"No good!" Senior Brother Hua's heart lurched as he reached out to grab the alert talisman.
But when he crushed the talisman, he discovered the warning couldn't be sent out at all!
"It's a formation — we're trapped inside a formation!"
"Senior Brother Hua, save me!" The thin man was already entangled by countless vines.
The formation world was completely isolated from the outside world. Senior Brother Hua activated the alert talisman repeatedly, but the signal simply couldn't penetrate the formation barrier!
Senior Brother Hua wanted to rescue them, but in the panic, he could barely keep himself alive.
Countless vines kept striking. Though Senior Brother Hua was formidable, caught off guard he had no way to defend against everything. Before long, all three of them had been wrapped up like dumplings.
Jiang Chen had deployed the Yougu Seven Kill Formation, conjuring a forest world to trap them inside, then used the Ice Fire Demon Lotus to capture them.
He retracted the formation disk, and the Ice Fire Demon Lotus withdrew underground.
The three men, trussed up like dumplings, were tossed into a dark corner. Jiang Chen casually activated a sealing formation to isolate them from the outside.
Though they were several hundred zhang underground, he took no chances when it came to safety.
"Who are you? You've got some nerve!" Senior Brother Hua shot his sharp brows upward, speaking in an arrogant tone as he sized up Jiang Chen — only for his pupils to contract sharply a moment later.
Though there was no light underground, martial artists who had cultivated to a certain level could all see in the dark.
He quickly realized that the person before him was none other than Jiang Chen — the very man they had been discussing just moments ago.
"Recognized me?" Jiang Chen smiled coolly. "Well then — would you prefer to be sliced apart alive, or ground to ash and scattered?"
The thin man's teeth chattered uncontrollably. "J-Jiang Chen, we... we were just following orders. P-please don't kill me — I surrender!"
"If I heard correctly, it was you who just said you'd capture Ling Bi'er to threaten me?" Jiang Chen's tone turned cold, his gaze turning frigid.
The thin man shuddered and scrambled to explain. "N-no... I wouldn't dare. That was... purely a joke on my part. With my meager abilities, how could I possibly capture a Saint Realm genius? Don't take it seriously, please don't take it seriously."
Senior Brother Hua cursed furiously: "Zhang Laosan, shut your mouth!"
He lifted his chin defiantly, glaring at Jiang Chen. "Jiang Chen, you're certainly formidable. But no matter how formidable you are, can you surpass the entire Crimson Cauldron Middle Domain? Can you surpass the Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital?"
Jiang Chen smiled coolly, with no interest in arguing. The Crimson Cauldron Middle Domain? The Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital?
Both forces had long since been placed on his blacklist. This debt would be settled, one account at a time.
Jiang Chen gestured toward Huang'er. "Miss Huang'er, would you prefer to look away?"
Huang'er knew Jiang Chen was about to start killing. She smiled faintly but shook her head to indicate she didn't mind. She had practiced martial arts since childhood and had seen plenty of killing and carnage.
"Brother Long, come out — this one's for you!"
At Jiang Chen's command, Long Xiaoxuan transformed into a swirl of wind and cloud. His massive jaws opened wide and swallowed Senior Brother Hua whole, crunching down in great bites.
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere. The jets of hot, reeking blood shooting from the corners of Long Xiaoxuan's mouth splattered across the faces of the remaining two, sending the thin man into a terrified shriek.
If not for the formation's barrier, those screams might very well have penetrated through to the surface.
After devouring Senior Brother Hua, Long Xiaoxuan let out a satisfied belch. His copper-bell eyes then turned toward the two remaining Yuan Realm martial artists.
The thin man's face was a mask of terror. "Don't eat me, don't eat me! I surrender — I surrender, alright?!"
The other man's face had gone sheet-white. He wanted to spit out some defiant words, but swallowed them back down.
"Want to live? Then give me one good reason not to kill you." Jiang Chen's tone was flat.
The thin man babbled in a rush: "I'll talk, I'll talk — I have intelligence!"
As though terrified Jiang Chen might change his mind, the thin man rattled on: "This time, the Crimson Cauldron Middle Domain dispatched nearly twenty Fourth-Rank sects in total. It was the Crimson Cauldron Emperor himself who gave the order."
"And what about the Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital?" Jiang Chen asked coldly.
"The Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital... We didn't know about any of that at first... We only found out later that the force controlling our Crimson Cauldron Middle Domain from behind the scenes is the Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital."
The Immortal Extinction Heavenly Capital — a First-Rank sect from the Upper Eight Domains, covertly pulling the strings of the Crimson Cauldron Middle Domain. Jiang Chen had already deduced as much on his own.
He shook his head. "I already know all of that. If you don't have anything more valuable to offer..."
"I do, I do! I know... Your Danqian Palace, I heard, escaped from the Myriad Manifestation Grand Ceremony. But they didn't return to Danqian Palace."
This piece of information was genuinely useful, but Jiang Chen sneered: "Why should I believe you?"
"It's... it's true, absolutely true! Because our superiors ordered us to set up a defensive line specifically to intercept the Palace Master of Danqian Palace. They said the Palace Master might be carrying Heaven Grade spiritual medicines and a great many Earth Grade spiritual medicines. Lord Gong Wuji personally designated him for capture."
"Oh, and there's more — an Elder called Yun Nie was leading a separate group that got captured by the Giant Kun Sect. They should have been sent to the Crimson Cauldron Empire's imperial capital by now."