"You certainly place a great deal of trust in him."
Tianye seemed thoroughly noncommittal regarding Xu Yuan's confidence. Her flirtatious golden eyes swept across the city's two battlefields as she remarked lazily, "What you just mentioned is merely one of the Lord of Guyuan's techniques. Even if Feng Jiuxuan counters it, there will be a second, and a third. The demon race isn't like humans; their vast lifespans give them plenty of time to develop countless trump cards."
"Which is why I'm about to tell you every single trump card he has."
Xu Yuan's flat reply seemed to make even the distant rumbles fall silent.
Tianye parted her dainty lips slightly as though about to ask something, but in the end, she merely chuckled. "I'm not interested in any of that, so save your breath..."
"Xu Changtian, since she is unwilling, I can pass along the message for you."
Tianyuan suddenly cut into their conversation, her voice aloof and calm. "Tell me the intelligence on the White Emperor, and I will relay it to Feng Jiuxuan on your behalf."
"..." Tianye.
"..." Xu Yuan.
Great. An eavesdropper right beside them.
Glancing back at that cool, fair, ethereal visage, Xu Yuan's expression gradually shifted into looking at an idiot.
*Is literally everyone in your Overseeing Heaven Pavilion a turncoat?*
Her palace robes billowed gently. Tianyuan remained expressionless, her voice calm and aloof, rational to the point of being heartless: "When it comes to your life and the disposition of Zhenxi Manor, an irreconcilable conflict exists between us. However, concerning the White Emperor, there is room for cooperation. You are an intelligent man; you should understand my meaning."
Hearing this, a glint of contemplation surfaced in Xu Yuan's blood-tinted eyes.
The world was not purely binary. Though Zhenxi Manor was currently split into two sharply defined factions, that did not preclude an intertwined mode of cooperation.
If Mu Xingyi could propose cooperation with Xu Yuan for self-preservation, Tianyuan could naturally cooperate with Xu Yuan to eliminate the White Emperor, an alien entity.
After all, whether it was the Great Yan imperial court or the Great Yan sects, both wished to see this sovereign of Guyuan die right here.
However, Xu Yuan neither accepted nor rejected Tianyuan's proposal immediately. Instead, he asked out of the blue, "The other two Saints have both engaged. If you just stand here like this, won't they object?"
Tianyuan glanced at Tianye beside Xu Yuan. "Taking action to kill you would be disadvantageous to the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, as well as to the future tribulation. Furthermore, someone needs to keep watch over the three Saints of the Mu clan right now while they recover their combat strength."
As though to corroborate Tianyuan's words, within Xu Yuan's field of vision, white array runes roughly a zhang thick materialized out of thin air. Minute specks of light converged rapidly within them, locking onto the three heavily wounded Saints of the Mu clan like celestial weapons.
City-defense array runes.
The Linlang's saint origin light sphere had blasted a collapse of over a hundred zhang in the cloud-piercing East City Wall, but the city defense arrays were constructed from modular composite formations. Unless the central core eye was destroyed, the rest of the array modules could operate as usual.
Stationed in the prefectural government office, Li Junwu had made the most correct choice for this moment.
This was her first time controlling the grand city-protecting array along with military array power on such a massive scale. With only the combat experience of the Body Integration Realm, trying to forcibly support the friendly Saint might even backfire.
The three beam attacks descending from the celestial array runes struck simultaneously!
Mu Xingyi saw it coming.
Just as he numbly prepared to take another ultimate strike to the face, Tianyuan waved her sleeve expressionlessly.
In the next instant, three massive, pitch-black bone spikes erupted from the earth below, shielding Mu Xingyi completely beneath them!
The descending beams did not explode. The moment they struck the pitch-black bone spikes, they were deflected outward like scattered light, plowing the surrounding ground into scorched ruin.
As this sight registered in Xu Yuan's eyes, a ripple of astonishment quietly spread through his heart—not because he was shocked by the bone spikes' effect, but because he had seen these pitch-black bone spikes before, and had even experienced their power firsthand.
This was the Barbarian King's Dao domain!
Before he could ponder further, Mu Nuo's agonizing shriek rang out across the sky. Tianyuan had selectively shielded only Mu Xingyi, leaving Mu Nuo and Madame Wan to be impaled straight through by the beams.
At the same time, a shrill female voice sounded from the west: "Pavilion Master of Overseeing Heaven?!! Why didn't you protect Nuonuo?!!"
Madame Wan's voice carried no technique, but as the screeching sonic wave rolled out, the madness and resentment woven into it immediately affected nearly half the prefectural city.
As the voice swept through, the private soldiers of the noble families defending the streets against the insect tide fell into a momentary daze. In that mere breath, a hundred men lost their lives beneath the razor claws of the demon insects.
No matter how weak Madame Wan was, she was still a Saint, and a yin ghost's mental influence on low-tier cultivators was practically insurmountable.
Frowning, Xu Yuan looked at Madame Wan as she pushed herself up and said, "Are you deliberately provoking her?"
Tianyuan didn't bother responding to Madame Wan's accusation either. In this clash of Saints, weakness was the original sin.
She spoke flatly, as though merely stating a fact: "I only wanted you to understand the current situation.
"Weak though the three Saints are, they still possess overwhelming superiority against any other defenses in the city.
"Strong as Feng Jiuxuan is, the White Emperor alone is enough to hold him off. And the Linlang was never suited for combat in the first place; its defeat at Qin Ke's hands is merely a matter of time.
"The Zhenxi military array and the city-protecting array might injure Mu Xingyi's trio, but for me and the White Emperor's group of three, evading them is hardly difficult.
"Not to mention, as Mu Xingyi said, there is still another Saint outside the city who has yet to join the battle."
"..."
Listening closely to her words, Xu Yuan kept his gaze on Madame Wan. Through his blood-misted eyes, he could faintly make out the venom in hers. "You heard what Mu Xingyi said earlier. Aren't you worried the three of them might turn on you?"
Tianyuan replied without hesitation, "It is a possibility, but they pose no threat to us. Furthermore, so long as their goal is your life, they must destroy the Zhenxi Prefectural Government Office. You do not have much time left."
Hearing this, a peculiar look surfaced on Xu Yuan's face. He realized something felt off about Tianyuan's tone.
"What are you getting at with all this?"
Tianyuan's crisp voice was as flat as a synthesized machine: "Xu Changtian, leave."
"What?" Xu Yuan paused in disbelief.
"I said: Xu Changtian, leave," Tianyuan repeated without an ounce of emotion. "Before the situation deteriorates further, with the protection of Feng Jiuxuan and 'Tianyan,' escaping Zhenxi Manor will not be difficult."
Looking into those divine, emotionless, pale-golden eyes, Xu Yuan couldn't quite grasp Tianyuan's intentions. "You were the one who issued the assassination order in the first place."
Tianyuan did not deny it. "Yes, but circumstances have changed."
"..."
Xu Yuan instinctively glanced at Tianye beside him. Tianye chuckled nonchalantly, folding her arms across Tianyan's flat chest, completely unconcerned by the two of them plotting right before her eyes.
Xu Yuan swiftly weighed the motives behind her words.
Sowing discord?
Yet given the current state of Zhenxi Prefectural City, there was no way Xu Yuan would turn against Tianye, nor did Tianyuan have any reason to go to such lengths for that.
So... she was serious?
Amidst his thoughts, Tianyuan's aloof voice sounded once more: "Xu Changtian, if you are willing to leave, I can make a concession: when you take Li Junwu away, I will not intervene."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan was virtually certain that Tianyuan genuinely wanted him to leave.
Though he didn't know why, whatever caused Tianyuan to change her mind was one hundred percent related to Tianye. What on earth had happened between the two from the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion when Tianye went to escort the Linlang into the city?
As he pondered, a thought struck him. Even though Tianyan had checked out and let Tianye pilot the body, the washboard Saintess had been watching the whole time. Perhaps asking her would yield an answer.
Yet the moment the idea took shape, as though anticipating his thoughts, Tianyan's frosty voice transmitted into his ears: "Don't bother asking me. I have no idea what Master and this enchantress did either. When they met last night, they were about to fight, but the moment Master saw Tianye's Dao charm, she turned and left."
"..." Xu Yuan.
At Tianyan's voice, Xu Yuan reflexively looked over, only to see the enchantress winking at him seductively.
Just then, Tianyuan's voice sounded again, carrying words meant to strike straight at the heart: "Tianyan is already trapped in a dire predicament for your sake. If you do not wish to put her in an impossible position, then take this opportunity to extract yourself. Surely you wouldn't want her to burn her life force to death for you once again."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan fell completely silent.
Tianyuan's rhetoric was every bit the equal of his own.
That final sentence breached his defenses entirely.
Even though she had this enchantress Tianye as a shield, the reality was that Tianyan had consistently harmed the interests of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion to aid him and the Prime Minister's Manor behind him.
Biting his lower lip, Xu Yuan was just about to speak when Tianye, who had been leisurely enjoying the drama, cut him off. Her tone remained airy and amused: "Pavilion Master of Overseeing Heaven, say one more word and I start fighting you right now."
"..."
At that, Tianyuan went silent immediately. Instead, she waved her hand to channel her arts, deflecting several military array Dharma armaments fired from the prefectural government office.
And once again, she shielded only Mu Xingyi, leaving Mu Nuo and Madame Wan heavily wounded a second time.
"..."
The whipping gale ruffled Xu Yuan's thoughts.
Why?
What was Tianye's objective? Xu Yuan had actually been pondering this all along.
In the Meishen illusory realm, she had clung to him because only he and Tianyan were living beings.
Yet now that they were back in reality, her continued attachment to him became rather intriguing. Still, because she had consistently gone all out to protect his life without ever expressing any subjective intent of her own, this suspicion had remained nothing more than a passing thought.
But just now, Tianye had dropped a piece of bait.
Her words had been brief and concise, but it was the very first sentence since her emergence in which Tianye had expressed her own subjective will.
Tianye seemed to want him to stay.
This seemed like a lead, yet the clues were still far too sparse.
Inwardly sighing, Xu Yuan looked at Tianyuan and said slowly, "You're right, Pavilion Master. Tianyan has indeed been helping me at great cost to herself. I will repay that debt to her in the future—by preserving the heritage of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion."
Having intercepted military array Dharma armaments and city defense array runes in rapid succession, the qi aura around Tianyuan was growing somewhat disordered.
Evidently, the affinity of her arts was not as naturally suited to countering city defense arrays as the White Emperor's.
Nevertheless, upon hearing Xu Yuan's words, Tianyuan spared a moment to glance back at him, her tone as cold and detached as ever: "By human moral standards, Xu Changtian, you truly are a shameless man."
At this evaluation, Xu Yuan lowered his eyes and chuckled softly. "Since things have reached this point, I must decline your offer."
"What about the matter of the White Emperor?" Tianyuan asked.
"Same answer," Xu Yuan replied.
"Are you worried I will pass false information to Feng Jiuxuan?"
"You catch on fast."
"You possess the Heavenly Yan divine soul and can hear voice transmissions. Even if you cannot, the one beside you can."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan glanced at Tianye and smiled. "She's a lunatic. God only knows whether she'd tell me."
With that, Xu Yuan paid no more mind to Tianyuan, turning instead toward Tianye for one final attempt: "Are you really sure you don't want the intelligence on the White Emperor? You'll likely face him directly later. You should know how vital information on a Saint's techniques is. Once the fighting really begins, I won't be able to get a word in."
Tianye narrowed her beautiful eyes, playfully declining, "You already called me a lunatic, so why should I care?"
"..."
Hearing this reply, Xu Yuan's brows furrowed slightly.
He could see that Tianye wasn't indifferent because she was certain of victory; rather, she simply didn't care whether she lived or died.
With a quiet sigh, Xu Yuan murmured, "Then send the transmission. We should go about our own business anyway—after all, it looks like the Pavilion Master of Overseeing Heaven won't be moving against us."
With those words, Xu Yuan flew directly toward Mu Nuo, who remained frozen in place.
Seeing this, Tianyuan frowned slightly, instantly understanding what he intended to do. A flash of divine radiance flickered in her golden pupils as the unspoken 'Seal' Character True Word bore down on Xu Yuan in an instant.
If she could not kill him, she would temporarily seal him.
Yet beyond her expectation, the instant the spell touched Xu Yuan's form, he flickered out of existence, reappearing right in front of Mu Nuo.
Looking back at the sudden teleportation, Xu Yuan smiled. "My dear Pavilion Master, unless you intend to kill me, sealing-type techniques are completely useless against me."
Xu Yuan had already mastered Void-Stepping Slash down to a fine art. The combination of black qi, the Layered Rune Secret Technique, and Void-Stepping Slash made him an outright mechanics cheat. So long as an opponent struck him with origin qi, Xu Yuan could teleport away to dodge.
Of course, constrained by Xu Yuan's cultivation, cracking it wouldn't be particularly difficult for Tianyuan. Whether by exhausting his origin qi or deploying sustained area-of-effect spells, she could still inflict lethal harm on him. But if she did that, Tianye, that enchantress, would join the fight.
Reaching Mu Nuo, Xu Yuan looked at the creature's twisted, agonized expression and asked Tianye softly, "How much longer will this brat's yin origin rampage last?"
Tianye let out an imperceptible chuckle. "More than half the yin origin inside him belongs to the Thousand-Thorns Ghost Willow. Lasting a few years shouldn't be a problem."
"..."
Xu Yuan clicked his tongue.
A hard lock lasting years...
What kind of overpowered single-target crowd control was this?
However, Tianye's words served as a wake-up call to Xu Yuan. After all, a fair amount of the yin origin within his own body also belonged to the Thousand-Thorns Ghost Willow. If one day Tianye decided to subject him to such a hard-lock play...
Thinking this, Xu Yuan slowly extended his hand toward Mu Nuo, his physical instincts causing his heart rate to accelerate.
Seeing this, Tianye looked slightly disgusted and said, speechless, "Wait, you're just going to force my hand like this? Do you really take me for a tool?"
Yet despite the disgust in her tone, the instant before Xu Yuan made contact with Mu Nuo, the boundless aura around Tianye swept across several hundred zhang in a flash.
This aura, vast as though having no bounds, even caused Feng Jiuxuan and the White Emperor to pause their clashes simultaneously.
And in the next breath, beneath the bloodshot, frenzied stares of Mu Xingyi and Madame Wan, their precious son began to dissolve and collapse away at a speed visible to the naked eye...
Chapter 667