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

Ye Qiao was slightly taken aback. Seeing that the demon king was staring straight at her and all eyes were on her, she immediately extended her hand and greeted him, "Hi?"

She would have been fine if she hadn't greeted them, but as soon as she did, all the demon kings' faces twitched slightly, and they retreated, giving her a wide berth.

Their steps were perfectly synchronized, more orderly than ever before.

The monsters were instinctively afraid of her.

She was now covered in the aura of the Demon Emperor, her demonic energy almost pickled. When she fought with Elder Mu, the demon beasts, no matter how tempted, did not dare to snatch her from the Demon Emperor.

Originally, the various scents were mixed together, and her presence was quite inconspicuous when she concealed her aura. The demon kings were so engrossed in their fight that they didn't even notice her. But then the woman pointed at her, and suddenly all eyes were on her.

As soon as Ye Qiao gave the greeting, the demon kings' expressions changed repeatedly. They immediately turned their heads as if nothing had happened, and in the instant they turned their heads, they were almost scared into making funny faces.

Holy crap. Demon Emperor.

Ye Qiao thought they hadn't seen her, so she waved again. But the group of demon kings were determined to play dead to the end, and acted as if they hadn't seen her at all, turning their heads away to whisper and have a meeting.

"Is that the Demon Emperor?"

"Why is our Demon Emperor's aura so weak?"

"Has our demon race truly fallen to this state?"

They were powerful demons within the secret realm, and they had no idea what was going on with the demon races outside.

Upon seeing such a thin and small demon emperor, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"And why is she with a cultivator?"

"Shut up! Perhaps this is our Demon Emperor's style—playing dumb to infiltrate the cultivators. He'll definitely give us a surprise!"

"That makes perfect sense." Another demon king chuckled dryly, not daring to say more. Offending the demon emperor would not benefit them. The demon race had no other characteristics; they were governed by a hierarchical system and absolutely obeyed the demon emperor's orders. Everything the demon emperor did was right in their eyes.

With three Bodhi fruits in her pocket, Ye Qiao should have been an easy target. However, at this moment, Elder Mu was being chased by a group of demonic beasts, and the other disciples were also being held back by the demon kings. Only she stood aside and watched the show.

Before long, with the end of the secret realm fast approaching, the demon kings couldn't help but get anxious.

"Where's the spiritual artifact for opening the secret realm?" A demon king suddenly kicked a demon king whose cultivation level was lower than his own.

"It's been taken!!" the kicked demon king shouted. "The magical artifact for opening the secret realm was snatched by those disciples."

"Who stole it?"

"The one in the red dress!!"

There were only two people wearing red clothes at the scene, namely Ye Qiao and Ming Xuan.

For a time, the Changming Sect duo once again became the target of everyone's attention.

Mingxuan was about to grab his junior sister and run away when the demon kings once again took Ye Qiao for granted and pounced on Mingxuan with a sharp cry, their sharp claws turning into hooks to attack his shoulder!

For a Golden Core cultivator, the Nascent Soul stage is a dimensional attack. Mingxuan had no time to dodge. He tore a talisman with his fingertip and sent a teleportation talisman to another location.

However, the secret realm is only so big, and shrinking the distance to an inch is just a few steps for a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Teleportation scrolls are not a panacea.

Mingxuan could only try his best to maneuver, his hands flying with talismans as he bent over to dodge, the talismans forming a protective shield.

Mingyi gritted his teeth, somewhat anxious: "Senior Brother, quickly think of a way."

Song Hansheng: "Didn't Ye Qiao say she had a solution?"

Su Zhuo: "What kind of solution does she have? Mingxuan is being chased like a dog, and I haven't seen any of her ideas!"

"Can you three stop chatting? Holy crap." Duan Hengdao turned around and almost knelt down in disbelief at the three members of the Yueqing Sect. They should learn something from the Changming Sect! They're still chatting at a time like this.

The three of them felt embarrassed and stopped talking, focusing on setting up their formation.

They had prepared a formation in advance. With the help of the talisman cultivators, they wouldn't be too passive even when facing a large-scale pursuit. Various defensive and transfer formations overlapped, and Mingxuan could quickly escape by stepping on them. It was disgusting.

A powerful demon, enraged, shouted, "First, crush the formation on the ground, you idiot!"

After so many encounters, don't you understand how disgusting Fu Xiu is?

"But we don't know where the key point of the formation is."

"Then step on them all. I refuse to believe there aren't any key points in the formation."

Under the absolute suppression of power, all other methods were just fancy decorations. One by one, the demon kings stepped forward and continued to destroy the formation, and Song Hansheng and the others' expressions gradually turned ugly.

Unable to contain himself, Qin Huai tapped the sword at his waist, and the spirit of the Qingfeng Sword materialized, forming invisible hurricanes.

When the spirit of the Qingfeng Sword entered the arena silently, it was in wind form, so no one could see it.

Countless demonic beasts were swept up and carried into the wind. The wind blades, which cut through the battlefield, were the sharpest of all, making them impossible to defend against. As the demon kings were forced to separate, several devastating torrents of water intersected and converged, fiercely attacking Qin Huai. "Was this your doing?"

The wind started blowing from him.

Qin Huai clenched his fists coldly and remained silent.

While Qin Huai was dealing with the demon king, the ground suddenly split into pieces, and layers of sharp spikes rose up, piercing through the cultivators on the ground. The demon kings' cultivation levels in the secret realm were far higher than theirs, and those cultivators who couldn't dodge were instantly pierced in the abdomen by the spikes, their intestines spilling out onto the ground.

"It's all because of you! Think of something!" They were almost crying with anxiety. They could tell that Ye Qiao and her group had some abilities, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to evade the Demon King's attacks time and again. They immediately resorted to moral blackmail, "If you hadn't stolen so many spiritual fruits, we wouldn't be in this predicament!"

The Nascent Soul stage and the Void Refinement stage! These are extremely terrifying realms even in the cultivation world, let alone in a small secret realm.

I've never seen a Nascent Soul stage demon beast in the Great Secret Realm before. The highest level they ever reached during the competition was only the Core Formation stage. This time it's really a ghost!

Ye Qiao hadn't seen such a shameless person in a long time. She found it amusing. "What does this have to do with me? If you hadn't pursued me, you wouldn't have ended up like this."

They were already on a mission, so it's not surprising that they attracted so many powerful demons under the lure of Jun and Bodhi Fruit. If they had stayed far away from them, they wouldn't have encountered this situation.

"That's easy for you to say," a man said coolly. "Isn't murder and robbery commonplace? You dare say you've never done it?"

"You're right, killing to steal treasures is a simple and honest custom in our cultivation world," Ye Qiao agreed without hesitation, then changed the subject, "So you all deserved what you got."

Instead of criticizing me, you should think about how to get out of this mess.

The man gritted his teeth in resentment; with the demonic beast causing trouble, they had no peace at all.

Are these monsters crazy? They just keep chasing after them. As soon as the red-robed cultivator sees them, they turn tail and run, just like mice seeing a cat.

Why should I?!

He wanted to ask Ye Qiao for help and seek her protection. It would be strange if the monsters didn't attack her, no matter what. Maybe she had a way to escape. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, since she had chased them not long ago.

Now that Ye Qiao has rebuked him, he is even less able to speak.

Not only did he notice it, but Duan Hengdao and the others also noticed it.

The place where Ye Qiao was located was simply a pure land.

At this moment, Ye Qiao also subtly transmitted a message to them, "Step behind me."

"I'll stop them for you."

Immediately, a group of disciples stopped caring about the relentless pursuit of the demon kings and retreated behind Ye Qiao. The group acted like eagles catching chicks, with Ye Qiao as the mother hen. As soon as they hid behind her, the originally fierce demon kings shrank back and slunk away.

Even the dumbest among them can see through this trick now.

Song Hansheng asked suspiciously, "You can command demonic beasts?"

Ye Qiao swiftly denied it: "No."

He pursed his lips. "Then why...?" Why were the monsters reacting so strangely?

Ye Qiao did not answer, but instead spread her divine sense to the maximum range. If she wanted, she could immediately make all the demon beasts stop. However, she still felt that it was very strange. Xue Yu had told her beforehand that the Cloud and Mist Secret Realm was a secluded secret realm from which no one could transmit messages from the outside world.

Even some well-informed major sects haven't received the news, so how did the people inside the secret realm find out?

When she sensed something was wrong, Qin Huai inquired and learned that someone had spread rumors, making everyone aware that the Bodhi Fruit would appear in the secret realm.

Who spread it? What is its meaning?

Entrapment can be very effective at times.

Ye Qiao never gave the demon kings any instructions to end the chaotic battle, partly because she was genuinely curious about the purpose of the person who spread the news.

She was confident that she could suppress the monsters amidst this chaotic situation.

The clear class distinctions within the demon race are the easiest loophole to exploit.

Given sufficient confidence, one would naturally want to see what the people behind the scenes are planning.

Ye Qiao was certain of one thing: that person's purpose might not be with them, but rather with a group of ordinary cultivators, luring them in one after another during this special period, and who knows what kind of scheme they were playing.

After all the direct disciples stayed out of it, the cultivators were in big trouble. They were surrounded by demonic beasts and the demon kings killed whoever they caught. When one of the direct descendants of the Mu family fell to the ground, the demon king was about to end his life with a single claw.

Suddenly, a sword light flashed in front of me, its momentum sweeping across the entire sky.

They instinctively thought reinforcements had arrived, their eyes lighting up slightly, before realizing something was amiss.

These people are clearly heretics.

Moreover, they were a group of evil cultivators with considerable cultivation levels.

The situation is quite interesting. It consists of the disciples of the five sects, the demon king's army, ordinary cultivators in the secret realm, and a large number of evil cultivators.

The evil cultivators arrived one after another, forming an encirclement around all the cultivators, including Ye Qiao and his group.

The demon beasts held an absolute advantage, but the cultivators joined forces to kill several demon kings, with the disciples making up the majority. As both sides were severely injured, a group of evil cultivators suddenly appeared.

A cold glint flashed in Qin Huai's eyes as he deftly retreated into the crowd, concealing himself. "Is this the legendary 'mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind'?"

"Yes," Mingxuan said with a half-smile, "everyone thinks they're the one who's stalking the cicada, unaware of the mantis's thief."

However, in reality, they were the cicada that was caught.

"Actually, I also felt something was wrong at the time." Ye Qiao and Ming Xuan stood back to back. Seeing how serious they were, Ye Qiao chimed in, "The Cloud and Mist Secret Realm opens only once every hundred years and is completely isolated from the world. How could anyone possibly find out about it?" Even the well-informed Eight Great Families hadn't reacted, let alone a family from the Northern City.

It can only mean that someone is deliberately spreading this.

"That being said, even if we don't take the Bodhi Fruit, we still have to face the demonic beasts. We have no other choice." Mingxuan pinched the talisman between his fingers. "Besides, it's a sacred fruit that can help you break through to the next level just by eating one. Who wouldn't be tempted?"

Ye Qiao was naturally tempted as well, otherwise she wouldn't have grabbed five in front of everyone despite knowing there was something fishy about them. But that didn't stop her from saying confidently, "Who am I doing this for? I'm doing it all for our family."

There are only five people in their Changming Sect.

The eldest brother doesn't need to be worried; he will grow strong on his own. The second, third, and fourth brothers are all in the late Nascent Soul stage; if they manage to pluck the Bodhi Fruit, they will have a bright future ahead of them.

"They've surrounded this place, aren't they afraid of provoking the monsters?" Duan Hengdao clicked his tongue and whispered in the crowd.

Ultimately, the most powerful beings in the secret realm are still the demon kings. Even though they have been weakened, they are still the biggest threat in the secret realm. How dare these evil cultivators?

"The demon kings only have a concept of hierarchy, not of cooperation. They will only attack us because we are the culprits who took the key to open their secret realm." Mingxuan saw it clearly. "These evil cultivators dared to show their faces because they knew this."

These evil cultivators planned to take advantage of the chaos after the Bodhi Fruit attracted a group of demonic beasts. Once the situation was completely muddied, they would slowly and deliberately strike, preparing to deliver the final blow to the cultivators.

"Hand over the key." At this moment, the demon kings skillfully avoided Ye Qiao and stared straight at Ming Xuan, their voices chilling.

Mingxuan stretched out his hand, arrogantly telling them, "I've crushed the key. You're not getting out of here now. Go ahead and try to kill me if you dare!"

"You're courting death!" Vines sprouted from the Demon King's feet, and the pressure of the Nascent Soul stage suddenly poured down. However, Ming Xuan's movements did not falter in the slightest. He could resist the pressure, and this threat was nothing to him.

"Don't waste your energy, you can't catch me." After Mingxuan did a somersault in the air and dodged three of the Demon King's moves, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and become smug.

The Demon King grinned. He could easily capture a mere Golden Core cultivator, but for some reason, his own emperor wasn't attacking this disciple, instead letting them hide in the back. Now that he finally had an opportunity, he was determined to eliminate this cultivator. "Oh?"

He sneered, suddenly landed in front of Mingxuan, and with lightning speed, hurled a blow at the boy.

"What makes you so confident you can dodge my attack?"

Countless cultivators paused slightly, as they were unfamiliar with this young man and only vaguely remembered that he was a talisman cultivator. Some of them subconsciously covered their eyes.

A powerful strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator would be difficult for even a peak Golden Core cultivator to dodge, let alone someone at the peak of the Golden Core stage. One strike from that would definitely break the young man in two.

As everyone held their breath, they thought the man was surely dead.

Mingxuan avoided it!

They avoided it?!

Mingxuan flicked his folding fan, tilted his head, and smiled brightly: "Because I'm the fastest dog in our entire sect."

*

I've already posted 4,000 words, and there are still 8,000 words to go today. I just got back this afternoon, I'm exhausted.