The Most Vicious and Brutal One Is That Woman

An Linghui chatted with the two senior cleaners for a while. As the daughter-in-law of the sanitation department's director, these senior cleaners naturally all knew her.

Xu Mu noticed the sky was getting late and didn't call Ji Liang. Instead, he simply sent him a message on WeChat, saying that An Linghui had already been rescued.

There was no denying it—this time they had gotten incredibly lucky, with the Great Wilderness Clan leading the way the entire time.

Whether it was Ye Chen's protagonist aura or Chen Xuan's, he couldn't say.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that they had made it out.

Just then, Xu Mu's phone buzzed. He glanced at it and saw it was a video call from Ji Liang.

He answered, and Ji Liang's face filled the entire screen.

From the background behind him, it looked like he was still in bed.

"Senior, the person has been rescued."

Xu Mu said this, then handed the phone directly to An Linghui.

When An Linghui saw the person on the phone, she walked off into the distance. Whatever family matters they had, she didn't want outsiders to overhear.

"Lielan, tell me what happened! I'm really curious about what went on in there."

Hu Qingyun said to Yang Lielan with a smile. "My cultivation realm is too high, so I didn't dare go in."

Yang Lielan didn't stand on ceremony. She sat down in a chair nearby and gave a rough account of their experience.

She mentioned quite a few things Xu Mu himself hadn't heard, because he had exploited a loophole in the formation and skipped straight past it.

"I can't believe members of the Holy Light Clan were trying to kill Xu Mu. Damn them!"

Hu Qingyun clenched his fist, his face full of indignation.

"After all, the whole point of the formation was to make people turn on each other. They had their reasons."

Xu Mu waved his hand dismissively, not bothered by it.

As they were talking, another group of people emerged from the ruin. Ma Henggu and his companions were among them.

"Brother Xu Mu!"

When Ma Henggu spotted Xu Mu, he hurried over. He was extremely grateful to Xu Mu right now.

When he reached Xu Mu's side, he finally noticed the injuries on his body.

"Who hurt you this badly?"

"Ye Chen. He teamed up with the Holy Light Clan and nearly took me out. Lucky for me, I survived."

Xu Mu said with a smile.

His calculations had been spot on. He had relied on his ability to use Heavenly Fate power to repair his body, which was why he dared to go save Sheng Qiu. There was never any real "almost." If it had been a guaranteed death, he wouldn't have gone through with it—after all, he had a wife waiting for him at home.

"That bastard again!"

Ma Henggu's expression darkened. "Sooner or later, I'm going to kill him myself!"

"What happened with you all this time? I never ran into you again after that."

Xu Mu asked out of curiosity.

"It's embarrassing to say. We got trapped inside a formation and couldn't find a way out."

Ma Henggu pointed to the people around him. "At the time, it was just our sect members. I didn't want us killing each other."

Xu Mu nodded in understanding.

As the two were talking, An Linghui approached from a distance and handed the phone back to Xu Mu.

"How did it go?"

Xu Mu asked with a smile.

"All settled. I'll be heading home tomorrow."

An Linghui said calmly.

Xu Mu gave a slight nod.

The group left the ruin entrance. Ji Liang had already notified the helicopter pilot stationed there to prepare for the return trip.

This time, An Linghui also got into the military helicopter with Xu Mu and the others.

"Miss, we're heading back to Jiang City."

Xu Mu looked at An Linghui and asked.

"I'm going back to Jiang City too. It's not convenient to go home this late, so I'll just stay at a hotel for the night and wash up."

An Linghui said to Xu Mu with a smile.

The helicopter lifted into the sky, with the four of them seated in the cabin.

Xu Mu and Chen Xuan sat on one side, while Yang Lielan and An Linghui sat on the other.

"By the way, do you two know about the Great Wilderness Clan?"

Xu Mu suddenly asked the two women across from him.

"Of course. From what I've heard, among the foreign races, the Great Wilderness Clan is an absolute villain. Even compared to the Yanhuang clan, they hate the Great Wilderness even more."

Yang Lielan said, then looked at An Linghui. "But that's just what I've heard from others. You're actually a member of a foreign race, so you should know better than I do."

"It's pretty much what you said. In large-scale battles among the foreign races, the Great Wilderness Clan almost always shows up. Legend has it that the reason the Inner Realm shattered in the first place was because of the war with the Great Wilderness."

An Linghui explained. "During the War of Ten Thousand Races, countless foreign races joined forces to challenge the authority of the Great Wilderness."

"So this race is really powerful, then?"

Chen Xuan looked at An Linghui, fascinated by the topic of foreign races.

Especially what Xu Mu had mentioned earlier—that his senior sister might be somewhere in the Inner Realm.

"Of course they're powerful, but that was in the past. Now they've been beaten down badly."

An Linghui paused, then explained, "To put it simply, during the War of Ten Thousand Races, the Great Wilderness Clan ruled over many other races. After they lost that war, they ended up all alone."

"I heard recently that they're planning something again."

Yang Lielan looked at An Linghui. "What's that about?"

"It's a long story, but since we have nothing better to do, I'll give you a rough rundown."

An Linghui crossed her legs and laid out what she knew.

After the Great Wilderness Clan was defeated, the Divine Mother at the time led the remaining members to a fragment of the Inner Realm.

That fragment orbited around the largest landmass in the Inner Realm.

It only made contact with that continent roughly every dozen or so years.

But the Inner Realm was different from the outside world—there was no barrier. It was more like a comet circling the Earth.

So battles in the Inner Realm became a drawn-out back-and-forth.

Over the past few thousand years, whenever the Great Wilderness Clan drew near that continent, the top experts from every race on the land would fly up and do battle with them.

When their world started moving away again, these experts would return to the continent, as if by mutual agreement.

The Divine Mother is incredibly powerful—strong enough to take down an entire top-tier race all by herself, even at the cost of her own life.

If all the great races joined forces, they could destroy the Divine Mother. But no one wanted to be the first to charge in.

These top-tier races had millennia of accumulated strength, and going down alongside the Divine Mother would be too great a loss.

What they needed was attrition—if so many races took turns grinding away at her, sooner or later the Great Wilderness Clan would be spent.

Some members of the Great Wilderness Clan did manage to slip through and hide on the mainland, causing trouble in secret.

In any case, within the Inner Realm, the common enemy of all foreign races is the Great Wilderness Clan.

Xu Mu had been listening intently. Suddenly, he asked, "What are the Three War Gods?"

"Nobody even knows if the Divine Mother is alive or dead. She hasn't shown herself in a long time. The Three War Gods are the real powers controlling the Great Wilderness Clan."

An Linghui explained. "Those three are cruel and utterly ruthless. Human life means less than nothing to them—worse than weeds."

"Holy crap!"

Xu Mu felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing that.

Sheng Qiu had said that her master liked him. At first, Xu Mu had thought it was just ordinary liking.

After hearing this, he realized the so-called "liking" might mean she wanted to turn him into a specimen.

"Damn it."

Xu Mu's back went cold. He wished he had never participated in that Martial Tournament to begin with.

Now so many people had taken notice of him.

"What's wrong?"

An Linghui noticed the change in Xu Mu's expression and asked curiously.

"I want to ask—among these Three War Gods, is there a woman?"

Xu Mu's expression was a bit awkward. If he was going to be liked by a man, he'd find that even more disgusting.

"Of course there is. The most deranged, ruthless, and vicious one of all is that woman."

An Linghui said, looking at Xu Mu.