"Greedy?" Terry Xie snorted coldly, his fiery red hair swirling in the wind as a powerful aura erupted from his entire body. He strode forward toward the three Fusion ancestors.
Boom!
A sky-shaking aura surged forth.
Not to be outdone, the three Fusion ancestors unleashed their own auras, colliding head-on with Terry Xie's.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The void between the two sides exploded again and again, like thunder. Dust was swept up, whistling through the air—sand and stones flew, and the world seemed to darken.
Seeing this, all the Soul-Split experts on both sides quickly retreated; the aura clash between the four Fusion powerhouses made them extremely uncomfortable.
Ian Song watched the scene, a faintly amused smile curling his lips. Things were going even smoother than he'd expected—Terry Xie was playing along perfectly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Their auras continued to clash in the void, but anyone watching could see: Terry Xie looked relaxed, clearly not using his full strength, while the three Fusion ancestors had veins bulging on their foreheads, eyes wide and round—they were clearly going all out.
The clash lasted for more than ten breaths, then the three Fusion ancestors all staggered back a step at the same time.
Victory and defeat were instantly decided.
Seeing that even the combined might of the three Fusion ancestors couldn't match Terry Xie, all the Soul-Split experts from the Battlefront Branch were overjoyed. Their gazes toward Terry Xie brimmed with worship and awe.
On the other hand, the three great families looked crestfallen, and when they glanced at Terry Xie, their eyes were filled with deep respect and fear.
"All treasures in the world belong to the strong. Giving you thirty percent is already an act of great mercy. Now, I ask you—do you agree or not?" Terry Xie stood with his hands behind his back, his robe billowing without wind, radiating an aura of absolute dominance.
"Branch Master Xie, you may have won the aura clash, but if it came to a real fight, you might not be able to beat the three of us working together!"
The Chen Ancestor roared in unwillingness.
"That's right! The ruins were discovered by our three families together. At worst, we'll compromise—Branch Master gets forty percent, our three families split sixty!" the Jin Ancestor quickly added.
"Leave room for future dealings. If you agree, Branch Master Xie, our three families will fully support you from now on!" the Ning Ancestor said slowly.
Hahaha!
Suddenly, Terry Xie burst out laughing. When he finished, he stared at the three Fusion ancestors with contempt: "You lost to me in aura clash, and you'd lose in a real fight too. Now, I'll take eighty percent of the treasures in these ruins—you get twenty!"
By now, Terry Xie had already subdued every sect in Battlefront Province, and even brought five Fusion experts under his command. To him, the Fusion ancestors of the three families weren't worth considering.
What?!
The three Fusion ancestors were instantly furious at his words. The Chen Ancestor laughed in rage, summoned an ancient longsword with a grab: "Terry Xie, you're going too far! If that's how it is, then let's fight!"
"That's right! Did you really think the three of us old men are made of clay? Terry Xie, you're forcing us into a battle!"
The Jin Ancestor's body flickered, and a layer of fiery red battle armor appeared on him. He seemed to be bathed in flames, wielding a two-meter-long warblade.
The Ning Ancestor reached out with both hands, and suddenly a short spear appeared in his grasp.
"Trying to win with numbers?" Terry Xie sneered. "Alright, everyone—come out!"
As soon as he spoke, five figures flashed and landed behind Terry Xie.
The moment they saw these five, the three Fusion ancestors' newly gathered momentum instantly faltered—because all five were Fusion experts.
"I never thought you five would actually end up working for Branch Master Xie!"
The Chen Ancestor spoke with a complicated expression.
"Brother Chen, Sister Jin, Brother Ning—greetings!"
One of the Fusion experts stepped forward and cupped his fists to the three.
"Greetings, Brother Feng!"
The three Fusion ancestors gave bitter smiles and returned the salute. Then the other four Fusion experts also greeted the three ancestors in turn.
"Now I declare: once the ruins open, your three families will get ten percent!"
Terry Xie's voice rang out again.
At these words, the three Fusion ancestors looked as if they were about to spit fire, but the opposing side was simply too strong—even if the three teamed up, they were nowhere near a match.
"Fine, we'll do as Branch Master Xie says!"
After exchanging glances, the three could only swallow their frustration and agree.
Off to the side, Ian Song couldn't help but think, as expected. Just as he'd guessed, Terry Xie really had subdued those five Fusion-stage leaders from the top sects. Luckily, he hadn't acted rashly—if he'd been ambushed by all those Fusion experts, even with the Art of Great Teleportation, he might not have escaped.
Seeing the three Fusion ancestors agree, Terry Xie turned to the Soul-Split experts behind him and ordered, "You lot, go break the formation!"
"Yes, sir!"
Four Soul-Split experts stepped forward and headed for the valley. All of them were formation masters, each at peak Mystic-grade—just one step away from advancing to Earth-grade.
Unfortunately, the formation here had been laid jointly by Ian Song and Evan Huang—equivalent to two Earth-grade formation masters working together. What's more, the outermost illusion array was a simplified version of an Immortal-grade array. Ordinary low-level formation masters couldn't break it, let alone four Mystic-grade ones.
Sure enough, after a full half hour of surveying and tinkering, the four formation masters still couldn't break the array.
Just then, dozens of treasure ships suddenly appeared at the foot of the Qilian Mountains. The lead ship was enormous and pitch-black, with a terrifying three-headed ghost-god statue at its prow.
"Qilian Mountain is now a forbidden zone! Anyone who enters without permission will be killed!"
A Chen-clan early Soul-Split expert soared into the sky and shouted harshly at the treasure ships, making no effort to be polite.
"How dare you! Qilian Mountain is Ghost-God Sect territory. Who are you—state your name at once!" A Soul-Split early-stage expert stepped forward, loudly rebuking.
This man was the Ghost-God Sect's second Soul-Split early-stage expert, serving as the sect's vice master. His strength was only half a notch below Yinyang Gale's.
"Ghost-God Sect is nothing! I'm an elder of the Chen family, one of the three great families of the provincial capital!" The Chen-clan Soul-Split expert replied with pride.
Someone from the Chen family!
Hearing this, the Ghost-God Sect's vice master couldn't help but change expression slightly. The Chen family was a first-rate power, far stronger than the Ghost-God Sect.
Just then, two figures shot into the air, crying out, "Sect Master, it's him! He killed the young sect master—please avenge him!"
A figure flickered, and another person appeared on the bow—it was Yinyang Gale. He reached out and grabbed the two Nascent Soul cultivators onto the deck, his gaze cold as he stared at them and demanded, "Are you saying it was him who killed Tiger Gale?"
"Yes, Sect Master! The young sect master only offended him with words, and he killed him for it. Please avenge him!" the two Nascent Soul cultivators sobbed.
"Good. Very good!" Yinyang Gale nearly ground his teeth to dust, then turned to the Chen-clan Soul-Split expert: "So, you killed my son?"