208: Da Ai Zong Turmoil

Great Love Sect Main Peak.

Inside the main hall.

Jiang Yezi had already shed his straw cape and changed into a blue and white Daoist robe. He had even consumed a Medicinal Pill to reshape his face, making him appear like an Immortal with a Daoist demeanor.

At this moment, he sat in the main seat, somewhat solemnly taking photos of himself as a memento.

Before Midnight Gao Sou went into closed-door cultivation, he had entrusted all affairs of the Great Love Sect to his various Elders.

Among them, Jiang Yezi, possessing a Magic Treasure, had extremely high individual combat power and influence within the Great Love Sect. Furthermore, with the successive departures of founders like Old Potato and Watermelon Prince, Jiang Yezi became the acting Sect Master.

The Great Love Sect was now a colossal entity, with countless resources, and Jiang Yezi, as the acting Sect Master, also benefited from it.

Additionally, as the news of Midnight Gao Sou attempting a Golden Core Breakthrough spread, even the high-level players who had previously disdained the Great Love Sect became cautious. They no longer dared to proactively attack when encountering Great Love Sect members in the wild, and some players even began to curry favor with the Great Love Sect.

Initially, Jiang Yezi was incredibly pleased with himself.

However, as time passed day by day, and Midnight Gao Sou still did not return, some ominous rumors began to spread.

“Midnight Gao Sou giving out such generous benefits was probably to accumulate good karma for himself. He’s afraid of failing his Breakthrough!”

“That’s right, I heard that breaking through to Golden Core has requirements for one’s Dao Heart? So Midnight Gao Sou must have had an uneasy conscience, feeling he couldn’t succeed, which is why he gave out benefits.”

“But no matter what, he’s just an evil Cultivator. I guess he must have already failed by now.”

Various rumors continuously spread, and the entire internet was discussing Midnight Gao Sou’s Breakthrough.

Even professional clubs expressed their opinions on the matter in various online programs:

“Our professional players are also preparing for a Golden Core Breakthrough, but not right now.”

“To be honest, the entire player community lacks information regarding Golden Core Breakthroughs. No, ‘lacks’ is too mild; it should be said that we know absolutely nothing.”

“Rashly attempting a Breakthrough under such circumstances would only be a waste of one Reincarnation. Therefore, our players will not attempt a Breakthrough in the short term.”

“Midnight Gao Sou? I’ve heard of him. He could be considered a benchmark for amateur players. As for whether he can successfully Break through… I can’t directly conclude, but personally, I’m not optimistic.”

From ordinary players to professional clubs, almost everyone was not optimistic about Midnight Gao Sou.

Even Midnight Gao Sou’s friends were pessimistic about it.

For example, Old Potato explicitly stated in an interview:

“Before I left the Great Love Sect, I also discussed Golden Core with Gao Sou. To my knowledge, Gao Sou’s understanding of Golden Core Breakthroughs is insufficient. Yes, he has a soul body, but a soul body is, after all, a native. Setting aside whether his experience is suitable for us players, just consider this: why would a soul body selflessly impart the Breakthrough method to Gao Sou?”

Public opinion was constantly fermenting.

As the acting Sect Master of the Great Love Sect, Jiang Yezi could feel the pressure gradually mounting around him.

When Midnight Gao Sou first disappeared, they announced that he was undergoing a Breakthrough, and the surrounding players immediately fell silent. Few Guilds or Sects within the Great Jiang Dynasty dared to contend with the Great Love Sect.

But now, in various regions of Great Jiang, more and more Sects and Guilds had returned to their original state, constantly clashing with Great Love Sect players, vying for resources, and even killing to seize Magic Treasures.

If it was merely returning to the state before Gao Sou’s closed-door cultivation, Jiang Yezi could accept it.

The problem was, as time continued to pass, Midnight Gao Sou still did not return.

Then, the mountain range where Midnight Gao Sou was supposedly in closed-door cultivation was suddenly exposed. Countless players immediately gathered near the mountain range, preparing to break through the Formation and kill the closed-door Midnight Gao Sou.

Jiang Yezi and the others, of course, could not sit idly by. They all knew the importance of Golden Core and quickly organized manpower to launch an offensive and defensive battle in the mountain range.

This battle lasted for three full days, and its scale was even larger than the one in Mingshui Heaven.

Although professional clubs did not overtly intervene, they secretly fanned the flames, which caused the scale to become almost uncontrollable, and even rogue players were gathered.

Ultimately, the defensive Formation was actually broken, and countless players poured into the mountain range, only to discover that Midnight Gao Sou was not there.

And this caused the Great Love Sect players to also start panicking.

“Gao Sou didn’t Break through here? What’s going on?”

“I heard he took a lot of resources from the Sect’s warehouse before he left. Could it be that he ran away with the resources?”

“No way? Did he not even attempt a Breakthrough, but instead fled?”

For a time, everyone was in a state of alarm.

Jiang Yezi tried to send messages to Midnight Gao Sou, but he received no response, which made him somewhat puzzled.

Midnight Gao Sou wouldn’t really have run away, would he?

It was just a Breakthrough. Consuming ten years of Lifespan every day, and then going AFK, wasn’t that all there was to it?

How could he not even reply to messages?

Various unfavorable public opinions swept through, and Jiang Yezi felt as if he was sitting on a powder keg, with the Great Love Sect potentially exploding at any moment.

Wearing his splendid Daoist robe, he took photos of himself in the Great Love Sect’s main hall as a keepsake. If the Great Love Sect truly fell apart, he could at least boast about it later.

He, too, had once been a Sect Master.

Thump, thump, thump!

Footsteps came from outside the hall, and soon, the other Foundation Establishment Elders of the Great Love Sect gathered in the main hall.

One of the players, wearing golden armor, directly questioned:

“Jiang Yezi, where exactly did Gao Sou go? Can you contact him? Did he really run away?”

Even a Foundation Establishment Elder was questioning like this, which showed how immense the current public pressure on the Great Love Sect was.

Jiang Yezi calmly replied:

“Don’t panic. A Golden Core Breakthrough naturally requires a very long time. Native Cultivators can even disappear for decades. Other Sects don’t necessarily become as chaotic as ours.”

The Golden-armored Foundation Establishment snorted coldly:

“Don’t forget, we players can accelerate. One day for us is equivalent to ten years for others, and how much Immortal Foundation Lifespan is there in total? How much did Midnight Gao Sou consume before this?

“Now that so much time has dragged on, how much Lifespan could he possibly have left?

“Either he directly passed away in his closed-door Immortal Cave, or he never even attempted a Breakthrough from the start – he ran away!

“Otherwise, why wouldn’t he reply to messages?”

Jiang Yezi also frowned.

Midnight Gao Sou not replying to messages was a very serious problem.

None of them had experienced a Golden Core Breakthrough, and they subconsciously thought it was similar to an Immortal Foundation Breakthrough: pile up resources, ensure the Cultivation Technique is compatible, refine the Immortal Qi, and the rest is just investing Lifespan and going AFK.

So they didn’t know that Midnight Gao Sou was currently trapped in an endless illusion, completely lacking the mental energy to reply to messages. It was even an unknown whether he could even extricate himself from the Breakthrough illusion.

“Many players are now starting to question our resource allocation, believing that Midnight Gao Sou’s previous welfare distribution was just a smokescreen, and that he actually secretly took away everyone’s resources.”

Another Elder spoke, his tone even more serious: “Now, these players are gathered at the foot of the main peak, hoping to open the warehouse and allow everyone to jointly inventory and inspect it.”

Jiang Yezi was suddenly startled:

“This won’t do, absolutely not. What kind of propriety is that?”