The night was dark and the wind was high. The relentless gale of the Desolate Domain diluted the strong smell of blood on the cloud boat. One by one, the black-robed men were busy on the cloud boat, constantly washing away the bloodstains on the deck and in the cabin.
One by one, corpses with their eyes wide open in death were thrown from the boat onto the rocky beach. The bodies were quickly devoured by scavengers that swarmed in, drawn by the smell.
At the bow of the cloud boat, Zhao Sheng, He Ying, Mo Wushuang, Bao Yu'er, and the effeminate man gathered together, all with smiles on their faces.
They had just won a great victory in an ambush, despite not having practiced it beforehand.
The Zhou family did not expect that there was a traitor in their team, and that there were two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties due to the suddenness of the attack. Two of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators were seriously injured. Then, the Five Elements Envoys suddenly descended from the sky and wiped out the enemy in one fell swoop.
After the mission was accomplished, Zhao Sheng learned from He Ying that the effeminate man was actually a wood elementalist among the five elements, named Eunuch Huai, a Foundation Establishment Realm eunuch, and also a confidant of the Crown Prince.
That ambitious crown prince probably never imagined, even in his death, that his trusted chief eunuch was actually a spy for the Black Ice Guard.
Not to mention the Crown Prince, even Zhao Sheng felt a chill run down his spine after learning Eunuch Huai's identity, and couldn't help but exclaim, "The Black Ice Platform of the Great Yong Dynasty is terrifying indeed!"
Half an hour later, the cloud boat was thoroughly cleaned inside and out, and the men in black robes changed into the clothes of the Zhou family.
At this moment, He Ying clasped his hands in a fist salute to the effeminate man and said, "Eunuch Huai, we shall part ways here! I wish you a safe journey! And if you rise to great heights in the future, don't forget about us."
Grandpa Huai laughed and said, "Fourth Master, you're being too polite! I am, after all, one of the Five Elements. How can we forget our friendship of over a hundred years?"
Bao Yu'er smiled and said, "Brother Huai, I wish you a bright future ahead."
"Thank you for your kind words, Sister Bao! Time is very tight, so we can discuss some things in detail after we have completed our mission. Colleagues, I will take my leave now!"
A moment later, the cloud boat rose into the sky again and sped towards Yongjing.
Once the cloud boat had sailed away, He Ying's smile vanished. He turned to Zhao Sheng, Bao Yu, and Mo Wushuang, and said coldly, "Eunuch Huai has gone to perform meritorious service; we can't fall behind. Let's go!"
As he spoke, He Ying's robe billowed into a ball, and a large amount of gray light surged out from the bottom of the robe, lifting him off the ground. Then, the gray light wrapped him up and transformed into a cloud of gray haze, flying rapidly towards Hongyangzhou.
Bao Yu'er smiled sweetly, then suddenly transformed into a streak of fire and hurriedly chased after her.
Mo Wushuang did not move.
Just as Zhao Sheng was about to leave, he felt a gaze shot into his face from inside his helmet, carrying a faint, inexplicable emotion.
Zhao Sheng's heart stirred. He sheathed the invisible sword he was about to throw and instead released a cloud boat that was seven or eight zhang long.
After boarding the cloud boat, Zhao Sheng suddenly turned around and invited, "Fellow Daoist Mo, if you don't mind, how about I give you a ride?"
Mo Wushuang paused, his voice as firm as metal, and uttered a single word: "Good."
...
Meanwhile, the Zhou family members, each with their own thoughts, anxiously awaited news from Yongjing.
A day has passed.
Judging by the timeline, the Crown Prince has definitely already launched a coup.
However, not a single message came back from Yongjing.
The group of men sent earlier disappeared without a trace, as if they had vanished into thin air.
By this time, the Zhou family had a bad feeling.
Of course, even at this point, they hadn't expected the Mo family to have such a big appetite, actually wanting to wipe out the entire Zhou family in one fell swoop.
As a family of Golden Elixir cultivators with a history of over a thousand years, the Zhou family had many sources of information and quickly learned from other channels that a major upheaval had indeed occurred in Yongjing the previous night.
At this time, Yongjing had already activated the sealing formation, sealing off the entire city, making it almost impossible for any news to get through.
However, judging from the scattered news that came out before the city was sealed off, things didn't look good for the Crown Prince's side. They had managed to break into the capital, but after only half an hour, the shouts of battle inside the capital quickly subsided and fell silent.
Sensing that something was terribly wrong, the Zhou family members' faces turned extremely grim.
Thus, the conflict within the Zhou family erupted, and everyone spent a long day arguing, suffering, and regretting.
Just one day later, one piece of bad news after another arrived!
The first was that the Crown Prince's coup at Ziwei Palace failed, and he was stripped of his title, imprisoned in the Imperial Clan Palace, and kept under house arrest until his death.
Then came news that during the coup at Ziwei Palace, the Emperor was assassinated and his fate remains unknown.
This seemed like good news for the Zhou family, but just then, an outrageously bad piece of news suddenly arrived, sending chills down the spines of everyone in the family.
"One of the assassins is Zhou Zhonglu, a Foundation Establishment member of the Zhou family. His identity is beyond doubt!"
Zhou Yingze did not doubt the authenticity of the news, because it was spread at great risk by one of his family's assassins who had gone deep into the capital.
The atmosphere in the Zhou family's council hall was almost boiling with anxiety. Regret and remorse were like kerosene, ready to set the hall ablaze at the slightest spark.
"Impossible! He wouldn't be that stupid in the mid lane! There must be something fishy going on!"
"Seventh Master, you're right! There's something fishy about this. The Crown Prince wouldn't be so foolish as to involve Zhonglu in an assassination plot. Zhonglu isn't qualified for such a top-secret matter!"
"Hmph! Could this news be false?"
Zhou Yingze said with a solemn expression, "It can't be fake! This was spread by the family's assassins."
"Master, what should we do now?"
"Why hasn't our ancestor emerged from seclusion yet?"
"Patriarch, does the Ancestor know about this?"
Seeing the panicked and anxious elders, Zhou Yingze felt a surge of anger rising within him. A bunch of useless old fools! They're always good at sabotaging things, but when it comes to important matters, they're completely clueless!
But this was not the time to dwell on such things. Zhou Yingze forcibly suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice, "The Ancestor already knows about this matter and has issued a decree."
Upon hearing the patriarch's decree, the main hall immediately fell silent, and everyone looked expectantly at the patriarch.
Zhou Yingze didn't keep everyone in suspense and directly told everyone what the ancestor meant.
In summary, it can be described in sixteen characters: "Sacrifice pawns to save the chariot, cut losses to admit defeat, consolidate power, and let the four tribes resist the Mo!"
The first three are easy to talk about, but the four major families of Lion, Tiger, Owl and Wolf have a lot of dirty conflicts in their daily lives, which makes the Zhou family humbly ask the other three families for help, begging "brothers, please help your brothers."
Seeing the Zhou family in trouble, the other three families might not be willing to lend a hand; more likely, they would take advantage of their misfortune.
Seeing the elders' troubled expressions, Zhou Yingze roared, "Foolish! What time is it, and you're still worrying about saving face! If the Zhou family falls, do you think you'll have a good end?"
"Impossible! Our Zhou family, after all—"
"Fools! The knife's to your throats and you still can't see it! You're all so old, you've really wasted your lives."
After berating the bunch of fools, Zhou Yingze threatened, "You dare to disobey the decree issued by the Ancestor!"
Upon hearing this, everyone was immediately speechless.