On the other side, Xue Meng had already run to the area where the battle was most intense. He waved his arms and shouted, “Stop! Stop! Stop fighting! It’s useless!”

     Actually, before he had even arrived, they had already felt that something was very wrong. More than a thousand elites were fighting against tens of thousands of unruly zombies. The scene seemed magnificent and heroic, but the more they fought, the more confused they became. It didn’t look like a fierce battle was about to unfold at all.

     Everyone had fought their way here, but other than a couple people who had been slightly injured, the rest of the cultivators were unharmed. So, when Xue Meng shouted, everyone stopped and turned to look at him.

     “I…”

     It was the first time that so many people were looking at Xue Meng at the same time. And many of them were honored cultivators and elders. For a moment, Xue Meng actually felt a little choked.

     Chu Wanning asked, “What’s wrong?”

     Hearing his Shizun’s voice, Xue Meng finally calmed down a little. He pointed to where Mo Ran was fighting against the willow vine and said, “Mo Ran seems to have figured out what’s going on here. Fighting these zombies won’t be of any use.”

     Everyone looked at each other in dismay. The sect leaders were no ordinary people. How could they be willing to listen to the advice of a junior? Jiang Xi’s expression was the darkest, “Mo Ran is just a young boy in his early twenties. What could he know?”

     If it had been someone else speaking, Xue Meng might have been more polite. However, this person was Jiang Xi. Xue Meng immediately grew enraged at the sight of him, and he said angrily, “If you were still drinking milk at twenty, it doesn’t mean everyone else has to be like you! If you want to die for being so narrow-minded, go ahead!”

     This was truly amazing. To publicly embarrass Jiang Xi in front of all of the great sects, Guyue’ye’s disciples couldn’t stand it anymore, and angrily rebuked him.

     “What are you saying?!”

     “Xue Meng, watch your mouth!”

     Xue Meng felt uncomfortable being stared at silently by the crowd, but in this situation, he wasn’t afraid at all. He had been quarreling and messing around with Mo Ran for so many years that he was used to provoking others and being provoked.

     He immediately raised his eyebrows and said, “What, am I wrong? It’s your Sect Leader Jiang who can’t prioritize the importance of this matter. Look at the situation now, and you’re still talking about seniority based on age!”

     Jiang Xi had a bad temper as well. He was the leader of a major cultivation sect, and the Head Sect Leader, yet he still narrowed his eyes and argued with a junior disciple in front of everyone.

     “Seniority and experience have always been inherently linked. When you reach your father’s age, you should understand one thing—when speaking to your elders, etiquette comes first.”

     Xue Meng snapped angrily, “With Sect Leader Jiang’s mindset, how can he still be an elder?!”

     “Alright, Meng-er.” Xue Zhengyong frowned, “Stop talking. Where is Ran-er? Take us there quickly.”

     Although Xue Zhengyong had stopped Xue Meng just in time, and Jiang Xi had no way to continue arguing with him, he still flicked his sleeve and said, “Xue Zhengyong, you really have taught your son well.”

     Xue Zhengyong’s face was ashen, as if he wanted to say something, but he stayed silent for the sake of the Head Sect Leader’s face. In the end, he didn’t say anything as he followed everyone towards the mountainside.

     Halfway up the mountain, they saw Mo Ran, dressed in black, floating over. Half of his sleeve was covered in blood, and he held the chess piece tightly in his hand. The vines behind him had already been burnt, and there were no new ones to be seen for the moment.

     Seeing that he was injured, Chu Wanning and Xue Zhengyong’s expressions changed. Xue Zhengyong hurriedly said, “Ran-er, how are you feeling?! Heal… heal… Someone come quickly! Shi Mei! Come help!”

     Shi Mei seemed to be shocked as well. Looking at Mo Ran’s bloody arm, his face turned pale. For a moment, he just stood there in a daze and didn’t move.

Guyue’ye’s Cold Scale Sacred Hand took a step forward first. With a flick of his sleeve, Mo Ran felt the burning pain from his wound slowly disappear.

     He nodded to Hua Binan, “Thank you, Hanlin-shengshou.”

     “You’re welcome.” Hua Binan’s voice was cold and indifferent, “I wonder what Mo-zongshi has discovered. Can you share it with everyone?”

     At this moment, Mo Ran was already in an extremely bad mood. He knew very well that if he revealed the Shared-Heart Formation at this moment, he would definitely be met with suspicion and speculation from all sides.

     But he couldn’t care that much. He knew very well the bloody scene that would follow if the Zhenlong Chess Formation were to appear in the cultivation world on a significant scale. It was something that neither he, nor Chu Wanning would wish to see.

     “Look at this.” He opened his palm and showed the black chess piece in his hand to everyone.

     Jiang Xi sneered, “The Zhenlong Chess Formation? Don’t you already know about it? Is this what Mo-zongshi discovered? If not for the Zhenlong Chess Formation, how could these corpses be manipulated by others?”

     Mo Ran pursed his lips and said, “It’s not the Zhenlong Chess Formation, it’s the gu worm on the chess piece.” He pointed at it for everyone to see, “It’s here.”

     “...” Jiang Xi stood with his hands behind his back. He didn’t say anything, and just looked at him coldly.

     Xue Zhengyong moved closer to look at the worm, but after looking at it for a long time, he still couldn’t figure it out. He asked, “What’s wrong with it?”

     “They’re on every single chess piece,” Mo Ran said. “This Zhenlong Chess Formation isn’t as simple as we thought.”

     Several pairs of eyes stared at him, and he glanced at them as well. Of course, he knew what he was doing. He had to tell them everything he knew to prevent a catastrophe from happening.

     However, he was also very clear about the price—

     In fact, this was also where the mastermind behind the scenes was brilliant. If they weren’t sure whether Mo Ran had really been reborn, the Shared-Heart Formation was undoubtedly the best bait.

     Unless Mo Ran was ruthless enough not to speak up, and actually allowed the catastrophe to happen, he would certainly reveal a message to the person behind the scenes—

     Emperor Taxian-Jun must have been reborn.

     But Mo Ran had no choice.

     “I don’t know if any of you have seen puppet shows before…”

     Someone replied, “...Of course we have. But why are you talking about this?”

     “I’ve seen them too, but when I was young, I was short, and couldn’t squeeze into the front row, so I could only stand behind the stage and listen from behind the scenes. So, the shows I watched may have been different from what you were watching.”

     Mo Ran paused, “What you saw was the story on stage, with a few puppets appearing to fight, talk, and sing.”

     Jiang Xi said impatiently, “What are you trying to say? Can you be more concise?”

     “No,” Mo Ran said. “Not everyone understands as fast as Sect Leader Jiang. I want everyone to understand.”

     “...”

     Seeing Jiang Xi’s grim face, Mo Ran continued, “Can the cloth puppets on stage move by themselves?”

     Xue Zhengyong said, “Of course not.”

     “Then how do they move? Don’t they need a few people crouching under the curtain, holding up strings to control them?”

     “That’s right.”

     “Alright,” Mo Ran continued. “I have an idea… I don’t know if this is what Xu Shuanglin had in mind, but I think it should be pretty close. The ‘Mount Huang’ we are currently on now is like what’s hidden under the stage. These worthless zombies are all like the strings being controlled under the stage, so naturally they don’t need much power. As long as they can move the puppets, it will be enough.”

     Jiang Xi said, “...Go on.”

     “If that’s really the case, Mount Huang is actually just what’s backstage, and the real show won’t be here, but on the stage,” Mo Ran said. “Xu Shuanglin is like the leader of this troupe. If he were to give an order, who would he give it to?”

     Xue Zhengyong replied, “Of course it’s the people crouching behind the curtain and holding the strings.”

     Mo Ran said, “That’s right. This is my logic. The people on Mount Huang are the people who hold the strings. Xu Shuanglin gives the order, and they move the puppets to stand up and act.”

     Jiang Xi narrowed his eyes as he listened, “You mean that there is a place other than Mount Huang with corpses piled up like mountains, and that this place is the so-called stage with puppets?”

     “Sect Leader Jiang is so preceptive.”

     “You don’t have to flatter me,” Jiang Xi said. “I just want to know. What you said seems to be very logical, but the truth is that it’s whimsical and imaginative. Mo-zongshi, you have no proof. What is the basis for these statements?”

     “...I don’t have much of a basis. The reason why I thought of this is because I accidentally discovered a chess piece with a gu worm inside the corpse.”

     The pitch-black chess piece in his hand was still stained with blood, and was very dirty. The gu worm had just left the body, and wasn’t dead yet; it lay limply on top of the chess piece.

     Mo Ran was silent for a moment, then he raised his head and looked at Cold Scale Sacred Hand behind Jiang Xi, “Hanlin-shengshou, you should know best what kind of adaptability the gu worms have.”

     “This worm has many adaptations. Which one is Mo-zongshi referring to?” Hua Binan asked.

     Mo Ran replied, “Imitation.”

     “Naturally, I am familiar with this,” Hua Binan said. “The larvae of gu worms are very good at imitation. They are mentally linked to the male worm, and will imitate the male worm’s every move until they reach adulthood.”

     Mo Ran said, “Okay, then what if I put the larvae of this gu worm into another chess piece and cast it into another person’s body?”

     Hua Binan’s expression changed slightly. He said, “Whatever the corpse here does, the other body will do the same.”

     “How can I solve this?”

     “There is no solution, except the death of the worms.”

     Mo Ran nodded and said, “Everyone, spread out a little. Be careful and watch.”

     When he was finished speaking, his eyes suddenly turned cold as he fiercely struck the gu worm on the chess piece. At this moment, the ground suddenly shook. The vines from before suddenly raised out of the earth, and once again lunged at Mo Ran. Everyone was shocked, but Mo Ran quickly restrained his killing intent and dodged a wave of attacks from the vines.

     He let out a breath and stood with one hand behind his back, “See? Mount Huang is deliberately protecting these gu worms, preventing them from being easily killed. If anyone still insists that the presence of the worms on the chess pieces is just a coincidence… or just a mere decoration, then I have nothing else to say.”

     The crowd went silent. Almost everyone was deep in thought, pondering over Mo Ran’s idea.

     It was a bold speculation, almost to the point of being outrageous. Yet for some reason, they couldn’t find any loopholes.

     Mo Ran’s guess was too crazy, but it was as if he had full confidence in Xu Shuanglin’s every move and thought. He said it with certainty, his gaze hardened, and was doing everything he could to convince them.

     But this kind of certainty was frightening. In the crowd, even Chu Wanning was a little uneasy. He frowned as he looked at Mo Ran’s pale face from afar. He suddenly felt his heart start beating rapidly, as if Mo Ran had exposed a small clue, showing a little bit of its fangs.

     It was about to be torn apart.

     Probably only people like Xue Zhengyong, who were more simple-minded, didn’t care too much about how Mo Ran could think of such a peculiar “puppet manipulation” method in such a short period of time. He only seriously pondered about it for a little while before suddenly patting his head, “So, Xu Shuanglin isn’t here at all?!”

     Mo Ran replied, “I don’t think so.”

     Xuanji Elder’s concern was different from everyone else's. He frowned and said. “Along the way, we killed at least nine thousand zombies, if not ten thousand. Where did he get so many corpses? If there was a place where so many people suddenly died, there’s no way the ten great sects wouldn’t have been alerted.”

     Mo Ran sighed and said, “Many people just died. Have you forgotten?”

     Seeing the crowd’s confusion, Mo Ran simply said one word, “Linyi.”

     “Impossible!”

     Someone immediately refuted him, “Linyi was a sea of fire. The tribulation fire was raging, and everything was burnt to ashes. How could there be corpses left?”

     “Because of the space rift,” Mo Ran said. “Apart from Xu Shuanglin, he has a companion who knows how to form space rifts.”

     This time, there was no rebuttal.

     It wasn’t because they believed it, but because it was too ridiculous, so much so that it was laughable.

     It was only after a long time that Jiang Xi said, “That’s the first great forbidden technique. It has long been lost…”

     “The first forbidden technique is the space-time gate,” Mo Ran said. “Not a space gate.”

     “There are thousands of people here, not just Xu Shuanglin.” Jiang Xi’s expression was very cold, “How capable must he be to send thousands of people to Mount Huang before they were swallowed by the tribulation fire?”

     “Sect Leader Jiang, why don’t you think of it another way?” Mo Ran said. “I think that these people weren’t sent here while they were alive, but after they were burned to death and before they were turned to ashes. With this kind of teleportation technique, it’s much easier to send the dead than the living.”

     Jiang Xi didn’t like to be led around by a junior. He narrowed his eyes in a rage, but before he could speak, a pale, slender hand was placed on his shoulder. The great sage Hua Binan smiled and looked at Mo Ran, “Mo-zongshi, you speak with such certainty, as if you’ve seen it with your own eyes. What proof do you have?”

     Mo Ran didn’t expect for Guyue’ye to come forward and say something, and was stunned for a moment before saying, “No one knows better than Master Hua whether the flesh of these zombies is burnt or rotted.”

     Hua Binan glanced at the zombies lying on the ground with their legs cut off, unable to get back up. Then, he turned his gaze back and said lightly, “Even if they were burnt, how can you be sure that they are corpses from the disaster in Linyi?”

     Mo Ran’s dark eyes stared at him unyieldingly as he said, “It’s just a guess. If Master Hua thinks it’s too absurd, then can he tell us another way for Xu Shuanglin to secretly teleport thousands of corpses to Mount Huang under everyone’s noses?”

     Hua Binan smiled, “I’m no good at evil techniques, so I can’t guess.”

     “...”

     No one said anything for a while.

     Cold Scale Sacred Hand’s words could be considered to have pierced everyone’s hearts.

     Since Mo Ran had first revealed his guess about the use of the gu worms, many people felt a faint sense of horror in their hearts as the hair on their backs stood on end.

     There was a saying—

     “What kind of person you are can be revealed by what you see in your eyes.”

     Many of those present weren’t naïve characters, so they could naturally immediately think of the crux of the problem. That was, how could Mo Ran have made such a terrifying, yet meticulous guess in such a short time? He obviously wasn’t Xu Shuanglin’s ally. If he was, then he would never have mentioned such thoughts. So did that mean that Mo-zongshi, who had always presented himself as a “righteous” cultivator, had secretly dabbled in forbidden techniques, or at least studied them thoroughly for a long time?

     The veil over Hua Binan’s face fluttered gently as he smiled and said, “When it comes to guessing Xu Shuanglin’s thoughts, I feel that I’m no match for Mo-zongshi.”

     Mo Ran wanted to refute for a moment, but he suddenly felt that he couldn’t stand up for himself. He couldn’t say with confidence that he was just guessing, and wasn’t practicing the forbidden techniques.

     At this moment, he heard a clear, cold voice, “Master Hua, why do you have to insinuate such things?”

     “Ah." Hua Binan smiled, “Chu-zongshi.”

     Chu Wanning was wearing a snow-white robe as he stood under the moonlight. His expression was carefully indifferent.

     “Individuals who are in different positions will think differently. The people sitting in seats can only see the puppets on the stage, but some people can only watch from behind the stage. What they see are ordinary people crouching behind the table. Do you understand what I mean, Master Hua?”

     Hua Binan smiled and said, “Forgive me for my ignorance.”

     “Mo Ran has his own opinions,” Chu Wanning said coldly. “He is my disciple. I expect you to be careful with your words and not make too many assumptions.”

     This kind of trust made Mo Ran’s throat go dry as he muttered, “Shizun…”

     Hua Binan looked at Chu Wanning for a moment. He wanted to say something, but in the end, said nothing at all. He smiled and went back to Guyue’ye’s side.

     Jiang Xi retrieved his face, but his expression was still very ugly. He said coldly, “No matter what, let’s get to the top first, then discuss.”

     When the group arrived at the top of the mountain, it was completely empty, save for a giant spell formation, with red balls of light constantly emerging from its core. 

     When Mo Ran saw this array, his heart sank and his fingertips went cold.

     It was indeed the Shared-Heart Formation…

     This was an array formation that was used to refine the chess pieces and merge the gu worms into a Zhenlong chess piece.

     The Palace Master of Taxue Palace frowned, sizing up the strange array totem, “What array is this? I’ve never seen it before. Sect Leader Xue, you’ve seen a lot. Have you ever seen this?”

     Xue Zhengyong moved closer to take a look, then shook his head, “No.”

     Jiang Xi’s dark brown eyes glowed as he looked at the eye of the formation for a moment, then slowly reached out to probe it. He was most proficient with this kind of array formation. He closed his eyes for about an incense stick’s time, then withdrew his hand. He turned to Mo Ran, “Do you have any other ideas?”

     His reaction was a clear indication that Mo Ran’s guess was correct. Mo Ran replied, “...Yes.”

     Jiang Xi said coldly, “Speak.”

     “Since they are parent-child pairs, it’s just as I said earlier, one is on the stage and one is under the stage. So, however many Zhenlong chess pieces he has made here, there will be just as many rising up equally at his command.”

     Mo Ran paused, then said the most important point, “However, in that place, there will definitely not be piles of weak and ordinary zombies. I’m afraid they will all be the remains of people with extremely powerful cultivation bases when they were alive.”

     Xue Meng exclaimed in surprise, “Is this the reason why Xu Shuanglin killed so many ordinary people? In order to make it easier to control the corpses of powerful cultivators?”

     “I’m afraid so.”

     “...”

     Xue Meng looked back down the mountain, at the vast mountain of corpses and blood, and all of the blood drained from his face. It was unknown if it was because he felt too disgusted, or too shocked—maybe it was because he thought about there being another place with just as many corpses, but they would all be cultivators.

     Or maybe it was both combined.

     Xue Meng looked a little shaken.

     Suddenly, someone shouted, “Look here! There’s a corpse!”

     There were no tall trees at the top of the mountain, only a bush. Those with sharp eyes noticed that there seemed to be a white robe peeking out from there.