Chapter 90: Pursuit from All Sides

  “I certainly won’t interfere.”

  The Northern Patrol Envoy sneered. “But at the same time, I’m not on the same side as you… Don’t expect me to lend a hand.”

  “If An Jing ended up gettien by you, that would just be his bad luck. But if you fail… then you won’t have the final say over whose hands he ends up in.”

  “I knew you’d say that.” The Western Patrol Envoy appeared unsurprised. “Once again, are you really not getting involved? I give you a share.”

  “Absolutely. I won’t get involved. In a few days, I pn to head back to our main mountain and bring that Divine Maiden to burn inse and join the sect. I io guide her personally.”

  The Northern Patrol Envoy spoke in a nguid tone. She already had Bai Qinghan, a genius of such caliber, firmly under her wing. Her achievements were more than enough—why bother g again with cultivators of the Divireasury realm? Besides, matters in the Western Mountains also involved Heavenly Demons, whiplicated things further. She truly did not wish to return there.

  “Fine. All the better that you won’t get involved. I was just giving you a routine reminder.”

  The Western Patrol Envoy nodded. “Imperial Heaven protect us.”

  “Imperial Heaven protect us.” The two recited in unison, and the water mirrradually dissipated into misty clouds.

  Meanwhile, from the other side came a deep, resonant voice issuing a final warning: “Beware of the Heavenly Demons. Acc to our inside information, Great … has already been heavily infiltrated by them.”

  “Do you still remember the Hanhai demonic disaster from twelve years ago? Although it artly the result of flict between two opposing fas, still…”

  The water mirror dissolved pletely.

  “Wait! Hey, you—! That’s…”

  Upon hearing that, the Northern Patrol Envoy grew anxious. Yet her terpart had timed it perfectly, leaving her fully aware of the message but without a ce to inquire further. “Seriously, would it kill you to finish talking!”

  Even so, the Northern Patrol Envoy already uood. The other side’s hint was clear enough.

  Great and the Heavenly Demons…

  Raising her cup, she drai in one gulp. The white-haired woman gazed down at the city below, her eyes suddenly sharpening. “The Hanhai demonic disaster… is that it?”

  She was from Hannan, and that very disaster had ravaged her homend.

  Although she had long since lost all her liviives and friends, the demonic camity had reduced every familiar se to rubble.

  People often said that the Hanhai demonic disaster was caused by the Demonic Sed Heavenly Demons creating havo Heaven ah, eventually driving away the demon-suppressing True Chi (a hornless dragon).

  Iy, the truth behind it all was far more plicated than anyone imagined.

  Fixing her gaze on the brew in her cup, the Northern Patrol Envoy let out a soft, derisive snort. “The high-ranking officials in the Imperial Court truly are clever. In order to undermihe new policies, those old codgers orchestrated quite a spectacle. Not only did they force the retreat of the True Chi bestowed by the Imperial Court, but they also dealt a severe blow to the reformist fa across both domains.”

  “The only ones who know the real secrets behind all this are us—those bmed as the ‘Demonic Sect’—and the reformists.”

  Here, she clicked her tongue. “But if it weren’t for some of our people’s guiding hand, they wouldn’t have been able to pull off such a venomous scheme that damages their own fate. So I suppose it’s irely snder. Not to mention, they also have Heavenly Demons lurking among them…”

  “As for us, though our reputation was tarhe outside world has always viewed the Divi as a Demonic Seyway, so what’s the harm if it gets even bcker? Meanwhile, we’ve been able to harvest Children of Camity. In truth, we haven’t really lost out.”

  “The only true losers were those well-meaning individuals—those loyal souls brimming with righteous zeal.”

  At this, the Northern Patrol Envoy could not help but sigh in bret and ridicule. “So this is what they mean by, ‘If one does not act for oneself, he shall be ned by Heaven ah.’”

  “How anyone hope food end whehing they rely on is nothing but illusion?”

  It was just that the Western Mountains were a different story.

  The Western Mountains and the Great Wilderness were among the Divi’s core strongholds i . Should a demonic camity arise there, chaos would surely ensue.

  Although the Divi was happy—sometimes even eager—to stoke disasters in ions, it would never do so on its own turf.

  If the Heavenly Demons ran rampant in the Western Mountains…

  “Ugh, I really don’t want such trouble…” The Northern Patrol Envoy shook her head slightly. Though her tone seemed indifferent, she was already prepared to step in if necessary.

  With that in mind, if An Jing could survive the Western Patrol Envoy—without getting fyed or stripped to the bone—she might yet have the ce to act again in the Western Mountains and seize arae!

  Atop the watchtower, Lin Yohe Northern Patrol Envoy of the Heavenly Will Divi, fell silent. She closed her eyes and pondered.

  After a long while, she opened her eyes. “Now that I think of it, I recall seeing in the records that An Jing still has parents, correct?”

  “As I recall, they’re both martial artists. Their strength isn’t that high, but they presumably wouldn’t just drop dead to a Frost Camity.”

  “Rather than lock horns with Great ’s Heavenly Demons by chasing that little fellow everywhere and dragging him back by force, it’d be more effective to make him e to us willingly.”

  “Instead of letting Great in the north decay further, if we took good care of his parents…”

  As soon as the thought arose, she acted. Taking out a talisman from her robes, she raised her right hand in a sword-finger gesture and traced intricate symbols in midair. The swirling frost and snow verged at once, f streams of ice-blue Profound Yin True Qi that transformed into Daoist script, flowing into the talisman.

  In the blink of ahat seemingly unremarkable talisman paper likewise turned into wind and snow, surging upward into the clouds and dispersing in all dires.

  “Issue orders to the altars in the Hanhai and Hannan Circuits.”

  “There’s a new mission.”

  At the same time—

  Deep in the Western Mountains, in the innermost part of a ge’s cavern that was nearly impossible to detect with any Divine Ability or mystical art—

  “A Strae?”

  A tall man slowly stood amid tless tiny bones, crushing a few beh his feet. His faintly bloodstained eyes turo the northwest, and he ughed, revealing a mouthful of shark-like teeth. “Little Sister Lin, you’re truly naive… In this world, do you think you advahout dev others?”

  “But I do have my Deputy Medie Envoy to thank. Without him, I wouldn’t have known that kid actually has a ‘Divie.’”

  “Dev a huhousand mortals pales in parison to abs a sirand of the divi seems my ce to step onto the Diviar and achieve the Grand Heavenly Sacred Maion lies with An Jing, this so-called ‘Divie’!”

  As the man traced lines with his raised fiwo scarlet blood-talisman papers shot through the cavern’s passage and vanished.

  “Issue orders to the grandmasters in Kanning and Tianyou.”

  “There’s a new mission.”

  And that was not all.

  【Heavenly Demons and the Demonic Sect are both pursuing that Strae An Jing?】

  At the Red Armuards’ encampment, in a transmission directed toward Hanhai, an aged voice spoke:

  【It seems there’s more to this kid than simply being a Strae—whether it involves the Heavenly Demons or some extraordinary quirk in his Heaven-Ordained Fate, the result is the same.】

  【Hmph… My granddaughter, whom I’ve beeing roam freely, is actually so caught up with this boy. What a marvel indeed.】

  【Bring him back… Do it quickly, and don’t let the Imperial Court catch wind that something’s amiss.】

  An Jing had no knowledge of these hidden intrigues ing Great and the Heavenly Will Demonic Seor did he realize that within both Great and the Demonic Sect, unity was far from absolute.

  He likewise did not know that someone had already set their sights on his “Fate”… whatever kind of Fate it might be.

  heless, as the focal point of so many people’s attention, An Jing was acutely aware of ohing:

  Namely, that no matter which fa it was, ruly cared about his actual life. What they cared about was his Heaven-Ordained Fate, each for their own aims and is.

  Beyond that, An Jing also uood clearly that, aside from the human forces keeping a tight wat him—

  —the Heavenly Demons were also watg him all along.

  (End of Chapter)