Qingshan charged forward, hoping to meet Xueling's attack head-on.

As they were about to clash, Wuyang appeared from Xueling's left, swinging his blade toward her neck. At the same time, Tianfeng descended from above, having dropped his sword and switched to his fists which now crackled with energy, ready to crush her.

From Xueling's perspective, all these attacks appeared as red lines, each pointing directly at her. "This is still not enough," she thought, pushing her concentration even deeper.

As the attacks drew closer and closer, she continued focusing with everything she had.

Just as they were about to land, something began flickering in her vision.

"Finally," she thought. "I can see it," she whispered.

At that moment, apart from the red lines, blue lines began flickering in her vision before stabilizing.

"This is... the optimal path," she smiled.

Xueling focused on the new blue lines, maneuvering around them to find the most efficient route. If the red lines showed the openings her opponents saw in her, the blue lines revealed the openings in her opponents.

If she used this correctly while still paying attention to the red lines, she should be able to navigate any situation with ease.

She moved her head at the last second, narrowly avoiding Wuyang's thrust.

She twisted her body, her legs wrapping around Wuyang's swing. At the same time, her sword deflected Qingshan's blow. She caught him with her free hand and pushed him down, while simultaneously flipping her body to place Wuyang, whom she held with her legs, onto Qingshan.

She released Wuyang and sprang off him, jumping to the side to avoid Tianfeng's incoming fist.

She then grabbed him by the neck and threw him down to join the stacking sect masters.

She gathered qi around her sword, causing ice to condensed around the blade, extending it into an extremely long weapon. With this, she descended toward the pile of sect masters. Her sword pierced through Tianfeng's abdomen, then straight into Wuyang before emerging from the other side and stabbing into Qingshan.

The three coughed up blood as Xueling used her qi to drive them toward the ground. They smashed hard into the earth, forming a massive crater and kicking up a cloud of dust.

As the dust cleared, Xueling gripped her sword that was pinning all three to the ground. She injected even more qi into the blade, forming additional ice around it. She then pulled out the sword, leaving the ice that had surrounded it still impaling the three.

She looked to the side where a crowd had gathered. "I'm done here. What about you?" she asked.

"Same," Yu Tian replied. The large crowd that had gathered suddenly fell to the ground, screaming, thrashing, and some even foaming at the mouth.

"You didn't kill them, right?" Yu Tian asked.

"Of course not," Xueling said, staring at the sect masters before her who were struggling to get up but couldn't. "They're precious labor, after all," she added with an evil smile.

Yu Tian looked at the group around him. He hadn't killed them but had used perception and qi paralysis poison. Since everyone had been so focused on the battle, he was able to stay camouflaged and easily infect them.

He looked at his hand. There had even been some late Core Formation cultivators among them, but his poison had still worked. It was all thanks to the boost in qi emission he'd gained after breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Even so, this didn't mean he could actually handle one in a real fight - he'd just been lucky to catch them off guard this time.

The good thing was that he'd managed to test out his new ability: trigger poison.

This technique allowed him to inject poison into someone and set a remote trigger. That's how he'd been able to poison everyone without anyone noticing. He hadn't triggered the second poison at first, only activating the perception poison.

Then, after everyone had the qi paralysis poison in their systems, he triggered it.

"Let's clean up and think about how to handle the Silver Moon Sect," Yu Tian said.

…

A few hours later, Yu Tian and Xueling stood before the sect prison.

They had finally managed to tie and lock up all those people.

Xueling breathed heavily, cursing her sect's disciples for abandoning them. Not even the outer disciples were there to help, so they'd had to move all those people themselves.

"I understand capturing the sect masters and other Core Formation masters since they're useful, but what about the others? Isn't it too much work to tame them and maintain them?" she asked.

"Not at all. As long as you capture the head, the others are bound to fall in line," Yu Tian said.

"Even so, there are so many of them. Isn't it troublesome to form a sect with these people who have no loyalty and even bear grudges?" she asked.

"There are no eternal enemies or eternal friends, only eternal interests," he replied.

Yu Tian thought to himself that starting a sect from scratch would be far too difficult.

"Tomorrow, you can 'discuss' with the sect masters about 'cooperation'," Yu Tian said. "This region is too small for five sects," he added.

Xueling nodded. She would merge the other four sects under her new Snow Heaven Sect.

As for the issue with troublesome people, she just needed enough time to gather her own supporters. As time went on, those who didn't know when to bend to circumstances would slowly fall out of favor and be discarded like trash, while those who knew their place would gradually climb up the ladder.

She had the final say in the end, so why should she be afraid?

She hardened her expression. Only with such a mindset could she build an influential sect and gain the ability to fight for the throne.

"I'm tired. Let's go back," Yu Tian said.

Xueling nodded, and they both flew away to her residence.

Although the current sect didn't have any guards and the prisoners might escape, Yu Tian had drawn runes on their chains and even on the doors to ensure that no one got out or in without his permission.

…

A/N: Snow heaven is combining their names. Xue and Tian

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