Meng Qi formed hand seals, and a spiritual rune lit up on her hand before fading.

Guo Ran could count as a dabbler Beast Tamer now, so he knew Meng Qi was sending a message to her housepets. They two of them were currently hunting for food.

“Sister Meng Qi, what’s wrong?” Guo Ran was still startled. What he had thought was a funny joke had caused such a reaction in Meng Qi.

“The only thing you learn from Long Chen is his useless skills. When will you get past his ability to joke and curse, and actually learn any of his smarts?” rebuked Meng Qi.

“I…” Guo Ran immediately felt awkward. It seemed the only things he wanted to learn from his boss were pick-up and show-off arts.

“This is no joke, but a trap set up by Ji Changkong. He at least has goals in announcing that he has captured Long Chen. One is to force us to show ourselves,” said Meng Qi.

“But we’re not so stupid. That’s just an insult to our intelligence.” Guo Ran still didn’t understand.

“You’re underestimating Ji Changkong. His other goal in sending out this announcement is to draw out the aboriginals. Once they appear, his second goal will be achieved,” said Meng Qi.

“But the aboriginals wouldn’t get duped so easily, right?” Guo Ran frowned.

“That’s why I said you underestimated Ji Changkong. Since he dared to make such a naive move, he must have another move we don’t know about yet. He definitely has a trick to dupe the aboriginals. My guess is once they fall for it, they’ll kill a portion of them and then release news that they’ll kill the rest. With Long Chen’s character, how could he just allow them to slaughter the aboriginals? After all, the aboriginals once saved his life.

“In this manner, Long Chen will fall into Ji Changkong’s trap, and it’ll also confirm his relationship with the aboriginals. Then the evidence from those two Four Heavenly Geniuses will become ironclad. No matter what Long Chen says, he’ll be viewed as a traitor of the Righteous path and attacked from every direction. If he’s killed, the Xuantian Dao Sect won’t be able to do anything. And if he survives, then to protect themselves, the best case is they will help Long Chen slip away. At that time, Long Chen will be viewed as an enemy of all sides. This is a malicious scheme with no solution,” said Meng Qi.

“Fuck, this damn Ji Changkong!” cursed Guo Ran.

Although all of this was just a guess from Meng Qi, her guess was reasonable. Even if it was off, it wouldn’t be off by too much!

Guo Ran had an urge to slap himself. All day, he only thought about showing off. This matter had been seen through even by Meng Qi. If it had been Long Chen, he would have seen through it easily. His intelligence was still too lacking compared to his boss.

“Furthermore, Long Chen has said that lord Heaveneye has left to somewhere unknown, and thus the aboriginals don’t have a leader right now. For something like this to happen now, it’s worrying.” Meng Qi frowned.

“Then what should we do? Should we disturb boss?” asked Guo Ran.

“We can’t. Each time Long Chen goes into seclusion now, he stays in it for around half a month. There’s still one or two days until he will come out naturally. This time is too important to him, so we can’t disturb him. My housepets will quickly return. I’ll leave the Blood Phoenix to protect Long Chen and give him the message. Once he awakens, he’ll immediately rush over there. You have to alert all our people as fast as possible. Have them all hurry toward Drake Mountain. There will probably be a huge battle there,” said Meng Qi solemnly.

Originally, Song Mingyuan and Li Qi had been with them, but then Long Chen had told them to find a place with denser earth energy to continue expanding their seas. So Guo Ran needed to alert everyone on his own.

“What about you?”

“I’ll rush over there first. Hopefully, I can get there in time before the aboriginals suffer too many casualties,” said Meng Qi.

Suddenly, two huge figures landed from the sky. They were the Blood Phoenix and the Earth Dragon.

The Blood Phoenix was at the peak of the seventh rank. Its aura was unsteady, showing vague signs of being close to advancing ranks.

When Guo Ran saw the Earth Dragon, he let out a startled cry. “It has advanced to the eighth rank?!”

“Didn’t your Earth Dragon also reach the seventh rank? Your soul energy is limited, so you need to nourish it longer. Only once a Magical Beast’s intelligence rises will it be easier for it to advance ranks. However, this Earth Dragon has only just advanced, and its combat power isn’t completely steady yet. It’s only a bit stronger than the Blood Phoenix right now. I’ll take the Earth Dragon with me, and you alert everyone as fast as possible. I’ll do my best to stall.” Meng Qi put the Earth Dragon into her spiritual space and told the Blood Phoenix to guard Long Chen.

She also left a sheet of paper for Long Chen, explaining what had happened. Then she and Guo Ran split up.

…

Drake Mountain was an unusual mountain. It was shaped like a circle, like a drake coiled on the ground. It formed a huge basin, with the only opening between the drake’s head and tail.

Within the three-thousand-mile basin, shouts and roars rang out. Hundreds of aboriginals were fighting against Righteous experts. They were caught in an irresolvable situation.

The one leading them was a young expert. This person was the Immemorial Path’s youngest tribe leader: Xiao Fei.

When he had heard that his tribesmen had personally witnessed ‘Long Chen’ being covered in blood and chased down by the Righteous experts, he had immediately summoned all the elites of his tribe and charged over.

Following the tracks, he eventually reached Drake Mountain, and only then had he realized he had been duped. The blood-covered Long Chen was a fake, but his outer appearance and even his weapons looked just like the original.

This kind of trap was something the Righteous path had long since overused to the point that not even children would fall for it. But the aboriginals were isolated from the rest of the world. The tribes all trusted each other and worked together. They had never schemed or been schemed against. Ji Changkong had accurately seen through that fatal weakness of theirs, and he had managed to trick them with such a childish trick.

The people Xiao Fei were leading were the Xiao tribe’s elites. They had all reached Sea Expansion, but this place wasn’t their ancestral land. Although there had been a change in the Immemorial Path, and the curse had already lightened a great deal, they were still only able to release eighty percent of their power.

The good thing was that there weren’t too many enemies. They fought for a full day and night. Suddenly, another batch of aboriginals killed their way in.

“Uncle Shi Cang!” cried Xiao Fei. The person leading this group was a middle-aged man, the future leader of the Stone tribe, Shi Cang. “We’ve fallen into a trap! Uncle Shi Cang, run!”

But as he shouted, a mass of Righteous experts flowed down from the mountain, surrounding them.

Shi Cang had received a report from his subordinates that Long Chen was heavily injured and being chased down. He hadn’t even had time to inform his tribe leader before coming to assist.

Both of them had been duped. But by the time they wanted to retreat, they were surrounded by Righteous experts. It was impossible for them to escape.

Following Shi Cang, three more waves of aboriginals came and fell for the same trap. Ji Changkong had clearly figured out the locations of quite a few aboriginal tribes. Thus, this simple scheme of his was meeting with shocking effectiveness.

“These aboriginals are fools. They deserve to die if they couldn’t even see through such a simple scheme.” Ji Changkong sat in a hidden location, watching everything with disdain.

He was in a secret room within the mountain. Other than Ji Changkong, there was another expert with him. He was Ji Changkong’s new subordinate, the Seven Star Gate’s Zheng Mingkong.

“Brother Ji’s strategic planning is beyond perfect. I, Zheng Mingkong, could never come up with such a thing even if you gave me a lifetime.” Zheng Mingkong sighed regretfully, but he was clearly sucking up.

“Mingkong, you definitely won’t regret joining me. The Seven Star Gate is just a small, worthless sect. No matter how good the seed, if it’s planted in a garbage environment, it will easily die. Even if it manages to grow, it will be weak and frail. The most important thing is to grow in fertile land. As long as the soil is fertile, you’ll be able to plant deeper roots and have more room to grow. Now you’ve also seen this. Although this game of chess has just started, the result is already obvious. Whether or not Long Chen dies, it’s not important. My Remote Heaven Gang’s rise to the pinnacle of the Eastern Wasteland can no longer be stopped. In the Seven Star Gate, even if you endure to the end, you’ll only end up as a sect leader of a trash sect. But once my Remote Heaven Gang leads the Eastern Wasteland and forms the Remote Heaven Alliance, all you need to do is properly assist me, and vice alliance master’s position will be yours,” laughed Ji Changkong.

Zheng Mingkong was delighted. He hastily bowed. “Many thanks for your favor, alliance master!”

Ji Changkong nodded. He praised Zheng Mingkong for being smart. He wasn’t like that poor brat Feng Geyin who wanted to talk about some pride. If he had also joined him, they would have become his right and left hands. Then his plans would be even more perfect.

Feng Geyin refused to submit, and even said that the only one worthy for him to follow was Long Chen. That infuriated him, and he had decided that once this matter was over, he would properly settle things with him.

“Any news from Xue You’s side?” asked Ji Changkong.

“A disciple just reported that they’re fully prepared,” said Zheng Mingkong.

“Good. This chess move of mine is a bit big, and it’s a bit too much for me. So to get the greatest profit, I have no choice but to work with them. Remember, there’s no need to wait until the cooperation is over. As long as you see that it’s more or less done, directly take action. Kill as many as you can, and then immediately scatter!” said Ji Changkong.

“Yes, I’ve passed down those instructions.”

“Good. If you’re handling this, then I’m at ease.” Ji Changkong smiled as he continued watching the battle outside.

“It’s about time. Send orders to kill half of them. I hear the aboriginals have soul spirit jades back in their tribes. Once they die, their jade plates shatter. By killing a few of them, we should be able to bait more people in.” An icy and excited smile appeared on Ji Changkong’s face. He delighted in this feeling of control.

“Kill!”

A group of people charged at Shi Cang and the others. The aboriginals only had hundreds of people here. Thus, for them to face over a thousand Righteous experts, with quite a few being rank two Celestials, their hearts sank.

“Sorry. Soul Extermination Life Devouring Art!” A sigh suddenly rang out from the sky.