The lieutenants carried the two men up the slope.
With such a commotion, the deputy generals were likely on their way, but it had ended too quickly—so fast that it felt surreal.
Sure enough, as soon as they reached the top, they saw Hong Lei and Zhao Kanglin rushing over with dozens of men.
"What happened?" Hong Lei's eyelids twitched.
"There was a big incident... but now it's nothing," Wang Meng replied, finding it hard to explain the situation to the deputy general in just a few words.
He continued carrying the men while walking up.
The lieutenants chattered excitedly about sword auras and dark blades...
It took Hong Lei a while to piece together what had happened.
His expression turned complicated.
In truth, when he saw the severely injured Dai Bing, he had already guessed part of the story.
But he couldn't quite understand it.
He had specifically instructed Shen Yi to keep an eye on her.
How had things turned out like this? And to make matters worse, there was also a man in an attendant's uniform tied up with her.
The attendants of Qingfeng Mountain were no pushovers.
Even he would have a hard time dealing with them.
"Deputy General, what should we do with them?" Wang Meng placed the men on the ground.
Hearing this, Zhao Kanglin coldly said, "These are troubled times. No need to follow protocol. It's a waste of manpower to guard them. This person nearly got his comrades killed. Since he's a traitor, just execute him!"
Hong Lei frowned and glanced at him, then turned back and asked, "Is Shen Yi injured?"
Wang Meng opened his mouth, "Uh... probably not. Lord Shen seemed quite at ease."
He thought carefully for a moment, then nodded with certainty.
"Nonsense!" Zhao Kanglin scoffed.
Fighting one against two couldn't possibly be as easy as these low-level martial artists made it sound.
Hong Lei ignored him and looked at the three cloud patterns on Dai Bing's sleeve.
How many demons had she killed, how many lives had she saved to earn those? Moreover, Shen Yi had managed to injure the two of them so severely.
He could have easily finished them off, but instead, he left them alive, tied them up, and brought them here.
Perhaps there was another meaning behind it.
He sighed and said in a deep voice, "They're practically beaten to death. What's the point of guarding them? Let them be. If they're lucky enough to survive, we'll take them back to the Demon-Suppression Division for judgment."
Hearing this, Dai Bing, who was lying on the ground barely alive, glanced at her senior brother and swallowed the blood in her mouth.
The two exchanged a look, their lips curling into a bitter smile.
Though the young man had personally cut off their escape route, they had to thank him for being ruthless enough to leave them alive—for now.
"Stubborn fools, clinging to those useless rules. You'll never achieve anything great in your life," Zhao Kanglin sneered.
The higher-ups said to hold the line, and Hong Lei actually stayed put.
If he had known this would happen, why bother calling these people over?
Seeing that they completely ignored his words, Zhao Kanglin snorted coldly, "Where's Shen Yi? Such a big incident happened, why hasn't he come to report?"
The lieutenants, who had been holding back their anger for a while, instinctively wanted to retort.
But then they saw Shen Yi walking up the slope.
Judging by his expression, he didn't seem injured at all—it didn't even look like he had just been in a fight.
Seeing this, Zhao Kanglin's face twitched, and a hint of fear flashed in his eyes.
The lieutenants' words were actually true.
Thinking this, he silently turned his back.
Hong Lei smiled with admiration and cupped his hands, "Brother Shen, impressive skills."
Such a talented young man made him, an old man, feel somewhat ashamed.
Shen Yi walked to his side and, after a moment of thought, reminded him, "They're probably going to make a move on the mountain soon."
"Huh?" Hong Lei's gesture of cupping his hands paused, and he instinctively replied, "It's just an attendant who's desperate. Brother Shen, you don't need to be so cautious. General Chen..."
Halfway through his sentence, his square face showed a flash of shock.
If the attendant had fled under the cover of night, it meant he disagreed with the higher-ups.
The Sword of Wrath Elder was on the cliff, yet he hadn't stopped him.
If the entire Qingfeng Sect was falling apart, could it be that the sect leader was really going to defy the world?
Whether the disciples of Qingfeng Mountain united to resist the Demon-Suppression Division or surrendered the disciple, the pressure would be on the peak.
But if the higher-ups wanted to protect someone while the lower ranks wanted to flee, wouldn't their group, originally tasked with guarding the gorge, have to face the backlash of nearly half the sect's disciples?
Thinking this, Hong Lei gritted his teeth, "Thank you for the reminder!"
He snatched a torch from someone nearby and walked to an open area.
Using the enhanced vision of the Jade Liquid Realm, he looked up at the cliff.
The Sword of Wrath Elder, who had been sitting cross-legged, had now stood up.
He pulled out the wooden hairpin from his head, and his sparse silver hair fell loosely over his shoulders.
His cloudy eyes showed no emotion, yet they strangely held a deep anger—not as a feeling, but as something he had deliberately accumulated.
The old man looked down, his gaze falling on the Qingfeng Mountain attendant.
Seeing that his disciple still had a breath of life left, he sighed softly.
The anger in his eyes was just a hair's breadth from being fully charged, yet it couldn't completely take over.
"Didn't you say you severely injured him?" Hong Lei shouted at Zhao Kanglin.
"I... I did injure him," Zhao Kanglin replied, lacking confidence.
The Sword of Wrath Elder's aura now was even sharper than at his peak.
"What's the rush? If he dares to come down, we'll set up the Demon-Suppression Formation. He won't make it back alive."
Though Zhao Kanglin seemed unreliable, his words weren't empty.
The deputy generals of the Demon-Suppression Division had access to top-tier martial arts and precious medicines.
Even against disciples of a major sect like Qingfeng Mountain, they were more than a match.
With two mid-level Jade Liquid Realm deputy generals guarding the area and dozens of lieutenants forming a formation, taking down an aged and weakened Sword of Wrath Elder shouldn't be a problem.
What worried Hong Lei was... judging by the old man's expression, if he wasn't insane and seeking death, then the Sword-Viewing Gorge, the least suitable place for escape, might have become the breakout point for these sect disciples.
"Shen Yi, listen to my orders," Hong Lei turned and pulled out an iron token from his waist.
"Take my verbal command, in the name of the commander of Sword-Viewing Gorge, and summon the eight deputy generals. Remember, be quick and cautious!"
Shen Yi looked up.
This was only his second mission, and while he could offer advice, he wasn't arrogant enough to think his judgment was more accurate than that of a seasoned general.
His cultivation at the peak of the Jade Liquid Realm wasn't weak, but in a situation like this, it wasn't enough to single-handedly turn the tide.
It certainly couldn't compare to the combined strength of eight deputy generals.
He reached out to take the token, but someone else snatched it first.
Zhao Kanglin gritted his teeth, "I'm injured. Let me go."
Hearing this, Shen Yi remained calm, but the lieutenants nearby clenched their teeth and looked away.
Hong Lei glared at this spoiled brat with frustration.
Zhao Kanglin was the one who commanded the Demon-Suppression Formation, a trump card of the inner camp.
Their outer camp group couldn't handle it.
"Go quickly and come back soon!"
With that, he turned back to look at the cliff.
Fortunately... the old man still needed some time to accumulate his power.
Shen Yi silently watched, but unlike Hong Lei, he didn't seem relieved.
With his keen vision, he could see that behind the Sword of Wrath Elder, far up the cliff, a group of disciples with weak auras was slowly approaching the edge.
Some were at the initial stage, and some hadn't even completed their mortal cultivation.
(End of Chapter)