Chapter 186: Everything is Within the Plan

The Immortal Fairy burned with indignation; Tang Yunsheng, as her disciple, lacked even the most rudimentary loyalty!

She recalled the primordial era when she reigned as a supreme hegemon, adored by the inhabitants of an entire planet who held her words as sacred decrees and deemed it their highest honor to be her devotees.

Lu Yang, however, privately thought otherwise: that was only because they worshiped an idealized, perfect immortal of their own imagination; if the Immortal Sect ever discovered what their true goddess was like, let alone remaining loyal, he firmly believed the entire organization would disband by tomorrow.

At the very least, Lu Yang, in his capacity as the sect’s founder, entertained thoughts of resigning every single day.

If even the founder felt this way, the ordinary followers required no further explanation.

Wait, why not shift his perspective—what if they forced the Immortal Fairy to resign and led the entire Immortal Sect to switch their allegiance to another faith?

The more Lu Yang pondered this idea, the more ingenious it seemed.

As Lu Yang let his mind wander, he remained completely unperturbed; with Eldest Senior Sister present, no harm could possibly come to them.

The immediate dilemma lay in how to dispose of Tang Yunsheng.

To execute him would disrupt their subsequent operations, yet to spare him meant the three of them would be utterly doomed—a true conundrum.

Meng Jingzhou and Mangu shared none of his trepidation either; prior to their arrival, Lu Yang had assured them that this journey was entirely encompassed within Eldest Senior Sister's design, and thus nothing could go awry.

Were not the words "Eldest Senior Sister" more reliable than any guarantee in existence?

Tang Yunsheng raised his hand and drew a broadsword from his spatial storage, its blood-red blade swarming with fierce ghosts and vengeful spirits; seeing Lu Yang and his companions remain motionless, he assumed they had relinquished all will to resist.

And naturally so—faced with an absolute disparity in cultivation realms, such a reaction was entirely normal.

Tang Yunsheng had encountered countless cultivators who, like Lu Yang, simply resigned themselves to fate.

Exuding an aura of chilling dread, Tang Yunsheng bore every mark of an infamous fiend who had slaughtered without count.

Flashing a hideous grin, he leapt high into the air, carrying an absolute intent to kill, intending to cleave the trio apart with a single strike and scatter their bones to the wind!

At that precise moment, before a nearby boulder, space rippled and twisted as the Hierarch of the Immortal Sect stretched lazily, stepping out from Backup Stronghold Number Five.

He had left the others inside to tidy up while he emerged for a brief respite.

Then his eyes fell upon Tang Yunsheng, who was soaring aloft with a blood-drenched blade, bent on slaughtering Lu Yang’s trio, while the three youths stood frozen as though paralyzed by terror.

The Hierarch: "..."

Tang Yunsheng: "..."

The Hierarch’s mind filled with confusion; what exactly was transpiring here?

"Tang Yunsheng, what do you think you are doing!" Realizing it was no time to be bewildered, the Hierarch bellowed fiercely and struck with merciless force, pinning Tang Yunsheng instantly till his bones creaked.

"Wait, Hierarch, I can explain..." Tang Yunsheng panicked; what sort of absurd luck was this? He had deliberately chosen a desolate wilderness, so how could the Hierarch suddenly manifest out of thin air?

Deaf to Tang Yunsheng’s futile words, the Hierarch recklessly swept his divine sense through the man's spiritual space, shattering his sanity while violently extracting his memories.

To ascend to the mantle of a demonic sect leader meant he was by no means a benevolent soul; acts of slaughter, plunder, and the forced scanning of minds were methods he had employed countless times.

The Hierarch finally grasped the entire sequence of events.

With great difficulty, Lu Yang and his companions had successfully infiltrated the Seeking Dao Sect, only for the plan to be completely ruined by the sheer blundering of Vice Hierarchs Liu and Gao.

Furthermore, following their failure, those two had accused Vice Hierarch Jin of treason; Lu Yang and his companions, driven by pure loyalty, had journeyed all this way to report the news, only for Tang Yunsheng to attempt to silence them out of pure selfishness.

"You worthless scoundrel!" The Hierarch crushed Tang Yunsheng to death; had he not appeared by chance, these three exceptional seeds of the demonic path, who were entirely devoted to the Immortal Sect, would have perished here!

In truth, after the brutal search of his divine sense, Tang Yunsheng had already been reduced to an idiot, no different from a corpse.

"The three of you have suffered greatly." The Hierarch consoled them; this marked his very first meeting with Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and Mangu.

They possessed outstanding talent, representing the pillars of the demonic sect and the future ministers of the state.

Lu Yang: "..."

Lu Yang had heard Tang Yunsheng cry out "Hierarch" just before his demise, meaning this middle-aged man before them was indeed the supreme leader of the Immortal Sect?

And he had just emerged from Backup Stronghold Number Five?

Furthermore, the three of them had somehow fully secured the Hierarch’s trust?

A torrent of questions rushed through Lu Yang's mind.

Had they skipped some essential steps, or how exactly had the objective of this journey been achieved so effortlessly?

Within the spiritual space, Eldest Senior Sister’s countenance remained unruffled, still bearing that air of detachment from the mortal realm as she spoke: "Everything is proceeding according to plan."

The Immortal Fairy gazed at Eldest Senior Sister with profound admiration; this young girl was incredibly formidable and terrifyingly calculating, a feat she herself could never match.

Meng Jingzhou and Mangu likewise assumed this was all part of Eldest Senior Sister's grand design, marveling internally that nothing could ever elude her calculations.

With Eldest Senior Sister present, one felt an absolute peace of mind.

Only Lu Yang wore a bizarre expression, highly suspecting that all of this was mere coincidence.

Yet, considering Eldest Senior Sister’s sheer might, he conceded that perhaps even coincidences were factored into her calculations.

Indeed, Eldest Senior Sister's plan was flawless.

Originally, the Hierarch had deemed Lu Yang and his companions talented youths with excellent potential, making them perfect vessels for possession by the Immortal, yet he worried they might perish within the Seeking Dao Sect, or worse, be turned against them by the orthodox sect, rendering them untrustworthy and unfit to be summoned for the trials.

Now, having witnessed this scene with his own eyes and with Tang Yunsheng’s memories as absolute confirmation, every shred of suspicion vanished.

"As for the matter regarding Vice Hierarch Jin, the three of you must breathe a word of it to no one; I wish for this to remain strictly among the four of us." The Hierarch believed that the accusation against Vice Hierarch Jin was merely a parting venomous bite from Liu and Gao before their deaths.

The Immortal Fairy nodded.

Eldest Senior Sister nodded.

Midway through her nod, the Immortal Fairy suddenly knitted her brows: "This individual is rather peculiar; why do I detect a trace of a familiar aura radiating from him?"

The aura was exceedingly faint, requiring deliberate scrutiny: "It resembles the Immortal Fruit of the Dao, yet it is not entirely identical. Most peculiar."

Hearing the Immortal Fairy’s murmured musings, Yun Zhi raised an eyebrow slightly, sensing that the truth behind the Immortal Sect might differ somewhat from her initial assumptions.

The Hierarch personally escorted Lu Yang and his companions into Backup Stronghold Number Five.

Lu Yang and the others had finally arrived at the headquarters of the Immortal Sect, yet the scene before them was entirely different from what they had envisioned.

In their imaginations, the headquarters should have evoked an atmosphere of rivers of blood and mountains of corpses, or at least a terrifying ambiance with ancient fiends lurking in the shadows.

In reality, the headquarters of the Immortal Sect swarmed with cultists flying back and forth, carrying bricks, sawing timber, erecting dwellings and sacrificial altars, all engaged in a massive construction effort.

The Hierarch remarked casually: "To ensure absolute safety and evade the pursuit of the Seeking Dao Sect, our sect has just completed a relocation; though our possessions have been transferred, everything still requires organization and construction."

"The three of you have arrived at an auspicious moment; our sect is preparing to hold an internal selection process, and shortly, a vast multitude of disciples at the Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation stages will arrive to compete alongside you, and the most exceptional among you shall receive the favor of the Immortal."

"Very well, let us leave it at that for now; the three of you shall reside here temporarily, and when the selection commences, someone will notify you. I have other pressing matters to attend to."

With those words, the Hierarch departed in a haste.

The Immortal Sect no longer possessed any spare strongholds, and he needed to select three more alternate locations to prepare against unforeseen disasters.

His ascension to the position of Hierarch relied not merely upon his profound cultivation, but upon his meticulous caution.

(End of Chapter)