Chapter 140 Return to Luoyang
The young men and women in Guandi Temple were enjoying game meat.

The night grew darker.

The snow storm continued.

The blankets provided by the Boiled Snow Temple were indeed warm. The young men and young women who had spent their entire day fleeing for their lives were huddled together, wrapping themselves tightly in the blankets. Regardless of their level of cultivation, they were unable to keep warm by mobilizing their True Energy alone, with the exception of Ye Que and Red Bean, whose cultivation level was up a notch from the rest.

While they lived in a Cultivation World where dog ate dog, they were by no means novices. Something unexpected must have happened since Ye Que had come back way past the expected time of his return and Cao Xue was nowhere to be seen. However, no one would be so silly as to raise the question now. Regardless of their origins, Ye Que was the one with the greatest voice within this small temple.

Red Bean had been selectively forgotten. Everyone could see that this girl had been following Ye Que everywhere he went. The two must have an extraordinary relationship to be united in one heart and mind.

Ye Que cleared his throat when he saw everyone eating the barbecue meat quietly.

“We can’t remain in Northern You any longer.”

“The person in the black robe had said that all the Truth Cultivator’s Sects in Northern You would meet with attacks within these few days. They would either be entirely exterminated or forced to surrender. There would be no other options for them.”

“The entire bureaucratic organization of the court in Northern You had been totally destroyed. This included the 200 thousand-strong Ye army who came to block the armored horses on the grassland, as well as the tens of thousands of commoners in the City of You Prefecture, who were implicated and lost their lives. At this moment, the City of You Prefecture was a dead city, a ghost city, a devilish city filled with dead men’s bones.”

He calmly disseminated this piece of information.

In an instant, the entire place quietened down. Even those who were still eating the meat stopped eating. Some younger cultivators had a lost look in their eyes. Apparently, they were clueless about which direction they should go or what the next step was.

Their sects were gone.

So were their masters.

No one felt safe among the various sects, even if they were familiar with each other.

A few youths whose families had been living in Northern You for generations were astonished to hear this piece of news.

“Are you speaking the truth, Mister?” Guan Shuheng asked with disbelief. At first, he thought his sect was the only unlucky one who was attacked by the devil. Apparently, the entire Northern You had been under attack.

However, Ye Que did not respond.

Nevertheless, Chen Chenchen said in an unhurried manner, “It had to be true. Broken King Gorge, which was our territory had been attacked. From what you said, that Pavilion of Wind and Thunder had been attacked too. I’m certain that here in Boiled Snow Temple on Zen Mountain, we’ll meet with the same end. This is all premeditated. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“The problem can’t be solved by sealing up the mountain and closing the doors.”

The bonfire outside crackled as it came into contact with the falling snow.

The whistling sound caused by the cold gust suggested that there were little holes in the windows at the top of the temple and one could feel the chill seeping in.

The wind whistled.

Indisputably, darkness had fallen upon the entire Northern You. Since there was no way of changing the situation, they ought to think of ways to adapt to it or look for another way of escape.

“If Boiled Snow Temple decides to shut its doors, we have to set out southwards once there is daylight. It’s too risky to remain in Northern You. Given we are the remnant who had escaped from Broken King Gorge, we have to carry on living,” Chen Chenchen whispered as he scribbled on the floor with a tiny twig, looking down.

Within a day, whole sects were destroyed and only a handful escaped. Many of their masters and seniors had lost their lives. At this moment, when they heard that the entire Northern You had been invaded by the devil, they were beginning to feel an invisible pressure on them, no matter how unyielding and unfeeling they were.

They were the only remaining seeds of their sects.

Just when Chen Chenchen finished speaking, he glimpsed at the disciples from the Pavilion of Wind and Thunder unintentionally.

Guan Shuheng, being the most junior of the disciples, remained silent. He did not have any good ideas to offer anyways.

After a moment of pause, Yang Nuanyue broke the silence and said, “Eldest Senior Brother had to be the one to make the decision, although I personally hope to head south. There was no way we could remain in Northern You. This region will likely become a battleground between the Cultivation World and the demons.”

Yang Nuanyue stole a quiet glance at Ye Que after speaking, but everyone could read her mind.

They could have gone south safely if not for the pursuit of the demons. However, if the demons’ were to come after them and catch up with them, they would surely lose their life given their present state. The masters in their sect had been obliterated. They had enough reasons to believe that the demons would not let them off since their purpose was to annihilate their entire sect.

.

Moreover, two men in black had died on Zen Mountain this night.

No one knew if these two men were in the company of any other people or if they were carrying any important messages. If the demons tried to trace their steps, every soul in Guandi Temple would be at risk.

The demons were not the kind who would give up halfway.

Both Pavilion of Wind and Thunder and Broken King Gorge had been exterminated and their remaining disciples were like wild grass without roots that got away in the wind. The demons, desiring to nib the problem in the bud, would appear and they would be more formidable than Cao Xue and Xie Yi.

Tonight, the devil cultivator might be progressing two and a half steps within the Formless Realm, but tomorrow night, it would have achieved Demon Seed in the Formless Realm.

Who would not be afraid?

Who would not be fearful?

After they sorted out their thoughts, all the young men waited, intentionally or otherwise, for Ye Que to say something.

“I am going to Luoyang.”

Ye Que finally uttered these words calmly. Pondering for a moment afterward, he continued, “If any of you wishes to go there, I’m open to traveling together. Indeed, Northern You isn’t where we should linger.”

Red Bean was more concerned about eating her meat than to give her opinion in the discussion. She had expressed her wish to traverse the Human World to Ye Que earlier, and would not be returning to Southland in the short term.

She was looking to tread of a different path than the rest. Although she had not conceived a concrete plan as of now, she would think over it and grope her way around until she finally found the answer. Traversing the Human World may seem like a simple idea, but the process could be painstaking, even boring. During her trip to the Imperial Mausoleum of ley lines of sovereignty, she was accompanied by Old Turtle, who had now returned to Southland.

Traveling alone could be problematic for Red Bean, so she thought.

Despite giving people the impression that she was rather aloof, she was merely a fifteen- to sixteen-year-old little dragon girl according to the average life span of a dragon. Although naturally intelligent, she was after all still naive and simple-minded in her perspective of things, sometimes even crude. However, she was no longer worried over these. She had realized after her acquaintance with Ye Que that traversing the Human World could be rather interesting.

She could hear interesting stories, enjoy eating meat, beat up hunters, become a respected heroine and be a tip-top cultivator.

It sounded interesting.

“If I could traverse the Human World alone and have my journey written into a story and subsequently to narrate for people to listen to, it would be so cool.”

At this juncture, Red Bean stole a glance at Ye Que. She thought that she would have to urge him on going forward if she was determined to be the number one cultivator in the world, she could not possibly have someone so much more inferior than herself traveling with her. The handsome swordsman and the heroine as described in stories usually complemented each other in their skills and abilities. He could not expect her to be always protecting him since she already had a lot on her plate. She should not be bogged down by such trivial matters.

“However, Luoyang is one place I have to go by myself.”

“I’ll just go along with him for now.”