599: Chapter 599 Either hand over the person and compensate for emotional distress, or I'll raze your mountain gate to the ground.

"Is that the Taixu Sect's turtle shell?"

Xu Ruyu tilted his chin and asked the Grand Elder beside him.

The Grand Elder nodded. The blood at the corner of his mouth had been wiped clean, but his face was still somewhat pale.

"Yes. It's said to have been laid down by the Ancestral Master, capable of blocking a full-strength strike from a Saint Realm Peak.

Taixu Sect has been established for several hundred years, and this Formation has never been broken.

Back then, Tianyan Sect wanted to annex them, but even after attacking several times, they couldn't get in."

"Tianyan Sect?" Xu Ruyu laughed. "With that little firepower of Tianyan Sect, they have the nerve to be used for comparison?"

He took his hand off the cannon barrel, walked two steps toward Taixu Sect, and cleared his throat.

He didn't use Qi to amplify his voice, nor did he use a Magical Artifact to transmit sound; he just used a normal volume to speak a sentence.

But that sentence echoed through the valley, every word clearly delivered into the ears of everyone in Taixu Sect.

"Listen up, people inside. I am Xu Ruyu, the Sect Master of Hehuan Sect.

You've captured someone from my Hehuan Sect named Lu Yao.

Now, immediately, release her.

Then pay thirty million Spirit Stones as mental distress fees.

Either hand over the person and pay compensation, or I will level your Taixu Sect.

You choose."

There was a moment of silence within the mountain gate.

Then, a burst of uproarious laughter erupted.

The first to laugh was Elder Liu.

Standing inside the Mountain Protection Array, he was momentarily stunned upon hearing Xu Ruyu's words, then laughed so hard he couldn't straighten his back.

He clutched his stomach and pointed at the Hehuan Sect Disciples outside the mountain gate carrying guns and cannons, saying to the Disciples beside him, "What did he say? He said he'd level Taixu Sect? With just these iron lumps? Hahahaha!"

The Disciples nearby also began to laugh.

A young Disciple craned his neck to look outside. Seeing the thick and long barrel of the City-Breaker Cannon, the Thunder Roar Cannon on Zhao Tiezhu's shoulder, and the qi-breaking gun in Zhou Daniu's arms, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are those things? Iron pipes? iron lumps?

Hey, is your Hehuan Sect so poor you've gone crazy? Can't make Magical Artifacts anymore, so you brought a bunch of scrap iron to make up the numbers?"

Another Disciple laughed even louder: "Where do you think this is? This is Taixu Sect, not your Hehuan Sect!

In Hehuan Sect, you have that turtle shell protecting you, so we can't break in.

But now you're outside, and we have the Grand Array protecting us. What can you do? Throw those iron lumps at us? This is hilarious!"

Sect Leader Qing Fengzi stood at the front of the crowd, a mocking smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.

He didn't laugh as wildly as the other Disciples, but his eyes were full of contempt.

He glanced at the strangely shaped equipment behind Xu Ruyu, and his heart became even more certain—as expected, those rumors were all exaggerations.

How could Hehuan Sect be that powerful? The images on the yingxi stone must have been tampered with.

Seeing it with his own eyes now, it was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.

Those iron lumps didn't even have a hint of Qi fluctuation. They looked clumsy and heavy; they probably couldn't even kill a rabbit.

What 'cannons,' what 'armor'—they were all just things meant to intimidate.

He took a step forward and shouted to Xu Ruyu through the light screen of the Mountain Protection Array, "Sect Leader Xu, you've come all this way just to bring this scrap metal to scare people? I suggest you save it.

Lu Yao is a traitor of my Taixu Sect. My Taixu Sect is cleaning house; what does that have to do with your Hehuan Sect? If you want to stand up for her, first see how much you weigh.

Here is Taixu Sect, not Hehuan Sect.

Your Sect's Grand Array can't protect your head, and there's no Formation around you to block blades for you.

If you're smart, take your iron lumps and get lost quickly, so you don't embarrass yourself."

Hearing this, the corner of Zhao Yan's mouth twitched.

He aimed the muzzle of the City-Breaker Cannon at the mountain gate of Taixu Sect and turned to Xu Ruyu, saying, "Sect Master, can I fire now? I can't take it anymore.

The laughter of these grandsons is too unpleasant."

Xu Ruyu waved his hand.

"What's the rush."

He turned around, looking at the wildly laughing faces on the Taixu Sect mountain gate, the corners of his mouth slightly curving up.

That smile was very faint, so faint it was almost unnoticeable, but Zhao Yan saw it and immediately shut his mouth—he was all too familiar with this expression of the Sect Master. Every time these people finished laughing, they'd be crying the next second.

Xu Ruyu was in no hurry to fire.

He was waiting.

Deep within the mountain gate, in a side room next to the Main Hall, Lu Yao was thrown on the ground, tied up tightly.

Her wrists were tied behind her back with a hemp rope as thick as a thumb. The knot was tied very tightly, cutting into her flesh, and a purple bruise had already formed around her wrists.

Her ankles were also tied, her legs curled beneath her, and her moon-white robes were covered in dust and grass.

Her hair had come loose, with a few strands sticking to her face, soaked with sweat and tears.

After Elder Liu captured her from Luoxing Ferry, he locked her directly into this side room.

The side room wasn't large, with only a dilapidated wooden table and a three-legged chair. The windows were nailed shut with wooden boards, letting in only a few rays of twilight.

From yesterday to today, except for someone coming in to give her a bowl of cold water and half a dry bun, no one else had come.

She didn't know how long she would be locked up, nor did she know what awaited her—interrogation? Having her Cultivation crippled? Or something even worse?

She had stayed in Taixu Sect for twenty years and knew the sect rules like the back of her hand.

There was only one end for a traitor: having their Cultivation crippled and being expelled from the mountain gate.

The so-called "interrogation" was just a formality, with the Elders sitting above and her kneeling below, reading out her "crimes" in Hehuan Sect one by one, and then announcing the result of the punishment.

She could defend herself, but no one would listen.

Last time in front of the Main Hall, she didn't even get a chance to speak before Sect Leader Qing Fengzi drove her out in front of the entire Sect.

This time, the result would be no different.

She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

Having been tied up for almost a day, her shoulders were sore and numb, but that ache was nothing compared to the disappointment in her heart.

She was thinking about the people of Hehuan Sect.

Thinking of the blood at the corner of the Grand Elder's mouth, the still-bleeding wound on Chen Ping's shoulder, Zhou Daniu's angry roar when Zhao Hu grabbed his leg, and the silver light that erupted from the muzzle when Li Ergou pulled the trigger of the Chuanyang Gun.

They were not related to her; she had only been at Hehuan Sect for a month and wasn't even considered a formal Disciple, yet they had fought desperately against Elder Liu to protect her at Luoxing Ferry.

And her? To avoid involving them, she had taken the initiative to go with Elder Liu.

At the time, she felt she was doing the right thing.

The Grand Elder was injured, Chen Ping had lost so much blood, Zhou Daniu and Li Ergou were no match for Elder Liu, Xiao Nianyin wasn't there—if the fight continued, it would only get worse.

If she didn't go with them, the Grand Elder and the others would have fought until their last breath.

So she left.

But when she was dragged back to Taixu Sect by Elder Liu like a dog, she suddenly thought of something—before she left, she told the Grand Elder, "Tell the Sect Master not to come save me."

She said "don't come," but in her heart, was there a tiny bit of hope, a hope that someone would come?

She didn't dare think about it.

She knew Xu Ruyu was a good person, a Sect Master so good he didn't seem like a Sect Master.

He waived her Spirit Stones, arranged a place for her to stay, gave her bedding, had the kitchen add extra dishes, and had the Grand Elder and Disciples look after her.

But that was out of sympathy, out of a Sect Master's pity for a homeless person.

What was she? She was someone Taixu Sect didn't want, an outsider taken in by Hehuan Sect.

She wasn't even a formal Disciple of Hehuan Sect—Xu Ruyu had said she could stay if she wanted and leave if she wanted, no pressure.

She had always felt like a guest staying over; if a guest is bullied, would the host stand up for her?

Would he bring the entire Sect to Taixu Sect for the sake of an outsider?

Probably not...