The thought of this outcome sent another shiver through Li Zhaoyan. The jade box was just a slightly sturdier spirit treasure-grade box with an illusion formation; its defensive power was limited.
A series of images flashed through Li Zhaoyan's mind, scenes that seemed vaguely familiar. Li Zhaoyan subconsciously cried out.
"Mother!"
With the cry, she shot out like an arrow released from a bow. At the same time, a token had appeared in her hand. As the token glowed, the courtyard's formation restriction instantly lit up with streaks of white light.
Li Zhaoyan's actions of flying away and opening the restriction were all done in one smooth motion, as if she had practiced it many times before.
Just as she shot out of the courtyard and the white light of the formation restriction flared, a loud explosion sounded from behind her.
"BOOM!"
Li Zhaoyan, who was in mid-air, felt the ground beneath her feet tremble violently. Her body also shook intensely in the air a few times. Only after desperately channeling her magical power did she manage to avoid falling from the sky.
And at that moment, after the loud explosion, everything behind her returned to tranquility.
Li Zhaoyan immediately turned her head and saw that above her family's courtyard, apart from a few flashes of white light, everything else was normal. Only then did she pat her already quite full chest with her jade hand.
"Scared this old mother to death!"
After saying this, she quickly covered her mouth with her hand, then hastily looked around. Seeing no one else nearby, she stuck out her pink tongue.
In her great alarm, she had actually blurted out a catchphrase that Li Changting often said to her uncle.
But the next moment, Li Zhaoyan seemed to think of something, and her pretty face immediately fell. Then, her eyes darted around, and she softly comforted herself.
"Maybe it's nothing? It was trapped in the jade box, after all. An illusion formation is still a formation, it should be able to block some of it! Or maybe the Red Sore Bee Gu's self-detonation power was greatly reduced because it was corroded by the poison…"
As she thought this, she had already flown back in front of the courtyard. The token, still in her hand, was brandished at the formation restriction again.
With that, the white light before her eyes vanished, and then… then she saw a scene that was both somewhat familiar and utterly stunning.
The courtyard was a complete mess. The stone tables and stools, the verdant green trees, and the spirit plant garden were all gone. The soil looked as if it had been freshly tilled.
A large pit had appeared where the stone table used to be, its dark opening like a gaping mouth, smiling at her. The black hole radiated outwards in all directions!
And the few rows of houses near the front yard were reduced to a few ruined walls, with wisps of green smoke still rising from some places…
"This is bad…"
Li Zhaoyan's face instantly darkened, and she stared blankly at the scene before her.
Just then, in the space above her head, there was a slight ripple, and a burly man appeared.
The man looked at the scene before him, his entire face darkening. He instantly knew how accurate his ominous feeling from just now had been.
"Zhaoyan, what have you done now?"
Li Zhaoyan, who was in a daze, was startled by the shout. She quickly flashed to a distance before she saw who it was.
A smile immediately appeared on her pretty face.
"Second Martial Uncle, it's you on duty again!"
The burly man was Wei Chituo. Although he and Li Wuyi were martial brothers, Li Zhaoyan addressed them differently.
Zhao Min had told her to call Li Wuyi "Uncle," clearly treating him as Wei Zhongran's adopted son. As for Wei Chituo and the others, they were ranked according to Li Yan's side.
"Of course, it'smeon duty again!"
Wei Chituo stared at the ruins below, his eyes wide. A wave of bitterness washed over him as he cursed inwardly.
Why did this little ancestor always cause trouble when he was in charge of the main hall? He had already encountered this three times.
He had even been reprimanded by his Master for it, who said he wasn't diligently monitoring the situation on Little Bamboo Peak when he was supposed to be in charge.
Wei Chituo looked at the scene before him. He had to admit, the defensive formation of a Nascent Soul cultivator's courtyard was quite good. It never affected anyone else, but it was designed to defend against outsiders, not insiders. The one being destroyed was his little martial brother's home.
'This expense can't be put on my head again just because I was on duty.'
'The first time, I didn't explain it clearly and got scolded by Master. Later, my Eldest Senior Brother even docked a lot of my spirit stones to repair the house of his brother-in-law and junior brother.'
'When I went to collect my monthly allowance of spirit stones afterwards and found the amount was wrong, I went to reason with him, but that good-for-nothing Li Wuyi beat me up, saying that I, as the one in charge of the main hall, couldn't even explain a small matter clearly, and that I should learn my lesson!'
Seeing that Li Zhaoyan wasn't answering his question, but just blinking her big, beautiful eyes and looking at him with a wronged expression, Wei Chituo didn't press her further. He thought to himself.
'What are you acting all wronged for? When your great uncle was beating me up, I saw you laughing quite happily on the side…'
So, he extended a hand from a distance, and a large hand materialized, grabbing Li Zhaoyan in one go.
"Sec... Second Martial Uncle, Second Martial Uncle!"
Li Zhaoyan panicked at the sight. Wei Chituo said no more, and with Li Zhaoyan in tow, he soared into the sky.
Immediately, Wei Chituo's extremely mournful voice echoed over Little Bamboo Peak.
"Master, Master, your granddaughter has gotten into trouble again, again, again!"
Wei Chituo was crude but not stupid. He never said "maternal granddaughter" in front of Wei Zhongran and Zhao Zhi , but always called her "granddaughter."
His voice instantly echoed throughout Little Bamboo Peak. In a bamboo courtyard, Wei Zhongran's body jolted violently.
"She… what did she do now? Little Bamboo Peak has been quiet for a few months. I was just thinking that the tremor just now felt somewhat familiar!"
…
Desolate Moon Continent. Darkness enveloped the surroundings, with a few stars scattered about, almost invisible. The prairie was pitch black.
The man in the silver cloak was furious. He was, after all, an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. He had just defected to the White Demon Clan , and the news had leaked so quickly.
And a mere Golden Core level Centurion dared to look down on him and even tried to assassinate him.
"There is a traitor among the high-ranking members of the sect, otherwise the Demon Blade Battalion would not have been sent to investigate so quickly, and it's that notoriously ferocious Centurion from recent years!"
The man in the silver cloak's mind raced, quickly thinking over the events of the night.
He decided he had to kill the person before him quickly. After returning, he would perform a Soul-Searching Art on the few people he suspected in the sect, and then immediately take the Black Demon Clan's border defense map he had obtained and flee to the White Demon Clan.
He was originally from a sect under the jurisdiction of the White Demon Clan and would take turns guarding a section of the fortress on the border in assistance of the Black Demon Clan. A few years ago, a White Demon Clan cultivator had secretly contacted him.
As long as he could secretly provide their military intelligence, he would be given cultivation resources he could only dream of. He had been terrified at the time.
He had even thought of directly reporting that a White Demon Clan member had contacted him, then setting a trap to capture them, and then following the clues, which might lead to a whole string of enemies. He could also be rewarded for it.
But when he thought of the conditions they offered, he found it very difficult to make up his mind. If he got his hands on the resources promised by the White Demon Clan, there was a fifty percent chance he could break through to the mid-stage Nascent Soul within three hundred years.
This made the man in the silver cloak hesitate for a long time before he finally decided to take the risk. "Men die for wealth, and birds die for food." As a cultivator, he was already walking a path against the heavens.
But he never imagined that his trusted subordinate or disciple would betray him, attracting the investigation of the dreaded Demon Blade Battalion.
Although he could no longer provide a continuous stream of military intelligence to the White Demon Clan, the border defense map in his hands would still be of great benefit to them.
But this window of opportunity was at most half a month. Any longer and it would be useless. Even if the Black Demon Clan didn't discover any problems, they would regularly redeploy their forces.
Soon, three breaths passed, but the prairie below remained deathly still, without any movement.
"The 'Undead Demon Vine' , is it? Today, I'll turn you into a dead man!"
The man in the silver cloak sneered. He knew the other party was hiding below, but because his aura was so well concealed, he really couldn't find him for the moment.
And Mu Sha himself had come to find him. He didn't believe the other party hadn't left a backup plan. Therefore, he couldn't delay any longer, lest something change. He had to go back early and prepare to escape.
"Rise for me!"
One moment the man was sneering, the next he had already shouted loudly. At the same time, his fingers curled into claws, and he slammed them down towards the earth below.
As his hands shot downwards, two giant claws, each ten zhang in size, appeared in the empty space below him. A dark cyan light flickered between the ten fingers of the claws.
In the dark night, they were like two ghost claws descending from the sky, slamming onto the ground and flattening a large patch of tall grass.
"Kakaka…"
With a series of sounds like snapping bowstrings, the ten long, sharp fingers cut through the roots of the wild grass and dug deep into the ground.
The ground of the prairie was very soft due to the large patches of green grass. But for this very reason, even if one were to thrust a sharp blade into the ground, it would be extremely difficult due to the tangled roots that went several feet deep, and would often be stopped after only an inch.
With the shout of the man in the silver cloak, the giant cyan claws had already gripped the ground. He fiercely raised his hands upwards.
With a "rumble," the immense divine ability of a Nascent Soul cultivator instantly erupted.
A piece of ground, a full five hundred zhang in area, was directly lifted up like the lid of a pot, flying into the sky and revealing a deep, hundred-zhang conical pit on the ground.
And that huge patch of turf, torn towards the sky, flew up like a small mountain with a strange whistling sound, shooting towards the sky above.
The next moment, it was swept by a powerful force and turned into powder high in the air.
And the man in the silver cloak, like an ancient divine giant , stood tall in the air, his hands never stopping. He continuously slammed them down, grabbing at patch after patch of deep grass.
Piece after piece of turf, a hundred zhang thick, was constantly torn up by him, shattered… torn up, and shattered again… Water gushed from the hundred-zhang deep pits below.
Soon, a lake several thousand zhang in size appeared on the ground, with him at the center, spreading outwards!