Goodbye Mo Yuan

Xuanxiao was leading the Ancestral Witches along at a leisurely pace when he suddenly, without warning, looked up at the void. His gaze was deep and distant, as if piercing through the endless firmament.

"Looks like we'll need to pick up the pace. If we dawdle any longer, you might end up losing a brother or two." Xuanxiao spoke with a straight face, but the slight curl at the corner of his mouth betrayed him—his schadenfreude was plain as day, and the Ancestral Witches caught it loud and clear.

"Second Uncle is just too wicked! From the way he talks, those brothers of ours we've never met are probably being hunted right now, and he's over here snickering." The Ancestral Witches grumbled inwardly, muttering under their breath.

Xuanxiao saw the expressions on the Ancestral Witches' faces and more or less guessed what they were thinking, but he didn't care.

"If you've got any complaints, speak up. Your Second Uncle here is the best at taking advice." Xuanxiao said with a beaming smile, his demeanor seemingly sincere, yet to everyone else, it carried an indescribable oddness.

"Who could believe that from Master? Anyone who does must be a complete fool." Gou Chen overheard Xuanxiao's words and couldn't help but curl his lips in disdain, muttering quietly.

"Really? Second Uncle!" Gonggong looked up at Xuanxiao with an innocent, guileless expression, his clear eyes brimming with trust.

He wasn't the only one—several other Ancestral Witches wore the same look, clearly sharing Zhurong's simple, endearing way of thinking.

However, Houtu, Xuanming, Dijiang, and Zhu Jiuyin hesitated, a flicker of wariness on their faces. They vaguely sensed a trap in Xuanxiao's words, but couldn't quite figure out the trick.

Hearing Gonggong's question, Gou Chen was momentarily speechless, sighing inwardly: "Alright, I jumped to conclusions too soon. There are plenty of these 'simple' ones around me after all."

Seeing Gonggong about to speak, Gou Chen moved swiftly, reaching out to clamp a hand over his mouth.

Startled by the sudden action, Gonggong struggled frantically, letting out muffled "mmph mmph" sounds while shooting Xuanxiao a pleading look.

Gou Chen quickly explained to Xuanxiao: "Master, how could we possibly have any complaints?"

"Is that so?" Xuanxiao raised an eyebrow, a hint of slyness in his eyes, as if expecting something.

By now, even the densest of the Ancestral Witches sensed something was off.

At Xuanxiao's question, they frantically shook their heads.

"Fine then!" Xuanxiao looked at them and shook his head with a hint of regret, his expression as if lamenting his failure to trick the Ancestral Witches.

"Ah, thank goodness Senior Brother stopped us, or we'd definitely be in trouble." The Ancestral Witches turned grateful looks toward Gou Chen, now keenly aware of how important it was to have a reliable senior brother around—at least he could shield them from Xuanxiao's "unscrupulous Second Uncle" schemes.

Gou Chen met their grateful gazes but couldn't help letting out a long sigh inside: "Sigh, looks like I'll have my hands full from now on."

He knew his master too well. Xuanxiao would definitely dump all the trouble the Ancestral Witches caused onto him to handle.

He could already picture himself running all over the Primordial World, cleaning up the messes left by the troublemaking Ancestral Witches.

At that thought, Gou Chen looked up at the void again and let out a heavy sigh.

Right now, Gou Chen could only hope that the Three Pure Ones Xuanxiao had mentioned wouldn't be like the Ancestral Witches—a bunch of muscle-headed simpletons who only knew brute force.

Seeing he hadn't managed to trap the Ancestral Witches, Xuanxiao didn't dwell on it. He simply activated his Divine Ability, swept up Gou Chen and the Ancestral Witches, and sped off into the distance.

Elsewhere, "Big Brother, Second Brother, you two run ahead. I'll stay and hold him off!" Tongtian said anxiously, glancing back at the qilin hot on their heels, then at Laozi and Yuanshi beside him, his eyes firm and resolute.

Laozi let out a helpless sigh: "It's no use. That qilin behind us is at least at the Great Luo Perfection realm. He's not having trouble catching us—he's just toying with us on purpose. Even if you stay, you won't stop him."

"Then Big Brother, what do we do now?" Yuanshi asked urgently, his brow furrowed with worry.

Laozi thought for a moment before saying: "I don't know why that qilin keeps hounding us, but I recall we're not far from the Phoenix Clan's territory. If we lure him there, we might be able to use their strength to shake him off."

Even as he said it, Laozi knew the plan would be hard to pull off.

That qilin was far stronger than them; they might get caught before they even got close to the Phoenix Clan's territory.

And even if they made it inside, the Phoenix Clan might not be able to hold their own against a Great Luo Perfection powerhouse—they might even turn on the three of them.

But right now, Laozi couldn't think of a better plan.

Meanwhile, the qilin chasing the Three Pure Ones had a mocking glint in his eyes.

He muttered to himself: "I'm so clever. As long as I don't kill them, I can keep chasing. That way, Father can't say I'm slacking off."

This qilin was none other than Shi Qilin's cowardly son, Mo Yuan.

Ever since the Three Clans had gone to all-out war, Shi Qilin had strictly ordered him to leave Kirin Cliff and assigned him a pile of tasks to keep him from loafing around.

But Mo Yuan had his own way of handling things.

Take this chase of the Three Pure Ones, for example—it was one of his assigned tasks.

As long as he hadn't killed them yet, in his mind, he wasn't slacking. That was why he kept toying with them.

"Hey, those three brothers of ours look pretty pathetic down there." In the void, the Twelve Ancestral Witches watched the Three Pure Ones being hunted below and couldn't help gloating, their faces lit up with amusement.

Xuanxiao and Gou Chen, however, stared in surprise at Mo Yuan, who was chasing the Three Pure Ones.

Gou Chen looked at Mo Yuan with a speechless expression and muttered to himself: "That guy really has a knack for crossing paths with us. Last time he came looking for trouble with me, and now he's bothering my junior brothers. I don't know if that's luck or bad luck."

"It's that coward! No wonder I calculated that the Three Pure Ones were being chased by a Great Luo Perfection cultivator but weren't in danger of dying—it's that spineless Mo Yuan pulling the strings. But if even he's left Kirin Cliff, it means the war among the Three Clans has reached its final, critical stage." Xuanxiao thought to himself, then began to carefully observe the Calamity Qi spreading across the Primordial World.

Sure enough, just as Xuanxiao had expected, the entire Primordial World was now shrouded in Calamity Qi. Countless beings, influenced by it, had fallen into a frenzy of slaughter, creating a scene of utter chaos.

"Strange. As a member of the Three Clans, why isn't he affected by the Calamity Qi?" Xuanxiao turned his gaze back to Mo Yuan with curiosity.

"This guy is terrified of death to the extreme. His sheer cowardice has let him completely suppress any murderous intent. And even at this late stage of the Calamity, he's killed so few beings. This time, his 'cowardice' really saved his life." Xuanxiao sensed the faint traces of Calamity Qi on Mo Yuan and couldn't help shaking his head.

If Mo Yuan weren't so timid, as the son of Shi Qilin, he would have long been invaded by the Calamity Qi, lost in endless slaughter with no way out.

Xuanxiao looked at the Ancestral Witches, who were still gleefully watching the show, and thought to himself: "Since Mo Yuan won't kill them, I might as well use him to help the Three Pure Ones and the Ancestral Witches bond a little."

"Ah!"

A sudden scream tore through the void. The ten ancestral witches, caught completely off guard, were kicked straight down by Xuanxiao. Houtu and Xuanming, being girls, escaped the fate of being kicked, but they now stared at Xuanxiao in terror, their voices trembling as they asked, "Second Uncle, what are you doing?"

"Those down there are your brothers—how can you just watch them fight alone? Since you're girls, I won't kick you down, but go down on your own." Xuanxiao looked at Houtu and Xuanming with a kindly expression.

Houtu and Xuanming, upon hearing this, didn't hesitate for a moment and flew straight downward.

"You go down too. Remember to tell that coward not to reveal his relationship with us." Xuanxiao instructed Gou Chen. Gou Chen nodded after hearing this and followed them down.

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