"We found it!"
Mao Ba opened his eyes. A trace of exhaustion showed on his face, and he looked somewhat drained. It seemed that controlling Green Crane had taken a heavy toll on his mind.
Wu Dao had watched the whole thing. He now understood a little more about Immortal Cultivators.
Transcendent beings who followed this path seemed to possess far stronger spiritual cultivation than Martial Dao practitioners.
Because—
Mao Ba was only at Foundation Establishment, yet after enduring one drain after another, his Vitality and Spirit were still no weaker than those of someone in the Divine Strength Realm.
One could imagine—
How powerful his spiritual will must be at his peak.
"Hm!?"
Just as Wu Dao's thoughts stirred, his brow suddenly furrowed. He whipped around and stared into the darkness at the far end of the long street, his eyes narrowing involuntarily.
His keen senses told him—
A powerful "predator" was drawing near!
"More experts?"
Wu Dao wasn't the only one.
Zhao Wei, Yun Tianliu, Mao Ba, and even the seven Internal Strengthening experts who had been slower to react soon sensed the dangerous aura. They all frowned and looked over.
"Hahaha, gentlemen, how about making room for us too?"
A booming laugh rumbled closer from afar.
Like the tolling of a great bronze bell, it shook the Internal Strengthening practitioners present until their faces flushed red. Some of them struggled to bear it.
In the space of a few blinks—
Two figures, one burly and one lean, flashed from the darkness onto the wasteland before Chunxiang Garden.
A heavy pressure—
Made everyone there narrow their eyes.
Especially Wu Dao. The instant he saw the two black tokens hanging at their waists, each engraved with the words "Four Seas" and a pattern of ocean waves—
He couldn't help rubbing his teeth with his tongue.
Were they here for revenge?
Or for the treasure?
The moment Wu Dao spotted the tokens at their waists, his thoughts raced. He suppressed the urge to erupt into violence and stayed on guard in secret.
These two—
Were powerful. Their Vitality and Spirit were in no way comparable to Meng Qingshuang's.
The middle-aged man, especially—the one who looked like skin stretched over bones, with hands like eagle talons and an aura as lifeless as the grave—put immense pressure on Wu Dao!
Could he be...
No—he had to be an expert in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm!
Wu Dao now had fifty years of Tyrant Whale Fist backing him, and his physical potential was already approaching the Heroic Domain.
It would be arrogant to say it, but—
Apart from freaks with Subtle Mastery, he didn't take anyone in the Divine Strength Realm seriously. Only Cocoon-Breaking experts above that realm could put pressure on him!
Fortunately—
Having lived two lives and tempered his heart in the mortal world, Wu Dao had endured countless brushes with death. His resolve had long since been honed harder than steel.
After the briefest flicker of surprise—
His expression returned to normal. Like everyone else, he looked curious, with a hint of wariness, but not the slightest trace of guilt or panic.
Back in the desert—
He had already erased the mark Meng Qingshuang left on him.
Since these two hadn't attacked him at once, they clearly had no more advanced tracking technique and didn't know that Wu Dao was the one who had slaughtered the Red Fire Mine.
In this situation—
If he panicked and struck first, he would be confessing without being accused.
If the bald, burly man were alone—
Wu Dao wouldn't fear him at all. He could flip the table and reveal himself without any misgivings. The real difficulty was the sinister, lean middle-aged man in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm.
Cocoon-Breaking, breaking out of the cocoon!
A butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
Warriors at this level had shed their mortal shells, broken free of the cocoon, and remade their bones and blood!
They had opened their Qi Sea Dantian, refined their Essence Blood, and forged bodies capable of bearing Qi and strength beyond mortal limits. They had already mastered force!
Unified Force, Internal Force, Transformative Force.
Three Rebirths, three heavenly stages.
Even at the first stage, Unified Force, they could gather the strength of their muscles, bones, and sinews throughout their bodies, then focus it wherever they pleased with a single movement. Even a flick of one finger could unleash the power of their entire body!
In battle—
Their force struck like cannon fire, and their stamina surged like a mighty river, never ceasing.
And warriors at this stage had already acquired Copper Skin and Iron Bones. A mortal body simply couldn't stand against them!
As for the other man—
The bald young man, whose face looked like it was begging for a beating, was no pushover either. His limbs were like iron pillars and towering mountains, his muscles coiled like dragon roots, and his temples bulged high.
He clearly practiced a powerful Hard Qigong.
His scorching, surging aura was like a volcano held in check. Once it erupted, he would become a steel war machine in an instant!
Still—
Wu Dao wasn't especially afraid.
Stealing Heaven's Secret was his greatest trump card.
He was now twice as strong as he had been at the Red Fire Mine. If he wanted to leave, these two might not be able to stop him!
Since they hadn't discovered him—
There was no need to flee in a panic. The enemy was in the open, and he was hidden; all he had to do was watch and wait.
As for giving up the Strange Treasure inside Canyun Mountain—
That was out of the question!
These two were strong, and one of them was even in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm.
But the people here were no pushovers either.
One Sword Dao Grandmaster!
Two Fist Dao Grandmasters!
And the unfathomable Mao Ba!
None of them were ordinary Divine Strength experts. The place was packed with talent, and each of them likely had a trick or two up their sleeves.
If these two wanted to monopolize the treasure—
And a fight broke out—
The outcome would be anyone's guess.
As for why Wu Dao thought Mao Ba and Yun Tianliu would stand together against them if things turned hostile—
It came down to where they stood.
The Four Seas Gang had a foul reputation in Guangqing Prefecture's martial world—so foul it was synonymous with viciousness, evil, and every manner of crime.
Any practitioner with a shred of righteousness—
Despised them and would have been glad to wipe them out.
The clearest example was—
The instant Yun Tianliu recognized the two as members of the Four Seas Gang, his sword had already slid several inches from its sheath, its edge exposed and his hostility plain for all to see.
Even Mao Ba, the man from "the mountain"—
Seemed to detest the Four Seas Gang. His usually kindly, easygoing expression turned cold in an instant.
As for the other four wandering cultivators—
They were the sort who lived by the blade, sometimes robbing and killing. They showed little distaste; instead, they seemed almost to have found their own kind, and looked a little more welcoming.
But whoever they were—
No one responded to the burly bald youth's overly familiar greeting. For a moment, the atmosphere grew tense and stifling.
Until—
"Heh. I was wondering who it was. So it's Meng Qingshan, Third Brother Meng. Quite the imposing entrance."
Zhao Wei stepped forward. His voice dripped with mockery, and his footsteps struck the ground with force, breaking the oppressive silence of the wasteland.
Third Brother Meng?
Wu Dao's thoughts stirred at the words.
Back at the Red Fire Mine, he had already gotten a rough understanding of the Four Seas Gang's structure.
At its head was Meng Huaishan.
The current Four Seas Gang Leader, nearly eighty years old, was an Innate Grandmaster who had passed through the Third Rebirth. Which realm he had reached beyond that, however, was unclear.
The various branch hall leaders, along with his trusted enforcers, the Black Shark Five, were all experts in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm.
But the Black Shark Five were said to be anything but normal.
They were half-finished products—living dead—"brought forth" by Meng Huaishan using some special method. Few knew what went on behind the scenes.
The gloomy, lifeless middle-aged man beside Meng Qingshan, who looked nothing like a normal person, was probably Yingsha, one of the Black Shark Five. His features were hard to miss.
Wu Dao discreetly glanced at the dead-eyed middle-aged man's two pairs of razor-sharp eagle talons, their surfaces gleaming with a metallic sheen.
He had no doubt—
Those talons could tear even a man of iron to pieces!
Aside from Meng Huaishan, the various hall leaders, and the Black Shark Five, the strongest in the Four Seas Gang were Meng Huaishan's four adopted children.
The unlucky Meng Qingshuang from the Red Fire Mine ranked fourth and had the weakest cultivation. Wu Dao had already sent him to join his ancestors.
Below her were the third, Meng Qingshan; the second, Meng Qingyun; and the eldest, Meng Qingyan.
Each was stronger than the last.
The second son and eldest daughter, Meng Qingyan, were said to have passed Foundation Establishment several years ago and entered the Cocoon-Breaking Realm. They had made a name for themselves in Guangqing Prefecture.
But given the Four Seas Gang's vicious practice of consorting with demons, the Gang's Cocoon-Breaking experts deserved a question mark. It was unclear whether they were still human.
That was what Wu Dao knew of the Four Seas Gang's forces in the open.
He knew nothing about what they kept hidden. After all, they colluded with demons, so they must have many secret trump cards and reserves.
Still, one thing surprised Wu Dao.
Neither Meng Qingshan nor Yingsha had any "Demon Qi" about them.
Instead, one radiated a grand, scorching surge of Qi and blood, while the other held a sharp, wintry aura close within himself. Both clearly followed the human path.
As for Demon Qi—
Wu Dao had discovered it while dealing with the inhuman creatures at the Red Fire Mine.
He didn't know whether it was because of the Attribute Panel, but he could "smell" a peculiar scent clinging to nonhuman creatures.
The scent was difficult to describe.
But it drew him in irresistibly, like dragon liver and phoenix marrow. When he caught its scent, his muscle cells grew ravenous, craving nothing more than a hearty feast.
"Hehe, Brother Zhao, how have you been?"
Meng Qingshan wasn't angered by Zhao Wei's barbed sarcasm. Instead, he greeted him with a smile.
But his eyes kept moving over the unfamiliar Wu Dao. He narrowed them slightly and nodded, his voice booming:
"Not bad. Very impressive. Brother Zhao, won't you introduce us?"
Before you continue