Chapter 468: Chapter 451: The Viper’s Wait
Wang Meng had basically adopted the methods of the Extreme Dao Alliance. In a way, the Alliance had done a good thing, as Wang Meng was now very familiar with the procedure.
In need of quiet cultivation, the once-raucous Holy Hall seemed to have returned to normal. An ordinary Sect Leader would have certainly seized this opportunity to recruit talented individuals and expand the Holy Hall.
But Wang Meng did no such thing, letting the golden opportunity go to waste.
In the Yang Family Castle, Yang Molong was struggling again. The grand spectacle of that day had left him a bit dazed, but now that he had calmed down and thought about it, everything felt hollow and superficial. It wasn’t the same as the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s solid, tangible foundation.
Wang Meng should have expanded his forces immediately. If he had used those 3,600,000 Top-Grade Spirit Stones to fund recruitment, he could have definitely attracted many experts. Even confronting the Ten Thousand Demons Sect directly wouldn’t have been an issue.
"Even if he looks down on the cultivators of our Four Directions Small Thousand World, he could still recruit from the outside. But now, it looks like he’s trying to raise people to Minor Perfection from within the Holy Hall itself! What is he thinking? Father, I’m afraid we may have made a very dangerous decision."
Yang Molong couldn’t help but complain.
Their attendance at Wang Meng’s inauguration ceremony naturally didn’t escape the notice of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect. Several of the Eight Great Castles’ branch headquarters had recently been wiped out. The problem was, Wang Meng didn’t seem to take their plight seriously, nor did he show any intention of expanding his forces. With what were they supposed to fend off the Ten Thousand Demons Sect?
"He can’t possibly think Celestial Demon would be scared off by the Taiyin Sect, can he?" Yang Molong muttered to himself. "That’s just too naive!"
Yang Molong paced around anxiously, but Yang Yingtian appeared calm. Still, even he had no idea what Wang Meng was up to.
As the ancestor of the Yang Family Castle and the eventual Eight Great Castles Alliance Leader, Yang Yingtian was an incredibly shrewd and experienced man. He didn’t make decisions lightly, and he had observed and investigated Wang Meng for a very long time.
The magnificence of the inauguration ceremony had only confirmed his initial assessment. True, the Holy Hall’s crisis was far from over, but why would Wang Meng make such a move now?
’Three million six hundred thousand Top-Grade Spirit Stones, just thrown away like that?’
’Even if Wang Meng doesn’t get it, Zhao Xinglun and the others aren’t fools. Would they really just let him do whatever he wants?’
Most importantly, Wang Meng wasn’t an impulsive person. In their past few encounters, he had always planned his moves carefully before taking action.
’Could it be... that the splendor of the ceremony has gone to his head?’
Yang Yingtian’s heart skipped a beat!
’Of all the things I’ve considered, how could I have forgotten this? People change. It’s all too common for someone to become arrogant and get carried away after such a glorious moment. He’s young and reckless—the most unpredictable state of all!’
So many breathtakingly talented young people have fallen because of their recklessness. Wang Meng wouldn’t be the first. Ultimately, those who achieve greatness aren’t always geniuses, but they are always level-headed.
"Molong, go find Qingzi at once. You must win her over. I need to know just how confident Wang Meng is!"
Yang Yingtian said grimly. He could truly sense the danger. If Wang Meng had really let his success go to his head, then given Celestial Demon’s vicious cunning, Wang Meng would be in grave peril.
’And I cannot allow the Yang Family Castle’s centuries-old foundation to be destroyed on my watch.’
"Father, you know that after the last incident, our relationship is..."
"Blood is thicker than water, and this matter is serious... On second thought, I’ll go myself!"
Yang Yingtian knew this concerned not only the Yang Family Castle, but also the Holy Hall, and even the very lives of Yang Qingzi and Yang Ying.
When the Ten Thousand Demons Sect makes a move, they don’t do things by halves. They always eradicate the problem, root and stem.
Zhao Xinglun had already taken the core members, including Thunderbolt and Li Xiuwen, to hold the line at Snow Moon City. They were there to respond to any sudden developments and to help shoulder the city’s responsibilities.
As for Wang Meng, Zhao Xinglun had decided to leave it to fate. Let him do whatever he wanted.
Wang Meng, on the other hand, had taken a group of people into closed-door cultivation. Within a few days, he had completely sealed off the Holy Mountain. Nobody knew how they were progressing.
The Holy Hall was, after all, the center of attention in the Four Directions Small Thousand World. To outsiders, Wang Meng was a domineering man who did as he pleased and shouldn’t have been afraid of prying eyes. For him to suddenly seal the mountain... had something gone wrong?
Spies from all factions began to prowl the vicinity of the Holy Hall, especially those from the Ten Thousand Demons Sect.
Celestial Demon had already arrived at the branch headquarters closest to the Holy Hall.
Anyone who witnessed the scene would have been terrified by the sheer force assembled. Of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s four great demons, all but the Celestial Heart Ancestor were present. The Eight Great Guardians were all there as well, each one a wild and domineering figure.
The goal of this operation was a swift, devastating victory. They weren’t there to annihilate the entire Holy Hall, but to eliminate Wang Meng. As long as Wang Meng fell, the Holy Hall would no longer be a threat.
This was a battle they absolutely could not afford to lose. If Wang Meng survived, his connections in the Star Alliance would mean a world of trouble for the Ten Thousand Demons Sect. But if Wang Meng died, a dead man has no value. The Star Alliance could be placated with some excuse.
"What’s the latest on our intelligence gathering?" Celestial Demon asked. He was the most infamous demon in the Four Directions Small Thousand World, yet he looked like a clean-cut, middle-aged man. There was no hint of the vicious and ruthless person he truly was.
"Sect Leader, all we’ve been able to find out is that the mountain is sealed. No one can get near the Holy Mountain without special permission from Zhou Luodan."
"What a pity. Mingren turned on us so completely. Otherwise, our Ten Thousand Demons Sect could have definitely broken into the top fifty sects. That ungrateful little bastard!"
At the mention of Mingren, everyone in the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, from the highest to the lowest, was angry enough to spit blood. Years ago, the sect had gone to great lengths to unearth this promising seedling, Mingren, from the mortal realm. It had been a completely accidental discovery. Celestial Demon had been in the mortal world on some business when he came across him. Mingren’s entire family had been murdered by bandits, leaving him as the sole survivor. But faced with such a gruesome scene, the boy had just stood there, then set his own home ablaze, burning it to the ground. From start to finish, he didn’t shed a single tear, nor did he show any sign of overwhelming hatred.
So Celestial Demon brought him to the Four Directions Small Thousand World. The Ten Thousand Demons Sect had gathered many orphans from all over. Among the hundreds of them, Mingren seemed quite ordinary, showing neither passion nor shrewdness. The sect’s method for culling and training was simple: lock all the orphans together. After ten days, only one was allowed to walk out alive. If there was more than one, all would be killed.
In the end, when Celestial Demon opened the door, he saw Mingren, still wearing the exact same expression.
Upon seeing Celestial Demon, Mingren smiled. It was the first time he had ever smiled, and from that day forward, his smile never changed.
But in that instant, Celestial Demon felt a sudden chill. Afterward, an arrangement was made for Mingren to ’coincidentally’ encounter Li Daoming. Almost any cultivator would be drawn to Mingren upon first sight; even Celestial Demon had felt it, so how could Li Daoming have possibly resisted? Most importantly, there were no discernible flaws in Mingren’s demeanor. In truth, Celestial Demon had always been intensely curious about one thing: what was Mingren really thinking?
And so, Mingren became the Senior of Lingyin Hall, giving the Ten Thousand Demons Sect a clear picture of the Holy Hall’s internal situation. This allowed the Ten Thousand Demons Sect to cleverly avoid the Holy Hall during its expansion, and even to begin finding ways to weaken it.
Celestial Demon was a genius with great foresight. Everything had been going smoothly—until the appearance of Wang Meng and the betrayal of Mingren.
Thinking of this, Celestial Demon felt a complex mix of emotions he couldn’t name. He was the one who had brought Mingren into the world of cultivation, but it seemed Mingren had repaid that debt over the years. When Mingren left, he was perfectly calm, treating the Ten Thousand Demons Sect as if it were nothing.
Celestial Demon didn’t feel Mingren had done anything wrong. That was how a Demon Cultivator should be. It was just that, if the Ten Thousand Demons Sect had been stronger, perhaps Mingren would not have left. Back then, it wouldn’t have been a mere dream for the Ten Thousand Demons Sect to become one of the Ten Great Sects.
The other core members of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, however, were furious. A pity, then, that Mingren was now far beyond their reach.
At the mention of Mingren’s name, the room fell silent. A few of the people present had actually seen Mingren as a child. They had all thought he would amount to something, but none had ever imagined that a boy from the mortal realm would one day be calling the shots in the Star Alliance.
Now, he had even climbed above their heads.
"Enough of this useless talk. The matter with Mingren will be settled one day," Celestial Demon said, waving his hand dismissively. "Is the investigation into the Holy Hall’s combat strength complete?"
"Sect Leader, Xuee Zhongnan is dead. The Heaven-Dominating Hall is too far away to help, and the other sects are like distant water that can’t quench a nearby thirst. Their Mountain Protection Array is only effective against a large-scale assault. As for their older generation of experts, all that’s left are Zhou Luodan, Wu Fatian, Ma Hezi, and Zhao Tianlong. Four cultivators at the Third Layer of Minor Perfection. They’re no match for us at all."
The speaker was one of the four great demons, the Heart Melting Demon, Yi Duanhun.
"You’re forgetting the main target. That brat Wang Meng is not to be trifled with. I myself suffered a major loss at his hands back in the day!"
This was another of the four great demons, the Soul Refining Demon, Lou Shidong. His power had increased dramatically over the years by riding the coattails of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, but the defeat he had suffered at the Yang Family Castle remained the shame of his life.
"What can that brat Wang Meng possibly do? If the Sect Leader attacks, his death is certain!"
said Wu Mochou, leader of the Chanyin Sect and another of the four great demons. She was also quite confident in the plan.
The Chanyin Sect had joined forces with them early on and had no intention of backing out now. Besides, the relationship between Wu Mochou and Celestial Demon was clearly anything but ordinary.
A faint smile touched Celestial Demon’s androgynous face. "Even in the worst-case scenario, it would be useless if Zhao Xinglun and his men returned in time. Wu Fatian and those other old fossils are too weak. Li Xiuwen was once a respectable figure, but they’ve all been reinventing the wheel in isolation for years. They’ve enjoyed peaceful times for too long. I wonder if they even know how to kill anymore."
The Ten Thousand Demons Sect had advanced through constant warfare. They had slaughtered their way to their current level, while Thunderbolt and the others had merely cultivated their way up. Their cultivation realms might be the same, but their combat prowess was on completely different levels.
The Eight Great Guardians could easily hold off any reinforcements, while Celestial Demon led the other three great demons inside. Victory was practically guaranteed.
Once they found Wang Meng and those Little Ones, it would only take a few minutes to eliminate the threat for good.
Celestial Demon truly had no intention of waiting for Wang Meng to grow any stronger. Times were changing, but Celestial Demon had no desire to step down from the stage of history.
On the contrary, he believed that the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s grand blueprint was only just getting started.
Back at the Holy Hall, Wu Fatian and the others were, after all, seasoned veterans. Especially during such a sensitive time, while the younger generation might get carried away, they remained perfectly calm. They soon noticed the strange atmosphere gathering around the Holy Hall, as well as the motley assortment of suspicious figures.
But given the current situation, all they could do was maintain surveillance. The entire Holy Hall was on high alert.
The Ten Thousand Demons Sect had its spies, but the Holy Hall had its own intelligence network as well. It had to be said that Celestial Demon’s security was excellent, but not entirely untraceable. Sometimes, one didn’t need concrete evidence; the key was that the Ten Thousand Demons Sect had a clear motive.
This continued until Yang Yingtian’s sudden visit. After which, Yang Yingtian made his decision.
After speaking with Yang Qingzi, he made a momentous decision for the Yang Family: he would bet everything on Wang Meng.
The Holy Hall was about to face the greatest crisis in its path to growth. If he didn’t make his move now, he would never get another chance.
The best they could hope for otherwise was to barely cling to existence.