Still shrouded in his black robes, Wu Dong took to the skies and disappeared beneath the moonlight.

  He was a divine-conversion pinnacle elite who had cultivated in aura restraining techniques, hiding up in the skies while he observed the small town beneath at the wildlands: Yuzhen!

  The ten-thousand personnel garrison was now empty—even the military’s elite who stood guard there had left.

  “What’s going on?

  “Why would the troops and elites of Yuzhen leave?”


  Wu Dong landed on the ground but did not dare to enter the city. After all, he was afraid that there would be still be forces left in the town without confirming the situation, which was why he stood at the edge of the town and used his spirit to scan it several times, but found that there were actually several weak Ferals roaming inside.

  “They’re really gone?”


  He was rather surprised.

  With the garrison’s forces and elites all evacuated…… were they giving up on Mount Dadong? Or could something have happened?

  With the sleeper agents of the Sky Demon Cult in Lingzhou City nearly wiped out, and even the average fellowship member who moved into the cities thanks to the government’s own citizen relocation plans failing to obtain important information in time, the Sky Demon Cult was in the dark about the situation surrounding Lingzhou City.

  Out of the blue, Wu Dong’s figure shifted and he disappeared.

  Then, three seconds after his disappearance……

  Oom!

  In the darkness, the black-robed blonde woman arrived.

  Pausing where Wu Dong was standing, she coolly said, “Come out. How dare you show off with mere paltry tricks?”


  “Haha!”


  Wu Dong laughed once and stepped out of the darkness, staring tightly at the blonde woman’s face as he smiled. “It did slip my mind that you’re the Queen of the Night, Annette…… tell me, why would the saint ask you to come to Lingzhou City?”


  “To help you, of course—trash!”


  The blonde woman dubbed the Queen of the Night laughed coolly. “You were personally leading the Sentinel of the Right, the Senior Elder, Fourth Elder, Flowing Cloud Holy Child as well as a host of Grands and Heavenly Generals, all to kill one, insignificant Jiang He. And yet, you failed, that was why the saint was furious, and had me come help you open the heritage site, and kill Jiang He as well!”


  Wu Dong scowled.

  He was definitely superior to Annette in ability. Even so, with her being the saint’s own trusted aide and carrying a personal order from the saint, would Wu Dong dare to retort?

  Therefore, he promptly put palm to fist and bowed, saying, “I hope His Holiness can forgive me. I would certainly gain accomplishments to make amends, and contribute to our faith’s progress.

  “Alright, save that for the saint.”


  Annette appeared rather impatient, and giggled icily before saying, “When matters regarding the Heritage Site have been settled, I will personally meet Jiang He and see what waves a frivolous rank-seven martial artist could stir!”


  Wu Dong frowned at that and somberly said, “You mustn’t be careless. Jiang He is protected by the Blade King, and I suspect that the Sentinel of the Right, the Senior Elder, the Flowing Cloud Holy Child, and the rest were killed by him.”


  “Moreover…… a rank-seven breaking the laws of nature to such extent? There may be deception involved!”


  Annette smirked nonchalantly. “Could Three Blades Lin stop me if I want to ambush and kill a rank-seven martial artist?”


  Such was the importance of intelligence work.

  The Sky Demon Cult’s information about Jiang He had remained at when he was rank-seven. With their sleeper agents all rooted out from Lingzhou City and their later agents being people of no consequence, there was no way they could reach the leadership.

  As for the double agent insert into the Martial Arts Department (MAD) chain of command……

  Everything Jiang He was doing recently had been directly reported to the likes of Three Blades Lin and Wang Hou. How was the double agent supposed to catch on?

  And from normal perspectives, it made sense.

  After all, how long has it been since Jiang He was rank-seven until now?

  Twenty days.

  When it comes to normal cultivation—even the most demonic ones—how much could one improve in twenty days?

  Nonetheless, the pair stopped thinking about that problem. They entered Yuzhen, searched around it and frowned, with Wu Dong musing, “There’s no reason why the Yuzhen garrison would withdraw for no reason. Does the Holy Faith have any information about this?”


  Annette shook her head, indicating that she was unsure.

  Still, she chuckled. “Well, them being gone is fine, or when the phenomenon goes full bang upon the opening of the heritage site, we would be noticed given how close Yuzhen was to Mount Dadong.

  Even as she continued, her satellite phone rang.

  After Annette answered it, had a few words and hung up, she said, “The Sentinel of the Left, the Second Elder, Fourth Elder, Fifth Elder as well as several Grands and Holy Children would arrive soon. Let’s get atop Mount Dadong to meet the Graywolf King.”


  The Sky Demon Cult had been suffering a string of devastating losses in Lingzhou City. That was why the leader of the Sky Demon Cult left seclusion seven days before, handpicking a group of core members to take the place of the vacancies.

  That was why there was another Fourth Elder now.

  Meanwhile, the two Cardinals flew up to Mount Dadong, and soon found the Graywolf King on a mountain slope.

  It was lying sprawl over on the slope in cultivation, and was absorbing veins of moonlight into its own body.

  That was not actually daemon cultivation, but a simple application of the world’s energies…… the Graywolf King had mentioned that it would open the heritage site on a full moon night because it could rely on the moon’s energies, greatly buffing its combat power.

  And just beneath the slope it was lying down was a ravine.

  Such ravines were very common in the loess highlands of Xibei. A horde of Ferals was lying down silently on the ground as well, and the world’s Yuan Qi here was much more concentrated than other places.

  And the heritage site was in the ravine.

  “Hmmm?”


  The Graywolf King’s gaze twitched at the sight of the Cardinals flying towards itself. It appeared rather wary as it growled, “Why are there two of you?”


  It was actually afraid, fearful that the Sky Demon Cult would take the heritage site for themselves after it was opened.

  As such, it promptly said, “This king insists before we move that both of you must contribute to the opening of the heritage site since there are two of you now…… or this king would work with the Hua Nation instead!”


  Annette stepped up with a coquettish giggle. “The daemons and the Hua Nation’s government are like water to oil, Graywolf King. Work with them? Aren’t you afraid they would turn against you and kill you?”


  The Graywolf King said nothing.

  As such, Annette had to say, “Fine, we’ll work together to open the heritage site. However, we will wait until the other disciples of our faith arrive until we do. As for how many people, daemons, the stability of the heritage site, and whether you and us could be accommodated, we shall save that discussion for later.”


  ***

  Jiang He’s mansion.

  In the bedroom, after having fallen into a groggy state much earlier, Jiang He suddenly felt an urge to sleep.

  He went to the bathroom and then returned to his bed, only to find that all drowsiness was gone as he tossed and turned, and unable to sleep no matter what he did……

  Glancing at the time, he found that it was not even one in the morning.

  That naturally left him a little unhinged.

  Unable to get some shut-eye in the middle of the night…… how could this not be boring?

  “Should I go to Sora’s room for some ‘exercise’, and then try to fall asleep?”


  Standing beside his window, Jiang He lit himself a cigarette when he suddenly got an idea, and turned his eyes into the distance……

  After all, he would only feel recharged after ‘exercising’.

  On the other hand, releasing Twenty-Three Swords to tire his mind a little was the best decision to induce sleep.

  “Still…… I can’t release it into the skies, could I?”


  “Whatever. I can’t sleep anyway, so I should go up Mount Dadong and remove the plague there, and release Twenty-Three Swords as well to tire myself out.”


  Putting on his clothes, Jiang He then quickly left the house.

  It was not even one o’clock and Mount Dadong was just around 150 kilometers away and not that far. If he moved quickly enough and made his limbs move agilely, he might be able to pay his sleep debt when he gets home!