The Fire Clan leader finished his remark and then noticed everyone else looking at him. He blinked, puzzled: “Why are you all looking at me?”

The Water Clan leader smiled lightly, voice mild: “It’s nothing. Only that your guess sounds quite reasonable. If so, all our effort has been a show for blind eyes.”

Patriarch Tu slammed the table, his face turning overcast: “Since they won’t get with the program, there’s no need for courtesy.”

He shot to his feet and bellowed toward the attendants outside: “Pass my order. Gather every clan member. I want all the rats hiding in Four Seas City dragged out.”

“About time we moved,” the Fire Clan leader said, baring his teeth in excitement as he turned to the man behind him: “Huo Shao Yan, have the Fire Clan ready.”

Voices sprang up in quick succession, names carried on the push of action: “Jiu Si…” “Jin Yuan…”

The clans moved as one, closing in from different directions to encircle Four Seas City. By the time Huang Zhong and his people discovered the maneuver, the city had already been sealed tight. Through the Light Screen they could see the massed figures like rolling waves rushing in.

Someone cried out, fear spiking: “Not good, they’re about to act.”

Inside the compound, faces grew ever more grim. Tie Gu, the most hot-tempered among them, paced back and forth in agitation, one step shy of grinding a hole into the floor. Qian Si swept her gaze again and again across the press of bodies outside, hoping to find the person she longed to see.

Huang Zhong lifted a hand and pressed downward, steadying them with his tone: “Hold fast. The Light Screen of Four Seas City was built from the heart’s blood of all the cultivators from the Cultivation World. It won’t be easily breached in a short time.”

Even so, no one’s heart lightened. The compound’s defensive array was indeed the distilled labor of the best among them, but no array, however strong, could withstand so many cultivators forever. At best it would let them cling to life a while longer.

At that moment several figures detached themselves from the ranks surrounding Four Seas City. Their bearing was exceptional, and they stood in the most conspicuous place. At their head was Patriarch Tu, Tu Zhen Yue. His expression was frigid as he shouted toward the inside: “Listen up, all of you in there. If you have any sense, crawl out here obediently. Otherwise, don’t blame us for what comes next.”

He finished, and for a long moment there was no answer from within. Outside as well, not a peep; every eye rested on him. The air turned awkward.

Tu Zhen Yue flushed with anger: “Bring them up.”

Feng Jiu Si, Jin Yuan, and a few others shoved several cultivators to the front. There were men and women among them, but their faces were uniformly numb, as if it were not they who were being paraded as hostages.

Tu Zhen Yue let out a contemptuous laugh: “Open your dog eyes and see who they are.”

Cries erupted from behind the defensive array: “Yan Yi!” “Chi Lian!” “The drunk!”

The people inside the array seethed. So it was true—these were the ones their enemies had seized.

Tu Zhen Yue dangled the threat with icy relish: “If you still refuse to show yourselves, I will end them, one by one, before your eyes.”

The prisoners’ pupils trembled. Yan Yi’s face hardened as he drew breath to speak: “Kill or—ah.”

He did not finish. Chi Lian had stomped hard on his foot. She was a dazzling woman; the corners of her red lips curled as she purred with a bewitching smile: “Big brother~ let’s talk this out~ why get so angry~”

Tu Zhen Yue looked her up and down in undisguised disdain: “If you want to live, then hurry and call your companions out. Don’t use such cheap tricks. I’m not buying it.”

Chi Lian only smiled more sweetly, refusing to rein it in: “Even if you want little sister to die, at least let little sister die knowing why. You…”

“Shut up, enough with the chatter,” Tu Zhen Yue snapped, grabbing her by the throat and hauling her to the very front. “I’ll count three breaths. If you still don’t come out, she dies first.”

“Chi Lian!” the other captives cried and stepped forward to pull her back, but before they could move the transparent cords binding them tightened all at once. Searing pain lanced from flesh into soul. Darkness swam up and nearly took them under.

Chi Lian dropped the coquettish act and glared at Tu Zhen Yue, her thin lips opening and closing as she spat out a string of silent curses that damned eighteen generations of his ancestors. Enraged, Tu Zhen Yue flicked his fingers to draw a spirit talisman and struck it into her body. Chi Lian went rigid at once; her tongue went numb; not a single word could get out, and a needle-sharp ache stabbed again and again at her spirit.

“Three,” Tu Zhen Yue called, his voice rolling across half the Seven Mists Realm.

Tie Gu and Qian Si looked to Huang Zhong in panic. Huang Zhong’s face was as dark as water, his eyes full of struggle.

“Two,” Tu Zhen Yue intoned.

Chi Lian’s complexion turned paper-white. Blood began to seep from her seven apertures, and her hibiscus-like face looked chillingly ghastly. Tie Gu’s fists creaked as his grip tightened. Qian Si’s eyes were bloodshot, and she had bitten her lower lip nearly to the point of bleeding.

“One…”

“Stop,” a voice rang out suddenly.

Huang Zhong halted mid-step and turned toward the source of the shout. The others all looked the same way. Far off, several figures flashed forward and in the blink of an eye appeared before Tu Zhen Yue and his cohort.

“It’s Guildmaster Chang Deng,” Tie Gu blurted, relief and surprise spilling together.

As the Ascension Realm for dozens of Lesser Thousand Worlds, the greatest power in the Seven Mists Realm was not any single sect but an alliance formed by ascenders from many small worlds, called the Seven Mists Guild. Chang Deng was that guild’s guildmaster. The cultivators at his side were all elders of the Seven Mists Guild. In this crisis, Huang Zhong had originally thought of asking the guild for help. But after realizing that the force arrayed against them was several times stronger than he had imagined, he gave up the idea; even gathering the full strength of the Seven Mists Guild would be useless, and he would not drag innocents into the water. He had not expected the people of the guild to step forward anyway, knowing they could not win, simply to speak on their behalf. He was deeply moved. Tie Gu and the others were thrilled too, their faces brightening with hope.

“Who are you?” Tu Zhen Yue demanded, eyes raking the newcomers with contempt and resentment. He had thought Sui Bian would finally be unable to endure and show himself; he had not expected a bunch of meddlesome do-gooders.

“Patriarch Tu,” Chang Deng said with a courteous bow, “this humble one is Chang Deng, guildmaster of the Seven Mists Guild. I can, with some effort, make myself heard in the Seven Mists Realm. May I ask what misunderstanding stands between your esteemed selves and the cultivators in Four Seas City that things have escalated to this degree? If possible, let us sit and talk; perhaps we can find a solution acceptable to both sides.”

Tu Zhen Yue snorted coldly: “Guildmaster Chang Deng, is it? This matter has nothing to do with your Seven Mists Guild. I advise you not to meddle.”

Chang Deng’s expression did not change, his tone staying gentle: “Patriarch Tu, the Seven Mists Realm gathers ascenders from many Lesser Thousand Worlds; it is a place where many forces coexist in balance. If your clash with Four Seas City continues to escalate, it will likely ripple across the entire Seven Mists Realm. Then it will not be only the cultivators of Four Seas City who are affected, but the ascenders of other small worlds as well. Patriarch Tu, why not think twice before acting?”