A Sect Mission Full of Mysteries

Sun rises and moon sets.

Yu Zhao and her group have now been in the county town for two days. Senior Brother Liu and the other two went out to hunt down demons and monsters again, while Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu stayed in their inn room like homebodies, determined not to go out.

Time passed slowly as the two cultivated, and before they knew it, it was noon again. Suddenly, the two women opened their eyes at the same time.

I got out of bed, walked to the window, and looked outside.

The sky outside had darkened; it was midday, but it looked like midnight.

Strangely, only the sky above Wutong County is like this.

A foul stench permeated the air, a smell that Yu Zhao and the other woman were all too familiar with—it was the aura of demonic cultivators!

Just then, there was a knock on their door, and then the door was broken open. A hunchbacked old man walked in. The old man looked completely inhuman, with a pointed mouth and monkey cheeks, bloodshot eyes, and holding a pitch-black gourd in his hands.

Upon seeing Yu Zhao and the other woman, the old man brazenly sized them up, as if they were two playthings.

"The two fairies must be waiting for your senior brothers and sisters, but unfortunately, they are now in dire straits themselves."

Shen Yunshu knew how to provide "fun points," so upon hearing this, she feigned fear, trying to appear fierce like a kitten baring its teeth.

"Who are you? What have you done to my senior brothers and sisters?!"

As she spoke, she took out her sword from her storage ring and pointed it at the hunchbacked old man.

The old man remained completely calm, strolling leisurely around the guest room while talking, attempting to completely break down the two women's defenses. He was quite satisfied to see his prey's desperate expression.

"Who I am is unimportant. These two fairies are so beautiful, they are truly pitiful to behold. I wish to ask them to help me with my cultivation."

At this moment, Yu Zhao stepped forward. She stood next to Shen Yunshu, her gaze sweeping indifferently over the old man. "I'm very curious, what gave you the confidence to think that a mere Qi Refining Level 5 cultivator like yourself could defeat us?"

"Why don't you give it a try, fairy?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the hunchbacked old man raised the gourd in his hand and shouted sternly, "Shen Yunshu!"

"what?"

Shen Yunshu was stunned by the loud shout and subconsciously responded.

Hearing her response, the hunchbacked old man smiled, but soon his smile froze, because he realized that Shen Yunshu was standing still without any abnormality.

Shen Yunshu was full of questions, wondering why this guy was standing there like an idiot holding a gourd.

"How could this happen?" The hunchbacked old man panicked. His magic artifact had never malfunctioned before. He wasn't even afraid of Foundation Establishment Ancestors because of it. How could it malfunction today?

"Yu Zhao!"

"I'm here," Yu Zhao replied with a smile.

The old man called out to Yu Zhao again, but nothing happened after Yu Zhao answered. Now the hunchbacked old man was utterly terrified. His expression grew increasingly horrified, and he looked at the two women as if they were monsters.

"What are you things! You're not human... witches, witches!"

As if realizing something, the old man turned to run away, but Shen Yunshu decisively struck, piercing the old man's chest with a single sword strike.

After killing the person, she turned to her senior sister, looking rather bewildered, and said, "Is this person mentally ill? Suddenly turning their back on someone during a magical duel? How has such an idiot survived until now?"

Yu Zhao shrugged, indicating that she didn't know either, and walked over to pick up the other person's gourd.

After erasing the marks left by the other party, she reclaimed the gourd as her own.

After recognizing the gourd as its master, Yu Zhao immediately understood its extraordinary nature.

This gourd can control people. As long as you say the other person's name and they respond, the gourd can influence their mind and control them for a certain period of time.

The duration of control depends on the strength of the other party's spiritual consciousness.

It's very difficult for cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm to resist unless they have a magic treasure that can protect their soul. As for Foundation Establishment cultivators... they can probably only control it for a moment.

It's a rather useless tool, but it can be quite useful in certain situations.

If it were an ordinary Qi Refining Realm cultivator, they would have been caught off guard, but unfortunately, this guy was unlucky; he ran into Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu.

Both of their names are fake. Yu Zhao is a name they made up on the spot, and Shen Yunshu is using someone else's identity.

However, Yu Zhao immediately had another question: how did this guy know her and Shen Yunshu's names?

Why is this sect mission so strange?

What is Luoyuemen trying to achieve by putting on this show?

Yu Zhao couldn't figure it out for a moment, so she simply put it aside and didn't think about it for the time being. She was more curious about the gourd in her hand.

What is the principle behind the ability to control the soul by calling out the correct name?

Aren't names something you can just choose however you want? What does it have to do with the soul?

Yu Zhao felt that the true value of this gourd magic weapon lay in its research. If he could figure out the activation principle of this magic weapon, he might be able to discover something extraordinary.

Thinking of this, Yu Zhao couldn't wait to find a place to study in seclusion. While she was engrossed in playing with the gourd, Shen Yunshu also thoroughly searched the corpse.

She took out two items that interested her most from the other person's storage bag: a jade pendant and a map.

"Senior sister, look! This jade token belongs to the Falling Moon Sect. It has the sect's mark on it. Do you think this idiot might have received orders from someone in the Falling Moon Sect to kill us?"

Shen Yunshu wasn't stupid. The fact that the other party knew her and her senior sister's names was suspicious. They had only been here for two days and hadn't made a name for themselves in the world. How did the other party know their names?

It can only be done through the Falling Moon Gate!

"Don't let your imagination run wild. What we need to do now is find Senior Brother Liu and the others."

Although I didn't want to help, I still had to put on a show of politeness.

Yu Zhao judged in his heart that there was something wrong with this sect mission. Since there was something wrong, there might be a powerful figure in the sect watching from the sidelines.

If that's the case, then we can't just leave Senior Brother Liu and the others unattended.

These words reminded Shen Yunshu, but she still looked indignant, muttering, "I'll tell Master when I get back that there's a traitor in the sect!"

She portrayed the innocent girl who was angry after being betrayed very well.

After venting her frustration, Shen Yunshu showed the map she had found to Yu Zhao. "I feel that the place indicated on this map is very important to this old man. Senior sister, shall we go and take a look?"

"Perhaps Senior Brother Liu and the others were led here by this old man."

"Okay, let's go take a look."

The two women packed up their spoils and also put the hunchbacked old man's body into their storage bags, thinking they could use the body as evidence to give them an explanation for their mission back at the sect.

After doing all that, they even kindly cleaned the guesthouse room for them before leaving and heading in the direction indicated on the map.

Whether they can find Senior Brother Liu and the others in that place is not important; what matters is that they searched. If they didn't find them, then it's none of their business.

What they were really interested in was what was in the place the map pointed to. Shen Yunshu had a feeling that this was an opportunity!