Waiting for Them to Walk Right Into the Trap—Who Exactly Is He
Waiting for Them to Walk Right Into the Trap—Who Exactly Is He
More than twenty years ago, the Family of Protectors of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains was attacked by an unknown force. In a single night, their lands were reduced to scorched earth, nearly annihilated. Even now, flames still burn there, impossible to extinguish.
The incident shook the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains at the time. Many clans went to investigate the cause, but in the end, nothing was ever uncovered.
The matter became an unsolved cold case.
Whether any members of the Family of Protectors still remained in this world—no one knew.
It wasn’t until Gu Changge brought it up today that Yan Ming finally reacted, unable to suppress a shudder.
His scalp tingled as he recalled the Bone Ancestor’s reverent attitude toward Gu Changge.
Could it be that the ones who attacked the Family of Protectors over twenty years ago... were the Bone Clan?
He no longer dared to think further. Though the Bone Clan’s numbers were few, they monopolized an entire Great Domain—a testament to their terrifying power.
A tiny Crimson South City like this? The Bone Clan need only send out a single expert to wipe it off the map with ease.
“It seems this Family of Protectors is down to just her.”
Gu Changge shook his head lightly. A vast and boundless divine sense swept out from his Knowledge Sea, instantly enveloping the whole of Crimson South City.
His earlier reluctance to alert the enemy stemmed from the fear that members of the Family of Protectors might be hiding in the shadows and seize the chance to flee.
Now that Luo Ying’s identity had been exposed, if she had other clansmen hiding in the dark, there would inevitably be some disturbance—and Gu Changge would naturally sense it.
At that moment, every living being in Crimson South City felt a terror that rose from the depths of their souls, as if they were being peered at by the Heavenly Path itself, with no secret left to hide.
Fortunately, that aura merely swept past once before vanishing. Even so, it left them trembling, cold sweat drenching their backs.
“Let’s go.” Gu Changge withdrew his divine sense, having detected nothing out of the ordinary.
“Yes, Young Master,” the Bone Ancestor replied respectfully.
Then, before the utterly horrified eyes of everyone in the great hall, the Bone Ancestor reached out with one massive hand, carrying dreadful might, and seized Luo Ying, grabbing her away together with Luo Feng.
Even if Luo Ying wanted to struggle, with her strength, she was no different from an ant before the Bone Ancestor.
The crowd was already so terrified their souls were on the verge of shattering—who would dare intervene? They could only watch as golden mist surged beneath the feet of Gu Changge’s party, forming a great road that tore straight through the space there, and in an instant, they were gone.
Yet that dreadful atmosphere still hung over everyone’s heads. No one dared raise their eyes to the sky for even a glance.
The faces of the Luo Clan’s members were deathly pale; many collapsed limply to the ground.
Who could have imagined that a perfectly good wedding banquet would turn into this?
“If anyone dares breathe a single word of what happened today, don’t blame my Swallow Clan for being merciless.”
At this moment, Yan Ming was also drenched in cold sweat. After Gu Changge and the others departed, he swept a cold gaze over everyone present.
Fortunately, only he knew the identities of the Bone Ancestor and his companions. Otherwise, he truly worried that Gu Changge would pin the blame for the exposure of their identities on him.
“W-we... wouldn’t dare!”
Hearing this, everyone in the hall hurriedly shook their heads. How would they dare say a word?
Yan Ming’s gaze was gloomy, lingering mainly on the members of the Luo Clan. He guessed that Gu Changge hadn’t bothered to exterminate the Luo Clan along the way perhaps because he saw no need to crush a nest of ants.
Still, he didn’t dare act recklessly, worried that Gu Changge had other intentions.
And indeed, just as Yan Ming surmised, Gu Changge had his own reasons for not wiping out the Luo Clan in passing.
Because Gu Changge wasn’t certain whether any other members of the Family of Protectors still existed in this world.
As long as the Luo Clan remained, the other members of the Family of Protectors could learn through them that Luo Ying had fallen into his hands.
There was another reason as well. Luo Ying’s other clansman—namely the Fortuitous One, Xiao Yang—was currently still on the road with Gu Wudi, searching for the First Mountain Elder.
The First Mountain Elder would inevitably take Xiao Yang to find his clansmen. And in doing so, this remnant of the Nine Great Mountains would gain yet another reason to walk right into the trap.
The Second Mountain Elder of the Nine Great Mountains was in Gu Changge’s hands, and now Xiao Yang’s clansmen were in his hands too.
If Xiao Yang wanted to save them, he would inevitably rally everyone he could possibly call upon.
And with that, Gu Changge could use this as bait to catch the entire lot of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains in one net.
Not long after Gu Changge, the Bone Ancestor, and the others left Crimson South City—
Waves of spatial fluctuations suddenly rippled across the sky above, then blurred. The figures of the First Mountain Elder, Xiao Yang, and Gu Wudi stepped out from the void.
“It seems we’ve arrived a step too late.”
The First Mountain Elder’s white robes fluttered, his bearing immortal-like and otherworldly, yet his eye sockets were pitch black.
His gaze swept over Crimson South City below, and he shook his head lightly. Though he was blind, his magic power was boundless, and he could easily sense the residual auras lingering here.
Along the way, he had used Xiao Yang’s own Blood Essence to perform a divination and located his clansmen.
They hadn’t paused for a moment, precisely out of fear that something would go wrong. Yet unexpectedly, upon arriving, they were still too late.
“Too late?”
Xiao Yang’s expression shifted, his head buzzing with a weng. He couldn’t quite believe it. Ever since finding the First Mountain Elder, they had rushed over without stopping—how could they still be too late?
The clansmen he had been searching for all this time... had he just missed them like this?
“Could my clansmen have already met with disaster?”
Unease gripped his heart, and his fists clenched tight.
The First Mountain Elder shook his head lightly, then his vast divine sense descended. At his level of cultivation, it was easy to detect which area’s inhabitants wore unusual expressions.
So it didn’t take much effort for the three of them to find where the Luo Clan resided.
Here, the First Mountain Elder could even feel the aura of the world’s rules having been suppressed. Clearly, the other party had only just left.
“The opponent’s strength is immense... not far from that realm...”
The First Mountain Elder shook his head. From the residual aura here, he could sense that vast and boundless will.
“What on earth happened...”
Xiao Yang’s face paled. Soon after, he learned the whole sequence of events from one of the Luo Clan’s members.
After hearing it all, he stood frozen in place.
“Gu Changge... it’s Gu Changge again. The person he took... is very likely my sister...”
“I hate this!!”
Bone-deep hatred surfaced in Xiao Yang’s eyes, his body trembling as he recalled the scene of his eldest senior sister being killed by Gu Changge at the Nine Great Mountains.
He had never imagined that Gu Changge would actually get ahead of them, find this place first, and take his sister away.
“The ones who destroyed our lineage back then—they’ve shown their tracks too!”
“So it really is connected to Gu Changge!!”
Hearing the Luo Clan members mention the cold, beautiful woman in the black dress and the grey-robed elder, Xiao Yang’s expression grew even darker, his fists creaking from how tightly he clenched them.
“That mark... to think my old friend would miscalculate as well.”
“Just who exactly is this Gu Changge...”
The First Mountain Elder didn’t much care about Xiao Yang’s hatred.
But when he heard about Luo Feng’s matter, his brow furrowed, and his heart jolted—it was beyond his expectations.
Back then, several of them had participated together in the Heavenly Dao Authority War. Among them, the Ancestor of Wind was the strongest, and he suffered the most severe backlash, nearly perishing body and soul.
However, he knew that the Ancestor of Wind cultivated through the Tree of Epoch and had condensed a Symbol of Epoch. So in the end, the Ancestor of Wind most likely reincarnated through a secret technique.
The Luo Clan’s Young Master of this generation, Luo Feng, was precisely the reincarnation of the Ancestor of Wind.
He had originally intended to come meet his old friend and discuss the current affairs of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains—but he never expected that even the Ancestor of Wind had been taken captive.
This matter instantly became thorny for him.
It seemed Gu Changge already knew the Ancestor of Wind’s identity; otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken him away.
“First Mountain Elder, what should we do now?”
Xiao Yang then calmed down and couldn’t help asking. He knew nothing of Luo Feng’s affairs.
Right now, his greatest worry was his sister’s safety.
Given Gu Changge’s ruthlessness, his sister was undoubtedly in extreme danger.
“As things stand, we can only seek out those four clans. Back then, they were the Ancestor of Wind’s most capable lieutenants.”
“Only by gathering the strength of all four clans will we have the power to fight.”
The First Mountain Elder sighed softly at these words. Truth be told, he didn’t want to get involved.
But all these years, he had been trying to touch that threshold once more, with no success whatsoever.
The world of today could no longer withstand power surpassing the Celestial Realm.
Even at his former peak, when his cultivation surpassed the Celestial Realm, it was of no use now.
And now, the only way lay with the Ancestor of Wind.
After all, it was the Ancestor of Wind who had stolen that portion of Fortuity back then and fused it into the Tree of Epoch.
So he had to involve himself in this matter and find a way to rescue the Ancestor of Wind. Otherwise, he would spend the rest of his life trapped at this realm, unable to advance an inch, unable to recover his peak.
“Those four clans? First Mountain Elder, do you mean the current Four Powerful War God Clans?”
Xiao Yang was stunned, then asked without thinking.
If he remembered correctly, before the Upper Realm’s army breached Sky Deer City, the True Daoists of the four great clans had surrendered before Sky Deer City, in full view of the countless armies of both worlds.
Such utter humiliation made even him feel secondhand shame, and he looked down on these four great clans.
So his tone carried a hint of displeasure.
The First Mountain Elder said indifferently, “Besides those four clans, can you find anyone else in the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains today willing to help you?”
He knew Xiao Yang held the four great clans in contempt. But in the face of life and death, what did face and dignity amount to?
“But... would those four clans be willing to help us?” Xiao Yang caught the faint mockery in the First Mountain Elder’s words, and displeasure stirred in his heart. But at a time like this, he didn’t let it show on his face.
“They will help,” the First Mountain Elder said, still indifferent.
Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, space blurred once more, transforming into a divine rainbow that streaked into the distance, carrying Xiao Yang and Gu Wudi away from Crimson South City. As for the pleas of the Luo Clan’s members, they weren’t worth a second thought in his eyes.
Since the Ancestor of Wind had dared to entrust the Tree of Epoch to the four great clans with such confidence, he must have left a contingency in place.
Of this, the First Mountain Elder was quite certain. Back then, he, the Ancestor of Wind, the Founding Ancestor of the Family of Protectors, the founder of Sky Deer City, and the others could be said to share deep personal bonds—they knew each other well.
The ancestors of the four great clans must have sworn some kind of blood oath to serve the Ancestor of Wind for generations. They wouldn’t dare ignore his plight.