Chapter 21: The Masters Conspiracy

With Elder Zhou’s command, the disciples below the stage instantly scattered.

The rules of the Soul Hunt War were simple, yet also cruel.

Only ten people could become core disciples of the Heaven Sound Sect, which meant that ninety disciples would be tragically eliminated.

But someone quickly discovered a loophole.

The rules of the Soul Hunt War never said that forming teams was forbidden.

An individual’s strength was ultimately limited; if multiple people could cooperate, the chances of winning the competition would be significantly higher.

Realizing this, everyone began to search for suitable teammates.

“Muxue, do you two want to team up with us?” Just as Su Muxue was about to leave with her sister, a young woman in a short black skirt slowly walked up and asked.

Looking at the gracefully smiling young woman, Su Muxue shook her head with a firm attitude, “No need, it’s enough for Bing’er and me to be in a team.”

“Have you made up your mind? Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” the young woman in black asked, unwilling to give up.

“Really, no need,” Su Muxue said while taking Su Mubing’s hand, “Thank you for your kindness, we’ll be leaving now.”

“Hmph!”

Watching the Su sisters’ receding figures, the black-skirted girl couldn’t help but stomp her foot. “So what if you’re number one in the inner court? What’s so amazing about that!”

In fact, it wasn’t just the girl in the black skirt; almost all the top-ranking disciples of the inner court had extended invitations to the Su Muxue sisters.

But without exception, all were rejected by Su Muxue.

The ultimate reason Su Muxue did this was that she didn’t feel at ease about her own sister.

Su Mubing.

As one of the former three great beauties of the inner court, Su Mubing’s own strength was naturally beyond question.
But…

In the end, heaven is jealous of talented individuals.

Not long after entering the inner court, Su Mubing suddenly contracted a strange illness, frequently suffering from intermittent periods of delirium.

Each time it acted up, Su Mubing would easily lose control of her emotions and commit dangerous, harmful acts.

It was precisely because of this that Su Mubing’s ranking plummeted down the list.
From her initial third place, she fell all the way to the bottom ten of the inner court.

Su Muxue knew very well that those who invited them simply wanted to team up with her.

As for Su Mubing, no one cared whether she lived or died.

“Sis, I feel so dizzy…”

Su Mubing clutched tightly onto Su Muxue’s sleeve and said weakly.

Looking at her sister’s slightly pale face, Su Muxue’s heart couldn’t help but tighten.

‘As expected, she’s still being affected…’

The evil thoughts of the spirits were already prone to affecting the mind, and coupled with Su Mubing’s special constitution, it made the already frail Su Mubing appear even weaker.

“Bing’er, hang in there,” Su Muxue said, then directly hoisted Su Mubing onto her back. “Sister promises to bring you back safely.”

High above the ghost city, Elder Zhou gazed at the high-spirited disciples, a trace of sorrow flashing through her deep, beautiful eyes.

“Such wonderful children, it’s just a pity…”

“Jie jie jie, Elder Zhou, why are you so sad? It’s not the first time we’ve cooperated.” Along with a burst of eerie laughter, a blurry black shadow slowly appeared.

“Enough,” Seeing this black shadow, Elder Zhou’s expression instantly turned grim. “You just do what you need to do. I hope you don’t break the rules.”

“Jie jie jie, that’s a matter of course.” The black figure let out a strange laugh, then its form gradually faded away. “Here’s to our pleasant cooperation, Elder Zhou—”

Inside Myriad Ghost City.

“Sister Shangguan, what do we do? Su Muxue still won’t agree…” a girl with twin ponytails ran up to the black-skirted girl and said, somewhat nervously.

“What do you mean, ‘what do we do’? As if we don’t have a chance without her!” The black-skirted girl’s brows arched lightly, her expression indignant.

“We really don’t have much of a chance…” a girl next to her mumbled under her breath.

“Hm? What did you say?!”

Hearing this, the black-skirted girl flew into a rage. “Can you stop always boosting others’ morale while deflating our own? Is it such a grievance for you to follow me, Shangguan Yu?!”

Shangguan Yu just couldn’t understand where exactly she lost when compared to Su Muxue.

Even if her cultivation couldn’t match Su Muxue’s, she was still a top-ten presence on the inner court’s ranking list.
Could it be that the status of the top ten was so worthless compared to number one?

“Sister Shangguan, we didn’t mean it like that,” a girl with white hair and blue eyes stepped forward to comfort her, “We just…”

“Say no more!”

Shangguan Yu fought back the tears welling in her eyes, her tone somewhat choked. “I’ll only ask you one question—do you believe in me… or in her?!”

“This… Of course we believe in Sister Shangguan!” the white-haired girl said quickly.

“Yeah, yeah!” Seeing this, the other girls all nodded in agreement.

“In that case…” Shangguan Yu raised a hand to wipe the tears from the corner of her eye, “Then follow me!”

Seeing this, the others looked at each other.
But to soothe Shangguan Yu’s pride, they had no choice but to quickly follow.

Walking on the streets of Myriad Ghost City, all the disciples held their breath, not daring to make a sound.

A sinister wind blew through the city, and hair-raising ghost cries rose and fell one after another, creating an atmosphere of extreme oppression.

“Sister Shangguan, let’s just stick to the streets. Let’s not go into the houses… okay?” Looking at the residences that emanated a strange aura everywhere, a girl with long pink hair said, trembling.

“Nonsense!” Shangguan Yu snapped angrily. “If we don’t go in, how are we supposed to complete the competition’s task?!”

“It’s… it’s not like we have to win the competition. Core disciples and all that… won’t there be other chances in the future…” The pink-haired girl buried her head, her voice growing smaller and smaller.

“You—” Hearing such discouraging words, Shangguan Yu was thoroughly infuriated. “Then you can just stay outside by yourself!”

“Eh? W-Wait!”

Seeing Shangguan Yu and the others walk into the residence without looking back, the pink-haired girl shouted and hurriedly followed.

“What a foul smell…”

Probably due to the house being in disrepair for a long time, the moment they pushed open the door, they were met with a thick stench of decay.

“Everyone be careful, there might be high-level evil spirits hiding here,” Shangguan Yu cautioned while carefully observing the surroundings of the courtyard.

“Swoosh!”

Just as the group’s nerves were stretched taut, a blurry black shadow suddenly flashed past in front of them.

“Who’s there?!” Shangguan Yu shouted into the air before her. “Come out if you have the guts! Hiding and skulking around, what kind of skill is that?!”

“Not a person, but… a god!” Accompanied by a low voice, a face with a green visage and long fangs slowly emerged.

“I was wondering what it was—” After getting a clear look at the newcomer, Shangguan Yu couldn’t help but spit. “Turns out it’s just an arrogant evil spirit~”

“Sister Shangguan, something seems off…” Just as Shangguan Yu finished speaking, the girl beside her tugged at her clothes. “This evil spirit… seems to be a Blue-Horn…”

“What?!”

Hearing the girl’s words, the group was greatly astonished, and they all looked up toward the evil spirit’s head.

“It really is a Blue-Horn…” After seeing the horn on the evil spirit’s head clearly, Shangguan Yu was stunned into a daze. “How can this be…”

On the Xianling Continent, to facilitate differentiation, cultivators divided all types of evil spirits into eight levels.

From lowest to highest, they were: Black-Horn, White-Horn, Yellow-Horn, Green-Horn, Blue-Horn, Red-Horn, and Gold-Horn.

A Blue-Horned Evil Spirit was already comparable to an Earthly Immortal Realm expert.

For Shangguan Yu and her group, whose highest cultivation was only at the early-stage Great Ascension Realm, this was undoubtedly a crushing blow.

“Didn’t Elder Zhou say… that at most, only Yellow-Horned Evil Spirits would appear here? But now… what on earth is going on?!”

After recognizing the gap in strength between themselves and the enemy, a few timid girls instantly panicked. “Didn’t the sect send people to protect us in secret? Help~ Someone, come quickly…”

“Jie jie, pitiful little dolls, still kept in the dark,” the Blue-Horned Evil Spirit let out a strange laugh, its expression full of mockery. “Stop shouting, no one is coming to save you, because—”

“You have long since been sold out by Sect Master Hua!”

“You… You’re talking nonsense!” After hearing the evil spirit’s words, Shangguan Yu trembled with anger. “Sect… Sect Master Hua is absolutely not that kind of person!”

“Yo ho~ Interesting~” The Blue-Horned Evil Spirit sneered, a playful expression on its face. “Since you’re all about to die anyway, I’ll let you die with a bit of understanding.”

With that, the Blue-Horned Evil Spirit took out a slightly yellowed letter and threw it casually in front of Shangguan Yu and the others.

“This is…” Shangguan Yu picked up the letter in confusion.

Although time had passed and the words on the letter were somewhat blurry, with careful identification, one could still vaguely make out the contents.

“Today, I, the Heaven Sound Sect, voluntarily enter into a transaction with the Evil Spirit Clan. My sect is willing to provide ninety disciples to the Evil Spirit Clan annually. In return, the Evil Spirit Clan will provide the Heaven Sound Sect with ten Netherworld Blood Demon Flowers each year.”

“No…” After reading the contents of the letter, the hands with which Shangguan Yu held the paper began to tremble slightly. “This isn’t real… This isn’t real!”

Connecting the words on the letter with the Heaven Sound Sect’s abnormalities over the years, Shangguan Yu instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

Why ninety disciples?

Why ten Netherworld Blood Demon Flowers?

And most importantly… why had those selected core disciples never mentioned this matter?

‘Wait… could it be?!’

“It seems you’ve already guessed it,” the Blue-Horned Evil Spirit showed an appreciative expression. “That’s right, these ten Netherworld Blood Demon Flowers are precisely used to cultivate the remaining ten disciples.”

“What did you say?!”

Shangguan Yu felt her worldview being shattered bit by bit.

The Netherworld Blood Demon Flower, one of the three great evil flowers of the Xianling Continent.

Legend had it that if one dripped a single drop of blood onto the stamen of the Blood Demon Flower and then had another person consume it, the consumer would become a soulless, walking corpse, to be manipulated at will by the owner of the blood.

“No wonder the eyes of those core disciples were so vacant…”

At this thought, Shangguan Yu’s legs went weak, and she collapsed powerlessly to the ground. “Why… Why would the Sect Master do this…”

“As for why…” The Blue-Horned Evil Spirit licked its lips, “Once you’ve entered hell—you will naturally find out!”

“Stop!”

Just as the Blue-Horned Evil Spirit was about to pounce on Shangguan Yu and the others, a sharp shout suddenly came from the entrance of the courtyard.