Gu Baiying glanced at Zanxing, who looked puzzled. She heard him say: “The Panhua Stick has a cleansing heart curse that wards off evil and drives away demons. Yang Zanxing’s approaching him caused the talisman to suppress the demon insect, which is why the demon insect actively fled from its host.”

Zanxing understood, looking down at the Panhua Stick at her waist. No wonder the stick had been shaking so violently just now—it was trying to warn her?

“But… how could my senior brother have this type of thing on him?” Rong Yu raised his head. “Even if there were demon insects hidden in the gambling house, why would they only parasitize my senior brother alone?”

“Maybe your senior brother just had bad luck?” Tian Fangfang suggested tentatively.

“Then his luck is too bad.” Mu Cengxiao shook his head: “In the cultivation world, no one has seen traces of gambling insects for several decades. Moreover, there are many mortals in this gambling house, yet the gambling insect specifically chose a cultivator…” He looked at Tan Tianxin: “What a coincidence.”

“What do you mean?” Tan Tianxin sneered coldly: “Suspecting me?”

Mu Cengxiao: “I didn’t say that.”

“I didn’t do such a thing!” Tan Tianxin gritted his teeth, “You’re making false accusations.”

“Young man.” Gu Baiying turned to look at Rong Yu: “The demon insect that harmed your senior brother has been found. What do you plan to do?”

The meaning of “what do you plan to do” was whether to continue investigating or not. If they continued investigating and it led to the Chihua Sect, it would most likely end up being dropped anyway. Sure enough, upon hearing this, Rong Yu’s gaze struggled for several moments before he lowered his head and said: “Since that’s the case… I’ll take my senior brother back to the inn first, then decide what to do.”

“That’s it?” Mu Cengxiao frowned, “Your senior brother is injured like this; he definitely can’t enter the secret realm trial.”

Rong Yu smiled bitterly: “…That’s also something that can’t be helped.”

Zanxing sighed inwardly. Rong Yu probably didn’t want to get into a dispute with the Chihua Sect, so he chose to let the matter rest.

Seeing Rong Yu’s attitude, Tan Tianxin’s expression improved somewhat. Even though his face still bore a shoe print, he said proudly, “Good that you know what’s best for you.”

Gu Baiying glanced at him, and Tan Tianxin instinctively covered his face. After holding back for a long while, he squeezed out: “Consider it my bad luck. I don’t want those spirit stones anymore—I’ll let you off this time!”

Mendong and Meng Ying walked in from outside. The two had arrived a bit late. Mendong immediately spotted the gambling insect trapped in the light prison and exclaimed joyfully: “A gambling insect!” He quickly stepped forward, pulled out a palm-sized bamboo woven cage from his Qiankun bag, and caught the gambling insect like catching a cricket, holding up the bamboo cage and saying: “This is a good thing, it can be used as medicine. I didn’t expect there would be gambling insects in the Li’er Kingdom.”

Meng Ying walked up to Gu Baiying and asked: “Master Uncle, are you alright?”

Gu Baiying said, “Nothing much.”

In the “Qiangqiang Gambling House,” such a fairy-like beautiful woman had suddenly appeared, and everyone’s eyes immediately went straight. Even Tan Tianxin’s gaze became gentler. The blue-robed young man with the fan who had been standing beside Zanxing also stepped forward at this moment, walking up to Meng Ying and speaking with elegant grace: “This must be Senior Sister Meng from the Taiyan Sect, right? I’ve long admired your reputation. I’m Nie Xinghong, a disciple of the Yinfeng Sect.”

Zanxing internally exclaimed, “Ah,” looking at Nie Xinghong with different eyes. So this was that nouveau riche sect.

Unlike the Chihua Sect, which was considered an old-established sect with a fairly long history, this Yinfeng Sect could only be called a rising star among the cultivation world’s sects. Their sect master had incredible luck—about several decades ago, the Yinfeng Sect’s master had dug up a spirit stone mine at the back mountain of their sect, and from then on began their path to sudden wealth.

With a mine at home, they never lacked spirit stones. The Yinfeng Sect’s master also had considerable foresight, knowing that for a sect to develop long-term, the most important thing was still talent. So these years, he actively developed a talent recruitment strategy and managed to recruit a batch of good prospects. No wonder those talented prodigies were willing to run to the Yinfeng Sect—it was said that the Yinfeng Sect gave disciples several hundred spirit stones every month, not to mention accommodation and other hardware facilities. In short, the Yinfeng Sect relied on their mine to smash their way to a place in the cultivation world with spirit stones.

With both money and talent, the Yinfeng Sect naturally wanted to step on old names to make their reputation. The gradually declining Taiyan Sect was an excellent target. So for the past few decades, whenever there were immortal sect martial arts competitions in the cultivation world, the Yinfeng Sect always treated the Taiyan Sect as a competitor or stepping stone, repeatedly provoking them. The disciples of the Taiyan Sect all looked down on the Yinfeng Sect’s way of doing things and would spit “nouveau riche” whenever they saw them.

No wonder this person had looked so gleeful earlier, Zanxing thought. So they were rivals.

The great beauty Meng Ying was indeed the flower of the Taiyan Sect. She had seen countless people trying to curry favor with her in daily life and didn’t take such a character seriously at all. She didn’t even glance at Nie Xinghong, directly ignoring his attempt at conversation. Meng Ying walked past him and asked Gu Baiying, “Master Uncle, should we go back now?”

Gu Baiying made his silver spear disappear and called to Zanxing and the others: “Let’s go.”

Tian Fangfang shrugged and patted Rong Yu’s shoulder: “Brother, we’re leaving first. See you at the secret realm trial.”

Rong Yu thanked them again before Zanxing and the others finally left.

As soon as they exited the “Qiangqiang Gambling House,” the smile on Gu Baiying’s face disappeared. He swept his gaze over Zanxing and the other three, his tone quite displeased: “Who threw the first punch?”

Zanxing and Mu Cengxiao stepped back, leaving Tian Fangfang at the front. Facing Gu Baiying’s cold gaze, the burly man said quietly: “It was me… but Master Uncle, they were bullying people too much! How could they beat someone nearly to death over a few spirit stones? And they even insulted Junior Sister, calling her ugly. Most importantly, Junior Brother Mu also said that it was the Chihua Sect people who deliberately used gambling insects to cause trouble for the Liuli Sect people, so there would be one less person entering the secret realm. That’s too despicable, isn’t it, Junior Brother Mu?”

Mu Cengxiao said, “I was only speculating.”

“Junior Brother, how could you…”

Before Tian Fangfang could finish, Gu Baiying impatiently interrupted: “Since you threw the first punch, you should have fought properly. Do you know that if I hadn’t arrived, the Taiyan Sect’s reputation would have been trampled underfoot!”

Tian Fangfang: “Ah?”

Zanxing couldn’t help but laugh.

“What ‘ah’? And you,” Gu Baiying turned his attention to Zanxing: “Once you leave Gufeng Mountain, you’re not in the Taiyan Sect anymore—not everyone will give way to you. You couldn’t even dodge a sneak attack. Yang Zanxing, you’re supposedly the first-place winner of the inner sect examination, yet you’re embarrassing yourself like this outside?”

Zanxing: “……”

Mu Cengxiao spoke up: “Master Uncle, before Master left, he instructed us not to easily get into disputes with people from other sects when outside.”

“Of course, there’s no need to dispute over unnecessary matters, but since you’ve already started fighting, you should win.” He snorted lightly: “Otherwise, what’s the point of fighting—intimidation?”