As soon as the words fell—

All the cultivators within Cloud Crane Mountain were in an uproar, their expressions filled with shock as they watched the Huang Clan’s Foundation Establishment cultivators chase after Alchemist Shu. Many of the unaffiliated cultivators even revealed looks of contempt.

Even among the Huang Clan cultivators themselves, many felt ashamed by the leadership's betrayal.

After all, the contributions Alchemist Shu had made to the Huang Clan over the past dozen or so years were widely known.

A few years ago, when Alchemist Shu failed his attempt to break through to the Golden Core Realm, rumors had already begun circulating that the clan’s leadership planned to send him to the righteous-demonic battlefield as cannon fodder in place of their own Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Now, with Alchemist Shu being hunted by the clan's higher-ups, it only confirmed the truth behind those old rumors.

Witnessing this scene, Huang Changshun grew increasingly anxious. If the clan’s unity faltered, it would spell disaster for the family.

He immediately activated his spiritual power and shouted, “Alchemist Shu, cease your slander! Your secret dealings with the Heavenly Maiden Sect have already been exposed!”

“Colluding with demonic forces—such acts must be purged by all righteous cultivators!”

However—

To the cultivators of Cloud Crane Mountain, Huang Changshun’s declaration lacked conviction.

In recent years, with the ongoing demonic incursions, blaming someone for consorting with demonic cultivators had become the most convenient excuse for internal conflict among righteous sects.

And Alchemist Shu—whether among rogue cultivators or within Cloud Crane Mountain—had built a solid reputation over the years. A few mere words from Clan Leader Huang Changshun weren’t enough to condemn him.

Of course, this was also partly because Huang Changshun’s own prestige had been waning for years.

It was under his leadership that the Huang Clan had declined. And after the fall, he continued prioritizing core lineage members by giving them first pick of Foundation Establishment Pills and other crucial resources. Such favoritism had long stirred resentment among the collateral branches.

All these factors had built up to the current chaos within the Huang Clan, where even their own people publicly questioned the leadership’s actions.

“Colluding with the Heavenly Maiden Sect?” Alchemist Shu narrowed his eyes slightly at the accusation, already trying to deduce who could have leaked the information.

Notably, he didn’t suspect Wei Tu.

To Alchemist Shu, there was no reason for Wei Tu to know anything about the connection between Liu Left Emissary and the Shuyun Alliance.

As far as he knew, the information Manager Fan had revealed to Wei Tu was limited to Shuyun Alliance’s plan against the Huang Clan—there had been no mention of the Heavenly Maiden Sect.

On top of that, Wei Tu already had longstanding grievances with the Huang Clan. Among those invited by Shuyun Alliance, he was the one with the most serious conflict with the Huang Clan.

If Wei Tu had betrayed them, he wouldn’t have stood to gain anything at all.

Of course, if Alchemist Shu had known that Si Qing—a Heavenly Maiden Sect cultivator—was killed by Wei Tu, he wouldn’t have reached such a hasty conclusion.

As for Wei Tu’s warning—

That, too, was a calculated gamble.

He was betting that the Shuyun Alliance, being a loosely organized group of rogue cultivators, didn’t have tight enough internal control to immediately identify the source of the leak.

Wei Tu was confident that unlike established clans or sects, trust within Shuyun Alliance’s ranks would be minimal.

Faced with two threats, he had chosen the lesser evil.

If he didn’t throw the Heshan Huang Clan under the bus and divert Shuyun Alliance’s attention, he might end up becoming the next target of Liu Left Emissary from the Heavenly Maiden Sect.

…

Alchemist Shu’s mind raced as he swiftly narrowed down a list of suspects.

With a sneer, he pulled a small handful of brown powder from his robes and flung it at the pursuing Huang Clan cultivators before dashing out of Cloud Crane Mountain and fleeing southwest.

A skilled alchemist was often also a master of poisons.

As soon as the powder scattered, Huang Changshun and the others panicked and threw up their defensive barriers to block it.

However—

To their surprise, the powder bypassed their protective shields entirely and clung directly to their bodies.

In an instant, their complexions turned an unnatural shade of black. Moreover, the flow of spiritual power within their bodies became sluggish and erratic.

“No need to give chase,” Huang Changshun said, waving off a clan member who tried to pursue after Alchemist Shu. His face was somber.

Even after neutralizing the poison, Alchemist Shu had already vanished over ten li away.

Fighting him in the vicinity of Cloud Crane Mountain, under the support of their protective formation, hadn’t yielded any advantage. Now that he was beyond its range, facing this pseudo-Golden Core cultivator in open ground would only end worse.

“What a pity. If only the Huang Clan were at full strength, how could he possibly escape?” Huang Changshun cursed silently.

Over the past dozen years, thanks to Alchemist Shu’s assistance with pills, the Huang Clan had added six new Foundation Establishment cultivators, bringing the total up to nine.

But these new cultivators were all early-stage Foundation Establishment—and their strength couldn’t compare to the clan’s former elite.

The elites of old had relied largely on their own efforts to reach Foundation Establishment, receiving only minimal support from the clan.

By contrast, these new additions had advanced mostly due to Alchemist Shu’s pills.

In terms of temperament, combat ability, and potential—they were inferior in every way to the clan’s former elite.

Given the current strength of the clan—

Huang Changshun dared not pursue Alchemist Shu beyond the mountain.

Even if the Huang Clan had the ability to kill him, Huang Changshun wouldn’t take that gamble.

If they failed, they wouldn’t have the means to raise another six Foundation Establishment cultivators again.

As Alchemist Shu disappeared into the distance, Huang Changshun turned back toward Cloud Crane Mountain.

But when his gaze met the fog-covered landscape of the mountain itself, a complex emotion welled up inside him.

He suddenly recalled a decision he had made twenty years ago—one that was exactly like today’s.

“I don’t dare bet.”

“Once again, I don’t dare bet.”

Huang Changshun chuckled bitterly, his eyes slightly reddened.

“Will the clan’s legacy truly end in my hands? And yet… I made the right decision, didn’t I?”

—Secret Realm Expedition.

He had foreseen that the Huang Clan might face danger within the secret realm, so he reduced the number of participants by half, sending only the seven strongest Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Huang Clan.

But when the expedition ended, all Huang Clan cultivators perished—none survived.

Driving Wei Tu away had served two purposes.

First, it was to welcome Alchemist Shu as their honored guest and revive the clan's strength using his pill-making skills.

Second, it was to maximize benefits for the clan. Wei Tu had wide connections, which made him unsuitable as a scapegoat. And with Wei Tu's heart clearly not in the Huang Clan, it was best to wring the last bit of value from him and then discard him.

As for mistreating Alchemist Shu—

Sure, it gave off a sense of flattery followed by betrayal, but if they didn’t send Alchemist Shu to the frontlines to take the place of a Huang Clan cultivator, were they supposed to just sit and watch their own clan members die on the battlefield?

Personal sentiment—

Could never outweigh clan interests.

Everything he did was for the Huang Clan.

Even the clan’s Golden Core Patriarch, Huang Xinglie, had supported his decisions and never objected.

And yet—

Now, in this moment—

Huang Changshun suddenly felt powerless. The Heshan Huang Clan, under his string of “correct decisions,” was slowly walking toward decline.

It felt as though some invisible hand of fate was guiding everything behind the scenes, and no matter how much effort he put forth, it was all in vain.

“Clans can’t compare to rogue cultivators,” Huang Changshun muttered to himself with a sigh.

Rogues dared to gamble, dared to fight, while clan cultivators lacked both. In the name of preserving their legacy, they stuck to old methods and refused to adapt.

In times of peace, cultivation clans could easily dominate rogue cultivators. But now, in this era of chaos, they were far inferior.

And that—was precisely why he believed the Heshan Huang Clan was heading for ruin.

That sense of “helplessness”—no matter how many corrective measures he tried—couldn’t reverse the downward trend.

In other words, this was the fate of the Heshan Huang Clan.

“What if I had gambled?” Huang Changshun wondered silently.

But he quickly shook his head.

It wasn’t just that he didn’t dare gamble. Even their Patriarch Huang Xinglie was the same—never once daring to take a chance.

Before the secret realm expedition, if Huang Xinglie had resisted the pressure from True Monarch Wanhai and refused to let the Jia Clan’s cultivators enter, then the chain of events that followed wouldn’t have happened.

This was a common flaw among all clan cultivators.

…

Of course, all these thoughts never reached Wei Tu, who was hiding outside Cloud Crane Mountain.

Seeing Alchemist Shu escape so easily from within the mountain, Wei Tu was speechless at Huang Changshun’s indecisiveness.

He had already sent the secret message.

And yet the Heshan Huang Clan had still let Alchemist Shu—a major threat—slip through their fingers.

“Aren’t they the clan known for their mastery of formations? And yet they can’t even trap one man?” Wei Tu sighed in frustration.

If the Huang Clan had managed to capture and kill Alchemist Shu within Cloud Crane Mountain, and then had Huang Xinglie, their Golden Core ancestor, search his soul for secrets, things would be much easier for Wei Tu from here on.

Even if Huang Xinglie chose not to retaliate against Shuyun Alliance and Liu Left Emissary afterward, simply using Alchemist Shu’s memories as evidence to report them to the sects would’ve been a massive blow to both.

And yet—

They let Alchemist Shu get away.

“Letting Alchemist Shu go… the Huang Clan is going to have serious trouble in the future,” Wei Tu thought to himself as he gazed at Cloud Crane Mountain.

Failing to kill Alchemist Shu, even while holding home advantage, would make others see the Huang Clan as weak.

It meant that anyone with pseudo-Golden Core strength could enter Cloud Crane Mountain as they pleased and leave just as easily.

That message—

Would bring far more disaster than losing a few Foundation Establishment cultivators.

In preserving their strength, the Huang Clan had inadvertently revealed something else: this was all the power they had, and they didn’t dare risk it all in one go.

“Looks like the heavens have decided the Huang Clan’s fate,” Wei Tu said as he flicked his sleeves and flew off in the direction Alchemist Shu had escaped.

This time, although his reason for giving the Huang Clan intelligence was partially selfish, if they’d made proper use of it, it could’ve helped them greatly. Not only could they have dealt with an internal threat, but they could’ve eased external pressures too.

However—

Things had turned out differently than Wei Tu expected.

Not only had the Huang Clan failed to seize this chance to eliminate Alchemist Shu and the Shuyun Alliance as a threat, they’d exposed their internal weaknesses, creating even more risk for themselves.

…

“There’s blood in the air. Looks like Alchemist Shu was wounded pretty badly in that fight.”

Several days later, Wei Tu arrived at a desolate plain. He sniffed the air gently with his Fragrant Silk Nose, confirmed a direction, and flew after it.

Before Alchemist Shu and the Huang Clan cultivators clashed, Wei Tu had already released a Wind-Cleaving Eagle to monitor Cloud Crane Mountain from high above.

Once Alchemist Shu fled, the eagle had followed him at a distance.

But after reaching this plain—

Alchemist Shu had suddenly vanished without a trace.

So Wei Tu came personally, using the Fragrant Silk Nose to carefully track down Alchemist Shu’s hiding place.

He began searching the area step by step.

With his current strength, Wei Tu didn’t fear a wounded Alchemist Shu. Even if the Huang Clan couldn’t kill him, if Wei Tu took down the isolated and injured Alchemist Shu, the result would be just as effective.