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

……

Outside the Changming Sect, Ye Qiao was still confronting the demonic cultivators.

"A direct disciple of the Changming Sect—" a demonic cultivator called out slowly, "Ye Qiao?"

He looked at her with a smile. This demonic cultivator was quite good-looking among the demons. His cultivation level was around the Nascent Soul stage, and he had some prestige among the demons. When he spoke, the other demons did not dare to interrupt.

Seeing that Ye Qiao didn't respond, he said in a melodious voice, "I've truly heard so much about you."

The boy had been smiling earlier, and Ye Qiao hadn't replied, wanting to see what kind of nonsense this demonic cultivator would spout. But to her surprise, the boy's tone suddenly shifted, becoming exceptionally sharp: "You ransacked our demonic dungeon, didn't you?"

That damn bitch.

All the people in the dungeon had disappeared. He was one of the guards, and when the elders found out, they were furious and he almost lost his life. Only after he made repeated promises and begged for mercy did he manage to save his life from the elders' clutches.

He was filled with rage as he was punished, a mocking smile playing on his lips as he coldly asked, "Is it enjoyable being a dog of the righteous path?"

Ye Qiao didn't react much to his sharp tone. "Not bad?" She genuinely thought it was alright, except for being a little tired.

Moreover, Ye Qiao was someone who could single-handedly debate with a group of scholars during the verbal sparring segment of the competition, so she was really unmoved by his trivial taunts.

Her nonchalant reply was like punching cotton, almost driving the demonic cultivator mad.

Ahhh, he must kill Ye Qiao!

Ye Qiao watched him stand there, raging helplessly, then spread her hands and smiled, "If you really want to kill me, why don't you come in and fight me one-on-one?"

He roared in frustration once again.

Ye Qiao thought for a moment, then took out a black book from her storage bag and tapped the cover. "Come on, go argue with him." She really didn't want to argue with the demons anymore.

She deliberately pointed to the dark book with her finger.

The atmosphere quieted down the moment the book was taken out.

"You idiot."

"Whose toad got out of control?"

The book's mouth looked like it was coated with venom. He was displeased. "What are you looking at? You filthy thing."

The demonic cultivator's face twisted slightly. "You—"

"You vile, ugly thing."

Soon, he went from being called a "lowly thing" by the Dark Book to a "lowly ugly thing".

Dark writing is like a troll, attacking anyone who comes across it.

"?"

The demonic cultivator who was being insulted almost rushed up and fought the broken book.

"..."

Seeing his agitated subordinate, the leading demonic cultivator calmly stopped him.

He wanted to say something, but his divine sense touched several powerful auras. The demonic cultivator frowned, turned his head to look behind him, and found that a large group of demonic beasts had appeared behind him at some point.

It resembled a massive beast tide.

Demon race?

Didn't the demon race fall into chaos?

Logically, it should take at least ten days to sort things out, so how come there are so many monsters?

Suspicion arose in his heart, and his gaze unconsciously met Ye Qiao's. The man suddenly realized, and sneered, "It's you doing this again?"

Otherwise, why would the demon race come to Changming Sect?

His expression was gloomy. "You deserve to die."

Not only did he sense the approach of the demonic beast, but Ye Qiao also noticed it. She immediately said in a slightly provocative tone, "Then come and hit me?" After saying that, she took a step out from behind the barrier.

How dare she come out alone, facing so many demons?

Ye Qiao's spiritual energy wouldn't recover so quickly. Having just had her spiritual energy drained, this was a good opportunity to kill her. The leading demonic cultivator narrowed his eyes, and his knife slashed sharply across the crescent moon as he slashed down at her.

Seeing this, the fast-moving demonic beasts rushed forward one after another to help her block the demonic cultivator's continuous killing moves.

The demon race operates on a class system, and their instinct is to protect those of higher status. Seeing their highest-ranking members being attacked, the swarming demon beasts erupted in a frenzy. The leading demon cultivator narrowed his eyes, and seeing the demon beast blocking his way, he said incredulously, "Get out of the way."

The demonic beasts ignored him and surrounded him, nearly burying the man. He ruthlessly chopped off a pile of beast heads with his blade, grinning, his expression slightly ferocious. "Do you demons want to die?"

"And you!" He pointed at Ye Qiao, not understanding her relationship with the demon race, and why those demon beasts would protect her?!

How is that possible?!

The sycophantic demon king immediately roared, "How dare you!! Show some respect to our Demon Emperor!"

Just because she could easily defeat two demon kings in human form, he concluded that she was very strong. Now was the perfect time to curry favor with her!

"Her?? The Demon Emperor?" Just as the demonic cultivator was about to sneer, Ye Qiao felt that she couldn't let them continue talking like this.

Without warning, she kicked the demon king who was protecting her. At the same time, she activated the Qingfeng Technique to bring the wind to the demon cultivator. The demon king was hit and couldn't stop the impact. The impact hit the demon cultivator's spine, and one of the demon cultivator's bones twitched on the spot.

The war is about to start.

Playing around is one thing, but if it actually kills both sides, then the situation changes.

Neither side was particularly good-tempered. At first, they suppressed their displeasure with each other, but with Ye Qiao launching the first attack, the two sides clashed. The fierce impact and the roars of the monsters mingled together, and the situation became uncontrollable.

Ye Qiao wished they would fight even more fiercely.

A demon king complained to her, "Your Majesty, those despicable demons actually attacked me!!"

Ye Qiao immediately encouraged him: "Then hurry up and kill them. There's a saying in the cultivation world: 'A gentleman takes revenge even after ten years,' but demon beasts can take revenge from morning till night. Go and kill them all, let them know who's in charge in the cultivation world."

"good!"

Encouraged, the demon king swung his fist and rejoined the battle.

Ye Qiao was very satisfied with the situation she had orchestrated.

In fact, the demon kings did not want to fight at first, but seeing the demon cultivators' bloodlust and their own forces visibly decreasing, their anger flared up.

Fine, fine, so they're just treating them like pushovers because they won't make a move?

The addition of the demon kings to the battlefield made the fight even bloodier. The crunching of bones being chewed by the demon beasts was mixed with the angry roars of the demon cultivators. The demon kings collectively transformed into their beast forms and pounced into the demon horde, slaughtering everyone in their path. With each swing of their sharp claws, the demon cultivators' intestines were torn out. The scene became even more gruesome because of the demon kings' involvement.

Both races enjoy killing each other; one is driven by their nature, while the other has murderous intent in their genes. When the two races meet, they are filled with rage and wish they could stab each other in the back. They all go berserk at this moment.

The culprit, Ye Qiao, hid behind the screen, leaving quietly with his accomplishments unseen.

An Shu was dumbfounded. After all, in his mind, only by controlling a large number of people could a situation of mutual slaughter be achieved. So what did Ye Qiao do?

It seems she only made a slight move, and the two sides started fighting.

"See?"

She put away the obscure book she had been staring at. "Sometimes, just a slight move is all it takes to turn it into a free-for-all between the two sides."

……

Since none of the reliable disciples were available, Chu Ling and Yue Qing'an cautiously led the team towards a dozen different peaks of the Changming Sect. "There's no chance that demonic cultivators might be lying in ambush beforehand. We should find a place to hide first."

The location of the Twelve Peaks was ruled out first. Since they were all so confident that the elders would lead the disciples to hide at the Talisman Peak and the Pill Peak, the demons could also have thought of this place. Yue Qing'an lowered his eyes, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Does anyone know where Xie Chuxue's courtyard is?"

He remembered his uncle from the Changming Sect, who was said to be a very strong talisman cultivator. So the other party's courtyard might have a defensive formation.

"I'll take you there."

The disciple hesitated for a few seconds, then added, "But if it's Uncle-Master Xie, there might be a barrier formation around his residence. I'm not sure if I can get in."

Yue Qing'an said it didn't matter, "Let's go take a look first. If we can't get in, we'll find another place to hide."

"OK."

Sometimes they really need their trusted disciples to step in and keep them in check. Apart from the inner disciples who have been there for a long time and have experience dealing with such emergencies, many disciples in the Changming Sect have just entered the sect and are already experiencing this kind of thing. With only the cultivation level of Qi Refining, how can they stay calm?

Yue Qing'an and Chu Ling had enough tacit understanding and command ability, which calmed their restless hearts.

"Oh, right."

"Didn't your sect leader make any arrangements or take any countermeasures before leaving?"

"No, it seems the sect leader left immediately."

Even the composed Yue Qing'an couldn't help but raise her voice slightly after hearing this: "...Huh?" Just what kind of unreliable sect leader is this?

The disciple being questioned looked even more bewildered. "They left in a hurry without making any arrangements, and the sect leader's token is in Elder Zhao's hands. In other words, Elder Zhao should be the acting sect leader."

"If there are any special arrangements, we should ask Elder Zhao."

Yue Qing'an had met Elder Zhao before, but from the moment they met until he left, the old man didn't give any special instructions. He couldn't help but put on a mask of pain. This must be poisonous, Changming Sect.

No wonder so many oddballs have been raised; their impulsive and unreliable personalities are all hereditary.

……

Elder Zhao, who had just been teased by Yue Qing'an, sneezed again. Sneezing twice in one day was a bad omen for him. He lightly flicked the whisk in his hand and asked, "What's the situation outside?"

"Many disciples have already gone into hiding."

First, if Changming Sect wants to retaliate, the first thing to do is to gather those wandering disciples together. Elder Zhao and Steward Yu can only search throughout Changming Sect to see if there are any inner disciples running around or hiding, and then gather them together.

Otherwise, how can we fight a disorganized mess? We'll have to fight them head-on.

To be honest, those disciples were quite good at hiding. A group of disciples playing hide-and-seek in their own sect—is this a distortion of human nature or a decline in morality?

Elder Zhao searched around and used his divine sense to locate several disciples who were hiding. "The rest are probably hiding inside the Talisman Peak."

They also had to hunt down those demonic cultivators along the way, so the two elders were extremely busy. After briefly inquiring about the locations of the other elders, they discussed where to meet up.

Manager Yu watched as the demonic cultivators, who were shouting and yelling like monkeys, slammed down several palms, blasting them all away. He hurriedly strode on, saying, "Don't you think there are fewer of them now than before?"

"I didn't realize that." Elder Zhao even suspected that all the demons who had been at the foot of the mountain had come to their sect.

The target was too big, and after the reputation of Changming Sect became well-known, the number of disciples who joined the sect was much larger than in previous years. A group of newly entered disciples who had just begun to cultivate Qi had no ability to protect themselves. They could only protect the young children. In the end, they found that hiding was the best way to protect the sect's current children.

"Hide these children for now."

As for where to hide it, that is the question.

Elder Zhao flicked his whisk and decided to hide the disciples in Xie Chuxue's courtyard.

As the saying goes, love happens around the corner, and they bumped right into Yue Qing'an and his group.

"Elder!!"

One of the disciples couldn't control the volume.

"Quiet." Elder Zhao's old face darkened.

The entire group fell silent.

Chu Ling craned her neck slightly, watching the string of newly initiated disciples behind Elder Zhao, who looked like chicks being caught by an eagle. The girl smiled and said, "Uncle Xie's courtyard looks like a nice place."

"After all, those talisman cultivators are very cunning. If Xie Chuxue's courtyard can't hold them all, we could consider bringing people to hide in Ye Qiao's courtyard." I just wonder if Ye Qiao will suddenly have the idea to set up some kind of defensive formation in his courtyard.

In terms of ability, Xie Chuxue is more practical. After all, others are unaware of Xie Chuxue's cultivation level, but Elder Zhao is well aware that a formation at the Integration Stage is not easily broken. The interior provides a certain level of security.

"Shall we hide here for now?"

Elder Zhao nodded; he had a way to send people inside without damaging the formation.

After settling the disciples, Steward Yu moved some nearby recording stones to check on the situation outside.

After all, Changming Sect is the head of the five sects, and the other sects cannot sit idly by. Moreover, given Changming Sect's connections, there are likely powerful figures who will come to their aid. With the help of those who came before, their dire situation will be greatly alleviated.

However, the only drawback was that the sect's protective formation prevented all the powerful figures who wanted to help from entering.

However, if the formation is removed, the remaining demons will swarm in, putting them in a complete dilemma.

Manager Yu's thoughts raced, and after witnessing the true situation outside with the help of the recording stone, he raised his voice slightly at the end and uttered his first sound of confusion that day.

"Um???"