Shortly after Ye Han escaped, several figures from the Helian and Patrick families silently flew out, rushing in different directions.
"What?"
An incredulous voice emanated from a room, the force of which shattered the surrounding tables and chairs and cracked the ground.
"Did you not state your intentions?"
Helian Yun, enraged, addressed the middle-aged swordsman lying on the ground, now without both arms.
The swordsman, looking up weakly at the furious clan elder Helian Yun, said, "I did, but he simply didn't believe it. Moreover, he's too elusive. We can't track him."
"Are you saying he ambushed you in secret?" "Yes. Along with a fourth-order late-stage magician and three other fourth-order members of the Patrick family."
Helian Yun stood silently in the room, his brow furrowed deeply.
"Father, shall we continue to search for him?" Helian Jing Lei inquired.
"Sending more people now when Wuji no longer trusts us would be akin to sending them to their deaths. You know the importance of the Blood Guard," Helian Yun spoke somberly.
"Then we just leave him be? Give up?"
"You know the value of not giving up on him," Helian Yun scoffed.
"What shall we do next?"
"Now that the major powers and families across the land have likely heard the news, they are sending strong individuals here. Soon, this news will spread to every corner of the continent. By then, even more will come to compete. His methods are exciting to even imagine," Helian Yun analyzed gravely.
"If so, won't protecting him become even more difficult? We should intensify our search efforts quickly to make him trust us and hide him away before the others arrive," Helian Jing Lei urged impatiently.
"No, we must not act now. After this incident, we are already being watched by other forces. Even if we find him and protect him now, we will face the whole continent," Helian Yun looked at his son Helian Jing Lei with disappointment.
"So, what then?"
"Wait."
"Wait? Why?" Helian Jing Lei asked, puzzled.
"If he can employ such heaven-defying methods, wouldn't he have other formidable tricks? Let them fight over him. Take good care of his mother. I believe he won't be easily captured or killed. As long as his mother is with the Helian family, he will come back," Helian Yun advised, upon which Helian Jing Lei immediately saw the wisdom.
"Father knows best," he conceded, looking at the middle-aged swordsman on the ground, "What about him?"
"The Helian family has no use for useless eaters," Helian Yun declared before walking out of the room.
"Dispatch scouts to constantly report the situation in the Transverse Mountain Range. Have the Blood Guard's Red Flame unit on standby," Helian Yun's voice came from outside, startling Helian Jing Lei. "The Red Flame unit is a group of thirty blood guards made up of fifth-order swordsmen and magicians, a strong force within our family.
Each family secretly cultivates its own strength, and the Blood Guard is the hidden power cultivated by the Helian family. The fifteen fourth-order swordsman Blood Guard who chased Ye Han before were just peripheral members of the Blood Guard.
Looking at the middle-aged swordsman on the ground, a sharp light burst from Helian Jing Lei's eyes. His hands covered in fighting spirit, he walked over and ruthlessly chopped at the head.
With a "crack," the swordsman was silenced without a chance to cry for help, his brains and blood spattering the ground, instantly killed.
"Make up for everything we owed his mother. Whether Wuji returns is up to you."
At the same time, major powers across the continent were also receiving the news.
At the headquarters of the Church of Light, known as the Holy Mountain, a serene and tranquil aura emanated from the lofty buildings. In front of the palace, there were two giant angel statues, each ten meters tall and two meters wide, with feathered wings.
"Is what you're saying true?" A calm voice from inside the temple brought peace to the listener's heart.
Inside the temple, the Light Pope, the Cardinal, and the Holy Knights were present, along with several venerable faces, their presence almost completely merged with the space around them.
A knight in full battle armor knelt in the center of the temple, speaking solemnly, "By the Light God, I saw it with my own eyes, and there were others of strength nearby, spying."
"Not only did he escape under ninth-order surveillance, but he also resisted under the pressure of a sixth-order mid-stage without a trace of fighting spirit fluctuation."
"You may leave now." "Yes."
"What do you think?" The Pope asked the others in the temple.
Three hours later, the temple doors slowly opened. Led by a
ninth-order Holy Knight, eleven fifth-order swordsmen and eight fifth-order light magicians hurriedly left the Holy Mountain, heading towards the Frostwind Empire.
In the heart of the Black Mist Forest in the south of the continent, a black altar shrouded in fog also received the news. This was the Dark Altar of the Dark Church, the strongest force on the continent next to the Church of Light and the gathering place for dark magic and necromancy.
"We must seize it. It cannot fall into the hands of others, especially the Church of Light," said one of the three great leaders of the Dark Church, a Saint-tier necromancer, his face so withered that hardly any flesh could be seen.
Surrounded by others also cloaked in black robes, one holding a crystal ball with red glinting eyes, another holding a black magic wand, they represented the strongest of the dark forces: Dark Swordsmen, Dark Magicians, and Necromancers.
"Delay no longer, dispatch our people immediately. The Church of Light must also have received the news. Notify our people, but don't send too many; it's not yet time to fight the Church of Light. Send eight from each branch, led by a ninth-order, the rest can be fifth-order."
Two hours later, a team also hurried out of the Black Mist Forest, heading towards the Frostwind Empire.
Other forces also dispatched their people towards the Frostwind Empire, aiming for the Transverse Mountain Range.
Ye Han's figure reappeared in the center of the array he had set up. Seeing the sun at its zenith, he knew he could not go out today. His body, more vulnerable than usual without blood, would only decay faster under the sun. So Ye Han quickly dug a pit deep enough for one person in the center of the array, jumped in, and buried himself, leaving only his head exposed. He used the moisture of the earth to counteract the yang energy of the sun.
Time passed slowly, and Ye Han quietly waited for the night to fall, unaware that a large number of fifth-order and ninth-order powers were converging on him.
As the sun set, the silver moonlight covered the land. Ye Han climbed out of the pit and started the spirit gathering array again. The yin energy of the world converged in the array at an unimaginable speed. Ye Han sat cross-legged, beginning a new day of cultivation. After reaching the first layer of the Fan Shi Jue, his body's absorption of energy intensified, dispersing the absorbed energy throughout his body, allowing his bones and meridians to constantly absorb and refine it, strengthening his body's durability.
Feeling his body swell with power, Ye Han stopped dispersing the energy but did not cease cultivating. Instead, he gathered all the absorbed energy at his heart, refining it to be purer, more efficient to wield. Time passed in the midst of Ye Han's cultivation. When the sun rose from the horizon, Ye Han stopped cultivating. Most of the yang energy that had invaded his body the previous day had been eliminated, but not all, remnants still lingered within.