"R-reporting to the three clan leaders!"
A Speed Clan scout came running over, stumbling and rolling, then dropped to his knees with a tearful cry.
"We've got the numbers. Of the nearly one thousand elite members of our Four Single-Attribute Clans who entered the city, fewer than three in ten made it out."
As he spoke, the scout trembled and hesitantly added, "And... Clan Leader Yang Wudi... he died in battle on the spot. We couldn't even bring out his body!"
His words struck like a bolt from the blue.
"L-Old Goat is dead?!"
Niu Gao's eyes bulged and reddened. He swung a palm into the giant tree beside him, blasting the two-men-wide trunk into splinters!
"Crack!"
The effort tore open the wound in his chest again, and blood poured out in a sudden gush.
But he couldn't spare a thought for the pain. Pointing toward Heaven Dou City, he roared in fury, "Damn Tang San! Damn the Upper Three Sects!"
"I thought following that brat Tang San would let our clan restore its former glory."
"But they actually left us behind and ran!"
Niu Gao was consumed by rage, seething with resentment toward Tang San and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for fleeing.
It brought back the time when the Clear Sky Sect had pushed the Four Single-Attribute Clans forward to hold off Spirit Hall.
"He left our Four Single-Attribute Clans in the city as cannon fodder, to serve as meat shields for Qian Renxue."
"Old Goat died a horrible death, and our four clans lost seventy percent of our elites. Is that Tang San's idea of 'loyalty and righteousness'?"
"Is this the brotherhood and family devotion he fucking talked about?"
Niu Gao was so furious that the corners of his eyes split. Spit flew from his mouth as his temper completely exploded!
Hearing Niu Gao insult Tang San and Tang Hao, Tai Tan shot to his feet.
He glared and roared, "Old Rhino, stop spouting bullshit!"
Tai Tan clenched his fists until they cracked, his face flushed as he argued vehemently, "The young master was making a strategic retreat!"
"You didn't see how bizarre that Qian Renxue was!"
"Even the Sword and Bone Super Douluos couldn't stop her. Was the young master supposed to stay behind and wait to die?"
"The young master is the master's only bloodline!"
"One day, he'll avenge Old Goat and get revenge for our four clans!"
"We should be utterly loyal to the master. I won't let you smear the young master!"
"Loyalty? Old Orangutan, you're nothing but an old dog raised by Tang Hao!"
Niu Gao pointed at Tai Tan's nose and cursed him.
"You're willing to use your own clansmen's lives to lick their boots. I'm done!"
"Old Goat is dead, and hundreds of young warriors from my Defense Clan have vanished without a trace."
"If Tang San really cared about loyalty, why did he abandon us and run off alone?"
"What a double-standard hypocrite! Scum!"
"You're asking for death!"
Tai Tan flew into a rage. His violent Soul Power burst out, and he was about to attack Niu Gao.
"Enough! Both of you, shut your mouths!"
Bai He roared. He stepped between them, his eyes bloodshot and his whole body trembling.
"Old Goat's body isn't even cold, and our clansmen are still bleeding. Why are you two old bones fighting here?"
"Do you want even more of our Four Single-Attribute Clans to die?"
Bai He drew a deep breath, suppressing the grief in his heart, and said bitterly, "Old Rhino, Tang San may have run, but he's still my great-nephew."
"About this... sigh, things were so dangerous. The young master probably couldn't do anything."
"Couldn't do anything?" Niu Gao sneered. "Heh. Keep protecting him, then!"
He turned away, his face filled with disappointment.
Just then, another burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the woods!
"Clan leaders, we have trouble!"
"An urgent report from Heaven Dou City!"
Another Speed Clan scout, covered in blood, staggered and collapsed at their feet.
He clutched a notice torn from Heaven Dou City in his hand!
Tai Tan snatched the notice and roughly scanned it. His face flushed with anger, and he bellowed,
"This is too much! It's outrageous!"
"Those beasts from Spirit Hall have pinned every unsolved case and every accusation in Heaven Dou City on the master, Tang Hao, and the young master!"
"Give it here!"
Bai He snatched the notice from him, wanting to see what crimes Spirit Hall had listed.
The more he read, the grimmer his expression became.
But when his eyes reached the very end of the execution list, his face changed dramatically.
"Boom!"
Bai He's body jolted, and his face turned even paler than a corpse!
The paper in his hand made a harsh tearing sound as he trembled violently.
"Old White Bird, what's wrong? Why do you look so awful?" Niu Gao asked with a frown.
Bai He clenched his teeth, his lips trembling. In a voice choked with near tears and terror, he read the line on the notice aloud:
"At noon tomorrow, the following criminals will be publicly beheaded: Heaven Dou Emperor Xue Ye, Prince Xue Xing, Princess Xue Ke, and..."
Bai He swallowed, tasting blood. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. "And Tang Hao's younger sister, the criminal... the master of Moonlight Pavilion—Tang Yuehua!"
"!!!"
An icy, deathly silence settled over the entire forest. You could have heard a pin drop.
Tai Tan looked as though he'd been struck by lightning.
Niu Gao's eyes nearly popped out. He shouted, "Who did you say? Tang Yuehua?!"
"How... how could she have been captured?"
"She's just an ordinary woman with only nine levels of Soul Power!"
The scout lay prone on the ground, trembling as he reported, "Reporting to the clan leaders, a scout saw someone personally storm Moonlight Pavilion and forcibly capture Lady Tang Yuehua. They dragged her away with a blood chain!"
"Spirit Hall accused her of infiltrating Heaven Dou's nobility as Tang Hao's younger sister, then conspiring from within to bring down the Heaven Dou Empire!"
At the news, Tai Tan, Niu Gao, and Bai He stared at one another.
A bone-deep chill shot up from the soles of their feet and straight to their scalps.
"They've gone mad! Spirit Hall has absolutely lost its mind!"
"She's the master's own younger sister. How dare they?"
"How dare they publicly behead the young lady of the Clear Sky Sect?!"
Tai Tan roared himself hoarse!
Bai He, however, recovered from his shock in an instant and saw through the vicious scheme behind it.
"This isn't really an execution. It's a trap—a trap set in plain sight!"
Niu Gao sucked in a sharp breath. Cold sweat soaked his clothes. "That fiend Qian Renxue is using Tang Yuehua as bait on purpose. She's openly forcing Tang Hao and Tang San to go to Heaven Dou City and rescue her!"
"If Tang San and Tang Hao go, Heaven Dou City will already be covered in a net. They'll be walking right into a trap."
"But if Tang San and Tang Hao don't dare go..."
Niu Gao looked at Tai Tan, his gaze brutal and cold as ice. "Then Tang San's fake mask of loyalty and righteousness will be ripped off for good!"
"The whole continent will know he's a coward who wouldn't even show his face when his own aunt was about to be beheaded! A two-faced dog!"
"This move is vicious beyond words."
Listening to Bai He and Niu Gao's analysis, Tai Tan went ice-cold and slumped to the ground.
Noon tomorrow!
The beheading ceremony in Heaven Dou City!
Faced with this unsolvable death trap laid by Qian Sha Yu, what was he supposed to do?
Tang San had fled back to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Would he dare set foot on Heaven Dou's execution platform, knowing it was a journey through nine deaths?
Before you continue