CHAPTER 275: CHAPTER 262: HONORED GUEST ELDER!

"Stay."

In the sky, Zhouyang held the seemingly real and unreal golden round mirror, and like issuing a heavenly decree, lightly spat out the word "stay" towards Luo Yunqing.

In an instant, the golden round mirror in his hand spun around, its surface instantly aimed at Luo Yunqing, projecting a dazzling golden light.

Although Luo Yunqing didn’t know what effect this golden light had, he didn’t dare let it shine upon him.

He waved the red feather fan in his hand, laying down a layer of fiery red curtain in front of him, and then with his divine sense, the turtle shell artifact was placed outside the curtain.

He still felt insecure, and quickly activated a Tier Four Lower-Grade Defense Spirit Talisman to set up a third layer of protection.

Unfortunately, none of this could change the final outcome.

Under the golden light projected by the "Golden Light Celestial Stabilizing Mirror," Luo Yunqing’s turtle shell artifact first lost connection with his divine sense and fell to the ground, while the fiery red curtain and the protective shield formed by the Tier Four Defense Spell were easily penetrated by the golden light.

Finally, the golden light fell on Luo Yunqing, and an invisible force instantly immobilized him in place, making even blinking incredibly difficult.

"How could this be? What kind of divine technique is this?"

Though his body and eyes couldn’t move, Luo Yunqing’s divine sense and consciousness weren’t restricted, nor was his magical power.

Among Tier Two Magics, there was a practical spell called "Body Fixation Technique," which could fix a person’s body, rendering them immobile.

However, "Body Fixation Technique" obviously could not affect someone like Luo Yunqing, a Purple Mansion Cultivator; even a Golden Core Stage Cultivator couldn’t achieve this effect with it.

Luo Yunqing, having cultivated for hundreds of years, had never seen or even heard of such a divine technique targeting only the body.

But today, he witnessed it.

After immobilizing Luo Yunqing with the "Golden Light Celestial Stabilizing Mirror," Zhouyang instantly activated his divine sense, and the Thousand Blade Disc flew out, splitting into dozens of silver blades, shooting towards Luo Yunqing.

Luo Yunqing naturally refused to sit back and await death; although he couldn’t move his body, his divine sense quickly manipulated the flying sword entwined with two soul beasts for defense, hoping to block Zhouyang’s attack until the body-stabilizing golden light dissipated.

Generally, the more powerful a divine technique treasure, the greater the magical power consumption.

Even if the "Golden Light Celestial Stabilizing Mirror" could immobilize him, it would surely consume Zhouyang’s magical power greatly, unable to last long.

So he only needed to hold on a little while, and Zhouyang would be forced to retract the divine technique due to excessive magical power consumption.

Unfortunately, he underestimated Zhouyang’s strength and the power of the Thousand Blade Disc.

Under the slicing of those dozens of silver blades, his Tier Four Middle Grade Flying Sword was quickly covered in cracks, eventually exploding into countless fragments.

After destroying the flying sword, the silver blades swarmed over him like a group of silver carnivorous bees.

"No!"

Extreme fear allowed Luo Yunqing to slightly break free from some of the binding of the body-stabilizing golden light, letting out a scream filled with terror.

Just as the scream hadn’t yet faded, his body was already cut into countless pieces, leaving only a face twisted with fear, still held in mid-air with the head, waiting to be collected.

He died not whole!

Perhaps Luo Yunqing never dreamt that his impulsive act of decapitating Zhou Minghan fifteen years ago would be repaid in the same way upon himself now.

After slaying Luo Yunqing, Zhouyang’s divine soul in the Purple Mansion Daoist Palace opened its eyes wide, filled with joy and relief.

This reaction from the divine soul quickly fed back to his physical form, adding a touch of smile to his stern face.

With a smile, he gestured, and the seemingly real and unreal golden round mirror quickly receded in momentum and transformed into a silver spirit talisman, landing in his hand.

However, the silver spirit talisman now had nearly half of its previous aura faded, and the pattern of the golden round mirror on it was much dimmer than before.

This talisman treasure could still continue to be used, but its potency in the next use would certainly not be as strong as this first use, and it could only be used one or two more times before disappearing completely.

Even so, this talisman treasure would become one of Zhouyang’s most powerful trump cards, so he carefully folded it and put it into his storage bag.

At this moment, he cast his gaze over the entire battlefield.

With the Mountain Protection Array losing its effect and after eliminating Luo Yunqing, the cultivators previously gathered on Luofeng Mountain were quickly being decimated by the Yellow Sand Sect’s cultivators.

Originally, the Yellow Sand Sect had an absolute numerical advantage, and now with the Mountain Protection Array disabled and the leading Luo Yunqing slain, the momentum was completely crushing the rebellious cultivators.

Zhouyang glanced around, seeing that almost all of the rebellious cultivators were fleeing, none daring to remain for a desperate fight.

Oh, there was one exception; that person was Guo Shuyun.

Guo Shuyun, after saying something, surprisingly made Zhang Yunpeng abandon his numerical advantage and actually engage in a one-on-one duel with him.

However, it was clear that even in a one-on-one fight, Guo Shuyun of the Seventh Layer could not match Zhang Yunpeng of the Ninth Layer.

The only reason he hadn’t yet fallen was that Zhang Yunpeng cherished his reputation and didn’t want to get hurt in Guo Shuyun’s desperate attacks.

Upon seeing this, Zhouyang finally relaxed, and then began to focus his attention on the Zhou Family’s cultivators.

The average cultivation level of the Zhou Family’s cultivators was not high. Even Zhou Xuanhao, who had the highest cultivation, was only at the Fourth-Layer Foundation Establishment Stage.

However, like Zhouyang, these people, despite their low cultivation, wielded powerful magical artifacts. On average, each person had at least one Tier Three High-grade Spiritual Artifact, and each carried at least five Tier Three Spirit Talismans.

Such an arrangement allowed them to have the upper hand in magical combat against peers, quickly gaining the advantage.

Zhouyang glanced around and, seeing no need to worry about the safety of these Foundation Establishment cultivators, turned his attention to the Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators.

Compared to the overwhelming advantage of the Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, the performance of the Zhou Family’s Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators was slightly lacking.

Many of these Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators lacked life-and-death combat experience. In a battlefield where spells and artifacts were flying chaotically, these inexperienced cultivators were easily injured or fell for various reasons.

Therefore, even though Zhouyang had opened the clan’s treasure vault to let these people receive some life-saving Tier Two Spirit Talismans before departure, and despite the current overwhelming favorable situation, there were still casualties among the thirty-three Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators of the Zhou Family.

"These clansmen still lack tempering!"

Zhouyang shook his head in his heart but had no intention of stepping in to help.

He had already done his best to help these people as much as possible. If they still died here, it could only be said that such a tribulation was destined for them.

In war, death is inevitable!

Of course, not helping is one thing, but if any rebel cultivators tried to flee, Zhouyang would still cut them down with his flying sword.

This war would not accept prisoners, nor would it allow any rebel cultivators to escape.

Facing rebellion, only by killing massively could other disloyal people be deterred, ensuring those with hopeful hearts are utterly disillusioned.

After more than half a day, the war finally was coming to an end.

Guo Shuyun, after battling Zhang Yunpeng for nearly two hours, was finally beheaded by Zhang Yunpeng’s wind blade.

As for those cultivators who followed Luo Yunqing in the rebellion, except a rare few who miraculously escaped, the rest all perished on the battlefield.

Post-battle statistics showed that more than 1,300 cultivators from both sides fell in just this battle, including two Purple Mansion cultivators, 39 Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the rest were Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators.

Among the thirty-three Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators sent by the Zhou Family, three died, and over ten were injured. One person died under the assault of multicolored arrows, while the remaining two were killed by enemy cultivators of the same tier.

After the war ended, the Foundation Establishment and Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators went to clean the battlefield. Meanwhile, Zhouyang and several other Purple Mansion cultivators gathered in a great hall on Luofeng Mountain to discuss the distribution of war spoils and the subsequent rebellion suppression.

With Luo Yunqing and Guo Shuyun’s deaths, there were temporarily no forces left in the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm that could threaten the dominance of the Yellow Sand Sect, but many families and cultivators that had betrayed were still fleeing and hiding outside.

The Yellow Sand Sect would certainly not let them go, but it was clearly not worthwhile to mobilize forces for these people.

Therefore, the correct approach hereafter should be for the Yellow Sand Sect to post notices offering a bounty for the heads of rebels, allowing various vassal clans and loose cultivators to accept bounty tasks and search for and eliminate rebel cultivators in their respective territories.

To achieve this, the support of various Purple Mansion clans that occupied large oases was indispensable.

Remembering the favor from Cao Wenjin in the past, and having recently come into a substantial fortune, Zhouyang was open-minded about the distribution of war spoils.

Apart from fighting for the rightful interests of those middle-lower tier cultivators in the clan, he did not hoard Luo Yunqing’s belongings, generously letting Zhang Yunpeng distribute them.

Of course, even though he was the one who killed Luo Yunqing, Zhang Yunpeng would not truly divide the items equally among everyone.

After reclaiming some of the Yellow Sand Sect’s cultivation technique secret technique and other inheritances, the remaining property was divided, with four-tenths distributed among everyone, and Zhouyang alone taking six-tenths.

Although only six-tenths, due to Luo Yunqing’s previous rampant accumulation of wealth, this move allowed Zhouyang to gain 140,000 spirit stones and a Tier Four High-grade Spiritual Artifact.

After distributing the spoils, Zhang Yunpeng looked at Zhouyang and the other three Purple Mansion cultivators outside the Yellow Sand Sect and said, "You three are all smart people, so Zhang will not beat around the bush. After two consecutive upheavals, the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm has suffered heavily and cannot withstand further turmoil. Therefore, our Yellow Sand Sect is willing to bestow upon you the position of Honored Guest Elder. Would the three gentlemen be interested in accepting?"

"If the three of you are willing to accept the position of our Yellow Sand Sect Honored Guest Elder, Zhang can guarantee you that, every fifty years, your family will be sold a Foundation Establishment Pill at the price of 20,000 spirit stones, and if you wish to purchase some external spiritual objects in the future, you can also commission our sect’s cultivators to purchase them on your behalf!"

Bestow the position of Honored Guest Elder?

Zhouyang and the others were slightly taken aback by Zhang Yunpeng’s words, not expecting him to suddenly bring up this matter.

The position of Honored Guest Elder was not granted lightly; previously, only the Chen Family Ancestor was awarded such a position after advancing to Tier Four Alchemist.

Now, even though they were only in the early stages of the Purple Mansion cultivation, the Yellow Sand Sect was willing to offer them this position, which was unprecedented.

However, the three reacted quickly. Zhouyang almost immediately replied, "Such a good opportunity; how could Zhou refuse?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Ping’an’s eyes gleamed, and he promptly responded, "Chen feels the same."

The other Purple Mansion cultivator, Nie Qiufeng, seeing the two agree, did not think twice about Zhang Yunpeng’s intention, hastily replied, "Nie is honored."

"Hahaha, then on behalf of the Yellow Sand Sect, Zhang welcomes you three elders to join us."

Zhang Yunpeng laughed heartily, smiling as he rose to toss three tokens representing the Honored Guest Elder status to the three.

Standing beside him, Jiang Yuyan, who hadn’t spoken a word, withdrew her hand from her storage bag at her waist and, with a beaming smile, rose to welcome the three newly inducted Guest Elders.