Chapter 1 How Did These People Find Me?

Gu Xiaoman silently healed her injuries while pondering.

These enforcers acted in formation, sharing a closed spiritual network... Under normal circumstances, the spiritual network could quickly confirm the location of team members.

This was also why enforcers had arrived so quickly during the previous battle.

But Gu Xiaoman hadn't joined their spiritual network at all, and as for the communicator, she had left it on the cloud ship.

She was acting alone, so a communicator was useless!

"First, recover from my injuries and recuperate my spirit."

Gu Xiaoman immersed her spirit into the Ring of Clouds. The three clouds engraved on the ring quickly began to flow.

Her consciousness immersed itself in a misty, snow-white world.

The Ring of Clouds was a sealed artifact bestowed by the Sky Divine Seat, a cultivation treasure that countless people in the Origin Tower dreamed of. As long as a wisp of spirit was immersed in it, one could quickly focus their mind. This was equivalent to a 100% successful "observer's mindset," though after all, this was an external object, and its effect, while powerful, couldn't compare to a true "observer's mindset."

Even when not immersed in cultivation, this ring would occasionally transmit warm currents to calm the minds of transcendents.

Gu Xiaoman slowly exhaled and closed her eyes.

She quickly immersed herself in the spiritual dream of the Ring of Clouds, but before long, her heartstrings were touched!

"So fast... someone's coming?"

The little one suddenly opened her eyes. The sense of danger she felt was faint, but she acted the moment it appeared, without hesitation.

Gu Xiaoman quickly grabbed her cloak, draped it over herself, and hurried out of the cave, disappearing into the snowy wilderness.

Dozens of seconds later.

A five-person team appeared at the foot of the snow mountain. The team was small, and the leader was a member of the Cloud Tiger sect’s many candidates, with a cultivation realm of around Deep Sea seventh layer.

An enforcer spoke, "Lord Wu Yan, according to the coordinates, it should be nearby, but why can't we sense even a trace of her?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yan glanced at the enforcer behind him.

His team was moving very slowly, taking cautious steps in the snowfield.

Wu Yan said irritably, "Didn't you see the previous thunder storm? The coordinates were directly refreshed near us... It might not be a good thing. If we really encounter that little monster, we'll be in trouble."

"That's true..."

The enforcer paused, recalling Hidaer's miserable state, and couldn't help but swallow hard.

His team's strength couldn't compare to Hidaer's.

It was said that Gu Xiaoman carried many treasures. The five thunder beads she had just thrown out were probably just one of her many life-saving measures.

"It seems this siege... will be very long..."

After circling around the foot of the snow mountain, Wu Yan found the cave that had been opened and then reburied. He reached out and brushed away the snow and dust covering it, letting out a long sigh.

Half regret, half relief.

"It seems she sensed something was wrong and ran away ahead of time."

Wu Yan stood up and saw several barely noticeable black dots appearing on the snow mountain in the distance.

Clearly, other teams had arrived.

Wu Yan picked up his communicator and said, "Gu Xiaoman has changed her hiding place... No need for everyone to come."

The message was sent out.

The teams that had already appeared on the snow mountain also completed their spiritual force scans and confirmed that Wu Yan's team hadn't encountered a battle, so the confirmation message was sent out in the central control channel.

"Target loss confirmed, awaiting the next signal."

"Let's retreat and wait for the next coordinate refresh."

These candidates came from all over the world.

They were all considered geniuses in their respective areas. This trip to the Origin Tower was to compete for a higher position!

Some young transcendents with good potential had achieved good results in the Twin Gods Illusion, but after witnessing the strength displayed by geniuses like Hidaer, they lost confidence in becoming "divine envoys" and chose to leave.

Those who truly persisted until the Ice Sea mission were all people of firm will.

They knew Hidaer and Tou Seigetsu were strong!

But since the Origin Tower's list of divine envoys hadn't been finalized, anything was possible!

It was with this will that they boarded the cloud ship... and it seemed that if they wanted to compete with geniuses like Hidaer and seize a divine envoy seat, a one-on-one fight was out of the question.

Their greatest opportunity was to be the first to kill that ten-year-old "Red Dragon Heir"!

For this goal, they had given everything.

Step by step.

In the end, they would rather die and willingly give everything for the final gamble.

……

……

Wu Yan squatted in front of the stone cave for several minutes.

For some reason, he felt that there was something strange about the stone cave, but after scanning it with his spiritual force, he didn't find anything unusual. After repeatedly confirming that there was nothing wrong, he stood up.

After the communication was cut off, the foot of the snow mountain became deathly silent, with only the faint howling of the cold wind as guidance.

When Wu Yan turned around, he understood why this place was so silent.

He turned around and saw five figures standing in front of him, including four enforcer team members... and a thin, cloaked girl sandwiched in between.

He almost instinctively reached for his communicator.

"Bang!"

Sparks flew!

The moment his fingertip touched the communicator, a burst of light and fire erupted!

The snow also began to tremble.

"Shh."

Gu Xiaoman's injured left hand was hidden in her cloak.

She extended her right hand, raised a finger to her lips, her face cold, and gently blew a breath, signaling Wu Yan not to speak.

"You... didn't leave?"

Wu Yan's pupils shrank.

He looked at the scene in disbelief. The four low-level transcendents standing beside Gu Xiaoman had gray eyes and appeared to be unable to resist.

In the pure white void of the ice field, a wisp of black crack bloomed in the stone cave, spreading like a spider web, eventually piercing through the thick snow layer and drilling into the feet of these four Origin Tower enforcers.

No wonder he had felt that something was wrong with the stone cave.

He had scanned it several times, but couldn't find anything wrong...

This was the spiritual ability that had been recently revised in the Central Continent Federation's transcendent rankings – Annihilation Dream!

So far, the world's understanding of Annihilation Dream was still very limited.

The last transcendent to possess this ability was Zhou Yu, the genius adjudicator from East Continent, who unfortunately died young.

And now, Gu Xiaoman, who possessed Annihilation Dream, was younger and more talented than Zhou Yu, and had received the Wine Seed's early designation!

She was an even more powerful genius than Zhou Yu!

"Why should I leave?"

Gu Xiaoman smiled hoarsely, stared at the seventh-layer candidate, and asked with a hint of mockery, "Didn't you lift the alert for me? Besides... the most dangerous place is also the safest, isn't it?"

"..."

Wu Yan's expression was a little ugly.

He noticed that the snow layer around him had also been enveloped by Annihilation Dream.

With just a thought, his spiritual sea would be violently attacked!

Even if Gu Xiaoman was injured, he had no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation between equals.

"If I'm not mistaken, there should still be some time before the next 'coordinate' refresh, right? Otherwise, you would have caught up to me as soon as I left the cloud ship, and the initial siege... wouldn't have only been two people."

Gu Xiaoman narrowed her eyes, "Next, I ask, you answer. If your answers satisfy me, I might consider not killing you."

Wu Yan grinned, "What if I don't answer?"

"Just a candidate... is it worth risking your life?"

Gu Xiaoman said with some mockery, "You don't think that if you refuse to answer, the Origin Tower will build a tombstone for you and posthumously honor you as a hero, do you?"

With that, she waved her hand casually.

Sizzle!

The black light of Annihilation Dream engulfed an enforcer. In just a few seconds, the black crack completely skinned the enforcer alive. Blood splattered but didn't fall on either of them, and didn't even land on the snow. The dream constructed by Annihilation Dream devoured everything of the hypnotized person...

In other words, no one knew that an enforcer had died here.

He died in a dream.

And was buried in a dream.

"If you're unwilling to answer, then your ending will be the same as him... them."

Gu Xiaoman said expressionlessly and waved her sleeve continuously.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

Three black lights swept past, and all four Origin Tower enforcers were torn apart by Annihilation Dream!

This scene deeply shocked Wu Yan. His eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets... Gu Xiaoman was just over ten years old, very young, but he wasn't old either, just twenty. Although he had killed people, he had never seen anyone kill like this.

It was too terrifying.

Killing and disposing of bodies with a wave of the sleeve, all in one go.

Without even blinking an eye.

This wasn't a ten-year-old girl, this was simply a peerless demon!

"I'll give you three seconds to consider."

Gu Xiaoman looked at Wu Yan and threw out the first question, "How did you lock onto me?"

After speaking, she began to count down.

"Three."

"Two."

Before the last word could be uttered, Wu Yan's will had already collapsed. He abandoned his last line of defense and hissed, "Ring of Clouds... it's the Ring of Clouds!"

The sound didn't echo in the snowfield.

Because Annihilation Dream had already controlled everything within ten meters.

Although Gu Xiaoman hadn't yet condensed a "domain," countless black cracks were spreading wildly beneath the snow layer. With the power of Annihilation Dream, isolating these sounds was not a problem.

"Ring of Clouds..."

Gu Xiaoman's expression became extremely ugly.

No wonder she was being tracked even though she had cut off all contact.

She never expected that the final answer would be this—

"Ding!"

A clear and crisp sound.

Gu Xiaoman slowly took off the ring, held it up in front of her eyes, and examined it repeatedly, finding it more and more ironic.

This treasured ring that Qinglong had left her.

She loved it very much, always carrying it with her, never leaving her side.

In fact, it was a sharp knife stabbing her.

As long as she wore the Ring of Clouds, the enforcers of the Origin Tower would periodically receive messages.

It seemed that the previous assassinations were also due to the Ring of Clouds leaking information!

This was a scheme personally set up by the Sky Divine Seat—

Everyone in this Ice Sea mission was a member of the chess game, Gu Xiaoman was, and so were the candidates.

If they wanted to become divine envoys, they had to step over the corpses of others.

And if Gu Xiaoman wanted to become the Wine Lord, she needed to step over these piles of bones.

Even Yun Hu and Xuan Gui were just pawns on the chessboard.

They were all pawns that could be sacrificed for the Wine Lord.

Even if they died, Qinglong wouldn't even blink an eye.

And the Origin Tower in Central Continent, which was almost connected to the sky, looked magnificent on the outside, but when you stripped away the exterior, the interior was built from countless bones.

Hundreds of millions of bones stacked into a throne.

Only one person could reach the top.