Hearing Wusitu's new demand, Ting Bixiao's brow furrowed before Li Yan could even speak.
The Wood Essence Pool was their clan's sacred land, and the decision indeed couldn't be his alone.
However, as long as the five of them, all Golden Core cultivators, agreed, it meant all branches had no objections. There was no need to inform the other disciples.
Now, with two branches eliminated, it only required the agreement of the three of them. Yet Wusitu was escalating the matter, stirring up trouble.
He was about to intervene when Li Yan, opposite him, had already given a slight nod.
"I have no objection to that either. I leave it to your discretion!"
How could Li Yan not understand Wusitu's intention? He wanted to humiliate him and Zhao Min in front of a crowd.
He didn't know why Wusitu was targeting him like this, but he figured that if he didn't agree, Wusitu would just find some other excuse.
In that case, he might as well use the proposed terms to shut the man up. All Li Yan wanted now was to get into the Wood Essence Pool as soon as possible, without any further complications.
Seeing that Li Yan had already agreed, the words on the tip of Ting Bixiao's tongue were swallowed back down.
By now, Wusitu had reached the entrance of the main hall. Without a word of farewell to anyone, his figure quickly vanished from sight.
"You two may also go back for now. I still have some matters to discuss with Fellow Daoist Zhang and the others!" Ting Bixiao waved his hand at Ting Shan and A Guxi, indicating that they too could leave.
A Guxi had been wanting to leave for a while. His only purpose here was to verify Li Yan and the other's identities.
He hadn't dared to interject in the subsequent events. Hearing the dismissal, he immediately stood up and bowed slightly to the figures above.
Ting Shan also cupped his fists towards Li Yan and the others.
"Then I shall take my leave as well. We will meet again tomorrow, hahaha..."
With that, he strode away with A Guxi.
Only after these two had also departed did Ting Bixiao finally speak.
"I imagine Fellow Daoist Zhang has noticed that Wusitu seems to be targeting you. The reason isn't the matter of the Wood Essence Pool. He's just using it as a pretext to cause trouble!"
Li Yan rubbed his chin.
"Is it related to A Guxi and the others' return?"
"Yes. I believe Fellow Daoist Zhang has already learned from A Guxi what has recently transpired in our clan."
"Although many from the two branch lineages that betrayed the Giant Wood Clan were killed, they returned a very long time ago."
"Their bloodlines and intricate relationships have long since spread and intertwined, forming countless connections with the other branch lineages."
"This includes generations of intermarriage and complex personal friendships."
"Wusitu has very deep ties with one of those branch lineages. Since that branch was annihilated, his first target of hatred was naturally A Guxi."
"But with your arrival, he now has a new creditor."
"Of course, he wouldn't dare to bring this matter up openly; doing so would give me a legitimate reason to suppress him."
"However, he can make things difficult for you in other ways. I could, of course, forcibly give you the slots, as you have rightfully earned them."
"But the clan has just lost so many people and is in a state of turmoil. Even I, without any leverage against Wusitu, cannot silence the grievances of some clansmen for the time being."
"At this juncture, if Wusitu were to stir things up further, it could bring disaster upon A Guxi and his group. Their return would not be a homecoming, but a slow walk towards the grave."
"Especially since, after this, our seven clans will immediately discuss how to deal with the Tianlan Clan and rescue our remaining kinsmen. The rear must be stabilized first!" Ting Bixiao said with a grave expression.
"Since this matter concerns me, I will say this: A Guxi's people have died in far greater numbers over the generations. Mortals should not have to bear the punishments of cultivators."
"Fellow Daoist Zhang speaks with great truth. However, Wusitu himself is truly not involved in this matter. For now, this is the only way."
"To be honest, our clan has suffered a great blow this time, but biting the bullet has its merits. My original intention was to wait a hundred years and open the Wood Essence Pool for you two separately. By then, this matter would have faded. But clearly, neither of you is willing to wait!"
"We cannot linger here for that long. We have other arrangements within our sect."
"Tomorrow, if that Wusitu strikes to kill, Clan Head Ting, I will have no choice but to respond with my full strength. Under such circumstances, I may not be able to hold back..."
Li Yan looked at Ting Bixiao. His words were left unfinished, but his meaning was clear.
Ting Bixiao's heart jolted. His gaze shifted to the silent Zhao Min. In his mind, she was the one who would be fighting Wusitu tomorrow.
'Seeing how unconcerned they are, this woman must have a record of fighting a Late-stage Golden Core cultivator. Otherwise, how could she be so calm?'
'What sect do they hail from? I've heard of basically all the Golden Core cultivators from the major sects, but I have no impression of these two at all!'
Ting Bixiao wondered to himself. He had been curious all along about which sect Li Yan and the other hailed from, daring to stroke the whiskers of the Tianlan Clan's tiger.
Although the Tianlan Clan couldn't compare to the super-sects, it was undeniably a first-rate power.
And the northern Tianlan Prairie, he'd heard that cultivators might have gone there to train long, long ago, but the demonic beasts there were extremely scarce. With the sparse spirit qi, rare herbs were practically nonexistent.
The further north one went, the more this was the case. He had rarely heard of anyone going there anymore.
But according to A Guxi's description, they met Zhang Ming in the far northern reaches of the Tianlan Prairie, close to the dreaded, lightning-filled death zone.
Why did they appear there?
Though his mind was racing, he simply shook his head.
"Tomorrow's duel will, at most, result in injuries for both sides. A death will certainly not occur. This, I guarantee on the prosperity of the Giant Wood Clan!"
Seeing Ting Bixiao speak with such certainty, a sharp glint flashed deep in Li Yan's eyes, though his face betrayed no emotion.
Within a courtyard, Li Yan and Zhao Min were seated.
Li Yan retracted his Divine Sense, then with a wave of his large sleeve, several formation flags flew out. With a flash, they submerged themselves into the ground by the courtyard wall.
A semi-spherical gray light shield flickered in the air for a moment before disappearing.
After setting this up, Li Yan immediately used a voice transmission.
"This courtyard only has a simple protective restriction. They haven't tampered with it!"
"You're being so cautious. Did you figure something out?"
"Otherwise, even though that Ting Bixiao is a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator, you wouldn't need to be so polite. With the two of us together, we wouldn't have to fear those three."
"Since they've accepted A Guxi into their clan, they should acknowledge what we've done."
"Knowing your personality, Junior Brother, you might even just snatch it and use it. There's no need to be like this with them!"
Zhao Min replied via voice transmission. A wry smile appeared on Li Yan's face.
"Senior Sister, you really do understand me. There should be a Nascent Soul cultivator in this Giant Wood Clan. I'm almost certain of it!"
"A Nascent Soul cultivator? How did you figure that out?"
Zhao Min was slightly taken aback. A tension entered her aura. If there was truly a Nascent Soul cultivator in the Giant Wood Clan, then their entry had been a risky move.
"No matter. That Nascent Soul senior bears us no ill will. Otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed Ting Bixiao to purge those two branch lineages."
Li Yan smiled. Zhao Min didn't respond, merely watching him quietly.
"The Giant Wood Clan was able to so easily purge two branch lineages, including two Golden Core masters among them. Don't you find that suspicious, Senior Sister?"
Zhao Min tilted her head slightly, her pair of black eyes, set in an ordinary face, shining like stars. Li Yan continued his voice transmission.
"Besides, that Wusitu has deep ties with one of the exterminated branches. If they were to truly move against their own, likely only Ting Bixiao and Ting Shan would act."
"With their skills, it's impossible for them to kill their opponents without suffering any injuries themselves."
"Senior Sister, you must have noticed that none of those three had any injuries on them today. Wusitu's case might be explainable; he might have just gone through the motions or not even acted at all. But Ting Bixiao and the others..."
As the transmission reached this point, Zhao Min understood that Li Yan's deduction was likely correct, though there was still a chance it wasn't.
"Junior Brother, perhaps Ting Bixiao has other unknown methods. It's not impossible that he could capture two Golden Core cultivators by surprise!"
"What Senior Sister says is correct. However, there are other things that support my inference."
"In just a few days, Ting Bixiao not only smoothly purged the dissenters but also got the other six clans to act at the same time."
"Without sufficient evidence, none of this could have happened so easily. What if they had killed the wrong people?"
"You mean a Nascent Soul expert acted directly, captured the two Golden Core cultivators from the Giant Wood Clan who were killed, and then performed a Soul-Searching Art."
"Although a long time has passed, those two branch lineages would still have to guard against the Tianlan Clan going back on their word, so they would have passed down some secrets."
"Even though this might expose their betrayal, they probably thought the clansmen on the Tianlan Prairie were all long dead."
"Weighing the options, they took the risk and chose to pass down some secrets."
"After all, so many years had passed and they were still fine. But this time, under the soul-searching, they had nowhere left to hide!"
Zhao Min's mind also spun rapidly, and she quickly figured out some of the key points.
"Hehehe, Senior Sister, in my view, not only did they perform soul-searching on those two Golden Core cultivators, but they probably did the same to A Guxi, Wusitu, and the others as well."
"That's why Ting Bixiao was able to state with certainty that Wusitu was not involved in the betrayal, which was followed by such a swift and decisive purge!"
Zhao Min nodded slowly. Once one reached the Nascent Soul realm, their methods were countless times more powerful than their own.
Techniques like soul-searching and memory erasure, which seemed troublesome and would leave after-effects in the hands of Golden Core cultivators, could probably be performed by such an expert without the recipient even noticing.
"There's one more thing that convinces me the Giant Wood Clan has a Nascent Soul cultivator: the casual way they admitted to the existence of the Wood Essence Pool."
"According to A Guxi, the Wood Essence Pool has some effect even on Nascent Soul cultivators."
"If the Giant Wood Clan lacked the ability to protect this treasure, they would be trying to hide it, using all sorts of methods to cover it up. How would they dare to speak of it so openly in front of strangers?"
The more Zhao Min listened, the more she felt it made sense. Just from the information he'd gathered over the past few days and the brief conversation they just had, Li Yan had gleaned so much useful intelligence. His mind was truly meticulous to the extreme.
And Li Yan still wasn't finished.
"Senior Sister, did you notice Ting Bixiao's final words earlier?" Li Yan asked, rubbing his nose and letting out a soft laugh.
Zhao Min shot him a sidelong glance.
"What words?"
Normally, she didn't think of herself as slow-witted. On the contrary, she was quite intelligent, certainly more so than most people.
But in front of Li Yan, Zhao Min felt her reactions were a bit slow.
"Ting Bixiao said that tomorrow's duel would certainly not end in death, and he guaranteed it on the prosperity of the Giant Wood Clan..."
"I understand now. To be able to guarantee that a duel between Golden Core cultivators won't result in death, it can only mean there is at least a Nascent Soul realm cultivator observing in secret."
"No matter how fast we move, our final, fatal blow would not be faster than a Nascent Soul cultivator's reaction!"
After Li Yan highlighted the key sentence, Zhao Min immediately understood the reason.
Although Ting Bixiao was a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator, even if he went all out, he couldn't guarantee he could stop the two combatants from holding back at the last moment.
"This means that everything that has happened so far has actually been secretly directed by that Nascent Soul cultivator of the Giant Wood Clan!"
Zhao Min gave the final answer!