Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 166: Pu Jianming

Sauntering fifteen minutes late, Hong Nian Niang studied the awkward atmosphere in the room and laughed. Without any sense of urgency, she sat beside Yan Ping, chatted leisurely about trivial matters, and laughed at her own jokes even if she had no response or reaction from the three human statues in the room. It did not deter the owner of the Red Pavillion Hotel that her guests were wet blankets. If anything, the social butterfly was such a skilled conversationalist that some people claimed she could make a flower blush its petals off if she wanted to.

After five minutes of putting up with Hong Nian Niang’s coquettish behaviour, Yan Ping decided to put her foot down and converge the meeting. Unlike them, she had urgent matters in her sect to attend to. She should have known better than to entrust Anji to them for a month.

"I’ll cut to the chase because I have to leave immediately," she announced and even Hong Nian Niang dropped the ditzy act.

Signalling for her male concubine to close the door, Hong Nian Niang waited until they had privacy to become serious.

"I heard you found the traitor’s identity. Are they really from your sect?"

Thanks to Yan Ping’s isolation barrier spell, they could speak and act freely. For the past few weeks, the blind woman had been acting alone, studying the remnants of spells used by the demon cult after Bai Dajin and Zhao Mingshen raided them. It was difficult to piece together the traces of spells while trying to identify the creator, but after following the trail of crumbs, she finally narrowed down the suspect.

"It is from my sect," she admitted. "To be precise, it is a graduate from my sect. I personally took back his token and saw him off."

The dreadful silence made the mood more sombre. However, Yan Ping was not upset by how life turned out. If anything, she was the first to come to terms with it.

"Pu Jianming was a senior researcher who specialised in flag formations. He used to be my scribe and was obsessed with studying the founder’s barrier. Although I don’t know why he had a change of heart, the Mystical Qilin Sect will not treat him any differently from demonic cultivators when we find him."

Hearing her resolve, the hesitation in Bai Dajin disappeared. Things would be very complicated if the Mystical Qilin Sect wanted to protect one of their own kind and deal with the punishments internally.

"Does that mean if we encounter your defector, we can kill on sight?" the White Tiger Sect Leader asked.

Pursing her lips, Yan Ping thought about it.

"If you can, I won’t stop you. However, I don’t think it would be easy. If you see him and he is no longer the senior researcher I know, run away and retreat as fast as you can. The moment you step into his flag formation, there will only be death for you."

Hearing her words, the hair on the back of Hong Nian Niang’s neck rose. How powerful was this Pu Jianming?

"Is he that powerful?" she asked worriedly. "What’s his cultivation level?"

Funnily enough, the second question made Yan Ping scoff. What was the use of having an advanced cultivation base in her sect? The only reason why her sect had a higher cultivation base on average compared to others was because her disciples were all lazy. Nobody wanted to waste time eating and sleeping, so they all aimed to attain the Enlightened Core stage as a bare minimum requirement to become fully degenerate. Even her senior researchers could not win an outer disciple of other martial schools in a real fight if they did not pull some tricks. The Mystical Qilin Sect invested everything in its defence, leaving nothing to its offence. Pu Jianming was no different. Even Yan Ping would not win against Hong Nian Niang in pure combat skills. She had spent too much time meditating and seeking enlightenment. In fact, it had been at least twenty years since she last participated in any combat. Her skills were not only rusting but disintegrating.

"If you don’t fall for any of his tricks, even Zhang Mou will be able to win Pu Jianming in a fight. We don’t openly disclose this, but the Mystical Qilin Sect isn’t known for our combat prowess."

...

Speechless, not even Zhao Mingshen knew what to think of the traitor and likely mastermind behind the demonic cult. How could a person of his calibre sound so strong and weak at the same time? Nobody would think of Yan Ping as weak. She had a very impressive aura. However, now that he thought about it, there were not many stories about how the Mystical Qilin Sect contributed to the last murim war. How did such an ancient and mysterious sect end up joining the Rainbow Alliance?

The more he thought about it, the more Zhao Mingshen realised that the Mystical Qilin Sect was a place full of scholars more than cultivators. While their knowledge of spells and arrays in the cultivation world is unparalleled, nobody from their sect has ever been seen participating in martial tournaments. The image they had exempted them from the scrutiny of others in the murim world, and just hearing that they were from the ancient sect gave them immediate validation for their skills.

"However, it is unlikely for Pu Jianming to leave his array. He already has the upper hand. Flag formations are different from arrays because they are flexible and can be used differently. Arrays are fixed, but flags can be moved easily. Depending on what he uses as a flag, it is possible for Pu Jianming to command the entire country if he wanted to."

Hearing this, Zhao Mingshen shuddered. However, Hong Nian Niang did not think it was real.

"How would he conquer the country with only flags? Anyone could pull it up and destroy the flags. It’s not as if the demonic cult has enough manpower to guard every single flag."

Sighing, Yan Ping chuckled mirthlessly.

"Flag formations don’t strictly stick to using flags. The flag master can designate anything into a flag, including animals and sometimes humans."

Child soldiers... Bai Dajin immediately made the connection. They were using common people as flags! Suddenly, many things started making sense. However, that also meant the danger increased. They would not know who had been turned into a flag for the formation or what it did.

"What can flag formations do?" Zhao Mingshen asked. "What are we facing?"

The brains definitely ran in the Zhao family. Yan Ping approved of the second young master’s wit. No wonder he was able to set up his own intelligence agency, even if he borrowed Hong Nian Niang’s help.

"Apart from the usual things like imprisoning, incapacitating and hypnotising, skilled spellcasters may also be able to seal cultivation levels."

Although Yan Ping had no idea if Pu Jianming knew how to do that, it was better to err on the side of caution than underestimate a traitor.

With the new information, Zhao Mingshen’s mind went blank. All their plans to force the demon cult into a corner disappeared into the air. With Pu Jianming leading the demon cult, the Rainbow Alliance needed the Mystical Qilin Sect to actively participate in the war for any chance of victory. Even so, a lot of blood will be spilled.

"How many people in your sect are able to fight on par with Pu Jianming?" Zhao Mingshen asked heavily. "Will you be able to lend us some experts?"

Ordinarily, Yan Ping would not allow her regular disciples to leave the sect. However, she could not become a bystander like in the previous murim war when one of their own was confirmed to become a traitor.

"As of now, nobody except myself could take on Pu Jianming. The Mystical Qilin Sect is overly sheltered and unprepared for war. Most of my disciples would not even hurt a fly. Even if they had the skills, seeing blood for the first time would render them useless in actual battle."

The news plunged Zhao Mingshen deeper into the pits of despair. How were they going to fight like this?

"That is why I need to return and sort out some logistics to formally open up the Mystical Qilin Sect to selected individuals in the Rainbow Alliance to train a special batch of cultivators who will learn to work in teams for demon hunting."

Demon hunting squad! The idea was something Zhao Mingshen thought about previously but scrapped because he thought Yan Ping would not be supportive of it. If there was cross-alliance training, that meant he could sneak in more regularly to see Anji as well!

"You don’t have to plan to sneak in using that pretext of training to see your sister," the blind prophet clicked her tongue. "I’ll make special concessions when the sect is open. Give me a few months, and I’ll send a formal message when it is ready. In the meantime, I’d suggest everyone consolidate their forces and select their talents. As for Sect Leader Chen, Sect Leader Zhang, Sect Leader Liu and Sect Leader Zhao, I trust that the Gentleman Club will inform them on my behalf."

Caught guilty, Zhao Mingshen chuckled. The knot in his chest was lifted with just a few sentences. No wonder Yan Ping was held in extremely high regard in the murim world. It felt as if all problems in the world did not exist if she were around.

"The Gentleman Club has accepted your request. Please do not let us delay your departure any longer, and thank you for the medicine."

Bowing to Yan Ping, Zhao Mingshen stood up to escort Yan Ping to the door. Hong Nian Niang wanted to send someone to get a carriage for her but was quickly turned down.

As soon as Yan Ping reached the ground floor, she pulled out several talismans and, with a short chant, vanished. Her presence still lingered, but not for long.

"And there she goes," sighed the lady in red. "I’ll have to gather my harem and prepare. If Sect Leader Yan says she would get it done, it would usually be much earlier than she said it would. I suggest you don’t dally any longer and return to your sects. The Vermillion Bird Sect will take care of sending the message to everyone else."

Looking at Bai Dajin, Zhao Mingshen was about to tank the man for accompanying him when the warrior grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Leave informing your father to the Red Lady. You’re coming with me to sort out the mess in my sect!" freewebnøvel.com

Unable to escape, Zhao Mingfeng found himself getting dragged back to the room upstairs. What had he gotten himself into?