The matter of the Grand Void Realm couldn't be kept secret, and the Red Star side hadn't intended to hide it either. But Chen Tianfei hadn't expected that the Big Boss would find a way to spin things in his favor even on this front.
Revealing the news of the Grand Void Realm served a dual purpose. First, it would put Qiaoqiao Grounds at ease, letting them know that Yang Kai and his people hadn't come here for no reason — their star market had been destroyed, they were homeless, and they'd simply washed up nearby.
Second, once Qiaoqiao Grounds learned of this, they would inevitably send people out to verify the information. And that would give Red Star exactly the opening they needed.
After all, Zhao Baichuan had dozens of Open Heaven Realm cultivators under his command, but only a dozen or so were currently by his side. The rest — Madam Qin, the Ouyang brothers, and Bei Yushan — were all still outside.
To seize Qiaoqiao Grounds, they had to make contact with those people. With only Zhao Baichuan and Chen Tianfei, their forces were simply too thin.
But with Qiaoqiao Grounds' grand protective array activated, even though it had numerous flaws, Zhao Baichuan and his group had no way to rendezvous with Bei Yushan and the others. Acting rashly would only arouse Qiaoqiao Grounds' suspicion.
Now, however, Qiaoqiao Grounds had taken the initiative to send disciples out for reconnaissance — which was exactly what Zhao Baichuan had been counting on.
He had already arranged for people to lie in wait, biding their time. And now, the plan had succeeded.
A Third-Order Open Heaven cultivator wasn't particularly strong when measured against the vast Three Thousand Worlds, but they were far from weak. Subduing a Qiaoqiao Grounds disciple, planting some restrictions inside their body, and forcing them to pass along messages was trivially easy — unless the disciple was willing to sacrifice their life.
But how many people in this world truly weren't afraid of death?
"What about this woman?" Chen Tianfei asked, looking at the unconscious woman in bewilderment.
The man smiled. "The one I sent out was a male disciple. This woman is most likely his companion. With her in hand, I imagine that male disciple won't dare harbor any thoughts of betrayal."
Chen Tianfei was stunned. "You just carried her in like that? No one noticed?"
The man shook his head. "Rest assured, Boss Chen. Absolutely no one saw."
"Mm." Zhao Baichuan nodded. "You've done well on this. You're dismissed. Leave the woman here."
"Yes." The man set down the woman in his arms and withdrew respectfully.
Just at that moment, the woman slowly came to. Her long lashes fluttered, and she raised her eyes to see Zhao Baichuan. Terror seized her heart. Before she could even process what was happening, Zhao Baichuan raised a hand, and the world before her eyes went black. She felt nothing more.
A moment later, only a pile of ash remained where she had been. The female disciple had been killed and silenced without hesitation.
Seeing this, Chen Tianfei realized that the male disciple who'd been coerced into delivering the message was likely doomed as well. Once he met Bei Yushan and the others, he would surely be killed to tie up loose ends. The fewer people who knew about this, the better. And for Qiaoqiao Grounds as it stood now, losing two disciples wasn't exactly a catastrophic blow — after all, the Flying Smoke Hall had its eyes fixed on Qiaoqiao Grounds with predatory intent.
If not for that very threat, Qiaoqiao Grounds wouldn't have been sending people out in small groups to gather intelligence in the first place. They were afraid of being wiped out in a single sweep.
Everything was in place. All that remained was to wait.
Zhao Baichuan held his ground within Qiaoqiao Grounds, never setting foot outside, yet orchestrating events from behind the scenes with effortless ease. His bearing spoke volumes of the formidable warlord he truly was.
Days passed one after another.
Three days after the market opened, it suddenly fell quiet. The market only operated for three days each month; the rest of the time it lay empty and deserted.
This suited Yang Kai and Yue He perfectly for staying hidden.
Yue He continued to refine the grand array jade tile, working tirelessly. She held a deep interest in Qiaoqiao Grounds — after all, this was the headquarters of a second-rate power.
Yang Kai, meanwhile, quietly focused on healing and recuperation. He had sustained serious injuries in the Grand Void Realm, and the relentless pursuit by Red Star afterward had been exhausting. Now that he finally had a stretch of stability, he naturally seized the opportunity to recover as quickly as possible.
As he healed, he also took stock of his haul from the Grand Void Realm.
Though he'd been trapped inside for over ten years, the resources he'd accumulated there were staggering.
Setting everything else aside, the trip alone to the Yuan Magnet Mountain had made him absurdly wealthy overnight. Those fourth-grade, fifth-grade, and even sixth-grade Yuan Magnet Divine Stones were hard currency traded throughout the Three Thousand Worlds. Then there was the Yuan Magnet Divine Gourd that the chubby young man Xu Zhen had helped him refine — inside it was sealed sixth-grade Yuan Magnet Divine Light. With such an artifact in hand, even a low-order Open Heaven cultivator would struggle to withstand it.
The number of Opening Heaven Pills he possessed ran into the billions. When he had originally traveled to the star market where the Sword Pavilion was located, the market had been massacred. He had picked up tens of thousands of spatial rings in the aftermath, and the materials contained within each one represented yet another vast fortune.
Not to mention the seventy-percent revenue share from Red Star that he had been collecting all these years.
Red Star had expanded rapidly under his protection, raking in profits day after day. Seventy percent of all those gains had flowed straight into Yang Kai's pockets.
In truth, over these ten-plus years, Yang Kai alone had accumulated wealth equivalent to more than a century — perhaps even centuries — of reserves for a second-rate power. The sheer volume of materials and resources was beyond counting.
Yang Kai himself couldn't calculate exactly how much he owned. Probably only Yue He had a rough idea, since she had been the one handling all transactions with Red Star over the years.
Beyond that, the harvest from the Land of No Oldness was another enormous windfall.
Three Saint-grade herbs, sixteen World Fruits, the Grand Origin Pure Divine Water, the World Tree's root tendril — and that wasn't even counting the pact he had forged with Zhu Jiuyin: a thousand years of protection!
That pact had been sworn upon Zhu Jiuyin's own origin. For a millennium, she had vowed to protect Yang Kai's safety with her very life. The pity was that the woman's origin was now damaged, and she had fallen into deep slumber. Otherwise, how could Yang Kai have ended up being chased across the world by the likes of Red Star?