Ink Painting, leading a large white dog, entered the disciples’ residence openly and grandly, causing a stir among the disciples along the way.

“Little senior brother, according to sect rules, disciples are not allowed to raise spirit pets…”

“This is not a spirit pet,” Ink Painting corrected. “This is the big dog the Sect Master uses to guard the gate; I borrowed it.”

“The Sect Master…”

A crowd of disciples stared with their mouths agape. They thought to themselves, “You said you have no background, but you can just borrow the Sect Master’s dog? Even the Old Ancestor’s own grandson wouldn’t get this treatment…”

The crowd whispered amongst themselves.

The big white dog then held its head high and puffed out its chest.

When following Ink Painting, it had been trotting along happily.

But now, entering the disciples’ residence and being surrounded by a group of disciples, this big white dog was extremely arrogant, holding its head high and looking at everyone from under its eyelids.

Indeed, just like “the Sect Master’s dog.”

“Little senior brother, what did you borrow this dog for?” a disciple asked curiously.

“I have something important,” Ink Painting said seriously.

“Something important?” The crowd was puzzled.

Ink Painting couldn’t explain it to them properly.

Tonight was the night the demons were sending “takeout,” and this big dog was invited to “feast” with him.

It was getting late, and he had to hurry and prepare.

Seeing the crowd still asking questions, Ink Painting put on a stern face. “Have you all finished your array homework?”

The disciples felt guilty and immediately scattered in a rush.

Ink Painting shook his head, then took the big white dog to Yu’er’s room.

Wenren Wei’s expression was clearly a little astonished.

“Young Master Mo, this is…”

Ink Painting solemnly said: “I have a premonition that Yu’er might be in danger tonight. Perhaps demons will invade his dream sea in the middle of the night, so I need to guard him beforehand… I specially brought this big dog to guard the door.”

Wenren Wei’s expression changed upon hearing this. “Really?”

Ink Painting nodded. “Really.”

Because these demons were all summoned by him.

Wenren Wei nodded slightly, but still seemed a little confused. “This dog…”

What did demons invading have to do with a dog?

Ink Painting then said: “This is the Sect Master’s dog, it’s very powerful!”

The Taixu Sect Sect Master…

Wenren Wei’s expression turned serious; he was indeed bluffed by Ink Painting.

He nodded. “I understand.”

The Taixu Sect Sect Master’s dog was definitely not an ordinary dog.

Moreover, after these days of interaction, he already trusted Ink Painting very much.

The things Ink Painting said, especially matters concerning Young Master Yu, were almost always as if he could see the future, never making a mistake.

Young Master Yu’er being able to be safe and healthy, lively and cheerful like this, was all thanks to Ink Painting’s care.

Since Young Master Mo said this dog was of great use, there must be a special reason.

Wenren Wei solemnly said: “I appreciate your efforts, Young Master Mo. If there is anything you need, please feel free to ask.”

Ink Painting smiled. “Thank you, Uncle Wei.”

After that, he naturally and smoothly gave instructions to Wenren Wei.

He told Wenren Wei to guard the door carefully, to be careful, and to pay attention to certain things. He didn’t tire of repeating himself.

Wenren Wei carefully and meticulously remembered Ink Painting’s words, not daring to be negligent in the slightest, and then diligently performed his duty, guarding the door.

Ink Painting then led the big white dog into the room.

Yu’er was still seriously studying arrays in the room.

When he saw Ink Painting, his eyes lit up involuntarily. However, when he saw the big white dog following behind Ink Painting, his expression was again somewhat astonished, and besides surprise, there was also a faint hint of fear.

And when the big white dog saw the small Yu’er, it was also stunned for a moment. Subsequently, it almost instinctively glared fiercely at Yu’er, baring its teeth and growling softly.

Yu’er became more afraid and hid behind Ink Painting.

Ink Painting quickly pressed down on the big white dog’s head with his hand. “Behave yourself.”

The big white dog, with its head pressed down by Ink Painting, didn’t dare to act recklessly, but it still glared angrily at Yu’er.

Ink Painting frowned, a little strange.

This big dog, although its attitude towards others was not good, in situations where it wasn’t provoked, it at most just looked down on people, showing disdain.

But why, upon encountering Yu’er, did it act like it was seeing an enemy, its gaze fierce?

Could it be…

Ink Painting’s expression was thoughtful, but after a moment, he shook his head again.

In any case, this wasn’t good. He had brought it here to help him cover his tracks and protect Yu’er.

If it wasn’t sensible and hurt Yu’er in a fit of anger, wouldn’t that be shooting himself in the foot?

Seeing the big white dog that he was “suppressing” by pressing its head, still having hostility in its eyes, Ink Painting approached it and whispered:

“Do you still want to eat a big meal?”

The big white dog was startled, the anger in its eyes retreated, a little confused.

Ink Painting pointed at Yu’er. “Whether you can eat your fill depends entirely on him. If you don’t pay attention to your attitude, not only will you not get anything to eat this time, but you will also only starve in the future.”

The big white dog was a little bewildered, but then sensibly nodded.

Although it still didn’t quite understand the cause and effect, for the sake of Ink Painting and the “big meal,” it at least restrained itself a bit and didn’t dare to be fierce towards Yu’er anymore.

Ink Painting was still somewhat satisfied.

After that, he began to set up arrays.

First, near the walls, he set up some Divine Fog Arrays, used to shield against spiritual sense perception.

This was to prevent the later movements from being detected and attracting unnecessary prying.

It was also to shield a bit of karma and prevent Master Tu or other minions of evil gods from making small moves to scheme against him.

And in the inner room, with Yu’er as the center, Ink Painting set up a total of three layers of Divine Path Arrays.

The outermost layer was the Divine Gate Array.

The Divine Gate Array was a gate for divine thoughts.

All the nightmare demons invading Yu’er through karma nodes and sin locks would be blocked outside the door by this Divine Gate Array.

The only gap in the gate was Ink Painting.

In this way, all invading demons, if they wanted to assault Yu’er’s nightmare, would first follow the Divine Gate and enter Ink Painting’s sea of consciousness, thereby becoming his “food.”

But this time there were too many demons, and one layer of Divine Gate Array might not be able to defend against all of them.

Therefore, Ink Painting set up a second layer of Divine Gate.

This Divine Gate was guarded by the big white dog.

The big white dog’s strength, capable of exchanging blows with him, was beyond doubt.

All the leaked demons would enter the big white dog’s mouth.

It would be like throwing a meat bun at a dog; they would go but never return.

And the innermost layer was a tight Divine Lock Array, heavily surrounding Yu’er and protecting him in the center.

These three layers of carefully constructed Divine Path Arrays were like three solid dikes.

Ink Painting personally guarded the door, with the big white dog at the rear. One person and one dog, guarding strictly, waiting to welcome the approaching flood of demons.

Time passed bit by bit.

Soon, the sun set, and night fell.

Ink Painting burned incense, coaxed Yu’er to sleep, and then sat in meditation alone on a cushion at the Divine Gate, closing his eyes to nourish his spirit.

The big white dog strictly followed Ink Painting’s instructions and lay on another cushion not far away.

On the ground, dense array patterns had been drawn by Ink Painting.

The atmosphere was quiet, only the candle flame swayed slightly.

After an unknown amount of time, the big white dog, with its head drooping on the ground and looking a little bored, suddenly opened its eyes, its eyes showing some shock.

Ink Painting, who was in meditation, also slowly opened his eyes, his eyes slightly bright.

The thing he had been waiting for a long time had finally arrived!

A gloomy wind suddenly arose in the room, the air was cold and pressing, and a dark and oppressive aura came.

Something seemed to be breeding in the darkness.

And in Ink Painting’s deep eyes, interwoven with black, white, and gold, strange and evil heavenly patterns appeared in the room, half filthy, half bloody, black and red interwoven, like a spider web, derived from the void, spreading on the walls.

The branches of the Divine Right Tree, like chains of karma, appeared again.

On the branches, black water condensed, bearing fruit without flowers, forming embryos.

And the demons, commanded and summoned by the authority he had stolen, hatched from these embryos, one after another.

Demons with ox heads and horse faces, human bodies and demon heads, deformed and strangely shaped, their gazes blood-red, crawled out of the void one by one, struggling.

The big white dog stared with wide eyes.

Its body still retained divine beast bloodline; it was an extremely special异 beast.

Things that ordinary cultivators couldn’t see, it could see.

But even so, it had never seen so many demons and ghosts in its life.

Like a child who had not seen the world, seeing the world’s prosperity for the first time.

Its saliva even flowed down.

The atmosphere was gloomy, demons were everywhere, blood aura filled the air, and the atmosphere was extremely cold and oppressive.

Ink Painting, however, smiled faintly.

As if detecting Ink Painting’s contempt, countless demons, their gazes ferocious, roared, turning into fearsome stench winds, surging towards Ink Painting together…

“Finally, the feast has begun…”

At the same time, in the forbidden ground of Taixu Sect.

The long-bearded old man sitting dry in the sword tomb, sealed by heavy arrays, also suddenly opened his eyes.

“Finally, they have come again…”

He had waited for a long time.

He had been waiting for this day.

He wanted to see what exactly was this thing that had repeatedly stirred up trouble in Taixu Sect, summoning demons and gathering magic.

Was it a demon-swallowing异 beast?

Was it the leader of evil spirits?

Or was it an evil demon cultivating magic arts with ulterior motives, intending to plot against Taixu Sect?

He had endured for a long time. This time, whether it was an evil demon or a petty trick, they would have nowhere to hide!

Gold light flashed in the long-bearded old man’s eyes.

A path that had solidified, crystallized, feathered, and then shattered, like a void sword shape, flickered in his eyes.

The vast and mighty spiritual sense of the Cave Void realm, carrying astonishing sword intent, swept over Taixu Mountain.

But this path of sword intent was too deep, ordinary disciples were fundamentally unaware.

Only the Cave Void Old Ancestor and a few extraordinary geniuses, Feathered cultivators in the middle or late stage with keen spiritual sense, could perceive it.

Upon detecting this stock of spiritual sense, everyone’s color changed, and cold sweat seeped into their hearts.

This was spiritual sense turned into a sword’s spiritual sense, carrying extremely sharp sword intent itself. Fortunately, it was just a simple sweep. If it had been with killing intent, like a divine sword sweeping across Taixu Mountain, who knew how many disciples on the entire mountain would have died or been injured.

“It’s from the forbidden ground… Old Ancestor Dugu…”

“What happened?”

“Could it be… Old Ancestor’s Dao Heart has cracked again?”

“Unstable spiritual sense?”

“Bad…”

“Previously, Old Ancestor would occasionally sweep his spiritual sense over Taixu Mountain, but it wasn’t like this today, the spiritual sense is so swift, and it’s still carrying a stock of anger…”

“The array sealing Old Ancestor? Could it have failed? It couldn’t suppress his evil thoughts…”

For a time, from Feathered and above, the true high-level cultivators of Taixu Sect were all worried.

Taixu Sect Master, who was reading classics in the book pavilion, was no exception.

But besides being solemn, his expression was also a little puzzled.

Old Ancestor Dugu willingly sealed himself and guarded the sword tomb for so many years, always peaceful. There haven’t been any major incidents recently, so why did he suddenly release such astonishing spiritual sense?

The always composed Taixu Sect Master couldn’t help but frown at this time.

He put down the jade slip, flicked his sleeve, extinguished the lamp, then stepped out of the book pavilion. Just as he was about to walk out, he was suddenly startled, and turned his head to look in the direction of the disciples’ residence.

If there was really something, it was only one relatively special small matter…

It was the异 beast Ink Painting borrowed from him.

Ink Painting suddenly borrowed the异 beast, and the Taixu Sect Master was also a little curious in his heart, so he quietly released his spiritual sense, following Ink Painting into the disciples’ residence, wanting to see exactly what Ink Painting wanted to do.

Later, he saw that Ink Painting had brought the异 beast into the room of the Shangguan family’s direct descendant child named “Yu’er.”

The Taixu Sect Master slightly understood in his heart.

Divine beasts exorcise evil.

An异 beast with a portion of divine beast bloodline could similarly exorcise evil spirits.

He had brought this异 beast into Taixu Sect from his family with this idea in mind.

Ink Painting, this child, had a clever mind and strong spiritual sense. Perhaps he had also detected the characteristics of this异 beast for driving away evil and exorcising spirits, so he thought of borrowing this异 beast to protect that child of the Shangguan family.

As a disciple, to muster the courage to borrow something from the Sect Master, and the purpose is to protect others.

Ink Painting, this child, indeed had a good character…

The Taixu Sect Master felt relieved and did not plan to inquire further into this matter.

But at this time, inside Taixu Sect, the spiritual sense of the Old Ancestor from the back mountain suddenly unsheathed. Subconsciously, he actually felt that these two things seemed to be somehow related.

But after thinking carefully, the Taixu Sect Master shook his head again.

What kind of world-shattering matter could a Foundation Building realm disciple cause to provoke the Old Ancestor from the back mountain?

Moreover, this position might not be a general Old Ancestor…

If this Old Ancestor came out of the mountain, the entire Qian Xue state would be shaken.

The divine sense turned into a sword to great success, even in the Cave Void realm, there were fundamentally few people who dared to receive his sword.

Thinking of this, the Taixu Sect Master’s heart became heavier. He urged his movement technique and came to the elders’ residence to visit Old Master Xun.

But as soon as he stepped in, he found that almost all the elders above the Feathered realm in Taixu Sect were present.

The crowd exchanged greetings and explained their intentions.

Old Master Xun furrowed his brow and then said: “Don’t worry, the seal is fine, Senior Brother… should also not have any major obstacles. I will go to the back mountain to see; you all just stay here and don’t make a big deal of it.”

“Old Master, perhaps…” The crowd was worried.

Old Master Xun was uneasy in his heart, but still waved his hand: “No harm.”

After speaking, he drew in the air with his fingers, tearing open a void crack, and went to the back mountain through this crack.

Arriving at the forbidden ground, stepping into the sword tomb, Old Master Xun saw the long-bearded old man. He couldn’t help but guard his expression, sizing up that proud and sharp but also damaged like a sword, lonely like a tomb figure.

After a moment, Old Master Xun relaxed his breath, put down his heart, and slowly opened his mouth:

“Senior Brother…”

The long-bearded old man said: “Why have you come?”

Old Master Xun was helpless: “Senior Brother, haven’t I told you before, divine sense cannot be easily used…”

The long-bearded old man’s gaze sank slightly.

He had originally wanted a quick battle and a quick decision, not restraining the power of his spiritual sense. He only needed to sweep Taixu Mountain once to spy out the whereabouts of that petty trick.

But unexpectedly, under this sweep, he gained nothing.

The long-bearded old man speculated that it was definitely that petty trick secretly giving birth to “disaster,” who had concealed his aura and shielded the perception of spiritual sense with some means—probably some kind of array.

This door of array was extremely clever.

He hadn’t anticipated that with a rough sweep, he would be deceived.

But he was in the Cave Void realm, with powerful spiritual sense. These means could not deceive him. He only needed to release his spiritual sense and sweep again, and he could definitely spy out the flaw and drag out the mastermind behind the scenes.

But just as he was thinking about using his spiritual sense to search Taixu Mountain again, someone came to the door.

Old Master Xun earnestly advised:

“Senior Brother, your situation, you yourself know clearly in your heart. Your divine soul… cannot withstand a bit of setback. Your divine sense, also cannot be used easily again.

“Moreover, your divine thought is the divine thought cultivated from the true formula of turning divine thought into a sword. Once it is in chaos, the sword intent will be out of control, and the consequences will be unthinkable.”

The long-bearded old man was silent and did not speak.

Old Master Xun suddenly realized something and frowned:

“Senior Brother, is it… has something changed in the sect?”

Based on his understanding of this senior brother, unless there was a change in the sect or an emergency situation, he would absolutely not release his spiritual sense so arbitrarily.

The long-bearded old man’s gaze slightly condensed. He had originally wanted to speak, but in the end, he still didn’t say it out.

He had a proud temperament and a stubborn temper. His own matters, he always didn’t like to entrust to others.

What’s more, the inside story of this matter, he himself had not yet figured out.

And this junior brother of his, with a full head of white hair, had already worked hard enough for the sect.

The long-bearded old man only faintly said: “Nothing…”

Then he closed his eyes and did not utter a word.

Old Master Xun saw the situation and felt a little helpless, but it was good that Senior Brother had no major obstacles and the sword tomb was also normal.

Old Master Xun relaxed his breath, tore open the void again, and left with a void escape method.

Returning to the elders’ residence, Old Master Xun then said to the crowd: “No harm, Senior Brother may be tired, and for a moment was careless, didn’t suppress his spiritual sense, it’s not a big matter…”

The crowd heard this and all felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

“That’s good…”

“False alarm…”

“All disperse,” Old Master Xun said.

“Then, Old Master, we bid farewell.”

The Taixu Sect Master saluted and then left with the crowd.

In the room, only Old Master Xun was left.

Old Master Xun stood for a moment, his eyes showing thought. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he felt. There must be some situation that his senior brother was concealing from him.

But since Senior Brother didn’t say it, it was impossible for him to ask.

Moreover…

Old Master Xun looked at the bookcase, which was piled high with various jade slips and documents, as well as flying sword messages.

The compass had also only been deduced halfway…

After the sect reform Dao Discussion Assembly, less than a year had passed, and there were surging undercurrents on all sides, the situation was complex.

And this Dao Discussion Assembly very possibly concerned the rise and fall, survival, of Taixu Sect.

There were really too many matters; there were many things he fundamentally had no time to attend to…

Old Master Xun sighed deeply, sat down again, buried himself in the endless messages from the jade slips, and from this complicated cause and effect, he deduced that trace of precious vitality…

And in the forbidden ground of the back mountain.

After Old Master Xun left, the long-bearded old man opened his eyes again.

He still hadn’t given up.

Everything his junior brother said was right, but this matter, he still had to investigate.

He even had a premonition that this was very possibly the last chance.

If he didn’t investigate the truth of this demon karma clearly at this time, he didn’t know when the next time would be.

But the long-bearded old man’s heart was also clear that he could no longer release his spiritual sense on a large scale.

He couldn’t make too much movement, couldn’t disturb others, and his own divine thought couldn’t have any more mishaps.

Therefore, he could only extremely secretly release a small stock of spiritual sense, completely unnoticed, and start searching from the back mountain to the front mountain.

Only in this way would the speed be much slower.

In the disciples’ residence, inside Yu’er’s room.

The unaware Ink Painting was “greedily devouring.”