Chapter 1045: Outmaneuvered! A Diversion!

Meng Jiangchu slowly emerged from the void. The captive held his hands over his face, staring at him in terror through the gaps between his fingers.

He sneered and took out a jade slip. “It’s Qu Ming, the tower lord of the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s Blue Tower. What should we do with him?”

Li Guanqi’s voice came through the jade slip.

—Kill him.

Boom!

Flames surged, reducing Qu Ming, a Combined Body Realm cultivator, to a handful of ash that scattered into the air.

Far from the Daxia Sword Sect, Li Guanqi gripped the sect’s jade slip and sneered. “Old man, just try touching my people again. I dare you. I’ll sever every hand that reaches into my territory!”

The other end fell silent. After a long pause, Gu Yong’s chilling voice came through.

—Oh? You think I didn’t leave a backup plan in the Meng family?

Li Guanqi’s heart skipped a beat. He tried reaching out to Meng Jiangchu again, but there was no response.

Meanwhile, Meng Jiangchu’s expression shifted as he realized his connection to the Meng family domain was fading by the second.

Li Guanqi’s face darkened as he muttered, “A diversion to lure the tiger from the mountain… All this just to pin down one Mahayana Realm cultivator?”

Outside the Meng family’s domain, a gray banner a hundred zhang tall radiated terrifying spatial power.

Gu Yong stood with his hands behind his back and murmured, “The Banner of Exile. Meng Jiangchu, if you don’t come back, I’m afraid you’ll never see your family again. Keeping you trapped for seven days will be enough.”

The old man slowly disappeared into the void, his back hunched. A faint murmur lingered behind him. “Guo Feng, Jiang Qizhi, Han Yuan… where are you hiding?”

Li Guanqi’s expression changed. He hurriedly took out a jade slip and spoke into it. “Find out what’s happening to the Meng family in the Divine Treasure Territory.”

The report came quickly, giving him a full account of what had happened. Much later, his jade slip lit up with a message from Meng Jiangchu.

—Don’t worry about things on my end. But from here on, you’ll have to rely on yourself.

Li Guanqi set down the jade slip and sighed in relief. Knowing the Meng family was safe was enough. But his heart sank as he considered how far Gu Yong was willing to go. He had sent the Blue Tower’s tower lord to his death without hesitation, all to deprive Li Guanqi of one of his greatest trump cards, Meng Jiangchu.

For the first time, Gu Yong’s decisiveness and ruthlessness made him seem like a stranger to Li Guanqi. Before they became enemies, Li Guanqi had never had reason to fear the old man’s methods. Now that they stood on opposite sides, Gu Yong’s tactics would only grow more terrifying.

Yu Hua’s report came soon after, her voice grave.

—Pavilion Master, there’s been little disruption in the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s Blue Tower. It’s as if…

“As if what?” Li Guanqi asked, frowning.

Yu Hua’s voice trembled.

—As if someone took over the moment the tower lord died.

Li Guanqi tightened his grip on the pendant and said coldly, “The Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion is even stronger than we thought! They lost a Combined Body Realm cultivator, and they already have a replacement.”

Yu Hua was just as shocked. She had expected Li Guanqi’s trap to deal the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion a heavy blow, or at least throw the Blue Tower into chaos. Instead, the pavilion had shrugged off the loss, while Gu Yong had outmaneuvered Li Guanqi by luring Meng Jiangchu away.

Gu Yong couldn’t take on any of the Mahayana Realm cultivators on Li Guanqi’s side by himself. Instead, he had sacrificed a Combined Body Realm cultivator in a calculated feint and exiled the Meng family domain to keep Meng Jiangchu occupied for a week. And seven days would be enough to end the struggle between the pavilions.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and reached out to Wu Bing. “Senior Brother, is now a good time to talk?”

Wu Bing was frowning at Shen Lan and Tu Kui when Li Guanqi’s message arrived. He felt a jolt of alarm. Certain that Li Guanqi had something important to tell him, he kept the jade slip out of sight.

“Enough!” Wu Bing barked. Overwhelming pressure burst from him, silencing the group’s bickering.

“Stop sending disciples out on patrol. Our enemy is far stronger than we imagined. Patrols won’t help, and neither will your arguing!”

The others calmed down. Tu Kui had been at the mid Divine Transformation Realm for a long time, so a breakthrough wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Shen Lan could only push her suspicions aside as everyone dispersed to see to their duties.

Wu Bing watched the sect’s protective array rise, then went into the Purple Spirit Paradise Realm alone. Standing atop a mountain, he took out his jade slip and said, “I’m alone now. Go ahead.”

Li Guanqi’s voice came through the jade slip. As Wu Bing listened, his eyes widened, and his grip tightened until his knuckles turned white. “All right… I understand.”

Li Guanqi set down the jade slip and sensed that he was nearing Flying Cloud City. He now felt he couldn’t pin too much hope on Shen Feng. Still, he had to wait for an opportunity to bring Shen Feng over to his side.

His eyes narrowed, and a Qilin jade seal appeared in his hand. He took a deep breath and pulled out an ancient jade slip to briefly explain his intentions. Then he placed the seal on the Guanyun jade pendant. A faint spatial ripple enveloped the seal, and it vanished.

“I hope there’s still time,” Li Guanqi murmured.

When Li Guanqi arrived outside Flying Cloud City, he paused in surprise. The city had more than doubled in size since his last visit. It bustled with nearly a million people, including more than a hundred thousand cultivators. Its sheer scale astonished him.

What he didn’t yet realize was that Flying Cloud City owed much of its growth to the Guanyun Pavilion’s operations. The Yunding Auction House had become one of the leading auction houses in the Six Territories, with branches everywhere. A city could do without a Hundred Treasures Pavilion, but it couldn’t do without a Yunding Auction House.

Li Guanqi smiled at the enormous eleven-story tower, even more magnificent than the city lord’s mansion. This was his first time seeing one of the Guanyun Pavilion’s businesses on such a grand scale. He rarely managed the pavilion’s affairs himself, yet Qian Qiusui had grown capable of handling them on her own.

He spread his divine consciousness without drawing anyone’s attention and soon located Qian Qiusui. She sat in a huge study, overwhelmed with work. Hundreds of jade slips floated before her, and her desk was covered in scribbled notes.

Li Guanqi stood at the doorway and asked softly, “Is something wrong?”

Qian Qiusui spun around to face him. Seeing Li Guanqi instantly eased her anxiety, though she couldn’t quite say why. Somehow, his presence alone reassured her.

Qian Qiusui said gravely, “We’ve received a flood of orders, but something about them feels wrong.”

Li Guanqi frowned as he took the jade slip. “Four hundred million high-grade spirit stones… And most of that is for pills and spirit herbs alone…”

Qian Qiusui massaged her temples and continued coldly, “That’s the total from our branches across all Six Territories, not a single order. Each order lists over a hundred different items, with certain pills and spirit herbs buried among them. Once I compiled everything, I realized those particular items alone accounted for that enormous sum!”

Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. He could already sense a plot, almost identical to the tactics used against Ye Tianying years ago. It was an open scheme. Once the Guanyun Pavilion accepted the orders, there was no way out.

“Have our people already signed the contracts?”

“Yes,” Qian Qiusui said helplessly. “If we can’t deliver on time, we’ll owe ten times the value of the orders in compensation. Everything the Guanyun Pavilion owns would just about cover it!”

Li Guanqi gave a cold laugh. “They clearly planned this well in advance.”