CHAPTER 42: THE STUPID ANT WHO PROVOKED THE ELEPHANT

***

One Week Later.

Azure Pillar Sect.

Ye Fa continued to stare at the outside of the sect. It had been one week, there was no sign of Xiao Bai and Hao Ziyue returning. It worried Ye Fa even more.

"How is this? What should I tell Senior Li if it turns out that Xiao Bai and Hao Ziyue haven’t returned?" asked Ye Fa, confused and panicked.

From behind Ye Fa, Li Shen flew from the Third Pavilion and arrived at the front yard of the sect. Both eyes squinted, there was only Ye Fa there.

"Where are Bai’er and Ziyue?" asked Li Shen, Ye Fa reflexively turned his head.

"I’m sorry, Senior Li. I was waiting here, maybe Xiao Bai and Hao Ziyue would come back. But, there’s no sign of them returning," Ye Fa replied, clasping his hands together and bowing in respect.

"Hmm."

"Didn’t you say that they would be back in three days?" asked Li Shen.

"Junior has been negligent. I shouldn’t allow them to leave," Ye Fa retorted, continuing to feel guilty.

Li Shen stared fiercely at Ye Fa, then stepped forward right to the edge of the sect’s circular front yard. If they didn’t return after a few days, then something must have happened to them.

That wasn’t a good thing for the Pillar Azure sect!

"I’ll go to the Mist Forest to look for them," Li Shen explained.

"Let me come with you, Senior Li."

He shook his head. The man preferred to let Ye Fa stay in the sect, guarding this place and Ruo Fei. Li Shen was quite confident in his abilities, he could surely find Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai’s whereabouts.

"You stay here, let me take care of-"

"I didn’t expect it, it turns out that this outcast sect is still there," interrupted someone, his voice loud and echoing in the place.

Not just one, but three people came and floated right before the sect’s sky. Li Shen turned his head, looking at the man in the center wearing a red long robe. Not only him, but the two people beside him also wore the same color robe.

"Welcome to the Azure Pillar Sect. Is there anything I can help you with?" asked Li Shen, clasping his hands together and aiming towards them.

The man turned his head, seeing a beautiful woman in Azure light blue robes. The man seemed to be holding his chin, smiling cunningly at his two friends.

"As I remember, the Azure Pillar Sect Leader was an old woman stuck in Nascent Soul who couldn’t cultivate. Where is she?" the man asked.

"With her old and skinny body, of course she’s dead," replied the man’s friend, all three of them laughing.

"What is Fellow Daoist’s purpose in coming to my sect? If there’s nothing important, I’ll leave," Li Shen explained.

"Don’t be so hasty, Fellow Daoist. I know where you’re going."

The man in the middle turned to the right, then responded with a nod. His friend knew what he meant. He patted his magic pouch and brought out a leaf-embellished green barrel, then opened the lid.

Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai came out from inside the barrel with both of them bound to each other, completely unconscious. Ye Fa was shocked, stepping forward to be right beside Li Shen.

"Ziyue? Bai’er?"

"Aren’t you two bad masters? Letting them train alone in the Mist Forest without anyone’s protection?" asked the man in the middle, flying closer to the sect.

"What do you want?" asked Li Shen, sternly.

"Give us your Huang Valley Trials Participation Token. That way, we’ll release your two disciples safely," threatened the man.

"Giving it up? That’s the same as throwing away my sect’s honor."

The red-robed man was not playing around with his threat. He brought up a medium-sized fire sword to the front of Xiao Bai’s body.

"I can kill them both in one sword thrust. Isn’t that great? One thrust can kill two people at the same time," the man explained, threatening Li Shen with a smug smirk on his face.

Li Shen sighed, never did he expect that he would be threatened to this point by three Nascent Soul cultivators. That was an insult to Li Shen!

"I can kill you faster than when you killed Ziyue and Bai’er!"

He raised his foot forward, moving in a thunderous flash of blue lightning. The red robe man hadn’t blinked yet, but Li Shen’s figure had already arrived quickly before his body.

STAB!

Li Shen drove a hand wrapped in spiritual energy through the practitioner’s left chest, grasping his heart and crushing it in a single blow.

The man was in shock, vomited blood and instantly fell from the sky, dead. Seeing that their friend was killed that easily, they dragged Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai into the green barrel again, then flew quickly away from the Azure Pillar Sect.

"Trying to escape? That’s useless!"

Li Shen’s hand shot up to his shoulder height, then his fingers seemed to press something in the air.

That was the ability of a True Immortal stage cultivator, moving the hands could stir the heavens and stomping the feet could split the earth.

The two Nascent Soul cultivators who fled instantly fell helplessly under Li Shen’s magic pressure.

The strength of his magic pressure exceeded that of Qing Fei’s, it was enough to make the two cultivators frightened.

Li Shen took another step. One step forward, now his figure arrived fully before the two helpless cultivators.

The man reached out, took the green barrel and put it into his magic pouch. Li Shen had successfully saved Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai, but he was still curious about their identities.

"Who are you? Which sect are you from?" asked Li Shen.

"You... don’t need to know who we are!" snapped one of the two cultivators.

BLAST!

Simply by clenching a fist, Li Shen increased the magic pressure on the man until it crushed his body, but his soul managed to run away.

"No one can escape from me!" declared Li Shen.

He reached out his right hand, pulling the man’s soul which tried to fly away from the place. In one pull of energy, the golden-colored soul arrived in Li Shen’s hand.

"P-Please! Don’t destroy my soul, I’ll tell you everything," the man pleaded.

"Tell me."

"This is an order from the Lotus Hill Sect Leader. We were ordered to come here to destroy the Azure Pillar Sect," the man explained.

"Lotus Hill Sect?"

"We arrested two of your disciples when they were in the Mist Forest. From the robes they wore, they were identical to your sect’s characteristics."

"What else do you know?" asked Li Shen, the man in Li Shen’s grasp seemed to shake his head.

BLAST!

Li Shen crushed that soul ruthlessly, making his friend even more frightened. If he died, then there was a possibility that Li Shen would do the same to him.

"P-Please... let me live! I won’t bother you anymore," pleaded the man, crying blood.

"It’s not your time to die yet," Li Shen explained.

He swung his hand, stopping the magic pressure. Yet, Li Shen caught the man with a chain of fire from his technique.

Ye Fa smiled, the other disciples were seen cheering at their Sect Leader’s ability to defeat a Nascent Soul level cultivator. Li Shen turned his head, sending the green barrel with Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai to Ye Fa.

"Get them out of there and recover their spiritual energy. I’ll leave for a while," Li Shen replied.

"Wait, where are you leaving to, Senior Li?" asked Ye Fa.

Li Shen turned his head forward again, moving the fire chain so that the man’s face was right in front of him.

"Lotus Hill Sect."