Every Step Is Part of My Plan!

Shen Feng could not help but marvel inwardly, *As expected of the Master of the Red Tower.* Looking at Song Yunshu bound in spiritual light, Jia Kun knit his brow tightly. His tiger-like eyes fixed on Shen Feng as he sent a low voice transmission: "Why did you seize her?" "Isn't that just alerting the enemy?!" Jia Kun looked at Tian Hai in his grasp, and then at the wide-eyed woman behind Shen Feng, whose gaze was filled with terror and panic. His face showed utter helplessness. Shen Feng said coldly, "It won't be long before Gu Yong notices something is wrong with Tian Hai. A natal substitute puppet... won't fool him for long. "As for Song Yunshu... she practically walked right into our hands. She is his granddaughter, after all. Keeping her with us gives us another bargaining chip!" The other man was rather taciturn, yet a sharp glint flickered in the depths of his eyes. Shen Feng saw through his thoughts in an instant and sneered. "Don't think about fleeing without doing anything. Given Li Guanqi's methods... do you really think he wouldn't anticipate this sort of situation? "When the time comes, you won't even know how you died." The man Shen Feng was staring at was the Master of the Blue Tower. The man looked up, cast a deep glance at Shen Feng, and said nothing, but Shen Feng could clearly sense that the thought had been dispelled. At this moment, Song Yunshu's pupils trembled. She had heard every single word of their conversation without missing a thing. *They want to defect from Tianji Pavilion!* *The Master of the Yellow Tower must die, and they still have things to do—and they're doing them for Li Guanqi's Guanyun Pavilion!* Song Yunshu's mind was a complete muddle. She didn't understand what had happened, and by the looks of it, the surrounding space was clearly inside the spatial dharma artifact that had been on the desk. Fortunately, Shen Feng didn't intend to kill her right now; he wanted to use her to threaten Gu Yong. *Boom!* Just as Song Yunshu was lost in chaotic thoughts, a terrifying Mahayana realm pressure instantly swept across the surrounding heaven and earth! The entire Tianji Domain grew suffocatingly oppressive at that moment, and Gu Yong's frigid, furious roar rang out across the domain. "You... are all courting death!" *Boom!* Under the shock of the terrifying pressure, the Four Towers collapsed into ruins, and even the space inside Shen Feng's spatial magic treasure began to shake violently! Jia Kun's expression changed, and he asked in a low voice, "How do we get out?" Shen Feng took a deep breath, turned to glance at the dying Tian Hai, and raised his hand. A flash of cold sword light gleamed and vanished. A head rolled across the ground. The expressions of Jia Kun and the other man shifted slightly; both could feel Shen Feng's resolve. He hadn't even used a natal substitute puppet to cover up Tian Hai's death. Gu Yong's face was dark to the extreme. In his perception, Song Yunshu's aura was gone, and... Tian Hai was dead! *Boom!* Countless hairline fractures shattered through the void, tearing open the sky like falling black raindrops. Shen Feng took a deep breath, glanced back at the terrified, uneasy Song Yunshu, and said coldly, "I hope I won't have to use you." As he spoke, Shen Feng formed hand seals, and terrifying spatial power surged as if running rampant! The spatial magic treasure resting on the desk began to turn somewhat illusory. Moreover, this shift completely bypassed Gu Yong's pressure and the domain's lockdown. Jia Kun's eyes flickered. Sensing the changes in the surrounding space, he said in a low voice, "A mother-child dharma artifact?" Shen Feng didn't answer. He simply pushed his divine sense to its limit, accelerating the artifact's teleportation. Gu Yong arrived with sword in hand and slashed out four fierce strikes toward the Four Towers! *Boom! Boom!* Terrifying pressure swept through heaven and earth as four hundred-zhang sword lights came crashing down with invincible momentum! *Rumble!* Deafening blasts echoed incessantly as the four towering spires were instantly obliterated beneath the sword lights. *Swish!* The spatial dharma artifact vanished from the domain in an instant, and the people holding their breath finally let out a long sigh of relief. Many Tianji Pavilion disciples remaining within the Four Towers had actually perished under the sword lights as well. Beneath the collapsed ruins, blood flowed like rivers... The billowing clouds of dust could not conceal the four deep trenches gouged into the earth. Dressed in plain hemp robes, Gu Yong stood suspended in midair with a terrifyingly grim face. The sword in the old man's hand dripped with blood, and his expression was frighteningly dark. With a flip of his hand, several soul lamps appeared. Tian Hai's soul lamp was already shattered, while those of Shen Feng and the other two still burned brightly. A cold gleam suddenly flashed in the old man's eyes, and he raised his hand to crush the three soul lamps! An eerie spatial ripple dispersed into heaven and earth in an instant, but immediately afterward, Gu Yong's face turned utterly hideous. For in his perception, the auras of Shen Feng and the others showed no sign of being affected by the destruction of their soul lamps. That meant... All three of them had somehow managed to break free from the shackles of their soul lamps! A flash of realization struck Gu Yong's mind, and he muttered darkly, "The Profound Origin Sacred Soul Pill..." "But hasn't the Qilin ruin already vanished? Could the Qilin jade seal Xuan Lin gave to Li Guanqi actually contain another one?" Indeed, in merely an instant, Gu Yong had deduced Li Guanqi's solution. Yet he never expected that despite leaving preparations on Shen Feng himself, he had noticed nothing amiss! In other words... The inscribed talisman seal that Li Guanqi had left on Shen Feng, which Gu Yong had seen, was deliberately laid bare for him to find! Li Guanqi had definitely left other tricks on Shen Feng... Suspended in midair, his face grim, the old man stared fixedly into the void while the screams of Tianji Pavilion disciples filled his ears. Faint traces of blood hung in the dust-filled air. The four strikes he had unleashed in fury had been meant to slay the masters of the Four Towers. By now, the old man could no longer sense Song Yunshu's aura at all. Evidently, Song Yunshu had been taken away by Shen Feng; only a faint trace of spatial power lingered in the air. Yet he also knew that this spatial power was left behind through the guiding pull of a mother-child magic treasure. Were it not for that... Shen Feng and the others alone would never have been able to overcome the spatial lock he had established. Gu Yong narrowed his eyes and muttered in a chilled voice, "Li Guanqi, even if you took them away, what difference does it make?" "Hmph!" With a cold snort, Gu Yong commanded harshly, "All members of Tianji Pavilion, hear my command! Tend to the dead and injured disciples without delay. "Issue an announcement: Shen Feng and his conspirators have defected from Tianji Pavilion. They are hereby stripped of their posts as masters of the three towers, and whatever actions they take have nothing to do with Tianji Pavilion!" *Buzz!* In an instant, every cultivator holding a Tianji jade pendant received the news. The announcement caused an immediate uproar. Li Guanqi set down the jade pendant in his hand, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward. "Excellent. You've fallen into my trap once again." As his words fell, Yu Hua spoke softly. "The rumors regarding the defection of Tianji Pavilion's three tower masters are ready. Shall we spread them now?" Li Guanqi nodded. Immediately, countless claims about why the three tower masters had fled Tianji Pavilion flew everywhere, with all sorts of wild theories circulating. Every single one was a conspiracy theory! Furthermore, with Tianji Pavilion already mired in a storm of denunciation from cultivators, these conspiracy theories grew increasingly fervent under Guanyun Pavilion's deliberate orchestration.