"Clan Head Ding, and all friends of the Duravia Trade Prefecture, you cannot win."
Li Chang'an sighed.
"Chang'an knows that you have reached the point of no return.
Our Li family will not allow you to continue surviving in the Duravia Trade Prefecture.
This is a war you cannot win.
Chang'an is willing to give you one chance: open the formation from the inside, and you can live."
Li Chang'an's voice fell silent.
From all directions, the forces of the Azure Cloud arrived, escorting the clansmen who had been abandoned by the great noble families!
The expressions of everyone from the Duravia Trade Prefecture changed drastically.
If they had previously believed the Zhao family still held a significant chance of victory, then as Li Chang'an revealed the truth behind these events piece by piece, the odds of the Immortal Zhao Clan winning had now become vanishingly small!
This was a trap that had been planned for a long time.
From the very beginning, the Zhao clan had been nothing more than a turtle in a jar.
Their psychological defenses were crumbling.
The people of Duravia Trade Prefecture averted their gazes, dodging eye contact.
It was as if, after all these years, they had fallen back into the devilish clutches of Prince Qian.
"The world is vast; it is not limited to the Duravia Trade Prefecture.
You can still continue your bloodlines in other places.
This is the Li family's bottom line, and Chang'an believes it is your final bottom line as well."
Li Chang'an smiled faintly.
The Old Ancestor had once said that a person's life is a process of constant learning and improvement—if one does not forge ahead, one falls behind.
Enemies can also be teachers, and Prince Qian was quite a good one.
On the ground below, the members of the great immortal clans who had been brought over under guard were already shouting at the various clan heads inside the Great Formation.
Their voices carried the fury of being abandoned, as well as tearful pleas and persuasion.
The cultivators of the various immortal clans averted their gazes.
Zhao Jingmiao naturally noticed this.
Unknowingly, with every word Li Chang'an spoke, an invisible wedge of suspicion and estrangement had been driven into the hearts of the crowd.
"Do not believe him! He is just trying to spread fear!"
Zhao Jingmiao's expression remained calm, yet his wary eyes betrayed him.
"We have five Void Refining cultivators. As soon as our two clan elders return, we will counterattack..."
"Oh, they will return, certainly. But that will also be the moment you face your most difficult choice."
Li Chang'an said, his face beaming with a smile.
Zhao Jingmiao snorted coldly. "Still trying to bewitch people's minds? The whereabouts of my Zhao clan elders are known to no one!"
...
"Know the enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
I failed back then because I was too impatient... too anxious to move against a Li family I did not fully understand."
The morning sun was rising over Duskwild Prefecture.
Moments away from his execution, Prince Qian's weathered face showed only the free and easy manner of one facing death without fear.
Beside him, Prince Yu waited quietly, feeling a touch of melancholy.
This imperial brother of his was sinister and despicable to the extreme; even a hundred deaths could not absolve his wickedness.
Yet, it was a pity he was born too late—otherwise, he would surely have carved out a place for himself in this world.
"Imperial Brother, I lost to you, not to the Li family."
Prince Qian gazed at the War God's tombstone.
"If you truly cared for your subordinate, you could have taken him away long ago, instead of leaving him by my side."
"The War God sent back a great deal of intelligence to me. You cannot live," Prince Yu sighed deeply.
"Even if I gave you a thousand years, or ten thousand years, I fear I would still lose at your hands.
If you were to become the Human Emperor, the empire that Father Emperor conquered would be in peril."
Hearing this, Prince Qian smiled faintly.
The two remained silent for a long time.
Finally, Prince Qian spoke, "I once walked the wrong path. Those who come after me will not continue on it. Imperial Brother, do it."
"En."
As the voice fell, Prince Qian's soul scattered.
The severed head that fell to the ground still wore a smile.
...
Meanwhile.
The Imperial Capital, inside the Heavenly Secret Pavilion.
Led by Chen Qingtian—who had once served as the chief in the Azure Cloud Region—many diviners were currently using the Pavilion's secret arts to divine the secrets of heaven.
Inside this secret chamber, Li Yuanshang had already executed the members of the Zhao clan residing in the Imperial Capital, in accordance with the family's orders.
Seeing the wealthy Li merchant approach, Chen Qingtian stepped forward to meet him.
Li Yuanshang respectfully handed over a storage ring.
"My thanks to the seniors of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion.
Otherwise, my Li family would not have been able to trace the whereabouts of the Immortal Zhao Clan members, nor would we have known that Zhao Wan was the person beside Crown Prince Sheng."
"It is all just business."
Chen Qingtian inspected the storage ring and was extremely satisfied.
Li Yuanshang looked at the divination array on the table.
Placed upon the array were the relics that the "Three Thieves" had once dug out from the ruins!
There were the molted skin and bones of Zhao Wan, fragments of Zhao Tingyu's shattered Dharma Treasure, and the bones of Zhao Feimeng...
A trace of confusion flashed across Li Yuanshang's plump face.
"Seniors, you possess remarkable skill. Can you truly track their whereabouts relying solely on these items?"
"Hahaha! How could the secret arts of my Heavenly Secret Pavilion be understood by the common world?"
Chen Qingtian laughed loudly, but then a look of reminiscence flashed in his eyes.
"We actually used this very secret technique back in the Azure Cloud Region... and it was used against your Li family."
"What?" Li Yuanshang's expression changed. "To think there was such a history?"
"En. It is not exactly a secret."
Chen Qingtian brought up the past.
"Back then, when your Li family was being hunted by the major factions of the Azure Cloud Region, the movements of your clan members were elusive and extremely difficult to capture.
The Azure Cloud branch of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion had a member named Yu Xian.
It was through your Li family's current steward, Huang Xiujin, that he obtained the personal items of your clansmen, and it was through those items that their tracks were eventually found."
As he spoke, Chen Qingtian laughed.
"And now, your Li family has ultimately sought out my Pavilion to use this very same secret technique—but this time, against the Immortal Zhao Clan.
No matter how deeply they hide, they cannot escape the tracking capabilities of our Heavenly Secret Pavilion."
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