After Changing to the Ruthless Way, the Brothers Cried and Begged for Forgiveness-Chapter 461: We stand behind you!
Nangong Yin’s smile brightened: “This junior was just about to return home. Where might respected senior be bound?”
The ancestor offered a place name. She located it on the star map and laughed: “What a coincidence. I pass near there on my way back.”
“Splendid. Then we must trouble you for the lift.” The ancestor beamed. A free ride would save no end of trouble. Fortune in missteps.
“Of course,” Nangong Yin said, then turned to Yu Zhao with her smile drawn back a fraction: “How should I address this fellow Daoist?”
“This humble one is Yu Zhao.”
“Daoist Friend Yu,” Nangong Yin said, producing a painted notice and handing it over, “the reason you are being hunted is that the Earth Clan has posted a bounty, claiming you killed their young patriarch and demanding your life to placate his restless soul.”
Yu Zhao glanced down. The face was indeed the one she had worn lately, and below it a neat row of small characters detailing her entanglements with the Earth Clan and the rewards on offer. No wonder people had gone mad to catch her. Even Yu Zhao found the prizes eye-catching. The Earth Clan must truly loathe her to stake such heavy sums. What they did not know was that Tu Xiao had been killed by another hand.
“Let me see that,” the ancestor said, curiosity getting the better of him. One look and his eyes bulged. “So the Earth Clan is this rich. Well now. We’ve struck it rich!”
He had known there were good things in Tu Xiao’s storage bracelet; no one laid a barrier over trash. Yu Zhao coughed softly. The ancestor realized he had let his delight run his mouth, tossed the bounty sheet aside with an awkward cough of his own, and grumbled: “Blind, the lot of them. Their young patriarch’s death had nothing to do with us. Filth like that and they smear it on our heads. Tch.”
Nangong Yin neither agreed nor disagreed. Yu Zhao was still thinking of a way to change the subject when Nangong Yin asked her: “Daoist Friend Yu, do you know the Grand Alliance?”
Yu Zhao’s breath hitched. Of course she knew it. The Grand Alliance was the most important path from the Middle Thousand World to the Great Thousand World—the Heavenly Ladder that Feng Jiu Si and even Jin Yuan dreamed of climbing.
Yu Zhao’s brief silence gave Nangong Yin her answer. She smiled slightly and withdrew a specially made token from her sleeve: “You are formidable. I hope to see you in the Alliance trials.”
The Grand Alliance had Nangong Clan people among its number; for Nangong Yin to secure a trials token was effortless. Many had tried to beg one from her; she had given none. This was the first and only token she personally offered.
Yu Zhao, momentarily taken aback, accepted it solemnly: “Thank you.”
“Taking the token means we may well face each other on the same stage. Do not grow complacent because of it,” Nangong Yin said, the corners of her mouth lifting while her eyes burned hotter than her red hair. She had obtained what she wanted in the Land of Divine Remains, yet she felt no joy. Nangong Jie and Bei Ming Yan had been scared out of their wits and, the moment they scrambled off that sinking shard of land, fled the site without looking back, as if staying a night meant an unmarked grave. Winning so easily had robbed the hunt of all savor. Yu Zhao, however, was different. Her eyes were brighter than the keenest stars, more mysterious than the Land’s exotic beasts. Only Yu Zhao could be a match for her. Only by killing Yu Zhao in a fair bout could she taste the fullest pleasure. She could hardly wait.
Yu Zhao did not perceive the killing intent, but she clearly saw the spiritual power racing through Nangong Yin’s meridians. Nangong Yin was excited. Yu Zhao smiled back: “I will give it everything I have.”
“Good,” Nangong Yin said, her aura boiling and flickering like flame. “I’ll be waiting.”
Three days later, the starship set down on a somewhat barren planet. After a frank wave of farewell to Yu Zhao and the ancestor, Nangong Yin slipped away in her ship. Yu Zhao had only time to cast a glance over the surroundings before the ancestor tugged her hard by the sleeve.
“Little Yu Zhao, are you really going to that selection? That is no place for ordinary people,” he said. Having lived in the Middle Thousand World for over a thousand years, he had long heard of the Grand Alliance trials. When he first arrived, he too had fantasized about shining at the trials and ascending to the Great Thousand World, but reality had crushed the dream swiftly. The age cap alone barred an old ancestor at the door. Worse was the trials’ cruelty. Nearly a thousand candidates entered; only a handful won slots; seven in ten never left the arena alive, and most survivors were maimed. He still remembered the prodigy who had just ascended from the cultivation world, a talent of the age, who joined the trials and died in the first round without even a whole corpse left behind.
“Little Yu Zhao, listen. There’s nothing so great about the Great Thousand World. Stay with the ancestor. I’ll make sure you have the best resources. If it comes to it, this ancestor will drag you along to call in favors from door to door. You won’t be shortchanged,” he said.
Yu Zhao could not help a wry smile: “Ancestor, I have not agreed to Nangong Yin.”
“Don’t bluff me. You accepted the token. You mean to go. If you really don’t want to, give it here and I’ll keep it for you,” he said, palm out.
“Ancestor, I know my limits. My chances at the selection are slim, but this is our fallback. I cannot hand the token over.”
“Fallback?” The ancestor blinked, then caught her meaning. They still lacked the Starry Sky Stones to build a teleportation passage and had yet to find the cultivation world’s coordinates. There was one person who certainly knew those coordinates. Find her, and there would be a chance to reconnect with their home. That person was far away in the Great Thousand World, in the White Nether Realm—Dao Lord Tai Wei. Their plan to return to the cultivation world had stalled. If the worst came, Yu Zhao would have to use the trials to win a chance to meet Dao Lord Tai Wei.
So this token was not merely about the Grand Alliance; it decided whether they could ever go home.
The ancestor clenched his jaw and said, fierce and low: “Little Yu Zhao, if we can’t find another way, we old fellows will pool everything we have and push with all our strength to see you through the trials. You have us at your back; do not be afraid.”
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Chapter 461: We stand behind you!
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