Chapter 116 - 115: Ninth Elder, Guardian of the World

Chapter 116: Chapter 115: Ninth Elder, Guardian of the World

One knows one’s own affairs best.

Li Ye’s current cultivation was at the mid-stage of the Harmonization Realm. Coupled with the powerful physique he gained from striking his teammates, his personal strength was greater than the Ninth Elder’s.

However, when facing that demonic creature, strength was a secondary concern. The Puppet Silk could instantly neutralize his formidable power.

His weakness was the amount of Demon Qi in his watch.

He needed to increase the Demon Qi in his watch, shorten the cooldown of his one-second time manipulation, and extend the duration of time he could control. Only then could he truly defeat the Ninth Elder.

***

That night, the Ninth Elder ordered the Three Evil Sects to continue their pursuit of the Wenda Alliance, while he himself broke away from the group and sped after the Alliance under the cover of darkness.

Li Ye, leading over twenty Harmonization Realm cultivators, also quietly left the Wenda Alliance’s main force, circling around to ambush the Three Evil Sects from behind.

The two groups perfectly missed one another.

***

When the Ninth Elder caught up with the Wenda Alliance, he arrived just in time to see its members scattering in all directions.

For a moment, the Ninth Elder thought he was hallucinating, that another memory that wasn’t his had appeared in his mind.

"What’s going on?" the Ninth Elder asked.

"He’s not here," said the Puppet Silk. "Li Hao isn’t in the Wenda Alliance’s group."

"Did he predict I was coming and run away ahead of time?" the Ninth Elder asked, puzzled.

"How would I know?" said the Puppet Silk. "Just grab a few of them and ask."

The Harmonization Realm experts had been led away by Li Ye, and without his warnings, the remaining people were no match for the Puppet Silk at all.

The Ninth Elder released the Puppet Silk and easily captured a group of Divinity Transformation Realm cultivators who hadn’t managed to escape yet, forcing Li Ye’s plan out of them.

No amount of willpower could withstand the Puppet Silk’s torture.

"So, he went to ambush the Three Evil Sects?" the Ninth Elder said, stunned. "Does that mean if we just wait here, he’ll walk right into our trap?"

"He’ll run," said the Puppet Silk. "Li Hao has already realized his weakness. He sent these people into the world to spread his teachings to help him increase his Demon Qi."

"What should we do? Go back and chase him?" the Ninth Elder asked. Since Li Ye’s appearance, the way battles were fought in the cultivation world had become increasingly bizarre; he no longer knew how to fight.

"He has Space Divine Abilities, and his cultivation level isn’t weaker than ours. We might not be able to catch him," said the Puppet Silk. "The people from the Three Evil Sects are all our puppets, so he can’t make use of them anyway.

If you ask me, we should just use the Three Evil Sects as bait to tie up Li Hao, while the two of us head to the Mortal World to destroy the Wenda Alliance’s foundation. That will force him to come out and face us in a decisive battle..."

"Didn’t you say that once the influence is established, the Demon Qi won’t decrease?" the Ninth Elder asked.

"It won’t decrease, but it won’t increase either," said the Puppet Silk. "If we control the pinnacles of power in both the Mortal World and the cultivation world, my Demon Qi will increase, and you might even activate a new Divine Ability. With him stagnating and us growing stronger, we’ll take him down sooner or later."

"Alright, we’ll do as you say." The Ninth Elder nodded, picked a direction, and gave chase.

***

「The sky began to brighten.」

The watch had recovered most of its Demon Qi.

Li Ye and his group had also circled around behind the Three Evil Sects’ main force. He was just about to turn his watch to push time forward and draw their attention.

The watch’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind, "Li Ye, don’t waste my Demon Qi. The Puppet Silk isn’t here."

"Not here?" Li Ye asked in surprise.

"Alliance Leader, what’s not here?" the Daoist Sect Leader asked.

"The Ninth Elder isn’t with the Three Evil Sects’ group," Li Ye said. "He must have left their main force to chase after us."

"What should we do? Should we still harass them?" the Daoist Sect Leader asked.

’How unpredictable. I had originally planned to act as the bait myself, covering for the Wenda Alliance members as they went to the Mortal World to expand. Instead, the Wenda Alliance became the bait, luring the Ninth Elder away for me.’

After a moment of silence, Li Ye said, "No more harassment. We attack directly. The members of the Three Evil Sects are all controlled by the Ninth Elder’s Puppet Silk, so we can’t recruit them. There’s no need to leave any survivors. While the Ninth Elder is away, we’ll eliminate as many as possible and use them to boost our Skill Levels."

The Harmonization Realm cultivators all agreed in unison.

Li Ye opened his Sword Box and unhesitatingly unleashed the Ten Thousand Swords Spell. Leading the numerous Harmonization Realm experts, he launched a surprise attack on the Divinity Transformation Realm cultivators who were lagging at the rear of the Three Evil Sects.

The Peak Masters and Elders of the Buddhist Sect and Sword Sect presented their backs.

Li Ye stabbed them in the back with his sword, helping them increase their Skill Levels.

In a single wave of attacks, over two hundred Divinity Transformation Realm cultivators from the Three Evil Sects were slain in an instant.

By the time the Demon Sect Leader, the Demon King, and the Ghost Sect Elders reacted, Li Ye had already activated Time Acceleration. With a smooth little combo, he took out the Demon Sect Leader in a single exchange.

He activated the Eight Gates Locking Array, tanked everyone’s attacks for three seconds, and waited out the cooldown.

Li Ye unleashed another combo and finished off the Demon King as well.

Now that he was at the mid-stage of the Harmonization Realm and possessed numerous powerful Magical Treasures, he was no longer like his past self who couldn’t beat a single person to death even after half a day of fighting the leaders of the Upper Three Sects.

The Protective Spiritual Qi of the Demon Sect Leader and the Demon King was completely useless against his immense power.

***

As Li Ye went on a killing spree among the Three Evil Sects, the Ninth Elder—who had used the Puppet Silk to capture over a hundred Wenda Alliance members—sensed it immediately.

He had two Derived Skills.

One was Silk Threaded Ox, which allowed him to control his puppets regardless of distance.

The other was Audio-Visual Sharing, which allowed him to share the senses of any of his puppets.

He couldn’t help but shudder when he saw Li Ye take down two sect leaders in quick succession. "Puppet Silk," he said, "the Three Evil Sects have Li Ye cornered. Are we really going to ignore him?

Huo Feng and Lan Yu have already been killed by him. If we don’t go back, I’m afraid the Three Evil Sects will be wiped out by him alone.

While I’m destroying the Wenda Alliance’s foundation, he’s destroying ours from behind. Our speed of controlling people will never match his speed of killing them.

You also said that killing people can also increase Demon Qi. When the time comes, he’ll kill everyone, dust off his hands, and leave. Even if he doesn’t kill us, what’s the point of leaving us with an empty world?"

"He’s a madman! How did we end up running into a madman like him?" the Puppet Silk shrieked in frustration. "Go back! Go back! Tie him down and fight him to the death! It’s either him or us. I miscalculated. We absolutely cannot give him the chance to go on a rampage..."

To prevent Li Ye from going down a path of slaughter and destroying the world, the Ninth Elder had no choice but to turn around and rush back to the Three Evil Sects.

At the same time, he issued a command in the minds of all the members of the Three Evil Sects: trap Li Ye at all costs and wait for his return.

With the Demon Sect Leader and the Demon King dead, Li Ye started specifically targeting the Harmonization Realm big shots, yet none of them could even withstand a single blow from him.

The morale of the Three Evil Sects had already collapsed. They didn’t dare to fight Li Ye and only thought of fleeing.

But just as they were about to scatter, the Ninth Elder’s command echoed in their minds again, and everyone had no choice but to bite the bullet and stay to besiege Li Ye.

’If we fight Li Ye and hold out until the Ninth Elder returns, we might have a chance to live. But if we disobey the Ninth Elder’s command and flee, we’ll die on the spot. Why is our fate so bitter, to run into these two monsters in this lifetime...’

***

Li Ye was just getting into the swing of the slaughter when his watch’s warning suddenly sounded in his mind: "Go, now! The Ninth Elder is here."

Li Ye’s perception range was vast. The moment the watch’s voice sounded, he had already sensed a black light forcefully cutting into the battlefield.

It was so fast it nearly rivaled the speed he achieved when using Time Acceleration.

In a split second of shock, more than ten Puppet Silks had already pierced his meridians.

’Success! I finally caught him in reality! It was worth burning my Skill Level and using a Forbidden Technique!’

But in the next second, the Ninth Elder’s figure suddenly shot back to the edge of the battlefield, to the exact moment he had activated the Forbidden Technique.

Before his astonished eyes, the Spiritual Power consumed by the Forbidden Technique flowed back into his body, and he began to move backward at high speed.

’Damn it, again? How did he detect me?’

When the Ninth Elder stopped, he had already returned to a point two minutes earlier.

When he rushed back to the battlefield again, all that remained was a field of severed limbs. Li Ye and the members of the Wenda Alliance had long since vanished without a trace.

An Elder from the Ghost Sect had been killed within those two minutes. With time reversed, he was lucky enough to be alive again.

But the memory of being killed still remained in his mind. He looked at the returning Ninth Elder with lingering fear, saying in a daze, "Sect Leader, you were a step too late. Li Hao just reversed time and escaped again."

"I know." The Ninth Elder, looking dejected, frowned and said, "He clearly didn’t perform a time rehearsal, so how did he discover me? I used Audio-Visual Sharing to lock onto his position and used the Forbidden Technique very early on.

’Could his perception range be even wider than mine?’

And for some reason, I have a feeling that I had already controlled him, but... I have no memory of actually controlling him..."

"It must be a hallucination!" said the Puppet Silk. "He’s been through three worlds; it’s normal for his perception to be greater than yours. However, the duration of his time reversal was very short this time. Either he’s low on Demon Qi, or he wanted to preserve the results of his battle.

He couldn’t have gotten far in two minutes. If we chase him now, we might still be able to catch him."

"Alright, we’ll give chase." The Ninth Elder hesitated for a moment, then locked onto Li Ye’s escape direction through a puppet’s vision, gritted his teeth, and pursued.

***

Having returned to two minutes prior, Li Ye acted decisively. Before the Ninth Elder could arrive, he led the many Harmonization Realm Elders in a preemptive retreat from the battlefield.

The terrified members of the Three Evil Sects didn’t dare to give chase.

’After escaping the battlefield, I feel so lucky. If the cooldown on the one-second time reversal hadn’t been over, I would’ve died there again. In the last time rehearsal, I was trapped by the Puppet Silk and used Time Acceleration, but failed to break free. This time, after being ensnared by the Puppet Silk, I used time reversal and successfully broke free. By reversing time one second, I used that one-second gap to turn my watch again and rewind two minutes. That’s how I truly escaped the Ninth Elder...’

"Let’s go. We had good results this time. We took out the Demon Sect Leader and the Demon King, and even killed quite a few Harmonization Realm cultivators. A few more times like this, and we might just leave the Ninth Elder a general with no army," Li Ye said with a smile.

"Alliance Leader, why did we suddenly retreat?" Mao Xiu asked, confused. "We clearly had the situation under control."

"Because the Ninth Elder came back. Any later and we wouldn’t have gotten away. Let’s go, take a different route. The Ninth Elder should be catching up soon," Li Ye said with a smile, not explaining further.

Only he retained his memories from the one-second time reversal.

The Harmonization Realm cultivators around him had no memory of the Ninth Elder’s attack. They only knew that time had suddenly been reversed when they had the upper hand, and they had no idea that Li Ye himself had already been captured once.

’It’s better to just let them stay in the dark.’

’Unfortunately, the three-second cooldown is a hard limit. Otherwise, just by relying on Time Acceleration and reversal, I alone could have probed the Ninth Elder’s weakness and taken him out in one fell swoop.’

’Still, the current result isn’t bad. I ultimately lured the Ninth Elder over and stopped him from going to the Mortal World to cause trouble for the Wenda Alliance. Otherwise, if the Ninth Elder had abandoned the Three Evil Sects and gone straight to the Mortal World to control the Wenda Alliance, I really would have been helpless against him...’