Chapter 185: Eldest Senior Sister's Plan

"Eldest Senior Sister, is this your grand plan?"

"Naturally."

"Liu and Gao only knew of the third and fourth backup bases. The Immortal Sect will surely relocate to the fifth, whose location remains a mystery for now."

"Which is precisely why the three of you must use the pretext I gave you to win Tang Yunsheng's trust. Have him lead you to the original base. In their hasty retreat, the Immortal Sect will undoubtedly leave behind hidden scouts around the perimeter to guide those who missed the message to the new backup location."

"Your appearance near the vicinity alongside Tang Yunsheng will surely draw the sect's notice. In their eyes, you three might have been captured by the Wandao Sect and turned into counter-spies, rendering you untrustworthy."

"Yet Tang Yunsheng is different. The sect knows he has been lurking outside the Wandao Sect all along, immune to capture, making him reliable. Only when he brings you three to the original base will the Immortal Sect accept you and reveal the true location."

"The ultimate goal of this ruse is to secure you the Immortal Sect's absolute trust."

The Immortal Fairy nodded along vigorously from the sidelines, thoroughly impressed by the ingenuity.

Concealed at the designated rendezvous point near the Wandao Sect, Tang Yunsheng waited anxiously for word from the Vice Sect Master.

He watched with his own eyes as the Wandao Sect saw off the Five Elements Sect, yet still there was no sign of the Vice Sect Master, prompting a terrible sinking feeling in his gut.

"It is over, all over. Vice Sect Master Liu and Vice Sect Master Gao must have fallen into the clutches of the wretched Wandao Sect!"

Tang Yunsheng waited an entire day before the battered trio of Lu Yang finally arrived in desperate flight.

"Why is it just the three of you? Where are Vice Sect Master Liu and the others!" Tang Yunsheng barked, violently shaking Lu Yang by the shoulders.

Lu Yang’s eyes were vacant. At Tang Yunsheng's interrogation, his rims reddened, his lips trembled, and he burst into a loud, wailing sob.

"Vice Sect Master Liu... Vice Sect Master Liu and the others... they failed! The Vice Sect Master unleashed an immortal treasure to invoke a divine technique, but who could have foreseen a hidden master within the Wandao Sect capable of resisting its might? A fierce battle ensued!"

Recalling the horrific scene of that day, Meng Jingzhou joined the weeping, adding, "Vice Sect Master Liu and the elders refused to yield even unto death. They were beaten to a pulp by the damned Wandao Sect, slain right before our eyes!"

Mangu merely wept aloud, unable to utter a word for the longest time—he had forgotten his lines.

The trio wept uncontrollably, a display of raw, genuine emotion.

"What!" Tang Yunsheng cried in sheer disbelief, before slumping heavily onto the ground.

Two Vice Sect Masters and five high-ranking officials all lost to the Wandao Sect. How could he possibly account for this upon his return?

"Wait, then how did the three of you emerge unscathed?" Tang Yunsheng suddenly realized the anomaly. The Vice Sect Masters and elders had infiltrated the Wandao Sect through their barbecue shop; the Wandao Sect would surely suspect them.

Lu Yang steadied his emotions somewhat. "Vice Sect Master Liu seared an imprint into our minds, disguising us as mere puppets controlled by his immense spiritual power. Only then did the Wandao Sect spare us."

"Then you three ought to have continued lurking within the Wandao Sect."

After all, such deep-cover spies were rare assets.

Lu Yang shook his head. "After an ordeal like that, even if it wasn't our fault, others will not tolerate us. Business has plummeted, whispers follow us everywhere, and the Wandao Sect is no longer a place we can call home."

Tang Yunsheng patted Lu Yang’s shoulder. "It has been hard on you."

A flicker of genuine hatred flashed in Lu Yang's eyes as he pressed on, "Sacrificing for the Immortal Sect is nothing. But I absolutely will not let the traitor go!"

"A traitor?"

Meng Jingzhou nodded vigorously, his eyes burning with malice and savagery. "Vice Sect Master Liu's plan was flawless, and with us assisting from the inside, how could they have failed if not for a traitor?"

"Before his demise, Vice Sect Master Liu secretly transmitted a message to us, revealing the traitor's identity. He charged us to return safely to the Immortal Sect and expose them!"

Tang Yunsheng's expression turned grave. "Who is the traitor?"

This was no trivial matter. The surprise assault on the Wandao Sect was a covert operation known only to a select few within the upper echelons. Suspecting anyone would trigger a catastrophic crisis.

Lu Yang uttered the traitor's name: "The third Vice Sect Master, Vice Sect Master Jin!"

"Him!" Tang Yunsheng’s voice spiked several octaves, but upon further reflection, it made perfect sense.

Out of three Vice Sect Masters, two were now dead. The mantle of Sect Master would inevitably fall upon the last remaining candidate.

Everything aligned perfectly.

"Come, we must report this to the Sect Master immediately!" Realizing the gravity of the situation, Tang Yunsheng wasted no time and urged them to depart.

The three were no longer mere spies, but vital witnesses.

Tang Yunsheng ushered the trio onto a flying vessel, soaring southward. Upon reaching a major metropolis, they disembarked and journeyed on foot into the wilderness, some three hundred miles from the city.

"Inspector Tang, is the headquarters located here?" Lu Yang scanned the area, searching for signs of an ancient ruin or a hidden domain. Was the original base truly here?

Tang Yunsheng flashed a cruel, mocking sneer. "You three fools actually think we are going to headquarters? We would likely be slaughtered by Vice Sect Master Jin's assassins before we even drew near!"

"Who is to guarantee that the Sect Master isn't complicit? Or perhaps, for the sake of the sect's stability, the Sect Master will simply swallow his pride, accept Vice Sect Master Jin's terms, and dispose of us to tie up loose ends."

"If we head to headquarters, our lives will hang in the balance. We would be walking straight into a trap!"

"When power struggles erupt among the upper echelons, whoever gets entangled dies. I refuse to be a pawn in their games."

"The safest course of action right now is to slaughter you three brats and flee to where no one can find me!"

Tang Yunsheng was rational to a fault. Exposing a mole? What did that have to do with him? As a demonic cultivator, survival was the paramount priority.

He could simply choose any barren wilderness, kill the three of them, scatter their ashes, and sever all ties with the Immortal Sect.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, slaughtering these three Foundation Establishment whelps would be as effortless as turning his hand.

Lu Yang stood frozen.

Meng Jingzhou stood frozen.

Mangu stood frozen.

This diverged significantly from Eldest Senior Sister's grand design; the plan had derailed at the very second step.

They had indeed secured Tang Yunsheng's trust, but that did not mean he harbored any desire to escort them back to the sect.

"Eldest Senior Sister, what do we do now?" Within his mental consciousness, Lu Yang sought her guidance. Did she possess another brilliant countermeasure?

Yun Zhi maintained her characteristic stoic, indifferent demeanor. Yet, faced with Lu Yang's predicament, her gaze shifted slightly before returning to meet his, speaking in a calm cadence.

"No matter. Everything is going exactly as planned."

The shift in her gaze was minuscule, but having lived alongside her for so long, Lu Yang was acutely sensitive to such nuances.

This was the unmistakable look of a guilty conscience.

Memories of the past suddenly flooded Lu Yang's mind—how she had once made him bathe in boiling water for body refinement, how she had relentlessly insisted he train using blocks of tofu, and how she had mistaken a request from the Laurel Immortal Palace as a marriage proposal to himself.

Eldest Senior Sister was profoundly detached from the ways of the mundane world.

She always appeared to have everything under absolute control, acting with flawless composure, but that was merely an illusion born from the fact that her expression never changed from beginning to end.