Chapter 821: Calling It Robbery Sounds So Ugly

Chu Fengping and Shan Hai stared at Yan Li, their expressions twitching. They understood now. At last, they understood everything.

No wonder he had thrown himself into the fight without regard for his own safety and led men in helping Han and Song. So he had meant to use everyone else's hands to cripple Jin.

No wonder the fellow had twisted this way and that, fought only half the battle, then deliberately let Jin escape. So there had been a filthy little plan for monopolizing the spoils hidden behind it all. Once Jin had been crippled, they could quietly follow and finish off the remnants with ease.

Still, the two had to admit that this filthy plan to eat the whole feast themselves had been well hidden. Yan's ranking would naturally be shared by all three factions, so this "private feast" would be shared by the three of them as well. Just thinking about it made both men excited.

Yan Li leaned close to them and said furtively, "Gentlemen, if we take first place, are you willing to split the reward equally with Zijin Cave?"

The two exchanged a look. Did he even need to explain what he meant?

Zijin Cave had very few Spirit Seeds in hand, so when the reward was divided later, its share would be correspondingly small. But now Zijin Cave controlled the crucial lead needed to obtain Jin's Spirit Seeds, and Yan Li was using that leverage to demand an equal split.

The problem was that they could not refuse. If they did, Yan Li would not cooperate in finding Jin's remnants, and then neither of their factions would have any chance of taking first place.

After exchanging another look, Chu Fengping said, "Old Ghost Yan, as long as you really can find Jin's remnants, we'll count that as Zijin Cave's contribution. Equal split it is!"

Yan Li turned to Shan Hai. "What is Xiaoyao Palace's position?"

Shan Hai said, "All three of us work together to take first place. Afterward, no matter who has more Spirit Seeds and who has fewer, the reward is divided equally!"

"Good. Then it's settled!" Yan Li clapped his hands and laughed.

Chu Fengping gave a cold chuckle. "Yan Li, I never saw it in you before. Who would've thought you were this treacherous!"

Shan Hai nodded in agreement. Exactly. Yan Li had led them around in circles, tugging everyone along by the nose until they obediently ran wherever he wanted.

It was the first time either man had seen Yan Li display this kind of ability. One linked scheme after another, flowing smoothly and leaving no gaps, had fooled everyone. He hardly resembled the Yan Li they knew.

Both men silently decided that today's lesson was enough. From now on, they would have to guard against this old ghost. Otherwise, they might one day be sold by him without even realizing it.

Yan Li hurriedly waved a hand in modest denial. "This isn't treachery. All warfare is based on deception—deception in war! I had no choice. We have too few Spirit Seeds in hand, and it would be hard to account for ourselves after we return. I could only rack my brains and try to make up the difference somewhere else, couldn't I?"

Privately, however, he muttered that he was hardly the treacherous one. The truly treacherous man was someone else entirely. What they were doing here was only one link in the chain.

Only Yan Li knew that Jin's surviving remnants were never going to be theirs to deal with.

The three were still discussing how they could wipe out Jin's remnants without letting Wei and Qi know when someone suddenly came to report, "Elder, the people from Han and Song have fled!"

Fled? What was going on?

The three were immediately startled and went to inspect the situation. Wei and Qi were alerted as well. By the time they checked, Han and Song had already vanished without a trace.

They had no choice but to run.

Han and Song had already sensed danger. Jin had cut both states' strength in half yet again, and Fu Juyan, the strongest man on Song's side, had suffered severe injuries. Both states had also used up their Heavenly Sword Talismans. If Yan, Wei, and Qi joined forces against them again, they would have no way to resist.

Danger often worked this way. The stronger you were, the less outsiders dared harbor malicious intentions. Once you became too weak, however, even people who had originally meant you no harm could easily be tempted into it. Who would not want good things that were theirs for the taking?

After thinking it over again and again, the two states, already huddled together for protection, ultimately decided to slip away quietly and wait until the final moment before forcing their way out.

In the end, Jin, Han, and Song's internal conflict had benefited none of them. Worse, they had even lost control of the exit.

...

"Ninth Uncle, look! There's smoke behind us again!"

Among the fleeing cultivators of Jin, someone called out.

Taishu Shanyue turned his head. Sure enough, another faint plume of smoke was rising in the distance.

Had they not been worried about pursuers and kept looking back from time to time, they might easily have overlooked it.

Taishu Shanyue was still puzzling over the matter when he suddenly raised one hand. The entire fleeing group stopped at once.

A man stood atop the treetops ahead, one hand resting a sword across his shoulder.

Everyone recognized him.

Niu Youdao, the man who had caused trouble at Tiangu!

A mere Niu Youdao dared block their path? Taishu Shanyue immediately sensed something was wrong and rapidly swept his gaze around the surroundings.

Niu Youdao smiled pleasantly. "I saw the smoke signal and wondered who was coming. So it's the heroes of Jin."

That sounded nice enough. In truth, the rising smoke was reporting the direction in which Jin's group was fleeing, allowing the people waiting to intercept them to lock onto their route.

Taishu Shanyue waved a hand and shouted, "This old man is in a good mood today and doesn't feel like making trouble for you. Get the hell out of the way!"

The fact that he could bring himself to say he would spare Niu Youdao revealed how uncertain he felt inside.

Niu Youdao said, "There isn't much time left before the exit opens. Why are all of you still running deeper into the Secret Realm? You've had a hard journey. Why not stay and rest a while?"

Taishu Shanyue kept watch on the surroundings and roared, "Brat, are you tired of living?"

Niu Youdao's eyes flickered slightly. A signal came from nearby, letting him know the encirclement had already closed.

His tone changed at once. He could no longer be bothered wasting words. "Taishu Shanyue, don't refuse the face I'm giving you. Hand over the Spirit Seeds obediently and I'll spare your life!"

Taishu Shanyue gave a savage sneer. "You want to rob Jin of its things?"

"Calling it robbery sounds so ugly. I'm telling you to hand them over!" Niu Youdao replied. "Taishu Shanyue, my patience is limited. Stop dragging this out and make things easier for everyone. I've robbed my way here already; one more faction won't make any difference to me!"

"Courting death!" Taishu Shanyue roared and shot toward him.

Asking him to meekly hand over the Spirit Seeds was a joke. When had Jin ever played the obedient grandson to anyone? How could he endure such humiliation?

Niu Youdao would not take unnecessary risks. He had never liked fighting and killing in the first place. He immediately drifted backward, swung the sword from his shoulder, pointed it forward, and gave a single command.

"Go!"

Four figures flashed simultaneously from the treetops below.

Fuhua, Lang Jingkong, Hong Gaitian, and Duan Wuchang emerged together and joined forces to intercept Taishu Shanyue. They stopped him on the spot, and a thunderous battle erupted instantly, violent currents of force sweeping in every direction.

The Four Seas cultivators who had completed the encirclement attacked from all sides as well. Even the fifty disciples of Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion, together with Sect Leader Situ Yao himself, charged into battle.

Niu Youdao had spent far too much effort arranging this. This time he was determined to obtain the prize and would tolerate no failure. Nearly every fighting force currently at his disposal had been thrown into the attack. Jin's remnants had to be annihilated here.

Surrounded on all sides, Jin's cultivators fought back desperately in grief and fury.

Wu Zhaoxing, Yun Ji, and Yun Huan flashed out and guarded Niu Youdao from both sides.

Nothing could happen to Niu Youdao now. He was the key to getting Zijin Cave to hold back and let everyone escape. Without him, Zijin Cave might decide to seize the Spirit Seeds in their hands instead. Then it would no longer be a matter of holding back—it would be letting their blood.

The battle plunged straight into white-hot intensity. In an instant, it became a struggle of life and death.

Jin's group had just fought a major battle in the ancient forest and then fled for their lives over a long distance. Their spiritual power had already been heavily depleted. Now they had run into this group deliberately waiting to pick up an easy prize. The course of the battle was easy to imagine. They could do little more than barely hold on.

"Die!"

High in the air, Taishu Shanyue roared. The enormous hammer of condensed force appeared in his hand again.

With a deafening crash, he caught Hong Gaitian unprepared and smashed him away, blood spraying from his mouth.

"Ya!" Fuhua shrieked.

Demonic qi surged around her. In an instant, a chaotic mass of vines burst from within her body, entangling the immensely powerful giant hammer in Taishu Shanyue's hand while simultaneously winding around Taishu Shanyue himself.

The hammer, trapped so tightly it could no longer be swung, abruptly exploded into nothingness.

Taishu Shanyue seized the incoming vines with one hand and yanked violently. At the same time, his body spun, twisting himself into the mass of branches.

He showed no fear whatsoever of the vines' whipping strikes or piercing thrusts. In an instant, he had pulled himself close to Fuhua.

The vines were covered in sharp, poisonous thorns. Yet as Fuhua used spiritual power to constrict them, alarm rose within her. The razor-sharp thorns could barely pierce Taishu Shanyue's skin.

Taishu Shanyue vanished from sight, swallowed by the entangling vines until they wrapped him into an enormous sphere.

Duan Wuchang rushed in.

His ghost-cultivator body dissolved into a shrieking cloud of ghostly mist that surged toward the vine sphere, intending to tear apart Taishu Shanyue trapped inside.

Fuhua spread both arms and desperately maintained control of the vine sphere, cooperating with Duan Wuchang's attack.

Boom!

The vine sphere suddenly burst apart. Golden flame erupted from within.

It was not true fire, but a golden blaze visible only to the Dharma Eye.

A fist punched through the shattered vines.

Crash!

A golden-flame fist-shadow struck Fuhua squarely in the chest. It hit like a blacksmith's hammer striking iron, sparks spraying in every direction.

"Ah!"

Fuhua's long, miserable scream cut through the air. Her connection to the vine sphere broke. The place on her chest where the fist had landed blackened like charcoal, glowing sparks spreading outward from the wound.

Burning branches repeatedly burst from Fuhua's chest and flew away.

She herself was casting something off, again and again, like a gecko sacrificing its tail to survive. Only after discarding an unknown number of blazing branches from her chest did she finally neutralize the elemental force contained in Taishu Shanyue's punch.

At the same time that he shattered the vine sphere, Taishu Shanyue had already driven another golden-flame fist into the ghostly mist.

The entire cloud of ghost mist shuddered and rebounded.

A muffled groan sounded from within. Duan Wuchang materialized out of the mist, clutching his chest as he flew backward.

"Qiyun Sect's Blazing Flame Golden Body Art!" Wu Zhaoxing murmured as he stood beside Niu Youdao, looking up at the battle.

Yun Ji nodded slightly. "It happens to counter Duan Wuchang and Fuhua."

Niu Youdao, however, watched the figures crossing and clashing in the sky and clicked his tongue inwardly.

The combatants above were fighting entirely in midair without touching the ground. It was another display like the battle with Zhao Xiongge that he had witnessed at Maolu Villa.

This was the difference between true expert cultivators and ordinary ones.

They had already developed the ability to resist the earth's pull.

In the blink of an eye, Taishu Shanyue had wounded two experts in succession.

Lang Jingkong descended as though arriving from the Ninth Heaven itself. It seemed as if he had torn down a curtain from the heavens, dragging with him from some unknown place a funnel-shaped mass of white cloud.

The cloud rushed downward like collapsing mountains and overturning seas.

As it closed on Taishu Shanyue, countless water arrows suddenly shot from within it.

Taishu Shanyue grasped empty air and summoned another enormous hammer. He spun it like a wheel of wind and fire and continued rising, thunder roaring around him.

Its incomparable force smashed apart the countless water arrows. Even the onrushing white clouds, vast as mountains and seas, were whipped into turbulent chaos and scattered.

Crash!

Lang Jingkong spat out a mouthful of blood. A heavy hammer blow sent him flying backward out of the cloud.

Even with four great experts joining forces in the air, they still could not overcome Taishu Shanyue.

Niu Youdao frowned.

Then a gust suddenly rose beside him.

He turned his head and saw cold light flash from behind Wu Zhaoxing.

Wu Zhaoxing had drawn his sword.

In the next instant, he shot into the sky.

[End of Chapter 821]