“Lady Hai, are you interested in setting up your own faction in the Sixth Pass?” 

Shang Pei stared at Yin Wanxiang in shock after hearing his invitation. 

“Alliance Leader Yin, are you joking? If I truly establish my power and join the alliance, wouldn’t you guys have to change the name of your alliance to the Six Peaks Alliance?” Shang Pei seemed a little dumbstruck by his suggestion.

Yin Wanxiang stared at her with an incomparably serious look on his face. “The Six Peaks Alliance doesn’t sound that bad. If you can join us, we’ll become a lot stronger than before. 

Seeing that Yin Wanxiang wasn’t joking, Shang Pei started to turn serious. “Alliance Leader Yin, I believe you should know that I am related to the powers of the You Continent, right?” 

Yin Wanxiang continued indifferently, “So what about it? We’re not in conflict with the You Continent. Moreover, I believe that your identity hasn’t been revealed by anyone.” 

Hearing what he said, Shang Pei finally understood that Yin Wanxiang was actually sincere in his invitation. His invitation for her to enter the Five Peaks Alliance was definitely genuine, but she felt that he was probably using her as a way to form some sort of relationship with the Tongyou Institution.

After thinking for some time, Shang Pei replied. “Establishing a power here and joining the Five Peaks Alliance isn’t a small matter. Alliance Leader Yin, please give me some time to think about it.” 

Nodding slightly, Yin Wanxiang muttered, “Of course. Today, our Five Peaks Alliance has already extended our control to more than 100 mountain peaks. Lady Hai, feel free to seek refuge in any one of them. I believe those outsiders won’t be gutsy enough to force their way into our territory.” 

“Alliance Leader Yin, I am grateful for your kindness. However, I believe that you can guess my intentions for staying in the Sixth Pass. I am still looking for someone and I’ve bothered you enough. I don’t think I should remain here and cause more trouble for your Five Peaks Alliance…” Shang Pei rejected his goodwill nonetheless. After she spoke, she cupped her fists towards Yin Wanxiang before turning to leave.

Seemingly having thought of something, She turned back to Yin Wanxiang and asked, “I would like to extend my thanks to your Five Peaks Alliance for the help and protection all this while. Regardless of whether I form my own faction in the Sixth Pass or not, I will definitely repay the favor in the future!” 

A smile appeared on Yin Wanxiang’s face. Before she could turn around again, Yin Wanxiang started to speak. “Since that’s the case, I’ll tell you something that might help you a little. Even though it hadn’t been verified, there were rumors going around that Ye Yifan, the Harmonious River Master, is a nominal disciple of the Martial Dipper Realm expert, Feng Yezi. Ancestor Feng Yezi has never admitted their master-disciple relationship to the world, but…” 

A look of understanding appeared on Shang Pei’s face all of a sudden and a layer of fog seemed to lift before her eyes. Chuckling softly, she mentioned, “Alliance Leader Yin, you have great information sources alright. You even managed to find out something like that. I truly admire your sources!” 

“With the chaotic situation all around us, having good intelligence is the key to survival. Lady Hai, I had to do what I had to to survive. I must have embarrassed myself…” Yin Wanxiang sighed.

Falling into silence, Yin Wanxiang no longer said anything else as Shang Pei turned to leave. No one knew what he was thinking about.

Sometime after Shang Pei left, a figure appeared behind Yin Wanxiang and asked, “Brother Wanxiang, are you just going to let her leave?” 

“Brother Fang, what do you mean?” Yin Wanxiang asked without turning his head. 

Staying quiet for a little while, Fang Ruhai eventually spoke up. “She should be looking for Young Master Shang Xia from the Shang Clan of the You Continent, right?” 

A frown appeared on Yin Wanxiang’s face and he muttered, “Brother Fang, we’re on the same boat now. We’ll prosper and suffer together. There’s no need to hide anything from each other. Just speak your mind.” 

Despite being hurried by Yin Wanxiang, Fang Ruhai continued to remain silent. However, Yin Wanxiang was in no rush as he silently awaited Fang Ruhai to continue talking.

Finally unable to keep it in, Fang Ruhai growled, “Brother Wanxiang, aren’t you thinking of using her to locate Young Master Shang so you can obtain his Abyssal Blade?!” 

Turning to stare at Fang Ruhai, Yin Wanxiang snapped, “Brother Fang, why would you think of something like that?!” 

“Am I wrong? Don’t tell me you’re really trying to make our Five Peaks Alliance into the Six Peaks Alliance.” Fang Ruhai grumbled unwillingly.

“Why not?” Yin Wanxiang returned his question with one of his own. He paused for a second before speaking seriously. “The Abyssal Blade isn’t something you or I can covet. I hope Brother Fang can give up on whatever scheme you’re thinking of in case you drag all of us into another disaster.” 

“What’s the problem?! Shang Xia barely entered the Martial Extermination Realm. Even if he has a divine weapon, why can’t we force him to give it up?” Waiting a little, Fang Ruhai continued, “Brother Wanxiang, you have already refined your fourth extermination origin. With the inheritance of the Abyssal Sect, all of us experienced a huge increase in strength. Even the great families of the Ji Continent aren’t necessarily stronger than us. Why can’t we covet a divine weapon for ourselves?! What’s more, it’s just a damaged one!” 

Yin Wanxiang glared at Fang Ruhai and his tone turned cold. “If Kou Chongxue is supporting you silently, there’s no need to mention a damaged divine weapon. You can swing about 2 divine weapons and everyone can only be envious of you.” 

Thinking he understood what Yin Wanxiang meant, Fang Ruhai continued, “Brother Wanxiang, do you mean that our Five Peaks Alliance can’t possess a divine weapon because we lack a Martial Dipper Realm expert? Brother Wanxiang, you cannot forget. Shang Xia has a piece of origin dipper on him! Are you really willing to give up on a chance like that?” 

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

Yin Wanxiang’s calm expression finally fluctuated slightly. However, he released a huge sigh eventually. “Brother Fang, you don’t understand anything! Listen to my advice. Do not get yourself involved in this matter. Otherwise, even if we use the entirety of the power our Five Peaks Alliance possesses, we won’t be able to save you.” 

Maybe it was because of how serious Yin Wanxiang was, Fang Ruhai finally fell silent.

“Then why did you choose the Tongyou Institution?” Another voice came from the side. 

Turning to stare in the direction of the voice, Yin Wanxiang raised a single eyebrow in surprise. He was greeted with the sight of Jiang Weiyun stepping out from the void.

“What about it?” Yin Wanxiang asked.

Chuckling softly, Jiang Weiyun explained, “Brother Wanxiang, you seem like you’re planning to befriend the Tongyou Institution. Our Five Peaks Alliance might have established ourselves and we can exert our dominance over various powers, but we haven't found a suitable backer. With our current strength, won’t it be better for us to lean towards the Divine Capital Sect, White Deer Sect, or Zhongxuan Gate? Aren’t those better choices than the Tongyou Institution? Why are we choosing a power so far away? Moreover, what’s the point of showing our goodwill to Kou Chongxue? From what we saw, neither the Divine Capital Sect or the Zhongxuan Gate likes him. He even directly offended the White Deer Sect and the conflict between them doesn't seem to be resolving itself anytime soon. If we choose to befriend the Tongyou Institution, they won’t be very happy with us either.” 

Shooting Jiang Weiyun a deep stare, a light sigh eventually left Yin Wanxiang’s lips. “Brother Jiang, Brother Fang, it’s easier to add flowers to a brocade than it is to provide help in someone's hour of need. We should try to show our goodwill to the Tongyou Institution and help them precisely because they seem to be in a bad situation. Our help will seem a lot more precious then. What’s more, the reason we established the Five Peaks Alliance is so that we can control our fate. The Sixth Pass of our Taihang Mountains is currently a battlefield where those powers you mentioned are using to fight against each other. If we choose to stand with any one of them, we’ll be essentially declaring war on the rest!” 

“Brother Wanxiang, do you mean… Do you mean that we’re holding off helping those fighting in the region because they’re not offering us enough benefits?” Jiang Weiyun gasped.

“Something like that.” Yin Wanxiang regained his composure before replying.

Having understood his intentions, Jiang Weiyun and Fang Ruhai turned to leave.

Looking at their leaving figures, Yin Wanxiang sighed to himself, “It’s difficult to make strategic decisions with such far-reaching consequences… This is truly a heavy burden we have to bear…” 

…

After leaving the territory of the Five Peaks Alliance, Shang Pei found a secluded land to recover her inner qi.

She had been hunted down for a long time and she was exhausted both physically and mentally. She needed some time to recover, but she didn’t know how long she had before Ye Yifan and Zhang Luofei caught up.

It didn’t take long before a disturbance appeared. She couldn’t help but stop circulating her inner qi. 

Luckily, it wasn’t because of Zhang Luofei or Ye Yifan. She felt a piece of talisman trembling in her sleeves and a trace of light quickly enveloped it.

With a look of excitement on her face, she rose into the air once again as she extended her divine perception as far as she could.

It didn’t take too long for her to discover something. Sparing through the air, she saw a ray of light flying at her. She reached out to grab it and the ray of light turned into a transmission talisman that lay quietly in her hand. She skimmed its contents and saw several secret codes that she had mentioned to Shang Xia before. For the first time in 2 months, Shang Pei placed down the worries in her heart.

Unfortunately, the feeling of respite didn’t last long. Because she was looking for the talisman, she released her divine perception without inhibition. She didn’t try hiding her presence at all and it was easy for anyone tens of miles away to discover her existence.

She understood the situation she was in because of her outburst earlier and quickly restrained her divine perception. She knew she had to leave her current location as soon as possible. 

As she made her way away, the look of worry that had been stuck on her face for the past 2 months was gone.

Hurrying in the northern direction, Shang Pei tried to conceal her presence the best she could. Even so, she knew that Ye Yifan and Zhang Luofei would be catching up to her soon.

She was right. After hundreds of miles of travel, Shang Pei saw 2 streaks of light flying at her from both her left and right. It wouldn’t take long before they would appear in her path.

The situation seemed very different from what Shang Pei was used to.

In the past, one of them would locate her before the other, and they would try to stall her as long as they could while waiting for the other to arrive. This time, it seemed as though they had located her at the same time!

Could the transmission talisman be fake? 

However, she quickly tossed the doubt out of her mind. Since the secret code in the transmission was correct, there was no way it was fake.

Whatever the case, the pressing matter was to break through their encirclement. If she failed to do so, the message she received in the transmission symbol earlier would be useless.

“Lady Hai, where do you think you’re going?” Zhang Luofei’s figure tore through the skies in a streak of frosty light.

“Youyan Chief, why are you going north? Aren’t you waiting for Young Master Shang Xia? I also heard that you received some news of him.” Ye Yifan yelled as soon as he arrived. A river of heaven and earth qi seemed to extend far behind him as he flew through the air.

If Shang Xia were to see him, he would recognize that Ye Yifan was the Martial Extermination Realm expert in the Abyssal Secret Region who fought with his fists. 

“Hey, you freaks, why the hell are you sticking to me like that? Don’t tell me that took a fancy to me!” Shang Pei tactically changed the topic. At the end of the day, she was part of the bandit group that wreaked havoc on the Ji Continent for so long. Her manner of speech was extremely shameless and if they were planning to fight with words, she would be able to come up with so much bullshit that they would question their existence. “Heh, why are you guys in such a hurry? Even if you’re interested in me, we should be going at it one by one, right? From how anxious you’re acting right now, are you planning to make this into a threesome?!” 

Because Shang Pei had escaped from the two of them countless times before, they were extremely enraged and embarrassed by her actions. That was why they decided to appear together to stop her for good. They thought that victory was at hand and they wanted to use the opportunity of taking down Shang Pei to establish their prestige in the Sixth Pass of the Taihang Mountains. When they just appeared, they spoke extremely loudly to attract as much attention as they could. When Martial Extermination Realm experts used their inner qi to yell, their voices would probably reach hundreds of miles away.

Who would have thought that Shang Pei would immediately twist their words and make them seem so shameless? 

Regardless if it was Zhang Luofei or Ye Yifan, they came from prestigious backgrounds. When had they ever had to deal with someone who screamed and twisted their words to such a frightening extent? 

It was too late for regrets as their conversation quickly traveled through the Sixth Pass. No one knew how many cultivators in the Sixth Pass heard what they said, but those who could remain in the Sixth Pass weren’t great people anyway. The juicy conversation among the Martial Extermination Realm experts hit all the right spots and it was quickly spread through the lands.