125: Chapter 125 Ten miles outside the city, a murderous aura surged!

The vast procession of people seeing him off stretched all the way to the towering South Heaven Gate of Central State City.

"Senior, take care!"

Mo Wentian stood solemnly beneath the city gate, bowing deeply once more toward the receding figure in green robes on the ox's back, his wide cloud-patterned sleeves almost brushing the ground.

Behind him, the Elders of Tianji Pavilion and countless Cultivators formed a vast, dark sea, all bowing in unison with perfectly synchronized movements.

"Respectfully seeing off Senior!"

The roar of their voices converged into a torrent that surged into the sky, shaking the sea of clouds in the firmament, causing them to churn endlessly and linger for a long time.

Su Changge rode on the back of the Old Yellow Ox, his back turned to the masses. He simply raised an arm and waved it casually behind him, without looking back.

It was not that he did not want to, but rather he dared not.

He feared that if he turned around, the mask of indifference he was struggling to maintain would shatter on the spot, revealing the panic churning within his very entrails.

The Old Yellow Ox carried him, its four hooves stepping onto the hard bluestone official road with crisp, unhurried sounds. Finally, it stepped out of the shadow cast by the open city gate, embarking on an endless road leading into the vast, wild world outside the city.

The majestic city behind him and the sky-shaking clamor were diluted and swallowed up in both sight and sound as the distance increased, eventually becoming a mere ink dot on the horizon, completely vanishing into silence.

Between heaven and earth, a heart-palpitating dead silence returned.

Su Changge's spine, which had been taut as a bowstring, finally slumped slightly, and a thin layer of cold sweat seeped out.

"Finally... out."

He turned his head and glanced at the blurred outline of Central State City in the distance; the heart in his chest was still pounding like a war drum.

If he were roasted any longer by those thousands of fanatical, worshipful gazes, he truly feared that his Divine Soul would collapse before he could complete this grand charade.

However, before his taut nerves could relax for even a moment, an icy, bone-chilling coldness rose silently from his tailbone, climbing up his spine and pouring directly into his crown.

It was too quiet.

A kind of lifeless, death-like silence.

The dense forests on either side of the official road, which should have been teeming with life, were silent; not a single insect chirped, nor could a bird call be heard. Everything was hushed, and even the wind seemed to have frozen.

Finally, a breeze blew past, but what it brought to his cheeks was not the freshness of vegetation or the coolness of the mountains, but a thick, inseparable stench of iron mixed with dried blood.

The main thoroughfare, which should have been bustling with carriages and endless streams of merchants, was now so empty that not a single living soul could be seen, resembling a forgotten road to the Yellow Springs, leading to the netherworld.

"Moo—"

The Old Yellow Ox beneath him stopped without warning, its thick hind hooves pawing the ground anxiously, creating a harsh, grinding sound. It lowered its head, exhaling two jets of scorching white mist from its nostrils, a dull warning emanating from the depths of its throat.

Su Changge's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty as he swallowed a mouthful of icy saliva.

What could not be avoided had finally come.

In the next instant, a silent warning exploded within his Sea of Consciousness, and a blood-colored light screen aggressively covered his entire consciousness!

【Killing Intent Locked! Extreme Threat!】

【Divine Sense Scan Initiated...】

【Three miles directly ahead, Ancient Forest: Primeval Imperial Clan. Three individuals with an Aura comparable to the Late Nascent Soul Stage, and fifty Golden Core guards. Source of killing intent: Arrogance, Greed.】

【Five miles to the left, Canyon: Shadow Demon Sect Alliance. Twelve Middle Stage Nascent Soul evil Cultivators. Source of killing intent: Resentment, Bloodthirst.】

【High altitude to the right, clouds: Unknown. Three individuals. Threat Rank: Catastrophic Disaster! Source of killing intent: None.】

The series of scarlet, eye-piercing Divine Sense imprints caused the blood throughout Su Changge's body to freeze into ice in an instant.

"...Three waves of people?"

His teeth were chattering slightly, and his mind went blank.

"The Primeval Imperial Clan and the Shadow Demon Sect... I can accept that, but what on earth is this 'Catastrophic Disaster'? Source of killing intent is 'None'? What does this mean!"

"Are they treating me as a walking treasure vault, or some divine legacy left behind by a forgotten era? To actually draw such a formation, a net of heaven and earth, attacking from all sides?"

Su Changge felt his legs go weak, and his bones and marrow were trembling uncontrollably, nearly causing him to lose his sitting posture and roll off the ox's back.

At this moment, only one thought remained in his mind—run!

But the blood-colored net presented by the Divine Sense warning had long since turned the ten-mile radius into a dead zone; front, back, left, right, sky, and ground—there was no escape!

Calm down!

Must calm down!

Su Changge, you are not Su Changge; you are a peerless Master, you are an Incarnation of the Dao Ancestor!

You cannot panic; once you panic, you are truly dead!

His left hand, hanging by his side, dug its nails deeply into the flesh of his thigh. The sharp, excruciating pain transformed into a bolt of lightning, forcibly allowing his chaotic thoughts to regain a sliver of clarity.

Under the intense pain, a trace of bored ease appeared on his face, and he even hummed a discordant country tune from the depths of his past life's memories. He stretched out his hand and gently patted the coarse, hard neck of the Old Yellow Ox.

"Old Huang, don't be afraid."

His voice was not loud, but it was crystal clear, carrying a hint of indifferent amusement.

"They are just a few flies buzzing around, a bit noisy."

The Old Yellow Ox, whose neck he was patting: "..."

Meanwhile, in the shadows.

All three parties locked their respective Divine Thoughts—some vast, some sinister, some void-like—tightly onto the youth in green robes riding the thin ox in the middle of the official road.

Within the camp of the Primeval Imperial Clan, the Divine Thought of the leading Elder with golden horns fluctuated, resonating within the Sea of Consciousness of his clansmen, his tone incomparably grave.

"This person is indeed fearless! Trapped in such a killing trap, he still has the leisure to hum a mortal tune! This Heart-Nature is inconceivable!"

"Do not act rashly. An existence that could make our Clan Emperor issue an edict stating that he 'cannot be overcome by force, only by strategy' is definitely not something we can easily fathom."

Another Elder replied: "Correct. Let those dirty demon brats from the Shadow Demon Sect go and scout the path first."

"They are always greedy and fearless of death; it is perfect to use their lives to weigh this person's measure. Us sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight is the superior strategy!"

On the other side, in the shadows of the canyon, the twelve Nascent Soul evil Cultivators of the Shadow Demon Sect were also communicating using secret arts, their Divine Thoughts filled with undisguised malice.

"Hehehe... This boy's Qi and blood, even from this far away, smell so sweet; he is simply a natural treasure medicine!"

"He killed the Shadow Devouring Ghost Lord; this hatred is irreconcilable! Today, we must extract his Divine Soul and refine his flesh and blood to comfort the spirit of the Ghost Lord in heaven!"

"Something is strange... What is the background of those three in the sky? Their Aura is bizarre, not like living beings, more like three walking ancient corpses, yet they contain a pressure sufficient to make us tremble."

Deep within the highest clouds, three figures clad in lightless black robes and wearing ancient bronze masks stood like three eternal stone statues, completely isolated from the surrounding space.

Their very existence was like a mistake that should not have appeared in this world.

"Target confirmed." One of them spoke, their voice sounding like two rusted iron plates rubbing against each other in the Void Realm, devoid of any emotion.

"The Supreme black card of Tianji Pavilion, and that ancient copper coin suspected to be the 'great dao mother coin', are all on him."

"'Tian Shu's' order: At all costs, recover them."

The third person added: "Wait for those two bunches of trash below to exhaust his protective Magic Treasure or Restriction, then we will strike to ensure nothing goes wrong."

The three forces, each harboring their own ulterior motives, were all aware of the others' presence, and all were waiting for someone else to lose their patience first.

Everyone wanted to be the oriole that strikes last to harvest everything.

For a time, the official road, overflowing with killing intent and already a dead zone, fell into a strange stalemate.

Su Changge, riding on the ox's back, had already greeted the eighteen generations of ancestors of these three groups of ambushers in his heart.

"Not fighting, not leaving, just surrounding me here—is this a competition to see who can hold their breath longer?"

He knew very well that a stalemate was most disadvantageous to him. The longer the time dragged on, the more likely the tiger skin of his disguise would be seen through.

Must break this situation!

Of course, not by fighting, but... by using his Aura to scare a gap into this net of heaven and earth!

Su Changge yanked the reins, and the Old Yellow Ox stopped in the center of the official road.

He raised his eyelids, his pitch-black eyes scanning every inch of the surrounding forests, every canyon, and every cloud with a gaze that seemed slow but was actually fast, yet carried immense oppressive pressure.

He had no idea of the enemies' exact locations, but that did not hinder him from starting his performance.

A faint trace of mockery slowly bloomed at the corners of his lips.

A breeze rose again, lifting a few withered leaves on the official road.

A voice followed, not loud, but it clearly drilled into every inch of the space shrouded in killing intent, drilled into the ears of every ambusher, and even drowned out the Divine Thought communication within their Seas of Consciousness.

"Followed me for the whole way, aren't you tired?"

As his voice fell, he paused slightly, and the playfulness and impatience in his eyes became even more intense.

"Since you are here, why hide your heads and show your tails, acting all mysterious?"

"Come out, all of you."