Chapter 76: Dayan Holy Land Is Alarmed
"Don't kill—"
The Ninth Steward had just begun to plead when a soul-reaping melody echoed in his ears.
His consciousness blurred and soon dissipated.
Moments later, the sound of the zither within the cave ceased.
Qin Qin stood up and bowed slightly toward Chu Feng. "Thank you, Master, for your assistance."
Chu Feng said calmly, "No need to thank me. According to what that man said, there's a mark from Dayan Holy Land left on you."
"Let me see if I can erase it."
Hearing this, Qin Qin's face lit up with joy, and she gracefully stepped before Chu Feng.
Chu Feng activated the World Ending Eye and carefully examined Qin Qin's body.
Before long, he found a golden mark imprinted upon her soul.
He did not forcibly remove it, because the mark had already fused with Qin Qin's soul.
If he acted rashly, it would severely damage her soul as well.
Retracting his gaze, a thoughtful look appeared on Chu Feng's face.
Seeing her master silent, Qin Qin guessed that the mark was not so easily removed, and her hatred toward Dayan Holy Land deepened even further.
After a long while.
Chu Feng pulled his mind back to reality, looked at the pouting Qin Qin, and smiled. "Worried about the mark on you?"
Qin Qin lightly nodded and respectfully asked, "Master, can you tell me where exactly the mark is?"
Chu Feng said slowly, "The mark is within your soul. With my power, I can indeed remove it, but your soul is still too fragile."
"Only after you reach the Tianyuan Realm, when your soul transforms into a divine soul, will I be able to act safely. Otherwise, it would only harm you."
Qin Qin's eyes brightened upon hearing this. She clenched her delicate fists, her whole being filled with renewed fighting spirit.
"Master, I will cultivate diligently."
"Good."
Chu Feng responded with a nod. "Rest for now. Tomorrow, we'll hunt some demon beasts, and by evening, we'll return to Wendao Academy."
Qin Qin said, "Understood."
…
At the same time, ten thousand miles away, in Dayan Holy Land.
Inside the Dark Hall's Soul Lantern Hall, thousands of soul lanterns of various sizes were arranged.
Each soul lantern represented a disciple of Dayan Holy Land.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A series of crisp sounds suddenly rang out, causing the disciple guarding the Soul Lantern Hall for Dao Foundation Realm cultivators to turn pale.
Upon closer inspection, he saw that over a dozen soul lanterns had extinguished.
This was no small matter for the Dark Hall.
Although the disciples of the Dark Hall lived by the blade and blood, for so many to be wiped out in such a short time surely meant something had gone terribly wrong.
The disciple hurried to report the matter to the steward on duty.
"Seventeenth Steward, something big has happened. Over a dozen senior brothers' soul lanterns went out at the same time!"
Inside the hall, the Seventeenth Steward's expression was particularly grim, because among the extinguished lanterns was one belonging to a senior brother stationed in his division.
"Report their names."
"Yes!"
The disciple quickly listed the names of those whose soul lanterns had gone out.
The more names he heard, the darker the Seventeenth Steward's face became. He muttered under his breath, "Just what kind of terrifying opponent did the Ninth Steward and the others encounter outside Wendao City?"
Without wasting any more time, he immediately prepared to report upwards, knowing that the target at Wendao City was someone directly specified by those above.
Over the years, the Dark Hall had spent considerable effort in tracking their target.
Now that such a major incident had occurred, it was only natural for him to immediately report it to the elders.
He waved at the disciple. "You may leave for now. I will report this matter to the elder at once."
"Yes."
The disciple responded and turned to leave.
The Seventeenth Steward hurried toward the Dark Hall's main hall.
"Disciple Seventeen greets Elder Jiu."
Within the Dark Hall, disciples were not given titles before elders to avoid implicating the sect should they fail during their secret missions.
But the elders of each hall were different. They were already the backbone of Dayan Holy Land.
Naturally, they were qualified to have titles.
At this moment, Elder Jiu was seated cross-legged, eyes closed in cultivation. Upon hearing the voice, he asked faintly, "What is it?"
"Reporting to Elder Jiu..."
The Seventeenth Steward truthfully reported the incident of the soul lanterns extinguishing outside Wendao City.
Elder Jiu abruptly opened his eyes at the report, took out a token from his robes, and handed it over. He turned to a disciple at his side and said, "A Si, go retrieve the contents of Archive Nine under the Heaven category."
"Yes."
A Si received the token and hurried away.
Before long, he returned, carrying a box.
Elder Jiu performed an incantation and embedded his token into the box.
Click — with a soft sound, the box opened.
Carefully, Elder Jiu took out a jade talisman, frowning slightly as he saw the faint light it emitted.
"That little girl actually awakened her double pupils? Could it be that she caught the attention of a master from Wendao Academy?"
This jade talisman had been forged by Dayan Holy Land using the blood of Qin Qin's closest kin.
Its purpose was to lock onto Qin Qin's location and monitor the awakening progress of her double pupils.
Back then, after destroying that small family, the cultivators of Dayan Holy Land had failed to locate the little girl.
So they brought back the bones and blood of her closest relatives and had a sect expert forge this jade talisman.
Through the talisman, they also branded a mark onto Qin Qin's soul.
Yet no one had expected that the girl carried great fortune. Every time Dayan Holy Land sent someone after her, they failed.
Eventually, she escaped to Wendao City.
The reason Dayan Holy Land did not send high-level experts to capture her directly was their fear that the old monsters of Wendao Academy might take a fancy to her double pupils.
If that happened, all their previous efforts would have been for nothing.
But now a new problem had arisen—the girl's double pupils had already awakened. If she continued cultivating, it would become far harder to extract them later.
More importantly, the higher the degree of awakening, the poorer the compatibility when extracting the double pupils.
It was clear that Dayan Holy Land had to make a decision.
If they continued to treat this lightly as they had before, they might soon face a half-saint or even a saint-level enemy.
Dayan Holy Land might not fear saint-level enemies, but being targeted by one was no trivial matter.
Elder Jiu closed the box, waved his subordinates away, and fell into deep thought.
The following morning.
The head of the Dark Hall personally led Elder Jiu to the Sect Master's main hall.
Before long, the Sect Master convened a meeting of all Dayan Holy Land's top figures to discuss this urgent matter.
It wasn't until late evening that the high-level meeting concluded and the elders left the main hall.
Meanwhile, Chu Feng and Qin Qin had already returned to Wendao Academy, the master and disciple pair harvesting great gains along the way without encountering any danger.
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