Isn't Tsukuyomi a guy

Baldie carried Xu Mu all the way to the cell at the center of the formation.

He casually opened one of the cells and checked Xu Mu’s body. In the end, he removed the spatial ring from Xu Mu’s finger and tossed him inside.

After locking the cell, he turned and left.

Xu Mu waited until the man had gone some distance before opening his eyes and using his perception to examine the surroundings.

Perception was one of his abilities and did not require qi to activate.

Even so, Xu Mu had clearly overestimated his luck. He did not see Lin Ruoshi anywhere in the underground prison. There were only a few other prisoners, most of them some distance away.

He touched his finger. The things he used regularly were usually stored in his storage space. The spatial ring contained nothing more than a change of clothes and some daily necessities.

“Hey, where are you from?”

A man in the cell beside him spoke in the island nation’s language.

“Where are you from?”

Xu Mu sat up from the floor and looked toward his neighbor. Only a layer of wooden bars separated them, and the man could easily reach his arm through the gap into Xu Mu’s cell.

He was also the closest prisoner to Xu Mu. The others were all farther away.

The middle-aged man was fairly handsome, with a neatly trimmed beard and a side-parted hairstyle. He wore a hunting robe of the kind commonly worn by aristocrats in the ancient island nation.

At the moment, he was lying on the floor with one leg crossed over the other, looking toward Xu Mu in profile.

“If I’m not mistaken, you’re from the Dragon Nation. You came to rescue the woman who was captured earlier.”

Xu Mu’s eyes narrowed at once.

Under normal circumstances, he would certainly have denied it. But this man knew where Lin Ruoshi was. In order to keep the conversation going, Xu Mu could only admit it.

“You guessed right. Where is that woman now?”

Xu Mu immediately walked over to the bars closest to the man.

“She was originally my neighbor on the other side. After she was captured, she was taken away. I don’t know where she went.”

The middle-aged man smiled. “But if you can get me out of here, I’ll help you find her.”

“I get you out?”

Xu Mu slapped the wooden bars in front of him. “These should be eighth-grade heavenly materials and earthly treasures—the Black Iron Border-Sealing Wood, right? I can’t even get myself out of this formation, let alone rescue you.”

As he spoke, Xu Mu first checked the man’s identity.

Name: Gedo Kazuya

Identity: Former patriarch of the Two-Faced Oni Clan

Favorability: 0

Destiny Level: 4 (maximum level: 10)

Xu Mu was inwardly astonished. He had never expected this man to be the patriarch of the Oni clan.

And now, he had become a prisoner.

“Heh. Since you can’t rescue me, then I suppose we’re neighbors from now on. We can guess which of us will die first.”

Gedo Kazuya smiled.

“Your cultivation should be higher than mine, shouldn’t it? And you’re counting on me to save you?”

Xu Mu sat down on the floor.

“I was only captured recently myself. I watched the video of your Martial Arts Grand Championship.”

As he said this, Gedo Kazuya switched to standard Dragon Nation language.

“Xu Mu, did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

“Even if you recognize me, I still can’t get out.”

“When you were brought in just now, you were pretending to be unconscious. After he threw you inside and walked only a few steps away, you opened your eyes.”

A faint smile appeared on Gedo Kazuya’s face.

“You deliberately allowed yourself to be captured.”

Xu Mu was secretly startled. This man’s powers of observation were indeed impressive.

“I was deliberately captured, yes. But I didn’t expect this place to contain a Spirit-Dispersing Formation. I overplayed my hand.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do. I suppose the two of us will just wait here to die.”

Gedo Kazuya smiled as he spoke.

“You still haven’t told me who you are.”

Xu Mu pretended not to know.

“I’m from the Two-Faced Oni Clan.”

“Never heard of it.”

Xu Mu shook his head with a smile.

“Then you should at least know Shuten-dōji, the Oni King from the ancient era of the island nation. His name was Gaidōmaru.”

As he mentioned the name, pride spread across Gedo Kazuya’s face.

“I think I’ve heard of him. Wasn’t he a bastard everyone wanted to kill? And you actually take pride in him?”

Xu Mu looked at him.

“That’s the importance of controlling the narrative.”

Gedo Kazuya sat up from the floor.

“The Tianyu Clan fled from your side. After arriving here, they fought the other nonhuman races for several centuries. In the end, they emerged victorious.”

“History is written by the winners. They vilified the other races and portrayed us as monsters, while depicting themselves as gods.”

Gedo Kazuya continued, “The place we’re in now is Tsukuyomi’s territory, one of the Three Noble Children.”

“What level are they?”

Xu Mu asked.

“The Tianyu Clan has six divine positions. The Three Noble Children are Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo. Of the three, Amaterasu is the strongest. I heard she had already reached the fifth tier a long time ago.”

Gedo Kazuya paused.

“Tsukuyomi and I have fought before. We were both fourth-tier experts. If Susanoo, who was also fourth-tier, hadn’t ambushed me, I definitely would have escaped.”

“That only accounts for three positions. What about the other three?”

Xu Mu asked.

“Above the Three Noble Children are the Twin Gods: Izanagi and Izanami.”

Gedo Kazuya looked at Xu Mu.

“They are the rulers of the Tianyu Clan. They handle all the major affairs of the race. I don’t know what level they’ve reached, but they’re definitely stronger than Amaterasu.”

“The last one should be Tianzhiyuzhong, right?”

Xu Mu asked.

“That’s right. Tianzhiyuzhong is the true ruler of the Tianyu Clan, but he has never shown himself.”

Gedo Kazuya shook his head.

“He’s also the strongest of them all. As for his exact strength, I know even less.”

“I have a general understanding now.”

Xu Mu leaned against the side of the cell and thought for a while before continuing, “Do you know why they captured me?”

“I can more or less guess.”

Gedo Kazuya gave a faint smile.

“Within this inner realm, there are two troublesome nonhuman races. One is our Two-Faced Oni Clan, and the other is the Snow Woman Clan. The remaining races are weaker and don’t dare to defy them.”

“You mean their real goal is to target your two clans?”

Xu Mu’s brows drew together as he recalled everything that had happened.

The shrine maiden who had greeted them in the outer world belonged to a branch family of the Snow Woman Clan.

Yet the ones who had attacked them were experts from the Tianyu Clan.

Could it be…?

Was this branch of Izayoi working directly for the Tianyu Clan?

“Now that you’ve been captured as well, if word gets out, the people behind you will come to rescue you. Tell me, who do you think they’ll go after?”

Gedo Kazuya smiled at Xu Mu.

“They’ll go after the Snow Woman Clan. Our mission was to assist the Snow Woman branch family. Almost anyone would assume that our disappearance had something to do with the main family.”

Only then did Xu Mu suddenly understand.

“So that’s it. They’re using someone else as a blade… No, why go to all that trouble? If they want to kill you, couldn’t they just attack you directly?”

“You’re underestimating us a little. If it were that easy to deal with us, they would have done it long ago.”

Gedo Kazuya smiled faintly.

“Our ancestors had their glory days, too. We fought them for nearly a thousand years. Our territory has…”

Just then, a woman in a purple dress, her face covered by a veil, approached from the distance.

The veil wasn’t like the kind worn in ancient Longguo, which only covered everything below the nose.

Instead, it was a single piece of fabric that fell from the forehead, concealing the entire face.

Embroidered on the veil was a silver crescent moon.

“Tsukuyomi!”

Gedo Kazuya said softly.

“I remember that god being male, though?”

Xu Mu asked, looking into the distance.