Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist

Chapter 921: The Battle For Crimson Pill Sect Begins

The vast, open-air arena was utterly silent. Tens of thousands of cultivators, from the lowest disciple to the highest elder, held their collective breath.

The Great Elder, his face a mask of shock and concentration, stood between the two final refinement platforms.

On one side, Yao Ling’s cauldron emitted a sputtering, dull gold light. The pill within was formed, but its surface was marred with impurities, its aroma tinged with a faint, burnt smell.

On the other side, Liu Ruyan’s cauldron was bathed in a perfect, stable, and flawless azure light. The medicinal fragrance rolling off it was rich, pure, and intoxicating.

The Great Elder dipped a silver-tipped jade probe into each nascent pill, his spiritual sense flaring. He withdrew them, examined the results, and his face, already shocked, became one of undisguised amazement.

He turned to the crowd, his voice booming across the silent arena, amplified by his Qi. "The refinement is complete!"

He pointed first to Yao Ling. "Disciple Yao Ling... has produced a mid-grade Azure Spirit Heart Pill. A commendable effort!"

A polite, if slightly strained, cheer rose from Elder Fu Yan’s faction.

The Great Elder then turned, his gaze filled with awe, towards Liu Ruyan. "Disciple Liu Ruyan... has produced a superior-grade Azure Spirit Heart Pill! The quality is flawless! The winner of the final round, and therefore the winner of this Grand Alchemy Competition, is... Disciple Liu Ruyan!"

For a second, the arena remained stunned, unable to process the upset. Then, Sect Mistress Lianhua leaped to her feet, her usual serene composure completely shattered, her face lit with a rare, radiant smile of pure, unbridled victory.

"RUYAN!" she cried out, her voice breaking with emotion. "You did it! You saved us! You saved the sect!"

Her faction, which had been sitting in tense, anxious silence, erupted. The sound was a deafening explosion of cheers, stomps, and joyous shouts. "She did it!" "Victory!" "Long live the Sect Mistress!"

It was in that single, perfect moment of joyous celebration that the betrayal came.

On the high platform, Elder Fu Yan’s face, which had been pale with disbelief, contorted into a mask of dark, demonic purple.

"No...!" he hissed, his voice a low, venomous growl. "Impossible! How could that little bitch...!"

He rose from his throne, his eyes bulging, his entire body trembling with a rage so profound it was almost madness. He slammed his hand down hard on the armrest of his throne.

"NOW!" he roared, his voice a thunderclap of pure, apoplectic rage that cut through the cheers like a guillotine.

Wang Jian, hidden high in the shadowed alcoves of the stands, felt it before he saw it. The air shifted. His own, tampered array nodes, and all of Fu Yan’s, activated in perfect, deadly concert.

A deep, bone-jarring HUMMMMMMMM thrummed from the very stones of the arena, a sound so low and powerful it silenced the entire crowd in an instant.

"What is that sound?" a disciple cried out in confusion.

"Look! The sky!" another shrieked.

Dozens of hidden array flags, planted all around the amphitheater’s rim, blazed to life with a sick, blood-red light. A massive, multi-layered, crimson energy dome, like a bubble of congealed blood, snapped shut over the entire arena, sealing everyone inside. The "Azure-Puppet Blood Suppression Formation" was active.

The crowd erupted into pure, animalistic panic.

"What is this!?"

"The sky is gone!"

"It’s an array! We’re trapped! We’re sealed inside!"

The physical effects were immediate. The very air instantly became as heavy as water, a crushing, spiritual pressure slamming down on everyone.

The disciples in Lianhua’s faction cried out in shock and fear.

"My spiritual energy!" one of them gasped, clutching his chest. "I... I can’t circulate it properly! It feels... sluggish, like mud!"

"I can’t even summon my artifact!" another yelled, his face pale with terror.

The array wasn’t just a barrier; it was a weapon. It instantly suppressed the cultivation of everyone not keyed to it by at least thirty percent, a crippling, debilitating blow.

On the high platform, Lianhua’s victory smile had frozen, twisting into a mask of cold, lethal fury. Her Core Formation aura, vast and powerful, exploded from her, pushing back against the suppression.

She spun on Fu Yan, her eyes blazing. "Fu Yan! What is the meaning of this?! This is high treason! Are you mad?!"

Wang Jian, watching calmly from the shadows, felt the other, more insidious aspect of the array activate. A subtle, silent, insidious mental pressure, a wave of disorienting, fear-inducing energy, washed over the crowd. The Silent Puppet Guild’s contribution.

Fu Yan simply threw his head back and laughed, a high-pitched, manic, and utterly chilling sound that echoed across the terrified arena.

"Treason, Lianhua? Treason?!" he cackled, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "I call it a long-overdue... restructuring! The competition is over, my dear Sect Mistress. And so is your pathetic, soft-hearted reign!"

The arena floor, which just moments before had been a stage for alchemical artistry, erupted into a bloody, chaotic nightmare.

"The traitors! They’re moving!"

"Protect the Sect Mistress!"

Disciples from Fu Yan’s faction, who had been sitting amongst the crowd, suddenly sprang to their feet. On their red sashes, small, jade Identification Talismans began to glow with a faint, crimson light, marking them as ’friendly’ to the array.

The crushing suppression that crippled Lianhua’s followers had no effect on them. They were at full strength.

"Kill the loyalists!" a deacon from Fu Yan’s side roared, drawing his blade. "Secure the exits! Let no one escape!"

They began to form a perimeter, a wall of steel and hostile Qi, pushing back against the panicked, sluggish disciples of Lianhua’s faction.

"They’re not suppressed!"

"It was a trap all along! They were all in on it!"

Lianhua’s disciples, their Qi sluggish, their minds foggy from the mental assault, scrambled to form a desperate, failing defense.

High in the stands, Wang Jian watched the chaos unfold, his expression as calm as if he were watching a play. His plan was proceeding. ’There’s the chaos,’ he thought. ’Time to get my pawn off the board.’

He sent a silent, pre-arranged spiritual pulse through a specific, hidden array node he had tampered with. It was a signal so subtle, so unique, that only the three women he had branded would be able to feel it.

Qiu Yun, Su Ning, and Bai Xue, who had been seated near the arena floor, had been feigning panic, screaming and cowering like everyone else. The moment they felt that tiny, familiar pulse in their souls, their act dropped. They instantly moved with a sharp, cold purpose.

Their target was Liu Ruyan.

She was still standing at her platform, pale and shocked, clutching her superior-grade pill, her mind unable to process the sudden, violent betrayal.

"Junior Sister Liu! This way! Quickly!" Qiu Yun yelled, her fiery, ’panicked’ voice cutting through the din. She rushed to Ruyan, grabbing her arm in a grip of steel. "It’s a trap! We have to get out of here!"

"What? Senior Sister Qiu? What’s happening?" Liu Ruyan stammered, dazed.

A few of Fu Yan’s disciples, their eyes sharp, spotted them. "Stop! It’s the Sect Master’s prized disciple! Seize her! Elder Fu wants her alive!"

"Get back, you dogs!" Qiu Yun roared, not to fight, but to create the diversion Wang Jian had ordered. She hurled a low-grade talisman, a "Minor Yang-Fire Burst," which exploded with a flashy, blinding, but mostly harmless BOOM of fire and smoke, momentarily blinding their pursuers.

At the same time, Su Ning, her gentle face now a mask of cold efficiency, threw a handful of fine, dark powder into the air. "Confusion Mist!" she yelled. A thick, disorienting fog instantly enveloped them, hiding their next move.

"This way! Trust us!" Bai Xue, the youngest, cried out, her voice filled with a convincing terror as she grabbed Liu Ruyan’s other arm.

They didn’t run towards the main exits, which were now choked with fighting disciples. They half-dragged the dazed Liu Ruyan towards a seemingly solid, ornamental stone wall directly beneath the high platform – the exact location Wang Jian had drilled into their minds.

"Where are we going?!" Liu Ruyan panicked, pulling back. "That’s a solid wall!"

"Trust us, Liu Ruyan! This is the only way! Deacon Wang showed us!" Bai Xue cried, her ’confession’ lost in the roar of the crowd.

They reached the wall. Qiu Yun shoved her hand against a specific, unmarked, and seemingly random rune carved into the stone – one of the backdoors Wang Jian had painstakingly programmed into Fu Yan’s array.

In her hand, she clutched a small, unassuming jade slip, a "Passage Identification Talisman" that Wang Jian had crafted for her, keyed specifically to this node.

"Master’s array, open up!" she whispered, her voice a desperate, urgent prayer.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then, the solid stone wall shimmered. Like a heat haze, it turned intangible, revealing a dark, narrow passage beyond.

"Now! Go! Go!" Qiu Yun screamed.

She shoved Bai Xue and Su Ning through first. Then, with a final, desperate heave, she threw Liu Ruyan into the shimmering portal. Liu Ruyan, recognizing the overwhelming danger and the impossible nature of the escape route, finally understood. This was Jian’s doing. She didn’t resist. She let herself be thrown into the darkness.

Qiu Yun dove in right after her.

The wall shimmered once more, and then solidified, becoming cold, hard stone again, just as the first of Fu Yan’s disciples reached the spot, their eyes wide with confusion.

"Where did they go?! They were right here!"

"They... they vanished! Into the wall!"

Liu Ruyan, Wang Jian’s most valuable pawn, was off the board.

High on his platform, Fu Yan floated into the air, his arms spread wide, his face a mask of triumphant, manic laughter. He watched his forces, who were at full strength, easily cut down the struggling, suppressed loyalists.

"Look at them! Look at them scurry like the vermin they are!" he cackled, his voice echoing over the screams of the dying.

"Treason, Lianhua?" he sneered, his gaze locking onto the Sect Mistress, who was now surrounded by the flashes of battle. "I call it pest control! This sect has grown weak! It has grown soft under your ’peaceful’, ’benevolent’ leadership! Today, that weakness is purged!"

The Third Elder, Song Wei, a thin, snake-like man, flew up to stand beside him, his expression one of cold, reptilian satisfaction. "We are bringing strength back to this sect, Lianhua! A strength you know nothing about! Your time is over!"

As if summoned by his words, dozens of figures from within Fu Yan’s faction, who had been holding back, now stepped forward.

With a dramatic, unified motion, they tore off their red sashes and their outer Crimson Pill Sect robes.

One group, about thirty strong, revealed the sharp, blue-and-white insignia of the Azure Sword Clan, their armor gleaming, their auras sharp and aggressive. Their leader, a grim man with a long, sword-like scar down his face, grinned, revealing stained teeth. "Deacon Jiao of the Azure Sword Clan, at your service, Elder Fu," he said, his voice grating. "We are here, as promised, to... assist in this transition of power."

Another group, smaller but far more unsettling, threw back their hoods. They wore identical, drab grey cloaks. Their faces were pale, their eyes unsettlingly blank, almost lifeless. They were the same operatives Wang Jian’s sluts had reported seeing.

One of them, seemingly the leader, spoke, his voice a flat, synthesized, emotionless monotone that made the air grow colder. "The Silent Puppet Guild always fulfills its contracts. The suppression is active. Our secondary units are in place."

Lianhua, who had been trying to organize a defense, froze. Her face went bone-white, her rage momentarily overshadowed by a deep, chilling horror.

"You... you collaborated?" she shrieked, her voice trembling, not with fear, but with a rage so profound it was almost a physical force. "You would bring wolves? Traitors? The Azure Sword Clan, our bitter rivals? The Silent Puppet Guild, those... those defilers?! You would bring them into our home?! Into our sacred arena?! You defile our ancestors, Fu Yan! You are a traitor to your blood!"

Fu Yan just laughed, a sound of pure, insane glee. "Words are meaningless now, old woman! My forces are at full strength! Your precious disciples are crippled by the array! Our allies are here! The sect is MINE!"

He pointed a finger at her, his face a mask of pure hatred. "Disciples! Cleanse the sect! Kill anyone who resists! Capture the loyalists! Show them the price of their foolish loyalty!"

The one-sided slaughter began in earnest. Fu Yan’s disciples, backed by the elite, battle-hardened Azure Sword warriors and the creepy, silent, and terrifyingly efficient puppets, charged into the panicked, suppressed ranks of Lianhua’s faction.

Loyalists who tried to raise their artifacts found their spiritual energy sputtering, their movements slow and heavy. They were cut down in droves. Blood began to pool on the arena floor, the air thick with the screams of the dying.

Amidst this chaos, Lianhua desperately scanned the crowd, her heart pounding with a new, agonizing fear. "Ruyan! Ruyan, where are you?!"

Her spiritual sense, though suppressed, was still powerful. She swept the arena. She saw the spot where her disciple was, by her cauldron. But now, she was gone. Vanished. She had seen her being pulled away by those other three alchemists – Qiu Yun, Su Ning, and Bai Xue.

’They... escaped?’ Lianhua’s mind reeled in confusion, a painful, disorienting blow on top of the betrayal. ’How? The barrier is sealed! And Ruyan... she went with them... willingly? She didn’t even fight them...’

The confusion, the tiny, icy seed of doubt about her own beloved disciple, was a wound deeper than any blade.

But she had no time to ponder it.

Fu Yan, Elder Song, and the scarred Deacon Jiao, their Core Formation auras blazing, unaffected by the array, were already streaking through the air.

Their target, their only true target, was her.

The true battle, the battle for the Crimson Pill Sect, had begun.