Yuan Du was dead — not killed by anyone, but self-annihilated.
Just as Shi Zheng had done back in the Lingxiao Domain when faced with certain doom, confronted by a force he could not resist, he hadn't put up any fight at all. Instead, he had collapsed his own Small World, utterly resolute.
No one had anticipated this outcome. Dozens of High-Order Open Heaven cultivators hadn't even had a chance to act. Watching an expert of equal status and standing take his own life right before their eyes left them all deeply shaken.
Yang Kai's brow furrowed slightly as he stared at the spot where Yuan Du had perished, his heart far from calm.
These Mo Disciples, once Ink-converted, seemed to place precious little value on their own lives. This only deepened his understanding of how terrifying the Ink truly was.
It was a power capable of seizing both body and mind — one that even Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators could not withstand.
Having witnessed a senior brother he had spent thousands upon thousands of years alongside fall before his very eyes, Li Yuanwang's expression was complicated beyond words. He stood rooted in place for a long time without speaking.
Gao Ting stood beside him. She lifted her gaze to the horizon and called out softly, "Sect Master!"
Only then did Li Yuanwang snap back to awareness. With a wave of his hand, he dispelled the grand sealing formation. Moments later, a figure came streaking in from beyond the sky — Dong Peng, who landed before Li Yuanwang and clasped his fists in salute. "Master, everything has been dealt with. Not a single one of them survived."
Li Yuanwang gave a slight nod.
When he had invited Yuan Du to this place, he had naturally arranged for others to handle Gu Ling'er and the other Mo Disciples separately. Even Jiang Yan, who had departed Langya well ahead of the others, had been tailed by a Langya Seventh-Order cultivator the entire time, ready to strike the moment he neared the Lingxiao Domain.
"Any casualties?" Li Yuanwang asked.
Dong Peng shook his head. "We met some resistance, but no one was hurt."
Li Yuanwang nodded.
Hearing this, Yang Kai felt a measure of relief. Some resistance was only to be expected. If all these Mo Disciples had possessed the courage to self-annihilate like Shi Zheng and Yuan Du, that would have been truly terrifying.
No one could truly regard their own life as worthless.
Still, while the number of Langya cultivators who had fallen this time was not large — one Seventh-Order and several Sixth-Order — all of them had held important positions within the Sect or enjoyed tremendous popularity. One or two disappearing might have gone unnoticed, but all of them vanishing at once was very likely to raise suspicions among the disciples.
Langya naturally had measures in place for the aftermath. Conveniently, following the last trial, many of the Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators whom Yang Kai had tormented had declared they were entering seclusion, so Gu Ling'er and the others could simply be explained away as having done the same.
Yuan Du's case would follow the same script. Once enough time passed, the storm would blow over on its own.
"I would like to thank all of you for coming to our aid. Langya is eternally grateful." Li Yuanwang composed himself and addressed the gathered High-Order Open Heaven cultivators with words of thanks.
Though in the end they hadn't thrown a single blow — Yuan Du had chosen self-annihilation before they needed to — had they not been lurking all around him with killing intent, Yuan Du might not have given up so easily. Driven by the power of Ink, he could very well have fought Li Yuanwang to the death.
Yu Xiangdie gave a slight nod. "Since ancient times, Blessed Realms have been as one family. Senior Brother Li, you are too kind."
Langya's crisis had been resolved, but while all these people had been hiding here, they were largely in the dark about the situations within their own Blessed Realms.
Before rushing to Langya, each of them had already sent word back to their respective Blessed Realms, informing them that the power of Ink had resurfaced. If nothing unexpected had occurred, every major Blessed Realm should have been conducting internal investigations by now.
Though judging from Langya's current situation, it was unlikely other Blessed Realms still harbored Mo Disciples, there was always the possibility of exceptions.
Langya had produced one Yuan Du. Other Blessed Realms might have their own.
Li Yuanwang spoke up. "Now that Yuan Du is dead, this source has been severed. Tracking down the hidden Ink Clan member will be far more difficult. Does anyone have any ideas?"
Yuan Du had been nothing more than a Mo Disciple. Though he possessed Seventh-Order cultivation and served as one of Langya's Vice Sect Masters, compared to a true member of the Ink Clan, he was still insignificant.
With Yuan Du now self-annihilated, hunting down the real Ink Clan member had become the foremost priority for every Blessed Realm. Until this Ink Clan member was found, none of the Blessed Realms would be able to sleep easy.
No one spoke. In their earlier discussions, everyone had agreed that the most likely hiding place for the Ink Clan member was Broken Heaven — after all, it was supremely dangerous and chaotically unstable, making it far easier to conceal one's movements there than anywhere else in the Three Thousand Worlds.
But finding a single Ink Clan member's trail across the vast expanse of Broken Heaven was no easy task either.
Yang Kai stepped forward. "If all you seniors would permit it, I am willing to enter Yuan Du's Small World for an exploration. Perhaps I can find something."
Yu Changdao's eyes lit up at these words. "The altar!"
The reason Yuan Du had been able to contact the hidden Ink Clan member and receive the Ink Bug from them was precisely through the power of that altar and its ritual.
Now that Yuan Du was dead, the altar that served as the link to the Ink Clan might not necessarily be destroyed. Through that altar, a discovery might truly be possible.
No one else had considered this. Not because they lacked quick thinking, but because the power of Ink was so evil and bizarre that they had instinctively assumed Yuan Du's remaining Small World was entirely useless.
But Yang Kai possessed the Heaven and Earth Spring, one of the Four Pillars of the Universe, and had previously gained experience penetrating deep into Shi Zheng's Small World. His perspective on the matter was naturally different.
"Do you have confidence?" Yu Xiangdie asked with concern.