White Bones Realm[1].
White Bones Realm was a newly-promoted large astral world that its Star Ruler, Daoist White Bones, raised from just a small plane all the way to a "Realm" Level plane, becoming one of the main worlds.
Therefore, although Daoist White Bones was very young compared to other Star Rulers, he was actually quite strong, and his management of the astral world was also very strict.
White Bones Realm was somewhat similar to Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom. The whole world was divided into 196 cities surrounded by rings that radiated outwards starting from the center of each city, forming circle after circle.
Red Tail's current location was the 21st Ring of White Bones Realm's Zuofang City.
The 21st Ring was already close to the edge of Zuofang City and was a veritable suburb. Red Tail chose this place as White Mist's headquarters precisely because of its remoteness.
But Red Tail was starting to hate her own insight right now.
"Commander, let's evacuate first. Resources can be collected again if they're lost, but people will be gone forever if they die!" A young man stood before Red Tail, earnestly trying to persuade her.
This young man's name was Bai Xuesheng. Not only did his name sound a little feminine, but even his appearance was quite androgynous.
It was precisely his appearance that made him the laughingstock of his family since childhood. In a fit of rage, he embarked on the road of reincarnation and joined White Mist.
In White Bones Realm, no one who could take the surname "Bai[2]" was from a small family. The current Bai Xuesheng could be considered one of the higher ups in White Mist.
But Red Tail just maintained a calm and collected expression and didn't respond. She waited until even Bai Xuesheng's throat turned dry from speaking, then asked, "Did Old Mo and the others ask you to persuade me?"
Old Mo and the others were also White Mist's higher ups. However, Bai Xuesheng wasn't surprised by this question; he had a clear conscience. "Yes, but this is also my wish."
"I have my own plans. You all can take shelter in Zuofang City for the time being." Red Tail shook her head.
"Grand Commander!" Bai Xuesheng grew anxious and wanted to say something else, but Red Tail drove him out with a firm wave of her hand.
He walked to the door dispiritedly, where several people were waiting outside for the outcome. The leader was a middle-aged man with a face full of beard stubbles. He was precisely the Old Mo that Red Tail mentioned.
"How did it go… Ah." Someone asked from the side but immediately understood from Bai Xuesheng's expression that it probably didn't go well.
Old Mo also gave a small sigh, not knowing what to say. How could such a smart person like the Grand Commander be so muddle-headed when it came to this?
It was true that they raked in a lot of resources in recent months and even had a fortuitous encounter in a certain plane. Once they abandoned these resources, they probably wouldn't encounter such luck ever again.
But wasn't this still better than getting wiped out?
They'd already received Flying Clouds' ultimatum, so the enemy would probably arrive tonight at the latest. Plus, White Mist was in such a remote location; no one would care if they died here.
The group fell silent for a while. Finally, Old Mo instructed, "Tell the brothers under us to disperse back into the city. Let's try to persuade the Grand Commander one last time. If she still doesn't want to go, then—"
"Then we'll take her away, even if we have to kidnap her!" Bai Xuesheng said flatly.
From a young master who originally knew nothing but cultivation and even possessed a slight inferiority complex to his current self, he'd changed to such an extent in just a few short months.
This was all thanks to the Grand Commander, so he would never abandon her and flee by himself at this time.
"That's right!" Old Mo also nodded seriously. After having someone relay his orders to his subordinates, he pushed open the door.
"Grand Commander… Huh? Who are you?!" He couldn't help blurting out a question upon seeing a strange scene when he walked into Red Tail's room.
Red Tail stood to the side respectfully, while a person in a silver robe was sitting in her original spot. A silver mask covered his face, so they couldn't make out his expression.
"Grand Commander?" The silver-robed person chuckled when he heard how Old Mo addressed Red Tail. "I didn't expect you to still have the original organizational system on your mind, even after all these years."
Back when they were in Star Realm, White Mist had two commanders. This strange title wasn't commonly used.
"It's just a silly personal preference," Red Tail blinked a few times and replied with a light chuckle.
Only then did Old Mo and the others discover that Red Tail, who was still gloomy and worried only seconds ago, actually looked very relaxed right now. She was even in the mood for jokes.
Then she looked at Old Mo and Bai Xuesheng and introduced, "No need to be nervous. This one is from headquarters. He is…"
"Silver Mask," the silver-robed man supplied casually.
"Mm, Lord Silver Mask," Red Tail played along. Although she didn't know Gu Nan's intention, since he even concealed his appearance, she naturally couldn't reveal his name.
Old Mo and Bai Xuesheng exchanged glances, then stared at that silver-robed man with strange expressions.
This was the first time they heard about their organization having something like a headquarters. No one would've believed it if this information didn't come from the Grand Commander's mouth.
"Is there a new mist mirror here?" The silver-robed man was naturally Gu Nan's saint clone. He sat quietly in his seat and asked casually.
Mist mirrors were products of White Mist's translation method. Cleaning up the mist on the mist mirrors was equivalent to translating the different worlds' wills.
As long as someone completed the mission issued by a world's will, Gu Nan would be able to obtain a part of the world's origin to build his personal dungeon.
Simply put, the mist mirror was the reason he had to rebuild White Mist.
"Yes. All the mist mirrors are gathered here." Red Tail hurriedly nodded. Not only were the mist mirrors collected through reincarnation stored here, even the ones made in Crescent Moon World were gathered here.
Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom had yet to reach the level of a Heaven or Realm Level plane, so one couldn't directly reincarnate into a smaller plane from within his Divine Kingdom. All the previous mist mirrors he held were brought over by Lan Si from Crescent Moon World.
It was much easier now. As long as Red Tail periodically sent someone to reincarnate into Crescent Moon World, they could bring back the mist mirrors.
"Go get it," Gu Nan said matter-of-factly.
As soon as his voice fell, a voice full of anger traveled over from the opposite side, "A powerful enemy is right around the corner, yet My Lord isn't thinking about how to preserve the organization and only cares about mist mirrors?!"
It was Bai Xuesheng who spoke. He stared at Gu Nan without flinching, as if Gu Nan must give an explanation for this.
He'd seen too many people in his family ignore the overall situation in favor of their own selfish interests. Such people were termites that ate away at the organization from the inside!
What he didn't expect was that the silver-robed man didn't even look at him. Instead, his Grand Commander glared at him furiously. "Shut up!"
"I—"
Before he could speak again, Red Tail had already whipped out two complete mist mirrors and handed them to Gu Nan.
"There's another plane in the harvesting stage. If it goes well, the harvested destiny will be enough to make another one." Red Tail added happily, "Fortunately, we didn't abandon this place, or else there would be nowhere to store the collected destiny, and it would've all been wasted."
Bai Xuesheng, Old Mo, and the others stared at each other. They realized this was the reason the Grand Commander insisted on staying behind instead of leaving.
"Grand Commander, I'm afraid the people from Flying Clouds will arrive soon. Should we make some preparations?" Old Mo asked as he pulled the furious Bai Xuesheng behind him.
He could tell that it was impossible for Red Tail to evacuate now, so they could only prepare for battle… He just hoped that this Lord who came from their headquarters could be a little reliable. Of course, what he really hoped for was for Flying Clouds to have no Void Cutter existences.
After thinking for a while, Old Mo added, "As long as there are no Void Cutters in Flying Clouds, we might still be able to fight—"
"There are two," that silver-robed man suddenly cut in before the Grand Commander could speak, and his tone was extremely certain.
Old Mo's expression couldn't help darkening slightly.
Who could know the exact number of Void Cutter enemies?
They were only able to venture a guess based on information collected from various sources and analyzed that Flying Clouds was too confident in this operation, so perhaps the enemy still had powerful cultivators as trump cards… But how in the world could this Lord who came from their "headquarters" be so certain?
Bai Xuesheng, who was on the side, was already so angry that he smiled. "May I ask how My Lord knows this?"
So they saw the silver-robed man pick up a mist mirror, instantly clear away all the mist on it with a gentle swipe of his hand, and offhandedly answer, "I just killed them."
T/N:
[1] Skeletal Realm has been changed to White Bones Realm to better match their surname below
[2] Bai: "Bai" is white, hence the realm name White Bones Realm