When the punishment for Fang Ao’s incident spread out, it undoubtedly stirred up huge waves in the four pavilions. No one thought that Fang Ao would disregard the rules and attempt to assassinate Zhou Yuan.

Many people condemned his actions, but due to the Fire Pavilion’s influence, they dared not show this openly. But the members of the Fire Pavilion would occasionally meet with the other three pavilions. In particular, the people of the Wind Pavilion and the Forest Pavilion would have contempt in their eyes, which made them feel a little aggrieved, but they couldn’t argue back.

After all, their actions were indeed hateful.

Therefore, they could only scold Fang Ao in their hearts to vent their emotions.

....

Fire Pavilion, Pavilion Master Building.

Lu Xiao was sitting expressionlessly in the main seat. Below were Zhu Lian and the other deputy pavilion masters. The atmosphere was particularly gloomy, and everyone’s expressions were extremely ugly because earlier an elder of the Heavenly Spirit Sect had come to severely reprimand them on the orders of sect master Xuan Kun.

This time their miscalculation had made sect master Xuan Kun suffer losses in his contest against Chi Jing, and he almost even lost an elder of the elder committee.

Silent for a long while, Lu Xiao finally spoke. “This time I made a mistake.”

Zhu Lian hurriedly comforted, “Pavilion master, this has nothing to do with you. It’s Zhou Yuan’s fault. He is cunning and scheming, and nobody thought he would be concealing his strength.”

Originally they thought that with Fang Ao’s strength, even if their assassination failed, it wouldn’t be difficult to escape unscathed. But no one thought that Zhou Yuan would improve so much in such a short period of time that he would be able to kill Fang Ao in one move.

Adding to this, even hall master Xi Guang couldn’t ultimately get rid of Zhou Yuan, he had almost gotten himself into danger.

If sect master Xuan Kun hadn’t intervened and pushed all the crimes onto Fang Ao alone, even Zhu Lian would have been affected.

“His foundation has reached 20 million Genesis Qi stars, and only the three pavilion masters can suppress him now.” Lu Xiao took a deep breath, his face growing overcast and troubled. The speed of Zhou Yuan’s progress made him feel fear.

“We have all underestimated him. If I’m not mistaken, that guy’s Divine Dwellings are most likely variations of nine Divine Dwellings.”

All deputy pavilion masters’ expressions changed when they heard this. Nine Divine Dwelling variations were incredibly rare, and there weren’t many people on the Divine Dwelling List of the Hunyuan Heaven possessing nine Divine Dwelling variations. It was no wonder that Zhou Yuan had such an astonishing foundation even if he was only at the intermediate Divine Dwelling stage. Previously, they had only speculated that Zhou Yuan possessed a seven Divine Dwelling variation. But it seemed they had all underestimated Zhou Yuan.

“Even though he now has 20 million Genesis Qi stars, it still won’t be difficult to suppress him if I want to.

“But the premise is that we can’t let him continue to make huge progress in his cultivation level before the battle for the chief pavilion master position.

“So, the Heaven Flame Ritual next month...”

A biting cold flashed through Lu Xiao’s eyes. “We must stop the Wind Pavilion from getting any benefits from it!”

The benefits from the Heaven Flame Ritual were supposed to be distributed according to the allocated share, and the Fire Pavilion would receive 40%. But an elder had delivered the message that the Heaven Flame Ritual would take a free fight approach and they would compete for a share.

That meant the coming Heaven Flame Ritual would be unexpectedly intense.

Having witnessed Zhou Yuan’s dangerous ability, everybody in the Fire Pavilion, including Lu Xiao, dared not underestimate him anymore. They had no doubts that if they were to relax in the slightest, Zhou Yuan would definitely obtain a huge amount of benefits from the Heaven Flame Ritual. If his strength soared once again, he might very well pose as some threat to Lu Xiao during the battle to become the chief pavilion master.

When the elder had come to pass on the message, he had also subtly warned them of this.

“Zhu Lian, in the Heaven Flame Ritual we need to use the power of the Spirit as a net to capture the Heavenly Sun Flame, and when it comes to the cultivation level of the Spirit, you are considered the strongest in our Fire Pavilion. So this time you will act as the core in the Heaven Flame Ritual,” Lu Xiao said to Zhu Lian.

The Heavenly Sun Flame could incinerate Genesis Qi, so the method of capturing it required Spirit power. Although Lu Xiao had the strongest combat strength, he wasn’t as strong as Zhu Lian when it came to Spirit cultivation level. Therefore his role in the Heaven Flame Ritual wasn’t as important as Zhu Lian’s.

Zhu Lian immediately reassured, “Pavilion master, don’t worry. The overall strength of our Fire Pavilion is far better than the Wind Pavilion’s. We will certainly become the biggest winner at the Heaven Flame Ritual.”

He didn’t have the courage to fight against Zhou Yuan with Genesis Qi, but if it was a contest between Spirits, he wouldn’t be afraid. After all, his Spirit cultivation level could be said to be one of the best among the young generation of the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

And in the Heaven Flame Ritual, the most important thing wasn’t one’s cultivation of Genesis Qi but of the Spirit!

Lu Xiao shook his head. “You’re wrong, our goal this time isn’t to make the Fire Pavilion the biggest winner...” An icy coldness flashed through his eyes. “Our goal is to make the Wind Pavilion win nothing so that Zhou Yuan would have no opportunity to further grow his strength!!”

Zhu Lian was taken aback at first, and then he said hesitantly, “But even if the Fire Pavilion can suppress the Wind Pavilion with our strength, I think they will still be able to win a share of the Heavenly Sun Flame. After all, there is no way we can directly block them.”

“The Fire Pavilion alone can’t, but we can join forces with others,” Lu Xiao said coldly. “I have already notified Han Yuan. We will join forces with the Mountain Pavilion to completely block the Wind Pavilion so that the Wind Pavilion can’t get any of the Heavenly Sun Flame.”

“The Mountain Pavilion?”

Lu Xiao’s eyelids drooped, and he said, “To be on the safe side, I will go see Mu Liu of the Forest Pavilion today. If the Forest Pavilion is willing to join hands with us this time, I will guarantee that the Forest Pavilion gets a 30% share of the Heavenly Sun Flame.”

“30%?” Zhu Lian gasped. If this was the case, then the Fire Pavilion was really generous this time. In the past the Forest Pavilion had at most obtained 20% of the Heavenly Sun Flame.

It seemed that Lu Xiao was really doing everything he could to deal with Zhou Yuan.

“We aren’t that close with Mu Liu...will he agree to join forces with us?” a deputy pavilion master asked.

Lu Xiao calmly said, “They don’t really need to join forces with us. It will be enough if they stick to one side and block off some of the Heavenly Sun Flames. Besides, when we’re blocking the Wind Pavilion, they can just stand by and watch.”

“Mu Liu also isn’t friends with Zhou Yuan, so I don’t believe he would refuse such a great benefit for Zhou Yuan, right?”

The others looked at each other. The plan was to completely isolate the Wind Pavilion.

Zhu Lian’s eyes blazed as he said, “If that’s the case, we should be able to completely block the Wind Pavilion and stop them from receiving anything from the Heaven Flame Ritual.”

It was said that Zhou Yuan had also stepped into the Transformative stage, the same stage as him. But no matter how strong a person’s Spirit was, there would still be a limit!

This time, he had to make Zhou Yuan taste what it meant to be powerless!

And as long as the position of chief pavilion master fell into their hands, he could overturn all of his disadvantages.

Lu Xiao lifted his head, peering coldly in the direction of Wind Island.

“Zhou Yuan, you think you can close the gap between us with the help of grand elder Chi Jing, but I can tell you that your thinking is too naive!”