The Gu Clan mobilized (1 / 2)

Xiao Xun'er secretly contacted Ling Ying, asking him to send word back to the Gu Clan and seek help from her Nine-Star Dou Sheng father.

With the Miss's safety at stake, Ling Ying dared not delay and hurried to obey.

Using a special secret art, he sent news back to the Gu Clan that a suspected Dou Zun expert from the Soul Clan had appeared above Wutan City.

Once contact with the Gu Clan was established and its senior members learned that their young lady was in danger, they were frantic enough to climb the walls, wishing they could charge into Wutan City with blades in hand and rescue her.

Their young lady was the Gu Clan's only bearer of a divine-grade bloodline in nearly ten thousand years, the one with the greatest hope of reaching the legendary Dou Di realm and leading their clan into glory.

Her safety was therefore paramount, determining the fate of the entire Gu Clan.

When Gu Yuan had first decided to send Gu Xun'er to the Xiao Clan to gain experience, these senior members had unanimously opposed it.

In the end, Gu Yuan had single-handedly overridden every objection and decided to send Gu Xun'er to the Xiao Clan.

He had even dressed it up by saying that Gu Xun'er was going to the Xiao Clan on a mission to obtain the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade Fragment in their possession. He had also claimed that Wutan City was a backwater where even birds wouldn't shit, and with a Dou Huang expert like Ling Ying secretly protecting her, nothing would go wrong.

With Gu Yuan using an excuse like that to silence them, what more could they have said?

"Gu Yuan, what do you intend to do about this? What did you promise us back then?" The moment Black Annihilation King Gu Lie learned that Gu Xun'er was in danger in Wutan City, he stormed over to confront Gu Yuan.

Hearing someone outside calling his name, Gu Yuan opened the door and stepped out.

The moment he opened it, he saw Black Annihilation King Gu Lie, who had come fuming to demand an explanation. After hearing the full story, Gu Yuan said that he was anxious too.

Gu Xun'er was not only his daughter, but his only child.

Now that something had happened to her in Wutan City, he was more anxious than anyone as her father.

But what good did being anxious do?

Could being anxious solve the problem? The answer was no!

Gu Yuan rubbed his brow with a headache and said gravely, "Now is not the time to discuss that. Our immediate priority is to hurry to Wutan City and bring the young lady back."

"As for the Soul Clan, since they dared to lay hands on my daughter, our Gu Clan has no need to preserve even the last shred of civility."

If it was time to tear away the veneer of civility, then tear it away.

"Muster the Black Annihilation Army, find the entrance to the Soul Realm, and attack the Soul Clan!"

After a pause, Gu Yuan sent a message to Ling Ying in front of Black Annihilation King Gu Lie and Supreme Elder Gu Dao.

"Ling Ying, as Clan Chief, I am giving you a task. Protect the young lady no matter what, and keep your identities as members of the Gu Clan well hidden. I will arrive shortly."

With that, Gu Yuan entrusted Black Annihilation King Gu Lie and Supreme Elder Gu Dao with full responsibility for finding the entrance to the Soul Realm and attacking the Soul Clan.

He himself used his supreme cultivation as a Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint to forcibly tear open a spatial rift and establish a spatial passage. His entire body turned into a streak of light and shot into the rift he had torn open, racing at full speed toward Wutan City in the Jia Ma Empire of the Northwest Region.

Daughter, please don't do anything foolish!

Wait for me. Your father is coming to save you.

High above the heavens, the spatial gate slowly closed.

Several pairs of eyes focused on the two figures standing on the Spatial Bridge.

A gentle breeze drifted past, and the midday sun shone straight down, casting dark rings of shadow beneath the nearly transparent Spatial Bridge.

Chen Yang stood in front, with Nalan Yanran behind him.

Chen Yang reached into the empty air before him with one hand. Space twisted, and a stairway formed from spatial power connected the ground to the Spatial Bridge beneath his feet.

"Let's go!"

"Below us is Wutan City, the destination of this trip."

With that, Chen Yang took long strides down from the Spatial Bridge.

With each step Chen Yang took, the spatial stair beneath his foot changed from insubstantial to solid, supporting him firmly so that he would not step into empty air and fall.

Seeing this, Nalan Yanran followed him down, but never stepped ahead of him.

Following behind Chen Yang, Nalan Yanran thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being worshipped by the world.

As her beautiful eyes watched Chen Yang walking calmly ahead, it was as though a filter had fallen over her vision. Beneath the golden sunlight, Chen Yang seemed to be draped in a mantle of holy radiance.

Nalan Yanran stared at him in a daze.

This godlike man was her grandmaster.

Unfortunately, she was still too young. Otherwise, when her grandmaster had first come to marry her teacher, she could have tried to share a husband with her.

Now that her grandmaster was a flower already claimed, she would no longer entertain such fantasies.

Nalan Yanran was a woman of principles. Unlike certain people, she would not knowingly become a mistress.

Though the stairway appeared to have several hundred steps, Chen Yang reached the bottom in only a few strides.

Only then did the people in the city see what Chen Yang truly looked like.

The sunlight had been too dazzling earlier. Looking up into the light from below, they had only been able to make out a rough silhouette.

This man was quite handsome, the sort who appealed to men and women alike.

For once, everyone's thoughts were in agreement.

"You may all kneel and pay your respects," Chen Yang said, sweeping his gaze over the people in the city, his expression indifferent and his tone utterly even.

His voice spread through the city like a gale, echoing through every corner of Wutan City.

As his words fell, this small display of Chen Yang's power, like the work of a god, convinced the people of Wutan City all the more that he truly was a deity.

One after another, they knelt to pay their respects.

"Divine lord above, please bless Wutan City with favorable winds and timely rains, and bountiful harvests every year."

For the common people, their greatest concern was each year's harvest.

In an ordinary town like this, the strength of the economy and the level of income were directly tied to its grain.

Whether the harvest was plentiful depended on whether Heaven granted favorable winds and timely rains.

This year had not been promising. They had already endured more than a month of uninterrupted drought.

If rain did not come soon, all the seedlings in the fields would wither and die.

They knelt before Chen Yang because they hoped the deity could bring them favorable winds and timely rains.

Chen Yang had never lived at the bottom of society, so he knew nothing of farming or the hardships of the common people.

He had come to Wutan City solely for Xiao Yan and his own plans.

Still, seeing how sincere these people were, Chen Yang did not mind playing the good Samaritan and giving them a shower of rain.

It was also a chance to make a small display of his abilities and send the Gu Clan a message—the Soul Clan was here. If they did not come soon, their young lady would be gone.

And while he was at it, he could catch a bug peeping from the shadows!

Chen Yang's dou qi surged in secret, merging into heaven and earth.

"The thirty-third art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art: Heaven's Will Four Symbols Spell!"

The thirty-third treasure art: Heaven's Will Four Symbols Spell. Its greatest strength was that, once the incantation was spoken, it allowed the caster to control the weather over an area.

Above the city gate, Chen Yang raised one hand and recited the incantation. Boundless energy from heaven and earth gathered high in the heavens.

The previously clear, cloudless sky suddenly underwent a dramatic change.

The phantom of the Black Tortoise emerged in the north, while the shadow of the Azure Dragon soared through the heavens in the east.

Clouds gathered, thunder stirred, and a gentle rain suddenly began to fall.

"It's raining!"

"The divine lord brought us rain!"

With the rain falling, the happiest of all were the ordinary people of Wutan City.

They cheered for the rain, revered Chen Yang as a deity, and erected tablets in their homes to worship him.

Meanwhile, Ling Ying, who was carefully concealing his aura in the shadows, secretly observing Chen Yang and reporting his movements back to the Gu Clan, furrowed his brow and murmured.

"What formidable abilities!"

No sooner had he spoken than Ling Ying sensed something wrong, and his expression abruptly changed.

His eyes filled with alarm as he looked down at his feet, then shifted his gaze to inspect his body.

He had been caught in the rain, and the puddle beneath his feet had already frozen.

His body, too, was covered in a thin layer of ice crystals.

Worst of all, despite how thin that layer of ice crystals looked, he could not break free with his cultivation as an Eight-Star Dou Emperor.

At that moment, only one thought remained in Ling Ying's mind: He had been discovered!