Head-on Clash

The four flew through the shattered stone gate. The first thing they saw was the majestic Ancestral Hall towering in the deepest reaches. It was astonishing: unlike the ruins outside, the Wu Clan's Ancestral Hall had, to some extent, escaped destruction and retained its intact structure.

On either side of it stood six well-preserved Stone Halls, facing one another.

Streams of light circled these halls, seemingly radiating a mysterious power of alternating black and white that sent ripples through the entire space.

Yet a closer look revealed that these halls seemed like mirages, castles in the air. The way they flickered between solid reality and insubstantial illusion inspired awe.

Yun Mo and the others surveyed their surroundings, intending to head straight for the Ancestral Hall. However, the radiance there transformed into a barrier, enveloping the hall and making it vanish.

"What's going on?" Wu Ling summoned his War Staff, intending to probe ahead.

But the instant he took a step, the spot where the four stood transformed into a wasteland.

The sudden change immediately put them on edge.

Yun Mo's gaze darkened slightly, his expression turning cold. Looking at this world shrouded by a formation, he said impassively, "There are two things I'm curious about. First, how did you people enter this spacetime? Second, how did you know we were following you?"

Wen Qingxuan and the other two looked up at the black mist hanging in the air, their eyes grave. Although the Divine Contest Laws interfered here as well, keeping everyone in the Spirit Wheel Realm, there was no doubt that a head-on clash could put them in tremendous danger.

Still, they were not afraid. Ever since they had entered the Ancestral Hall with Yun Mo and spotted the Extraterritorial Evil Clan, they had known the two sides would clash sooner or later. The only question was how soon.

What they had not expected was that these members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan had known about them from the outset and even laid this formation. Did they intend to fight to the death?

"Actually, we owe our successful entry into this Wu Clan Ancestral Hall to your help. Hahaha!" The black mist dispersed, revealing Yuan Huai and his eight companions. Their faces were wreathed in smiles, tugging at the strange markings on their faces and making them look almost savage.

Perhaps because his prey was already trapped like turtles in a jar, or because he was about to earn the credit for bringing his clan's Demon Emperor home, he relaxed and continued, "We'd been searching for this world all along. At first, locating this spacetime was indeed difficult.

"But your contact with it and your entry caused spatial fluctuations in this hidden world. You gave us a helping hand, allowing us to catch that faint ripple."

Understanding flashed through Yun Mo's icy eyes. He had already entertained a few suspicions, and now they had been confirmed.

"As for discovering that you were following us, that couldn't have been simpler."

Yuan Huai looked at Wen Qingxuan and Wu Yingying, greed surfacing in his eyes. "We of the Thirty-Two Great Clans couldn't be more familiar with the scent of women from the Great Thousand World. After all..."

"The Evil Spirit Clan?" Yun Mo looked at the smile on Yuan Huai's lips, as though everything were under his control, and spoke slowly.

"What?" The smiles on Yuan Huai's face and those of the other eight in the air froze in an instant. Their expressions changed violently. "How do you know about that?"

Their faces grew savage, and towering rage spread outward, turning even the sky pitch-black. In those few breaths, countless conjectures flashed through their minds.

How had this plan leaked?

Even an ant from the Great Thousand World, merely at the Spirit Wheel Realm, knew about it. Could the plan still catch anyone by surprise?

At this point, even Wen Qingxuan and the other two turned toward Yun Mo, their expressions puzzled. The Evil Spirit Clan?

As though talking to himself, Yun Mo said softly, "The Evil Spirit Clan, a race born from unions between the Extraterritorial Evil Clan and people of the Great Thousand World, capable of cultivating with both spiritual energy and evil energy."

His voice was neither loud nor soft, but everyone could hear him clearly, and everyone's expression changed.

"To think you know so much. It seems that this time, not only will we bring our clan's Demon Emperor home, we'll also uncover plenty of secrets belonging to the Great Thousand World's top powers. This outing really has been one surprise after another!" Yuan Huai's aura grew increasingly savage. He intended to take all of them back to his clan for a thorough interrogation.

Watching him, Yun Mo slowly revealed an equally cold, cruel smile. "Do you know why I still dared to bring them out after seeing you members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan? It's because, in my eyes, you're nothing more than a pack of clowns capering on a stage!

"You were waiting for us under the Divine Contest Laws, but wasn't I looking for you as well?"

As he finished, a jade talisman appeared in Yun Mo's hand, and he decisively crushed it.

At that instant, endless runes appeared and filled the space, and raindrops began forming across the sky. Upon touching Yun Mo's aura, they transformed into a hazy Rain of Time, gradually eroding the formation Yuan Huai and his companions had laid.

Not only that, as the four of them bathed in the Rain of Time, a mysterious temporal power emerged, making their bodies and cultivation seem eternally fixed in that moment. This meant that unless they were killed in a single blow, even the most horrific wounds could potentially heal in an instant.

The expressions of Yuan Huai and his eight companions changed drastically. "The Rain of Time! You're Yun Mo, the one who killed Ling Shang and Xin Ze!"

Wen Qingxuan and the other two were utterly bewildered by what was happening. For the first time, Yun Mo felt like a stranger to them.

It was simply unimaginable that his name alone could provoke such expressions from these members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan. But what Yun Mo said next gave them some understanding.

Yun Mo smiled at Yuan Huai. "Another young clan lord of the Thirty-Two Great Clans is about to die at my hands. It's just a pity I didn't encounter you on the battlefield."

Having said that, he ignored the members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan as they all erupted into furious roars.

Instead, he turned toward Wen Qingxuan and the others and smiled. "We really will have to fight for our lives now. I can't possibly hold off so many of them alone. And if we lose, we'll lose miserably. Not only will they retrieve the Demon Emperor inside, we'll also die horrible deaths.

"Actually, we men have it better. At worst, we'll become corpse puppets after we die. You two women will probably be taken to the Extraterritorial Evil Clan as slaves and forced to make babies with them all day."

"You..." Wen Qingxuan and Wu Yingying rolled their eyes at him. Still, they nodded gently and pressed their lips together before saying, "Then we die. Nothing more."

"Heh, don't worry. Members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan die when they're killed, too. My Rain of Time will protect you."

Yun Mo stepped through the void. Now, he no longer held the Flexible Sword, but a black-and-white battle halberd. At the same time, his long robe was no longer black

but had taken on the yin and yang of the two primal forces, one black, one white, making his entire figure radiate hazy profundity, with an unmistakable aura of spacetime.

Qing Yilun had once said that if his cultivation were suppressed to the same level as Yun Mo's, Yun Mo would probably string him up and thrash him. This was the state of Yun Mo he had been referring to.

In all his long life, Yun Mo possessed the greatest talent and comprehension of anyone he had ever seen, without exception.

Yun Mo slowly raised the black-and-white battle halberd in his hand and pointed it at Yuan Huai from afar, saying impassively, "Come! Let me see how your Yuan Demon Clan differs from the Spirit Demon and Heart Demon Clans."