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

It eventually gave in, saying, "I can help you trap it."

After wandering around the secret realm, Nian Nian decided to be more careful about what it eats in the future, since eating everything would only harm it.

She managed to make the most of the three constraints.

The fact that both the Demon Lord and the Evil God were defeated by a single Golden Core cultivator is something that probably no one would believe if word got out.

The secret realm, crestfallen, had reached an agreement with that despicable Ye Qiao; as expected, those who cooperate with her never end well. For details, see the ignorant evil god.

There was also the Demon Lord, who was being beaten half to death by Ye Qiao and the Evil God working together.

……

The outside world was going crazy because of their disappearance. The demons, under the banner of demanding an explanation from the five sects, were showing off their power as if they wanted to directly challenge the five sects to war, which made the cultivators in the cultivation world want to rush over and join in the fun.

War is definitely out of the question. The demons' purpose in coming here is simply to find an excuse to dampen the morale of the five sects. There are very few people who are truly worried. After all, that is the Demon Lord. How could anything happen to him? Even if something were to happen, it would be to the Changming Sect.

"How dare the demons be so arrogant?"

"It is said that their Demon Lord was imprisoned in a secret realm by Ye Qiao and cannot come out."

This dramatic turn of events silenced the cultivators. "So they've come to provoke the Five Sects?"

"The Demon Clan has many Golden Core cultivators and is very strong. Their current disciples all have exceptionally high talents, so they naturally want to come and show off."

The demons are all at least at the Golden Core stage, and ordinary cultivators don't even have the qualifications to participate. Moreover, the demons are here for a legitimate reason; they haven't caused any trouble or chaos, so we really can't act rashly.

Within the cultivation world, demonic cultivators and cultivators coexist, with cultivators being the majority but generally of mediocre talent. Demonic cultivators, though fewer in number, possess profound cultivation, creating a balance of power. However, this is the first time the demons have come knocking on our door.

Ye Qinghan's eyes were full of coldness. "You dare to come here after causing trouble under the Five Sects' feet."

Mingxuan chuckled and replied, "Commendable courage indeed."

"We're not here to cause trouble." A seemingly weak-looking late-stage Golden Core demon smiled slightly. "We just want to ask where your five sects took our Demon Lord?"

"The demon race has never held any of your elders or sect leaders hostage."

Mu Chongxi retorted without hesitation, "That's because you're all trash."

The other person choked, their smile freezing for a moment before they stared coldly at Mu Chongxi.

With Yun Que leading the way, the demons' journey was extremely smooth. This act of surrender won them a lot of goodwill. Yun Que casually fiddled with the sword in her hand. Seeing so many familiar disciples, her expression was unreadable. "Don't waste time with them."

"That's true." The young demon lord beside him shrugged with a smile. "Ah Que, it seems your fellow disciples don't have much affection for you. Aren't they sad to see you like that?"

Yun Que chuckled lightly at the Demon Clan's young master, seemingly oblivious to his presence: "Perhaps? Young Master certainly knows how to ask questions. Aren't you afraid of upsetting me?"

The two demons on the other side were laughing and joking around as if nothing had happened, completely ignoring the five sects, as if they were showing off.

Just as Qin Huai lost control of his emotions and drew his sword, they seemed to come back to their senses. The young demon lord blinked and said, "I forgot about you. How rude of me."

Zhu You narrowed her eyes; he really was arrogant.

Watching Yun Que playfully fighting with someone, Su Zhuo felt a deep pain in his heart. He couldn't help but ask, "Why? Junior Sister?"

When he learned that Yun Que had betrayed the sect, he really wanted to ask her this question in person.

Yun Que turned her head, glanced at Su Zhuo, and sneered, "The Five Sects have never been able to tolerate me, so why can't I abandon the darkness and embrace the light?"

Su Zhuo was completely baffled by that one sentence.

Who is in the shadows? Who is in the light?

If I remember correctly, they are the true and upright disciples of the righteous path.

"Alright." The rather weak-looking man smiled. "Our Demon Lord's whereabouts are unknown. Don't you five sects have any explanation?"

"Or hand over Ye Qiao. We can let this matter drop."

"It's fair to trade one of our disciples for our Demon Lord, isn't it?"

Thus, the disciples realized that these demons had some awe and care for the Demon Lord, but not much.

"Hand over Ye Qiao, and you're telling us Five Sects how to do things? On what grounds? Just because you're more brain-dead than the average person?" Song Hansheng stepped forward, his tone icy.

The man's smile faded. "Since that's the case, then don't blame us for taking action."

The tone of their conversations was unfriendly. The talismans and formations on the Yueqing Sect's side had already quietly taken shape. The light blue formation continued to flash and expand, giving people a subtle sense of oppression.

Yun Que knew the Yueqing Sect's formation better than anyone else. She lowered her eyes and said lightly, "I'll break it."

She stood up and stepped into the formation first, holding several formation-breaking talismans in her hand and throwing them out.

Before she could even touch the formation, she was mercilessly torn apart by a gust of wind. Yun Que dodged and saw clearly who was blocking her way.

Yun Que immediately set up an array without hesitation, attacking runes rising from her feet; she was about to deploy a killing array.

This was an internal feud within the Yueqing Sect. Song Hansheng's skill far surpassed hers. After glancing at her, he disdainfully crushed the array she had set up and approached Yun Que. At the same time, a talisman landed on her, and he said calmly, "I thought it was you who was bad."

"But I didn't expect you to be both stupid and wicked."

The powerful explosive force and impact of the talisman struck her, causing Yun Que to flinch in pain. She looked up as a second talisman followed closely behind. If it weren't for the magical artifact that blocked it, the second sharp spiritual energy would have almost pierced through her left shoulder.

Yun Que could sense that, for a moment, Song Hansheng truly wanted to kill her. "Song Hansheng."

Even though she knew that Song Hansheng put the sect's interests first, Yun Que was still hurt by his merciless killing intent. She sneered, "I didn't expect you to be so inconsiderate of fellow disciples."

Chu Xingzhi, who had been about to lend a hand, fell silent upon hearing this. "Um... what kind of relationship do you two have?"

The Changming Sect still had a bond of friendship with each other while they were locked in the forbidden area, but the Yueqing Sect almost turned on each other during their previous encounter in the next secret realm. He really didn't see a single trace of friendship in them.

Ye Qinghan shifted his domain, drawing two powerful demons into the domain to fight. In terms of strength, the Five Sects were superior to the demons, but in terms of numbers, they were simply outmatched. The demons had countless Golden Core cultivators, while the Five Sects had only a group of direct disciples who had reached that standard so far.

Although their strength is weak, they are still at the Golden Core stage.

The transformation of the Chaoxi Sword provided many conveniences. With the sword spirit reminding him of the location, and with Mingxuan by his side, no demonic cultivator dared to provoke them for a while. Mingxuan even took some time to check on the situation of other sects and found that they didn't need to worry about it.

After several trials, they were now quite adept at dealing with these demons.

Qin Huai and Zhou Xingyun were held back by two powerful Nascent Soul stage cultivators, leaving the remaining disciples facing situations where they had to fight two or even three opponents at once.

Chu Xingzhi spun around and slashed downwards. A speck of white frost from the Cunxue Sword scattered and struck the demonic cultivator's shoulder, nearly cleaving him in two.

Neither side held back, and they had been unhappy with each other for a long time.

The situation is that the five sects have a temporary advantage, but it is only temporary. The number of demons is really too many. This is not like they are standing up for their Demon Lord. It is clearly an excuse to take the opportunity to get rid of these disciples.

The elders, witnessing this scene, restrained their urge to intervene.

If they intervene, the situation will change drastically. Moreover, there are definitely old fogies on the demon side. If they dare to get involved, the situation will definitely spiral out of control.

Various spiritual root attributes flickered, and the swirling dust and sword energy materialized. Ye Qinghan remained expressionless, attempting to break the situation with brute force, but all attempts ended in failure.

These demons don't value their lives at all; they rush forward one after another to their deaths, and there are far too many Golden Core cultivators among them.

Song Hansheng said decisively, "Kill Yun Que, and I'll help you control the situation." At this point, the only way to control the situation and gain the upper hand is to rely on the talisman cultivators. Ye Qinghan nodded.

agreed.

Yun Que's expression changed drastically, and she stopped fighting with Song Hansheng. Ye Qinghan's sword wind had already arrived, and a cold sword pierced through her heart. There was no emotional fluctuation in the young man's eyes. He wanted to strike a second time, but was repelled by a powerful demonic energy.

He barely managed to stop, and frowned as he looked at Yun Que being protected in the arms of the young master of the demon clan.

Song Hansheng clicked his tongue. "Not dead?"

Ye Qinghan shook his head.

Song Hansheng stopped worrying about whether he could kill Yun Que on the spot. He formed a hand seal, glanced at Ming Xuan and the other talisman cultivators from Yueqing Sect, and separated the battlefield.

The moment the rune array rose, several sword cultivators grabbed their swords and joined the slaughter.

"There are just too many of them," Mingxuan said. "Should we kill them all?"

They don't cultivate the path of killing, and their spiritual energy will eventually run out.

"First, get the situation under control," Zhou Xingyun said calmly and succinctly.

"The problem is we can't control them!" Chu Xingzhi hissed, raising his shuriken and stabbing a demon to death with a backhand stroke. "They're like mad dogs."

It's not something you can control just by wanting to.

"A spell to freeze someone?"

Mingxuan: "It's useless. The immobilization talisman can only control a small area; there are too many of them."

The fact that the Demon Clan has so many Golden Core cultivators is truly well-deserved; they can easily wage a war of attrition by attacking them wave after wave.

This stalemate is exhausting for them. The demons are better off because they have a large number of members, but their direct disciples are few and far between, so they simply can't handle it.

Ye Qiao, carrying the Demon Lord who had been beaten half to death by him and the evil god, fearing that he might wake up or something unexpected might happen to him, didn't hesitate to stab him several times with her Flying Immortal Sword.

Once she was certain that the other party wouldn't wake up, she casually dragged the Demon Lord back to the sect on her flying sword, just like dragging a dog.

This was the first time Ye Qiao had ever used her sword to drag someone along; the sword's movements were unsteady, and she almost fell off several times.

She was unharmed after falling. The Demon Lord was hit several times by Kuku, and Ye Qiao, feeling guilty, grabbed him and continued walking.

When they arrived at Changming Sect, they found that the elders seemed to be absent.

Ye Qiao asked several inner disciples for directions and then realized that everyone was in the Yueqing Sect. When she dragged the Demon Lord here, the two sides were already fighting fiercely. After observing for a while, she realized that the five sects had the upper hand in terms of the situation.

But that's it.

If this continues and doesn't stop soon, it will be those close associates who suffer.

In a war of attrition, the one with the larger numbers always wins, regardless of the circumstances. Ye Qiao casually pulled out a megaphone from his storage pouch, signaling the Flying Immortal Sword to fly higher. He struck a confident and arrogant pose, his tone flat:

"Demons below, you are surrounded."

The sound was very loud, and with the amplifying stone, the people below could definitely hear it.

"What?"

The demon strategist's smile widened slightly. Looking up into the air, he saw a young girl carrying an unidentified object, her expression somewhat listless and seemingly quite tired.

Mid-stage Golden Core.

It poses no threat.

He quickly made up his mind.

"You dare to come and provoke me alone?" The Demon Clan's young master narrowed his eyes. "Ye Qiao, do you know you're surrounded by our people?"

He vividly remembers his mentor who would call for help at the slightest disagreement.

"Ha." She sounded somewhat surprised, tilting her head back to dodge a fierce attack. "Don't fight and kill; it's too damaging to harmony."

Ye Qiao's smile vanished.

Suddenly, Ye Qiao swung her flying sword downwards, narrowed her eyes, and revealed the full face of the hostage she was holding. She raised the corner of her lips and said, "Your Demon Lord is in my hands."

She single-handedly carried the Demon Lord, stood on the sword, and forcibly stopped the fierce battle between the two sides. Her voice suddenly rose again.

"Now, all the demons, crouch down and cover your heads."

"..."

Seeing that they didn't move, Ye Qiao sneered, "Why aren't you putting down your weapons? Do you want to usurp the throne?"

We were indeed surrounded.

But now it should be Ye Qiao alone, surrounding all of them.