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Chapter 452: Chapter 452: Sect’s Mystifying Cloud

"Is anyone here?" Shuyue Liu ignored the teasing of the two, standing at the entrance of the corridor, asking loudly.

Is anyone here...

here...

Only her echo responded.

Chen Xuan felt a surge of bad premonition. He tried using the Heart Method to probe the nearby Spiritual Qi only to find that he couldn’t sense anyone, even those as close as Lin Qing and others.

But it didn’t look like spells were forbidden here. The Celestial Mist Skill still worked, only the detection range seemed limited to just a few steps.

A huge sect, how could there not even be a shadow of a person?

"Where are the people of Lotus Cloud Sect?" Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with this question. Honglian asked warily, "Isn’t it too strange for them not to show up now? I feel like this is a trap. Why don’t we withdrawal and plan again?"

"But this is how I remember the sect..." Shuyue Liu gritted her teeth, "If someone could fake it, they must have a close relationship with Lotus Cloud Sect! How about you guys wait outside, and I go to the inner hall alone."

"Wait, I’ll go with you." Chen Xuan hurriedly grabbed her.

"No way!" Lin Qing immediately vetoed, "Then let’s all go together."

"Right, at least it’ll be easier to take care of each other with more people." Xu Xuanling also agreed.

"Don’t rush, I have a reason for this arrangement!" He interrupted everyone’s discussion, "Liu Shuyue and I can return to the store in an instant, and three people would have trouble doing that. Of course, I’m not suggesting two people go on an adventure, but let us take the lead first, and once we confirm each area is safe, we’ll immediately contact you, how about that?"

Everyone turned to look at Lin Qing.

After a moment of pondering, Lin Qing nodded, "Hmm...fine. You have a point. Let’s set up two contact checkpoints then, one at 2000 steps and the other at 15 minutes. Contact us at either."

A double safety net of distance and time? Chen Xuan nodded, "Okay."

He opened the step counter app on his phone and followed Shuyue Liu into the corridor.

It was like a quiet tunnel, with black basalt walls on either side, and the top about seven or eight meters above the ground, made of some unknown crystal, glimmering with small blue lights inside, making the road visible even without torches.

From the temple’s exterior structure, it certainly couldn’t accommodate such a large space, but that was the least surprising aspect of Lotus Cloud Sect.

"Like the night sky, isn’t it?" Shuyue Liu said suddenly from ahead.

"Ah...yes." Chen Xuan replied distractedly.

"The roofs of most houses in the sect are like this, always giving the feeling of being under a vast night sky when looking up. Master said it’s a very rare jade called Eternal Night Jade, only found deep in the Kunlun Mountains."

He vaguely felt something was odd in her tone.

"Are you okay?"

"I’m fine...I was just thinking, how much of what I learned and heard as a child is true. The sect never opens to outsiders except for the once-a-century disciple descent, so what happens if the roof breaks? Who would go into the mountains to fetch the jade?"

"If even the sect’s construction is fake, then what is there to believe?" Shuyue Liu seemed to be asking him, and herself.

"Maybe the people in the sect haven’t noticed us yet?" Chen Xuan offered a rather unconvincing answer.

She shook her head and did not reply.

They passed through the corridor. The passage behind them had become pitch black, with no view of the front hall or gates. The new inner hall was circular, filled with many stone tables and chairs. Chen Xuan rubbed one, finding almost no dust, indicating someone was regularly cleaning here.

"This is the Dharma Hall, where all disciples would listen to the teachings of masters and ancestors." Shuyue Liu’s gaze lingered on a long table, her eyes showing clear softness and nostalgia, "I used to love sitting in this spot—it’s further back, so it’s not so easy to get caught napping."

"I didn’t expect you to slack off." Chen Xuan laughed.

"Of course, I would. After all, day after day of cultivation is exhausting and taxing on the mind; just maintaining it is already not easy." She whispered, "Back then, I had only one thought, which was to pass the selection and become a representative disciple, using everything I learned to benefit the world."

"..." He couldn’t help but fall silent.

Her attitude towards Lotus Cloud Sect shifted from devotion to doubt, but Shuyue Liu was never confused. Even if the sect’s actions were problematic, she didn’t believe her mission to aid the people and strengthen the kingdom was wrong.

But what if the sect that gave her this mission was a lie?

What meaning would the belief that guided her forward hold?

"Fellow disciples, masters, ancestors...please forgive my disrespect." Suddenly raising her voice, Shuyue Liu shouted towards the podium in the Dharma Hall, "You’re all a bunch of bastards, did you hear me? A bunch of bastards! What six kingdoms Immortals, what Daoist inheritance, it’s all a joke! If you think I’m wrong, then come out for me!"

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but twitch the corners of his mouth, worried that a thunderbolt might suddenly strike from somewhere.

But on second thought, maybe a thunderbolt wouldn’t be so bad.

At least it would give her something to vent her emotions on, even if it meant fighting a real Immortal.

But the truth was, even this hope was a luxury.

Faced with the dead silence of the hall, Shuyue Liu turned to Chen Xuan, her eyes misty, "You tell me...what should we do next?"

This was the first time Chen Xuan had seen her so vulnerable, as if something inside her was crumbling.

"Don’t panic." He consoled her, "Is there usually always someone here?"

"...Even if there’s no scheduled teaching, disciples would exchange insights here for sure." Shuyue Liu nodded slightly, "I’ve been in the sect for over a decade and have never seen it this empty."

"I understand." Chen Xuan gathered his thoughts before continuing, "You suspect Lotus Cloud Sect deceived you, even that your memories of cultivating in the sect are fabricated. But think from the start, we could open its mountain gate with the jade token, which shows Lotus Cloud Sect’s origins are indeed tied to Ji Yun and Ji Lian, right? If you can’t trust those ancestor-level Immortals, you can at least trust the Gemini siblings! You practically brought them up."

Shuyue Liu couldn’t help but be stunned.

She hadn’t considered this angle before.

If Ji Yun and Ji Lian founded Lotus Cloud Sect, then she is the genuine founder, and her nurturing of the two would dictate the sect’s direction. In other words, her experiences at Lotus Cloud Sect couldn’t purely be a scam, since she wasn’t bad to that extent, nor were Ji Yun and Ji Lian.

"Could it be...that an emergency occurred in the sect, forcing everyone to evacuate?" Realizing this, her eyes regained some brightness, "For instance, the sudden appearance of purple mist? But that doesn’t make sense...where could hundreds of people go even if they left the sect? Moreover, setting up a message scroll or talking puppet isn’t difficult."

"Indeed. I also noticed everything here is clean, not like it’s been abandoned for long. If Lotus Cloud Sect never existed from the beginning or had disappeared long ago, then there’s no reason to maintain the main hall’s conditions." Chen Xuan analyzed, "The situation we see is certainly not normal, and your past experiences absolutely couldn’t be meaningless."

He declared the last sentence unwaveringly.

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