The three experts of the Moon God Temple all harbored their own ulterior motives, concealing certain matters from each other.
The High Priest continued to feign ignorance of the whereabouts of the remaining Human Race of Hanxia, deliberately concealing information about Jiuzhou and refusing to reveal it in full.
The Night Demon desired to obtain the five small sacred stone fragments in Li Qianluo's possession, but did not want the other two to know, so he also pretended to target Xiang Beifei to acquire the Dao embryo. In reality, for the Night Demon, the five small sacred stone fragments in Li Qianluo's hands were more important than the Dao embryo!
Flaming Six Wings naturally had his own plans as well.
"I'm willing to cooperate, but if we catch Xiang Beifei, to whom does his Dao embryo belong?" Flaming Six Wings asked unambiguously.
The High Priest slowly said, "If we capture Xiang Beifei alive and torture the whereabouts of the Human Race out of him, do we still need to be concerned about how many Dao embryos we want?"
"So to whom does Xiang Beifei's Dao embryo belong?" Flaming Six Wings repeated coldly.
He insisted on settling this issue beforehand, otherwise, once the person was captured, if everyone wanted Xiang Beifei's Dao embryo, things would become unclear.
The Night Demon waved his folding fan and said, "To avoid disputes over the distribution of interests afterwards, I volunteer to withdraw from the competition. I don't need his Dao embryo; I just need to know the whereabouts of the Human Race. And, of course, bring Li Qianluo to me... That girl is quite beautiful, as you both know, my Demon Sect needs various extraordinary women to practice divine skills."
He stretched leisurely, speaking in an indifferent tone, as if Li Qianluo was merely an add-on to the deal, skillfully concealing his true intentions.
The other two did not suspect the Night Demon.
The High Priest coughed heavily and said, "I only need Xiang Beifei's body, which I am very particular about. If Brother Ye doesn't need the Dao embryo, you can take it, and I will keep the body."
The Demon Tentacle Race indeed placed greater importance on the body, which both the Night Demon and Flaming Six Wings understood.
After weighing his options for a long time, Flaming Six Wings finally said, "Fine, after we force out the whereabouts of the Hanxia Human Race, kill Xiang Beifei, and the Dao embryo will be mine, the body will be yours."
The three cunning and sly fellows finally reached a consensus on dealing with Xiang Beifei.
"Then what's the plan?"
The flesh nodules on Flaming Six Wings' body gradually disappeared, and holy feathers began to grow on his six pairs of wings. A soft white light shone from his body once again, making him appear approachable.
The Night Demon glanced at the High Priest, snapped his folding fan shut, and tapped his palm, saying, "Enter!"
Someone soon appeared at the entrance of the Moon God Temple.
"I pay my respects to the three lords."
It was an old man with fluttering beard and hair, bowing slightly with a look of humility.
Flaming Six Wings' expression slightly darkened.
The strategist of Zha Jiang Stronghold, responsible for receiving and handling the various trifles of Zha Jiang Stronghold, any cultivator wanting to join had to first get past Fu Qiuzi.
"Lord Chi still remembers me, which is truly flattering." Fu Qiuzi said with a smile.
"You dare to come here!" A glint of killing intent flashed in the eyes of Flaming Six Wings—Fu Qiuzi was indeed the third in command in Zha Jiang Stronghold and very close to Xiang Beifei.
"Ha ha ha! What did I say? Even Daoist Chi could not have foreseen this."
The Night Demon laughed.
Flaming Six Wings frowned slightly as he scrutinized Fu Qiuzi again, sensing that things were not as straightforward as they seemed.
"What's going on?" Flaming Six Wings asked.
"This is part of our plan," the High Priest said, looking at Fu Qiuzi with a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes.
Giant Spirit Village.
Xiang Beifei was looking at the text on the black jade tree with surprise, finally remembering where he had seen these characters before.
The Void Constellation in the Spirit Gathering Book!
Back when he was only in the later stages of God Refining, he had unsealed a power, though to this day he still did not understand its purpose.
It was a stele that had been sealed within the Void Constellation then.
The stele bore seventy-seven strange characters, but Xiang Beifei had never been able to comprehend what they represented. He had been puzzled, for with his "Learn by Analogy" ability, which allowed him to learn one language and infer all others, he should have been able to understand the characters on the stele, yet this ability had not helped him with those characters.
Now, with a bit of recollection, the characters on the stele were identical to the random disorganized rune marks on the black jade tree.
Exactly seventy-seven characters!
"Xiaohei, compare them." Xiang Beifei said to Xiaohei in his mind.
Xiaohei immediately checked the Spirit Gathering Book and soon nodded in surprise.
The rune marks on the black jade tree were indeed consistent with the text on the stele; it was probably because the pattern was so large that even Xiaohei had overlooked it earlier!
What was the connection between the text on the stele and the pattern on the black jade tree?
Why would the same pattern appear in the Giant Spirit Village?
He needed to fully understand the power of the stele.
"By the way, what did you say the Giant Spirit Race is like?" Xiang Beifei asked.
Li Qianluo sat on the edge of a large leaf, looking down at the pattern below, and said, "I can't give a clear explanation myself, they're a very mysterious race from the Edge Corner Airspace, only mentioned in our historical records."
"So what do your historical records say?"
"Legend has it that the Giant Spirits are a divine race dwelling in the Edge Corner Airspace, towering enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the heavens. They are considered the largest of races and, being so vast, they thought little of the world. They did not wish to be confined beneath the sky and thus attempted to ascend rebelliously against the Heavenly Dao. As a result, the Heavenly Dao dispatched deities who used their powers to suppress them into the Bitter Sea, subject them to endless torments, and ultimately exterminated the race... That is the general account."