Shen Lingxi believed her plan was flawless, but after executing it step by step, she discovered a small hitch: her White Moonlight had actually been captured by the Demon Cult.
According to her original idea, he should have been executed by the Great Elder, and then she would have used that as a pretext to lash out.
Although things had skewed a bit, it didn’t stop her from turning against the Great Elder.
However, there was no movement from the Demon Cult for a long time.
Before long, startling news arrived from the Demon Cult—the Demon Cult Leader was suddenly critically ill, and the Second Heavenly King had taken advantage of the opening to seize power.
The Alliance Leader summoned the main forces of the Righteous Path Alliance overnight to discuss a counterstrategy.
Some believed they should strike while the iron was hot, taking advantage of the internal strife to eliminate the Demon Cult in one fell swoop.
Others believed they should play the role of the oriole stalking the mantis, waiting until the Second Heavenly King and the Sect Leader had wounded each other before launching a massive invasion.
There were also those who thought it was a good thing for the Second Heavenly King to replace the current Sect Leader, suggesting they might be able to coexist peacefully, but these were a small minority.
Since the first and second proposals had the most support—and the difference between them was merely the timing of the attack—the Alliance Leader weighed the pros and cons and decided to adopt the first plan.
Once the plan was finalized, the major powers returned to gather their troops, preparing for a full-scale assault on the Demon Cult.
At this meeting, the representative for Saintess Mountain was the Great Elder.
This was because Shen Lingxi and the Great Elder had already fallen out, so she did not attend.
When the news reached her, Shen Lingxi felt as if the sky were falling.
The plan she had spent so much effort on was about to be cut short.
Even more fatal was the fact that she was physically weak and unable to join the battle because she had used the Saintess’s Second Skill on the entire world. She certainly wouldn’t be able to protect Gu Ming in the middle of a chaotic war.
Moreover, as a Demon Cult Protector, Gu Ming had long been a thorn in the side of those on the Righteous Path.
Just as she was at a loss, more news came from the Demon Cult: the internal strife had been settled, and the Demon Cult Leader was back in control.
Furthermore, the Demon Cult Leader did not execute the Second Heavenly King for his usurpation; he merely gave him a warning.
The Demon Cult Leader knew very well that dealing with the Second Heavenly King now would be detrimental to the entire cult, especially with the Righteous Path forces watching them like hawks.
The Righteous Path forces felt as if the sky were falling. They were armed and ready to fight a life-and-death battle with the Demon Cult, only for this news to arrive.
Shen Lingxi, however, breathed a sigh of relief.
After the internal strife was settled, Gu Ming, as the greatest contributor, was promoted from a Demon Cult Protector to the Fifth Heavenly King.
There had always been only four Heavenly Kings in the Demon Cult, but now there was an extra one. Consequently, rumors began to circulate that Gu Ming was the successor to the next Demon Cult Leader.
For a time, Gu Ming’s reputation among the Righteous Path forces was unparalleled, provoking many Righteous Path experts to come to his door to challenge him.
After all, Gu Ming was different from the other four Heavenly Kings. He had previously been only a Protector, and both his personal strength and his influence were far inferior to the other four.
Shen Lingxi became worried once again because of this.
She wasn’t worried about Gu Ming’s safety, but she felt her plan was about to go down the drain.
Gu Ming had been promoted to the Fifth Heavenly King and was no longer a lowly Protector. Would the Demon Cult Leader still let him come?
Shen Lingxi decided to do something. Hiding her actions from Saintess Mountain, she brought along the Sword Saint Heir and gathered a group of experts to head into Demon Cult territory to rescue her “White Moonlight.”
Shen Lingxi and the experts drew the enemy’s fire while the Sword Saint Heir took the opportunity to go and rescue the “White Moonlight.”
During this rescue operation, Shen Lingxi displayed great divine might.
With her consummate Deduction Technique, it was as if she had opened a Heavenly Eye, allowing her to carry out precise long-range strikes.
Many Demon Cult disciples died before they could even react.
It was said that many disciples thought they had brought divine punishment upon themselves for doing too many harmful things. They knelt on the spot, repenting and begging for mercy, even blabbing a bunch of their own dark secrets just to seek forgiveness from the Heavenly Dao.
However, Shen Lingxi’s plan ended in failure because she deduced that the Demon Cult Leader was about to arrive personally, so she retreated with the experts.
The Sword Saint Heir also failed to rescue the “White Moonlight” because he was blocked by the Second Heavenly King.
The two fought to a stalemate. Finally, after receiving the notice to retreat from Shen Lingxi and with her long-range support, the Sword Saint Heir managed to escape smoothly.
In the end, other than the Sword Saint Heir suffering some minor flesh wounds, Shen Lingxi’s side had no casualties, while the Demon Cult suffered countless deaths and injuries.
After this battle, Shen Lingxi’s reputation soared. For a time, she was in the spotlight, attracting high levels of attention from both the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path. Her Deduction Method was rumored to be miraculous.
In contrast to the Saintess who was in the limelight, the Divine Maiden suddenly fell from her pedestal. Folk stories began circulating everywhere about the beautiful love story between the Divine Maiden and the newly appointed Fifth Heavenly King.
Shen Lingxi also happened to get her hands on these novels.
At first, she remained stubborn, telling others, “Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could the dignified Divine Maiden be such a person?”
But when she was alone in her room later, she would crazily tear those novels to pieces to vent the frustration in her heart.
However, she didn’t lose heart because of this; instead, she became even more determined to pull Gu Ming to her side.
Not long after, two pieces of good news arrived one after the other. One was that her “love rival” had passed away, and the other was that the Demon Cult Leader finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
One of the Number Plates she had previously marked for recruiting disciples had fallen into Demon Cult territory.
To lure the Demon Cult Leader into her trap, she had already held several public Martial Arts Tournaments for selecting disciples.
Every time, she would secretly mark the Number Plates that qualified for the competition.
And for this ninth disciple selection tournament, Number Eighty-Eight had fallen into Demon Cult territory.
Finally, he had taken the bait.
Shen Lingxi was very pleased, and the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curl up slightly.
Before the tournament began, Shen Lingxi was in an exceptionally good mood. No matter where she went, she couldn’t help but hum a song.
On the day of the tournament, Shen Lingxi even appeared in person to see her sweetheart whom she hadn’t seen in a long time.
In the end, she got her wish.
However, due to their opposing positions, she couldn’t act too close yet. She could only stare and watch from a distance.
Seeing Shen Lingxi’s gaze drift toward a certain direction intentionally or unintentionally, Elder Zhong, who was traveling with her, couldn’t help but ask, “Saintess, have you discovered a good prospect?”
The Saintess’s lips curled slightly as she said mysteriously, “I’ve set my sights on one.”
“Oh? Which one?” Elder Zhong was greatly shocked. His gaze swept over the participants below as he asked.
“It’s a secret,” Shen Lingxi said with a smile, without letting the cat out of the bag.
***
On the other side—
Gu Ming always felt like a pair of eyes was watching him in secret, but whenever he looked over, it didn’t seem to be the case.
He thought to himself, ‘It seems I’m still a bit conceited. How could the Saintess possibly be peeking at me?’
He shook his head, brushing away the unrealistic fantasy.
One had to know that he was just one of many participants, very inconspicuous indeed.
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