Young Noble Be Monster Slaying-Chapter 881: Looking Westward (I)

Deep within a dense forest over two thousand li from the capital of Yu, there were two people running frantically.

"I don't think the soldiers are still chasing after us."

Realizing that, the two people finally came to a halt. Each one leaned against a tree, slumping down to the ground opposite each other.

As they sat in the mottled shade of the trees, the sunlight faintly illuminated their figures. It turned out they were two women who looked extremely alike.

The woman on the left looked a little more mature. She retained traces of a noble bearing, but her facial features were unremarkable.

The woman on the right was thinner, with a sharper, more intense presence. She was currently gazing off into the distance with furrowed brows.

Both women were clad in ash-gray prison garb. Their hair was messy, and their faces were grimy; they looked quite miserable.

These two women were Xiao Wuyin and Xiao Wuyan, the sisters who had escaped from the Celestial Northern Prison. Due to the emperor's explicit order to keep them alive, a special escort squad had been assigned to transport them out of the prison during the battle against the demon kings of the Far West. During the chaos, the sisters seized the opportunity to overpower the guards and escape from the prison.

After living behind fake faces for so many years, the sisters could now finally use their real faces. Compared to the numerous fake faces they had once worn, their real faces were far less eye-catching... In fact, they looked so ordinary that if they were to walk into a bustling street now, no one would even give them a second glance. Their real faces were perfect for fugitives.

"Those damn imperial hounds... who knows what other powerful cards they have up their sleeves," Xiao Wuyan said furiously. "We need to contact the Celestial Master as soon as possible. Once we've gathered the forces of the Celestial Charm Sect, we'll turn the capital of Yu upside down and pay them back for imprisoning us..."

As she spoke, she noticed a hesitant look on her sister's face.

"What is it?" Xiao Wuyan asked. "Big Sis, do you have other ideas?"

Xiao Wuyin frowned and spoke gently. "Wuyan... now that the Demon God has revived, the world is bound to descend into chaos. I doubt the imperial court will have the time to keep pursuing us. Couldn't we just find somewhere quiet and live in peace? Why stir up more trouble?"

"Live in peace?" Xiao Wuyan stood up, looking quite agitated. "Your husband didn't get killed by that teacher-disciple duo from Mount Shu, so of course, you can talk about living in peace. But they beat mine to death. How can I not seek revenge?"

Xiao Wuyin said quietly, "My husband's still alive, but he was the one who had me imprisoned... If we're talking about grudges, I have mine too."

"Hmph." Xiao Wuyan looked into the distance again and scowled. "In any case, I will never be able to live in peace unless I've killed that teacher disciple duo. So, either you help me kill the Mount Shu Sect's Di Nufeng and Chu Liang, and we can retreat together afterward... or you go your own way, and don't bother whether I live or die."

"Wuyan..." Xiao Wuyin sighed in exasperation. "You've been deeply involved in the Celestial Charm Sect all these years, so you can't see what they truly are. The Celestial Master has only ever used us for his own ends. When has he ever shown us a shred of kindness?"

Chilly laughter rang out from beyond the forest. "Haha... If you say that, I'll feel hurt, you know."

"Hm?" The sisters flinched and snapped their gazes toward the source of the voice.

An old man stepped out slowly from within the swaying shadows of the trees. He wore simple gray clothes, with sleeves that had been hacked short. He looked much like a mountain woodcutter living in the mountains. He had a bit of a hunchback, but it was overshadowed by the frighteningly bright glow of his eyes.

"Celestial Master?" Xiao Wuyin recognized him at once and turned to her sister. "Did you send word to him?"

Xiao Wuyan quickly denied it. "I didn't,"

"She didn't call me over. I already knew you would survive today. I followed all the way here. Times of chaos are misfortune for some, but for others, they are a blessing." The Celestial Master smiled. "People like us... thrive in the chaos."

Xiao Wuyin replied calmly, "The Great Dao of Chaos and Separation may be your Great Dao, but it's not necessarily ours."

"It seems that your years in the palace have made you forget your original purpose," the Celestial Master said with a shake of his head. "But no matter. So long as we continue down the same path from now onward, we can let bygones be bygones."

Xiao Wuyin refused him resolutely. "We no longer wish to serve the Celestial Charm Sect."

Glancing at her sister, she added, "At least, I don't."

"You're certainly free to leave. The Celestial Charm Sect never forces obedience," the Celestial Master stated. "But we still share a common goal. Why not work together one more time?"

"What goal?" Xiao Wuyin asked warily with a guarded expression. She knew just how terrifying the man before her truly was.

"Wuyan wants to kill Chu Liang to avenge Yang Bujue. That aligns with our goal. That disciple of the Mount Shu Sect is becoming a bigger threat by the day. If we don't kill him now, he'll soon become unstoppable."

He turned to Xiao Wuyin. "As for you... don't you want your son to ascend the throne and live an easy and prosperous life as emperor?"

Xiao Wuyin had been ready to rebut him, but the mention of her son left her words stuck in her throat.

If there was anything in this world she still held dear, it was her son, the crown prince. He was her only weakness.

Seeing that he had struck a nerve, the Celestial Master smiled in satisfaction. "The mortal world is in a troubled state. We must act now if we're to help him. Otherwise, not just the Yu Dynasty but all humanity may become enslaved."

"You want peace for the Yu Dynasty?" Xiao Wuyin's tone grew sharper, sensing the Celestial Master's ulterior motive. "Isn't that precisely what you've been trying to destroy?"

"For there to be peace, there must first be chaos," the Celestial Master said darkly. "The former is what you seek... but the latter is what I desire."

...

Aboard the airship, Lin Bei gazed at the boundless clouds ahead and voiced his doubts. "The world is on the brink of descending into utter chaos. The Yu Dynasty, the Divine Nine, and the Terrestrial Ten are all in danger. And now the demons say all they want is the Western Regions? That sounds way too good to be true."

This was a ninth-realm Demon God that they were talking about. Lin Bei wasn't the only one who felt that way; many in the cultivation world held a grim view of the future. Ordinary people might still dream that the cultivators could triumph again. However, those aware of what had happened in the battle at the Celestial Northern Prison knew just how hard it would be to subdue a ninth-realm being without the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.

A broad-browed and bright-eyed middle-aged man was standing behind Lin Bei. He was Li Chengfeng, a celestial official of the Imperial Supervisory Bureau.

A sharp glint flashed in Li Chengfeng's eyes as he remarked, "Everyone knows deals like that don't come free. Give them the Western Regions today, give up the Western Continent tomorrow, and it'll be the Northern Regions after that.

"As long as the Demon God is still alive, we'll never be able to lift our heads again. She's only going to keep getting stronger. Sooner or later, we'll have to hand over all of the four seas and nine provinces. This mortal world will become a paradise for demons."

"When the time comes, we'll have to call this world the Demon World," Lin Bei muttered.

"So the imperial court... has no intention of having the peace talks?" Chu Liang asked.

He was shouldering the heavy responsibility of being the peace envoy of the Divine Nine and the Terrestrial Ten.

Venerable Wen Yuan had originally wanted to send several powerful cultivators with him, but Chu Liang had said that if Tuntun didn't protect him, then even eighth-realm experts would be useless. However, if he did have her protection, which demon king would dare touch him?

So, Chu Liang brought just one person with him—Lin Bei, a genius at diplomacy. Then they set off on Lin Bei's airship.

The imperial court dispatched Li Chengfeng, the white-robed sword immortal from the Imperial Supervisory Bureau, and National Master Qu Hu to accompany Chu Liang. It showed just how seriously they were taking the peace talks with the demons of the Far West and the Demon God.

This was the first time the humans had sent a group of representatives on a diplomatic mission to the Far West in three thousand years, and that group consisted solely of these four people: Chu Liang, Lin Bei, Li Chengfeng, and Qu Hu.