Chapter 716: Plan within a Plan

Two golden rays of light appeared on the horizon and quickly flew into the hands of the beautiful middle-aged woman, revealing themselves to be a gleaming golden talisman.

A hundred-mile sound transmission talisman, it wasn't particularly valuable. When attacking Red Lotus Island, the Zhou family had deployed many cultivators to guard the perimeter, primarily to prevent Wang family cultivators from escaping and to maintain vigilance.

"This is bad! The Wang family's reinforcements have arrived! Retreat!"

The beautiful middle-aged woman didn't dare to delay. She quickly put away her magic treasure and led her people in retreat, without the slightest hesitation.

The Wang family cultivators exchanged glances. The enemy had suddenly retreated? Could it be a trap?

"Guard the island and observe the situation," Wang Ruyan instructed, letting out a soft breath. A thin layer of sweat seeped from her forehead.

If the enemy had continued fighting, they would have eventually breached the island's protective formation. After all, she was only at the first layer of Core Formation.

Not long after, two streaks of light appeared on the horizon, revealing Wang Changsheng and Wang Qingshan.

Behind them were Wang Qingjun and the others. Wang Qingjun and his group had cleared the small islands surrounding Misty Sea Island, plundering a batch of cultivation resources. The enemy's resistance had been fierce, resulting in eight casualties for the Wang family.

"Wife, are you all right?"

Wang Ruyan shook her head and smiled, "We're fine. Husband, why are you back? Weren't you going to attack Misty Sea Island?"

Wang Changsheng gave a wry smile and recounted what had happened.

He had used the Spirit Severing Palm and Turtle Scale Art in front of the Sea Mist Sect cultivators. While the Sea Mist Sect cultivators might not recognize these two spirit arts, the possibility couldn't be ruled out. They could no longer stay in the Red Moon Sea.

The current problem was that Wang Qingling and others were still with the Zhang family. Should they leave or not?

If they left, Wang Qingling and the others would likely not survive. If they didn't leave, the entire family would be in trouble.

Exposing secret arts was secondary. The Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate had allied to deal with the Zhang family, and the Zhang family would certainly not be able to survive. In that case, the Wang family, as a subordinate force of the Zhang family, would definitely be a target for the Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate to eliminate.

The battle had erupted very suddenly. There were over seventy Wang family cultivators on Red Lotus Island, with a small portion in Qingli Market and Qingli Island.

Wang Changsheng was somewhat puzzled. Zhang Wuchen, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, had been deceived so easily. He really didn't know how she had cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage.

Wang Changsheng hesitated repeatedly, planning to contact Immortal Zi Yue to see what her intentions were.

If the Zhang family were to be destroyed, Thousand Puppet Sect would also be unable to continue existing. Perhaps Immortal Zi Yue had other backup identities.

"Wife, Qingshan, guard Red Lotus Island well," Wang Changsheng instructed. "I'm going to Thousand Puppet Sect."

Wang Changsheng gave his instructions and left Red Lotus Island, heading straight for Thousand Puppet Sect.

At Thousand Puppet Sect, Immortal Zi Yue sat in the principal seat, her delicate eyebrows furrowed.

She had originally been cultivating, but suddenly intruders attacked. She had to emerge from seclusion to deal with them. Just as she managed to repel the intruders, the Zhang family sent someone.

It was Zhang Guangyang, a fifth-layer Core Formation cultivator, accompanied by two other Core Formation cultivators.

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, what exactly is going on here?" Immortal Zi Yue asked. "Didn't they say Sea Mist Sect and your Zhang family allied to destroy Whale Gate? How are Whale Gate's subordinate forces and Sea Mist Sect's subordinate forces allied to attack our Thousand Puppet Sect?"

Immortal Zi Yue's beautiful eyes were filled with confusion. She naturally saw that the Zhang family had fallen into a trap. If it was a trap, why had Zhang Guangyang come to Thousand Puppet Sect? It didn't make logical sense.

"Nothing much," Zhang Guangyang said. "The Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate merely allied to deal with our Zhang family. Our Zhang family knew it was a setup long ago. If you calculate the time, the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate should have already attacked Qingli Island by now. Heh heh, the self-detonating grand formation should be enough to give them a hard time. On the surface, it looks like our Zhang family fell for the trap, but in reality, they fell for it. We have the Myriad Swords Sect supporting us. If you calculate the time, we should be starting our counterattack now. Yellow Dragon Island in the Coral Sea, Silver Shark Island in the Blood Shark Sea, and Black Wind Gate in the Black Rock Sea will cooperate with us. I will lead you in the counterattack. Your Thousand Puppet Sect doesn't have just two Core Formation cultivators, right? I don't care how many Core Formation cultivators you have, but you must send one more Core Formation cultivator to cooperate with our counterattack. Fellow Daoist Li and the others will accompany them."

The Myriad Swords Sect is one of the Ten Great Sects of the South Sea, with a legacy spanning over ten thousand years and profound heritage.

Immortal Zi Yue was slightly stunned. She had never imagined that the Zhang family had actually gained the support of the Myriad Swords Sect. This war was not as simple as she had thought.

The Sea Mist Sect pretended to ally with the Zhang family to deal with Whale Gate, mobilizing a large number of Zhang family members. Then, experts from both factions attacked the Zhang family's main base. The truth was that the Zhang family had set a trap to ambush and eliminate the experts from both factions.

A Rank Four Array Master from the Myriad Swords Sect personally took action to set up the formation. With multiple Nascent Soul cultivators working together, even if they couldn't completely annihilate the experts of Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate, they could severely wound both factions.

The reason the Myriad Swords Sect mobilized forces against Whale Gate and Sea Mist Sect was simple: the leaders of these two factions had sided with the Sun-Moon Palace. Each of the Ten Great Sects of the South Sea had a legacy of over ten thousand years, and conflicts constantly erupted among them. The Ten Great Sects wouldn't personally engage in direct conflict, but the Myriad Swords Sect could instruct its subordinate forces to act.

Whether it was the Zhang family or the Sun-Moon Palace, their heritage was far inferior to that of the Myriad Swords Sect. The Myriad Swords Sect could crush them with a single palm strike.

Since the Myriad Swords Sect had conflicts with the Sun-Moon Palace, they naturally wouldn't idly watch the Sun-Moon Palace grow stronger.

If the Zhang family wanted to grow stronger, they had to initiate warfare and plunder cultivation resources. It would be difficult to expand and grow strong relying solely on farming and trade.

For this battle, the Zhang family did not inform their subordinate forces, letting them fall into ambushes. It wasn't until the experts from Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate attacked Qingli Island that the Zhang family sent people to gather the high-level cultivators of their subordinate forces and launch a major counterattack.

In this era, everyone had their own hidden intentions. Outsiders simply didn't know how many high-level cultivators a cultivation force possessed, and everyone would keep such information hidden. This was very normal.

A sharp whistling sound rang out. Immortal Zi Yue's delicate eyebrows furrowed. She took out a communication plate, and after imbuing it with a magic art, a male voice suddenly sounded: "Martial Uncle Zhao, Senior Wang has arrived. He says he has important matters to discuss with you. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Guangyang immediately became interested. "Senior Wang, it couldn't be the Wang family from Red Lotus Island, right?! They actually managed to break out of the encirclement! I wonder how Uncle Zhiyang and the others are doing."

To make the Sea Mist Sect and Whale Gate fall for the trap, Zhang Wuchen had not revealed the truth to too many clan members. Only those clan members participating in the counterattack knew the truth.

Zhang Wuchen had arranged for Zhang Guangyang to fake his death, sending him to another sea region to cultivate and helping him advance to the Core Formation stage, to be kept as a reserve force. If it weren't for the Myriad Swords Sect's intervention this time, Zhang Guangyang wouldn't have been called back.

"Train soldiers for a thousand days to use them for an hour" – the family had spent a large amount of resources helping him advance to the Core Formation stage, and now it was finally time to use him. Zhang Guangyang would surely perform well, expanding the family's territory.

"Please invite Fellow Daoist Wang in!" Immortal Zi Yue instructed. "Bring him to the discussion hall."

Immortal Zi Yue instructed, feeling much more at ease if Wang Changsheng were to accompany her.

If Zhang Guangyang hadn't personally come, she would not have been willing to participate in the counterattack.

A little less than a quarter of an hour later, Wang Changsheng walked in. He saw Zhang Guangyang and the two others, and was slightly surprised.