Cooperation? Refused!

The Black Scale Guards had been searching for Orenli's whereabouts all along, but ever since the battle at Di'an, she had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Yet if Orenli had been abducted by the sect Saints amidst the chaos, all of these anomalies would make sense. Xu Yuan had no idea whether Orenli had forged a deeper collaboration with the sects, nor did he have the leisure to ponder such matters right now. If the levitation ring had indeed been exposed, the sects would undoubtedly have prepared countermeasures. Perhaps this was even a trap they had deliberately laid—an ambush enticing him, Xu Yuan, to summon his maternal uncle right into a siege. Formidable as his uncle was, the White Emperor was just as terrifyingly powerful. In Cangyuan, he was a world boss on equal footing with his old man, not to mention the Pavilion Master and the hunched elder backing him up... No, wait. In a flash of inspiration, Xu Yuan abruptly realized he had fallen into a blind spot in his thinking— If their opponents were truly of one mind, his uncle's arrival would indeed spell grave peril. But not everyone on the field necessarily wanted his uncle to die here. Especially the White Emperor, the Lord of Guyuan. Xu Yuan did not know the White Emperor's purpose in colluding with the sects to assault the city, but from the White Emperor's perspective, for the sake of Guyuan's millennium-long grand plan to invade Great Yan, he would never want to see the Prime Minister's Manor overly weakened before Great Yan's civil war even broke out. If they were weakened too severely and Xu Yinhe was forced to compromise, aborting the war, Guyuan would have to wait in vain for another several decades. Over the past several decades, the White Emperor had already witnessed the Great Yan Dynasty's soaring national strength as it opened cultivation pathways to the commoners. If he waited another few decades... ghost only knew what heights Great Yan's national might would swell to. Summoning his uncle over might actually leave plenty of room to maneuver... As his mind raced through counterstrategies, Mu Xingyi's rasping voice conveniently reached him once more: "Brother Xu, judging by your expression, you must have already decided how to respond to my words." "..." Xu Yuan frowned, glancing down instinctively. At the bottom of the massive crater, dense, viscous threads labored to knit together the shattered fragments of the insectoid shell, while compound eyes scattered across the shadows fixed uniformly upon him. Bound by ingrained assumptions, Xu Yuan had indeed overlooked this point until Mu Xingyi pointed it out. But why was Mu Xingyi acting this way? Soon enough, the doubt in Xu Yuan's mind was answered: "Brother Xu, cooperate with me." An alliance forged on shared interests will ultimately crumble when those interests diverge. For Mu Xingyi, the pact forged with the sect Saints had reached the point where it had to be torn to shreds. Otherwise, all three of their family would die here. Mu Xingyi was well aware of his own limitations. Even though he had devoured and inherited the Insect Saint's bloodline power, he had once been a mere Soul Condensation cultivator; he was simply incapable of wielding such immense power. The moment he stood before Xu Yuan, he had known he would most likely be gravely wounded by the trap Xu Yuan had laid. Yet in this matter, he had no choice at all. If he and Wan'er had followed the woman surnamed Wen's plan, it would indeed have guaranteed an uncontested victory in this battle and the certain death of Xu Changtian, without even incurring severe injuries. But... what then? Given how these sects operated, once Zhenxi Prefectural City fell, their turn would be next. From what he knew of the prominent figures among humanity, none of them could tolerate uncontrollable Saints like them existing in this world. Given the chance, they would eliminate them without a second thought. Though all were Saints, Mu Xingyi knew the vast gulf between his side and the others. Aside from Nuonuo, neither he nor Wan'er could last a single exchange against those people. Therefore, Mu Xingyi had refused to follow the Wen-surnamed Saint's arrangements. The moment the city was breached, he had sought out Xu Changtian of his own accord. First, to attempt an instant kill. If successful, he would immediately take Nuonuo and Wan'er and flee the battlefield. The other Saints would not stop them, because Zhenxi Prefectural City had not yet been eliminated; stepping in to obstruct them would only push them into the Zhenxi camp. And if it failed, he would use himself as bait to force the others' hands, thoroughly disrupting their plans, prematurely triggering the full-scale clash between both factions, and slaying Xu Changtian amidst the chaos before departing. Yet developments had unfolded far too swiftly. Though the battle had only just begun, Mu Xingyi's reading of the situation had already undergone an earth-shattering shift as events progressed. The Lord of Guyuan was simply too powerful; the suffocating pressure brought by his instant takedown of the Great Desert Linlang was overwhelming. If this continued and Xu Changtian revealed his trump cards, igniting the full brawl between the two sides, then even if they managed to kill Xu Changtian in the tumult, they would have no chance of escaping. Thus, a change had to be made immediately. As the massive iron chest drew closer to the ground, Xu Yuan's belated reply finally reached Mu Xingyi's ears: "Cooperate? Can you even convince those two fools in your family?" Hearing this mocking remark, Mu Xingyi found himself at a loss for words. That he could think rationally did not mean his wife and son could do the same. The traits of yin ghosts made Wan'er and Nuonuo's temperaments exceedingly obsessive; when it came to devouring Xu Changtian, mother and son were entirely devoid of reason. Before Mu Xingyi could organize his thoughts, Xu Yuan's voice came again: "Xingyi, the moment you allied with the sects, you should have anticipated this situation. Seeking profit from skinning a tiger without considering the danger is hardly a good habit." "I had no choice in this." Hearing that, Mu Xingyi's monotone voice rose slightly. "I saw long ago that you were of no ordinary birth. If I hadn't allied with these Saints, was I supposed to storm the gates of your Prime Minister's Manor to abduct you by force?" "..." Through this brief exchange, Xu Yuan had deduced most of Mu Xingyi's stance. Looking at the hideous insectoid below that had almost reconstituted its body, he quipped, "That's why I say you two are obsessed lunatics. You knew I was of extraordinary birth, yet for the sake of your son, you dared to scheme against me?! Would it kill him if he didn't eat me?" Spitting out words of disgust, Xu Yuan channeled his arts to detonate the chest of Source Crystals, sneering, "Mu Xingyi, "falling to this state is entirely because you're too damn stupid." As his words fell, the falling iron chest began to radiate a heart-palpitating glow. Seeing this, Mu Xingyi's tone surprisingly regained its composure: "Acting out of emotion hardly suits your style, Brother Xu. This cooperation benefits both of us!" "..." After a brief silence, Xu Yuan glanced up at Tianyuan. Her robes fluttered, white as an immortal's, still locked in confrontation with Tianye in her ethereal black gown. Is she going to pretend she didn't hear that? His gaze shifting, the iron chest of Source Crystals fell completely into the crater. The smile on Xu Yuan's lips suddenly turned cold: "You seem to be mistaken about one thing. To survive, even if I don't cooperate with you, do you really have any choice but to backstab these sect Saints?" "..." Mu Xingyi was silent. Without waiting for a reply, just as the chest of Source Crystals began to erupt with blinding light, Xu Yuan suddenly spoke again with a grin: "By the way, considering your words really did give me a wake-up call, and cooperating with you truly would benefit the bigger picture, I'll give you a piece of intel for free." As he spoke, Xu Yuan pointed up toward Tianyuan: "Everything you just said through voice transmission—the Pavilion Master could hear it crystal clear. When you backstab them later, you'd better not pick her, Brother Xingyi~" "..." Mu Xingyi. "..." "..." Dazzling white light illuminated the deep crater, engulfing Mu Xingyi's newly formed insectoid body. And at the exact same moment, a spear rocketing from the direction of the prefectural office instantly pierced the immobilized Mu Nuo. The terrifying might carried by the arcs of lightning on this formation-armament spear forced even Tianyuan and Tianye, who were confronting each other nearby, to retreat dozens of zhang. When the dust settled, strong winds whipping his robes, Xu Yuan lightly clenched his fist. A white halo quietly materialized behind him, and under the watchful eyes of all, the pitch-black mirror within began to ripple with wave after wave of disturbance...