With that, the opposing four-man team had been reduced to just two in the blink of an eye. Only Elder Xu and the cleft-lipped man remained, panic written all over their faces. It was plain to see that the consecutive deaths of their companions had dealt them a devastating blow.
The will to fight to the bitter end they had harbored moments ago had utterly collapsed under these circumstances.
The cleft-lipped man began screaming, "I surrender! I surrender!"
Elder Xu, his face ashen as death itself, raised no objection to the suggestion.
Jiang Chen had his opponents firmly under control. He naturally wouldn't let them off the hook just because they'd uttered the word "surrender."
"Those who read the times are the wise ones. Now—one of you is going to tell me which faction you belong to." Jiang Chen's tone was leisurely. "Remember, you no longer have any capital to lie with."
The cleft-lipped man held both hands up and shouted, "I'll talk, I'll talk! We're from the Cloudwave Sect."
"The Cloudwave Sect?" Jiang Chen's brow furrowed. He recalled his opponent in the third round of the Genius Sword Debate, Shen Fan—that kid had been from the Cloudwave Sect too, and had shown him considerable hostility during the tournament. It seemed this sect harbored no goodwill toward him.
But when he'd first set out, these Cloudwave Sect people hadn't known his identity, so why had they been tailing him?
Questions churned in Jiang Chen's mind. He let out a cold snort. "The Cloudwave Sect? I was traveling in disguise this entire time, and your people never even recognized me. So why did you follow me all the way here?"
The cleft-lipped man now poured everything out like beans from a tipped jar, hiding nothing. "We weren't targeting you specifically—we were targeting the Sacred Land as a whole. There are orders from above: any group that comes out of the Sacred Land during this period is to be shadowed. Not a single one is to be allowed to leave."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Chen's brow furrowed again.
"That is to say—" The cleft-lipped man was about to continue when Elder Xu hurriedly cut in, "Let me explain, let me explain. It's actually—"
"Shut up." Jiang Chen's voice was sharp.
How could Jiang Chen not see through this? Elder Xu was far more cunning than the cleft-lipped man. If he were the one talking, there was no guarantee he'd actually get anything useful out of him.
"You keep talking," Jiang Chen said to the cleft-lipped man.
"Yes, yes, I'll talk. Young Master Shao, just show mercy and let me go. Really—I swear I had no intention of being your enemy. We were only following orders. We had no choice."
"Following orders? Whose orders? Tell me in full detail. And don't try anything clever—I won't fall for it."
Jiang Chen issued a stern warning.
Facing the threat of death, the cleft-lipped man became remarkably honest. "They were orders from the royal family, along with instructions from our Cloudwave Sect's higher-ups."
"Why target the Sacred Land's people?" Jiang Chen asked in a low voice.
"Because… because…" The cleft-lipped man stammered. "We don't actually know the specifics. It seems like they want to… want to…"
"A rebellion!" Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed. "Isn't that right?"
The cleft-lipped man flinched as though Jiang Chen might put an arrow through him at any moment, stammering, "I don't know for certain whether that's what it is, but from the looks of things, they really do seem to mean harm to the Sacred Land. This time, it's not just our Cloudwave Sect that's been mobilized. Several other first-rate powers as well. The higher-ups appear to have come to some kind of tacit agreement. Oh, and the driving force behind it seems to be the Xiahou family."
Jiang Chen's expression darkened. Sure enough—whatever he'd feared was exactly what came to pass. The reason he'd been in such a rush to send Huang'er and the others away was precisely because he'd dreaded this internal upheaval within the Divine Kingdom.
It seemed the turmoil had come after all, and it had arrived with startling swiftness.
"The Xiahou family… the royal family…" Jiang Chen murmured with a sigh. "Are they trying to overthrow the Sacred Land?" Then, abruptly, his gaze sharpened. "The Sacred Land has a Divine-realm Sacred Ancestor. Even if every last one of you joined forces, do you really think you could stand against the Sacred Land? And beyond that—the Xiahou family's ambitions. Even if they were to replace the Sacred Land, does the Cloudwave Sect truly believe you'd get your chance to rise? You're bargaining with a tiger for its skin!"
These men were nothing more than order-followers. To put it bluntly, they were errand boys. Their standing within the Cloudwave Sect might not be insignificant, but errand boys they remained—they had no part in the highest-level decision-making.
The cleft-lipped man scratched his head and ears in frustration, utterly at a loss for words. He didn't understand any of these high-level affairs. He'd only come because he'd been ordered to, thinking it would be an easy task.
Who could have guessed that a simple shadowing mission would now leave him hanging by a thread?
"Out with it—when are the royal family and the Xiahou family planning to make their move? Which factions are involved? And remember—no lies. I don't like lies."
The cleft-lipped man rushed to answer, "We haven't received any notification about the exact timing. It seems like it could be any day now—as soon as the next day or two. As for the participating factions, they're all first-rate powers. There seem to be six or seven of them. The three great sects are all involved, along with several major families. The Xiahou family, the Feng family, the Beigong family—oh, and the Yan family."
The three great sects were the Cloudwave Sect, the Zhoguang Sect, and the Yaochi Sect.
Aside from the three great sects, there were the Seven Great Clans. It appeared that the majority of those clans had also joined in. Those that hadn't were likely the Sacred Land's die-hard loyalists.
If at least seven first-rate powers were involved, then the situation for the Sacred Land would be exceedingly dire. These first-rate powers were no fools.
For them to dare plot this rebellion, they surely had some method of dealing with the Sacred Ancestor. Perhaps these factions, too, possessed Supreme Old Ancestors of the Divine realm.
Even if those Supreme Old Ancestors might not individually match the Sacred Ancestor in strength, if they held the advantage in numbers, it was by no means an impossibility.