Thinking of his Young Master, the look on the middle-aged man’s face became a bit complicated.
In fact, the relationship between himself and his Young Master wasn’t so harmonious. When they had first met, he had tried to use his Soul to seize his body, but he had wound up restrained by him and had to allow his Soul to be branded, basically turning him into servant.
Then came the period of slavery, but during that time, the middle-aged man behaved very docile and loyal. However, he had always been looking for a way to escape this Young Master of his and restore his freedom.
However, as time passed, the middle-aged man gradually discovered the huge potential hidden inside this Young Master of his, and although his memory hadn’t been fully restored, his insight was still sharp.
The Young Master was very much unlike an ordinary cultivator and had a variety of mystery about him. Even accompanying him day and night, the middle-aged man couldn’t see through these mysteries, instead becoming more and more confused, which gradually let him reconsider as he secretly began looking forward to the growth of his Young Master.
Then, after finding the Devil Lord’s body beneath the Coiling Dragon Stream, the Young Master had actually allowed his Soul to possess it.
To be honest, at that time, the middle-aged man was a little worried that his Young Master would be suspicious of his motives and prevent him from seizing this new body, which would probably lead to him holding a grudge and once again trying to find a way to escape.
Fortunately, the Young Master allowed it.
This made him have a sense of gratitude!
Thinking back about it, while the Young Master seemed like he was being generous with him, seizing this Devil Lord’s body was also a big boost to him. After all, with his Soul brand, if he ever acted against him, it would only take a single thought to kill him.
Making up his mind, the middle-aged man’s expression became firm and no longer hesitated.
However… him showing up all on his own was a bit inappropriate. If the Young Master asked what he had been up to, it wasn’t like he could say he was just lingering in the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land and had forgotten about the promise he carved on the stone cliff wall, right?
Wrinkling his brow and thinking for a moment, the middle-aged man quickly spread out his vast Divine Sense.
He had only intended to see if there was something or someone nearby he could use as a convenient excuses, but when he swept the area with his Divine Sense, the middle-aged man Soul trembled lightly, seemingly sensing a familiar Soul fluctuation somewhere in the distance.
“Hm?” The look on the middle-aged man’s face couldn’t help becoming a bit curious as he stared towards the fluctuation’s source. Soon remembering something, his expression warped into a wicked smile as his figure flickered and he shot off in the same direction.
A hundred kilometers away, a group of people were fleeing.
There weren’t many people in this group, nor were there few, about thirty in total, but the one who lead them was only an Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth Stage master, while most of the rest were just True Element Boundary cultivators.
Around them, a lot of figures were pursed them, slowly forming an encirclement but showing no signs of immediately attacking, as if they were just observing for now.
These surrounding cultivators also didn’t appear to be a united group but instead were divided into several teams, each of them wary of all the others.
“These people are really annoying; they’ve been chasing us for ten days now!” In the crowd, a pretty girl complained bitterly.
“This is troublesome,” A man next to her said with a wry smile, “If things continue on like this, we won’t make it to War City.”
“Senior Brother, what do we do?” the girl asked anxiously.
“Let’s just take one step at a time.” The man obviously had no good ideas so he simply followed behind his Elders in front of him.
As they walked, another young woman with a cold look came up beside them. This young woman had a slender, graceful waist, and shapely figure, a rare beauty, but what was strange was that her delicate hands were wrapped up in cloth, making it impossible to see what they looked like.
Not only her, but many of people in this group had their hands covered up, it seemed like these people had some secret related to their hands they didn’t want revealed.
“Senior Brother Tao, if we can’t escape, we should just separate.” The woman’s eyes flashed a cold light, these days being chased like this had pushed her patience to the limit, “The goal of these people is our Ghost King Valley. If we separate from them, they shouldn’t find trouble with your Treasure Instrument Sect.”
However, Tao Yang shook his head and said, “Junior Sister Leng, your thoughts are too simplistic. Do you really think that these people are after your Ghost King Valley’s disciples?”
“Although that’s not the whole reason, a big part of it is certainly our responsible.” Leng Shan said awkwardly; she was no fool and naturally knew that the although these people had continued to pursue them, even threatening them from time to time. The biggest reason they hadn’t simply attacked was that they were afraid of offending Treasure Instrument Sect.
Ghost King Valley was just an excuse to justify their current actions.
[Looks like this time I’ve made a mistake!]
A few months ago, the news of the Inheritance War reached the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land and the people from Ghost King Valley had naturally gotten wind of it as well.
Like Chen Xue Shu, when Leng Shan heard Yang Kai’s name, she was also a bit suspicious, not certain if this Yang Family youngest Young Lord was the one she was familiar with.
Later, after many inquiries, she confirmed his identity.
Leng Shan’s status in Ghost King Valley wasn’t low, so she had gone to ask Elder Gui Li to allow her to lead some of the Sect’s people to participate in the Inheritance War.
Gui Li immediately refused.
Ghost King Valley was a Sect from the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land. Disciples running out from its borders would certainly not have good ends. As for going to the Central Capital to participate in the Yang Family’s Inheritance War, how could he possible permit it?
Not only did he refuse, he also confined Leng Shan and ordered that before she reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary she was not to be released.
Sometime later, her Senior Brothers Chen Yi and Cheng Ying secretly released her and the three of them gathered a group of fellow disciples who had received Yang Kai’s help in the Evil Cavern before secretly sneaking out of Ghost King Valley and traveling to the Central Capital.
All of them owed Yang Kai their lives and wanted to repay him somehow. After all, back in the Evil Cavern, if it wasn’t for Yang Kai, they would have already died a thousand times over.
Unfortunately, the Ghost King Valley group’s characteristics were too obvious.
Their hands were pale and bloodless just like a ghost’s, so once they were seen, everyone would know they were from an Evil Sect, causing them to be hunted down and killed mercilessly.
Therefore, the Ghost King Valley disciples all wrapped their hands in white cloth so, although they looked a big weird, they could effectively hide their background.
But with the exception of Leng Shan’s brief experience in the Isolated World, none of these young disciples had ever left the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, so once they left and entered the Great Han Dynasty, they had all but become headless flies.
Finally, after wracking their brains over it, Chen Yi decided to go to Treasure Instrument Sect to find Tao Yang and take advantage of Treasure Instrument Sect’s name to go to the Central Capital.
In his opinion, Tao Yang and the others from Treasure Instrument Sect would definitely move to assist Yang Kai.
Tao Yang has long ago received a letter from Yang Kai’s messenger, but he hadn’t been able to convince the Sect Elders so he could only rely on his fellow disciples if he wanted to go support Yang Kai.
When the Ghost King Valley group arrived at Treasure Instrument Sect, Tao Yang was in a bad mood, so when he saw Leng Shan, Chen Yi and the others he was overjoyed and quickly arranged for them to quietly hide inside Treasure Instrument Sect.
Over the next while, Leng Shan and Tao Yang used both soft and hard forms of persuasion to finally convince the Elders of Treasure Instrument Sect to take a stand in the Inheritance War.
After that, they immediately set off.
But after leaving Treasure Instrument Sect, they almost immediately found themselves being tracked by several people.
Every day, Treasure Instrument Sect was very lively; similar to Medicine King’s Valley, cultivators flowed like an endless river into the Sect to request Artifact Refining, but this group of people was different, they only followed them, never once coming up and speaking with them directly.
After a day of this situation, one of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters from Treasure Instrument Sect finally couldn’t stand it anymore and bluntly asked what their purpose was, soon learning that these people were actually sent by the various Yang Family Young Lords to lobby them into joining their respective camps.
A group of Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley had already declared their support for Yang Kai, so a group of Artifact Refiners from Treasure Instrument Sect was seen as the highest available prize.
Whether it was Yang Zhao, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, Yang Ying, or even Yang Wei, each of them had sent their own group of lobbyists.
But how could Tao Yang and the others accept such an invitation?
After being refused though, these groups of people didn’t lose heart and while keeping an eye on each other, lacking any further instructions, they simply began following Tao Yang’s group.
After a few days of this, an opportunity finally presented itself.
A disciple from Ghost King Valley accidentally exposed his identity which caused the surrounding groups to pounce.
“Master Wu, as long as you hand over the Ghost King Valley disciples, I swear to you we will not embarrass your noble Sect; after all, Artifact Refining is a rare skill and we would certainly not want any misfortune to befall all of you!” From the outside crowd, an Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage expert said with a smile.
These words instantly gained the support of the other surrounding groups everyone nodding their head in agreement to express their attitude. They were implicitly suggesting that as long as Treasure Instrument Sect handed over the Ghost King Valley disciples, they wouldn’t expose the fact that they had been colluding with an Evil Sect.
Wu Yan, who was the Treasure Instrument Sect group’s leader, just snorted and refused to respond.
How could he not see through the intentions of this group of people? It was because he understood all this that he disdained to even reply.
“Tao Yang! Get over here!” Wu Yan’s stomach was full of grievances but he had nowhere to vent, so he could only angrily roar at this junior of his.
Tao Yang’s neck shrank and immediately rushed to the front, respectfully asking, “Uncle Wu, what are your orders?”
Wu Yan wore a smile that wasn’t a smile and quipped, “Little brat, your courage has really grown fat huh? Daring to shelter these Ghost King Valley disciples, what explanation do you plan on offering your dear Uncle?”
Wu Yan also only knew their true identity after the Ghost King Valley disciple exposed his hands a few days ago.
If he had known earlier, how could he and the other Elders of Treasure Instrument Sect so casually let Leng Shan and the others stay in the Sect?
Tao Yang didn’t bother trying to deny at all, instead just laughing as he said, “Uncle Wu, they are my sworn friends. When I, Junior Sister Zhao Rong, and my two Junior Brothers traveled to the Evil Cavern last time we received much care from them, otherwise I’m afraid all of us would have already departed for the next life.”
Wu Yan blinked, “Didn’t you say it was Yang Kai who took care of you all back then? How did it suddenly become a group of Ghost King Valley disciples? Which story is the truth?”
“We received care from all of them, all of them!” Tao Yang said with a somewhat sketchy expression, “In any case Uncle Wu, our Treasure Instrument Sect is just like Medicine King’s Valley. We open our doors only to do business, as for if a client is a virtuous paragon or an evil demon, what difference does that make to us?”
“Hmph! Anyways, this situation is your fault, so you find a way to solve it for this old master, or else, when we get back, I’ll personally drive you out of the Sect!”
“Don’t say that Uncle Wu, haven’t I been trying to find a way out of this mess?” Tao Yang suddenly looked depressed.
“You better think of a way.”