The entire Qinglong Island was brightly lit. The night patrol personnel that were originally assigned because of the competition were nowhere to be found. The scattered cultivators became a group of headless flies, chattering and clamoring in a mess. Gossip was everywhere, and they were shouting all kinds of things - some said that the evil cultivators had come to cause trouble, some said that the island master had gone astray from practicing martial arts... The most outrageous thing was that some people said that there was a real big blue dragon under the Qinglong Island, and this dragon king had somehow broken free from the seal and came out to look for food. The cultivators on the island might only be enough for it to have a midnight snack.

Tang Wanqiu always kept a distance of three meters from Yan Zhengming and the others, as if she was waiting for them intentionally. Yan Zhengming could see that and did not attack her rashly. But Shuikeng, who was held in his hand like a package, was pitiful. She felt dizzy and scared, and could not help crying. Fortunately, Li Yun had suppressed the demon blood in her body with elixirs in advance. Otherwise, if she was allowed to cry like this, Qinglong Island would be shaken, and who knows what kind of weird incident would be spread.

Tang Wanqiu led them straight across the hillside of the lecture hall, and in an instant they entered a forest and stopped in front of a cluster of stone tablets.

This place is called "Forest of Steles", where stand the stone tablets of various powerful people on Qinglong Island who have ascended to heaven or fallen. It is similar to the ancestral halls on earth where ancestors are worshipped. Cheng Qian and his friends have heard of it, but they are not disciples of Qinglong Island after all. They are just guests staying here to study, and no one would come here for no reason.

Tang Wanqiu let go and threw Shuikeng aside. Shuikeng cried all the way, crying out all the fear in his heart. Only shock and anger were left. As soon as he was free, he aimed at Tang Wanqiu's hand and opened his mouth fiercely to bite her.

But before Shuikeng's teeth fell, Tang Wanqiu suddenly lowered her head to look at her. The eyes of this Tang Zhenren who was always rude to others were actually red. She seemed not to want to reveal anything in front of a child. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to look stern. She didn't look like she was suppressing her grief, but more like an angry King Kong.

Shuikeng looked at her for a moment. Instead of being scared, it sensed something like a sensitive little animal. It silently withdrew its baby teeth, dragged two lines of snot, and was carried back by the frightened senior brother.

Tang Wanqiu turned his back to them and said stiffly, "I am ordered by the island owner to send you away tonight."

Yan Zhengming was surprised: "Senior, what happened on the island? Although we are not talented, we have lived under the protection of the island master for so many years. If there is anything we can do to help..."

Hearing him say the word "bless", Tang Wanqiu's brows finally relaxed slightly. He turned around to look at him and said lightly: "Master Yan, just remember the favor in your heart, and take care of your own life first!"

After saying that, she pointed to the ground and shouted, "Open!"

There was a rumbling sound from the ground of the Forest of Steles, and a two-foot square crack appeared on the ground. It was pitch black underneath, with faint traces of stone steps. It turned out to be a secret passage.

Tang Wanqiu made a hand gesture, and the power of thunder and fire gathered at her fingertips. With a flick of her finger, she lit up the wall lamps in the entire secret passage one after another. The secret passage immediately became brightly lit. Tang Wanqiu took the lead and walked down, urging: "Don't dawdle!"

Yan Zhengming quickly exchanged glances with Li Yun, who frowned and whispered, "Brother, follow me first."

From the moment the island owner showed up at the beginning of the competition, Yan Zhengming began to vaguely feel that something was wrong, but he didn't know any of the inside story after all, and was completely confused at this moment. He was also holding a puddle that was wiping his nose with his sleeve. It couldn't be any more confusing.

Yan Zhengming handed the puddle to several Taoist children who followed him, and could not help but look back. Cheng Qian was standing steadily at the rear guard position, and was originally looking in the direction of the lecture hall. At this moment, as if he felt his gaze, Cheng Qian suddenly turned around and nodded at him, as if he had a clue in his heart even if the sky and the earth were to fall.

But Yan Zhengming knew that he was not sure about it, he just didn't care, so he couldn't help but smile bitterly. But after the smile, he suddenly felt inexplicably relieved. Yan Zhengming took the sword and followed Tang Wanqiu down the secret passage.

The secret passage was not spacious. Tang Wanqiu, who led the way, was fine, but Yan Zhengming had to keep his head down all the way. The flames on the wall lamps on both sides were blessed by the talisman, so people passing by were not startled. No one spoke along the way, which made it seem very depressing. It was easy for people to lose their way underground. While wandering around, Cheng Qian secretly calculated the distance in his mind. Just when he felt that he was about to leave Qinglong Island, another row of stone steps appeared in front of him.

The stone steps were straight up and down, and the gaps were extremely narrow. Even to get out of the puddles one had to bend down slightly. The others almost crawled out, and the group of monks looked like they were crawling through a dog hole in an unruly manner.

Li Yun finally couldn't help but whispered, "I wonder where this is taking us..."

Yan Zhengming shook his head, turned back with some difficulty and said, "Zheshi, take good care of the little sister."

His reminder reminded Han Yuan, who was following behind him.

Han Yuan quickly felt around in his arms and pulled out a string of "pendants". These were the soul-searching needles that he had stolen from the Immortal Market a few years ago. The needle tips were poisonous and were stuffed into a small wooden shell. The needle noses were strung with a straw rope, which gave it a peculiar look of begging on the street.

When Han Yuan first got the soul-searching needles, he thought that there were so many people on the island bullying them, and they might be used up soon. However, he had his senior brothers to protect him in everything, and these three needles have been kept until now.

Han Yuan hung three soul-searching needles on Shuikeng's neck and instructed: "If someone wants to bully you, pull out the cork and use this to stab him."

As they were talking, they had reached the bottom of the stone steps. Tang Wanqiu slapped a stone slab with his palm, and the more than two-foot thick stone slab exploded into pieces. This senior was like a firecracker rushing around recklessly. Yan Zhengming was almost losing his temper and had to follow him out silently.

As soon as he emerged, Yan Zhengming felt a gust of sea breeze blowing towards him. He looked closely and found that this was actually a secret dock with only a ship parked in the middle. The ship did not look very strange when viewed closely, but it seemed to blend into the night. If it was not right in front of him, one would hardly notice that there was such a huge ship here.

"Go ahead," Tang Wanqiu said, "There are no boatmen, but you have a deep foundation in spells, and the boat can be controlled by spells. You can do it yourself. If you can all fly swords, there will be no need for this trouble."

Tang Wanqiu usually acted like "God is the boss and I am the second in command". Coming from her mouth, these words should have been a mockery of their low level of cultivation, but the strange thing was that this time, she didn't seem to mean that.

She turned her head to look at the dark sky and the sea which was even darker than the sky, and whispered in an almost inaudible voice: "It's too fast, it's too late..."

For a moment, she seemed to be buried in the thick night. Her skirt and hair swayed gently in the sea breeze, almost giving people the illusion that she was a little fragile.

After a long while, Tang Wanqiu finally said, "I actually saw Han Muchun that day, but I didn't dare to recognize him. I might be... a little reckless, and I wasn't sure if he was willing to be recognized."

Unfortunately, she was so clumsy in dealing with people that before she could make a decision, the man disappeared.

Yan Zhengming was stunned for a moment, then realized that she was talking about the battle with the demon cultivators on the way to the East China Sea five years ago.

Tang Wanqiu: "You... well, you look a bit like your master when he was young."

As she spoke, she lowered her head slightly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. This was an unconscious little action that many girls did, but when she did it, it seemed to contain a shocking past.

Tang Wanqiu finished her gentlest words in her life, and her tone hardened again. She said to Yan Zhengming: "After you leave here, don't go back to Fuyao Mountain. Go to the human world to train, or find a beautiful mountain and beautiful water to continue your training. Don't let others know that you are from the Fuyao Sect."

Yan Zhengming asked tentatively, "Senior, hasn't our Fuyao Sect already declined and become a small, insignificant sect? If we tell others about this, will anyone know about it?"

"Of course, I haven't heard of it, but I know what I should and shouldn't know," Tang Wanqiu said, "Don't dawdle, get on the boat and leave quickly..."

Before she finished her words, a strong beam of light suddenly shot up into the sky from Qinglong Island. For a moment, the entire island was as bright as day, so bright that people could not open their eyes.

Tang Wanqiu's pupils shrank and his face showed anxiety.

At this time, Cheng Qian, who had been following closely behind, suddenly stood up and slowly raised the Frost Blade Sword: "Who is it?"

There were several "whoosh" sounds in the air, and a group of masked men fell down like black crows and surrounded them in an instant.

The leader stepped out from the crowd and said quietly from behind a black cloth: "Qinglong Island is under martial law. From now on, no ships are allowed to leave!"

Tang Wanqiu raised her hand and grabbed Cheng Qian's shoulder, then pulled him aside with brute force. She stepped forward and said, "I have never heard the island owner say that he would impose martial law. Who the hell are you?"

The masked man sneered and bowed to Tang Wanqiu, saying, "Master, there is no need to be angry. Even if you get on the boat, you can't get out."

After saying that, he looked up as if to indicate something, and saw countless stars lighting up in the night sky. From a distance, they looked like a group of scattered fireflies.

Shuikeng just opened her mouth to cry, but Zheshi covered her mouth with her hand. Li Yun asked in a low voice: "Brother, what is that..."

Yan Zhengming looked around and then retracted his gaze, answering, "When I was flying the sword, the sword was stimulated by the pure air and emitted fluorescence."

Li Yun couldn't help but panic: "What? So many? Who are they targeting? They can't be targeting us, right?"

Li Yun is always the type of person who is extremely smart in normal times, but always fails at critical moments.

As soon as he said this, Yan Zhengming knew what he was thinking - indeed, they were just mediocre disciples from a small and insignificant sect, and had never left the mountain. The only time they left Fuyao Mountain, they moved to Qinglong Island. The most ostentatious thing they had done was to fight with a few gang-forming cultivators. The other party was mobilizing such a large force, most likely targeting Tang Wanqiu, who was capable of offending everyone in the world, and there was no telling where this trouble came from.

Li Yun whispered: "Big Brother, if you are not here to cause trouble for us, then..."

Yan Zhengming pinched his elbow with one hand and shook his head, feeling that this matter was not that simple. Why didn't Tang Wanqiu go to help when there was chaos on the island, but instead sent them away secretly?

He keenly sensed something from Tang Wanqiu's warning "Don't mention that you are a member of the Fuyao faction."

Suddenly, Cheng Qian, who had been silent all this time, spoke up and said with certainty, "That person is Zhou Hanzheng."

Yan Zhengming was stunned: "What? How did you know?"

Cheng Qian stared at the pair of eyes of the masked man in the lead without changing his expression, and said softly: "Him? I would recognize him even if he turned into ashes."

Yan Zhengming, the real victim, might have forgotten - he has been like this since he was a child, he might quarrel or get angry, but he would not bear grudges. Although the incident of being thrown off the platform and humiliated was still vivid in his mind, it did not leave him with any deep hatred. Anyway, Zhou Han was about to throw him off the platform again, but it might not be that easy. If he had the energy, he would rather recall the beautiful and happy days when he was young on Fuyao Mountain.

Cheng Qian was different. Whenever he couldn't practice sword anymore or encountered a bottleneck and felt that he couldn't get over that hurdle no matter what, he would think of Zhang Dasen and his brothers and Zhou Hanzheng. As his cultivation improved by leaps and bounds, he gradually stopped taking Zhang Dasen and his ilk seriously, and he began to focus on targeting Zhou Hanzheng alone.

Cheng Qian glanced around, took a step forward, and said to Tang Wanqiu in a slightly raised voice: "Master Tang, I am very grateful to the island owner for taking care of me over the years, but there is one thing I don't understand - why did he allow a person of unknown origin to sneak into the lecture hall?"

Tang Wanqiu was stunned by what he said, and then turned around suddenly: "What did you say?"

Upon hearing this, the masked man in the lead cast his eyes on Cheng Qian... and the Frost Blade Sword in his hand, and laughed softly, "It turns out that the person the Living Bird sensed that day was you. You, little brat, are quite skilled. You managed to dodge it."

He had deliberately suppressed his voice before, but this sentence revealed his true voice. Even if Tang Wanqiu was hard of hearing, she could still hear it. An expression of disbelief that could not be concealed appeared on her face: "Zhou Hanzheng?"

Seeing that he couldn't hide it, the masked man took off the black veil on his face without any fear, revealing the face of a scholar who thought twice before acting, and said with a smile: "Fellow Daoist Tang, please come back with us to accompany the island owner to meet the guests?"

Tang Wanqiu's eyes widened at first, and then he flew into a rage: "The island owner has been so kind to you, and you actually turned to someone else?"

Zhou Hanzheng shook his head and sighed, "Master Tang is wrong. I am not from Qinglong Island. I have never joined anyone in these years. I am just a temporary guardian on the island because the island master thinks highly of me. Huh? How come I remembered it wrongly? Isn't Master Tang also a disciple of Mu Lanshan, not a disciple of Qinglong Island?"

Tang Wanqiu would not listen to his nonsense at all. Without saying a word, she pulled the heavy sword from her back and swept across with a sharp sword wind without saying a word. She did not show any fear towards the sword riders in the air and rushed forward recklessly, intending to smash Zhou Hanzheng's head into a rotten winter melon.

Zhou Han was leaping lightly into the air, and with the Sansi fan in his hand swung, the energy of thunder and fire appeared faintly, and it collided with Tang Wanqiu's sword energy. With a loud "bang", the two sides disappeared, and the ground was instantly scorched.

Zhou Hanzheng looked cruel but was actually very ruthless. Yan Zhengming was terrified watching the fight from the side. He suddenly realized that he had come to the conclusion too early that "he would not easily knock him off the platform". Zhou Hanzheng was not only very skilled, but also very shameless. He did not seem to want to fight Tang Wanqiu one-on-one. With a wave of his folding fan, Zhou Hanzheng said to the many masked men in the sky and on the ground: "Capture this man!"

Tang Wanqiu roared, "You come and try!"

The masked men flew down on their swords like black crows, filling the small dock. Yan Zhengming's sword was like condensed light, and he was already flying in the air at a moderate height. He made a hand gesture, and at the same time, several shadows flying on swords like him flashed on the spot. This kind of distraction consumed a lot of his true energy, and he was going to take down all the masked men in the air by himself.

Cheng Qian wanted to try out the frost blade in his hand on the man surnamed Zhou, but when he turned around and saw the pale-faced Li Yun and others, he forced himself to pour a basin of cold water on himself before he could get too excited, and stayed beside Zhe Shi who was hugging the puddle.

Two masked men landed stealthily on the ground and approached Cheng Qian and his group from the other side. It was obvious that they did not take Cheng Qian, a teenager, seriously at all. They drew their swords and were ready to kill him to silence him.

Cheng Qian did not retreat but advanced, without even saying hello, and directly met the enemy with a move called "Tides Crashing on the Shore".

Until then, Cheng Qian realized the difference between the famous sword in his hand that had killed countless people and his tattered wooden sword. As soon as the frost blade sword moved, an indescribable cold air filled the entire dock. At the moment the weapons collided, Cheng Qian seemed to hear the deafening roars of thousands of ancestors, some filled with hatred and anger. A layer of frost visibly condensed on the sword, and it actually cut off the weapons of the two masked men with one sword. The true energy in Cheng Qian's body was stirred wildly, and he almost had the illusion that he would explode and die in the next moment.

Yes, the note said "Don't act rashly"...

Cheng Qian was startled and instinctively wanted to throw the sword away. However, as soon as he retreated, more masked men rushed over, and one even reached out to grab the puddle. Cheng Qian made up his mind and thought, "Whatever happens, I'll kill these bastards first."

At that moment, he did not stop moving or changing his moves, and swung his sword again, "Turning Waves on the Shore". The two masked men were sure that Cheng Qian could not even concentrate. After all, his cultivation was limited, let alone the level of being able to jump levels and fight two people alone. How could they not know that his swordsmanship was honed with a wooden sword - a wooden sword would break if bent, and the amount of sword energy it could withstand was extremely limited. The person holding the sword not only had to control the force, but also had to be very precise. In this way, Cheng Qian dared to combine the powerful Haichao Sword with the ever-changing Fuyao Wooden Sword into one, and beat everyone in the Lecture Hall. He had already gone further in the way of swordsmanship than those who could concentrate their minds and control the sword.

Needless to say, he is now holding the ancient evil sword "Frost Blade".

The sword light was like purple lightning and green frost, as if it could sense the murderous intent of its master. The sword wind instantly surged by more than three feet. Immediately, there was a sound like tearing cloth, and Cheng Qian actually slashed the necks of two people with one sword. Blood splattered everywhere and fell on the lonely "Sword of Unhappy Death", which actually condensed into a layer of blood-colored frost.