A woman appeared in front of Yang Ye, and she was exactly Ding Shaoyao who’d utilized a Random Teleportation Talisman to flee just now.
Actually, she hadn’t utilized a Random Teleportation Talisman at all, and it was a Cloaking Talisman instead. Yang Ye had only seen records of Cloaking Talismans in Lin Shan’s books, and he hadn’t seen one in his life. He hadn’t imagined that he would actually see one here. Moreover, the quality of her Cloaking Talisman wasn’t low at all. It was at the mid-grade at least. Otherwise, it would be impossible for her to deceive Medusa just now!
“You’re a talisman master!” Ding Shaoyao gazed at Yang Ye while she still held a talisman in her hand, and she said, “Only a talisman master would be able to see through the difference between a Cloaking Talisman and Random Teleportation Talisman. Based on your dressing, you’re not from the Ocean of Anarchy, and you should be from the southern territory or Ancient Domain City. As for your objective, it’s probably not the Ocean of Anarchy but the central territory, right?”
A monstrous genius! Yang Ye’s eyelids twitched. She’s truly intelligent. She was actually able to guess my origins and destination. She isn’t inferior to Qin Xiyue at all!
“8th level Sword Intent and the ability to defeat an Exalt Realm expert while at the Spirit Realm. There’s only a single person capable of that in the entire southern territory, and that’s the Sword Emperor. You should be the Sword Emperor, Yang Ye, right?” said Ding Shaoyao.
“Sometimes, being too smart isn’t always a good thing!” Yang Ye’s eyes narrowed slightly. Because she was too smart, and it even made him feel slightly fearful.
Ding Shaoyao grinned and said, “We should be able to become friends because we have a common enemy!”
“A common enemy?” Yang Ye frowned.
Ding Shaoyao walked over slowly to Yang Ye and said, “I’ve investigated you, and I have some knowledge about you. If I’m not wrong, you’re probably heading to the central territory to stop Luo Jun from obtaining the World Portrait, right?”
A ray of light flashed before Void Flash was pressed against Ding Shaoyao’s neck. However, the latter revealed no fear at all. Conversely, she was still smiling. However, her countenance was too pale, so this smile seemed to be quite strange.
“You’ve investigated me? Young Miss Ding, I don’t think I know you, right?” Yang Ye felt a trace of danger from her. It was slightly funny because a light flick of his sword could remove her head from her neck. However, he’d aroused a feeling of fear towards her within the depths of his heart.
“Must you insist on talking to me like this?” Ding Shaoyao gazed at Yang Ye as if she was talking to a friend, and her voice was very calm.
Yang Ye took a deep glance at her, and then he put Void Flash away. He said, “Young Miss Ding, can you answer my question now? Don’t tell me that my reputation has spread to the Ocean of Anarchy.”
“Since the Mortal Emperor severed the barrier between the southern territory and central territory, I headed to the southern territory out of curiosity. Once I got there, all sorts of rumors about you were being spread throughout the southern territory, and it aroused my curiosity. So, I utilized my connections to obtain information about Young Master Yang. But I never expected that I would meet you in person today!” said Ding Shaoyao.
“Then how did you find out that I intend to head to the central territory to stop Luo Jun?” asked Yang Ye in a low voice.
“Because I’ve investigated Luo Jun as well!” Ding Shaoyao said, “The Mortal Emperor needs the World Portrait in order to conquer the southern territory. Because the World Portrait would allow him to speed up his conquest of the human world. So, since Young Master Yang is his enemy, then you would naturally intend to stop him from obtaining the World Portrait. Now, Young Master Yang has appeared here and intends to head to the Ocean of Anarchy, so….” Ding Shaoyao grinned when she spoke up to this point, and she didn’t continue.
Yang Ye fell silent for a moment before he said, “Young Miss Ding, you said that we have a common enemy. What did you mean?”
“Let’s head to Still Ridge and talk about it. Because it won’t be long before the members of the Skydevil Sect arrive here. Alright?” Ding Shaoyao smiled.
Yang Ye said, “Young Miss Ding, didn’t you hear what Medusa said? There are Exalt Rank Darkbeasts on Still Ridge!”
“Why would I need to fear them when I have Young Master Yang by my side?” Ding Shaohao blinked at him.
Yang Ye was speechless.
Three middle aged men and Medusa arrived there not long after Yang Ye and Ding Shaoyao left.
“They’re gone!” The middle aged man in the lead glanced at the surroundings, and then he gazed at Medusa and said, “Did he really possess 8th level Sword Intent and utilized a Dao Artifact?”
“Big Brother, would I lie to you?” Medusa was slightly displeased that the middle aged man doubted her.
The middle aged man spoke with a solemn expression on his face. “Then it should be him. He’s probably the Sword Emperor of the southern territory. Only he has comprehended 8th level Sword Intent throughout the southern territory and possessed the Unfettered One’s sword from all those years ago, Void Flash! I never expected that he would come to the Ocean of Anarchy. I wonder why the Sect Master asked us to pay attention to his whereabouts? Alas, the Sect Master is cultivating behind closed doors right now, otherwise, we would be able to figure all of it out immediately!”
“Big Brother, what should we do now?” asked Medusa.
“Return to the sect and wait for the Sect Master to emerge from his closed door cultivation! Alas, it’s quite a pity. If we were able to capture Ding Yuan’s daughter, then we would definitely be able to make him hesitate from taking any action. Now that we don’t have Ding Shaoyao as a hostage, we’ve lost our qualifications to negotiate with him. With the strength and pride of the Ding Clan, they’ll definitely retaliate against us. So, we must return to the sect as soon as possible and wait for the Sect Master!” said the middle aged man in a low voice.
The others didn’t object to this. Even though Medusa was slightly unwilling, she didn’t object to it as well. She immediately nodded and vanished on the spot with the three middle aged men.
…
Still Ridge.
A bright moon hung high above in the sky and showered down faint rains of silver radiance that covered Still Ridge in a light silver veil.
A campfire was burning at an open space on the ridge, and it illuminated Yang Ye and Ding Shaoyao’s faces to the point it seemed slightly red.
“Young Master Yang, you didn’t choose to travel on your sword and have chosen to walk instead. I presume it’s to avoid someone, right?” said Ding Shaoyao.
“You should answer my question first. Why did you say that we have a common enemy? Could it be that your Ding Clan has enmity with Luo Jun as well?” asked Yang Ye. She was too intelligent to the point he felt slightly embarrassed of his inferiority. Why? Because he felt like he had no secrets before her.
Ding Shaoyao grinned and said, “There are countless powers in the Ocean of Anarchy, and the Skydevil Sect, Bluewave Sect, Nebula Sect, and Divine Mystery Sect are the strongest amongst them. Because they had numerous vassal islands and have Monarch Realm experts as their Sect Masters. However, the strongest power in the Ocean of Anarchy is my Ding Clan. Because my Ding Clan possesses 3 Monarch Realm experts and holds control of 60% of all spirit veins within Ocean of Anarchy and possesses the most vessels as well!
“One can say that all of these sects have to consider the opinion of my Ding Clan before they did anything in the Ocean of Anarchy. However, my Ding Clan didn’t act ruthlessly, and we allowed them to freely utilize the rest of the islands and spirit veins throughout the Ocean of Anarchy. That’s exactly why my Ding Clan has got along with those sects throughout the last 100 years, and this peace was only destroyed when the Mortal Emperor appeared.”
“Luo Jun has started his conquest of the Ocean of Anarchy?” asked Yang Ye in a low voice.
Ding Shaoyao nodded and said, “After he destroyed the barrier, the first thing he did was pay a visit to my Ding Clan. He hoped that my Ding Clan would support him, and he even provided abundant benefits for it. But my Ding Clan refused it in the end.”
“Why?” Yang Ye was puzzled. “The Mortal Emperor’s rise is imminent, and he has the support of the Exalted Han Empire and some extraordinary clans. It doesn’t seem like your Ding Clan has a reason to refuse him, right?”
“It was because of a single person!” Ding Shaoyao said, “My Ding Clan owes him a huge debt. He said that my Ding Clan would definitely suffer a calamity of destruction if it were to side with Luo Jun. So, it couldn’t be helped. My Ding Clan had no choice but to refuse Luo Jun!”
“You refused just because of a single person?” Yang Ye was astounded.
Ding Shaohao glanced at Yang Ye and said, “He is no ordinary person. Young Master Yang, you’ve probably heard of Xiao Tianji, right?”
The corners of Yang Ye’s mouth twitched. After all, how could he have possibly not heard of Xiao Tianji’s name? That was his father-in-law!
“You’re telling me that Xiao… Oh, Mister Xiao told your Ding Clan not to side with Luo Jun?” asked Yang Ye.
Ding Shaoyao nodded and said, “Who else other than him is capable of making my Ding Clan decide to fight against the current flow of the situation with just a few words? Luo Jun didn’t attack my Ding Clan when we refused him that day, and he just asked my Ding Clan to give it more consideration. But now it would seem like he’d actually started acting against my Ding Clan some time ago. If I’m not wrong, the Skydevil Sect and the other sects have probably sided with Luo Jun. Otherwise, they wouldn’t dare act against my Ding Clan no matter how brave they are!”
When he listened up to this point, Yang Ye could be said to have come to an understanding. At the same time, his heart felt slightly warm because Xiao Tianji was clearly helping him when Xiao Tianji spoke those words. Otherwise, it would have been very likely that the Ding Clan sided with Luo Jun. if the Ding Clan really sided with Luo Jun, then not to mention stopping Luo Jun, even travelling to the central territory would be a problem for him with the forces that the Ding Clan possessed throughout the Ocean of Anarchy!
Ding Shaoyao spoke abruptly. “I presume you don’t want the Ocean of Anarchy to fall into Luo Jun’s hands, right?”
Yang Ye said, “It should probably not be difficult for your Ding Clan to annihilate those powers with the strength it possesses, right?”
“It’s not difficult indeed. However, it would be impossible to say for sure if Luo Jun secretly assisted1 them,” said Ding Shaoyao.
“That’s your clan’s problem!” Yang Ye shook his head. He understood her intentions, and she intended to drag him down into her problems. If it was at any other time, then he wouldn’t mind helping the Ding Clan since he would have an opportunity to spoil things for Luo Jun. Yet now, the World Portrait was still the most important thing to him.
Once Luo Jun were to obtain the World Portrait, then it would be meaningless even if he’d helped the Ding Clan subdue the Ocean of Anarchy because Luo Jun could retake it at any time.
Moreover, while he was sworn enemies with Luo Jun, he didn’t want to be used by someone else!
“Young Master Yang, aren’t you afraid that my Ding Clan would side with Luo Jun?” asked Ding Shaoyao.
Yang Ye chuckled and said, “Of course I am. But so what? Could it be that I should allow myself to be used by the Ding Clan just because I’m afraid it would side with Luo Jun? Miss Ding, you’re a very smart person, and you’ve very good at discerning a person’s thoughts. I really admire that ability of yours. However, it doesn’t mean that you have me in the palm of your hand just because you’ve discerned my thoughts. If you Ding Clan wants to side with Luo Jun, then please feel free to go ahead!”
“Young Master Yang really is as the rumors said. You really do act willfully!” said Ding Shaoyao in a soft voice.
Roar!
Right at this moment, a wave of furious roars suddenly resounded from far away in the distance, and then the entire ground started trembling violently as if it was about to split apart.
“It’s my Ding Clan’s Savage Bear. The experts of my Ding Clan have arrived!” Ding Shaohao spoke softly. However, a wisp of a solemn expression had flashed through her eyes.
