This Is True Wisdom

Qian Daoliu swept a glance over the mountain gate of the Clear Sky Sect, then looked at the disciples standing in battle formation at the entrance, sighing softly. His voice was not loud, yet it carried clearly to the ears of everyone present, "Truly disappointing. How boorish Tang Chen was, yet he produced such a cowardly line of descendants, using the lives of their own sect disciples to serve as a distraction."

As these words fell, everyone on the scene was stunned. What was Qian Daoliu talking about?

Seeing that Qian Daoliu had arrived at the Clear Sky Sect's gate while Tang Chen was nowhere to be seen, Ning Fengzhi—guessing that the Clear Sky Sect had failed to locate Tang Chen and was desperate to shift the conflict—raised his cane, pressed his right hand to his chest, and bowed politely, "Senior Qian Daoliu, this humble one is Ning Fengzhi. What is the meaning of your words?"

Chrysanthemum Douluo let out a mocking laugh and said, "Ning Fengzhi, do you still not understand? The sect master, the elders, and those with talent from the Clear Sky Sect have long since fled. They left these people—and even you lot—to serve as cannon fodder to distract our Martial Soul Hall and buy themselves time to escape."

As he finished, countless disciples at the Clear Sky Sect gate instantly broke down. "Impossible!"

"How could that be!"

"I don't believe it!"

"You are spouting nonsense!"

The young rats of the Tang family left behind, along with the disciples of the affiliated clans who were fiercely loyal to the Clear Sky Sect, all began to shout in protest.

However, the older rats—those with mediocre talent whose potential was essentially exhausted, the Soul Emperors and Soul Saints who had long known of the sect's plan and were prepared to sacrifice themselves to protect the embers of the Clear Sky Sect—felt a flash of panic in their eyes.

A white-haired old rat lit up his two yellow, two purple, and three black soul rings, brandished his Clear Sky Hammer, and shouted, "Do not listen to the nonsense of these Martial Soul Hall people! This is their attempt to break our Clear Sky Sect's morale!"

Chrysanthemum Douluo sneered again, "What is the status of the Great Elder? Does he need to deceive you? If there is a problem with the Great Elder's words, then tell me, where are your elders? Where is your sect master? Why haven't they come out yet?"

"This Seat arrived at your Clear Sky Sect a month ago; your sect master and elders came out quite quickly back then, didn't they?"

Hearing this from Chrysanthemum Douluo, aside from the old rats who knew the plan, suspicion appeared on the faces of the Clear Sky Sect disciples. Yet, they remained unwilling to believe that the sect had abandoned them.

To be abandoned by one's sect was akin to a patriot being abandoned by their country and cast out to face death; the agony of such a realization was beyond imagination.

"If you truly refuse to believe it, why not go and see for yourselves? The Clear Sky Sect is already empty."

As the words fell, Yang Wudi immediately turned to look at Bai He and shouted, "Old White Bird!"

Bai He was tied to the Clear Sky Sect, but he also had to consider his own clan and minimize the losses from this battle. His two yellow, three purple, and three black soul rings lit up, his Sharp-Tailed Feather Swallow martial soul manifested, and with a flash of his rings, he transformed into a streak of green light and vanished from the spot.

As a Soul Douluo, Bai He flew at full speed, covering a thousand meters in just a few breaths. Thus, in less than half a minute, he returned to the gate, his face looking as if he had just lost his own mother.

Yang Wudi hurriedly asked, "Old White Bird, how is it?"

Bai He only shook his head powerlessly.

In the next instant, Yang Wudi completely broke down and began to curse wildly: "Screw your mother, Clear Sky Sect! You treated my Breaking Clan as cannon fodder!"

"Tang Zhen, I'll screw your ancestors!"

Niu Gao and the other heads of the affiliated clans also wore expressions of extreme fury, their eyes bloodshot and teeth gritted.

Over the past month, Tang Zhen had convened several meetings for the heads of the affiliated clans. During those meetings, Tang Zhen had been full of confidence and composure, telling the clan heads to set their minds at ease, claiming that if they stood united against Martial Soul Hall, the Clear Sky Sect would surely overcome this crisis.

They had assumed the Clear Sky Sect truly possessed some trump card, or that Tang Chen had returned. They never expected that the Clear Sky Sect intended for their affiliated clans to stand united in defense against Martial Soul Hall, all to buy the Tang family time to run away and survive the crisis.

Ning Fengzhi's expression was also ugly to the extreme; his composure was completely gone. He truly had not expected the Tang family to be so shameless. Fleeing was not a shameful act; if you couldn't win, running away was natural—as long as the green hills remained, one need not fear a lack of firewood.

But to flee without taking your most loyal affiliated clans with you? And among them, the Speed Clan was seemingly a relative of the Clear Sky Sect; Bai He's sister was the late sect mistress of the Clear Sky Sect and the biological mother of the Clear Sky Twins.

Even the Speed Clan was abandoned as cannon fodder, which forced Ning Fengzhi to re-evaluate his understanding of the Tang family's shamelessness.

"Why? Why must I be left behind? Just because my Innate Soul Power is only level five?"

The young rats wept bitterly, many of them also cursing the Clear Sky Sect.

These young rats mostly had Innate Soul Power below level six; whether they could even break through to become Soul Emperors in their lifetime was a question.

To further deceive the affiliated clans, the Clear Sky Sect had discarded this portion of "useless" rats while keeping the elite ones.

Chrysanthemum Douluo watched the infighting among the Clear Sky Sect disciples, inwardly marveling at the Great Elder's wisdom and vision. No wonder he scolded them back at the Elder Hall.

Why fight? Why storm the Clear Sky Sect? When you can solve things with words, why bother using force?

If a few fish slipped through the net, Martial Soul Hall would gain a few more enemies who would fight to the death, but that was nothing—Martial Soul Hall already had plenty of enemies. A few stragglers and losers wouldn't amount to much, whereas Martial Soul Hall suffering heavy casualties would be the real problem.

This was the Clear Sky Sect's home turf, and the number of their disciples reached five thousand. Even if the Tang family had fled, these five thousand people were still a force to be reckoned with, and they held the advantage of the terrain.

With Martial Soul Hall's strength, flattening the Clear Sky Sect was not an issue, but to leave no one alive would inevitably cost them at least a thousand soul masters.

A thousand soul masters—that was the total number of soul masters in all of the Lower Four Sects combined.

Ever since Qian Xunji became Pope, Martial Soul Hall had suffered two major blows to its foundation. Once during the Sea God Island operation, where nearly two thousand soul masters died, along with two Title Douluo elders, and the Saintess nearly perished.

The second time was the capture of Tang Hao, where the Pope Hall lost hundreds of elite soul masters, and two Title Douluo elders were either killed or crippled.

In just over twenty years, Qian Xunji had nearly thrown away the equivalent of a Clear Sky Sect without Tang Chen in two waves. No matter how deep Martial Soul Hall's pockets were, they couldn't afford such waste.

Qian Renxue opened her eyes wide, learning from her grandfather's wisdom and methods. Her grandfather was not only invincible in strength across the continent, but his mind was also exceptionally sharp; with just a few words, he had dismantled the enemy sect and saved Martial Soul Hall from suffering further losses.

At this moment, the ranting Yang Wudi suddenly twitched his nose, his expression turning strange. Like a hunting dog, he began sniffing around everywhere.

Yang Wushuang noticed Yang Wudi's odd behavior and asked, "Big Brother, what is wrong?"

"Wushuang, smell this. This floral scent—it is faint, elegant, and fragrant. Doesn't it smell just like the Aromatic Silk Beauty that our clan has cultivated and passed down through the generations?"