Fishing in Troubled Waters.
This was a very important skill, at least in Xu Muxue’s view, its importance ranked at least in the top three survival rules in the Cultivation World.
The top two were cultivation base and divine power.
It was simple: in the pursuit of the Dao, if you wanted to survive, first you had to be able to fight. If you couldn’t win, then find a way to play keep-away.
And if even keep-away was impossible…
Then it was time to stir up trouble!
Xu Muxue knew that Shen Qinghan was definitely locked up and being tortured alone by those two Nascent Soul cultivators.
Relying on the binding spirit shackle left on Shen Qinghan’s body, she could vaguely sense her general location.
But if she tried to break in by force, the Jiedan cultivators were relatively easy to deal with. However, those two Nascent Souls were an entirely different matter, far too difficult for her current cultivation base.
If she wanted to rescue Shen Qinghan, those two Nascent Soul cultivators were an insurmountable obstacle no matter what.
Xu Muxue was distressed, but her worries came and went quickly.
Want to know why?
Because she was just a little fox.
Little foxes were carefree and cunning!
After removing the binding spirit shackle, Xu Muxue chose not to return to the Sword Sect to deliver the message.
She knew very well that the Sword Sect was mostly just a group of Jiedan elders at best, and sounding the alarm wouldn’t help.
The two Nascent Soul cultivators from the Qin Chan Two Sects—if even one of them personally intervened, any struggle would be in vain.
So she pulled out her third magical treasure: fishing in troubled waters to stir up trouble!
The Sword Sect’s vast foundation had been established by Xu Mu, occupying one of the most fertile pieces of land.
The entire East Victory Divine Continent’s cultivation world coveted it, but none dared to target the Sword Sect because of the Great Elder Xu Mu’s divine power.
Now that Xu Mu had passed on, and with Elder Ziyao’s failed Golden Core formation and subsequent passing, the Sword Sect was at its weakest moment.
No faction truly believed that a sect of Sword Sect’s size had no other Nascent Soul cultivators stationed inside. Besides, with the lingering power of Xu Mu, everyone feared that he might have left behind some deadly countermeasures.
So even if Xu Mu had died as a traitor, these cunning elders did not dare to make the first move.
Until Qin Qin brought the news of the Sword Sect’s weakness.
The Sword Sect was located at a key node of a through-and-through spiritual vein, naturally rich in spiritual energy. Coupled with the Juling Array to gather spiritual energy, the sect’s concentration of spiritual energy had reached an incredible level.
Even those rare immortal cave paradises could only compare so far—this was one of the reasons Sword Sect disciples produced so much talent.
The Qin Chan Two Sects were on par with the Sword Sect and each had several Nascent Soul cultivators, but with Xu Mu’s astounding divine power, he could easily fend off hundreds at the Nascent Soul stage, so the two sects had always been suppressed by the Sword Sect.
Naturally, they were the two factions most coveting the Sword Sect’s resources. Now, with confirmation of Sword Sect’s weakened state, they were eager to strike.
As a righteous sect, they wouldn’t simply slaughter the entire Sword Sect outright. That would offend the heavens and hurt their Dao heart, seriously hindering future breakthroughs.
So the only Nascent Soul mid-stage cultivator from the Qin Chan Two Sects poured their heart and soul into a secluded cultivation, researching and eventually developing an Inviting Spirit Array.
This array could transfer all the spiritual energy from the Sword Sect’s spiritual vein right under their feet to the two sects. Without the high concentration of spiritual energy, the Sword Sect would slowly wither away.
See? It’s because your spiritual energy is gone and you can’t produce talents, it’s not that we’re deliberately suppressing you.
The righteous path has its own ways.
The righteous play with schemes, layouts, and using rules!
…And this layout was easily uncovered by Xu Muxue.
Are you kidding?
I, Xu Muxue, am the head of the righteous path!
How did she find out?
She knocked out a Qin Sect disciple and performed a soul search on her.
Actually, I, Old Devil Xu Mu, am a Demonic Path leader after all!
But Xu Muxue was careful and didn’t harm the disciple’s Primordial Spirit during the soul search.
After all, low-level disciples were just cannon fodder, merely workers—no need to be too cruel.
But some suffering was unavoidable.
Who told your Ancestor to capture my Qinghan!
So Xu Muxue stripped off her clothes.
She changed into the Qin Sect disciple’s uniform, then casually took the ancient zither from behind the disciple, tied her hair into a high ponytail, and in an instant looked just like a cold, artistic student fox.
From the soul search, Xu Muxue learned that the two sects had long been secretly recruiting new disciples like crazy to power the large-scale Inviting Spirit Array. So encountering unfamiliar faces inside the sect was common and not suspicious.
Well then, this little fox was now Senior Sister Qin!
Xu Muxue spent a whole day blending in with the Qin Sect disciples.
If anyone objected, she would beat them.
“You, why is your chest so big, it’s distracting my eyes, you know? Do one hundred push-ups immediately, right now!”
Xu Muxue slapped a voluptuous female disciple square in the chest.
“Wuwu, Senior Sister is bullying me…” the disciple whimpered, lying face down and starting push-ups.
“You, come here. Play me the theme song of Mixue Ice City!”
“Mi Xue… Bing Cheng? What’s that?”
The Qin Sect male disciple pointed at was completely confused.
“You don’t even know this? Run a hundred laps around the square right now!”
“Hey, I think you’re going a bit too far…”
“Whap!”
Xu Muxue cracked her whip, making him stagger.
“Senior Sister, I’m running now!”
The male disciple happily started jogging.
“Crazy.” Xu Muxue snorted indignantly, then snatched a tanghulu from a passing girl’s hand.
“Se-Senior Sister, that’s mine…” the girl timidly protested.
“It’s mine now!”
Xu Muxue bared her teeth. “Say another word and I’ll eat you too!”
“Waaah!”
The girl ran off crying.
Xu Muxue licked the tanghulu with satisfaction while occasionally whipping a big bald head at random.
Those bullied disciples howled at the sky.
Why did the elders send such a little devil of a Senior Sister to be the disciplinary manager in charge of refining array materials!
…But actually, Xu Muxue had never intended to pose as any manager.
She was just in the mood to beat people up.
So sometimes fishing in troubled waters had unexpectedly good results☆
“Cough cough, Junior Sister, bullying the disciples like this isn’t appropriate, is it?”
Suddenly, a big bald head appeared from the crowd, patting Xu Muxue on the shoulder from behind. He radiated a powerful aura, clearly at the peak of Foundation Establishment!
Countless bald heads wept.
Buddha bless! At least our Zen Sect sent a righteous disciplinary manager Senior Brother!
With him here, someone would finally check this bullying, domineering Qin Sect Senior Sister!
“Ah? Who do you think you are?”
Xu Muxue turned around with a displeased look, but upon seeing his face, she raised her brow. “Huh?”
The expression on the big bald head froze instantly.
“It’s you?!”
Daoming shouted, pointing at Xu Muxue.