100: Chapter 100 Great Calamity

An incense stick later, Lin Qing had a dozen more Storage Rings on the belt hidden inside his clothes.

The Sect Master of Songyun Temple and all the Elders only had cultivation levels at the Fifth Rank, so naturally, they could not stir up any trouble before Lin Qing.

Lin Qing stood in the plaza, breaking the Restrictions on these rings one by one to count the supplies inside.

They were almost all conventional items like Spirit Stones, Medicinal Pills, and Spiritual Weapons; there was nothing that truly caught his eye.

Only the ring of Daoist Guishan contained two special white jade plaques. Lin Qing recognized them; they were Communication Tokens.

Sect Master Shen Yurong also had one, specifically provided for major registered Sects within the territory of Great Qi to connect with the central hub in the Royal Capital.

Whenever a major event occurred within Great Qi, the Royal Capital would use these tokens to send messages to the leaders of various Sects, synchronizing the movements of the imperial court and top-tier factions.

If a Sect had any major news, they could also use this item to report to the Royal Capital.

This type of token could not facilitate multi-person communication; they were crafted in pairs for one-on-one messaging.

To contact others, one had to possess a separate pair of tokens with them.

Precisely because of these strict limitations and high production costs, in Great Qi, only Sect Masters or experts above the Sixth Rank possessed a few of them.

Daoist Guishan had two Communication Tokens; one of them was undoubtedly for contacting the Royal Capital, but unfortunately, Lin Qing's slaughter was too decisive, and he hadn't had the chance to use it.

The other one was likely used to contact his backers, the Qiushan Sect.

Even if it wasn't the Sect Master of the Qiushan Sect, it would be a Sixth Rank Elder responsible for their expansion operations in Qingzhou.

Lin Qing put away the two Communication Tokens; they were of no use for the time being.

Afterward, Lin Qing consolidated and categorized all the supplies from the dozen Storage Rings, discarding useless miscellaneous items directly.

After organizing the Elders' Storage Rings, he did not leave immediately.

Instead, he spread his Divine Thought out once more, enveloping the entire Yunwu Mountain Range.

Some growing spiritual plants or larger items like Pill Furnaces would not be kept in Storage Rings all year round, so there were still many items to collect within Songyun Temple.

Without the support of a mountain-protecting array, the entire Sect held no secrets from Lin Qing.

Under Lin Qing's Divine Thought probing, all secret chambers and hidden cabinets were exposed.

He leaped and landed, weaving between the various halls and pavilions, collecting everything of value until all the Storage Rings on his person were completely full, at which point Lin Qing stopped his looting.

As for the ordinary Mortal Realm Disciples of Songyun Temple, Lin Qing did not attack them.

The power struggle of the Sect's upper echelons had little to do with them, and Lin Qing was not someone who enjoyed slaughtering the innocent.

Furthermore, his cultivation foundation was profound, and with the System by his side, he was not at all afraid that they would grow up to seek revenge on him.

If one of these Disciples truly managed to grow up in the future and cause trouble for Lin Qing, then Lin Qing could only scold himself for being useless.

After completely resolving Songyun Temple, Lin Qing also planned to make a trip to the Qiushan Sect to see how they would react.

He gazed into the distance, identifying his bearings.

Although he hadn't known the location of Songyun Temple before, he did know the general direction of the Qiushan Sect; it was located in the Anzhou territory, adjacent to Qingzhou.

This was also the fundamental reason why the Qiushan Sect had set their sights on Qingzhou and secretly supported factions to establish a presence there; it was close and convenient to manage.

After determining the direction, Lin Qing did not hesitate and took to the sky once more.

This time, he even experimented with sword-flying; with the support of a Spiritual Weapon, his flight speed was slightly faster than normal flight, but to Lin Qing, it was not significant.

With a flash of sword light, his figure followed the sword, transforming into a sharp rainbow that streaked toward the direction of Anzhou.

Several hours later, over a dozen streaks of light pierced the sky and descended onto the plaza of Songyun Temple.

It was Sect Master Shen Yurong leading most of the Elders from Luoxia Valley.

At this moment, Songyun Temple was already in complete chaos.

All the high-level members of the Sect had been killed, and the remaining Mortal Realm Disciples were leaderless and panicked.

Many Disciples had already packed their bags and fled the mountain gate; the vast Yunwu Mountain Range was desolate and dilapidated, lacking any of the atmosphere of a Sect from before.

On the plaza, the corpses of Daoist Guishan and the various Elders had been hurriedly arranged by the Disciples, lined up neatly in the plaza, a sight that left the members of Luoxia Valley trembling.

Even Sect Master Shen Yurong could not maintain her composed expression.

She had sent Lin Qing to handle this matter, originally only wanting him to intimidate Songyun Temple or the merchants in the market so they could continue collecting taxes; she never expected him to wipe out Songyun Temple entirely.

Yuan Kun, however, did not care about that.

Seeing the situation in the plaza, he immediately said with burning eyes: "Sect Master! The high-level members of Songyun Temple are all wiped out, and the Sect has collapsed; this is the perfect Opportunity for us to take over!"

"We should arrange personnel as quickly as possible to take over the various industries of Songyun Temple. If we are late, it will benefit other factions."

In the face of massive benefits, everyone was somewhat excited, except for one white-haired Sect Elder at the end of the group, who stepped forward and said in a deep voice: "Wait! You cannot!"

Everyone turned to look, gazing at this Elder with puzzled expressions.

The old Elder swept his gaze across the crowd, finally landing on Yuan Kun, his tone incomparably grave: "Yuan Kun, do you know? In Great Qi, how is it defined when one slaughters the entire leadership of a faction and then annexes its industries?"

This single sentence was like a bucket of ice water, sending a chill down everyone's spines.

Only then did the group suppress the excitement in their hearts and contemplate the severity of this matter.

Yuan Kun's face turned pale, fine cold sweat seeping from his forehead, and his lips trembled slightly as he spoke: "It... it is the Demonic Path!"

Although Great Qi had a vast territory and numerous Sects, it also had an extremely strict System of rules.

All factions in Great Qi were regulated by an Alliance led by the imperial family and composed of the six top-tier factions.

Even a top-tier faction like the Qiushan Sect, despite setting their sights on the Qingzhou territory, could only secretly support Songyun Temple to slowly plot their takeover; they dared not attack Qingzhou factions to forcibly annex their industries.

Seeing that Yuan Kun had realized the truth, the white-haired Elder stopped staring at him and instead turned to look at Sect Master Shen Yurong, cupping his hands: "Sect Master! The most important priority right now is definitely not taking over the industries of Songyun Temple!"

"We should immediately send a message to the Royal Capital, proactively report the situation, and distance ourselves from Lin Qing!"

As these words fell, everyone's minds became chaotic.

Lin Qing was the most talented person they had ever seen, the hope for the Sect's rise.

Yet, at this moment, this Genius had brought a catastrophic disaster upon Luoxia Valley!

The white-haired Elder watched the struggling expressions of the group and continued: "Everyone should be clear that Songyun Temple is not a band of mountain bandits; they are a properly registered Sect of Great Qi!"

"Behind them is the Qiushan Sect, one of the six top-tier factions!"

"Within the Alliance, the Qiushan Sect is a core giant, while my Luoxia Valley is merely an ordinary mid-tier faction in Qingzhou."

"Once the Qiushan Sect secretly fans the flames and takes this Opportunity to define my Luoxia Valley as a Demonic Path Sect."

"At that time, the Qiushan Sect can legitimately take action and, under the pretext of eliminating demons, destroy my Luoxia Valley!"

Yuan Kun's face turned livid, and he gritted his teeth as he stepped forward to refute: "Impossible! We have Lin Qing! Lin Qing's combat power reaches the heavens; he can even kill a Sixth Rank Elder. He has absolutely no fear of the Qiushan Sect!"

The old Elder looked at him deeply and replied in an icy tone: "Fine. Even if Lin Qing does not fear the Qiushan Sect, does he also not fear the entire Great Qi?"

"If Lin Qing truly blocks the Qiushan Sect, what we will face afterward will no longer be just one Qiushan Sect, but the entire Great Qi!"

Yuan Kun's throat felt blocked, and he could no longer say a single word of rebuttal, but the white-haired Elder pressed on step by step: "Taking a step back, even if Lin Qing is truly Heaven-Defying and does not fear the encirclement of the entire Great Qi,"

"Then what about you? What about me? What about the Sect Master? What about the hundreds of Disciples of Luoxia Valley?"

"Facing the overwhelming force of the entire Great Qi's encirclement, can Lin Qing protect every single one of us at every moment?"

"Are the thousands of us in Luoxia Valley supposed to follow Lin Qing and become enemies with the entire world, becoming remnants of the Demonic Path and fleeing everywhere just to survive?"

As his voice fell, no one in the crowd spoke again; everyone realized that the destruction of Songyun Temple, which seemed like a huge Opportunity, was actually a catastrophic disaster capable of destroying Luoxia Valley!

The white-haired Elder no longer looked at the crowd, but instead solemnly bowed to Sect Master Shen Yurong: "Sect Master, the situation is critical and brooks no delay; please make a decision immediately!"