Chapter 1565: Seize Them All!

Niu Youdao looked at him, at the miserable state of this man who was neither quite human nor ghost, who had somehow snatched his life back from death.

Yuan Gang could tell it was him, but had no idea whether Niu Youdao had said anything. He reminded him, "Master Dao, I can't hear anymore. I can't see either."

Niu Youdao said, "I know you can't hear, and I know you can't see. But even if you could hear and see, what difference would it make? Whenever I tell you there's a pit ahead, when have you ever not gone deaf and blind just like this and insisted on walking straight into it?"

"Monkey, no one can stand in front of every pit for you forever. There will always be times when I can't cover everything."

Yuan Gang told him, "Master Dao, Wu Chang is dead."

"Yes. Wu Chang is dead. You did it." Niu Youdao looked at him. "Maybe every time you do this, what you do turns out to be right. But this isn't the way I want things done."

"Many matters don't need to be taken to such extremes. We can solve them another way. Why do you always refuse to leave yourself any room?"

"I'm not afraid of Wu Chang. What I'm afraid of is you acting like this!"

He truly had not expected this result.

He had considered every kind of response. He had even planned, if everything else failed, to find a way to seal Wu Chang inside the Fifth Domain.

Never had he imagined Wu Chang would actually be dealt with in this manner.

He had not expected Yuan Gang's willingness to die to draw the others into joining forces, until together they drove Wu Chang to his death.

Nor had he imagined Wu Chang would end himself by detonating his own body, without the slightest warning beforehand, departing so decisively and cleanly.

Yuan Gang's actions had indeed enraged him.

Once Yuan Gang's blood ran hot, he had given no thought at all to the disastrous consequences if his attempt failed.

If Yuan Gang died while Wu Chang survived, with the Heaven-Swallowing Ring still in Wu Chang's hands, then even if Niu Youdao obtained the Mountains and Rivers Cauldron, he would be unable to enter the Fifth Domain.

He would not even be able to seal Wu Chang inside it.

After that, who knew how long their side would have to sink into darkness before they finally found a way to eliminate Wu Chang?

The price would probably be far more than merely blood flowing like rivers among the Nanzhou faction.

Wu Chang would adopt even more brutal methods against the entire realm.

How many people would die was impossible to imagine.

The mere thought of those consequences left Niu Youdao with lingering fear.

Yet matters had already reached this point.

Yuan Gang had risked his life and brought Wu Chang down, while reducing himself to this ghastly condition in the process.

Niu Youdao could no longer bring himself to say anything truly blaming.

And even if he did, Yuan Gang could not hear him.

Boom!

A sudden detonation rang out.

Niu Youdao turned.

People all around looked back one after another.

Yuan Gang tilted his head slightly, sensing the vibration as well.

From the center of the enormous crater, a figure suddenly burst through the earth and floated into the air. He shook his head hard, apparently still somewhat dazed.

It was none other than Zhao Xiongge.

Niu Youdao was surprised to see him.

Zhao Xiongge's clothing looked completely undamaged. There was no visible sign of injury at all, and the fact that he could still hover in the air already showed that he was in remarkably good condition.

Guan Fangyi, now missing one arm, and Shang Shuqing, looking upward, were plainly surprised as well.

Zhao Xiongge surveyed the devastation around him.

If the surrounding mountains and terrain had not remained recognizable, he might have thought he had appeared somewhere else entirely.

Not the slightest trace of the small town remained below.

That enormous crater alone proved how terrifying Wu Chang's self-detonation had been.

He was still alive?

Zhao Xiongge looked at both his hands, then down at the rest of his body.

Even he found it hard to believe.

Only now did lingering fear catch up to him. He had never expected Wu Chang to be so decisive.

His gaze fell upon Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang.

He flashed over and landed beside them.

Seeing Yuan Gang's miserable condition, he was not particularly surprised that Yuan Gang remained alive.

His reasoning was simple.

If even Zhao Xiongge had survived, then with Yuan Gang's monstrous physical body, surviving was hardly strange.

Zhao Xiongge asked Yuan Gang, "Are you all right?"

Niu Youdao answered for him. "He's blind and deaf. He can't hear what you're saying."

Zhao Xiongge sighed. "He should be able to recover, shouldn't he?"

"Don't know." Niu Youdao brushed the question aside, looked Zhao Xiongge up and down again, and asked in surprise, "Wu Chang detonated himself right as you were charging straight at him, yet you look almost completely fine. What happened?"

Zhao Xiongge thought back, then shook his head. "I don't know either. I was inside the sword when I cut in."

"I only felt the force of the explosion travel along the sword. Then the sword's momentum was shattered by the blast, and I followed that momentum and plunged into the earth."

"The shock underground was difficult to endure. I nearly failed to withstand it and was almost buried alive."

"Fortunately, the force passed quickly. I only suffered some internal injury. Nothing serious."

Niu Youdao seemed to understand something. He nodded slightly.

Zhao Xiongge looked around. "Where is everyone else?"

Niu Youdao said, "Don't know."

The surroundings were already in an uproar.

Countless Crow Generals were searching the ground, some even dissolving into black mist and slowly seeping underground to look for people.

Yun Ji returned.

She brought back Shang Chaozong and the others, all covered in dust and dirt.

Fortunately, they had been far enough away, with Old Second Wu and Old Six Xu at their side to protect them.

Otherwise, several of them might have been crushed to death when the earth collapsed.

In the end, they had been frightened badly but escaped disaster.

Seeing the countless Crow Generals, Shang Chaozong and the others stared in uncertainty and alarm.

Old Six Xu carried Meng Shanming on his back.

When he and Old Second Wu saw Guan Fangyi missing an arm, both were badly shocked and hurried to her side to ask what had happened.

Zhao Xiongge caught Yuan Gang by the arm and followed Niu Youdao back across the crater.

"Master Dao." Meng Shanming and Shang Chaozong greeted Niu Youdao together.

Yun Ji stared in astonishment when she saw Zhao Xiongge standing there intact.

She did not know what had happened and could hardly imagine that Zhao Xiongge had struck head-on into Wu Chang's immensely powerful self-detonation and still survived.

Yuan Gang's monstrous physical body was something she could understand.

But Zhao Xiongge looking in better condition than Yuan Gang himself was almost impossible for her to believe.

Old Second Wu and Old Six Xu, who had been grieving over Guan Fangyi's severed arm, heard the address "Master Dao" and turned together.

The moment they saw Niu Youdao, both cried out in shock.

"Master Dao!"

They were completely dumbfounded.

For a moment, they thought their eyes had deceived them.

It felt like a dream.

Judging by his clothing, wasn't this the same Wang Xiao from before?

If Master Dao was not dead, then that meant he had been hiding behind Maolu Villa all along.

Which meant that countless events over these years had been controlled by him from behind the scenes.

The two were badly shaken.

Old Six Xu, still carrying Meng Shanming, and Old Second Wu immediately bowed respectfully.

"Master Dao."

Niu Youdao smiled and nodded to them. "We meet again."

Dust-covered Lü Wushuang slowly walked to Yuan Gang's side.

She stared at his condition for a long moment.

Then the once-mighty Sacred Venerable Wushuang began silently shedding tears.

She caught Yuan Gang's wrist and lifted his hand.

The flesh over it had been torn open so badly that bone was visible.

Yuan Gang tilted his head.

The fine sense of touch in his fingers was gone, but he caught her familiar fragrance and knew who stood beside him.

He remained silent.

Niu Youdao walked over to Guan Fangyi, but turned his head toward Yun Ji instead.

"Do you know why I stopped you from attacking?"

Yun Ji glanced at Guan Fangyi. "You were afraid I'd be in danger."

Niu Youdao shook his head.

"If Wu Chang hadn't died this way, and both you and Hongniang had been injured, then after Wu Chang died, what would have happened to us?"

"Those people would have turned on us immediately. They wouldn't have missed the opportunity. They would have tried to kill us on the spot."

"If we couldn't escape, then killing Wu Chang would have been meaningless."

"Perhaps another group of Nine Saints would simply have appeared in this world."

Everyone understood his meaning.

They all knew the "those people" he referred to were Xi Haitang and the others.

Thinking it through, his concern was not excessive in the slightest.

It was entirely possible.

Zhao Xiongge fell briefly silent as he weighed the matter.

By himself, he probably could not stop all those people.

Guan Fangyi understood too.

She knew Niu Youdao had ostensibly asked Yun Ji the question because he wanted Guan Fangyi herself to hear the answer.

Yet the look in her eyes betrayed her state of mind.

She seemed to have lost interest in almost everything.

Niu Youdao aimed his next words directly at her.

"Looking like this, how are you going to face Nantian Wufang?"

"If you see him again, I'm afraid you'll regret it."

With her hair disheveled like some madwoman, Guan Fangyi gave a cold snort.

"Why would I see him? I wish I could kill him!"

"I was afraid your romantic entanglements would interfere with serious business. If I'd known this would happen, I should have told you before we set out."

There was reproach in Niu Youdao's voice.

He turned toward Shang Shuqing.

"Commandery Princess, later explain Nantian Wufang's situation to her. Let her decide for herself."

Shang Shuqing gave a soft "Mm" and nodded.

Her gaze then returned to Guan Fangyi's missing arm, filled with sympathy.

Explain what?

Uncertainty appeared in Guan Fangyi's eyes.

Niu Youdao walked over to Yin'er, who lay on the ground.

He crouched beside her and placed one hand against her face, where the silver markings had become increasingly pronounced.

He circulated his power to dissolve the aberrant demon qi inside her.

At a signal from Meng Shanming, Old Six Xu lowered him to sit on the ground.

Before long, under the vast search carried out by the Crow Generals, people were dug out of the earth one after another.

Every one of them was in miserable condition.

"Cough, cough..."

Zhuge Chi suddenly coughed, then choked up another mouthful of blood.

His eyes slowly opened.

Lying on the ground, he looked from side to side, then gradually struggled into a sitting position.

The false face had long since been blown away.

He sat there panting.

Zhao Xiongge crouched beside him.

"Worthy of a Nascent Soul expert who advanced many years ago. Among all of them, your injuries are the lightest."

Zhuge Chi shook his head weakly.

"It has nothing to do with that."

"I felt mutually repelling forces colliding inside the power of Wu Chang's explosion. During the detonation, they weakened one another considerably."

"If the force had been pure, the explosion would probably have been much stronger. I doubt I'd still be alive."

Zhao Xiongge nodded.

"Your feeling was correct. Wu Chang had cultivation from many different arts poured into his body. It wasn't pure."

He turned and looked at the bloodied row of people lying on the ground.

"Now that you mention it, if not for that, I'm afraid none of them would have survived."

Zhuge Chi suddenly paused and looked up at him.

"How are you completely fine?"

Zhao Xiongge mischievously replied, "I'm stronger than all of you."

Zhuge Chi gave an understanding sound and actually believed him.

"As expected of an expert who once ranked near the top of the Golden Core Ranking. You really are extraordinary."

At that moment, Niu Youdao stood before a corpse.

It was the only person among those who had besieged Wu Chang to die.

Ao Feng.

His body had been bent and broken backward.

The corpse was mangled, and some parts had already merged with the soil and could no longer be found.

Ao Feng had taken Wu Chang's furious blow and been gravely injured.

He had not even been able to stand afterward.

His spiritual power had been too weak to defend himself, and he had failed to crawl beyond the range of the blast.

When the explosion came, it destroyed him like this.

He had died without even leaving an intact corpse.

Niu Youdao stared at Ao Feng's remains.

No one beside him knew what he was thinking.

Yun Ji walked over and quietly reminded him, "If we treat them urgently now, almost all of them can still be saved. If we don't, most of them will die. What do you want to do?"

She asked because Niu Youdao had previously warned that these people might change sides again.

She did not know whether he wanted them alive or dead.

Niu Youdao turned around.

His gaze swept across the line of unconscious, blood-soaked figures.

His voice sank.

"Seize them all!"

Yun Ji understood.

If he wanted them seized, then he intended to save their lives first.

Zhuge Chi, however, turned his head at the words and cried out in alarm, "Are you planning to tear down the bridge after crossing the river?"

[End of Chapter 1565]