Looking at Jia Kun, Shen Feng couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. As expected of the lord of the Red Tower.
Jia Kun frowned at Song Yunshu, who was bound in spirit light. His fierce gaze settled on Shen Feng as he sent a voice transmission. “Why did you capture her? You’re tipping him off!”
He looked from Tian Hai in his grasp to the woman behind Shen Feng. Her eyes were wide with fear and panic, and Jia Kun could only look on helplessly.
Shen Feng replied, “Gu Yong will soon realize something’s wrong with Tian Hai. A substitute clone won’t fool him. Song Yunshu just happened to fall into our hands. She’s his granddaughter, so keeping her gives us another bargaining chip!”
The other man, the lord of the Blue Tower, remained silent. However, a sharp gleam flickered in his eyes. Shen Feng guessed his thoughts and sneered. “Don’t think you can run off without doing your part. Do you really think someone like Li Guanqi wouldn’t have anticipated that? You’d be dead before you even knew what killed you.”
The man raised his head and gave Shen Feng a long, silent look, but Shen Feng could tell he had abandoned the idea.
Song Yunshu listened in shock. She had heard every word of their conversation. They’re going to betray the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion?! The lord of the Yellow Tower is going to die, and they’re planning to do something else too!
Song Yunshu’s mind was a complete mess. She didn’t understand what had happened, though she could tell they were inside the spatial artifact on the table. The silver lining was that Shen Feng didn’t intend to kill her yet. He wanted to use her to threaten Gu Yong.
Boom!
As her thoughts raced, terrifying Mahayana Realm pressure swept through the surrounding space. An oppressive weight settled over the entire Heavenly Intelligence Realm, and Gu Yong’s voice rang through the spatial artifact’s realm, cold with fury.
“You are all courting death!
Boom!
The four towers crumbled under the pressure. Even the space inside Shen Feng’s spatial magical treasure shook violently.
Jia Kun’s expression changed. He asked solemnly, “How do we get out?”
Shen Feng took a deep breath and glanced at the dying Tian Hai. He raised his hand, and his sword flashed with a cold gleam.
Tian Hai’s head rolled to the floor. The other tower lords looked shaken; both could sense Shen Feng’s resolve. He hadn’t even used the substitute clone to conceal Tian Hai’s death.
Gu Yong’s face was incredibly grim. He still couldn’t sense Song Yunshu’s aura, and he could tell that Tian Hai had just died.
Boom!
Countless fine cracks spread across the surrounding space. The sky crumbled away like falling black raindrops.
Shen Feng took a deep breath and turned to the frightened Song Yunshu. “I hope I won’t have to use you.”
As he spoke, he formed hand seals, and spatial power surged wildly. The spatial treasure on the table began to look illusory, unaffected by Gu Yong’s pressure or the Heavenly Intelligence Realm’s seal.
Jia Kun’s eyes glimmered wistfully as he sensed the changes in the surrounding space. “A mother-child artifact?”
Shen Feng didn’t answer. He pushed his divine consciousness to its limit, trying to transport the artifact away faster.
Gu Yong arrived with his sword in hand and slashed four times toward the towers.
Boom, boom!
Terrifying pressure swept across the world as four sword lights, each a hundred zhang long, descended with unstoppable force.
Rumble!
The rumbling continued unabated as the sword lights obliterated all four towers in an instant.
Whoosh!
The spatial artifact vanished. Those inside finally exhaled the breaths they had been holding.
Many disciples of the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion had still been in the towers. The sword lights killed them all, and rivers of blood flowed beneath the ruins. Even the billowing dust couldn’t conceal the four ravines carved into the earth.
Gu Yong stood in midair in plain linen robes, his face grim, blood dripping from his sword.
With a flick of his wrist, several soul lamps appeared. Tian Hai’s had shattered, while the lamps belonging to Shen Feng and the other two still burned brightly.
Gu Yong’s eyes glinted coldly, and he crushed the three burning lamps. A strange spatial ripple dissipated, but he sensed no change in their auras. His expression darkened further.
Somehow, all three had freed themselves from the soul lamps’ control.
A thought suddenly struck Gu Yong. He muttered, “The Profound Origin Sacred Soul Pill... Didn’t the Qilin ruins disappear? Did Xuan Lin give Li Guanqi another Qilin jade seal?”
In an instant, he understood how Li Guanqi had broken the stalemate. Even with the safeguard he had placed on Shen Feng, he hadn’t noticed anything.
The mark Li Guanqi had left on Shen Feng had been there for Gu Yong to see. Li Guanqi must have concealed other measures on him.
Gu Yong stood in midair with a stony face, glaring into the void. The screams of the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s disciples echoed all around him.
A faint smell of blood hung amid the smoke and dust. Those four slashes he had unleashed in anger had been meant to kill the tower lords.
He could no longer sense Song Yunshu’s aura. Shen Feng seemed to have taken her with him. Traces of spatial power still lingered in the air.
Gu Yong knew that only the resonance of a mother-child artifact could have left those traces. Otherwise, Shen Feng and the others never could have bypassed the spatial barrier he had erected.
Gu Yong narrowed his eyes and muttered coldly, “Li Guanqi, what does it matter if you take them all away? Hmph!”
With a cold snort, he ordered, “All members of the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion, tend to the dead and wounded disciples at once. Issue a notice. Shen Feng and the others have betrayed the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion. They are hereby stripped of their positions as tower lords. From now on, nothing they do has any connection to the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion!”
Buzz!
Every cultivator holding a heavenly intelligence jade pendant received the news at once, and an uproar followed.
Li Guanqi set down his jade pendant with a slight smile. “Very good. You’ve fallen into my trap again.”
Yu Hua said softly, “We’re ready to spread the news of the tower lords’ betrayal. Shall we start?”
Li Guanqi nodded.
Soon, every imaginable explanation for the tower lords’ betrayal was circulating. Whatever people said, it all came down to conspiracy theories. The Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion was already under fire from cultivators, and with the Guanyun Pavilion deliberately fanning the rumors, those theories grew louder and louder.