In the Southwest Land, within the Southern Border Mountains, Taoist Fang De of the Wen Shi Sect and Taoist Wu Zhi of the Shaoyang Sect were trekking across the rugged terrain.
"It should be around here, right?"
"We just found that toddler’s shoe at the mouth of the valley, so it must be inside this valley."
The two old Daoists didn’t fly through the air because, until the target exposed itself, the Thunder Seed’s sensing range for Evil Qi remained limited.
Taoist Fang De held a machete, and Taoist Wu Zhi held a sickle. The two navigated slowly through the valley’s dense forest, looking just like ordinary mountain foragers.
"There are tracks on the ground."
"Looks like the drag marks of a snake."
"Good heavens, it must be over a meter thick!"
"It’s a big one!"
Chatting as they walked, the two quickly passed through the dense forest and arrived at a deep pool far inside the valley. The drag marks on the ground came to an abrupt halt right at the water’s edge.
Taoist Wu Zhi crouched down and picked up a broken Longevity Lock from the mud at his feet. "This is the place."
Taoist Fang De sent a sliver of his Divine Thought to the bottom of the lake. In the blink of an eye, he spotted a massive python coiled in the depths.
The giant python was a meter and a half thick and over a hundred meters long, with a head the size of a small car. Its back was patterned with alternating black and brown stripes. Its entire body lay stretched out at the bottom of the lake, completely oblivious to outside threats.
However, just as Taoist Fang De’s Divine Thought probed it and sensed the dense Evil Qi within its body, the massive python clearly sensed the Daoist’s investigation.
Its eyes, each as large as a washbasin, snapped open. Its entire body shot upward like a coiled spring.
BOOM! The lake water exploded.
Even larger than the monster in the Hollywood movie Anaconda, this giant snake—looking like a monstrous serpent straight out of a domestic web movie—revealed its true form right before the two old Daoists.
"With such dense Demon Qi, why hasn’t it undergone Transformation yet?" Taoist Wu Zhi asked curiously.
"HISS...
"Why would I bother with Transformation? Eating humans like this is the most satisfying!
"You two old geezers, your meat might be a bit tough, but I’ll reluctantly force myself to..."
The giant python spoke in the human tongue. But before it could finish, it sensed the Taoist True Qi radiating from the two old Mages—an energy that felt like its absolute natural bane.
The moment they merely circulated their Magical Power, the Demon Power inside the snake retreated in terror as if encountering its natural predator. It shuddered violently within its body, even beginning to show signs of dissipating.
The python’s vertical pupils contracted. Without another word, it instantly dove back into the water to flee.
"Don’t leave yet!" Taoist Wu Zhi chuckled. He pointed a finger, and the churning lake water instantly froze, forming an empty void right beneath the massive python.
Taoist Fang De also asked with a smile, "You’ll force yourself to do what to us?"
While smiling, he enveloped the python with his Divine Sense. Using his thoughts as a shackle, he instantly locked down the beast’s joints, flesh, and blood, then yanked it back.
The massive python felt its entire body go stiff. Its Demon Power crumbled inch by inch. Finding no leverage in the air, its body involuntarily drifted toward the shore.
It wanted to speak, but it couldn’t even let out a hiss.
"Its Dao Practice isn’t as high as I imagined," Taoist Fang De shook his head.
"But its Evil Qi is quite substantial. If it were any stronger, more commoners would have suffered," Taoist Wu Zhi remarked indifferently.
"Makes sense," Taoist Fang De agreed. With a shift of his Divine Sense, an invisible mountain seemed to crash down from the void, crushing the giant python’s Divine Soul to dust.
Just as the Evil Qi was absorbed, a telepathic message from Taoist Qing Ye echoed in both of their Seas of Consciousness.
"The Dream God Sect Leader? The Celestial Illusion Realm?" Taoist Fang De raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."
Taoist Wu Zhi felt the Spiritual Qi feeding back into his body from the Thunder Seed. "Then let’s make Yuezhou our final battle. Once we finish off this Dream God Sect Leader, we should be able to break through. It’ll be the perfect time to return to the palace for secluded cultivation."
Taoist Fang De naturally had no objections. The two activated their Spirit Flying Jade Talismans, soared into the sky, and headed straight north.
Yuezhou.
Once he confirmed that the Dream God Sect was indeed a Cult, that its Sect Leader hadn’t surpassed a thousand years of Dao Practice, that his wife only had six hundred years of Dao Practice, and that they had no other experts, Taoist Qing Ye finally relaxed.
There was no need to call in the top experts. Just rallying a few more newly joined fellow Daoists would be more than enough to take down the Dream God Sect!
Therefore, besides Taoist Fang De and Taoist Wu Zhi, he also summoned his peers: Taoist Gu He of the Fengyue Sect, along with Taoist Zi Hui and Taoist Zi Ting from Qingcheng Mountain.
Taoist Gu He was the disciple of Taoist Jing Feng, while Taoist Zi Hui and Taoist Zi Ting were juniors to Taoist Yan Song and the others.
Because the three senior Daoists of Qingcheng Mountain’s "Yan" generation and Taoist Jing Feng were always fighting high-level battles, they couldn’t bring Taoist Gu He and the others along to farm experience all the time. However, even occasionally letting them get a taste of the action allowed the three to improve rapidly, closely trailing Taoist Qing Ye’s group without falling too far behind.
At the same time, three "Shi" generation Daoists from Zhenwu Mountain, Taoist Xiu Jing and Taoist Xiu Ji from the Baopu Taoist School, Taoist Long Qin of the Wu Province Shangqing Sect, Taoist Hong Hai of the Qingwei Sect, Taoist Zhi Hua of the Celestial Master’s Mansion, and Taoist Cheng Ping of the Spiritual Treasure Sect had all arrived.
A group of sixteen Daoists marched aggressively toward Yuezhou’s Jade Plate Prefecture.
A few days later, the headquarters of the Dream God Sect in Jade Plate Prefecture was replaced with a plaque reading "Daluo Palace Branch."
Yang Yi, who had followed the old Daoists and watched them fight from beginning to end, was still dizzy from the whole ordeal.
What an incredibly ferocious Daluo Palace!
They had started slaughtering their way in from the outskirts of the Dream God Sect. Taoist Qing Ye and two other old Daoists, Fang De and Wu Zhi, experienced breakthroughs mid-battle. Not only did they withstand the Dream God Sect Leader and his wife, but they also quickly gained the upper hand.
Aside from them, the rest of the Daluo Palace Mages engaged in a completely one-sided massacre against the Dream God Sect disciples.
A middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and large eyes summoned two eerie Divine Prisons with a simple raise of his hand, unleashing over a dozen Ghost Generals to wreak havoc.
Two seemingly carefree and calm Daoists gathered clouds and summoned winds, sweeping everything in all directions.
Three sword-wielding Daoists darted back and forth across the battlefield; no enemy could last even three exchanges against them.
The rest of the Mages also displayed their unique abilities. Some cast the Flowing Gold Fire Bell, some gathered explosive Thunderbolts, some summoned Golden Armor Divine Generals, and some revealed the Five-Colored Divine Light.
They slaughtered the Dream God Sect until their enemies abandoned their armor and fled in complete defeat. Meanwhile, another local sect in Jade Plate Prefecture locked its doors tightly and went into seclusion, too terrified to show its face.
The Dream God Sect Leader and his wife attempted to flee to the Southern Border. However, one was trapped by Taoist Qing Ye’s Five-Colored Divine Light, while the other was pinned down by the combined efforts of Taoist Fang De and Taoist Wu Zhi.
After routing the enemy, the other Daoists joined forces with Taoist Qing Ye’s trio to set up the Eight Trigrams Array. Following a fierce battle that lasted a full day and night, they managed to slay both the Dream God Sect Leader and his wife.
The other sect in Jade Plate Prefecture hadn’t committed grave evils and lacked significant Evil Qi. The old Daoists merely paid them a visit for a chat and a verbal warning, opting not to conveniently wipe them out as well.
This made Yang Yi sigh in relief, feeling that the people of Daluo Palace weren’t impossible to reason with after all.
Meanwhile, Gu Zhao also received news of the breakthroughs achieved by Taoist Qing Ye, Taoist Fang De, and Taoist Wu Zhi.
"Since you’re free now, take a trip back to Blue Star. I have something here that requires your help," Gu Zhao sent them a telepathic message.
"What is it?" Taoist Qing Ye quickly asked.
Gu Zhao replied, "A few typhoons are forming over the ocean and heading straight for the coast. The winds are quite strong, so I plan to disperse them in advance."