Elder Du said gravely, “We’re not sure where Zhe Ying has disappeared to. None of us can find him. You should stop wasting your efforts as well.”

　　 “You’re doing this because of the reward offered by the Ji Dynasty’s Emperor, aren’t you?” Elder Bai asked with a scornful laugh. “You’re not here to confront Zhe Ying but to kill him, right?”

　　 Chu Li replied, “Yes, I’ve come here not just to kill Zhe Ying but to also kill all of you Heavenly Demonic Sect b*stards!”

　　 “Since you’re intent on killing us, we have no reason to treat you courteously!” Elder Bai said. “As disciples of Heavenly Demonic Sect, we will never show mercy toward our enemies!”

　　 Elder Bai threw himself at Chu Li as soon as he finished speaking.

　　 At the same time, the other three Grand Elders charged toward Chu Li.

　　 Chu Li’s cultivation level was higher than theirs so they were not confident that they could go up against him alone. The safest approach was for the four of them to work together and launch a joint attack on him. There was no need to worry about their reputation since they were in their basilica anyway. Everything would turn out fine once they managed to capture and kill him.

　　 Although they did not fully agree with Fu Qingya’s decision, they would never say anything to oppose him as they did not care much about the Ji Dynasty’s factions. Destroying a faction was no big deal anyway.

　　 Chu Li laughed coldly as the dim flash of a sword emerged.

　　 “Ugh…” Elder Du’s eyes instantly grew wide when a sword tip appeared right in front of him and left him with no way to avoid the attack.

　　 “Ding…” A long and pale finger hit the sword tip and sent it moving in a different direction.

　　 The sword tip swept across the side of Elder Du’s neck and left a streak of blood on his skin. Elder Du quickly pressed a hand to the side of his neck and stumbled backward as he felt cold air lingering around his neck, as though it would pierce his throat at any moment.

　　 His throat became tight and he dared not move forward again.

　　 Fu Qingya charged toward Chu Li in a ghostly manner while the latter came at him using a strange and mysterious step technique, swiftly slashing his sword at him.

　　 “Ding, ding, ding, ding…” Fu Qingya’s finger kept colliding with the sword tip as if he was playing the pipa, and it sounded as though there was some kind of rhythm to the endless ringing noise from the sword.

　　 Chu Li’s body movement technique seemed slower than that of Fu Qingya, but his swordsmanship made up for it. His sword technique was exquisite and profound as he kept unpredictably swinging his sword at Fu Qingya at lightning speed. Fu Qingya would have been stabbed if it had not been for his exceptionally fast body movement technique.

　　 The Four Grand Elders took a few steps backward and looked at one another in dismay.

　　 Even a genius at cultivation like Zhe Ying was no match for their sect leader, yet this Chu Li, who seemed to be around the same age as Zhe Ying, was equally matched with Fu Qingya and showed no sign of being at a disadvantage at all. His swordsmanship, in particular, was exquisite beyond compare.

　　 “Ding, ding, ding, ding…” Chu Li said coldly, “Today, I’m going to kill you to seek revenge on behalf of all Snow Lunar Pavilion disciples!”

　　 “You’re very arrogant!” Fu Qingya said with a cold laugh while warding off Chu Li’s sword tip with his finger. “With your current capabilities, you’re no match for me!”

　　 “Humph, we shall see about that!” Chu Li’s movements abruptly grew faster while his sword shone brighter. As his speed became twice as fast as before, he easily stabbed his sword into Fu Qingya’s chest.

　　 “Sect Leader!” The Four Grand Elders were shocked.

　　 Chu Li’s Modesty Sword instantly exploded into pieces that flew all over the place.

　　 Fu Qingya’s body suddenly grew larger as his Heavenly Demonic Body was stimulated. Then, he lowered his gaze to examine his wound and laughed coldly. “You can never harm me with that sword of yours!”

　　 Chu Li struck a palm at Fu Qingya’s chest.

　　 Fu Qingya recklessly forced himself to receive this palm attack, mainly because his body movement technique had slowed down a little and was not as agile as before due to unexpectedly having to circulate the Heavenly Demonic Body. Meanwhile, Chu Li’s palm attack had been quick and abrupt.

　　 “Bang!” Chu Li landed a direct hit on the right side of his chest.

　　 Fu Qingya widened his eyes in disbelief and pointed at Chu Li. “Zhe… Ying…”

　　 He was overwhelmed with indignation as he collapsed weakly to the ground, because he could tell that Chu Li’s last attack contained an Enlightened Master’s energy that had been absorbed using the Heavenly Demonic Spirit Devouring Technique.

　　 “Sect Leader!” Elder Du and the other three elders disregarded the danger of the situation and rushed forward.

　　 Chu Li spat out a mouthful of blood. When he used the Enlightened Master’s energy which he had devoured using the Heavenly Demonic Spirit Devouring Technique to inflict a severe injury upon Fu Qingya, the force of the attack had rebounded on him too.

　　 He circulated his Heavenly Demonic Power to the fullest extent possible and ignored his own injuries as he lifted Fu Qingya up and vanished in a flash to avoid getting caught by the Four Grand Elders. Then, he called out, “Honorable Masters!”

　　 While he was still speaking, Chu Li rapidly transformed his appearance into that of Zhe Ying and pressed his palm to Fu Qingya’s chest.

　　 He circulated the Heavenly Demonic Spirit Devouring Technique again and kept devouring Fu Qingya’s Heavenly Demonic Orb.

　　 “You… You…” The Four Grand Elders were dumbfounded.

　　 Chu Li chuckled while devouring Fu Qingya’s Heavenly Demonic Orb. “Honorable Masters, don’t you recognize me?”

　　 “You… You’re Zhe Ying?” Elder Du asked as he could hardly believe his eyes.

　　 Chu Li nodded. “It’s me.”

　　 “You’re Chu Li, aren’t you?” Elder Bai asked.

　　 Chu Li replied, “I am Chu Li!”

　　 “You…” The four of them frowned as they became utterly confused.

　　 Chu Li carried on devouring Fu Qingya’s Heavenly Demonic Orb. “I’ve always been Chu Li!”

　　 “How is this possible…?” The four elders found this turn of events too difficult to believe.

　　 Chu Li replied, “After I killed Du Feng, I disguised myself as him and went to Snow Lunar Pavilion once. I fell in love with a girl there, but Sect Leader found out about this and sent someone to kill her… I have to avenge her death!”

　　 “What’s the deal with Chu Li then?” Elder Song asked.

　　 Chu Li replied, “I’ve been using Chu Li’s identity since the beginning. I snuck into the Ji Dynasty’s Yi Public House and killed the real Chu Li. He was just a lowly servant back then, and no one paid any attention to him, so it’s been a very easy task to disguise myself as him. As time passed, I somehow managed to become a chief.”

　　 “Impossible!” The four elders shook their heads.

　　 That might have been possible elsewhere, but it was impossible for him to do that in the Ji Dynasty because Buddhism flourished greatly in that nation. Buddhist disciples were the best at detecting Heavenly Demonic Sect disciples. If they discovered the presence of a Heavenly Demonic Sect disciple, they would never rest until they killed that disciple. Therefore, Heavenly Demonic Sect disciples could only sneak around and move quietly in the Ji Dynasty to avoid encountering any Buddhist disciples.

　　 Chu Li huffed and said, “It’s not impossible! … I received a fortuitous encounter that allows me to completely conceal my Heavenly Demonic Energy, so even the most powerful monks won’t be able to detect it. In fact, I have a friend who is a monk!”

　　 The four of them felt like Chu Li was spewing nonsense.

　　 Chu Li pursed his lips and muttered, “You can look into this matter and find out whether or not I’m talking nonsense. I’ll be leaving first!”

　　 He turned around and was about to leave.

　　 “Wait, let go of Sect Leader!” The four elders finally realized what he was planning to do and rushed forward to surround him.

　　 Nonetheless, Chu Li gave them no time to react as he vanished with ghostly speed.

　　 The Four Grand Elders looked appalled but believed Chu Li’s words.

　　 Chu Li had just circulated the Heavenly Demonic Power, which was exactly the same as Fu Qingya’s Heavenly Demonic Power. Only the two of them were capable of creating a Heavenly Demonic Field since they had both reached the second half of the ninth level in their Heavenly Demonic Power.

　　 “This is too…” They were still struggling to accept this turn of events and began discussing this situation among themselves.

　　 The four of them could already guess what would happen to the sect leader. Zhe Ying would never let the sect leader off the hook after having seized this opportunity to capture him.

　　 None of them had ever imagined that the sect leader would fall into such a situation and end up being defeated by Zhe Ying.

　　 However, the sect leader had indeed gone too far this time, seeing as he had killed the girl Zhe Ying liked to prevent him from perfecting his inner state. The sect leader had clearly done such a cruel thing out of fear that Zhe Ying would surpass him. It was not a big deal if he merely destroyed a small faction, but he had crossed the line by killing the girl Zhe Ying liked.

　　 They had a much closer relationship to Zhe Ying than to the sect leader since they had raised him as a child. No matter how vicious Zhe Ying was, they knew that he would never do any harm to them.

　　 …

　　 Chu Li had vanished and reappeared inside a cave along with Fu Qingya.

　　 This cave was located halfway up a cliff. A strong wind howled outside of the cave and sounded as though countless people were crying and wailing some distance away.

　　 The cave looked clean and tidy and was furnished with a stone bed and a stone table. There was a skeleton sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, but no martial art secret manual could be found in the cave.

　　 Chu Li lay Fu Qingya down on the stone table and continued devouring his Heavenly Demonic Orb.

　　 His Heavenly Demonic Field instantly expanded to a hundred meters wide once he was done devouring Fu Qingya’s Heavenly Demonic Orb.

　　 Then, as he injected a cold stream of force into Fu Qingya’s forehead, Fu Qingya gradually regained consciousness.

　　 Chu Li was still disguised as Zhe Ying as he stared coldly at Fu Qingya. “Sect Leader, how do you feel?”

　　 Fu Qingya frowned at him.

　　 Suffering a blow from an Enlightened Master’s energy would damage not only a person’s body but also their mind. Thus, Fu Qingya had become dispirited and weak and was no longer as quick-witted and clear-minded as before. He struggled to think for some time and then asked grimly, “Are you working together with Chu Li?”

　　 Chu Li shook his head. “Sect Leader isn’t very smart!”

　　 Fu Qingya frowned and asked again, “Zhe Ying, don’t tell me you are Chu Li?”

　　 “You’re not a fool after all!” Chu Li muttered coldly. “Sect Leader, do you have any last words?”