The Insidious Blood Luo Sect

"Long Chen, what's wrong?"

Tang Waner noticed Long Chen's odd behavior immediately and asked hurriedly.

Long Chen didn't answer. He took out a map and traced his finger along a mountain range. Not far away, a familiar name appeared: Fengming.

"Waner, I need to leave for a moment. I'll leave the command here to you for now." Long Chen put away the map and handed the jade tablet in his hand to Tang Waner.

That jade tablet was called a Communication Tablet, used for sending messages. It contained strange runes that transmitted messages through Soul fluctuations.

Long Chen had just seen a diagram of the zones guarded by the major Sects on the runes, and he saw the name of the Blood Luo Sect.

It was a name that left a deep impression on him. The Blood Luo Sect had once delusionally tried to swallow the Spirit Stone mine beneath the Fengming Empire capital, only to end up with nothing.

The diagram of the areas guarded by all Righteous Path Disciples had just appeared and was released immediately.

Long Chen saw that the place the Blood Luo Sect was guarding was the Jialuo Mountain Range, an area spanning a thousand miles.

It was only over eight thousand miles away from the capital and was the border of the Fengming Empire. If the Evil Path invaded and they pretended they couldn't hold them off, allowing Evil Path Disciples to charge into the capital, it would be a catastrophe.

Back then, the surrounding major powers had divided up the Spirit Stone mine, kicking only the Blood Luo Sect out.

When Long Chen first met that Elder of the Blood Luo Sect named Zhao Changxing, Zhao Changxing had wanted to humiliate him, but he was driven away by Tu Fang.

Now that they were stationed in front of Fengming, given their hatred for the Fengming Empire, it was very easy for them to kick someone while they were down.

That was why Long Chen's expression changed. His parents were both in Fengming, so he was worried and had to leave for a while.

Tang Waner was startled as she watched Long Chen hand the communication jade tablet to her, and the others also looked at Long Chen in shock.

Long Chen was the Soul of the entire team; if he left, it would be a huge blow to the team's morale.

"There's no time to explain. I have to leave for a moment, but rest assured, I will be back very soon.

If I'm not mistaken, the true main force of the Evil Path won't arrive until three or five days later.

The ones coming now are just some small fry trying to fish in troubled waters; their combat power is nothing to fear.

Through these two battles, you have already overcome your fear of the enemy. As long as you know how to coordinate, those ragtag Evil Path armies will not be your match."

Long Chen smiled slightly, took Tang Waner's hand, and shoved the jade tablet into it. "You are the goddess in our hearts. I believe you can lead this team well!"

Tang Waner took the jade tablet and felt it was incomparably heavy. Long Chen had placed everyone's lives in her hands.

She even felt she couldn't breathe because this burden was too heavy. At the same time, she understood how much pressure Long Chen had been shouldering.

"Don't be afraid. There shouldn't be any large-scale battles during this time. With A-Man here, there absolutely won't be any problems.

A-Man, you stay here. Whatever Sister Waner tells you, you listen to. Whoever she tells you to smash, you smash." Long Chen turned his head and said to A-Man.

A-Man nodded honestly. Although he didn't know why Long Chen was suddenly leaving, he was used to listening to Long Chen.

Long Chen nodded and said to the group of Core Disciples, "I leave the Disciples of the Branch Courtyard to you for now. I will be back soon."

After speaking, Long Chen formed hand seals in front of his chest. A massive amount of Soul energy expanded, and a giant figure appeared in front of everyone.

"Awoo!"

Little Snow let out a heaven-shaking roar as it appeared before them; it was Long Chen summoning Little Snow from his Soul space.

Normally, Long Chen kept Little Snow inside his Soul space. During battles, if he secretly summoned Little Snow, it would definitely catch the opponent off guard.

Summoning Little Snow now was to borrow its speed. He jumped onto its back. Little Snow kicked its hind legs, kicking up dust, and like a phantom, it instantly disappeared from everyone's sight.

Watching Long Chen leave, Tang Waner gripped the jade tablet in her hand tightly and said to everyone,

"Now that Long Chen has left temporarily, we must be even more careful. During this time, no one is allowed to have any accidents, otherwise we won't have the face to see him again."

"Yes!"

Everyone agreed with solemn expressions. They all understood Long Chen's personality; he had said that his greatest hope was to bring everyone back alive.

Now, their lives were no longer just their own, but belonged to everyone. Staying alive oneself would bring more hope of survival to others; this was what it meant to be a team.

…

Three hours after Long Chen departed, within the borders of the Fengming Empire, large groups of border citizens had already begun to evacuate frantically.

No one had expected that the legendary war between the Righteous Path and the Evil Path would erupt around the Fengming Empire. The soldiers of the borderlands were urgently gathering the commoners to evacuate.

"Marquis, these citizens are evacuating too slowly. If the Evil Path attacks, we won't have time to evacuate at all," a soldier said respectfully to a middle-aged man wearing golden armor.

That middle-aged man had a lion-like nose and a broad mouth, possessing an awe-inspiring presence without even being angry. He was like a sharp blade hidden in its sheath; although his edge wasn't displayed, he gave off endless pressure.

This person was none other than Long Chen's father, Marquis Zhenyuan Long Tianxiao. After the capital was pacified, he refused to stay in the capital and instead brought his wife to guard the frontier together.

Long Tianxiao had extremely deep feelings for this place. Compared to the scheming in the capital, he preferred the honest commoners here, where he could be unrestrained and free.

"There's no help for it if they are slow. We cannot abandon a single old, weak, woman, or child. There are Sect Disciples guarding in front for us, so we should have plenty of time to evacuate. Pass down the order to speed up," Long Tianxiao said in a deep voice.

"Yes!"

The soldier turned and left, but just as that person had gone, a burly man walked in hurriedly.

"Uncle Long, it's bad! An emergency signal has come from the front. It's possible the Evil Path Disciples have slaughtered their way here!" the burly man said hurriedly.

This burly man was none other than Shi Feng. Although he was now a prince consort, he had admired Long Tianxiao since he was young. After asking the Emperor for permission, he had been staying by Long Tianxiao's side.

Now, Shi Feng had advanced to the Peak of the Blood Condensation Realm, just one step away from advancing to the Tendon Transformation Realm. He could be said to be the youngest expert in the Fengming Empire besides Chu Yao.

Long Tianxiao's pupils couldn't help but shrink, and he asked in a deep voice, "How could it be this fast? Could it be that the Sect Disciples in the front have all been defeated?"

Not long ago, they had seen large numbers of flying Demonic Beasts fly past, and experts had loudly reassured everyone, telling them to evacuate in an orderly manner to avoid unnecessary casualties caused by panic.

They kept saying that there were Sect Disciples holding the line in front, so how could they have been defeated so quickly? Were the Evil Path Disciples really that terrifying?

"I don't know the situation. I only saw the emergency signal they fired. I estimate they will arrive here very soon," Shi Feng said with a grave expression.

"Immediately assemble all the troops. No matter what, we cannot allow the Evil Path Disciples to slaughter innocent commoners."

Following Long Tianxiao's order, all the soldiers who had been helping with the evacuation were gathered, totaling 150,000 men.

This was all the military force at the border. Most of the soldiers here were native to this place, and they had deep feelings for it.

Now that the Evil Path was invading, they all gripped their weapons tightly, stood before the city gates, and set up a battle formation.

Just as Long Tianxiao was gathering his troops, hundreds of miles away, over a dozen young men wearing Blood Luo Sect attire were hiding in the shadows, watching Long Tianxiao and the others.

"Senior Brother Luo, is it really okay for us to do this?" a man asked with some worry.

"What are you afraid of? This matter was approved by Elder Zhao Changxing; what are you worrying about?"

A man with a gloomy face replied coldly, "The idiots of the Fengming Empire all deserve to die, especially the father and son of the Long family—they deserve to die ten thousand times over.

Originally, the Spirit Stone mine in Fengming was discovered by our Blood Luo Sect first. If it hadn't been for the Long family father and son sabotaging it, it would have long been in our Blood Luo Sect's pocket.

Damn it, just mentioning it makes me want to kill someone. I went to great lengths to get my younger brother a good job, but I didn't expect that in the end, it would cost him his life. It really infuriates me; I really wish I could personally chop off the heads of the Long family father and son," said the man called Senior Brother Luo, gnashing his teeth.

The white-clad man who had been slain by Long Chen was the younger brother of this man before him. He had originally wanted to secure a chance for his brother to get ahead, but not only did he cost his brother his life, he himself had also been implicated.

This time at the Spirit Stone mine, the Blood Luo Sect could be considered to have lost both the lady and the soldiers, and they had also become the laughingstock of all the surrounding powers.

Therefore, the entire Blood Luo Sect hated the Long family father and son to the bone. As it happened, their luck was good this time; the position they were assigned was none other than the Fengming border.

This gave them an opportunity to borrow a knife to kill. Zhao Changxing, who had been humiliated in the capital, directly told his Disciples to intentionally let a wave of Evil Path Disciples in to slaughter the Fengming border.

Although there would be blame for negligence, the responsibility wouldn't be great. The casualties of some commoners wouldn't cause too much of a stir.

They couldn't openly kill Long Tianxiao, but letting Long Tianxiao die at the hands of Evil Path Disciples was no different from getting their own revenge.

"It's hateful that that Long Chen actually entered the Xuantian Branch Courtyard. If those father and son were together, I would have let them both go to Hell together," Senior Brother Luo snorted coldly.

The dozen or so Disciples beside him all remained silent. They were all veteran Disciples; counting it up, they were all Senior Brother-level experts, with the same status as the law enforcers of the Xuantian Branch Courtyard.

Therefore, they could not go directly to the battlefield. This was a tacit understanding formed between the Righteous Path and the Evil Path over many years: let all the new Disciples have the decisive battle to hone their willpower.

"In a while, as long as Long Tianxiao is killed, you all secretly send out the signal to let the Disciples come over to rescue.

As long as not too many people die, no one will suspect that we were the ones who tampered with it, understand!?"

Those people nodded, their eyes fixed tightly on the city gates in the distance.

Long Tianxiao had just gathered the soldiers and hadn't even started speaking when his expression suddenly changed as he looked into the distance.

He saw over thirty Evil Path Disciples in front, wearing blood-red long robes, sprinting towards them with ferocious smiles on their faces.

Long Tianxiao, who had originally wanted to boost everyone's morale, felt his heart go cold when he saw the cultivation level of those people.

They were all actually experts of the Tendon Transformation Realm. Although they were only at the Early Stage of the Tendon Transformation Realm, their aura was actually more than ten times stronger than his own Late Stage of the Tendon Transformation Realm.

Long Tianxiao took a deep breath. He had fought battles all his life and had never despaired, but this was the first time in his life that the gap in power between the two sides was so vast.

Although he knew he would surely die, Long Tianxiao still slowly drew his long saber, because there was no way back. Seeing that the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred feet, he suddenly let out a long roar and charged towards the Evil Path Disciples.

Following Long Tianxiao's movement, the other soldiers also charged out fearlessly. Those Evil Path Disciples had cruel smiles on their faces and all drew their weapons.

"Hum."

Just as the two sides were about to engage in battle, a massive wind blade, like a giant Dragon soaring into the sky, crashed into the ranks of the Disciples. At the same time, a voice resounded through the heavens:

"Warriors of Fengming, all retreat! Leave this to me."