Qu Jianying’s announcement immediately made the Martial Heaven Alliance’s disciples erupt into chaos. They could not accept this.

“Alliance head, you can’t do this! Senior apprentice-brother is the pillar of the Martial Heaven Alliance’s disciples. In the battles against the Corrupt path, just how many of their top experts did he kill? Don’t you think doing so would hurt senior apprentice-brother Long Chen?” shouted a short but thick man. In particular, his legs were especially thick.

This person was the third commander, who had once challenged Long Chen, but had ended up being won over by him. He was the first to oppose Qu Jianying’s decision to expel Long Chen.

“Alliance head, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen led us through a death trap. We might be pressured by powerful enemies, but even if we die, we can’t succumb to their threats!” said the fourth commander.

“Silence. The alliance head’s decisions cannot be changed by you!” shouted one of the elders of the Martial Heaven Alliance.

The disciples were infuriated, but Ye Lingshan held them back. “We have to respect the alliance head’s decisions.”

“Senior apprentice-sister Lingshan, you…” Now, even Qingqing was disappointed.

They were infuriated, but they could only suppress their feelings. They weren’t strong enough and weren’t qualified to participate in such a heavy decision.

“Are you satisfied now?” Qu Jianying glared daggers at Yu Xiaoyun.

She knew that what Yu Xiaoyun wanted was this promise. This way, Long Chen would have nowhere to go. They could hunt him down to the ends of the world.

Originally, she couldn’t force herself to make this decision, but Li Tianxuan pushed her to do it. That was the only way to resolve the current situation. However, this was sacrificing Long Chen.

“If you had known this would happen, would you have still acted so willfully from the start? If you hadn’t selfishly tried to protect Long Chen, you wouldn’t have to suffer today, and there wouldn’t be so many geniuses that died such miserable deaths. That’s all the consequences of your own actions.” Yu Xiaoyun shook his head, sighing.

“YU XIAOYUN!”

Having gotten what he wanted, he actually pushed the responsibility onto others. Qu Jianying unsheathed her sword and pointed it at Yu Xiaoyun, longing to cut him into a million pieces. This person was too sinister, too shameless.

“Valley master Yu, it’s still too early to say who is right and who is wrong. In this world, the truth cannot become false, and the false cannot turn true. Even if you can cover it up for a while, the truth will be exposed sooner or later. When that time comes, whose name goes down in history for infamy or fame will be decided,” said Li Tianxuan with a polite smile.

Although amongst these higher-ups, Li Tianxuan was just a junior, he possessed a natural calm to him. His intelligence made others not dare to look down on him.

Although his words were rather ambiguous, everyone present could tell that he was indicating that slandering Long Chen would only work for a while. The truth would come out sooner or later.

It was well said. There was no proof that Long Chen had betrayed the Martial Heaven Continent and colluded with the original devil race. Pill Valley was merely using power to force that reality. They didn’t give Long Chen any chance to explain.

In order to avoid having the entire world destroyed, the Martial Heaven Alliance had submitted. But when the truth revealed itself, the Martial Heaven Alliance would have the power to wash away that disgrace. This was all in preparation for that moment.

“I’ve long since heard that the Xuantian Dao Sect was led by a wise young leader. As expected, he’s not ordinary.” Ma Ruyun looked at Li Tianxuan with a smile.

“That’s correct. Regretfully, he’s not part of our Huayun Sect. Otherwise, we would be able to suppress Pill Valley in less than ten years,” said an elder standing beside Ma Ruyun.

This elder was one of the Huayun Sect’s four assistant sect masters, Hua Mingxiong. He was also Zheng Wenlong’s direct superior.

“However, Wenlong is good as well. He shows promise and is quite daring while having a good head and heart. However, he’s still too young and needs more tempering. Give him some more authority in the future. Don’t stifle his development,” said Ma Ruyun.

“Yes.” Hua Mingxiong smiled. Ma Ruyun rarely paid attention to the matters within the Huayun Sect these days. Although there were four vice sect masters, the other three were in charge of their own businesses, while he, Hua Mingxiong, oversaw the overall development of the Huayun Sect. Many people had come to think that he was the true leader of the Huayun Sect.

Hua Mingxiong was very fond of Zheng Wenlong and treated him like his own apprentice. Hearing that Ma Ruyun also had such a high opinion of Zheng Wenlong, he was delighted.

“True gold isn’t afraid of being tempered by fire. My Pill Valley is simply trying to protect the Martial Heaven Continent. We’re not afraid of being criticized or cursed for our actions,” said Yu Xiaoyun righteously.

However, he didn’t bring up anything about Long Chen’s innocence. He merely stated Pill Valley’s attitude.

In other words, it didn’t matter whether or not Long Chen had colluded with the original devil race. As long as there was a threat to the Martial Heaven Continent, he would rather slay a thousand innocents than let off one criminal. Even if they killed the wrong person, they were still doing it with the Martial Heaven Continent at heart. They had a noble reason, so the people would understand them.

“Then let’s wait and see. I think that time will prove everything.” Li Tianxuan smiled slightly despite Yu Xiaoyun’s shameless quibbling.

“Let’s wait and see!” Yu Xiaoyun snorted, waving his hand and bringing his people away. The other leaders first said some words to Hua Mingxiong before taking their leave as well. After all, they weren’t Pill Valley, and there were many areas where they needed the Huayun Sect’s cooperation. Since a fight hadn’t started, they could continue that cooperation.

Ma Ruyun rarely showed himself, but Hua Mingxiong was someone that many of them knew.

The various experts began to leave one by one. In the end, Clearwind City returned to calm.

Due to the protection of the Netherpassage experts, the battle in the sky hadn’t affected the city. The old man and Yu Xiaoyun’s most powerful exchange had been stopped by the High Priest, so Clearwind City wasn’t damaged.

The experts that had fled from Clearwind City slowly returned.

“Many thanks for your assistance, sect master Ma.” Only now did Qu Jianying have a chance to express her thanks toward Ma Ruyun. If it weren’t for him, with such a power disparity, Yu Xiaoyun wouldn’t have let go of this chance to deal a heavy blow to the Martial Heaven Alliance.

“Alliance head Qu, you’re too courteous. Businessmen like us are most afraid of war. If there was a war, we’d have to beg just to survive. So you shouldn’t thank me, but thank yourselves. If you really want to thank me, then buy a bit more so I can make a bit more money.” Ma Ruyun smiled.

“I will remember this favor,” promised Qu Jianying.

“Then I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave. Everyone, I hope you can remember this small shop owner when conducting your business in the future.”

Ma Ruyun laughed and brought his five hundred Netherpassage experts away.

Once everyone else had scattered, the Netherpassage experts of the Martial Heaven Alliance gathered in the Martial Heaven Palace. Qu Jianying expressed her thanks to these people that had come at such a time. Only at this time was it possible to see who was truly dependable.

“Sect master Li, don’t you feel like what we’ve done is letting down Long Chen?” Once everyone was seated, Qu Jianying turned to Li Tianxuan.

“There was no other choice. As one grows stronger, so does one’s responsibilities. However, I believe that Long Chen will definitely understand and that he is capable of carrying this burden,” said Li Tianxuan.

“Then what should we do now? Send people to protect Long Chen secretly?” asked Qu Jianying.

“No, it’s already too late for that. Based on Yu Xiaoyun and the Unfettered Allseer’s past schemes, they wouldn’t have come unprepared.” Li Tianxuan shook his head.

That startled everyone. “Then do you mean…”

Li Tianxuan sighed. “First of all, the time at which Yu Xiaoyun came to the Martial Heaven Alliance is off. They arrived half an incense stick’s worth of time later than I expected. They had definitely made some arrangements within that time. Long Chen’s escape should be within their expectations, so running actually puts Long Chen in their trap…”

“What?! Then why did you make him run?!” demanded Qu Jianying.

“If Long Chen didn’t go, then even with the High Priest’s warning and sect master Ma’s reinforcements, there would have been no way to avoid this war. The truth is, while one of their goals is to kill Long Chen, their main goal was to instigate this war. If that happened, the Martial Heaven Alliance would be ruined, and the stragglers wouldn’t have the power to threaten Pill Valley. If that war had started, then no matter who won, both sides would take heavy losses. However, our losses would definitely be greater, because we have only gathered a third of the Martial Heaven Alliance. If our members shrink any more, those Righteous sects still watching from the sidelines will immediately lean toward Pill Valley. Our power cannot defeat the sum of the Corrupt path, ancient races, ancient family alliance, Xuan Beasts, and the Bloodkill Hall. Even if everyone lost half their people, it isn’t something we could endure. That’s also why Yu Xiaoyun wanted this battle so badly. So as long as we fought, no matter the result, we would still lose. The only one capable of stopping that worst-case scenario was Long Chen,” said Li Tianxuan.

“But Long Chen is just a Soul Transformation disciple. The ones hunting him down are all Netherpassage experts! Just how is he supposed to do anything?” demanded others.

“That’s another thing I don’t know. But I believe that the fact that Long Chen could reach his current height is no coincidence. I trust him,” said Li Tianxuan.

“That’s no good. I’m not going to let a child carry this burden while we sit here like a tortoise. We’ll just have to change our appearance and cover up our identities.” Quite a few Netherpassage experts immediately stood up. They felt that this was too unjust for Long Chen.

“It’s already too late. The moment Long Chen left Clearwind City, he entered their trap. Right now, the fate of the Martial Heaven Continent is in his hands. As for us, the only thing we can do… is wait for news from Long Chen.” Li Tianxuan muttered as he looked in the direction where Long Chen had run.