“You’re right. Sword Cultivators have always trained the hardest. If we stay behind, maybe we wouldn’t-” Another girl also seemed to waver as she interrupted, “I also heard that there were two Sword Cultivators who recently broke into the Xuan Yuan Family and even that family couldn’t do anything to them. There are also two Sword Cultivators here, so do you think they’re-”

　　“Si Yu!” Yu Hong’s expression darkened as she cut her off. “So what if they were the Sword Cultivators who were able to defeat the Xuan Yuan Family? It’s been so long, yet do you still not understand? There is not one man on this earth who is reliable! We cannot afford to take this risk.”

　　“You saw the lady they call Shen Ying. How come she remained a mortal while the two men reached Soul Formation? Don’t you think that’s weird?” Yu Hong’s expression changed as she said this. She continued, “They say she’s the sect master, but I think they’re making a joke out of her. Maybe they’re just hiding their skills from her because they refuse to teach her. Maybe they are hiding other things too. Do you think people like them would take care of people like us who have ‘betrayed our sect masters’?”

　　“…” The crowd fell silent.

　　“What’s more, they are clearly already suspicious of us,” Yu Hong warned. “We need to leave soon. The people who were after us back at Upper Azure Town are probably already gone. We should take this chance to look for that man on the street and ask him to take us to the Middle Azure World.”

　　They all nodded.

　　“Everyone, hide your auras well. We’re in the Demon Realm. Remember not to alert any demons.” Yu Hong checked each of their array formations and gave further instructions, “Once we find that man on the street and reach Ming Yin Mountain, we’ll be safe.”

　　“So… you’re going to look for Roasted Chicken Gal?” A familiar voice sounded out from behind them.

　　“Who’s there?” Yu Hong cried out. Startled, she drew her sword instinctively. That was when she turned around and then recognised the person in front of her. “Sect Master! Why… why are you…”

　　All of their expressions changed, showing confusion. Where did she come from? How was it that none of them had noticed her?

　　“You… when did you appear?” Yu Hong’s heart sank.

　　“From…” Shen Ying fell into thought for a few seconds. “From the time you said that men were useless.”

　　“You… heard everything!”

　　“Yeah!” Shen Ying sighed. She pointed to the room beside her and said seriously, “Little Hong… I’m alright if you want to whisper in the middle of the night. But squatting outside my window and whispering right next to my headboard… that’s unacceptable, right?” She had been sleeping!

　　Who’s Little Hong?

　　No, the important thing is…

　　“This… this is your room?” How could that be?

　　“Yeah, I’ve been staying here for a few days.” Shen Ying nodded in affirmation.

　　“You… don’t you stay in the back of the hall?”

　　“Oh, that’s the kitchen!”

　　“Kitch…” What freaking kitchen!

　　Which sect would use the entire back section of a hall as their kitchen? What kind of bloody sect is this?

　　“Big Sister Yu Hong, what should we do?” Si Yu nervously tugged at Yu Hong’s sleeve. They had intended to escape stealthily, but now their plan was exposed. They wouldn’t be able to leave if Shen Ying called for the two Sword Cultivators.

　　Yu Hong had thought of this too. She turned to look at Shen Ying and immediately produced an Immobilizing Seal. She slapped the seal onto Shen Ying’s chest and said, “Miss, I’m sorry.” She signalled for the other girls to draw their swords. Taking Shen Ying with them, they rode their swords out of the Invincible Sect.

　　Shen Ying: “…”

　　Er, did I just get attacked in the chest?

　　————————

　　Yu Hong grabbed Shen Ying and led the rest of the girls to fly out of the Demon Realm. She was initially worried that they would encounter a powerful demon, but they must have been lucky as they had already travelled half of the journey and they had not come across a single demon. They did see a couple of shadows, but those shadows had headed in the opposite direction from them. Surprisingly, their journey had been really smooth.

　　Just like that, they smoothly and safely made it to Upper Azure Town. Yu Hong searched high and low before she took out her jade token and formed a hand seal. The jade token glowed momentarily before it then flew up into the sky and disappeared into thin air.

　　The group waited where they were and a few moments later, they heard male voices.

　　“You guys are the ones who wanted to go to the Lower Realm?” A young man stepped out from around the corner. He was a Golden Core cultivator, dressed in black. His slit eyes scanned the group that stood before him.

　　“That’s right,” Yu Hong answered as she stepped forward. “Just as we discussed, I brought the spirit stones. We want to go to the Lower Realm tonight.”

　　“I only see Fiendish Cultivators heading for the Lower Realms. This is the first time I’m meeting Immortal Cultivators who want to enter the Lower Realm,” the man mocked. He turned to count the number of people and then frowned, “Didn’t you say nine? Why is there one more person?”

　　Yu Hong hesitated. She glanced at Shen Ying who was standing beside her and said, “She’s… my friend. She’s just sending us off. She won’t be coming with us to the Middle Azure World.”

　　“You told other people about this!” The man became outraged and immediately drew his weapon. He was ready to silence all of them. “Nobody else can know about this.”

　　“Wait!” Yu Hong went to stand in front of Shen Ying. She gritted her teeth and said, “She doesn’t know anything and I promise that she won’t say a word to anyone else. We… we can give you more spirit stones.” She took out a bag of spirit stones from her bag and handed it over.

　　The man stopped himself and received the bag. He opened it to inspect the spirit stones inside. It was only then that his expression softened. He tutted. “Hmph! On account of this extra bag of spirit stones, I shall let you off this time. But there will be no next time,” he said warningly as he scanned Shen Ying up and down. “As you know, if the aristocratic families and immortal sects find out about me bringing you to the Lower Realm, all of us will suffer for it.”

　　“We know.” Yu Hong nodded. “So… Fellow Daoist, can we go to the Lower Realm now?”

　　“Now?” He laughed humorlessly. “Only Soul Formation Supremacies can tear through the void. I’m not that capable. The array formation that connects the two worlds is not here. Follow me!” He turned toward the right and began to walk.

　　Yu Hong hesitated. She turned around to look at the other girls and then decided to follow him. “Thank you, Fellow Daoist.”

　　Indeed, only Soul Formation Supremacies were able to tear through the void and enter the passage between the two realms. Anyone else who wanted to enter the Lower Realm had to go through the Yin Family’s transportation array. However, it was far too dangerous for the group of ladies to walk through the Demon Realm and the Yin Family would only use their array to recruit Soul Formation cultivators from the Lower Realm. What’s more, given the relationship between the Yin Family and the Yu Family… the Yin Family would never allow her to use their transportation array.

　　She had waited so long before she heard of a cultivator in Upper Azure Town who had set up a business to send people to and fro between the two realms. That was why she had come here. She had suffered for so long and fought so hard—finally, there was hope.

　　Thinking of this made her turn to give Shen Ying an apologetic look. She lowered her voice and said, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. Once we get to the array formation, we will release the Immobilizing Seal and let you go back.”

　　“…”

　　Huh?

　　What Immobilizing Seal?