The Fire Man took a sip of the tea slowly while exchanging a look with the Gold Spear Man, then said slowly, "Don’t complain that I did not take care for your Sky Cloud Martial School. I have come all the way here, what an honor for you! Too bad that some of you are not grateful at all."
Cloud Dreamer frowned, waiting for him to finish his sentence.
Putting down his teacup, the Fire Man said, "According to our source, we had found the nest of the Ghost Man."
"What? The nest of the Ghost Man?"
Cloud Dreamer’s expression changed. The Ghost Man was one of the one hundred and eight ghost warriors from the Nine Ghosts Cult. They were extremely notorious, and the people they had killed were numerous. People had referred him as the Old Demon, which was no exaggeration as all the top five martial schools from the Windy Nation had disciples who died at his hands. Countless Astral Reaching Realm warriors had been killed as well.
"So what if we had found it? After so many years, the Ghost Man’s power should have fully recovered to its peak. Plus, with his unique ability, even all of the Astral Reaching Realm warriors in the Windy Nation combined would not be his opponents." Judging solely on the battling power, although the Ghost Man was ranked at the bottom, however, he had the power of creating zombie warriors. With three or four zombie warriors combined together, their power would be even stronger than Astral Reaching Realm warriors, and the latter would be killed easily.
"Since I am here, then I naturally have the confidence to kill this old b*stard." The Fire Man looked extremely confident, as he continued to talk, "Back in the days, I was traveling around and had met four friends with the same values. Right now, two out of the four friends are here, one is the Gold spear Man who is sitting here, and the other one is the Mountain Man. Unfortunately, the Lake Man and the Wood Man could not make it. Otherwise, with their help, killing the Ghost Man could not be easier."
The Cloud Dreamer glanced at the Gold Spear Man. He obviously could tell that the Gold Spear man and the Fire Man were both at Mid Astral Reaching Realm. And according to the rumors, among the Natural Five, the Wood Man would be the most powerful one as a Late Astral Reaching Realm warrior. He knew one ancient martial art called the Dry Wood Palm art, and judging only on battling power, he would not lose out to the Ghost Man. Although the Lake Man was slightly weaker, he was also a peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm warrior. However, the Ghost Man’s ace attack allowed him to create rank 7 zombie warriors, which should not be underestimated.
"How did you find out about the nest of the Ghost Man?" Cloud Dreamer started at the Fire Man intensely. It was not because he did not trust him, but the Sky Cloud Martial School had gone through a very rough patch, and his brother disciple, the Dark Cloud Dreamer, had been killed as well. Although he did not have real evidence, he knew it had something to do with the Purple Sun Martial School.
The Fire Man snorted, "Believe it or not, if the Nine Ghost Cult wants to get stronger again, they would have to acquire more resources, and our top five martial schools have controlled more than eighty percent of the resources. Also, the fact is that there are not many other powerful martial schools around. In their eyes, we should be a walking chunk of meat."
Cloud Dreamer’s expression changed a couple of times. The Fire Man had a good point, if the Nine Ghost Cult wanted to rise up again, then they would need to gain access to more resources. However, they were hiding in the dark, and they would not be able to take resources just like that. Once they appeared, they would receive attacks from all parties from the South Rudra Region. Therefore, they would have to be secretive, and would not dare to show their faces. Although they could just attack some of the lone warriors, those resources would not be enough, and it would definitely not last long. Although the resources from the Windy Nation were quite meager, it was still considered as a nation after all. One nation’s resources would be more than enough to support the Nine Ghost Cult. Plus, there would not be that much of danger compared to the others. He believed that there would be residual powers hidden in the other smaller countries.
If they did not make a move first and waited until the Ghost Man made his move, then one single martial school would not be enough to block out the attack from the Ghost Cult.
However, the problem was that one should never fully believe what the Fire Man said. First of all, he was the first one who got the message of the nest of the Ghost Man, which was already suspicious enough. He was not his brother disciple, the Dark Cloud Dreamer. Being able to keep the Sky Cloud Martial School out of troubles for such a long time, it would be impossible to do it without intelligence.
"What do think we should do about it? The Ghost Man is not someone easy to take on. Being able to survive the huge battle back in the days is already enough of an evidence to prove how powerful he was." Cloud Dreamer was not sure how he should handle this matter, since if he got taken in this whole thing, there would be a huge possibility for him to be sabotaged by the Fire Man. He just knew that the Fire Man was planning something. However, if he decided to ignore it, the existence of the Ghost Man was indeed a trouble, and no one could say for sure that the Ghost Man would not set the Sky Cloud Martial School as his first target. Although the school had martial geniuses like Ye Chen who could kill the Sky Demon Snake with his half-step zhen yuan, the Ghost Man was indeed a Late Astral Reaching Realm warrior, and a tricky old demon at that. With all of his rank 7 zombie warriors, he would only be more powerful than Jin Huang. There was no one in the whole Windy Nation who would be able to take him down single-handedly. So, the Cloud Dreamer threw the conversation back to the Fire Man.
The Fire Man nodded, "Indeed. The Ghost Man is indeed a headache. Therefore, I had notified all the martial institutions and asked everyone to unite together. If we act fast and kill the Ghost Man and everyone from the Nine Ghost Cult, then they would have no time to react."
"You mean gathering all of the Astral Reaching Realm warriors from the Windy Nation together?" The Cloud Dreamer could hear the underlying meaning of what the Fire Man had just said. Killing all of them in a short time would be something only the Astral Reaching Realm warriors could do. Anyone below that would only be dragging them behind.
The Fire Man stared at the Cloud Dreamer, "What do you think?"
The Cloud Dreamer thought about it then said, "How about this? Let’s wait until everyone has shown up and then we can discuss it."
"Alright. I will see you on the Green Mountain in three days. At that time, all of the Astral Reaching Realm warriors from the top five martial institutions would be there." Cloud Dreamer’s response was out of the Fire Man’s expectation. He then said again, "This time, the top three Astral Reaching Realm warriors from the Purple Sun Martial School would all be there. You would not be the only one from the Sky Cloud Martial School there, would you?"
"Of course not. If the things have been settled, there will be two Astral Reaching Realm warriors from the Sky Cloud Martial School attending the killing mission."
"Oh? Which two?"
The Fire Man squeezed his eyes. Although he did not think that Ye Chen would be able to reach the Astral Reaching Realm anytime soon, he did not want to risk it. If Ye Chen had actually reached the Astral Reaching Realm, then there would be some small details that needed to be adjusted. He hoped that things were not as bad as he expected.
" Thunder Freer and I." It was not a secret that Thunder Freer was in the Sky Cloud Martial School. Cloud Dreamer was not afraid to say it.
"I have heard that Ye Chen has not reached the Astral Reaching Realm yet, but he still has the power to take on one. Why don’t you ask him to come along too? This mission would be a great opportunity to train." Hearing him, the Fire Man let out a breath. Judging from Cloud Dreamer’s expression, Ye Chen should still be at the Clasping Yuan Realm. A smile had appeared all of the sudden as he said.
The Cloud Dreamer’s expression changed, "You don’t have to worry about it."
"Huh! Having the power to take on Astral Reaching Realm warriors without actually reaching the Astral Reaching Realm is most likely a bluff. I, Gold Spear Man, would not buy into that. Asking him to come along would just be an extra dead weight."
The Fire Man took a sip of his tea. He seemed very relaxed, while waiting for the Cloud Dreamer to answer the question.
The latter looked the same as he said, "If there is an opportunity, you should give it a try. If you guys have no other business here, you could leave now."
"Since the leader has asked us to leave, we cannot carry on staying here without reason. Bro, let’s go now." The Fire Man did not plan to stay long.
The Gold Spear Man stood up, took a glance at Xu Jing who was standing outside the palace, then suddenly said to Cloud Dreamer, "Right now, I do not have a wife yet. I see that master of yours seems quite nice, she has the quality to be my wife. I wonder if I, Gold Spear Man, could have the honor?"
The Cloud Dreamer and Luo Xinglie had bad looks on their faces. This Gold Spear Man was way too arrogant. He really thought that no one could take him down. Plus, Xu Jing and Ye Chen were extremely close. Whoever dared to hurt her in anyways would probably be killed by Ye Chen.
"This is off limit!" The Cloud Dreamer was not nice about it.
The Gold Spear Man had a creepy smile on his face, "I suggest you to consider it again. I am not the Fire Man, and I don’t have that good of a heart."
Cloud Dreamer yelled, "I suggest you not to bully us. The Sky Cloud Martial School is not a place for you to do whatever you want."
"Brother Gold, good things take their sweet time. Why are you rushing it? If it is yours, then it will be yours one day." The Fire Man did not expect the Gold Spear Man to be this lacking in manners, and said this in front of everyone. He had no other choice but try to calm him down.
"Good thing takes their sweet time. Good... This woman is mine for sure." The Gold Spear Man laughed and walked out the palace with the Fire Man.
"Who said that you can leave?"
Right then, the crowd separated, as one person walked over. It was indeed Ye Chen.
He wore a blue robe, and a long sword had been worn around his waist. Ye Chen stood quietly ten steps in front of the two, as his eyes landed on them.
The Fire Man glanced at Ye Chen. He noticed that he was still at the zhen yuan purification process. A killing intent flashed past his mind as he put on a smile on his face and said, "Well done! You had already reached the zhen yuan purification stage at such a young age. It seems like you are not too far away from reaching the Astral Reaching Realm. However, you still don’t have what it takes. A martial genius should be more humble before growing stronger. Otherwise, you might lose your life."
"You are that Ye Chen? But, you don’t seem that special after all. What? You think you can hold us here just by yourself? I will give you an opportunity. If you slap yourself four times, then we will let you go. Otherwise, we will teach you how to be a decent man." The Gold Spear Man did not think Ye Chen had what it took to wound them even the slightest. If it were not for the Fire Man saying that Ye Chen had been protected by some extremely powerful man, he would have killed him already.
"Now is no longer like the old days. The Windy Nation is no longer dominated by you anymore. If you came and left with good manners, I would not have said anything. Unfortunately, you think too highly of yourselves. As long as I, Ye Chen, am still standing here, there will be no tolerance to rudeness."
In Ye Chen’s plan, the Purple Sun Martial School was a must-go place. Although those assassination attempts before did not really wound him, it did not mean that he was not holding a grudge.
Cloud Dreamer saw what was going on. The things that he planned to say had been swallowed back in. He was very clear about Ye Chen’s personality. He knew that once he had decided to stand up, he did not plan to step back down. Plus, the two were indeed acting out of place. The only thing that he was worrying about was whether Ye Chen had made a breakthrough. Two Mid Astral Reaching Realm warriors were no jokes, especially that Gold Spear Man.
Making an expression at Luo Xinglie, the Cloud Dreamer took a couple steps back. He planned to leave the situation in Ye Chen’s hands, and the others should not bother them.
"Haha, I, Gold Spear Man, had been traveling out for so long. It is my first time to see someone so young to talk to me like this. Little brat, you are the first one." The Gold Spear Man laughed as he let out a bright golden beam of light. It was extremely pure, carrying an unbreakable aura.
"Cloud Dreamer senior, this man… will be killed."
There was no expression on Ye Chen’s face. He knew what had happened in the palace. He knew that if he did not guess it wrong, there definitely was a conspiracy. And facing the conspiracy, he was not like the others. He would rather kill them all in a short period of time. There were a couple of people from the Purple Sun Marital School already on the killing list anyways. As for the mission of killing the Ghost Man, it would not be too much different without the Gold Spear Man.