Tianyi shook his head and said. “Not him”
In the past few years, his subordinates had brought him many people that once entered the Bodhi Tree, but Tianyi could feel that none of them had a connection to the divine tree. Eventually, the number of times his subordinates delivered the people to him diminished.
Although Tianyi didn’t know the exact number of people that entered the Bodhi Tree, he could still remember a few of them, especially Mo Ling. Till now, his subordinates had not caught the native.
“Hm?” Tianyi turned his head when he saw his subordinate bringing him another person. He recognized the person in the venerable’s arms. She was Xuan Queling, the woman who accompanied Mo Ling. However, he was more surprised to see Mo Ling’s other woman following behind the sky venerable obediently.
“You’re one of the Emperor Hall’s agents?” Tianyi asked.
“Emperor Nine Heavens’ eyes are keen,” the sky venerable praised. “Chou Nu is the person we placed next to Mo Ling following your orders those years ago. It was thanks to her that we could locate Mo Ling. Unfortunately, his power exceeded our expectations. He killed an earth venerable and tens of imperial protectors.”
Tianyi nodded. “From now on, whenever you make a plan against Mo Ling, increase the amount of force by ten times whatever you estimated.”
The sky venerable was confused. Although Mo Ling was powerful, there should be no need to be so wary against a yokel, right? Next to him, Chou Nu’s expression paled. Although she was on the side of Emperor Hall, Mo Ling held a special place in her heart.
The changes in her expression were caught by Tianyi and the sky venerable. The sky venerable frowned, but he didn’t rebuke her. At least, not right now. He motioned toward the woman in his grasp. “Emperor, is this woman the one you are searching for?”
Tianyi took one glance and shook his head. Although she had the aura of the Bodhi Tree on her, it was only a fragment. If enough time passed, it would disappear.
The sky venerable frowned. “In that case, the only one left is that Mo Ling.”
He excused himself and flew away with Chou Nu. Once they were a distance away, he glanced at Chou Nu. “I suggest you forget about your childish feelings about that man. I am optimistic about you. With your potential, it’s not impossible for you to go to the immortal realm.”
“Immortal realm?” Chou Nu repeated.
“Yes,” the sky venerable said. “Although the Impermanence Realm has been sealed off, it’s nothing for us. We have descended from the immortal realm to this world for a purpose.”
Realization dawned on Chou Nu. She had always wondered about the origin of Emperor Hall. How could such a powerful force remain unknown for so many years? The truth was that they came from a higher world.
However, the first feeling that Chou Nu felt when hearing this was not ecstasy at the chance of entering a higher world, but worry for Mo Ling. Chou Nu had never been someone focused on strength. Had it not been for the betrayal and her parents’ death, she would have been content to remain the valley lord’s daughter.
Had she not been taught a superior cultivation method by Emperor Hall, her cultivation would have stagnated after attaining her revenge. Even then, her speed had dramatically slowed down compared to when she still thought about vengeance. She was simply someone who didn’t place much focus on cultivation and focused more on relationships.
“It’s about Mo Ling,” the venerable who reported to Tianyi, the Grand Sky Venerable, said.
The Ninth Sky Venerable snorted in dissatisfaction. “Is he so important that you summoned all of us? If you are lacking venerables, send those earth venerables. They received rewards but constantly want more without working hard.”
The Grand Sky Venerable had already briefed them on Mo Ling, so they knew that he had killed an earth venerable. However, they didn’t take it seriously. In their eyes, a venerable warrior was nothing and only comparable to a nascent grandmaster. If it weren’t for the low spiritual qi in the realm, a grandmaster would be more than enough to equal a venerable warrior.
“That was the original plan, but Emperor Nine Heavens said to multiply the force used to capture Mo Ling by ten. Since the original plan was to use the earth venerables, then we can only take actions ourselves.”
None of the sky venerables objected. Since this was Tianyi’s orders, they would obey. Although they didn’t understand, they knew they did not have the capital to question Tianyi’s orders. Unless they had information Tianyi didn’t, which they did not.
So, the nine of them began to plan out the operation. It wasn’t anything complicated. They would secretly release one of the prisoners and let him escape from the Immortal Grotto. That prisoner would eventually meet up with Mo Ling and reveal to him that Xuan Queling and Chou Nu were trapped in this base. With this information, Mo Ling would definitely come to rescue them. It didn’t matter if he summoned reinforcements, either.
The prisoners were the people Emperor Hall captured under Tianyi’s order. After Tianyi inspected, he gave them back and didn’t say what to do with them. Emperor Hall felt it was too cruel to kill them, but they didn’t want to release them either. So, they locked them up in one of the earth-rank bases.
Aside from them, Emperor Hall didn’t really have any other prisoners. Traitors were directly killed, and they had not found other uses for the prison yet.
Soon, the nine sky venerables put their plan into action. They waited a few months and watched Mo Ling’s action. Every time they caught his tail, he would always disappear soon after, making it impossible to track him in real time. Though, that didn’t matter. In his mission to save Xuan Queling and Chou Nu, Mo Ling discovered many of Emperor Hall’s mortal-rank bases. Of course, some were thrown out by the sky venerables as bait to lead him closer to the earth-rank base, so that their future plans wouldn’t appear suspicious.
Finally, they released a prisoner. One of the grandmasters from a force friendly to Peacock Valley and Frost Flame Valley. As planned, the prisoner reunited with his force, and Mo Ling found out. After learning where Emperor Hall’s base was, he gathered all the friendly forces.
Naturally, it was not just to rescue Xuan Queling. The Emperor Hall’s action over the years angered all the forces, not to mention what they did before they started kidnapping people. Before, they were helpless because they couldn’t even find Emperor Hall’s base. Now, it was different.
Still, they couldn’t gather too many warriors. Many of the weaker forces were still fighting the hostile forces from outside the central region. Mo Ling didn’t count on them. In his eyes, those forces’ strongest fighters were below Emperor Hall’s weakest fighters. Their presence would only drag them down.
Finally, after much discussion, the forces of the central continent formed an assault team. Mo Ling naturally joined it. While they were discussing, they sent scouts to investigate the entrance. The scouts discovered a pattern of the number of times imperial protectors would leave or return. Although it was not a hundred percent accurate, it gave them a vague idea of when Emperor Hall’s base would be at its weakest.
Finally, the day of the attack arrived. There was a seal protecting the entrance and Mo Ling directly used his Spiraling Demon Sphere to blast it apart. Originally, they wanted to sneak in, but the seal was too difficult to break, so they could only use brute force. This naturally attracted a lot of attention, so the assault team didn’t hide their presence and charged forward.
But just as they charged in, they sensed something amiss. The entrance that was broken by Mo Ling immediately healed and closed. Not only that, over ten imperial protectors surrounded them. Although the assault team included several venerables, they didn’t dare to underestimate the grandmasters of Emperor Hall. However, what shocked them and made them despair were the nine venerables looking down on them.
“Thank you for falling into our trap so obediently. Mo Ling, as long as you surrender, we can let all the others go,” the Grand Sky Venerable said. His gaze harshened. “If you don’t come quietly, you can only blame yourselves if you die.”