I saved the entire sect by playing idly by letting things fall apart.

The entire secret realm was quiet. Ye Qiao wandered around but didn't encounter a single person. She dealt with a few fleeing demonic beasts along the way. When she opened the jade slip again, the numbers on it remained unchanged.

The vast secret realm was deathly silent.

She looked down and noticed a bow and arrow that had been thrown not far away.

Ye Qiao bent down and picked it up.

Miao Miao knew how to use the spirit bow. She remembered very clearly that something turmoil had happened here before, with the surrounding trees lying askew and broken beyond recognition.

The corners of her lips curled slightly; something really had happened.

Ye Qiao was just joking at first. What could possibly happen in such a secret realm? It's a place where you can only enter but not leave. It will only open at a certain time, and no one except your direct disciples can enter.

But now it seems that something has happened that she doesn't know about.

"Xiao Qi." Ye Qiao subtly connected with Xiao Qi, "If there's danger, drag me away."

"Mmm," the boy replied softly.

In the secret realm, it is forbidden to borrow external tools, but now that something has happened in the secret realm, those rules don't matter anymore. If it weren't for the fact that none of the four senior brothers could be found and she was worried about their whereabouts, given Ye Qiao's lazy personality, she would have made an identity token and run away as soon as she realized something was wrong.

Hey.

Sure enough, this family fell apart without her.

sigh.

Watching Ye Qiao wander alone in the secret realm, one cultivator had mixed feelings: "Although it's untimely, she's still the most reliable in crucial moments."

"The lonely mentor team is now down to just Ye Qiao."

"There are still a few who haven't been caught, but I estimate it will be soon."

When a Nascent Soul cultivator catches someone, they can cover almost all the locations in the secret realm. No one is as good at hiding as Ye Qiao, who even needs to use a concealment talisman to sleep, making it easy to catch them every time.

"The more you slack off, the luckier you get. Look at how hard Song Hansheng and Ye Qinghan worked, what did they get in return? They were the first to be arrested."

"They worked so hard, yet they only received special treatment from two demons."

Ye Qiao followed the traces of the fight to find the whereabouts of the other sects. The vines blocking the road were burned to ashes by a single burst of fire from KFC. The tangled vines that were frantically lashing the ground were mercilessly burned to ashes by a single burst of true fire from the phoenix before they could even touch anyone.

KFC acted too quickly, so much so that when she noticed the plant she was manipulating was burned, the demon saintess, who was still searching for the whereabouts of her other disciples, suddenly turned around and quickly went back and forth.

someone!

This time, the Demon Clan only sent her and another Nascent Soul stage cultivator. The Demon Clan has been keeping a close eye on the competition, especially those disciples. The better their talent, the greater the threat they pose to the Demon Clan in the future. Those with top-grade spiritual roots are at the top of the list.

The arrival of two Nascent Soul stage cultivators in this secret realm is nothing short of an overwhelming situation, especially since those direct disciples are unaware of it, making it even easier to capture them.

"The five gangs have been mostly captured. Ye Qiao shouldn't have burned those vines. Run!"

The monks watching from the sidelines were filled with anxiety.

"We're going to get arrested."

As soon as she finished speaking, the Demon Saintess appeared where Ye Qiao had just been. She narrowed her eyes and flashed after Ye Qiao.

Almost the instant the two were about to collide, Ye Qiao was pulled into the domain by the elusive Xiao Qi and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Xiaoqi's mother was a genuine Nascent Soul stage cultivator, and his own domain was also above the Nascent Soul stage, making it easy for him to detect unfamiliar auras.

"Mother, that person outside is in the Nascent Soul stage." The boy, who had been lying there watching for a while, obediently came out to report the situation.

No wonder he couldn't sense any fluctuations in his aura, being a Nascent Soul stage cultivator. Ye Qiao patted his head and murmured, "How could a Nascent Soul stage cultivator get in?"

Xiaoxi shook her head.

He's just a naive kid who's never seen the world.

Ye Qiao collected her chaotic thoughts. The only thing she was certain of was that something had happened in the secret realm. A Nascent Soul cultivator had infiltrated and was up to no good, his target being the disciples of the five sects.

Ye Qiao took out concealment talismans from her mustard seed bag and stuck them on her body; she only had two left.

These talismans are difficult to draw and not very secure, as they are easily exposed.

After leaving the domain, Ye Qiao found a safe spot to hide, estimating the range of the Nascent Soul stage's divine sense, and maintained a certain distance from the other party.

When the woman sensed something was wrong, she had Xiaoxi pull her into the area.

With their cooperation, they successfully followed her all the way to the barrier where her personal disciple was imprisoned.

Ye Qiao saw the disciple in the barrier from afar, and her breath hitched slightly, almost giving herself away.

Qin Huai of Chengfeng Sect, Song Hansheng of Yueqing Sect, Ye Qinghan of Wenjian Sect, and her senior brother were all trapped in the barrier, bound tightly.

Ye Qiao never expected that in the short time she took a nap, so many of you would be wiped out?

She hastily suppressed her thoughts, glanced at everyone and saw that they were still alive and well, which reassured Ye Qiao slightly. She put on an invisibility talisman, reached out and hooked the mustard seed bags that the demons had dragged down and thrown aside by their disciples.

After hooking onto it, Ye Qiao immediately grabbed more than a dozen mustard seed bags and stuffed them all into the domain. After stuffing them in, she ran away without looking back.

The audience: "..."

"Even at this point, why is she still thinking about taking that bag of mustard seeds?"

"Heads may be severed, blood may flow, but the mustard seed bag must not be discarded."

Qin Huai was preoccupied. Their Chengfeng Sect was the last to be captured, so he stayed behind to buy time, letting Duan Hengdao and Shen Ziwei, the two weapon cultivators, escape first. Now that both of them were missing, he could only secretly pray that they would escape quickly.

Lost in thought, his gaze inadvertently drifted to a spot not far away.

"..." Then the man stared blankly as all the bags of mustard seeds disappeared.

Grass.

Is it haunted?

"What are you looking at?" Mingxuan nudged him.

Qin Huai pointed to the ground under the tree: "The mustard seed bags that the demonic cultivators left there are all gone."

Mingxuan was stunned for a moment, then glanced at it subconsciously.

What's going on here?

"Never mind that." Song Hansheng pursed his lips, his wrists were bound, and his expression was slightly solemn. "Breaking the formation from the outside is easy, but the spiritual energy inside is locked. If we want to get out, we can only rely on someone to rescue us."

"This has never happened before. We can only wait for the elders to come up with a solution." Si Miaoyan sighed softly. At this time, she could only hope that one person could escape.

Running back would be suicide, there's no point.

Yunque was so frightened that she cried silently, bowing her head and shedding tears.

When Miao Miao saw her crying, she pursed her lips and her eyes reddened as well. In the past, the elders had been watching her closely, but the situation was different now. The Fallen Demon Clan never had a good ending.

After the demon saintess turned back, she carefully counted the disciples she had captured. Then, with a hint of impatience, she coldly stepped on the left shoulder of one of them. "Which of you disciples are not here?"

She suddenly exerted force with her toes, and the sound of bones breaking rang out. The other person groaned in pain but did not speak.

The girl sneered and kicked him away without hesitation. "And you?"

She looked at Song Hansheng.

"I don't know him." Song Hansheng said expressionlessly. "We're not familiar. You know that with so many direct disciples, who would remember whom?"

The only ones who haven't been arrested yet are Ye Qiao, Duan Hengdao, and Shen Ziwei.

Although he estimated that Ye Qiao would be captured soon, Song Hansheng was still unwilling to reveal it. No matter how much he disliked Ye Qiao, it did not mean that he, as a righteous disciple, was willing to associate with this group of evil spirits.

Song Hansheng softened his tone, "How many of our trusted disciples are there in total? Anyone who wasn't caught, unless they're stupid, would have run away long ago. How could they possibly stay?"

Which close disciple would be so bold as to turn back?

Ye Qiao is usually as fast as a rabbit, so given the other party's sharp personality, he probably already escaped.

"Several are missing," the Demon Saintess said coldly. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

Their identity tokens have all been taken away, and these two Nascent Soul cultivators attacked as soon as they entered, leaving them no time to even try to crush them.

"No, not a single one is missing." Afraid she might get angry and attack the other cultivators, Mu Chongxi said with a grin, "Why don't you count again?"

Sword cultivators are tough, but that doesn't mean talisman cultivators and alchemy cultivators are tough; they'd be knocked out with just a couple of kicks.

The girl stared at him for a moment, and seeing that they were all stubborn, she turned to look at the others who were tied up, and said it didn't matter.

"Which of the five sects' direct disciples is missing now?" she asked them one by one. There was always one who would give up. The girl was ruthless and stomped hard on Ye Qinghan's chest, causing him to feel a pain as if his internal organs had shifted.

Ye Qinghan: "I don't know."

"Never seen it before." Qin Huai also turned his head.

She laughed in exasperation; they were both quite stubborn.

The other elders were heartbroken, but also somewhat relieved: "These are the children of our righteous path." Despite their quarrels, they would not betray anyone when it mattered.

However, his relief lasted only a couple of seconds before Yun Que, the next person to be asked, weakly replied, "Ye Qiao."

The girl said "Oh?" to signal her to continue.

Yun Que added: "Ye Qiao, a disciple of the Changming Clan, wears red clothes and has a bird by his side; his features are quite distinctive."

"There are also two disciples of the Chengfeng Clan, dressed in golden robes."

"..." At this moment, all the disciples turned their incredulous gazes toward her, and Song Hansheng almost vomited blood.

Where is your backbone?

Yun Que felt ashamed under their collective cold gazes, but still explained softly, "If I don't say anything, she won't let it go. She'll definitely continue to attack, and I can't bear to see you get hurt."

"So you're just dragging one more person along to die?"

Not only him, but the other four sects thought the same way. Although they didn't get along very well, it was impossible to let the others who had escaped come and accompany them. There was no need for them to be so uniform in the process of being captured as a group.

However, no one present expected this.

Ye Qiao actually stopped leaving. Not only did she stop leaving, but she also had the audacity to turn back and steal their mustard seed bags before going off to cause trouble elsewhere.

……

Both demons who entered the secret realm this time were at the Nascent Soul stage, and they were determined to capture all of these dozens of disciples. The demon saintess went to check on the people, while the other man was responsible for sweeping through the secret realm to find those hidden disciples.

It's easy to catch two weapon cultivators; they're not as troublesome as sword cultivators who require some effort. But what's most annoying about weapon cultivators are their strange and unusual magical artifacts, each one impossible to defend against.

Duan Hengdao shone the Rebirth Mirror in his hand at him, and the demon boy's eyes stung. When he opened his eyes again, the other party had already hidden away.

He walked step by step through the forest, his divine sense expanding continuously. He quickly found the location where Duan Hengdao was hiding. The boy turned his head to avoid the automatically tracking golden beads and slammed his palm down hard on Duan Hengdao's back.

Duan Hengdao possessed many magical artifacts, but after one was broken, he coughed up blood in a disheveled state and tried to escape again.

The demons wouldn't give him another chance. They closed in on him, reaching out to strangle Duan Hengdao. His patience had been worn down by Duan Hengdao, and he was ready to kill him outright. As for the Demon Lord? He could take him back dead and explain it away.

The boy's attacks were filled with murderous intent, each strike aimed to kill.

Duan Hengdao's face turned deathly pale; there was no way to avoid it.

next second.

Before he could even touch Duan Hengdao, the other party vanished right under his nose.

The demon was stunned. Where was he?

Duan Hengdao's eyes were wide open as he watched the other person approach him. At that moment, he thought he was going to die.

When Ye Qiao pulled him into the pitch-black realm without his knowledge, his first thought was that the underworld was indeed cold enough.

As a result, when she looked up, she caught sight of Ye Qiao's familiar face, and behind the girl stood a little boy standing timidly.

Duan Hengdao's heart sank completely, and he almost cried as if he had seen a long-lost relative: "Ye Qiao?"

This person is both reliable and unreliable, but seeing her strange behavior in this situation calmed my mind.

"Mm," Ye Qiao responded. She had been following Duan Hengdao for a long time, but she hadn't been able to find an opportunity to save him before.

Duan Hengdao looked around at his surroundings, pursed his lips, and said, "This is a domain? You've already comprehended a domain?"

He didn't know much about Ye Qiao. He had been carried away once in the secret realm before. The longer he got to know her, the more Duan Hengdao felt that she could always bring hope to people.

Ye Qiao chuckled: "...You overestimate me."

How could she possibly learn the realm of the Nascent Soul stage?

Duan Hengdao waved his hand: "It's alright, you'll have to learn it sooner or later anyway."

Ye Qiao gave him a thumbs up: "You have great taste." She thought so too.

After the other party's aura finally disappeared, Ye Qiao and Duan Hengdao came out of the domain together. Xiao Qi's domain could only pull people in for a short time; he couldn't hold on for too long. In order not to expose their location, the two of them had to be careful on their way.

The elder of Chengfeng Sect was so frightened that he sat back down. "It has to be Ye Qiao."

In critical moments, it still comes down to Ye Qiao; it's just that she puts my heart to the test.

"I never expected this child to have such an opportunity." If he wasn't mistaken, what saved the two of them was a domain, a rare and precious thing.

The elder of the Sword Inquiry Sect frowned deeply: "Saving one is a good thing, but why aren't these two children making their identity tokens? What are they standing there for?"

"If we can run one more time, we will do it"—this is the sentiment of countless people.

"Those kids are quite loyal," Elder Zhao sighed, his eyes filled with a heavy sense of gravity. "It's just that it's not the sect competition right now."

It was a true trial.

It could even be the kind of place where someone could die from a moment's carelessness.

Those demons didn't kill anyone, probably because the Demon Lord ordered them to be captured alive. Come to think of it, how can they negotiate with the cultivation world if they don't capture them alive?

But this does not mean that the children are absolutely safe.

*

One more chapter, after writing 8,000 words I won't be updating tomorrow, I'm going to celebrate the New Year!