Chapter 77 - Eldest Senior Brother

Chapter 77: Chapter 75: Eldest Senior BrotherYe Qiu, with a tentative purpose, took out the long-sealed white pearl, and then the golden egg started to move. If Ye Qiu did not give the Chaos Pearl to it, it kept hopping up and down around him, looking extremely agitated.

Ye Qiu did not know how it intended to use the Chaos Pearl for cultivation. He placed the pearl on the eggshell, whereupon the golden egg happily rubbed against him in his arms and then took the Chaos Pearl back to the center of those three Spirit Plants, ceasing to move. The Immortal Spirit Qi in the space of Little Wood Spirit finally stopped depleting as rapidly as before.

After settling the golden egg, Ye Qiu returned to the third floor of Sky Tower, shrouded everywhere in mist, devoid of any human presence, spiritual beasts, or other peculiar things.

He walked for a long time before finally hearing the sounds of combat ahead.

There was a colossal Nine-headed Snake, and the cultivators fighting it seemed like mere ants in its presence. As Ye Qiu approached, he discovered that those battling at the forefront were Qingling and her group; Chen Qingchi, Shun Hua, and Shun Ying were joking around on the side, not fighting with their full strength.

Ye Qiu’s arrival drew their attention. Chen Qingchi and the others were pleased, while Qingling and her companions no longer put their all into dealing with the Nine-headed Snake, immediately shifting the pressure onto the other cultivators.

Most cultivators had been eliminated on the first and second floors, leaving only a few hundred who could make it here, yet the ones with the highest cultivation were only in the Mahayana Realm like Ye Qiu and Qingling’s group, with not a single Transcendance Tribulation Stage cultivator among them.

However, the Nine-headed Snake they faced possessed the cultivation of the Late Tribulation Crossing Stage, though this was due to the suppression by Sky Tower.

As long as they worked together, it was only a matter of time before they got through this challenge. The crux was that people had diverse intentions; no one wanted to risk their lives for others’ sake. Who knew what would come next? They faced the Nine-headed Snake, but had to guard against backstabbers. It was better to just go through the motions; no one wanted to take the lead.

However, with Ye Qiu’s appearance, everyone knew that Sword Pavilion was the leader of the Righteous Sect, and also knew that he was the senior brother of Sword Pavilion. If not him, then who else should step up at this time?

Qingling sneered at him, gesturing to the few men beside her to slowly retreat to the edge of the battle.

"Senior Brother Ye, please take command," said Feng Bianyi, the Young Master of the Feng Family who once fought against him in Medicine Valley. However, there was no malice in his words, merely trust.

Ye Qiu nodded slightly, and the crowd slowly gathered towards him. He noted that the Nine-headed Snake seemed unable to move, which was confirmed by Chen Qingchi’s words.

"Senior Brother, the entrance is right behind the Nine-headed Snake, but this snake cannot move."

Ye Qiu assessed the strength of the people present and then said, "Feng Bianyi will lead the team against the far-right head, Array Sect will take on the second head, Talisman Sect the third, Loose Cultivators the fourth, Demon Cultivators the fifth, and we of Sword Pavilion will take the sixth and seventh heads. Fairy Qingling and her companions will handle the last two. Does anyone have objections?"

The others were fine, believing their respective forces could manage one serpent head. However, Qingling was not pleased.

"Why should we, just a few people, be allocated two heads? Is Sword Pavilion using their power to bully the lesser, settling private scores under the guise of righteousness?" Qingling spoke coldly.

Ye Qiu gave her a glance, his eyes frosty, "Perhaps Fairy Qingling would care to explain why there is a Demon Cultivator hidden among your ranks?"

At these words, the surrounding cultivators looked at her with suspicion and alarm. The Demon Cultivators’ cultivation practices were cruel, and their actions were unconstrained. They had always been despised by righteous cultivators, approached with a kill-on-sight attitude, but at such a critical time, she had concealed a Demon Cultivator? The thought that while they were fighting with all their might, a Demon Cultivator might be lurking nearby, ready to pounce, filled the cultivators with dread.

"On what grounds do you say that? Is there any evidence?" Qingling asked confidently in return. Xue Fei had cultivated a secret technique, and had he not exposed himself just now, she would not even be aware of his presence here; she did not believe that Ye Qiu could have any way to force Xue Fei to reveal his true form.

"Evidence? Since you want evidence, I’ll give it to you." Ye Qiu suddenly produced a Buddha Lamp, that very one which he had bought as a bargain along with the Chaos Pearl.

It had looked ordinary at first, but when he visited the Putuo Temple in the west, the abbot discerned the uniqueness of the Buddha Lamp, which concealed a Shariputra from a Buddhist Practitioner’s seated transformation. Instead of restoring the splendor of the Buddha Lamp, however, the Shariputra suppressed its own aura, making the lamp appear unremarkable. Now, after the abbot’s blessing, this Buddha Lamp had become the bane of the Demon Clan.

The Buddha’s Light from the Buddha Lamp shone upon the cloaked man beside Qingling, and instantly, wisps of black qi began to emanate from him. This black qi carried with it an aura of brutality and blood, a symbol of a Demon Cultivator.

Seeing this, the surrounding cultivators immediately became alert, aiming their weapons at Qingling and her companion.

Ming Jing was also shocked; he had failed to realize that the man Qingling protected, Xue Fei, was in fact a Demon Cultivator. Even if Qingling held special significance to him, he could not let Xue Fei off the hook.

"Ming Jing, you too are going to stand against me with them?" Qingling asked in disbelief.

"Amitabha Buddha, Qingling, I am a disciple of the Buddhist Sect, and it is my duty to eliminate Demon Cultivators," Ming Jing replied, his gaze serene but unyielding.

Qingling could not allow Xue Fei to come to harm, after all, he was her first man and held extraordinary significance to her. But with so many cultivators targeting them, there was no way out at the moment.

"It’s no matter, if it comes down to it, none of you shall have the Sky Tower," Xue Fei revealed his true form as a Demon Cultivator, his bizarre face sinister as he laughingly spoke with cruel intent.

Some cultivators with sharp eyes recognized that he was the same Demon Cultivator who had slaughtered his companions and escaped using a blood technique in the secret realm years ago. Had he and Fairy Qingling already become involved with each other at that time?

However, the means of a Demon Cultivator are always unpredictable, and they are often ruthless enough to not shy away even from mutual destruction. Hearing his words, some cultivators began to consider retreating.

"No, I can’t let anything happen to you," Qingling said as she grasped Xue Fei’s hand tightly, speaking with deep emotion.

Then she turned and glared fiercely at Ye Qiu, her voice filled with gritted teeth: "If we manage to eliminate two of the serpent heads, could you perhaps let him off this once? Any grievances we have, we can settle them after we leave the Sky Tower."

Ye Qiu’s original intention was to pressure her into dealing with the two serpent heads, and after hearing her words, he nodded: "If everyone has no objections, then it’s agreed."

Most cultivators did not wish to entangle with a Demon Cultivator ceaselessly here, and besides, there was a fundamental difference between Fairy Qingling and her group taking the initiative to confront the two serpent heads and being forced to do so. To conserve their own strength, they all agreed to the condition.

Only Ming Jing, still clutching his Buddha Beads, did not alter the resolve in his eyes.

Following Ye Qiu’s advice for arrangement, several teams brandished their weapons, commencing a coordinated attack in their prearranged deployment.

After the crowd united in a cohesive attack, even the Nine-headed Snake at the Late Tribulation Crossing Stage could not quite manage to fend off the simultaneous assault of hundreds of