Within the pitch-black barrier, the entire world felt cut off from reality.
Liu Long's body floated motionless in the darkness. A faint red-gold glow surrounded him like embers slowly fading away.
The wounds that had once torn across his body, the blood that had once flowed without end, were now completely gone. His arm had regrown smoothly, as if he had never gone through a battle at all.
Every meridian flowed smoothly. His breathing was steady. His pulse calm.
Even the life force that had once been mercilessly devoured by the life-burning pill had fully returned, as if time had been turned back to before he had consumed it. His foundation even felt stronger than before.
Liu Long glanced down at his palm for a moment before lifting his head, his gaze deep and tranquil.
"The Emperor Phoenix Flame Pill… is it…"
A voice echoed from all directions, like a whisper right beside his ear yet also from the farthest edge of the cosmos.
"That's right… but there's no reward for you."
The tone was so calm it was impossible to read any emotion.
"For now, you have only one task. It's simple… watch over the three of them. Just make sure nothing happens to them. As for the rest, just wait a little while longer. I'll contact you again soon to have you do something."
Liu Long remained silent, listening carefully.
The voice continued casually, as if discussing something trivial.
"As for your plan to take your young lady out of this situation, I won't stop you."
The voice paused briefly, its tone growing slightly heavier for just a moment.
"But every action… always has a price to pay… so you can try if you wish."
Silence enveloped Liu Long once more.
"Wait a little longer. Things outside are almost finished."
At the same time,
In the southern region of the Black Wind Continent, strange rain fell continuously across many areas.
In distant small towns, the rain tapped softly against wooden roofs. Deep within forests, droplets slid down leaves. Along mountain ranges, thin mist drifted through the rainfall. Nearly every place in the south was touched by the rain at the same time.
Far from Heavenly Sword City, an enormous curtain of rain formed a natural wall that concealed everything within.
At the center of that rain,
Zhang Wen floated calmly in midair. His robe swayed gently, and the falling raindrops could not touch him, as if some unseen force pushed them away at all times.
His gaze was steady as he calmly observed the entire situation.
At this moment, the Rat Pipe Association branch in Heavenly Sword City was already under his control… through Gui Ying.
After searching Gui Ying's memories, Zhang Wen gained a rough understanding of the structure. The entire branch only had two members. One handled guests, while the branch leader gathered intelligence through rats bound by spirit beast contracts.
At first, he had sent Ming Yuan in Wang Qiang's form to negotiate, but the other side had shown little interest in talking. That left him with no choice but to dispatch the four newly appointed commanders of the Black Crow Secret Unit along with his water clone to immediately take control of the Rat Pipe Association.
As for the restriction placed on Gui Ying by the association, it had not disappeared. It still remained within her soul. However, he had used the water droplet to regulate and separate its functions. At most, the main branch might detect that it had activated once, but now it had returned to normal operation, with Gui Ying still alive.
Zhang Wen waited a moment before slowly raising his hand and opening his spatial ring. Faint strands of light spread out like threads of power connecting to another place.
Inside a quiet room, Gui Ying, who was resting on a bed, suddenly frowned slightly as the spatial ring on her finger trembled faintly. She opened her eyes at once, vigilance flashing across her gaze, just as Zhang Wen's voice sounded clearly within her mind.
"Report to your main branch that the reason your seal activated was because you consumed Heavenly Spirit Grass during cultivation. Its power touched the restriction within your body, causing the seal to trigger abnormally. However, you are safe now because you managed to purge its effects before the seal could fully activate."
His tone was calm and even, as if giving a minor instruction.
"Right now, there is a droplet of mine within your memories that has created a false sequence. Review it first, then contact the main office. Reveal fragments of your memory sincerely afterward."
The room fell silent.
Gui Ying paused for a moment before replying softly.
"Understood."
Zhang Wen's voice faded, and Gui Ying closed her eyes, carefully extending her awareness into her sea of consciousness. Before long, she found a small clear droplet floating deep within her soul, emitting a faint, quiet glow.
Gathering her focus, she opened the seal.
Memories poured out instantly.
She saw herself sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, refining Heavenly Spirit Grass. Green-gold energy spiraled wildly around her body before blood burst from her mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. Veins bulged across her body as if they were about to rupture.
An immense pressure crushed her mind, nearly tearing it apart.
But in the end, she managed to stop the refinement in time and slowly expel the power of the Heavenly Spirit Grass. Everything gradually calmed.
The scene felt so real it was almost impossible to distinguish it from true memory.
Gui Ying slowly opened her eyes, her gaze trembling slightly.
If she had not heard Zhang Wen's instructions earlier, she would have believed without the slightest doubt that everything she saw had truly happened.
Every movement, every surge of pain, every sensation felt flawless.
More importantly, it seemed Zhang Wen had deliberately left a short gap in time, making it feel as if she had just recovered from purging the effects of the Heavenly Spirit Grass before hurriedly contacting the main branch to report the anomaly.
Gui Ying let out a soft breath.
A quiet despair slowly gnawed at her heart.
To fabricate an illusion at this level, she was certain Zhang Wen's strength could not be below Half Emperor, and he must possess control over laws related to falsifying perceptions.
Meanwhile, Zhang Wen was silently calculating.
At this moment, the ten members of the Black Crow Secret Unit disguised as Wang Qiang's subordinates had already gathered resources from all the major merchant guilds, except the Seven-Colored Peacock Merchant Guild.
However, the resources from the top eight guilds had not yet reached him, so he had not conducted any detailed inspection.
Zhang Wen recalled the earlier events.
When Kang Hao gathered forces from the various merchant guilds, there had been two Saint Kings, twenty-eight Saints, and one more person hiding while pretending to be poisoned and unable to fight.
In truth, ten people in that group had been his Black Crow operatives disguised as members of the City Lord's residence.
After that incident, he now possessed the corpses of nineteen Saints and one Saint King.
As for the Seven-Colored Peacock Merchant Guild, he already had something in mind.
Regarding the young woman named Chen Yao, she was likely the reincarnation of a Great Emperor, or perhaps something even greater.
And Guo Ning… from Liu Qing's memories, he knew that her father was a Great Emperor.
Both of them carried Great Emperor level soul protections embedded within them, preventing him from fully controlling them through poison or spells, though he had already managed to infiltrate a small portion.
If he forced full control, it might immediately alert Guo Ning's father.
Chen Yao was not as troublesome for now, since she was still weak and already partially under his control.
But Guo Ning… he would have to wait until he himself became a Great Emperor.
As he was planning the next step,
above the gray cloud layer that blanketed the sky like a massive curtain, the low roar of wind echoed continuously, and the entire firmament felt heavy, as if pressed down by an unseen force.
Suddenly, a colossal shadow moved across the clouds.