Back at Purple Mountain, Xiao Luo's homecoming proved to be a very fruitful. Within a few days, Purple Sect's structure was completely rebuilt and thoroughly cleansed of all lingering debris from the battle. After Xiao Luo was done assigning duties, he returned to his quarters and lifted the sealing spell. Candles of merpeople corpse oil illuminated the passage. At the entrance, he looked sadly at the decaying bodies, as Long Yi paraded the prisoners, he saw that there were some elders and higher ranking disciples among them.
"Quit pretending, I know you're not dead."
Sensing Xiao Luo, they stirred and started whining and shouting. They thought their transgressions weren't serious and would probably be pardoned.
"Master, what is to be done regarding these defectors?" Long Yi inquired.
Xiao Luo smiled at the bold traitors.
"Actually, I want to give you all a break seeing that you are probably not guilty. But it doesn't seem expedient anymore!"
Since Xiao Luo had attained The Immortalization Stage; he always felt isolated from the rest. It was his wish to resolve the matter amicably but their attitude had been less than reasonable.
"You are going to free us this instant! Killing us would bring a storm on your head!"
A bald man among them tried to surge forward but was restrained by a golden rope.
"Save your breath. It is the rope of immortality that has been crafted by the master. It won't budge." Long Yi replied coolly.
The baldie put up a fight to test the power of the ropes, he struggled and struggled stubbornly and when he saw he was going nowhere, he glared at Long Yi with enough hate in his eyes that could pulverize anything in his path. Before his imprisonment, the bald man was previously a council elder and normally, Long Yi was expected to salute him. But Long Yi simply stared back at him with a blank expression on his face. A few feet away, Old man Xiao continued his mission to root out the information he was actively seeking at the moment.
"You know I acknowledge you, why not skip all this unpleasantness and confess already? It would do you a whole lot of good on the long run"
As if he had been waiting for Xiao Luo to say something of that nature, the bald conspirator retorted with a confidence that one would not expect from a captive;
"Do not patronize me old man! You and I both know that you can't make me do anything against my will! Let me go this instant!"
Seeing that the bald man was set in his ways and had made it pretty clear on where he stood on this matter, Xiao Luo ignored him and let his eyes rove over the remaining captives. He glared at them and they trembled under the weight of his intense gaze.
"Tell me something, do you want to be free? Before you think there's some hidden meaning or trick in my question, let me clarify one more time; DO YOU WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE?"
A terrifying silence ensued. One would think that they were already dead. Xiao Luo gave them a grace of a few more moments to consider. When no one spoke, Xiao Luo paced back and forth in deep thought.
"This is strange." The old man said to himself; "It is almost as if they are more terrified of something or someone else that they would risk loosing their freedom."
He then crossed his hands behind him and asked a more direct question:
"Who put you up to this? Who are they and what do they have over you that you would risk my wrath?"
The bald man's voice came again, this time his tone was more acidic than ever; "You severely overestimate your importance old man. You can do nothing. It would be a whole lot better for you to set me free Xiao Luo or you'll get what's coming!"
Xiao Luo ignored him as he thought deeply on the situation.
"There it is again. That audacity that's backed by faith in someone else."
Suddenly, the old master did the unthinkable, he pressed his hand on the bald man's forehead in an attempt to steal his memory.
"You bastard! Search Soul is a forbidden spell! Let us go or risk the wrath of all the decent sects in the world!"
In the background, someone condemned him as well. The bald man knew Xiao Luo's intentions and tried to counter it with a blast of Qi.
Xiao Luo frowned. "Are you seriously trying to cultivate right now?"
Self-destruction was usually the last and deadliest resort of a cultivator. Xiao Luo increased his own potency and obliterated the space around the bald man, creating a fractured region of space.
His corpse was absorbed by space. Before the destruction, the space only quaked a little bit but it did not cause much damage. Xiao Luo turned on the rest and began his interrogation.
A senior male disciple rose with a wicked glint in his eyes and chided Xiao Luo;
"Damn it, Xiao Luo you'd better set us free or I'll self-destruct this instant and reveal how you detained the elders of Purple Sect!"
Because it never crossed his mind that Xiao Luo could kill them all, he remained unafraid. The young one was confident he had a hold over Xiao Luo and therefore acted like he was in a position of strength, the very next second, he was decapitated. The last thought he had was a fleeting one;
"His clothes ... why do they look like me?"
A few seconds prior to this, Xiao Luo had waved his hand and caught the severed head in the air and then drew out long worms from the brain. The rest who were about to self-destruct held their peace. As he took out the worms, Xiao Luo explained the situation to the petrified prisoners;
"These worms are smooth as silk and can be as long as seven meters. For about seven decades now, these elders have been unknowingly aiding the demons."
In a series of brief movements, he decapitated their heads one by one. Pointing to one of the senior disciples, he revealed a chilling information;
"He is also one of them."
Old man Xiao deliberated some more. After making sure, he then set free the restraints on the rest with a simple wave of his hand. He was indeed a gracious leader. The surviving elders prostrated before him and Xiao Luo issued an order to the rest;
"Go and apprehend the following people. Li Sui, Sheng Ruhuo, and Yan Jiaqing..."
Everyone he had mentioned were all apprentices and close friends of the unwilling conspirators who had recently been beheaded so it was easy to remember them. Before they left, the prudent Xiao Luo wiped some of their memories by tweaking the point of cultivation between the eyes.
Adjacent to Xiao Luo's location was Long Yi, who was in a completely different wing of Purple Mountain. He was dressing his wounds when he Xiao Luo's message dropped in his mind through soul transmission;
"Apprentice, come quickly at once."
Long Yi immediately abandoned what he had been occupied with, hopped on his swords, and flew to Xiao Luo's training room. The younger man stopped at the entrance to undo the sealing spell which kept out intruders and rushed in eagerly to honor his master's summons. He scanned the passage hoping to see or hear any sign of his master's whereabouts. Xiao Luo's strong voice came from the other side;
"Come in Long Yi."
Long Yi's countenance darkened when he saw the worrying lines on his master's face that made him look older than usual.
"There isn't much you can do if you have a target on your back."
"Master what-"
Xiao Luo how pale he was and moved to check his temperature. Though he maintained a cool appearance, inwardly, he was ready to go off at any minute. Xiao Luo directed his qi into his apprentice and cleared away all his health defects and hibernating infections. It was spot on. But Xiao Luo didn't call him over just to heal him but to inform him of his decision.
"Long Yi, you are here for one reason."
The younger man replied respectfully; "Your wish is my command master."
Assuming a sad expression, he began; "Long Yi," Xiao Luo continued gloomily; "Over the next couple of days, you will assume control here as the head of Purple Sect."
His words struck Long Yi's already tense heart with the suddenness of a lightning bolt and tears gathered unconsciously. The younger man thought Xiao Luo's time was drawing close. Hence the reason for this bombshell. He exclaimed in accordance to the storm of feelings that besieged him;
"MASTER!"
Xiao Luo saw his concern and smiled. Patting his shoulder, he assured him;
"I'm fine."
Long Yi wanted to complain but stopped when Xiao Luo's form began to shimmer and his signal began to grow weak. The room became deathly quiet as time itself stood still. The Qi disappeared but the body remained. Long Yi instantly realized that they were in an enclosed space that was free from any prying eyes or any listening ears. It was just him and his master. Then Xiao Luo's voice echoed from the silent realm.
"Long Yi, we are free from heaven's spies now. After I attained the Immortalization Stage, I don't know why I can no longer contact the Immortal Government. Everything I say and do could cause irreparable damage to the mortal world as a powerful being at the Immortalization Stage."
"Even now, I can't be seen in public neither can is it possible to initiate contact. This brings me to the reason I invited you here, I need you to take charge. I have eliminated most of the secret spies of the demons within our ranks. But there always that one fish that slips through the net so do not get comfortable."
"Should any major issue arise, come seek me at Dabie Mountain, I will be there with Wang Yan. Don't try to provoke any person or being at Dabie Mountain, and most importantly;- Don't channel Qi while you are there."
As soon as Long Yi's eyes opened, he discovered to his astonishment that he had crossed a milestone in Void Spirit Stage and received the added advantage of memory skills.
...
The Purple Sect's logistics department was an office that came with many perks. Left to them, a lot of elders would use their influence to install their relatives just so they could benefit from the fatness there. But there was no room for nepotism here as the Purple Sect had decent elders and noble in spirit. There was however an unspoken rule that said only mediocre disciples still beneath the Foundation Establishment Stage could enter. But after Xiao Luo flushed out the dissidents, a lot of open slots emerged, everyone's ambition was now fixed here.
A rotund young male from the logistics department swaggered out from the gates and headed straight towards the foot of Purple Mountain. The guards didn't bother him. During the assault, The Purple Sect had protected the mortals and escorted them home after it was over to rebuild their homes. A good number of the mortals were relatives of the cultivators but they still scoured the surrounding areas for possible defectors. So when they saw the fat man approaching, they greeted him.
Ensuring that none saw him, he slipped a piece of paper into a hole and quickly left, pretending he was on another mission. Some days later, a bat came out of that same hole and headed towards an unknown destination.
...