"Establish our own clan?"

In the twilight, Princess Nayi's twinkling eyes were glittering brightly, but then she smiled ruefully and said, "In our current state, can we really stand on our own?"

"Even if I really establish my own clan, with just these dozen people...what's the point?"

"Which tribe would listen to a deposed princess like me?"

"My uncle would probably be the first to mobilize his forces and exterminate us once he hears this news!"

Chu Mo shook his head, "Your Highness, you're mistaken!"

"Oh? Young Master, where am I mistaken?" Nayi's gaze fell onto Chu Mo's face.

"We won't give your uncle that chance!"

"When I speak of establishing our own clan, I'm suggesting we do so only after we've won over the allegiance of Elder Haoyue...your uncle. Only then will we officially announce it!"

"You've always felt that no one would respond to you, and that no one would help you...but that's not true."

Chu Mo's voice carried a hint of youthful immaturity, but his words left Nayi and Pang Zhongyuan utterly astonished.

"That's because you are currently a fugitive princess in distress! Who would respond to you at this moment? Who would dare to respond to you?"

"But… as a righteous princess seeking revenge and supported by the tribes loyal to Elder Haoyue...tell me, would those tribes who haven't betrayed us yet choose to support you then?"

"They haven't betrayed us yet, but do you think that's simply because they're not afraid of death?"

"They're actually waiting!"

"Waiting for the royal court's actions!"

"While there will certainly be traitors, I believe that most of the men on the prairie are still honorable!"

"And among those traitorous tribes, there must be those unwilling to be Great Qi's lapdogs!"

"But at the moment, only you...Your Highness, only you can achieve this!"

Nayi looked at Chu Mo, "About Elder Haoyue..."

Chu Mo looked at Nayi, and said indifferently, "You don't have to worry about whether Elder Haoyue will support you or not...because he certainly won't."

"Indeed!" Nayi's beautiful face revealed a bitter smile. She lowered her head and said, "Even if my father and mother were here, given the current situation, my uncle...he wouldn't support us either."

At this point, Chu Mo began to smile, "Then let's fight until he supports us!"

Nayi was taken aback.

Pang Zhongyuan, who was by the side, had his eyes bulging in surprise. He looked at Chu Mo and asked, "Could it be that Young Master Lin...is willing to help us?"

Nayi also reacted and looked at Chu Mo expectantly.

Chu Mo grinned, "Mr. Pang, let's not beat around the bush, isn't this the outcome you've been aiming for?"

Pang Zhongyuan's face showed a hint of embarrassment, but he quickly shrugged it off and implored Chu Mo eagerly, "Young Master Lin, Elder Haoyue is not weak. Overpowering him by force is no easy task!"

Nayi then added, "My uncle has two primordial realm bodyguards by his side, both of whom are extremely powerful. Moreover, they're almost inseparable from my uncle."

"Even when my uncle is sleeping, both of them guard outside!"

Chu Mo laughed and said, "I didn't say we were going to storm in. If we attempted that with our current numbers, we'd probably be turned into porcupines before we even reached their front door!"

"Then..." Pang Zhongyuan and Nayi looked at Chu Mo, confused.

Chu Mo gestured for them to come closer, then whispered something in their ears.

Excitement was clearly visible in Pang Zhongyuan's eyes.

Nayi, however, appeared somewhat hesitant. She looked at Chu Mo, her eyes filled with uncertainty, "Wouldn't that be too dangerous for you, Young Master Lin?"

Her clear eyes shimmered with a complex light, "This doesn't really concern you, after all..."

Chu Mo glanced at her and said indifferently, "If I wanted to avoid danger completely, why in the world would I leave the safety of my home to experience hardship?"

Only then did Nayi and Pang Zhongyuan remember that the young man before them was a disciple from a major sect out on his worldly trials, which made them all shake their heads and smile bitterly.

Chu Mo's performance had just been too astonishing.

Though they had heard of ancient tales about eight-year-olds assuming ministerial positions, it was a whole different thing to actually witness such a prodigy.

"But... we owe you too much then. How can we ever repay you?" Nayi gazed at Chu Mo, asking softly.

Chu Mo smiled grace and said, "I am from the Great Xia!"

"Huh?" Nayi momentarily froze, then burst into laughter as she caught on, "So you're causing chaos in Qi to save the Xia!"

"Causing chaos in Qi to save Xia?" Chu Mo repeated her words, and nodded agreeably, "Well, you could say that. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Then, to a successful collaboration," Nayi beamed radiantly, though a faint sense of loss flitted across her eyes that nobody noticed. He was doing this mostly for his homeland, after all!

Pang Zhongyuan hadn't previously considered this angle. In his view, once someone was taken in by a major sect, they basically severed ties with the secular world.

Unwilling to even admit their mortal backgrounds, who else would outright confess that their actions were for the benefit of their homeland like Chu Mo did? Hence, Pang Zhongyuan's admiration for Chu Mo increased further. This young man was intelligent, highly skilled, righteous, passionate, genuine, and unpretentious. His future was boundless. He glanced at Nayi and sighed inwardly, wondering if their princess would have such luck...

That night, the group made camp beside the lake. Running on fumes after days on the run, they were all on the brink of collapse, held together only by force of will. Now that the danger was temporarily averted, everyone was too exhausted to move. After setting up camp, they all crawled into their tents without even eating and drifted into a deep sleep.

When Chu Mo and the others returned to the camp, only two guards responsible for standing watch were still awake.

"You all should rest; you've suffered a lot these past few days." Nayi said to the two guards.

"The princess needs rest more than we do; we're fine, we can hold on!" The two guards shook their heads in refusal.

Pang Zhongyuan also said, "Princess, you should rest. There's nothing going on here, and we still have to travel tomorrow."

Nayi glanced at Chu Mo, who said, "Don't worry about me, I'm not as tired as you all. You should go and rest and I'll stand guard here!"

"Absolutely not." Nayi immediately refused. In her heart, this young man had become a crucial figure related to the survival of the royal court, and he must not be neglected.

Chu Mo waved his hand: "I need to cultivate."

"So that's the case!" Nayi understood and then ordered the two guards to rest as well.

In the eyes of these guards, Chu Mo had become a divine figure. Combined with their utter exhaustion, they all bowed to Chu Mo and went to rest.

In the end, only Chu Mo was left in the entire camp, along with Gerzha, who was tied to a pillar, his head down, not saying a word.

The people who died before, both enemy and ally, including the envoy from Great Qi who was killed by Chu Mo, were all dragged back. This was the rule here; grievances were buried with the dead.

Unless there were deep and bitter hatreds, the corpses of enemies were rarely left exposed in the wilderness.

But all of these people, practically devoid of energy, were temporarily piled up, awaiting burial the next day.

The numerous corpses were somewhat chilling to behold.

Chu Mo had no interest in examining corpses; he only remembered the hint given to him by his jade pendant when he encountered this group of people.

But he had never had a chance to find out what the jade had spotted.

With snoring filling the tent, everyone was utterly exhausted and sleeping heavily. Otherwise, Chu Mo might have felt a bit embarrassed to search.

Looking up at Gerzha, Chu Mo slowly walked towards the pile of bodies. Just then, Gerzha, who was tied to a hitching post, suddenly lifted his head. His voice was soft and his throat was hoarse as he said, "The envoy from Great Qi had a ring, he once flaunted it in front of me, claiming it was a godly ring capable of storing items!"

Chu Mo turned his head and looked at the disheveled and ragged figure of Gerzha.

"I'm not trying to curry favor with you or beg for mercy. I just want to tell you that the sons and daughters of the Prairie Royal Court are not useless nobodies, or scheming, treacherous men seeking to betray their masters for their own benefits." Gerzha spoke, and suddenly tears flowed down, "They control my parents and my wife and children, if I don't do as they say they'll kill my family... I know I deserve to die, but I never thought of betraying the royal court!"

Chu Mo didn't respond to him. He walked over to the beheaded envoy from Great Qi and saw an unobtrusive black ring with a restrained luster on his hand. He removed the ring and used his spiritual power to open it.

The ring opened without any hindrance. The space inside was small, three feet wide and over four feet high; it was no match for the space inside the jade.

But for ordinary people, this was already an extraordinary artifact.

Even within the major sects, the storage rings were relatively rare.

Inside the ring were several sets of clothes, a few weapons, a sealed envelope, and a white stone the size of a fist.

"Primordial Stone?" Chu Mo felt a surge of primordial force emanating from the stone and immediately realized that it was a primordial stone.

However, the size of this stone was a bit unexpected—it was many times larger than any he had seen before!

Chu Mo took out the primordial stone and, indeed, the jade pendant hanging around his neck heated up slightly. The fist-sized primordial stone was directly absorbed into its space.

Chu Mo's spirit also entered the space of the jade because he wanted to see what changes would occur.

The primordial stone floated above the small gray tree and turned into countless strands of primordial force, just like a waterfall. It was incredibly beautiful!

All this flowed into the little tree.

"So it's used to water the seedling..." Chu Mo muttered, glancing at the Heaven's Will My Will on the large stone. With a thought, he took out the book.

As he casually opened it, he found that indeed, there were a few more characters on the second page.

"Could it be that the power of this primordial stone has added a few more characters to Heaven's Will My Will?" Chu Mo wrinkled his brow slightly, feeling a bit odd because he had entered the jade space with the primordial stone.

He saw the primordial stone turn into energy and flow into the small tree's body, none of it should have seeped into Heaven's Will My Will.

Chu Mo thought and put Heaven's Will My Will back in, because there were only a few extra characters, and there was no cultivation method.

As his spirit prepared to exit the jade space, he suddenly saw that on the large stone, where Heaven's Will My Will had been placed, there was a short blood stain!

If he didn't look carefully, he wouldn't have noticed the bloodstain at all.

Chu Mo was sure that it hadn't been there before!

Upon closer examination, the bloodstain, about the length of a fingernail, had the heaviest color at the bottom, nearly as red as fresh blood.

About as wide as a strand of hair, the color faded upwards, nearly invisible.

"What is this?"

Chu Mo muttered, and suddenly a strong blood energy burst out from that bloodstain. Chu Mo was startled, and the scene of him killing those knights today appeared before his eyes.

Then he saw a blood light being absorbed into the jade and branded on the large stone.

The scene came and went quickly and disappeared soon.

But Chu Mo was left so stunned that he couldn't speak for a long while. Even after his spirit exited the jade space, he was still in a daze.

"That blood aura... what's going on?"

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

The real show is about to begin.