Wang Xiaoer woke from his deep slumber.
"Aren't I supposed to be locked up? Where is this?" Wang Xiaoer was bewildered. He found himself standing in the middle of a vast, barren wasteland.
"Run!"
"Run, run!"
A massive surge of people suddenly came rushing over.
Crack!
A deafening bolt of lightning struck down from the clear sky.
Then the earth shook violently. Amid enormous rumbling, the ground rapidly collapsed inward.
In the span of a dozen breaths, a colossal crater had formed across ten miles of land.
The crater swallowed everyone inside, including Wang Xiaoer.
Wang Xiaoer stood stunned, swept along by the crowd pressed in around him.
The people surrounding him were in chaos and panic, and Wang Xiaoer felt the same way.
He had no idea what was going on.
Before this, he had been captured by Fang Dongxi in the Sandbag Blessed Land. After soul searching, Fang Dongxi had obtained intelligence about the Hu territory.
During the battle for the Sandbag Blessed Land, the Soul Core under Fang Dongxi's control had gone missing. Fortunately, Fang Dongxi had captured Wang Xiaoer and learned the secret intelligence about Hu from him.
Fang Dongxi used this valuable intelligence to make amends for his failure. At the same time, he had also discovered the strangeness in Wang Xiaoer.
Fang Dongxi locked Wang Xiaoer up inside his own Immortal Aperture, specifically setting up an underground prison. He conducted numerous deep examinations of Wang Xiaoer, but ultimately never figured out what was causing the anomalies.
"All of you, shut up!" A figure suddenly appeared in midair.
Wang Xiaoer and the others all looked up.
"Your ancestor Fang Dongxi is dead in battle. Everything here now belongs to me, Xiao Yehu! You are all my captives! Stay here — anyone who dares to flee, I will make them wish they were dead!"
Xiao Yehu's face was deathly pale, his expression ferocious.
The noisy, chaotic crowd fell deathly silent under his threat.
Fang Dongxi and Fang Anlei had died on the battlefield shielding Fang Dichang. Both were Seventh Transformation Gu Immortals. Once their Immortal Apertures fell to the ground, the aperture gates opened, drawing in Heaven and Earth Qi, forming ownerless Blessed Lands.
Xiao Yehu had seized the opportunity to enter and loot the spoils.
But the results of his scavenging did not satisfy him.
He had suffered catastrophic losses this time. The entire Immortal Gu House, the Night Urn, had been destroyed by Fang Gong. Even emptying Fang Dongxi's Immortal Aperture would recover only a fraction of what he had lost.
"No — the Wan family must give me an explanation!" Xiao Yehu's expression was ugly. After stabilizing the situation in the Dongxi Blessed Land, he hurriedly departed to seek out the Wan family.
At this point, the Anti-Fang Alliance had been pressing forward, and had successfully recaptured the Wan family's main Blessed Land.
The various Gu Immortals of the Anti-Fang Alliance were all here temporarily resting and regrouping.
Arriving before the grand hall, Xiao Yehu slightly composed his grim expression and called out in a loud voice: "Senior Wan Guchou, Junior Xiao Yehu represents the Xiao family and requests an audience. There are important matters to discuss."
Times had changed.
Wan Guchou had suddenly revived, defeated the Fang family, turned the tide of war, and her prestige shook the heavens. The entire Western Desert Gu Immortal world was thrown into turmoil.
Facing such a powerful figure, Xiao Yehu had no choice but to temper his attitude toward the Wan family.
Very quickly, Xiao Yehu received permission to enter the hall, where he met Wan Guchou seated in the place of honor.
Wan Guchou wore white robes, her hair entirely silver. She looked the picture of frail old age.
Wan Haoguang stood to her left, and Wan Xiao to her right.
"Hehehe." She looked at Xiao Yehu and let out a laugh, her voice hoarse and chilling. "Young man of the Xiao family, your timing is perfect. I happen to have important matters to discuss with all of you. Please, take a seat and wait a moment."
"Yes." Xiao Yehu did not dare to refuse. He could only choose a seat and sit down.
Before long, the remaining Gu Immortals of the Anti-Fang Alliance were all invited to the hall for the meeting.
Even the two Gu Immortals from the Heavenly Court — Wan Zihong and Zhou Xiongxin — were present.
Wan Guchou surveyed those assembled and spoke directly: "Although the Fang family has been defeated, they stole a great many of our family's resource points. According to the previous agreements with the various clans, our Wan family can no longer afford to pay the promised rewards."
"However, there is now an excellent opportunity before us."
"The Fang family has suffered a crushing defeat, and their strength has been greatly diminished. As long as we press our advantage and pursue the attack, the Fang family will be utterly unable to resist. The Fang family has fallen to the Demonic Path and must be completely eradicated! When that time comes, we will divide the spoils among ourselves."
The assembled immortals felt a chill run through them.
This Wan Guchou was utterly shameless — openly admitting she could not pay, thereby forcing the Anti-Fang Alliance to continue the fight.
Her methods were ruthless as well. She wanted to press the attack and completely annihilate the Fang family.
But this was indeed a good opportunity.
The immortals could not help but be tempted.
The Fang family had sold off a great many Wan family resource points, but their local resource points — which they had sold fewer of — remained. The Fang family's foundations were still intact.
Now was exactly the time to strike a drowning dog.
"The Wan family is cunning — they deliberately hid Wan Guchou's existence and kept us all in the dark."
"Wan Guchou concealed herself the entire time. Only after we were all defeated did she make her move, then crushed the Fang family in one stroke, creating the situation that benefits the Wan family most!"
"The Wan family appears to have dealt most with the Xiao family, but in truth, their greatest partner is the Central Continent's Heavenly Court!"
Not a single immortal present was foolish. They had long since figured it all out during this period.
If Wan Guchou had acted earlier, then even if the Anti-Fang Alliance had defeated the Fang family, the credit would have gone to the majority of the alliance's Gu Immortals.