In a sealed space above the Tongyou City, Shang Ke stood cautiously in mid air as his nerves were taut. His spear hovered around him as he got ready to take on any surprise attacks.
Despite his preparations, the ambush he was preparing for didn’t happen.
The space around him started to twist all of a sudden as cracks appeared all around. The illusory space around Shang Ke was torn open forcefully.
With Ji Wenlong in the lead, Liu Qinglan and Kang Ci followed closely behind.
“There’s nothing to worry about anymore. They’re too crafty. They might have noticed that the few of us were prepared to take action and they should have already left.”Ji Wenlong sighed as he signaled Liu Qinglan with his eyes.
With her whip, she drew a secret mark only revealed to the higher-ups of the Tongyou Institution and Shang Ke finally relaxed.
“How did they notice you? Did I reveal something through my actions?” Shang Ke asked after keeping his spear.
Ji Wenlong’s expression turned serious and he shook his head slowly. “There can only be one other possibility. The Rose Party has already infiltrated the upper echelons of the other four institutions!”
“Even them…” Shang ke muttered softly as his eyebrows furrowed together. “Why did we even tell them our plan?”
Liu Qinglan interrupted, “The plan was suggested by You Haibiao of the Beihai Institution in the Qing Continent. The plan was approved by the other four institutions too. After all, the Rose Party chose to work with the Four Spiritual Peak and destroyed the stability in the battlefield between the two worlds. They betrayed the Azure Origin World and that was something none of them could accept. If they were able to infiltrate our institution and place us in such a dangerous spot, how far would their influence in the other institutions stretch?”
An unhappy expression remained in Shang Ke’s face as he grumbled, “Why did we choose my Shang Clan to bear the brunt of the blow anyway?”
“Senior Shang, who told you guys to take the lead to leave the Tongyou Peak? You made such a huge show of it too.” Kang Ci laughed.
Ji Wenlong followed up with another explanation. “We made a lot of preparations for this. Regardless of which clan chose to lead the convoy back, we wouldn’t allow them to suffer too many losses.”
Shang Ke stared at the three of them before snorting coldly.
“Well, it’s not like we failed completely. At the very least, we can confirm that Yu Wugou and Qiao Han are part of the conspiracy. They seem to be quite adamant about catching Shang Xia. As for those masked cultivators, a huge part of them are there to create a smokescreen about their actual goals. There might even be members of the Rose Party among them.”
“Capturing Shang Xia? Looks like their plan isn’t as simple as we had thought. They probably plan to threaten us to release members of the Rose Party we captured.” Shang Ke sneered when he saw the group of masked cultivators down below. All of them had been stopped by Shang Xia’s sword qi and his tone turned chilly. “In that case, all of them deserve to die.”
“Brother Shang, that’s where you’re wrong.” Another person appeared in mid air, and Shang Ke immediately recognized him as Chang Huaiwu of the Yanmen Institution of the Bing Continent. “Those masked cultivators are disciples of the other institutions.”
Glancing at Chang Huaiwu from the corner of his eye, Shang Ke sneered, “Instructor Chang, looks like the members of your institution aren’t here.”
“Their plan had been leaked out a long time ago. Some members of my Yanmen Institution were starting to get restless but all of them managed to suppress their urges. Seeing so many of you here, it looks like they won’t be able to return safely today.” A bitter smile formed on Chang Huaiwu’s face.
Ji Wenlong ignored whatever he said and continued to question, “What about the Weiwu Institution of the Liang Continent and the Jianmen Institution of the Shu Continent?”
Chang Huaiwu shook his head and sighed, “None of their experts moved. Looks like the plan to kill the true experts of the Rose Party failed. There might be spies hidden among their higher-ups…”
His guess aligned perfectly with what Liu Qinglan, Ji Wenlong, and Kang Ci spoke about previously.
“How many Martial Extermination Realm experts of our institutions were able to take part in this plan? There are only a few of you who entered the Tongyou City. Who could it be?” Kang Ci threw out the final question.
“No matter who it is, they were definitely not a core part of our ambush team. They probably discovered the trap at the very last second and fled. If they made the plan with us, they would have called off the sneak attack on the Shang Clan’s convoy a long time ago. Patriarch Shang wouldn’t be dragged here by an illusion formation too.” A voice traveled over as a middle-aged man carrying a large sword on his back approached. He was clad in white robes, and he nodded towards Ji Wenlong and Chang Huaiwu slightly. He cupped his fists towards Shang Ke and gave his greetings. “Yu Chengjin of the Jianmen Institution greets Patriarch Shang. Congratulations on breaking through to the Martial Extermination Realm!”
“It’s an honor to meet Deputy Patriarch Yu!” Shang Ke returned his greetings.
“Elder Yu, why would you think that they only discovered our trap at the very last moment?” Liu Qinglan asked.
Clicking his tongue, Kang Ci interrupted, “What if there really is another spy at the highest level? They might have revealed the plan to their subordinate after it was conceived, causing them to be unable to recall the ambush in time. This would mean that there are at least two Martial Extermination Realm traitors…”
Chang Huaiwu’s frosty voice added, “The person planning to ambush Patriarch Shang should be a powerful expert too. They’re expecting Shang Bo to follow the convoy anyway and anyone who was confident of ambushing him had to be a supreme expert. After all, it won’t be easy to deal with a second layer Martial Extremity Realm expert in a short amount of time…”
The more they analyzed, the worse they felt.
Kang Ci had no choice but to shift the topic with a forced laughter, “No matter what, we managed to profit a little from this misadventure. Yu Wugou and Qiao Han are experienced experts in the Martial Intent Realm. Now that they exposed themselves, we can take the chance to weed out the other members of the Evil Remnants!”
“Did the thought of them being abandoned chess pieces not cross your mind? They might be using this as a distraction to draw all of us here anyway. If their spies are truly part of the upper echelons of the institutions, they might use this chance to set another trap for us!” The words barely left Shang Ke’s lips when a massive explosion rang through the skies.
Waves of heaven and earth qi filled the skies and they managed to feel the disturbance even through the protection formation around the city.
“Not good!” Chang Huaiwu’s expression changed as he flew towards the source of the explosion outside the city.
Ji Wenlong followed closely behind him. However, Kang Ci was stopped by Liu Qinglan right before he could rush towards the disturbance. Her intentions were clear. He was to stay in the institution to take control of things when the rest of them dealt with the sudden change in the situation.
Shang Ke remained where he stood as he looked at Yu Chengjin. The expert of the Jianmen Institution glanced around cautiously and the two of them chose to remain in the city. They were afraid that they would fall for another layer of the enemy’s traps.