke with a smile: "To have known and stayed by your side in this life, Zhang-lang, I have no regrets. If there is a next life, I hope we can continue our bond!"