The crowd sighed and shook their heads in unison. The three clans had ignored the wiser path and chosen the most extreme one instead.
Liu Xiucheng wasn't an extraordinary leader, but his unwavering loyalty to the Liu Clan meant he would give his life for it without hesitation. Though not a brilliant strategist, he was a responsible patriarch, and that was enough.
Liu Wuxie descended from the sky and landed before Liu Shen.
He stared at the once-familiar Grand Elder, now a stranger. His gaze sharpened like a blade.
"Speak. How did you fool us into believing that the Golden Cauldron Pavilion had poisoned my grandfather?" Liu Wuxie asked, his voice calm but cold. He still needed answers.
Ye Hongyi had exposed Liu Shen as the mastermind, but she hadn't revealed the whole truth.
Everyone, even Liu Xiucheng, looked stunned. They all believed the Golden Cauldron Pavilion was behind it, but Liu Wuxie's words revealed otherwise.
"I didn't know about the Golden Cauldron Pavilion at first," Liu Shen replied. "One day, someone branded the puppet under my control with a mysterious imprint. And that was when I learned of their existence."
The Golden Cauldron Pavilion had been operating in secret. Only a few on the True Martial Continent were privy to its existence.
The puppet was someone Liu Shen had raised from childhood. The puppet was trained to mirror him in every detail—speech, gait, and expression. While the puppet acted in the open, the real Liu Shen remained in the shadows, pulling strings.
"What poison did you use on my grandfather?" Liu Wuxie asked. He still didn't know what had afflicted Liu Xiucheng and Liu Hanyi, only that its potency would have killed even him if he hadn't mastered the Poison Dao Art.
"Heavenbane Witchcraft Poison," Liu Shen answered coldly.
The crowd recoiled in horror.
"He actually crafted the Heavenbane Witchcraft Poison? That's the deadliest toxin on the continent!" a cultivator exclaimed. "It can even kill Heaven Profound Realm experts. The Poison Saint himself created it—how did Liu Shen obtain it?"
Even a Heaven Profound Realm expert in the distance trembled at the name, fear etched on his face.
"You all deserve to die," Liu Wuxie said, his voice frosty.
The poison required blood from one hundred pure yin and pure yang individuals, Crane Red, and other rare, deadly ingredients. But its deadliest component was the witchcraft insect—it clung to bone and couldn't be removed once it took root.
"I know I deserve death," Liu Shen said, "but how did he live for ten years after being poisoned?"
He meant Liu Xiucheng.
Liu Hanyi, a cultivator at the Heaven Profound Realm, had lost her strength to the same poison. Back then, Liu Xiucheng had only been at the pinnacle of the Spirit Profound Realm. Liu Shen couldn't understand how he survived for so long.
The entire crowd was equally confused. Victims of Heavenbane Witchcraft Poison would die within three days. No exceptions; even Heaven Profound Realm cultivators were no exceptions.
And yet, Liu Xiucheng had lived for a decade.
"I see now," Liu Wuxie muttered. "Jiao Ba visited Grandfather seeking the golden parchment. When he discovered the poison, he helped suppress it."
Back at Eternal Spirit Mountain, Jiao Ba shouted that Liu Xiucheng would have died long ago if not for him.
Liu Wuxie still remembered those words clearly.
Everyone had blamed Jiao Ba. He had forged the poison needle using materials only found in Eternal Spirit Mountain, which naturally made the Golden Cauldron Pavilion the prime suspect.
When Liu Wuxie later removed the poison, he discovered a tiny needle embedded in his grandfather's dantian. It had been suppressing the toxin all those years.
He had figured out long ago that the golden parchment could counter the mysterious imprint. As long as it existed, the imprint risked being broken.
Jiao Ba had never used force to take the parchment. He had even helped suppress Liu Xiucheng's poison. Liu Wuxie finally realized that he owed the Golden Cauldron Pavilion a huge debt.
Anyone who crafted the Heavenbane Witchcraft Poison would bear a black mark on their right index finger. The average person wouldn't notice it, but Jiao Ba would.
And that was how Jiao Ba discovered Liu Xiucheng's condition and identified Liu Shen as the culprit.
Still, Jiao Ba hadn't removed the poison. It was too potent. After he left, the poison flared up, and everyone assumed he had caused it.
Liu Xiaotian had let Jiao Ba into the clan and later betrayed them, drawing more suspicion toward the Golden Cauldron Pavilion.
However, the pavilion had chosen silence.
Liu Shen had intended to take leadership after Liu Xiucheng's death, but his plan dragged on for over a decade.
Now, all the puzzle pieces had fallen into place.
Liu Shen's puppet had leaked the parchment's existence. The Golden Cauldron Pavilion had branded countless people with imprints and extracted endless secrets from them. When they confirmed the parchment's existence, Ye Hongyi had dispatched Jiao Ba to verify it.
Too many coincidences had overlapped. The Liu Clan had recovered the golden parchment, and someone had branded Liu Shen's puppet with an imprint. Liu Shen had also plotted for the patriarch's seat and poisoned Liu Xiucheng.
Unrelated events had converged on one point as if strung together by destiny.
Liu Wuxie couldn't help but feel curious about Ye Hongyi. Her intuition and insight into the parchment's true role were extraordinary.
Liu Shen had plotted for years to poison Liu Xiucheng on his birthday—but Jiao Ba's unexpected visit had disrupted everything.
"Grandfather, the Heavenly Dao Society is still in danger. I leave these traitors to you," Liu Wuxie said coldly.
He had no interest in dirtying his hands with traitors. In the past, they would have been skinned alive.
"Go on," Liu Xiucheng urged.
The Scarlet Dragon Cult and the Profound Cloud Sect had already encircled the Heavenly Dao Society.
Liu Hanyi was still focused on consolidating her breakthrough and couldn't intervene.
As soon as Liu Xiucheng's words echoed out, Liu Wuxie vanished into the sky. The sealed space was lifted in his wake.
"Let's go! Another spectacular battle awaits!" shouted many cultivators as they rushed toward Astral Glory City.
The Liu Clan turned its attention to the traitors.
"Dashan, Dazhi—gather the elites and reinforce the Heavenly Dao Society," Liu Xiucheng commanded.
"Understood!" The two brothers assembled over a thousand cultivators and headed for Astral Glory City.
Inside the Spirit Jade Pavilion's grand hall, many powerful figures had gathered.
"Strange. Why haven't the three clans returned yet?" muttered the Profound Cloud Sect's sect master. The battle should've been over by now.
"Enough waiting. Let's go destroy the Heavenly Dao Society," said the Scarlet Dragon Cult's sect master. He wouldn't find peace while they still existed.
"Agreed. Sect Master Yu speaks wisely. The Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy won't interfere—why delay?" The Five Elemental Sect had also joined the alliance.
Unable to restrain themselves, the gathered experts rose to their feet.
"Very well. Let's go!" the Profound Cloud Sect's sect master ordered.
The three armies marched on the Heavenly Dao Society, accompanied by experts from the Spirit Jade Pavilion.
Strangely enough, the Spirit Jade Pavilion's pavilion master never appeared. Their departure sent shockwaves through the region, like a dark storm cloud looming over the Heavenly Dao Society.
"Master, they've moved out," a shadowy figure reported outside the pavilion.
"You go, too," said the Spirit Jade Pavilion's pavilion master with a wave of his hand.
"Understood!" The shadowy figure vanished into the night.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Dao Society waited anxiously, troubled by the silence from the Liu Clan. Suddenly, space trembled. A streak of light shot across the sky and stopped above the society.
"Trash from the Heavenly Dao Society—come out! I'll slaughter you all today!" A thunderous voice echoed from above as a Heaven Profound Realm cultivator unleashed a terrifying aura that crashed into the defensive array.
It wasn't a member of the Scarlet Dragon Cult or the Profound Cloud Sect.
Xu Yilin and the others were stunned. They had expected representatives from the major sects, not Miao Hanxuan, an elder of the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy.
Once tormented by the Curse Dao Art, he was now standing tall, radiating immense power. He had stepped into the Heaven Profound Realm and somehow dispelled the curse. The transformation was baffling.
"Prepare for battle!" Xu Yilin shouted.
Regardless of the enemy's identity, the Heavenly Dao Society would fight to the end.
When the three sects approached, they were startled to see that Miao Hanxuan was already there.
"Elder Miao, I didn't expect you to arrive before us," said the Profound Cloud Sect's sect master.
Everyone knew about Miao Hanxuan's grudge with Liu Wuxie, especially the battle atop Heavenly Gate Peak.
"Ah, Sect Master Ji. It's been a while. Let's catch up after we destroy the Heavenly Dao Society," Miao Hanxuan said politely, his tone oddly deferential.
Though he had the highest cultivation among them, he still bowed his head. The sight confused everyone.
The three sect masters had only reached the peak of the Earth Profound Realm, not even stepping into the Quasi-Heaven Profound Realm.
"Elder Miao, congratulations on your breakthrough to the Heaven Profound Realm!" Sect Master Ji greeted warmly.
"I owe it to your son. Let's talk later once we've wiped them out," Miao Hanxuan replied with a grin.