Jiang Chen didn't look back. He continued forward, searching for a place — somewhere remote enough.
If he was going to act, he'd make sure these people vanished from the face of the earth completely, with no way to trace it back to him.
The wasteland was vast indeed, and thoroughly uninhabited.
When he reached a stretch of dense forest, Jiang Chen studied the terrain and slowed his pace. After observing for a while, he touched down on the ground.
He turned to Hua Ming and said, "When the fighting starts, just stay by my side. Don't panic."
"Yes, Master." Hua Ming was trembling with excitement. This was the first battle of his life. He couldn't exactly claim any combat ability, but to participate firsthand — the thrill of it was beyond words.
Seeing Hua Ming's excitement, Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Stay calm. You'll go through many battles like this in the future."
Jiang Chen casually set up an illusion formation, and the two of them vanished into the dense forest.
"Remember: don't speak, don't make a sound, don't move at all." Jiang Chen's voice echoed directly in Hua Ming's spiritual consciousness.
The five men of the Northern Crown came charging up not long after.
These five cut quite the figure. Led by the hawk-nosed cultivator, they were all dressed in equally bizarre attire, bristling with killing intent and radiating menace.
The hawk-nosed cultivator's face was the most murderous of all. His falcon-like eyes swept back and forth as he searched, still seething over what had happened before.
They'd tracked Jiang Chen all the way here, locked onto him every step of the way.
"Boss, we were right on his tail just a moment ago — how did he vanish? Could he have ducked into these woods?" asked a portly cultivator.
"Everyone stay sharp. This kid probably knows we're following him," the hawk-nosed cultivator ordered. "Don't spread out too far. Stay within reach of each other."
"Boss..." A scholarly-looking cultivator sidled up. "Boss, this kid is slippery as a ghost. He might really have some backing. How about... we just let this go? We didn't lose that much in the end..."
Among the five men of the Northern Crown, the scholarly cultivator was something of an outlier.
"Second Brother, what are you saying? You want to back down now? Don't make us look bad in front of our brothers." The portly cultivator's rough voice boomed out again.
The scholarly cultivator ignored him and continued addressing the hawk-nosed cultivator. "Boss, even Captain Qiu was groveling before that kid. I'm guessing he might genuinely be connected to one of the Ten Great Divine Nations. And our grudge with him is already out in the open. If he really does belong to the Ten Great Divine Nations, then no matter how big Wanyuan Island is, there won't be a place for us to stand."
The hawk-nosed cultivator snorted coldly. "Second Brother, are you scared?"
"We're brothers, aren't we? If I were scared, how could I have stuck with you all these years? I'm thinking about the futures and the lives of everyone here," the scholarly cultivator pressed on earnestly.
"Then if you're not scared, shut up! And if you are scared, the road is wide — feel free to go your own way." The hawk-nosed cultivator, as the leader, was nothing if not stubborn.
A flicker of disappointment crossed the scholarly cultivator's eyes. He was clearly let down by the hawk-nosed cultivator's response.
The others, meanwhile, seemed dead set on following their boss and hadn't registered the danger lurking in this situation.
"Fine, fine. We're brothers. Whatever fortune or misfortune comes, we'll face it together." The scholarly cultivator resigned himself to it. His greatest hope now was that his judgment was wrong — that the kid had nothing to do with the Ten Great Divine Nations.
At the same time, he harbored a faint wish that the young man had already disappeared without a trace, that they'd never cross paths again.
Perhaps that was the only way to avoid a tragedy.
The hawk-nosed cultivator saw his expression and broke into a grin. "Second Brother, you just love getting spooked by your own shadow. Relax — so what if it's the Ten Great Divine Nations? Unless he's the scion of one of the great clans, there's nothing he can really do. Besides, would a great clan's heir ever travel alone? He'd have attendants with him, wouldn't he?"
This reasoning was, in truth, completely flimsy.
In the world of martial cultivation, plenty of geniuses preferred to travel alone to temper themselves.
But by now, the scholarly cultivator had stopped trying to persuade them. He knew that if he kept pushing, the boss would turn on him.
The group entered the dense forest and began combing through it in a net formation.
Suddenly, all five of them felt the trees around them shift, as if the entire forest had rearranged itself in the blink of an eye. The ground beneath their feet seemed to move in tandem.
In the next instant, the scenery before them kept morphing. By the time they registered what had happened, they found themselves inside a bizarre, disorienting space.
The space was utterly uncanny — exits seemed to open on every side, yet every exit felt like an illusion.
"What is this place?"
"What the hell is going on?"
The five men of the Northern Crown were stunned, their faces draining of color.
The hawk-nosed cultivator quickly called out, "Don't panic! Stay together and watch for ambushes!"
He was the boss for a reason. Despite his shock, he kept his composure and rallied his brothers.
They were, after all, a veteran team. Their coordination was second nature, and within moments the five had drawn together, backs pressed against one another, every face taut with grim concentration.
"Boss, what's going on? Did we walk into some kind of formation trap?"
"Shut up and stop talking," the hawk-nosed cultivator barked. "This is obviously a formation. We move together — advance and retreat as one — and find the exit."