Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 420 The leader of the righteous path is actually myself?

The Yellow Springs Palace has thirty-three floors.

After listening to the report Qin Le relayed through the City God, Chen Ye frowned deeply.

The Arrow of Time had consumed three hundred years of his lifespan, and coupled with the fact that he had been frowning more often lately, a fine line had appeared between his brows.

Faced with the current situation, Chen Ye felt a headache coming on.

The entire Yellow Springs Sect, and indeed all the righteous cultivators in the world, are on high alert, ready to fight the demonic sect to the death.

But after such a long period of preparation and drills, everyone was on edge, yet the Demonic Sect made no move whatsoever.

Humans have their limits, and so do cultivators; no one can live in constant fear.

But after successfully merging with the Dao, that Demon Lord Feilian seemed to suddenly lose interest in this world and completely disappeared, leaving no trace no matter how one inquired.

The righteous path, amidst a flurry of rumors, prepared a false alarm. It felt like putting all one's strength into a punch only to land on cotton, leaving one feeling both frustrated and uneasy.

Chen Ye attempted to use the divine powers of the Heavenly Punishment Hell to trace the cause and effect and pinpoint the location of this Flying Demon Lord.

Previously, the karmic connection between the two had been largely resolved, so the karmic thread was very faint and almost impossible to find.

However, this time Fei Lian broke through to the Dao Integration Realm by scheming against Chen Ye, so the karmic consequences were heavy, and in theory, it should have been very easy to find.

However, even though he could sense the cause and effect related to Fei Lian, he couldn't find it no matter how hard he tried to search among the thousands of cause and effect lines.

An invisible force was affecting Chen Ye's senses, preventing him from ever finding the whereabouts of the Demon Lord Fei Lian.

According to Qu Heng, the Demon Lord Fei Lian must have used his supernatural power of making words law to suppress Chen Ye's causal tracing.

Chen Ye couldn't help but exclaim, "The Dao Integration Realm is truly amazing!"

Qu Heng retorted, "Your supernatural powers are truly outrageous. Even Fei Lian needs to reach the Dao Integration Realm to get rid of him. Don't keep challenging others across major realms and you've lost even the most basic judgment."

These words reminded Chen Ye that he had been playing too many high-level games lately and had forgotten that he was still a Transcendent Realm cultivator.

But putting that aside, now that Demon Lord Feilian has gotten rid of this trouble, why has he been holding back all this time?
Judging from his past actions, this person is definitely not the type to let go of everything and retreat to the mountains after achieving a breakthrough. Even if he doesn't intend to unify the world, given his vengeful nature, he should have already sought revenge against the Yellow Springs Sect for the divine punishment he suffered back then.

He was brutally hacked to pieces for several months. If this had happened to Qu Heng, he probably would have gone to seek revenge the very day he broke through his cultivation realm.

Chen Ye was completely baffled.

The only somewhat plausible explanation is the return to the void.

Youluozi and Feilian collaborated with the goal of opening the Gate of Guixu and releasing the prisoners inside.

Now that Feilian has attained enlightenment, he should fulfill his promise. Only a place like Guixu could trap a demon lord.

Thinking of Youluozi gave Chen Ye another headache.

After their unpleasant parting last time, Youluozi and Chen Ye had a complete falling out, and no matter how Chen Ye called out to them, they did not respond.

Now, there's no way to find out any solutions.

The best outcome, given their long disappearance, would be for Youluozi and Feilian to both die in the jaws of the black dog at Guixu, while the gates of Guixu remain intact. In that case, the world would be at peace, and there would be no further problems.
But Chen Ye knew that no matter how much he wished, his words wouldn't become law, and he couldn't solve the world's biggest problem with just a few words.

Therefore, we must find out some information, otherwise if we just wait like this, and the Demon Lord Feilian unleashes a powerful move, then the world will truly perish.

Chen Ye was quite familiar with Guixu, and he even had a backup plan.

To protect the Mirage Demon clan, he had left a teleportation array in the Void Realm as a precaution. Now, he could use that array to investigate the situation in the Void Realm.

Having made up his mind, Chen Ye immediately summoned all the elders of the Yellow Springs Sect to gather at the Yellow Springs Dao Palace.

When Chen Ye expressed his desire to personally visit Guixu to investigate, the entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

Immediately following this, a unified and strong opposition erupted.

"No!" Chen Ye looked at the person who spoke first with a puzzled expression. He knew that someone would definitely object, but he did not expect that Chang Shou would speak first.

As the eldest of the three Fu, Lu, and Shou, he usually just focuses on his work and cultivation, rarely speaking up, let alone contradicting Chen Ye's opinions to his face.

Chang Shou knew that he had only become an elder of the Yellow Springs Sect because of Chen Yeguang. If he hadn't died long ago after his lifespan was exhausted, he wouldn't have been unable to even pass the Gang Sha Body Refinement if he really had the ability.

But this time, Chang Shou finally couldn't help but speak up. His voice was somewhat sharp because of his urgency, "Sect Master, you are now the pillar of my Yellow Springs Sect and the leader of the righteous path. How can you risk your life to go to such a dangerous place as the Ruins of Return?!"

Chen Ye gave an awkward smile and said self-deprecatingly, "Don't say things like 'leader of the righteous path' carelessly. If outsiders hear it, they might think I, Chen Ye, am arrogant and conceited."

The Yellow Springs Sect is well-suited to be a major righteous sect, especially with the Incense Burning Sect and the Mirage Sect declining one after another. It wouldn't be a problem for the Yellow Springs Sect to rank third or fourth.

But if Chen Ye is the current leader of the righteous path, what will the Qinghe Sword Sect think, and what will the Yunlu Immortal Sect think?
If I told people this, they would really laugh at me.

But someone immediately chimed in, "Sect Leader is being too modest. The Yellow Springs Sect may not be the best in the world, but the title of leader of the righteous path is well-deserved."

Chen Ye looked in the direction of the voice and found that it was Pang Duoduo who had spoken.

"Elder Pang, what makes you say that?"

Pang Duoduo comes from the Incense Burning Sect and is the number one diviner in the world. These words carry a lot of weight when spoken by her.

Moreover, Chen Ye knew that Pang Duoduo wasn't the type to flatter or fawn. On the contrary, she was often so impolite that Chen Ye was speechless. Today, she suddenly said that she was the leader of the righteous path, which was clearly a veiled meaning.

Pang Duoduo, however, did not think as complicatedly as Chen Ye did. She said frankly, "Sect Master underestimates your influence. The so-called leader of the righteous path does not refer to the most powerful righteous cultivator. You cannot compare yourself to Zhang Qi in everything."

“A thousand years ago, Zhang Qi’s swordsmanship was unparalleled, but in the war between the righteous and the demonic, he was just a sword and could not be called the leader of the righteous path. At that time, the one who planned and strategized and forced the eighteen demon lords to their deaths was the leader of the Incense Burning Sect, True Man Yingtian.”

Chen Ye had heard of this person's name before; he was the master of both Wujiu Demon Lord and Lu Xingzhou.

Chen Ye now knows many of the secrets from back then. The real reason that caused the Demonic Sect to collapse was the betrayal of the Demon Lord Wujiu.

The Demon Lord Wujiu was actually an undercover agent sent by Master Yingtian to infiltrate the Demonic Sect. Most of the subsequent plans to sow discord and assassinate the Demon Lord were also devised by Master Yingtian. He was truly a master strategist who could turn the tide of battle with his wisdom and resourcefulness.

No one would disagree that he was the leader of the righteous path at the time.

Pang Duoduo continued to explain, "Although the sect leader's cultivation level isn't particularly high, think about it carefully. Since the resurgence of the Demonic Sect, who has killed all the Demonic Sect Masters who have died? The Azure Dragon was forced into the Void by you and died; the Tiger's accomplice was severely injured and died by your gourd sword energy; its Soul Fire split into millions of remnant souls, which were ultimately broken by your secret technique, and now most of them are dead. Not to mention that the Nirvana Sect's many plans were thwarted by the sect leader, and in the end, even the sect's secret realm was sealed, effectively extinguishing its lineage. All of this is thanks to you, sect leader. The title of leader of the righteous path is well-deserved. Who dares to utter a single word of criticism?"

Although Chen Ye couldn't refute it, he still felt somewhat embarrassed.

How could someone who started as a rogue cultivator from a demonic sect inexplicably become the leader of the righteous path in less than three years?
As a result, after Pang Duoduo finished speaking, everyone in the Yellow Spring Sect agreed.

"Elder Pang is right!" As Pang Duoduo's disciple, Mo Suixin naturally stood on her master's side. She didn't want Chen Ye to take any risks, so she chimed in, "The situation in Guixu is unclear, and there are Youluozi and that newly promoted Dao Integration Demon Lord Feilian by our side. The sect leader is now the leader of the righteous path, so we cannot easily take risks!"

"Sect Master, please reconsider! This matter is of utmost importance!"

"Please, Sect Master, consider the bigger picture!"

Inside the main hall, voices of opposition rose and fell. Surprisingly, everyone's opinion was unanimous.

In their view, Chen Ye's current status is far too important. He is not only the sect leader of the Yellow Springs Sect, but if anything were to happen to him, it would be a near-devastating blow to the entire Yellow Springs Sect and even the entire righteous path.

Qu Heng saw Chen Ye's predicament and tried to smooth things over, saying, "No matter what changes have occurred in Guixu, we've already waited so many days, so a little more won't make a difference. Sect Master, you've wasted three hundred years of your lifespan. Why don't you go into seclusion for a while, break through to the Nascent Soul realm, and then explore Guixu? With your higher cultivation level, we can feel more at ease."

Upon hearing this, everyone said in unison, "The Supreme Elder is absolutely right."

Seeing the fervent emotions of everyone present, Chen Ye knew that there was no point in saying anything more.

Chen Ye knew that if he insisted on going his own way, no one could stop him, but that would inevitably discourage people.

Moreover, Qu Heng was right. He was only one step away from the Nascent Soul realm, and he should indeed calm down and break through to the next level.

With higher cultivation levels, exploring the Ruins of Return will be more secure.

Chen Ye then said to everyone, "Since that's the case, I won't take any risks. However, we still need to gather information about the Ruins of Return. I will open up the formations in the Ruins of Return to other sects, and Elder Chenguang will be in charge of this matter. I think Tianxin Island should be very interested in the Ruins of Return, so it would be perfect for them to explore it."

(End of this chapter)