That's right, it was an unexpected event. No one had known in advance about Guxing and the others' appearance—they had come directly here.

"Hehe, we came directly here without going to notify that old man first," the Young Miss said with a smile.

"Oh, I understand now." Hearing the Young Miss say this, Xiaoyao understood. Guxing and the others had used special methods to enter and weren't welcomed by others. He believed they had this capability.

"Truly, heroes emerge from youth. Our Floating Cloud Sect couldn't stop you. If it weren't for people here notifying us, we wouldn't even have known you came. How exactly did you manage this?" Yun Kaitai appeared at this moment with a group of experts. These experts were ones Xiaoyao hadn't seen before—they didn't seem to be Floating Cloud Sect experts, and all of them were very powerful.

These people should be allies of the Floating Cloud Sect who had come to deal with Guxing and the others. They also wanted to see Guxing and the others for themselves, since they had only heard about them but never actually seen them.

"Did you think a broken grand formation could stop Susu?" the Young Miss said first, looking very proud as if she had done it herself.

"Miss Nangong truly has profound knowledge," Yun Kaitai looked toward Nangong Third Miss. Although he had never met Nangong Third Miss, among those present, only Nangong Third Miss was the weakest. Also, he had seen portraits of Nangong Third Miss, so he naturally knew who she was.

"This is nothing—Xiaoyao is much more capable than I am," Nangong Third Miss said. This was the truth, but whether anyone would believe it was worth investigating.

...

Everyone looked toward Xiaoyao, their eyes full of doubt. Regarding Xiaoyao, they knew quite clearly that he knew many things, but they would never believe Xiaoyao was more capable than Nangong Third Miss. One Nangong Third Miss was already more than they could handle—adding Xiaoyao would truly drive them mad.

"I only understand a little..." Xiaoyao waved his hand dismissively.

"I really didn't expect you would all come. And Luo Yuntian, you little brat, you actually know to return?" Yun Kaitai looked at Luo Yuntian with very complex emotions—not just resentment, but some other feelings as well.

"Master, I..." Luo Yuntian also looked at Yun Kaitai with equally complex feelings.

That's right, Yun Kaitai was Luo Yuntian's master. Otherwise, how could he have been childhood sweethearts with Yun Qingyi?

"Don't give me any of your 'I's, and don't call me Master. I don't have a disciple like you," Yun Kaitai said coldly. "When you and that shameless woman gave birth to this little bastard, you were no longer my disciple."

"Master, please speak respectfully," Luo Yuntian said.

"Old bastard, you dare insult my brother? Are you looking for death?" the Young Miss pointed directly at Yun Kaitai. This left many people speechless—she really didn't care about the situation at all.

"Mo Yu, you seem to have misunderstood the situation," Yun Kaitai said coldly.

"What situation? We're just surrounded by you people. Xiaoyao is in your hands, but what does that have to do with you being an old bastard?" the Young Miss said unconcernedly.

"..." The scene fell silent.

"Miss Yanyu, you should still stand on our side. Don't stay with them anymore," someone said to Wang Yanyu at this moment. Without question, he was from the Haoran Sect.

"You stand on your side, I'll stand on mine. This is fine," Wang Yanyu said indifferently. "Xiaoyao, you're alive but don't come find me—do you not take me seriously?"

"How would I dare? I was originally going to find you, but they captured me and brought me here," Xiaoyao immediately said.

"You all seem to not care about the situation at all. Do you really think you'll be fine?" Yun Kaitai and the others felt a bit confused about the situation. What was wrong with this group? Now they were surrounded by so many people, yet they were still chatting casually.

Undeniably, Guxing and the others were very strong. For his group to capture them without losses would be basically impossible, even with over ten God Level martial artists present.

Guxing and Luo Yuntian were already at God Level, while the Young Miss and Nangong Suxin could resist God Level opponents—equivalent to having four. Under such comparison, no one dared claim they could keep them without a scratch, and might even have to pay a great price.

Fortunately, he had hostages in hand.

"So what if there's trouble?" the Young Miss said unconcernedly. "The result will be the same anyway—either we stay or we leave. This has nothing to do with attitude. Would you be prepared to let us go if we had a good attitude?"

"..." Yun Kaitai and the others fell silent again. In terms of mentality, these girls on the opposite side were indeed very strong—much calmer than their own people.

"Just state your conditions directly. What will it take for you to release Xiaoyao?" Nangong Suxin said.

"Very simple—cripple your martial arts and become our prisoners," Yun Kaitai said.

"Cripple your sister!" Xiaoyao immediately said. "Don't listen to him. I'm fine—they can't kill me. You should do whatever you need to do. Actually, you shouldn't have come. You should have trusted me—I could have escaped."

"We know."

Regarding this issue, they had actually discussed it and all felt that Xiaoyao couldn't be confined. As long as they didn't go, Xiaoyao would have time to escape. But they still came anyway, fearing that some unexpected situation might occur.

"If you knew, why did you still come?" Xiaoyao said irritably.

"We couldn't feel at ease not coming. If it were you, what would you do?" Nangong Suxin said.

"Come to check the situation..." Xiaoyao replied directly, then didn't continue.

Then Xiaoyao looked toward Yun Kaitai and said, "Everyone, I believe you also don't want us to continue fighting. Even if you win, it won't benefit you at all—it's just a matter of face. We can give you this face. We admit defeat and will give you compensation. Let this matter end here."

"Boy, this isn't the time for you to negotiate with us, but rather a question of whether you'll die here," another person spoke before Yun Kaitai could, speaking with deep hatred.

Why would he have such hatred? This was simple—because his son had died in this war, killed by Guxing. This was also why he had been looking at Guxing with such hatred.

"Don't talk about death—that hurts the harmony. While everyone's here, let's discuss reconciliation instead. Don't be too stubborn—it's not good for anyone," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

Xiaoyao's words made many people think. Honestly, they didn't want to continue either. However, most people felt that with Xiaoyao and Nangong Third Miss in their hands, plus Guxing and the others present, removing them would make the Luo family easy pickings.

"You think that without us, the Luo family would be easy to deal with, right?" Xiaoyao seemed to see through everyone's thoughts. "If you think it's easy, then you should ask Third Miss—since she felt coming here might mean not returning, would she not make arrangements?"

"..." Everyone immediately fell silent. Perhaps they could eliminate Nangong Third Miss, but if she had left contingency plans before coming, that wasn't something they wanted to see.

Based on previous situations, they absolutely believed that arrangements left by Nangong Third Miss could seriously hurt them. Even if they ultimately won, they would still pay a great price.

"This humble woman lacks talent and only left a few small arrangements. You don't need to worry too much," Nangong Third Miss said with a smile. Although she said this, no one believed she had really only left small arrangements.

"What should we do?"

In the eyes of Yun Kaitai and the others, this kind of expression was exchanged. Everyone looked at each other, wanting the other party to give them some advice.

What they cared about most was Nangong Third Miss's strategies. Unlike martial force, which disappeared when someone died, strategies could persist and continue planning for hundreds of years as long as the person was capable enough. This wasn't unprecedented in history, and they didn't doubt Nangong Third Miss's abilities at all.

"Don't think about it anymore. The best choice now is reconciliation. With reconciliation, you get face and compensation—this is perfect for everyone," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

This situation was becoming confusing. Was this a hostage threat incident or a negotiation reconciliation event? What was even stranger was that the person seemingly controlling the situation appeared to be the one they considered a hostage.

"Boy, you need to understand—you're currently a hostage. You're not qualified to say these things."

"Who says I'm not qualified? If you want compensation, this matter depends on me. What you want most shouldn't be territory, but pills—high-quality, top-grade pills," Xiaoyao said.

"You can give us high-quality, top-grade pills?" Everyone was shocked. If Xiaoyao could provide a certain quantity of high-quality, top-grade pills, this matter could really be easily resolved.

As long as there were sufficient benefits, even world wars could be calmed!

"Naturally. Do you think the Luo family could grow in such an environment just because we have pills? You should be very clear about this," Xiaoyao looked at everyone and said indifferently.

In Nangong Third Miss's plan of using war to sustain war, the pills Xiaoyao had previously refined were an indispensable element. With the support of those pills, the Luo family members had life insurance and the motivation to rapidly improve their strength.

As opponents, they naturally knew this point. Although they had been speculating about the source of these pills, thinking it might be the Luo family's foundation or that the Luo family had discovered some treasure vault, they found it hard to imagine that Xiaoyao had refined them.

Their intelligence network was thorough, and they had deduced that Xiaoyao had refined pills. But they couldn't believe Xiaoyao could refine enough pills to support the Luo family for over ten years in such a short time, with all pills being of high quality.

(End of Chapter)