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

"There's water flowing all around, but it stops once you go inside. In other words, there's no water inside the Dragon Palace." The little prince opened his eyes in the water and calmly led them down. The entrance easily scattered people to different places. "But something seems off about where we came from."

The area was surrounded by water, so it was clear that this was not the interior.

Where did it get scattered by the water flow?

The young prince was also somewhat apprehensive.

This was Ye Qiao's first time in the South China Sea. She had thought the young prince would be a competent tour guide, but judging from his bewildered tone, he seemed equally at a loss with the scene before him. Her lips twitched. "So, where is this place?"

"I don't know," the young prince said, extremely frustrated. "My father told me to learn and figure it out on my own."

"Even when I went to your human territory, I only brought two people with me, and now one of them has gotten separated."

Feeling the resistance in the water, Zhou Xingyun looked at the guard beside him and asked, "Do you know where we are?"

This is the consequence of not doing your homework before going out. Xue Yu, the only one in the entire clan who did his homework, is now nowhere to be found, and Zhou Xingyun and Ye Qiao are completely clueless the whole time.

Looking around, there were rocks of various shapes everywhere, and it was pitch black all around as if surrounded by a strange square. As they spoke, they could faintly hear echoes.

The guard quickly determined the location, his expression darkening: "Dragon Gorge."

One of the most dangerous places for dragons.

The guard, who knew the situation better than they did, answered without hesitation, "A small number of dragons have gathered here and are very hostile towards human cultivators."

"Soldiers from the aquatic tribe patrol the area from time to time."

"Put your sword away." The young prince's voice was calm, but he warned her sternly, "Your elders are right. We are indeed very xenophobic. They are hostile to human cultivators, and every time they are discovered, they are wiped out."

Upon seeing this, Ye Qiao changed the form of Bujianjun and neatly hung the black stick around her waist.

"Dangerous places like Dragon Gorge and the Abyss are not within the jurisdiction of our dragon clan. The aquatic creatures here are independent kingdoms, and there is a lot of fighting among them." The little prince scratched his head. "Speaking of which, how did we end up here?"

In all these years, I've never been so unlucky to come to a place like this.

Ye Qiao thought about her own bad luck and felt that the other person might have been affected by her.

As they spoke, the arrival of the four caused enough commotion to alert all the aquatic creatures around them. Suddenly, a dozen pairs of green eyes appeared in the dark shadows, and with the sound of rippling water, they approached them step by step.

Zhou Xingyun had already drawn his sword immediately, but a glance out of the corner of his eye revealed that his junior sister had not made any move.

"Junior Sister?" He tilted his head in confusion.

"This is also..." Ye Qiao covered her eyes with trembling hands.

It's fucking ugly.

She said sincerely, "I thought the monsters in the secret realm were already ugly, but I didn't expect there to be monsters even more ferocious than them."

Monsters can understand human speech. Ye Qiao's discriminatory remarks enraged all the monsters around her. Their slimy octopus tentacles suddenly lashed out at them, and the four people standing together quickly scattered.

Thanks to the experience of being repeatedly beaten by Elder Duan, their physical skills were quite good. Although they could feel obvious resistance when swinging their swords in the water, their movements were still very precise.

"Your inner circle in the South China Sea is quite interesting." Without a change in her hand, Ye Qiao felled a water monster and stabbed it in a weak spot, quickly killing the monster in front of her. She felt a strong discomfort with this kind of slimy monster and acted much faster than before.

"The conflicts between the aquatic creatures," the young prince said, raising his head and looking at the two with shining eyes. "It's all the same."

He really liked the way humans fought, especially the sword cultivators who carried a sword, seemingly indifferent to life and death and ready to fight anyone who disagreed.

Zhou Xingyun's lips twitched, his expression cold. "What are you hiding? If this is a collaboration, then you need to show sincerity first, instead of hiding things from us."

"You're right, but cooperation is a two-way street." Ao Li looked at Ye Qiao, who was being asked by his father to choose a suitable successor.

Even if they look down on humans, it seems that every hundred years, the chosen ones are all from the human race.

Ye Qinghan and Ye Qiao.

One is destiny, the other is the will of Heaven.

He chose Ye Qiao over the other.

Hopefully, she won't let him lose the bet.

"We can lend you people. Judging from the situation, it seems that you and the demon race are irreconcilable enemies. They and the demon race want to seize the cultivators' territory, and you—" he said with a smile, "are short of people."

After a pause, the young prince revised his words, "Or rather, the cultivation world is never short of people, but it lacks geniuses."

"The Eight Great Families and the Five Great Sects have almost monopolized the talent pool among your high-ranking members. But that's far from enough. As far as I know, there are only twenty-five direct disciples and over a hundred inner disciples, yet the five sects combined still have no more than a thousand people."

"There are many outer disciples, but if a real fight breaks out, the outer disciples won't be able to hold them off."

"Your hunch was right. There are indeed many conflicts among the aquatic tribes. I will lend you people. After this is over, we will need your human cultivators to come and help to wipe out these aquatic tribes that have taken over these territories."

So they've come here to hire thugs?

Ye Qiao didn't expect that the dragon clan was quite superstitious, choosing people not based on their strength, but on their favor from those with good fortune.

"Okay." Zhou Xingyun agreed without much change in tone. Anyway, this was something the elders should think about. Cooperation was mutual, and what the little prince said wasn't wrong.

"In that case, let's find someone first." Ye Qiao felt a stomachache just thinking about the three fire spirit root trio. Those three were really something else. With all the fire spirit roots together, the only one who could actually fight was Mu Chongxi.

Before they came, Elder Zhao had specifically told them that the Dragon Clan admired the strong, and that human cultivators were not well-regarded by the Dragon Clan and were extremely xenophobic.

I wonder how those three are doing.

Soon, a message arrived from the jade slip, and Ye Qiao realized that she hadn't told the elders what had happened.

"Xiao Qiao?" Qin Fanfan asked, "How's the situation over there?"

"Master, Junior Uncle." She glanced around at her surroundings, organized her thoughts, and replied to the message on the jade slip: "You might not believe it, but three of us are gone."

Qin Fanfan was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed in shock: "Who died?"

Ye Qiao paused for a moment, then said, "They're not dead, three of them are missing."

"I'm with my senior brother right now."

Qin Fanfan was quite incredulous. "You're with Zhou Xingyun?"

"right."

Qin Fanfan suddenly felt a headache coming on.

The two sword cultivators stayed together, and Mu Chongxi and his two companions were also out of contact. They couldn't contact any of the three brats through their jade slips, so for now they could only keep in touch with Ye Qiao and ask her to find the three of them as soon as possible.

……

At this moment, the trio of good-for-nothings were still encouraging each other.

Mingxuan shook his head, looked at the lineup and remained silent for a few seconds before perking up: "Three cobblers are as good as one Zhuge Liang. I think we can do it."

He carried a bag of talismans on his waist; although he was well-prepared, he was a weakling.

Neither of them dared to do anything reckless or move. They put on two invisibility talismans and found a suitable place to stay quietly.

Xue Yu said nothing, but handed the pill to Mu Chongxi. All he had to do now was wait for him to wake up.

"Once Mu Chongxi wakes up, we'll meet at the Dragon Palace. I just don't know where Junior Sister and the others have been taken." Mingxuan shook the jade slip in his hand; it was dull in color and showed no reaction.

The South China Sea is far more dangerous than any hidden paradise.

The attack didn't stop the moment they landed. Their only main force, Mu Chongxi, had become an idiot, so Mingxuan and Xue Yu had no choice but to find a safe place to hide.

Learning from Ye Qiaogou's experience in formations, Mingxuan drew many concealment talismans this time. After setting up a concealment formation, he quietly waited for Mu Chongxi to wake up.

The first day was peaceful, but by the second day, the area outside the formation was surrounded by demonic beasts.

It looks like they've been spotted.

Xue Yu immediately used his divine sense to detect the approaching demonic beast, his brows furrowing. "Be careful, it's here."

Mingxuan clenched his fists. He could feel the omnipresent demonic beasts all around him. He pursed his lips, feeling somewhat nervous.

Perhaps because they grew up in the sea, the monsters here are mostly skilled in mental attacks, and their seas of consciousness are wide and sensitive.

They can detect even the slightest disturbance.

Even with concealment formations, it's impossible for four living people to remain completely undetected throughout the entire process.

Of the four people, the guard, being only at the Golden Core stage, was of little use. Mingxuan exhaled, flicked his finger, and waved his fan, causing several incantation seals to silently disperse.

After all the spell seals were released, a small-scale spiritual energy bombardment was formed.

The few spell seals he threw down forced all the surrounding demonic beasts back. He only had six spell seals left, and having only these six had almost exhausted all his spiritual energy.

Mingxuan reached into the mustard seed bag and found the talisman; all he could do now was smash the talisman.

Dozens of talismans floated down, each one landing perfectly.

He has drawn quite a few top-grade talismans, and some were given to him by his own father, so he doesn't need to worry too much about resources.

Xue Yu took a deep breath and quickly whispered the information to Ming Xuan.

His divine sense could cover all the demonic beasts present. The two of them were not as bad as others imagined. Dan Xiu and Fu Xiu were not incapable of fighting together. In terms of tacit understanding, Ming Xuan and Xue Yu were the most compatible.

They came from similar backgrounds and joined the Changming Sect together. Before Ye Qiao arrived, when the relationships among the four disciples were generally average, Ming Xuan and Xue Yu were the closest.

Mingxuan controlled most of the aquatic creatures, and one talisman destroyed one demon beast. Xue Yu's face paled as his divine sense was constantly attacked. He wiped the blood from his ear and calmly said, "I think I need to practice some blood-replenishing pills."

Each person will receive a portion to replenish their blood. Talisman cultivators and alchemists are truly the two professions that deplete their spiritual energy the fastest.

Mingxuan nodded, "Who can argue with that?"

The monsters weren't stupid. Seeing their kind falling one after another, some of them began to growl softly, furious and ready to call for reinforcements.

"Get out of the way." Mu Chongxi, who finally woke up halfway through, almost stood on end when he saw the scene of being surrounded by demonic beasts. He instinctively reached for his sword and said in a clear voice, "Let me handle this."

The awe-inspiring sword energy formed an arc, slashing down and forcing back the aquatic creatures in front of it. A bloody line was left on the belly of the monster that pounced on it, but not a drop of blood flowed out. Its head and body were separated, killing without a trace. This was the Qingfeng Jue sword technique, which killed without a trace.

"Ha, am I handsome?"

Mingxuan didn't want to pay attention to this fool, but thinking that the two most capable disciples of Changming Sect had both disappeared, he casually complimented, "So cool, so cool, hurry up and wipe them out, junior brother."

Blood kept gushing from Xue Yu's ears and nose. He covered his bleeding nose and breathed a slight sigh of relief. When Mu Chongxi woke up, the situation was completely different. The young man fought with increasing ferocity, wielding the Chaoxi Sword. The encirclement had turned into a one-sided slaughter. Ming Xuan snapped his fingers, using an array to switch positions and restrain the aquatic monsters, preventing them from escaping.

The guard's lips twitched. Were these trusted disciples going to dismantle their South China Sea?

They had clearly done their research. Compared to the other four sects, whose reputations were more controversial, the Changming sect's direct lineage had always been quite good, characterized by kindness, generosity, and honesty.

Okay, that Ye Qiao's protégé seems pretty abnormal. He blew up the competition stage right from the start, but nobody told him that the other three were abnormal too.

"You've caused such a commotion, the great demon here won't let you off the hook." The guard controlled his emotions and growled in a low voice. Had no one taught them what it meant to keep a low profile?

Mingxuan curled his lips and coldly mocked, "You're saying that if we don't kill them, the demon race will let us go?"

Of all the beasts, only the dragons are friendly to cultivators. After all, they are ancient divine beasts who disdain the conflict between humans and demons. However, there are only a handful of dragons in the South Sea. Most of them are powerful demons who rule their own territories, as well as some covetous flood dragons.

Monsters have a deep hatred for humans. If we don't kill them, will we just be killed in return?