Following this, Chen Heng did not pay any more attention to Zhang Ya and left this place.

Looking at Chen Heng's departing figure, Zhang Ya looked quite confused, not knowing what to say.

She seemed to understand something, and yet also felt dumbfounded.

"Could it be that something is going to happen soon?" She wondered to herself, feeling quite nervous.

After leaving, Chen Heng walked about in the spirit garden.

Chen Heng looked around the surroundings, which all looked very familiar to him.

Over the past few months, even though he had not spent too much effort on this place, he had still spent quite a lot of time here.

There was nothing too special about this place, but it made one feel a sense of peace.

After strolling around for a while, Chen Heng turned and left.

In the following period of time, Chen Heng did not do too much and just stayed here.

However, he was secretly gathering intelligence about the surroundings.

Even though he stayed here, there were naturally people gathering information for him.

In order to avoid attention, when he was in the Flowing Cloud Sect, Chen Heng did not dare to go overboard.

However, after coming to a remote place like Nine Peaks City, Chen Heng had much fewer worries.

On the face of things, he was just an ordinary manager of the spirit garden, as well as a master refiner, but in secret, he was also doing many other things.

In the past half a year, there were a few solo cultivators who had obtained fortuitous opportunities and had their lives changed.

In actuality, these things all had to do with Chen Heng.

After all, in order to get more Points, he could not just purely focus on cultivating and had to try to affect others.

Moreover, if he wanted to affect others as much as possible, he could not just rely on himself—he also needed to take in others to affect other people.

Only by doing that could he create his own faction and affect more people.

As such, he needed to create his own faction.

Chen Heng had been doing this since a long time ago.

Even though it was not very big yet, it was enough to gather some information.

"Looks like something did end up happening."

In just a few days, all kinds of news was spread.

Many demonic cultivators appeared all over the place. They were from the Demon Sect and were not cultivators from the Yue Kingdom.

These people had been hiding in the five major sects and had suddenly exploded out one night as if they had planned this.

In just an instant, the five sects had been dealt major blows and collapsed.

Chen Heng did not know how things were in the four other sects, but the situation in the Flowing Cloud Sect was very severe.

From the information that Chen Heng had received, there were even a few Elders who had betrayed the sect and led their disciples to rebel. They had fought against the Sect Master and his people and had injured them.

The Sect Master had been heavily injured and been forced to retreat to a secret place. Following this, they had almost not been able to preserve the Flowing Cloud Sect.

Speaking to there, the person in front of Chen Heng had a look of disbelief on their face.

"Do you think it's strange?" Chen Heng looked at this person, "How could there be so many traitors in the Flowing Cloud Sect?"

The person standing in front of Chen Heng was an elder. He had been a solo cultivator in Nine Peaks City, and because his talent was not very good, he had been stuck at Spirit Refining Level 2.

In the past few months, Chen Heng had taken him in and had him be responsible for a region nearby.

"That's not exactly it."

In front of him, Huang Nong, shook his head, a respectful look on his face, "It's just that even the Elders betrayed the sect. This…"

This was something that he could not understand.

From how he saw it, the Elders all had great status and power and did not lack anything. There was no reason for them to betray the sect.

If it was an ordinary solo cultivator, they could do all kinds of things for their cultivation and future, but there was no need for an Elder to do this.

What did they want?

He looked quite confused and could not understand.

"That is just how people are; they can never be satisfied," Chen Heng said softly as he shook his head, "From how you see it, Elders do not lack anything. However, to them, those things are not enough, and they desire even more.

"Moreover, their betrayal may not have been voluntary."

"Many not have been voluntary?"

Hearing this, Huang Nong felt quite surprised.

How could rebelling not be voluntary?

Could it be that they had been blackmailed?

He thought of many things but did not dare to ask, and he continued to respectfully stand there, waiting for Chen Heng's orders.

Comparatively speaking, Chen Heng knew many more things.

That Demon Seed from that day was still in his body.

Based on the Demon Seed in his body, it seemed that there were many people in the Flowing Cloud Sect in the same position as him.

Perhaps those traitors did not betray the sect willingly, but with the Demon Seed in their bodies, there was nothing they could do about it.

Of course, ordinary Demon Seeds would not be able to affect Elder-level figures. They would be easily discovered and gotten rid of.

However, there were different types of Demon Seeds, and perhaps there were more powerful people acting against the Elder-level people.

This was completely possible.

The appearance of Demon Seeds meant that there was at least one Demon Sovereign.

An existence like a Demon Sovereign surpassed what the Flowing Cloud Sect could deal with.

At the very least, within the Flowing Cloud Sect, there was not anyone who could rival a Demon Sovereign.

After all, the Yue Kingdom was just a small kingdom, and it did not have many cultivators to begin with.

Within the Yue Kingdom, the five major sects were the overlords, but to people outside, that was not necessarily the case.

A Demon Sovereign surpassed what the Yue Kingdom's five major sects could deal with.

Thinking to there, Chen Heng could not help but inwardly shake his head.

Not too far away, someone hurried over and walked over to Huang Nong, and they reported some things.

Following this, Huang Nong's expression immediately changed and became quite grim.

"Sir," Huang Nong turned to Chen Heng and said, "some Demon Sect disciples have come."

At this moment, outside Nine Peaks City, there were shouts and sounds of fighting.

The Demon Sect's people had not come to the Yue Kingdom for no purpose.

The reason they came here was to take the Yue Kingdom's mortals' qi blood and use it as food and resources.

To ordinary cultivators, the most important things were spirit qi and spirit stones.

This was the same for demonic cultivators.

It was just that for demonic cultivators, their equivalent of spirit qi and spirit stones was blood food.

Mortals' blood, flesh, and souls were incredibly important resources to demonic cultivators.

That was why demonic cultivators were called as such.

As long as they had enough blood food and souls, they could quickly become stronger and break through bottlenecks.

This was why the Demon Sect was attacking the Yue Kingdom.

Apart from taking the Yue Kingdom's five sects' fortunes and resources, there were also the Yue Kingdom's mortals.

That was what they were the most interested in.

Even though ordinary spirit stones and spirit qi were important to them, this was the same for mortals' blood food.

After suppressing the Yue Kingdom's five sects, they immediately sent demonic cultivators all over the place.

On the way, countless living beings were turned into skeletons, and they were absorbed by magic items. Even their souls were not spared and were refined into demonic essence to be devoured.

Wherever those demonic cultivators went, they would slaughter all living things, causing people to shudder.

During this process, some people naturally would resist and would not just give in. However, this was useless.

Nine Peaks City was somewhat remote, but it was still a large city with many people, so it had caught the demonic cultivators' attention.

Within a large hall in Nine Peaks City, there were many people gathered together.

"The Demon Sect will arrive soon," a person stood there and looked down at everyone else, a serious expression on his face, "Everyone present is either a hero of Nine Peaks City or a clan leader. What should we do in response to this attack? Please give me some ideas."

His expression was serious as he spoke, seeming quite nervous.

In actuality, it was not just him—everyone gathered here felt this way.

Zhang Chong was also here as the Zhang Clan's clan leader.

Standing in the group, his position was closer to the front, and his face was also ashen.

"The Demon Sect's people have great momentum behind them. I fear… we won't be able to stop them," someone said slowly.

"We must stop them at all costs," the City Lord's expression was grim as he said, "Otherwise, they will kill all of us and devour our bodies."

"Our first priority should be figuring out just how strong their forces are before we make any plans," someone frowned as they spoke.

Only by knowing oneself and knowing the enemy could they win.

Even if they were to fight, they at least needed to know how many people the other side had, as well as their cultivation.

Otherwise, if they did not even know this, wouldn't they just be going in blind?

Hearing those words, the Nine Peaks City Lord nodded, "About that… we have some information. From what I've heard, they have two Spirit Refining Level 5 cultivators and one Spirit Refining Level 9 cultivator."

"Spirit Refining Level 9…"

Hearing this, everyone's pupils constricted.

"The two Spirit Refining Level 5 cultivators are not too bad to deal with…"

Standing among the group, Zhang Chong frowned, "But the Spirit Refining Level 9 cultivator…"

Spirit Refining Level 9—this was the peak of the Spirit Refining realm, and it was one step away from Foundation Building.

This kind of existence was completely above normal Spirit Refining realm cultivators, and ordinary people would not be a match for them at all.

Among those present, the Nine Peaks City Lord had the highest cultivation, but it was only Spirit Refining Level 8; he would not be a match for that person at all.

Moreover, who knew how many people those demonic cultivators had killed and how many souls they had collected.

That was something that would further strengthen them.

With those things, that demonic cultivator might be able to rival a Foundation Building cultivator.

Thinking to there, everyone felt quite troubled.