Everything that happened at the Kong clan had already been reported back to the Law Enforcement Hall by Jian Mao. After reading the jade slip, Jian Li's eyes turned hard. He passed it to Jian Dan, who had not yet left.
Jian Dan swept it with her divine sense. When she finished, a cold smile tugged at her lips. Ingrates.
It was Heavenly Sword Sect's Zhēnzūn who acted and saved the Kong clan from catastrophic loss. Not only were they ungrateful, they even held a grudge.
"Hmph. If Master knew the Kong Ancestor had that attitude, he would never have stepped in. He'd have let them suffer for it." The mild-tempered Jian Li rarely spoke so sharply.
"Senior Brother, no need to be angry," Jian Dan said. "There's no need to let Tian Hong Zhēnzūn hear of this. But I do think the sect should prepare in advance for the Kong clan. I don't want a knife in our back later."
Such clans were common in the cultivation world. With a family ethos like the Kongs', they would force themselves onto a dead end sooner or later.
"I know. Junior Sister already made some early moves. I'll arrange the rest," Jian Li said. "Those Kong cultivators who spread rumors about you have all been recalled. I'll send Law Enforcement Hall disciples to probe their caves. We won't allow a second Jian Yu."
At the mention of Jian Yu, Jian Dan's gaze shifted. "Senior Brother, has her soul lamp remained here in the Law Enforcement Hall?"
"Yes. Ever since your last inspection I had it placed separately and watched its fluctuations closely."
Jian Dan unconsciously turned her white-jade ring. "It has stabilized by now, hasn't it?"
"Mhm. There was a period when it was very weak. Only recently has it grown strong again."
Jian Li hid nothing. Jian Dan had handled the matter. She had always cared about Jian Yu's life and death.
"Senior Brother, to be frank, I still believe Jian Yu will be a disaster," Jian Dan said. "The Fu clan is gone, but she cultivated in Heavenly Sword Sect for a century. She knows every tree and blade of grass here."
This was the second time Jian Dan had flagged Jian Yu as a threat. Jian Li took it seriously. He knew how frighteningly accurate his Junior Sister's intuition could be.
"Junior Sister, tell me what you have in mind." Jian Li waved Wei Zhengrong, Qi Hua, and Jin Liuli over to take notes, then looked at her expectantly.
Jian Dan smiled faintly. "I asked Jian Sheng to trace all of her movements. We know what's on the surface. What's in the dark is unknown. My guess is that she obtained an evil-cultivation method from Hai Yan, the evil cultivator. That is how her realm surged and how she helped him lay the groundwork step by step.
She is missing, not dead. She knows everything about Heavenly Sword Sect and about the evil cultivators. In the future, that knowledge could be exploited to help the insect clan take Heavenly Sword Sect."
She lifted a finger as she spoke. "The distribution of peaks, the way the sect-protecting array is opened, guard deployments, even the strengths and weaknesses of our forces. For the insect clan first entering Lingyun Continent, all of that is valuable."
She paused to read their faces. As expected, none looked good.
"Whether Jian Yu leaks it willingly or under duress, it harms us all the same." Jian Dan fell silent a moment. In her past life, Heavenly Sword Sect had declined with shocking speed. She wondered if Jian Yu's hand had been involved.
There had been no public news then about the insect clan infiltrating through a secret realm. Jian Dan dared to guess they had entered Lingyun Continent quietly, seeped in little by little, and took control of certain families and high-level cultivators.
That was how they seized the initiative when war broke out, catching the continent off guard and forcing everyone into passive defense.
Heavenly Sword Sect, unprepared for internal sabotage, gathered its main strength to fight when the space node it guarded was breached. The sect was left hollow.
Insects and evil cultivators hidden within the sect seized the chance. Inside and outside struck together. In the end, the space node could not be held.
The demonic path was likely bogged down in the Ming Valley War and could not help the daoists. The beast race had probably been played by Hai Yan. The blood sac discovered nearly at the heart of their territory explained much.
Hai Yan, the evil cultivator, had been locked by the Heavenly Dao and could not leave Lingyun Continent by proper means. He could only fish for opportunities at the space nodes. That made him an indirect inside agent for the insect clan, tearing open the continent's boundary. Once torn, the breach would only widen.
As for Du Yanran's ascension, there had been the magnolia space's boost and the heroine's halo. In that life, she must have stolen Jian Dan's fate. Otherwise she would never have ascended.
Both women were reborn. Du Yanran received a prompt to correct mistakes. That alone proved her appearance was not simple.
After rebirth, Jian Dan had wondered why Du Yanran could recognize and bind a Jian clan artifact. Aside from a protagonist's aura, there was another possibility. Du Yanran might be of the Wu bloodline. Long ago, Jian Xi and Wu Daoyu had a son and a daughter. The son took his father's surname and was called Wu Fan. Du Yanran could very well be Wu Fan's descendant.
"So what do you recommend?" Jian Li asked, watching Jian Dan think.
She gathered her wandering thoughts and answered carefully, "Senior Brother, this will take effort. It would be best to consult Sect Master Jian Chong and redo all of our current defensive deployments from top to bottom."
Jian Li's brows rose. "This Junior Sister dared to say it."
"To adjust the entire sect's defenses and formations, we will need authorization from the Zhēnzūn," he said. "It will cause a stir."
Jian Dan idly turned the folding fan in her hand, unsurprised by the reaction. "That is why I only propose it. How to execute depends on you, Senior Brother. Previously, I already had Law Enforcement Hall disciples comb through every peak. On one hand, I feared cultivators possessed by black-armored insects. On the other, I feared split souls from evil cultivators hiding among us. It made no small noise."
Jian Li understood at once. For the cultivators on each peak, they did not need to say they were changing defenses. Call it routine maintenance and adjust bit by bit. That would avoid alerting the curious and make implementation easier.
"I understand," Jian Li said after a moment's thought. "This cannot be done overnight. I will report to the Zhēnzūn, then have the Operations Hall and Law Enforcement Hall work together. We will adjust the formation design first, then begin the rollout."
"Mhm. We still have time. We should finish before the space node breaks," Jian Dan said with quiet certainty.
Meanwhile, outside the boundary of Lingyun Continent, inside an insect nest, Jian Yu was indeed alive. She was being parasitized by an intelligent insect. Human and insect were fusing. In Jian Yu's sea of consciousness, the intelligent insect read everything about Heavenly Sword Sect. The black-armored body trembled with excitement.
If the insect clan learned that the shortcut they had found was now being sealed by Jian Dan, one wondered what they would feel.
As Jian Yu lay unconscious through the parasitism, the injuries from spatial tearing on her broken body knit under the insect's power. Behind her, the sword-shaped phantom slowly warped, becoming a black-armored insect.