Chapter 788: Deeply Pained

It was not only Hong Gaitian.

Wu Zhaoxing, Yun Ji, and Yun Huan were equally curious about what information Niu Youdao had supposedly obtained beforehand.

Only now did the three feel as though they had finally found the answer to a long-standing mystery.

So this bastard had already known certain things in advance.

No wonder he had dared speak of allying with the overseas cultivators even when he had only a handful of people beside him.

"No connection?"

Niu Youdao looked at Hong Gaitian as though he were looking at a fool.

"I've already explained it this clearly, and Third Master still hasn't understood?"

"..."

Hong Gaitian's mouth hung slightly open.

For a long moment, he could not recover.

He began thinking back through everything Niu Youdao had just said.

Had there been some point he had failed to grasp?

Nor was he alone.

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son were also reconsidering every word.

After thinking for quite a while, none of them could taste any deeper meaning.

They began to question their own intelligence.

Hong Gaitian refused to believe there was something wrong with his brain.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally asking suspiciously, "Niu Youdao, what you're saying is neither clear nor complete."

"Can you explain it properly?"

Niu Youdao gave the surroundings a meaningful glance.

He looked at the dozen or so men Hong Gaitian had brought with him and slowly said, "This is something a man can only work out for himself."

"It's not easy to say."

"Nor is it convenient to say."

Hong Gaitian immediately waved at the people around him and barked, "All of you, get the hell farther away!"

The dozen men exchanged looks.

They wanted to stay and hear the explanation too.

But none dared challenge his savage temper.

They could only withdraw sheepishly.

Hong Gaitian looked around, then turned back.

"Can you say it now?"

Niu Youdao replied, "Third Master, I've already given you plenty of face."

"I've said it very clearly."

"That's about enough."

"If I make it too explicit, you'll be making things difficult for me."

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son were speechless.

Even as bystanders, they felt choked by the man's answer.

Hong Gaitian's beard bristled and his eyes widened.

"You call that giving me face?"

"If you don't explain it clearly, what difference is there between speaking and saying nothing?"

Niu Youdao said, "Third Master, listen to yourself."

"You and I aren't kin and we aren't old friends."

"Why should I obediently tell you whatever you want to know?"

"What benefit is there for me?"

"Benefit?"

Hong Gaitian folded his arms across his chest and gave him a contemptuous chuckle.

"Fine. Say what benefit you want."

"Spirit Seeds?"

"I do have some."

"I'm not unwilling to give you a few."

"That depends on whether what you have to say is worth the price."

Niu Youdao asked in return, "Do the Spirit Seeds in your hands give me enough to take first place?"

"If not, what use are they to me?"

"Keep them for yourself."

Hong Gaitian scoffed.

"Stop playing mysterious games. Do you take me for a fool?"

"You lit a fire that huge in the middle of the night."

"'Warming yourselves by the fire and chatting'? Who are you trying to fool?"

"You were practically afraid no one would see you."

"Does that look like the behavior of a man being hunted?"

"You deliberately lured me over because you wanted to tell me something."

"I only came back because you're from the Seven States and I want to understand why those bastards keep coming after us."

"Stop whetting my appetite."

"If you truly make me angry, then speak if you want, keep quiet if you don't."

"I'll turn around and leave right now!"

Wu Zhaoxing and Yun Ji exchanged a glance.

Niu Youdao gave a quiet inward sound of surprise.

This man was not as easy to fool as he had expected.

He drove his sword a little deeper into the ground, freeing both hands, then clapped.

"Third Master truly deserves to be Third Master of the South Sea."

"Speaking with an intelligent man really is refreshing."

"Good. I like that!"

"I won't hide it from Third Master."

"After Yan expelled me, my present circumstances became rather poor."

"I hope to receive Third Master's help."

Wu Zhaoxing and Yun Ji exchanged another look.

This fellow truly had a thick face.

Even after someone had exposed his intentions directly, his expression did not change and his heart did not skip a beat.

He simply turned with the flow and carried on as though nothing had happened.

Hong Gaitian snorted again.

"I knew you wanted to use me."

"Fine."

"If you want my help, that isn't impossible."

"First explain everything clearly."

"Then I'll decide whether it's worth helping you."

"Refreshing!"

Niu Youdao gave him a thumbs-up.

Now that he knew the other man was not easy to deceive, he raised his own alertness as well.

"There are some things I will say only once, right here."

"Once the words are out, they are gone."

"If anyone asks afterward, you can beat me to death and I still won't admit I said them."

Hong Gaitian impatiently waved a hand.

"Stop rambling."

"If you have words, speak them."

"If you have a fart, let it out!"

Niu Youdao did not take offense at the rude language.

"Third Master, may I ask why Misty Pavilion rejected the rosters submitted by the Seven States?"

Hong Gaitian said, "Everyone in the cultivation world knows why."

"The rosters the Seven States submitted were perfunctory."

"Misty Pavilion wasn't satisfied, so it sent them back."

"Wasn't that the reason?"

Niu Youdao nodded.

"Correct."

"Then let me ask another question."

"Unlike previous openings, why were another one thousand independent cultivators added this time?"

Hong Gaitian raised his brows.

"I heard several states had been at war and lost quite a few elite cultivators."

"To keep this Tiandu Secret Realm expedition from falling below the standard of previous years, they added one thousand independent cultivators."

"Wasn't that why?"

Niu Youdao asked, "Under Misty Pavilion's pressure, would the Seven States still dare be perfunctory?"

"They had already resubmitted their rosters."

"How could the new lists still fail to match previous standards?"

"They claimed the expedition lacked enough quality and used that as the reason."

"Do you really believe it?"

Hong Gaitian frowned, and his voice dropped a little.

"Time passed, and the strength of independent cultivators rose."

"They merely wanted to seize the opportunity to clean out a batch of them."

"Everyone understands that."

"There's no point saying it openly."

Niu Youdao pressed the question.

"When Sha Rulai summoned the leading figures of every side to Misty Pavilion, the Dharma King of the South Sea was there as well."

"Third Master should know at least something about what happened."

"Sha Rulai announced that another thousand independent cultivators would enter."

"That differed from the rules of previous Tiandu Secret Realm expeditions."

"Does Third Master really think Sha Rulai had the authority to decide something like that on his own?"

Hong Gaitian answered frankly.

"Does that even need asking?"

"It had to be the will of those nine sitting above the clouds."

Niu Youdao tapped the back of one hand against his other palm.

"The matter is already this obvious."

"Third Master still doesn't understand?"

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son looked faintly puzzled.

Understand?

Understand what?

They understood nothing.

Hong Gaitian was equally lost.

After talking this long, he still felt confused.

He thought for a while and simply could not grasp the key.

In the end, he swallowed his pride and asked again.

"What the hell does any of this have to do with the Seven States attacking us?"

Niu Youdao said, "Why were they dissatisfied with the Seven States' rosters?"

"You and I both know the answer."

"Someone wanted more of the Seven States' elite cultivators to die!"

"No excuse from the Seven States worked."

"Misty Pavilion, which claims not to interfere in the affairs of the states, went so far as to freeze the wars directly!"

"And even that wasn't enough."

"Those nine supreme experts beneath Heaven personally ordered another one thousand independent cultivators thrown into the Tiandu Secret Realm."

"Third Master still can't feel the intention behind all of this?"

Hong Gaitian was rendered speechless.

Listening to Niu Youdao, the matter suddenly sounded terrifyingly serious.

He felt as though he too had vaguely realized something.

The problem was that he had no idea what exactly he had realized.

His appetite had been thoroughly whetted.

Finally, he stopped pretending.

He openly admitted defeat.

"Fine, fine, fine."

"I admit my brain isn't good enough."

"Just explain the whole thing straight through."

"Stop circling around it!"

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son felt exactly the same way.

It was as though some enormous secret lay just beyond a paper window, yet none of them could poke through that final layer.

They too urgently wanted the answer.

Niu Youdao spoke with emphatic force.

"Third Master, do I really need to say more?"

"The reason another thousand independent cultivators were added was, in the final analysis, because they wanted more people on this expedition to die!"

"Can you deny that?"

"Such a simple principle, and I still have to spell it out this plainly?"

Hong Gaitian remained confused.

"Yes. You're right."

"That's the logic."

"But what does it have to do with us?"

Niu Youdao immediately adopted an expression of deep pain and bitter disappointment.

"The rosters were rejected and rewritten."

"The wars were directly frozen."

"Another thousand independent cultivators were ordered into the Secret Realm."

"This time, they clearly intend for more people to die."

"The will of those nine supreme experts beneath Heaven is so firm."

"What does that tell you?"

"If enough people do not die, those nine will not be satisfied!"

"After those additional thousand independent cultivators entered, where did they go?"

"Nearly all of them were recruited and divided among the Seven States."

"They've already been absorbed into the forces of those states."

"So how are enough people supposed to die now?"

"Which state wants its own people to die in large numbers?"

"The Seven States know perfectly well that if those nine want to clean up the cultivation world, they have countless other methods available."

"The attitude of those nine is so resolute this time."

"The Seven States know that if they fail to satisfy them here, then after leaving the Tiandu Secret Realm none of them will have an easy time."

"More unexpected trouble will certainly be waiting outside."

"So the Seven States must give those nine an accounting."

"But none of them wants its own people to die."

"Then who do you think they want dead?"

"Third Master, who do you think is the best target for them to sacrifice?"

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son suddenly understood.

It was as though a lamp had been lit in their minds.

Hong Gaitian listened with his heart pounding.

At last he understood as well.

The muscles across his face twitched.

"Naturally... us cultivators from the Four Seas!"

Niu Youdao shook his head with an expression of profound grief.

"The Seven States understood this long ago."

"I assumed your people had realized it too."

"Who would have thought Third Master would be this slow to notice?"

"It truly leaves this Niu sighing with emotion."

"Still, I can understand."

"Compared with the people of the Seven States, who spend their entire lives fighting over power and advantage, overseas cultivators may simply not be skilled in such matters."

"Perhaps you lack that particular kind of scheming instinct."

"Motherfucker!"

Hong Gaitian rubbed his fists together, his face vicious with rage.

"I was wondering why those bastards from the Seven States seemed to have swallowed the wrong medicine."

"In previous expeditions, even when people robbed one another, no one played it like this."

"We've only just started."

"No one has many Spirit Seeds yet."

"Why fight to the death now?"

"Yet every group we run into starts trouble with us."

"We've encountered three or four waves and every one did the same thing."

"They even claimed we'd killed their people."

"I thought there had been some misunderstanding."

"So all of it was just an excuse."

"This was the filthy intention they were hiding!"

"A pack of bastards!"

The moment he said that, Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son all froze.

Niu Youdao said, "If I'm not mistaken, the people of the Eastern Sea, Western Sea, and Northern Sea must have gone through the same thing as your South Sea people."

"Cough, cough..."

Yun Huan suddenly began coughing and quickly turned his head away.

Yun Ji looked at Niu Youdao as though she had seen a ghost.

Then she seemed to realize her reaction was inappropriate and hurriedly suppressed it.

The look Wu Zhaoxing gave Niu Youdao contained unmistakable shock, almost as though he were looking at some supernatural being.

At first, all three of them had believed Niu Youdao's nonsense.

His reasoning had been so orderly and clear that it was difficult not to believe him.

Only now, when Hong Gaitian's words were placed beside Niu Youdao's, did the three abruptly realize what had actually happened.

All of them were stunned.

They had nearly fallen completely for his deception.

At last, they understood what all that sneaking behind the forces of the various states and secretly killing people had really been about.

So this was the trap waiting at the end of the road.

[End of Chapter 788]