Chapter 88: Third Senior Brother at Death’s Door

“Grandfather, what are you saying?” Zhang Mulan’s voice shot up in an instant. She had never imagined that their benefactor had been Qin Guanlan, the chief disciple of the Vanishing Phenomena Demon Sovereign, known as the Demon Emperor of Ten Thousand Parasols!

That man had been a demon lord! Though he was, in some respects, different from the others… how could he suddenly be connected to the mysterious benefactor of their family? How had he become that very person?

It was said that when the Spirit Plant Sect had once stood on the brink of collapse, that mysterious benefactor had brought them wealth, cultivation resources, and even new ideas. He could be said to have saved the Spirit Plant Sect from every direction, granting them a kindness akin to rebirth. Yet Grandfather had always kept the benefactor’s identity tightly sealed, so throughout the sect people only knew such a person existed, without knowing who he truly was.

And now, all of a sudden, Zhang Mulan learned that this person had actually come from the sacred land of the demonic path. She could not help feeling as though she had not yet woken from sleep, and even more she could not understand why Grandfather had concealed such an immense matter from everyone.

But Zhang Mulan was clever. After a moment’s thought, she understood the reason. It was probably once again that old, worn excuse of righteousness and evil being irreconcilable. Besides, if the entire sect learned the identity of their benefactor, how were they to choose a side then?

Thinking of this, Zhang Mulan found herself unable to face her grandfather. Though he had considered the sect’s interests, this… was undeniably an act of ingratitude!

Zhang Yicheng, however, did not have as many thoughts as his granddaughter. In Zhang Yicheng’s heart, the minds and loyalties of the sect and its disciples came first, everything else second. So he did not notice his granddaughter’s expression at all. But from the way things looked now, he did not believe the people from the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect would be as good-tempered as His Highness Qin, or as uninterested in repayment.

So be it. If things went badly, the worst outcome was merely submission, which would also count as repaying the old debt of kindness. And to put it more sharply, being able to attach themselves to a sacred land power, whether orthodox or demonic, was a good thing.

Seeing Zhang Mulan turn and rush out, Zhang Yicheng did not stop her. He only slowly walked out of the sect gates and, together with the other panicked disciples inside the sect, looked up at the colossal object hanging in the sky.

Although Zhang Ning could not be bothered to disembark, he had never concealed his intentions. Some disciples of the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect clearly believed that their princes had come to subdue the Spirit Plant Sect, and their careless remarks inevitably revealed a little. They did not realize that what they said sounded like a joke to them, but to the Spirit Plant Sect it was nothing less than annihilating disaster. To the other forces that heard of it, it would be a shock that set off a chain reaction. After all, the Spirit Plant Sect was merely an ordinary second-rate power, hardly even considered top-tier. It could truly only serve as a topic of conversation for the disciples of the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect.

Zhang Yicheng looked up at the ship in the sky. The ruler of that behemoth was so arrogant he would not even deign to come down, allowing only the enormous shadow of the flying magical vessel to cover the entire Spirit Plant Sect and fill the air with danger and tension. Zhang Yicheng knew part of the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect’s manner of doing things, so in truth he was not as worried as he appeared. Yet outwardly he was bathed in old tears, bowing toward the sky and saying, “Zhang Yicheng hereby leads all disciples of the Spirit Plant Sect in submitting to the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect! We are willing to serve the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect. May the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect endure through the ages, and may the Vanishing Phenomena Demon Sovereign forever suppress the Azure Heaven!”

Zhang Yicheng had originally thought that some person of importance would come down to speak with them, and that he himself might even be held aloft as an example. Unexpectedly, after he maintained the same awkward posture for a long time, only a seemingly ordinary steward calling himself Su Shangwen came down to speak with them. In the days that followed, they did not even receive proper arrangements or any significant use.

Zhang Yicheng’s heart was naturally filled with resentment. Yet however resentful he was, it did not affect his loyalty to the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect, nor did he notice the ashen expression on the face of that steward who called himself Su Shangwen.

When Su Shangwen returned to his lord to report that the Spirit Plant Sect had been dealt with properly, Fifth Prince Zhang Ning was already standing solemnly. Upon hearing this, he nodded and said, “Good. We set out… do not panic!”

Su Shangwen hurriedly responded with respect. Although Zhang Ning had said not to panic, in truth the one most anxious of all was him, because Third Senior Brother Zhuge Yi had been attacked!

Zhang Ning had originally been waiting above Rising Central City to reunite with his third senior brother and return to the sect. His excitement need not be mentioned. Yet he waited and waited, and Zhuge Yi never arrived. Even the messages from his senior brother’s subordinates were vague and evasive, and this immediately made Zhang Ning sense something was wrong. He at once began to ask for the exact situation. Once Zhang Ning’s tone turned serious, the other side no longer dared hide anything, even though Zhang Ning was still only a child.

Only then did Zhang Ning learn what had happened: Third Senior Brother Zhuge Yi had been assassinated!

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Ning felt as though a thunderbolt had struck him from the heavens. How could this be? How could it?!

Zhang Ning knew that Zhuge Yi had once been targeted by assassination before. Many people even used Zhuge Yi as a negative example for teaching Zhang Ning how not to fail at protecting oneself, to the point that Zhang Ning’s ears had practically developed calluses from hearing about it. Third Senior Brother himself had also once mocked the matter, saying he had been betrayed by a subordinate he had trusted the most, stabbed in the back by that very person.

Zhang Ning knew just how many experts had been placed around Zhuge Yi after that. More importantly, Zhuge Yi had been traveling here from within the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect itself. The lingering might his master had left behind after dealing with experts from another world was still present. Who in the world had the nerve—had the wild courage—to assassinate his disciple Zhuge Yi at a time like this?

Of course, courage was not even the key point. The real issue was that the assassination had actually succeeded! To possess such ability… could the assassin also have been one of those experts who had sneaked across from another world?

The most unbelievable thing was that even an ordinary assassination would have been one thing; such events were practically a daily matter for heirs of sacred demonic lands. But an assassination that truly threatened their lives… if one said their master had left no hidden safeguard on them, Zhang Ning would not believe a single word of it. So what was his master’s condition then? Could it be that when dealing with that invading expert from another world, the master had also suffered some hidden injury?

When Zhang Ning heard the news, he nearly could not stand and could only clutch the table and chair tightly.

Fortunately, he steadied himself in the end. Only after drawing dozens of deep breaths did he finally calm down enough to understand that rushing back to Third Senior Brother Zhuge Yi’s side immediately would be useless. It would only expose his fear and weakness and leak the news. So Zhang Ning even ordered Su Shangwen to finish the matters at hand before setting out at the very end, and also gave the command: “Do not panic.”

Yet Zhang Ning still lacked a certain sharpness of mind. Once those words were spoken, the people closest to him likely all knew that at this moment the most panicked person was probably him. Moreover, he had ordered everyone to use the formation to return directly to the sect. Did such behavior not say enough? Thus, even though Zhang Ning tried his best to steady his mind and keep a blank expression, to others it only seemed like the calm before a storm on an endless sea, like subterranean currents surging beneath a volcano that had yet to erupt.