Had they not been at Wind Cloud Sect headquarters, Lord Moyun's attitude would have surely driven the Purple Nether Emperor to lose all restraint, making an all-out battle inevitable.
Yet this was, after all, the Wind Cloud Sect's headquarters. The Purple Nether Emperor's fury raged within him, but he still held himself in check. Had a fight broken out, he would likely have been the one to suffer for it in the end.
Not in the fight itself, but in terms of justification.
Internal strife was strictly prohibited within the Wind Cloud Sect. And since he was currently in Lord Moyun's private dwelling, should a fight truly break out, the blame would fall squarely on his shoulders.
After all, who asked you to barge into someone else's dwelling uninvited?
The Purple Nether Emperor swallowed his rage and stormed off.
From start to finish, Lord Moyun remained as indifferent as ever, as though whether the Purple Nether Emperor was pleased or furious made absolutely no difference to him.
"This Purple Nether Emperor — he's nominally the leader of the independent cultivators among the human race, yet who would have thought he'd be so blindly devoted to the Wind Cloud Sect Master? Has the fortune of humanity really fallen so low?"
In Lord Moyun's heart, there were still some lines he would not cross. Unlike the Purple Nether Emperor, he had not simply gone with the flow and sunk into the same mire as the Wind Cloud Sect.
In this strange and inexplicable atmosphere, Lord Moyun couldn't quite tell whether the Wind Cloud Sect Master was guarding against him, or whether the Sect Master simply didn't want to dispatch him on trivial matters for the time being.
Pretending to besiege the Nine Sun Heavenly Sect on one side while feigning attacks on the Ancient Sky Cicada Academy on the other — what exactly was the Wind Cloud Sect Master scheming behind the scenes?
The Glazed City has rallied the world's forces — there must be some new intelligence targeting the Wind Cloud Sect. Perhaps the Sect Master anticipated that the Nine Sun Heavenly Sect would be a hard nut to crack with the Glazed City backing them, so he changed plans at the last moment? Or perhaps the Sect Master had other opportunities in mind? Surrounding them without striking — was it merely a feint to draw attention east while attacking elsewhere?
Lord Moyun's speculations about the Wind Cloud Sect Master were quite bold. In his view, the Wind Cloud Sect Master was fundamentally someone who never played by conventional rules.
Whatever he was doing, there had to be some insane plan lurking behind it.
Sigh — in the end, the Wind Cloud Sect Master still didn't fully trust his subordinate Dharma Kings. Even though every single one of them had taken his Wind Cloud Laughing Pill.
The Wind Cloud Laughing Pill was a type of medicinal pill the Wind Cloud Sect Master used to control his Dharma Kings. It had the dual function of accelerating the Kings' cultivation while containing a unique poison formula within.
Without the Sect Master's antidote administered at regular intervals, the poison would activate and kill them.
This was a ruthless measure — one could even call it insidious. But such were the Wind Cloud Sect Master's rules.
The Wind Cloud Sect Master had made it clear: anyone who wished to pledge allegiance to him and enjoy his benefits had to play by his rules. Otherwise, they wouldn't even qualify to join the Wind Cloud Sect.
The Wind Cloud Laughing Pill was obviously a tool for controlling subordinates. From the Wind Cloud Sect Master's perspective, it was entirely understandable.
What ruler wouldn't want his subordinates to obey without question and never cause trouble?
Moreover, these were subordinates he had picked up along the way, not brothers-in-arms forged from the same sect. Loyalty was clearly the biggest weakness.
That was why the Wind Cloud Laughing Pill was something the Wind Cloud Sect Master had to use.
Lord Moyun was also growing anxious. Though he had pledged himself to the Wind Cloud Sect, he did not truly agree with its actions.
Especially the destruction of the Boundary Stele Realm — this was something Lord Moyun found utterly unacceptable. He had voiced his opposition on several occasions.
Unfortunately, the Wind Cloud Sect Master was utterly fixated on this matter and refused to listen to any objections whatsoever.
Furthermore, among the Eight Dharma Kings, he — Lord Moyun — was the only one who had truly and vigorously opposed it. Two other Dharma Kings had raised objections as well, but upon seeing the Wind Cloud Sect Master's unyielding stance, they had backed down and instead thrown their firm support behind his decision.
Precisely because of Lord Moyun's opposition, the Wind Cloud Sect Master perhaps didn't want to assign him to these kinds of tasks.
Had Lord Moyun not possessed such formidable cultivation that he couldn't simply be ignored, the Wind Cloud Sect Master might not have even included him among the Eight Emperors of the Wind Cloud in the first place.
"I wonder whether the Glazed City has received the news from the Northwestern Wastelands?" Lord Moyun knew full well that at this point, the only person capable of changing the situation was none other than Young Master Jiang Chen of the Glazed City.
"How could I get a message to the Glazed City?" Lord Moyun's heart was frantic. He found himself increasingly unable to see through the Wind Cloud Sect Master's every move.
The more he couldn't see through it, the more bewildered and anxious he became.
"If I leave the Wind Cloud Sect now, the Wind Cloud Laughing Pill's poison will eventually take effect. Death itself isn't frightening, but one should at least die for something meaningful. I've spent all these years embedded in the Wind Cloud Sect without uncovering a single crucial secret. Dying like this in such a pathetic manner — how could I face the three or four years of suffering I endured in hiding?"
Lord Moyun gently touched his disguised face and slowly removed the disguise. Before the mirror, a hideous visage emerged in the reflection.
A decisive, cold smile crept across Lord Moyun's lips. "To hide my identity, I've gone so far as to change the very path of my martial cultivation and disfigure my own face. If I haven't uncovered even a single secret, I absolutely cannot die in such a wretched fashion!"
Clearly, Lord Moyun was serving in the enemy's camp while his heart remained loyal to his true cause.
He was a man of extraordinary resolve. To conceal his identity, he had not hesitated to disfigure his own face — a feat of will that ordinary people could never accomplish.
It turned out that to join the Wind Cloud Sect and claim a position among the Eight Emperors of the Wind Cloud, every individual had to present their true appearance — no disguises allowed.
For this reason, Lord Moyun had resorted to certain methods to scar and disfigure his own face.
The lower-ranking Tiangang and Disha Elders, on the other hand, faced no such stringent requirements.
The Eight Dharma Kings of the Wind Cloud held the highest positions and were involved in the sect's innermost circle — stricter scrutiny was only to be expected.