Chapter 379: Can’t Go Back

First and foremost, of course, was the new, full-scale war that had erupted between Immortals and Demons.

Cangming had led the Cold Crow Sect to besiege and kill the Seven Emotions Sect’s Ancestor. On top of that, he had already broken through to the Transcendance Tribulation Stage and had even secretly nurtured two new Body Integration Realm cultivators.

The Demon Cultivators’ power had grown rapidly, almost rivaling the Moon Palace at its most glorious several hundred years ago.

This gave the Cultivation Sects a renewed, intense sense of crisis. Moreover, since the demons had taken the offensive, how could the Cultivation Sects not unite to resist the Western Demon Realm?

Initially, this matter had little to do with the Divine Tomb Sect. But once the Cultivation Sects united against the Cold Crow Sect, if the Divine Tomb Sect stood by and did nothing, they would inevitably be next to fall.

So, despite their aversion to war, Fa Shan and the Divine Tomb Sect were dragged into the conflict.

Of course, even though Cangming had an ace up his sleeve, their overall strength was still somewhat lacking compared to the Cultivation World.

Thus, the Cultivation World was initially very optimistic about the war. But it wasn’t long before Cangming’s side suddenly produced a batch of powerful Demon Flowers.

When used on the battlefield, the Demon Flowers had immense destructive power and dealt a major blow to the Cultivation Sects. For a time, the two sides were evenly matched. Both suffered casualties, and it was impossible to say who had the upper hand.

Hearing this, Lu Sangjiu immediately realized, "...Demon Flowers? Could it be those people from the Fang Family in Lu City?"

Li Qiancheng nodded. "That’s what we suspect too, but we can’t figure out why. They’re clearly Cultivators, so why are they siding with the Demon Cultivators?"

They had thought a lot about the reason. In the end, they concluded the most likely possibility was that the other party wanted to use Cangming to wipe out the major sects of the Cultivation World, allowing them to rise up and seize control.

Or perhaps their ambition was even greater—to have the Western Demon Realm and the Cultivation World destroy each other so they could rule the entire Spirit Void Realm.

But Cangming wasn’t a fool. There’s no way he couldn’t see something so obvious. He couldn’t possibly be naive enough to let them use him as a pawn, right?

The logic just didn’t add up. So, despite much thought, Li Qiancheng and the others still couldn’t make sense of it.

Lu Sangjiu, of course, had thought of these things as well. After a long moment, she just shook her head. "Blind speculation won’t give us the answer. When the time is right, the truth will naturally come to light."

"But this is all part of the Immortal-Demon conflict. What does it have to do with us returning to the sect...?"

"Or is it that because we’ve been in the Western Demon Realm this whole time, someone is using it against us, claiming we’re colluding with them?"

At the mention of this, Luo Linlang couldn’t hold back. She burst out, filled with righteous indignation, "Don’t even get me started... You have no idea! Ye Zhiyao has the entire Seven Emotions Sect under her thumb now! And she’s already at the Divinity Transformation Stage."

"...What?"

Lu Sangjiu could hardly believe her ears. ’Ye Zhiyao is at the Divinity Transformation Stage? And she controls the entire Seven Emotions Sect???’

For a moment, she even wondered if she had been asleep not for a month, but for several decades.

’If I remember correctly, didn’t Ye Zhiyao only reach the Nascent Soul stage a few months ago? And that was by force, using a Dual Cultivation Method. How did she reach Divinity Transformation in the blink of an eye? Did she eat an Immortal Pill?!’

Luo Linlang then recounted everything that had happened with Ye Zhiyao to Lu Sangjiu.

Of course, she had heard all this from Yan Lingzhi, and even he didn’t know that Ye Zhiyao had actually refined the Ancestor’s Nascent Soul as if it were an Immortal Pill, which was why her cultivation had grown so quickly.

He just guessed that perhaps the Ancestor needed her to mature quickly and had used some kind of Secret Technique.

That day, Ye Zhiyao had handed over full authority for the Immortal-Demon war to Xuanming True Monarch. Afterward, she had someone deliver a large amount of Cultivation Resources and then went into seclusion.

When she emerged from seclusion a short while ago, she was already at the Divinity Transformation Stage.

At that time, Sect Leader Master Qian He saw that the Life Tokens of Duan Xingyun and the others had all stabilized, so he assumed their lives were no longer in danger.

But he still couldn’t contact them, so he guessed they were probably trapped somewhere in the Western Demon Realm.

The Sect Leader thought that with the Immortals and Demons at war, if a few Immortal Cultivators like them were trapped in the Western Demon Realm and discovered, their lives would be in peril. So he wanted to send people to conduct a covert search and rescue mission.

He was in the middle of discussing this with Yan Lingzhi when Ye Zhiyao emerged from her seclusion.

Upon learning of their plan, she stated directly that Lu Sangjiu had long been colluding with Demon Cultivators, and that Lu Sangjiu was the reason she had been captured before.

Furthermore, she suspected that Bai Heng’s death was inextricably linked to their group.

She claimed that after consulting the Ancestor, the Ancestor also found the group highly suspicious and that they could not spare any manpower for them at this critical juncture.

She even said that if they returned on their own, they needed to be detained immediately for strict interrogation, lest they conspire with the Demon Cultivators from within and harm the sect.

After listening to all this in silence, Lu Sangjiu gave a cold laugh. "That’s quite the accusation to pin on us."

She had to admit, she was impressed. Ye Zhiyao’s luck was just incredible.

’I was just thinking that we’d finally gotten rid of her biggest backer, Bai Heng, and that dealing with her would be easier from now on.’

’But I never would have imagined she’d turn around and find herself an even bigger one.’

’A Transcendance Tribulation Stage Ancestor... Even if his physical body is destroyed, during a time of war, he’s still the stabilizing force for the Seven Emotions Sect.’

’And of all things, this Ancestor just had to take up residence in Ye Zhiyao’s body, and he seems to trust her a great deal... How are we supposed to fight this?’

With her words out there, even if Master Qian He believed them, he would likely have to imprison them upon their return out of deference to the Ancestor.

Never mind that they *did* kill Bai Heng; even if they hadn’t, there would be no shortage of ways to beat a confession out of them.

If they were to go back, they would simply be walking to their deaths.

Luo Linlang was also fuming. "That Ye Zhiyao is such a menace! If I’d known, back when we captured her, I should have just killed her right then and there, regardless of the consequences!"

"And now look! With her around, none of us can even think about going back to the Seven Emotions Sect."

It was a good thing they had contacted Yan Lingzhi first after they got out. When Yan Lingzhi learned that Lu Sangjiu was in poor condition and needed more time to recover at the Divine Tomb Sect, he advised them not to contact anyone else for the time being and to wait until Lu Sangjiu was well enough to return.

But before Lu Sangjiu could even wake up, Ye Zhiyao emerged from her seclusion. At a time when the Seven Emotions Sect should be presenting a united front, Yan Lingzhi couldn’t openly defy the Ancestor. He could only send them a message telling them not to return to the sect for now.

Lu Sangjiu felt a headache coming on. "But with the Immortals and Demons at war, if we don’t return to our sect, are we supposed to stay at the Divine Tomb Sect forever? If we do that, we’ll *really* have no way to clear our names."

Besides, she had a feeling this matter wasn’t so simple. She couldn’t just stay here and do nothing while watching the Cultivation World and the Western Demon Realm destroy each other.

Just as she was growing agitated, Xie Ningyuan suddenly spoke up. "Little Jiu, there’s one more thing I need to tell you..."