Murong Hongyi's expression was completely earnest, his every other word a reverent "Brother Yun," a display so sycophantic it made even Lin Yun's scalp crawl. This man truly had no integrity whatsoever.
But Murong Hongyi's sycophancy did save Lin Yun a great deal of trouble.
After seeing Murong Hongyi and the others take the pills, Lin Yun finally relaxed. He walked over to Xia Yijing and untied her ropes.
"May I have the honor of knowing your name, miss?" he asked in a low voice.
Looking at Lin Yun from such a close distance, Xia Yijing was filled with emotion. This man was even more formidable than she had imagined.
"I never thought I would meet the renowned Lin Yun here today. Thank you so much for this." She stood up and stretched her muscles and bones. "But how did these people get here? The Seven Fiends Gate, the Crimson Ghost Sect… the Grand Tournament of the Spirit Realm shouldn't have let people like them in."
This was the one thing Xia Yijing was most curious about. This situation should never have occurred.
"I'm not sure," Lin Yun sighed. "But they did get in, and they've caused a lot of trouble." He currently had no particularly good way of dealing with them. "By now, the disciples of every sect in the Spirit Realm have probably been captured by these people. If we want to leave, we'll have to find a way to rescue everyone else."
Xia Yijing nodded. She knew this matter was not as simple as she had hoped. In the current situation, not everything could go according to their plans.
"With your current abilities, solving this problem will be anything but easy," she said. Having witnessed the methods of the Seven Fiends Gate, Xia Yijing understood that while Lin Yun was strong, rescuing everyone was practically a daydream.
Meanwhile, Cen Xiuer had already released the imprisoned disciples of the Marvelous Sound Sect. Several of the girls rushed to Xia Yijing's side.
"You brazen fiend! If you want to do something, do it to us! Don't you dare harm our Senior Sister!"
"That's right! We'll fight you to the death today if we have to!"
Lin Yun looked at the girls and shook his head with a smile. He hadn't expected the Marvelous Sound Sect to be so united. It was no wonder they hadn't acted together with the Flowing Cloud Sect.
"Ling'er, don't speak nonsense," Xia Yijing said, patting the girls' shoulders with a smile. "The man standing before you is a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect, Lin Yun. This time, it is thanks to him that we were saved. Otherwise, I fear we truly would have been harmed by the Seven Fiends Gate."
The girls, who had been full of fighting spirit just a moment ago, now stood frozen. Their gazes toward Lin Yun changed. "Him? The traitor from the Flowing Cloud Sect?"
Hearing this title, Lin Yun's expression shifted slightly. "I am no traitor. The Flowing Cloud Sect simply wanted me dead." He spoke with a hint of suppressed anger. If the Flowing Cloud Sect hadn't constrained him at every turn, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
"Lin Yun," Xia Yijing said, "my junior sisters often speak without thinking. Please don't take it to heart."
Lin Yun shook his head. "Forget it. It's not worth getting worked up over." He glanced at the obsequiously bowing and scraping Murong Hongyi. "Since you also follow the Crimson Ghost Sect's orders, do you know where their main headquarters is?"
Murong Hongyi replied, "After arriving in the Spirit Realm, the Crimson Ghost Sect went to the central region. That area is extremely dangerous; ordinary people have no way of overcoming the challenges there."
Lin Yun glanced at everyone's panels. It was unlikely they would encounter the main force of the Crimson Ghost Sect any time soon. "We won't run into trouble in the short term. Even though they've lost two teams, the Crimson Ghost Sect probably doesn't know what happened to Murong Hongyi and Qi Desheng yet."
He breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, they would have already sent people to capture him. This bought him some time to prepare.
"A conflict between us and the Crimson Ghost Sect is inevitable," he said, looking at the others. "If we truly want to leave here alive, we will have to fight."
Murong Hongyi added, "This time, it seems the Crimson Ghost Sect has arranged for several incredibly powerful experts to enter. Ordinary people have no chance of defeating them." As he spoke, he glanced at Lin Yun, his eyes full of fear.
Xia Yijing then asked, "According to the rules of the Spirit Realm, the strength of those who enter shouldn't be that high. How did they…"
Murong Hongyi stepped aside and began to explain. "Normally, that is indeed the case. But they used a special method to sneak in here, a technique that is like shrouding the heavenly secrets. This way, even if they don't meet the requirements, they don't have to worry."
Lin Yun had never imagined such a method existed, but he immediately grasped the problem it presented.
Shrouding the heavenly secrets? It was a powerful technique, but it surely came with significant drawbacks. On a normal day, these people wouldn't have to worry about being exposed in the Spirit Realm. But if they encountered a truly powerful opponent, they would have to consider their options carefully. If they used their full strength, they would quickly be detected by the laws of the Spirit Realm, and the punishment that would follow would be immeasurable.
Previously, Lin Yun had been racking his brain for a way to deal with those experts. After all, he wouldn't dare to face their true strength. But now, hearing this answer, a glimmer of hope ignited in his heart. Perhaps he really could solve this.
If it were a head-on confrontation, Lin Yun would have no chance of victory. But if there were other, clandestine methods he could use against them, he thought he might just be able to take them on.
"Since they have to forcefully suppress their own strength to enter the Spirit Realm," he began, laying out his plan, "what we need to do is force them to reveal their true power. If we do that, we can use the opportunity to make them targets for erasure by the Spirit Realm itself."
After Lin Yun finished, the others, far from agreeing, simply looked at each other in dismay. The plan sounded simple, but putting it into action would be anything but easy.
"If you want them to go all out and expose their true realm," Xia Yijing said, pointing out the flaw, "that means you have to be even stronger than them. But Lin Yun, you're only at the Origin Sea Realm. How could you possibly…" She wasn't looking down on him; it was simply a statement of fact. With such a massive gap in their cultivation realms, no one believed Lin Yun could actually achieve this goal on his own.
They thought Lin Yun would be discouraged by this. To their surprise, he just laughed heartily.
"We still have some time. At the very least, I'm not foolish enough to run up and look for trouble with them right now," he said with a cunning smile. "The most pressing matter is to rescue the disciples of the other sects first."