He coldly withdrew his divine sense and looked toward the dozen or so cultivators gathered together, saying indifferently, "Continue."

"Uh... reporting to the Venerable, we truly do not know the details," the Azure Frost Sect’s disciple said while looking slightly flustered.

The moment his words fell, a scorching and sharp sword intent enveloped him and pressed him down.

At that critical moment, the heavily injured middle-aged man stepped forward. He was panting weakly and said, "This junior was once taken by that white robed cultivator into a mysterious formation. Inside the formation, there was an altar. He seemed to be using me as a sacrifice to carry out some kind of ritual. But the ritual appeared to have failed. Still, I ended up like this because of the strange power within that formation."

"Immortal lord, I know what that bad person wanted to do. If I tell you, can you punish him and avenge Douding, Xiaomei, Shuazi, and Zhuangzhuang?"

At that moment, a child’s voice rang out.

It was Ye Ying and the other children who had cautiously stepped out after the stone chamber doors that was suddenly opened.

They had just happened to hear the exchange between Venerable Jian Li and the others.

Driven by their desire to avenge their companions as well as the fear and hatred that had built up over time, the children overcame their instinctive reverence and fear toward immortals and spoke out.

When Jian Li heard this, he did not need to ask further.

He could already guess that those names belonged to the children who had been killed.

He gave a slight nod. "Yes."

"That bad person told us that there is a formation here called the Fate Devouring Array. It can take anything from others and make it its own, but the person who loses it will die. Douding, Xiaomei, Shuazi, and Zhuangzhuang all died after something was taken from them," Hua Yungjun said excitedly.

The immortal had agreed.

Their friends would not have died in vain.

...

It seemed these children had no fate with him after all.

They had spiritual roots and were victims here.

As a Deity Transformation stage cultivator from the righteous path’s leading sect, the Holy Sword Sect, Venerable Jian Li would surely avenge them and arrange for their future.

In that case, Xiao Shou would have neither the merit of saving their lives nor the merit of avenging them.

To these simple children, he might even look more like a suspicious kidnapper.

What should he do next?

Give up?

Watching this from the side, Xiao Shou felt deeply discouraged.

At that moment, Zhong Kui let out a wicked laugh.

"A formation that can seize anything from others... how interesting. Let me see what such a heaven defying thing looks like. The Fate Devouring Array? A formation, you say?"

After saying that, he swept his divine sense across the surroundings.

Under the crude and overwhelming pressure of Zhong Kui’s divine sense, only two formations remained intact, standing to the east and west of where the original nine-level Fate Turning Pagoda had been.

Since he could not tell which one was the Fate Devouring Array, he followed his intuition.

With a flick of his sleeve, he immediately flew toward the formation in the east.

However, his movement was instantly blocked by a streak of crimson sword energy. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Zhong Kui, you demonic scum. A formation that can seize the possessions of others must be an evil thing. With me here, how could I allow you to act so recklessly?" Jian Li declared.

As he raised his sword, the sword energy surged as he prepared to strike at the eastern formation that Zhong Kui was trying to approach.

At that moment, from the crowd below, the two young men who looked almost identical, like twin brothers, suddenly stepped forward and spoke in unison.

"Venerable, please stay your hand. We are direct disciples of the Heaven Seeker Peak of the Celestial Truth Sect. According to our calculations, the one destined by heaven has arrived today and should currently be in the auspicious eastern position. One favored by the Heavenly Dao must be righteous. In contrast, the western position is filled with sinister energy, showing signs of the emergence of a great evil."

Jian Li paused in surprise upon hearing this.

"Celestial Truth Sect? Heaven Seeker Peak? The one destined by heaven?"

He thought of the missing Xiao Ran and felt a sense of disbelief.

He then turned his attention toward the eastern formation.

By coincidence, at that very moment, the eastern formation began to emit a milky white glow filled with a sacred aura and rapidly shrinking.

At the same time, the western formation emitted a dark, ominous black light, also shrinking rapidly.

Seeing the simultaneous changes in both formations, Zhong Kui did not hesitate at all.

While laughing wildly, he flew straight toward the western formation, blocking Jian Li’s attacks as he moved.

"How interesting. I do enjoy these wicked things. The more sinister, the better."

"Zhong Kui, since you seek death, I will grant it to you."

Without the balancing influence of the Water Qilin’s gentle nature, Jian Li’s righteous heart remained unwavering.

He harbored deep hatred for demonic and evil practices.

Previously, he had held back due to concern for Xiao Ran being in Zhong Kui’s grasp.

Now that she was no longer a hostage, he had no more reservations.

In an instant, his entire body was engulfed in Vermilion Bird flames that carried the aura of burning everything to ashes.

A sword flew out from within him and hovered above his head, absorbing the blazing fire energy.

In the blink of an eye, it expanded from a tiny blade into a massive sword projection dozens of meters tall and slashing down toward Zhong Kui.

Under the immense sword shadow, everything in the surrounding area trembled under the scorching sword energy before being reduced to ashes.

So he was finally getting serious.

Zhong Kui’s eyes grew even more excited.

With a wave of his hand, a miniature bone fan flew out from his body and instantly expanded into a massive fan, blocking the enormous sword projection.