Chapter 180: Everything is in the Plan

The Immortal Fairy was enraged; Tang Yunsheng, as her follower, lacked even the most basic loyalty! Back in ancient times, she was a supreme ruler, with an entire planet's population fiercely loyal to her, considering it an honor to be her follower and treating her words as absolute truth.

Lu Yang thought, 'Oh, come on. This is what happens when they worship the perfect immortal of their imagination. If the Immortal Cult knew what the real Immortal Fairy was like, forget loyalty—I'd believe the entire organization would disband the very next day.' At the very least, Lu Yang, as the cult founder, wanted to resign every single day. If even the cult founder felt this way, it went without saying for ordinary followers.

'Wait,' he mused, 'why not shift perspective? Why not make the Immortal Fairy resign and have the Immortal Cult collectively change their faith?' The more Lu Yang thought about it, the better the idea seemed.

Lu Yang's thoughts wandered, but he wasn't flustered. With Senior Sister present, there was no way they would get hurt. The current problem was figuring out how to deal with Tang Yunsheng. If they killed him, it would complicate future plans. If they didn't, the three of them would be doomed. What a dilemma.

Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu weren't scared either. Lu Yang had told them beforehand that this trip was all part of Senior Sister's plan, so nothing would go wrong. Weren't the words "Senior Sister" more reliable than anything else?

Tang Yunsheng raised his hand and pulled out a broad, blood-red saber from his storage space, entwined with vengeful spirits and wronged souls. Seeing Lu Yang and the other two motionless, he assumed they had lost the will to resist. Indeed, facing such an absolute difference in power, this was a normal reaction. Tang Yunsheng had seen countless cultivators who had resigned themselves to fate, just like Lu Yang.

Tang Yunsheng exuded a chilling aura, clearly a great demon who had committed countless murders. He flashed a ferocious smile, leaped high into the air, and, filled with boundless killing intent, prepared to kill the three of them with one strike, leaving no trace of their bodies!

Just then, in front of a nearby boulder, space warped for a moment, and the Immortal Cult Master stretched lazily as he walked out from Reserve Stronghold Number Five. He had others clean up inside first while he came out to rest. Then he saw Tang Yunsheng, holding the blood saber, leaping extremely high, about to strike down Lu Yang and the other two, who remained motionless as if paralyzed with fear.

The Cult Master: "..."Tang Yunsheng: "..."

The Cult Master's head was full of questions. What was going on?

"Tang Yunsheng, what are you doing!" The Cult Master realized this was not the time for questions. He roared and acted decisively, seizing Tang Yunsheng so firmly that his bones cracked.

"Wait, Cult Master, I can explain..." Tang Yunsheng panicked. What was happening? He had just picked a random wilderness area, so how had a Cult Master suddenly appeared?

The Cult Master ignored Tang Yunsheng's nonsense, disregarded the consequences, and roughly swept his divine sense through Tang Yunsheng's spiritual space, destroying Tang Yunsheng's mind while simultaneously accessing his memories. To be able to become a demonic cult master, he was naturally not a benevolent person; he had committed numerous acts of murder, robbery, and spiritual space scanning.

The Cult Master finally understood the whole story. Lu Yang and his two companions had painstakingly managed to infiltrate the Wen Dao Sect, but their plan had completely failed due to the actions of the two vice-cult masters, Liu and Gao. That wasn't all; after Liu and Gao failed, they reported that Vice-Cult Master Jin was a traitor. Lu Yang and his two loyal companions were on their way to the headquarters to report this news, but Tang Yunsheng, for his own selfish reasons, tried to kill them to silence them.

"You scoundrel!" The Cult Master crushed Tang Yunsheng to death. If he hadn't appeared by chance, these three promising demonic talents, wholeheartedly devoted to the Immortal Cult, would have died right here! In fact, after his spiritual space was searched, Tang Yunsheng had already become an imbecile, no different from a dead person.

"The three of you have suffered," the Cult Master said, comforting them. This was his first time meeting Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and Man Gu. They were distinguished in appearance, pillars of the demonic cult, and future trusted aides.

Lu Yang: "..."

Lu Yang heard Tang Yunsheng cry out "Cult Master" before he died, so this middle-aged man in front of him was the Immortal Cult Master? Had he just come out of Reserve Stronghold Number Five? And the three of them had gained the Cult Master's trust? A series of questions popped into Lu Yang's mind. Were some steps missing? How had the goal of this trip been achieved so easily?

Inside the spiritual space, Senior Sister's expression remained unchanged, still looking detached from the mundane world. She said, "Everything is going according to plan." The Immortal Fairy looked at Senior Sister with adoration, thinking, 'This young girl is amazing, so cunningly brilliant; I couldn't do that.' Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu also thought this was part of Senior Sister's plan, believing that, true to her reputation, nothing could escape her calculations. With Senior Sister there, they felt completely at ease. Only Lu Yang had a strange expression, suspecting it was all a coincidence. But considering Senior Sister's strength, he figured even coincidences were part of her plan. Well, Senior Sister's plan was perfect.

Originally, the Cult Master thought Lu Yang and his two companions were talented individuals with good potential, very suitable to be possessed by the Immortal Being. However, he worried they might die in the Wen Dao Sect, or if they survived, they might be swayed by the Wen Dao Sect, making them untrustworthy. Therefore, he hadn't intended to call them over for the test. Now that he had witnessed this scene himself and had Tang Yunsheng's memories as corroboration, all his suspicions vanished.

"As for the matter of Vice-Cult Master Jin, the three of you must not speak of it. I want only the four of us to know about this," the Cult Master said. He believed the claim of Vice-Cult Master Jin being a traitor was likely a desperate accusation made by Liu and Gao before their deaths.

The Immortal Fairy nodded. Senior Sister nodded. The Immortal Fairy, halfway through her nod, frowned and said, "This person is very strange. Why do I feel a familiar aura from him?" The aura was too faint, requiring careful discernment. "It's like an Immortal Dao Fruit, but not exactly alike," she muttered, "Strange." Yun Zhi heard the Immortal Fairy's muttering, raised an eyebrow, and felt that the truth of the Immortal Cult seemed somewhat different from what she had imagined.

The Cult Master personally led Lu Yang and his two companions into Reserve Stronghold Number Five. Lu Yang and his two companions finally arrived at the Immortal Cult headquarters, but the scene was different from what they had imagined. The imagined Immortal Cult headquarters, if not a place of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, should at least have an atmosphere of ancient demon lords lurking in the shadows. But the actual Immortal Cult headquarters was bustling with followers flying around, carrying bricks, sawing trees, and undertaking large-scale construction to build houses and altars.

The Cult Master casually said, "To be cautious and evade the Wen Dao Sect's pursuit, our cult just completed a relocation. Although everything has been moved, it still needs to be organized and built up." He continued, "The three of you arrived at just the right time. Our cult is preparing to hold an internal selection. Soon, a large number of Foundation Establishment and Qi Cultivation stage followers will arrive, and you will compete on the same stage. The most outstanding person will receive the Immortal Being's favor."

"Alright, I'll stop here for now," he said. "The three of you can temporarily stay here. Someone will notify you when the selection begins. I still have things to attend to."

After saying this, the Cult Master hurriedly left. The Immortal Cult no longer had any strongholds available, so he needed to choose three more in case of emergencies. His ability to become the Cult Master relied not only on his cultivation but also on his caution.