Whoosh—!
As Yuan Jie approached, the mist thickened into a vast yellow cloud, completely surrounding Yuan Jie and the cultivators of the Cangkun Alliance.
At the same time, Yuan Ying and the others hidden in the cloud emerged from illusion into reality, now standing outside the yellow cloud.
"Kill! Leave no one alive!" Yuan Ying didn't hesitate. She gave the order to her forces and raised a cyan flood-dragon banner, injecting her spiritual power and swinging it with force.
The priests and mages of the three major tribes didn't usually rely on talismans and magic weapons in combat like the cultivators of the Cangnan region. But that wasn't always the case. For a powerful force like the Right Virtuous King's faction, using powerful magical tools had long become standard practice.
Roooar—
A dragon's roar echoed.
A one-horned flood-dragon over ten zhang long emerged from the banner. It lashed its tail and plunged straight into the yellow cloud.
In an instant, screams rose from within. Corpses rained down like water—those from the Cangkun Alliance who had been caught in the cloud.
It took only a few breaths.
Aside from Yuan Jie and two Golden Core cultivators, the rest of the Cangkun Alliance had basically been wiped out.
Even Yuan Jie and the others who survived the ambush had been badly injured. They could only maintain their spiritual power shields, struggling to block the flood-dragon's repeated sneak attacks within the yellow cloud.
This magic weapon—the Yellow Cloud Trap—could bind and restrict a cultivator's movements. So even though Yuan Jie and his people were strong, they couldn't escape in time.
Soon after the flood-dragon had done its damage, the remaining cultivators of the Right Virtuous King's faction all unleashed their strongest techniques.
Poisonous arrows, bone-rotting ghost wind, arrays flashing with multicolored light—all were thrown into the cloud without holding back.
"Strike!" Yuan Ying turned her palm and took out a talisman box, chanting a few incantations.
Twelve talismans shot into the air, forming a circle around the yellow cloud and activating the powers imbued in their paper forms.
"Is it over?" Watching the dimming spiritual shields within the cloud, the cultivators of the Right Virtuous King's faction finally relaxed.
The assassination had gone almost exactly as planned. Barely any setbacks.
Of course it had. To ensure success, the Right Virtuous King's faction had poured in resources accumulated over a thousand years, even using two top-tier tier-three artifacts: the Yellow Cloud Trap and the Azure Flood-Dragon Banner.
Combined with the weakened state of the Cangkun Alliance, failure would've been more surprising than success.
But just then—
A piercing eagle cry rang out from the distance.
With it came an explosive Golden Core aura and the pressure of a high-grade spirit beast.
"The Wind-Cleaving Eagle? Wei Tu's beast? What now?"
The question rang out, and the expressions of the cultivators from the Right Virtuous King's faction changed. The black-robed elder who had spoken earlier faltered again.
In just four more breaths, the Wind-Cleaving Eagle would arrive with reinforcements. That short span wasn't enough to kill Yuan Jie and his two surviving allies, who were trapped in the cloud.
"Impossible. Time-wise, Lou Sanhua and the others couldn't have failed so quickly."
Yuan Ying was stunned too.
According to the plan, Lou Sanhua and the others were supposed to eliminate Wei Tu first, then deal with any Cangkun Alliance reinforcements like Fairy Baohua.
Once their split-the-forces tactic worked, regardless of whether Yuan Jie acted out of loyalty or not, his remaining forces would be greatly diminished.
Reality had followed the plan up to that point.
Yuan Jie only had two Golden Core cultivators left. His key allies—Fairy Baohua and Qian Yue True Lord—were gone.
But just when success was within reach, something had gone wrong with the Lou Sanhua side, throwing everything into chaos.
"Who? Who interfered?"
Yuan Ying frowned, guessing that someone powerful had shown up to save Wei Tu and eliminate Lou Sanhua's threat.
She didn't believe that Wei Tu alone could defeat Lou Sanhua and two other enemies.
"Kill Yuan Jie first! Once he's dead, they'll all be branded rebels. The Divine Masters will take our side."
Yuan Ying made a quick decision and gave the command.
Even if reinforcements from the Cangkun Alliance showed up, they wouldn't outnumber them. Her side could still escape.
The only downside was that this assassination had now turned into a broad-daylight ambush.
But it was too late to care. Yuan Ying could only gamble that Divine Master He Di would shield the Right Virtuous King's faction and keep Divine Master Du Long from retaliating afterward.
Faced with two bad options, she chose the lesser evil.
Killing Yuan Jie meant her side still had a shot at holding onto power.
Even if Du Long got angry, it wouldn't lead to her faction being stripped of the throne outright. That would destabilize the entire tribe.
But if Yuan Jie survived, not only would he become a mortal enemy of the Right Virtuous King's faction, the three Divine Masters might completely crush them without mercy.
Without the throne, they wouldn't even be considered worthy of He Di's support.
But just as she finished speaking—
The black-robed elder seized the opportunity, turned into a streak of blue light, and fled south. He deserted the battlefield.
He wasn't a fool.
If Yuan Jie died, maybe the royal family of the Right Virtuous King's faction would get off the hook, but assassins like him would almost certainly die.
He had only joined them for wealth and power—not to be a sacrificial pawn.
As long as the risk had been manageable, he'd help. But now that death seemed certain? No chance.
Seeing him flee, the other cultivators from the Right Virtuous King's faction began to waver. One by one, they broke ranks and scattered like startled birds.
"Traitors!"
"After all the years the royal court supported them!"
Yuan Ying gritted her teeth in fury and cursed aloud.
But now that she was the only one left, she couldn't kill Yuan Jie by herself. Her thoughts shifted—she needed to escape too.
"Withdraw!" Yuan Ying flicked her sleeve and retracted the Azure Flood-Dragon Banner suspended in midair.
She glanced at the Yellow Cloud Trap still surrounding Yuan Jie and the others. A hesitant look flashed across her pale face, unsure whether to abandon it or take the risk of retrieving it.
The Azure Flood-Dragon Banner and the Yellow Cloud Trap were a matched pair of top-tier third-grade magical tools. When used together, their power could rival a lower fourth-grade artifact. They were the true treasures of the Right Virtuous King's household.
"Take the risk," Yuan Ying muttered through clenched teeth. She tightly gripped a jade talisman in her left hand and softly chanted a spell under her breath.
Moments later, the yellow cloud that had trapped Yuan Jie and the others began to contract rapidly. It shrank into a piece of yellow gauze, barely an inch long, which Yuan Ying snatched into her hand.
The next instant, a soft white light wrapped around her body, and she vanished on the spot.
By the time Yuan Jie and the others realized what had happened, everyone else had disappeared. Only the Cangkun Alliance cultivators remained.
And at that moment, the Wind-Cleaving Eagle arrived, carrying Fairy Baohua and Qian Yue True Lord on its back.
"Too bad… the assassin got away," Yuan Jie said with a heavy heart.
The Cangkun Alliance had suffered serious losses in this ambush, and he couldn't separate that fact from his own responsibility.
"How is Daoist Wei?" Yuan Jie collected himself, glanced at the eagle, and quickly asked about Wei Tu's condition.
The eagle had arrived, but Wei Tu had not. He feared Wei Tu might have been seriously wounded.
"Daoist Wei used up a lot of strength, but… he should be fine," Fairy Baohua stepped forward and answered.
Though she hadn't seen any visible injuries on Wei Tu, dealing with someone as formidable as Granny Ke likely left him with serious internal damage. She figured he was just putting on a strong front.
"Good," Yuan Jie let out a breath of relief.
"Did you get a good look at who was behind the ambush? We must get justice for this," Fairy Baohua asked.
While she had sensed Yuan Ying and her group earlier from atop the eagle, they had disguised their faces and auras, and the distance had been too great to see clearly.
Of course, she could guess. It was almost certainly the work of the Right Virtuous King's faction.
But accusations required proof.
"Let's head to the Golden Tent Platform first. We'll deal with this later. It's not the right time to stir more conflict," Yuan Jie replied coldly, shaking his head.
As long as he held the reins of power, whether there was hard evidence or not, he would make sure the Right Virtuous King's faction paid the price.
…
Elsewhere—
After using a Minor Shift Talisman to flee, Yuan Ying didn't return to Hujie Immortal City. Instead, she disguised herself as a pockmarked female cultivator and headed toward Dingshan Market, a settlement under Ancient Sword Mountain.
After the failed assassination, Yuan Ying understood her fate within the Ying Ding Tribe.
If she didn't escape, as a former royal princess, she might end up with fewer rights than even an average clanswoman.
Her life and death would no longer be her choice.
"Almost there."
After flying for several days, seeing the landscape shift from prairie to rugged terrain, Yuan Ying finally relaxed a little.
From now on, she would live as a Cangnan native, no longer the proud Princess Yuan Ying.
"Yuan Jie… I'll live to see the day you fall," she muttered, landing and glancing back toward the Ying Ding Tribe. Her eyes were filled with hatred.
Her family had ruled the Right Virtuous King's line for generations. In her eyes, the throne rightfully belonged to them.
To her, Yuan Jie was just a sweet-talking fraud who had tricked the tribal leaders and even Divine Master Du Long, stealing the throne from her house.
But—
Just as she turned her head, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye.
"Wei Tu?"
His name surfaced in her mind instinctively.
But she quickly shook her head. There was no way Wei Tu, who should've still been back in Hujie Immortal City, would suddenly show up near Dingshan Market.
Besides, having been attacked by Lou Sanhua's group, even if he had survived, he would've been injured and in no state to be wandering around here.
Just as she tried to get a clearer look, the figure was gone.
"Your Highness, what's got you so jumpy? Were you thinking of me?"
A calm male voice sounded behind her.
Yuan Ying's back instantly went cold. She instinctively tried to summon her spiritual power and flee, but realized too late—her body had already been silently bound.
Fine threads of blue crystal had pierced through her limbs and tightly wrapped around her, like being trapped in a turtle shell.
"I didn't expect Your Highness to be at the Golden Core Realm. You've hidden it well."
Wei Tu appeared right before her. With a flip of his hand, he slapped a pitch-black talisman onto Yuan Ying's pale forehead.
"So it really was you… Wei Tu!" she gasped in disbelief.
At last, she understood why their plan had failed.
It was Wei Tu—someone they had never expected—who had ruined everything.
For Wei Tu to get so close without a sound and seal her cultivation like this, it meant one thing: he had reached at least the late stage of the Golden Core Realm.
With that kind of power, and the help of the Wind-Cleaving Eagle and Fairy Baohua, he really did have a shot at defeating Lou Sanhua's team.
"If you were this strong, there's no way you'd have put up with Wolfslayer Daoist's threats…"
"Wait! Wolfslayer Daoist went missing… was it you who killed him?"
The realization hit her suddenly. She stared at Wei Tu in horror, fear finally appearing on her face.
If her guess was right, then the Right Virtuous King's faction had been nothing but pawns in Wei Tu's game from the start.