It had to be said — once Jiang Chen truly grew angry, the consequences were devastating.
The group following behind numbered several people. They were all middle-aged cultivators, clearly Heaven realm powerhouses by their bearing. The one leading them had a sallow, waxy complexion that made him look consumptive, yet he was in fact the strongest of the lot — a mid-stage Heaven realm cultivator.
"Elder Xu, these are small fry. Is there really any point in trailing them like this?" One of the men, who had a hare lip, couldn't help but grumble.
"Shut your mouth, Old Cleft! This is an order from above. Even if a single fly escapes the Sacred Land, we're supposed to follow it. We can't just let them slip away without cause!" The consumptive-looking fellow was Elder Xu.
The hare-lipped man was still sulky. "If you ask me, we'd be better off going up there and killing them. It'd save time and effort."
"Idiot! If we kill them now, we'll alert the snake by disturbing the grass. What if the higher-ups in the Sacred Land catch wind? If the plan above falls through, every last one of us loses our head. How many heads do you have to spare for chopping?"
The hare-lipped man let out an exasperated sigh. "Then what do we do? Just keep following? When does it end?"
"Hmph, it won't be much longer. Once we get the signal — the moment things kick off over there — we make our move. For now, the last thing we should do is tip them off." Elder Xu, for all his sickly appearance, was clearly a man of discipline — steady, measured, and cautious.
There were four of them in total. Not a large number, but it was plain to see that their combined combat strength was far from weak.
"Don't dawdle. If we lose track of a few small fry, that'll be embarrassing," Elder Xu warned, noticing his companions growing sluggish.
The group picked up the pace, hurtling through the air in rapid pursuit.
As they flew on, the terrain ahead opened into a stretch of barren wasteland.
"Huh? Where did those kids go?" The hare-lipped man scanned in every direction and suddenly realized — they had lost them!
Elder Xu's expression shifted subtly. He flared his nostrils, sampling the air. "No, the trail is still there. We haven't lost them. But..."
He was about to say more when his face changed abruptly. "Everyone, watch out!"
Before he could finish, the landscape around them transformed. In the blink of an eye, the wasteland vanished from everyone's field of vision, replaced by a chaotic, formless world — an endless void stretching in every direction.
"Wh-where is this?!" The hare-lipped man's whole body trembled, his face turning a sickly green.
Elder Xu suddenly recalled something and bellowed, "It's that — it's that Shao Yuan brat! This is the formation diagram he used against Xiahou Zong!"
Elder Xu was sharper than the others, after all, and his reaction was the quickest.
At that moment, a leisurely laugh drifted into their ears from all around. "Well, well. You're not as stupid as you look. You actually know this is the formation diagram I used against Xiahou Zong?"
The voice, of course, belonged to Jiang Chen.
Elder Xu's expression turned absolutely ghastly. He hissed in a low voice, "Everyone, hold your positions! Each of you defends one corner — don't let the enemy find any opening!"
Xiahou Zong's death had occurred only a couple of days ago. The psychological shadow it had cast over them had nowhere near faded, so the moment they realized they had fallen into this formation diagram, a nameless dread surged through every one of them.
"Save yourselves the struggle. Your cultivation isn't bad, but none of you surpass Xiahou Zong. Xiahou Zong summoned four demon gods, and I killed every last one. Do you four really think you're stronger than those four demon gods?" Jiang Chen's voice carried a psychological assault, seeking to break their will.
Of the four, the strongest was Elder Xu, who stood at the fifth level of the Heaven realm. But his fifth level was vastly different from Xiahou Zong's fifth level of the same realm. If Elder Xu were to face Xiahou Zong head-on, two Elders Xu would likely still not be enough to take him down. As for the other three, they were all at the early stage of the Heaven realm — even combined, they might not measure up to a single Elder Xu. So their total combat strength, taken together, was genuinely inferior to Xiahou Zong's alone.
For a moment, the four exchanged uneasy glances, a thread of unease winding through their hearts.
"Shao Yuan — young friend Shao Yuan, is it really you? If it is, then surely this must be some kind of misunderstanding! We are all fellow cultivators of the Eternal Divine Kingdom. My surname is Xu. I hold no ill will toward you whatsoever — only admiration and respect! We were just talking about you a moment ago, in fact. We all agree you're the number-one genius who will lead the trends of our Eternal Divine Kingdom in the future! Xiahou Zong? In front of you, he's nothing but a joke!"
"That's right, young friend Shao Yuan. We mean you no harm. The way you've treated us has given us old fellows quite the fright."
These men were not from the Xiahou family. They hailed from the Cloudwave Sect.
The Cloudwave Sect, while not on par with the Xiahou family, was far more powerful than the Yan family. The four of them were not the absolute apex of the Cloudwave Sect, but they were still figures of considerable standing.
At this moment, their faths were entirely in Jiang Chen's hands. If he decided to strike, he could snuff out their lives at any instant.
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "So you followed me all this way, and there was no ill intent at all? It seems I, Shao, have wronged you?"
"Truly, this is a grave injustice! We had no idea you were the famous Shao Yuan. We happened to have some business to attend to as well, and perhaps our routes coincided — could that be what gave rise to this unfortunate misunderstanding? If we had known it was you, young master Shao Yuan, we would have rushed over immediately to seek your acquaintance!"
The lot of them were utterly shameless, playing the fool with practiced ease.
If Jiang Chen hadn't already anticipated their intentions and known exactly who they were, he might well have been taken in by these words — might even have wavered.
After all, flattery was the one currency that never depreciated.
They were laying it on thick with the compliments. Had he been ignorant of their true purpose, he would surely have been lulled into complacency by such honeyed words.
But Jiang Chen had known their true intentions from the very start.