# Chapter 3149: Sixteen Envoys
The Xuan䀎 Clan Chief's eyes were filled with deep worry as he said, "The Darkness Temple, Death Clan, and Ghost Clan have the most deities. There are also dozens of other forces seeking to share in the spoils, such as the Green Deer Divine Temple, Longevity Hall, and the Bone-Hiding Sea. The Destiny Temple is also among them."
"In short, a large number of deities have gathered, along with numerous saint-level armies. They are constantly plundering the life-bearing planets and mineral planets in this star domain that originally belonged to our Hundred Clans, enslaving our people, and recklessly seizing cultivation resources."
Although the ancestral realm of the Hundred Clans had been moved into the Starry Prison Cage Formation, preserving their foundation, there were countless life-bearing planets and mineral planets in this star domain that could not be relocated one by one.
"Report!"
A divine general strode quickly into the hall and announced, "The Hell Realm army has withdrawn!"
The Xuan䀎 Clan Chief showed joy, stood up, and asked, "How could this be? Why are they retreating?"
"The specific situation is not yet clear, but although the Hell Realm army is retreating, they have not left this star domain. Instead, they have withdrawn to the Fengxu Ancestral Realm, the Great Heart Ape Ancestral Realm, and the Han Stone Ancestral Realm," the divine general said.
These three realms were formerly the ancestral realms of three small clans within the Hundred Clans Royal City.
However, the deities of these three clans had previously defected to the Darkness Temple and other forces, and had been killed by the combined efforts of the Yecha Clan, Demon Wolf Clan, and Fire Ghost Clan. Their power within the city had also been uprooted.
Zhang Ruochen said, "It seems there are quite a few shrewd people among the Hell Realm army. Knowing that I have arrived, their army will become virtually useless. If they do not consolidate their forces, once I make a move, their saint-level soldiers will suffer heavy casualties, and their deities will be assassinated by me one by one."
"There must be someone among them who knows your strength very well," Bai Qinger said.
Zhang Ruochen nodded.
In terms of combat power, even within the Hundred Clans Royal City, Zhang Ruochen was far from invincible. Li Mo Divine Teacher, Yu Ling Shen, and Amuer were all above him.
However, if he were to go alone to confront the Hell Realm army, Zhang Ruochen was absolutely certain that he could inflict heavy damage on them and then escape.
But if Li Mo Divine Teacher, Yu Ling Shen, and Amuer went, they would most likely never return.
This was Zhang Ruochen's deterrent power!
It had changed the landscape of the divine realm.
"Since they have chosen to retreat and hold their ground, the Hundred Clans Royal City will not be in any danger for now. You can go and reclaim those life-bearing planets and mineral planets to minimize losses," Zhang Ruochen said.
The Xuan䀎 Clan Chief asked, "Is the Realm Lord leaving?"
"I need to go to the Starry Sky Battlefield! But this is confidential. The deities of Hell Realm absolutely must not know that I have left the Hundred Clans Royal City. I must keep them in constant fear," Zhang Ruochen said.
After the discussion among the deities ended, Yu Ling Shen approached Zhang Ruochen alone. A fragrant breeze emanated from her, and she had a lively, youthful aura. She hinted, "Realm Lord, if you calculate the time, my Eon Calamity is almost upon me!"
Zhang Ruochen knew what she was referring to and said, "Xinghuantian does indeed have divine medicine, left behind by the Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable. But it is sealed by means left by the Heavenly Venerable. If Senior Nine Heavens were here, he could be asked to retrieve the medicine. As for now, to be honest, I am not entirely confident I can extract the divine medicine."
Yu Ling Shen's brow furrowed slightly, worry showing in her eyes.
No deity was unafraid of the Eon Calamity.
Zhang Ruochen said, "This is not an excuse. If you do not believe me, you can come with me to Xinghuantian. With the combined strength of the two of us, we might be able to try. If you survive the Eon Calamity, you will surely borrow the power of heaven and earth to step into the peak of the Tai Xu realm, which would also benefit me."
Yu Ling Shen's red lips curled slightly, and her expression cleared like rain giving way to sunshine. She smiled, "Of course I choose to trust you!"
...
The Santu River was like a net spread across heaven and earth, connecting every space in the universe. Whether it was a great realm, a secret realm, or even individual planets, all had tributaries of the Santu River.
However, the Santu River was full of unknowns and dangers. Not only were the spaces chaotic, but time in some areas was also unpredictable. The tributaries on those planets were extremely fragile; even a saint entering would cause the space to collapse.
At all critical spatial entrances, there were even killing formations and traps set up by deities.
It was for these reasons that Hell Realm had not chosen to launch a large-scale attack on the various realms of the Heavenly Court through the tributaries of the Santu River.
The river channel was wide, and the water was murky.
The surface was covered with floating corpses, emitting a foul stench.
"Splash!"
A ripple of divine power appeared on the hazy river surface.
Then, the concealment formation dissipated. A black ship of unknown material sailed from somewhere and docked on the decayed soil land beside the Santu River.
Looking out, the land was vast and desolate, with half-buried white bones visible everywhere and wandering souls floating in the air.
It was truly a land of the dead.
A black-robed cultivator stepped down from the ship, tucked the ship into his sleeve, and entered the decayed soil land. In the darkness, countless skeleton ghost crows were startled and flew far into the darkness.
After walking an unknown distance, the black-robed cultivator arrived at the foot of a towering rocky mountain. The mountain was steep and was a nest of ten thousand ghosts.
Entering the mountain, he followed a passage straight down into the earth.
Before long, he arrived at the entrance of an underground divine temple. Above the temple door was an ancient character, "Quantity."
As if to verify his identity, a "Quantity" character flew out from within the black-robed cultivator. Then, the temple gate opened, and he walked inside.
In the center of the hall was a bronze round table ten times larger than a millstone. Around the table, on bronze chairs, sat fifteen figures.
They were all dressed in black robes and wore bronze masks.
The masks were in the form of characters.
This sixteenth and last arriving Envoy wore a bronze mask with the character "Lonely."
"Liang Gu, you are always the last to arrive. It seems you are far from here. You must have come from the Eastern Universe of the Heavenly Court, the farthest from the Santu River?" said a black-robed man wearing a mask with the character "Empty," his voice hoarse.
Liang Gu said, "Don't try to probe my identity! It's useless. Everyone uses all sorts of tricks to conceal their true identities. How do you know I didn't deliberately arrive late?"
The sixteen black-robed men present belonged to the same organization, but none of them knew the identities of the others.
Even when gathered together, they addressed each other by the characters on their masks.
This was the best way to prevent an infiltrator from sneaking in and wiping out the organization.
"Before leaving, Kui Liang Huang instructed that the Boundless Northern Expedition is an excellent opportunity. Without the suppression of the Twenty Heavens, few of the Great Gods below can keep people in check. Once chaos erupts, it will be a real fight to the death, and a full-scale war might even break out."
The speaker was Liang Ji.
She was an Envoy of Kui Liang Huang, one of the Four Great Liang Kings. Her figure was slender and soft, and her voice was pleasant—she was a woman.
However, no one could be sure she was actually a woman. She might have deliberately changed her form to confuse others.
On the south side of the hall, four massive tables, as large as mountains, floated above a patch of dark clouds.
Those were the positions of the Four Great Liang Kings.
Liang Gu said, "Liang Ji, you have always been resourceful. What do you think we should do to stir up hatred between the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm, causing the situation to spiral out of control and trigger a full-scale war?"
"In fact, with the Starry Sky Defense Line breached, the hatred in the Heavenly Court has already been stirred up. But their reason still holds the upper hand. We need to add a few more sparks," Liang Ji said.
Liang Gu said, "How do we add these sparks without leaving a trace, so the fire doesn't burn us?"
"Exactly, we must not leave any traces," another Envoy said.
Liang Ji said, "If you don't want to leave traces, use a borrowed knife to kill."
"You mean killing?"
Liang Ji said, "Killing is the simplest way to ignite the flames."
"Kill whom?" Liang Gu asked.
Liang Kong said, "What about Zhang Ruochen? This brat has successively defeated Shu Liao and Hai Shang You Ruo, and already possesses the strength of the Tai Xu realm. How many years has it been? Moreover, after Qing Tian crippled his cultivation, his training method has become very strange, seemingly surpassing the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable's 'Thirty-Three Heavens.' He is definitely a menace."
Liang Ji flatly rejected the idea, saying, "No, it is not yet time to move against Zhang Ruochen."
Liang Kong laughed, "I've heard that Zhang Ruochen is quite good with women. Could it be that Envoy Liang Ji is one of his many women? Don't let personal matters interfere with official business!"
More than ten Envoys present all looked at Liang Ji, their eyes scrutinizing, with guesses and thoughts.
"That's right, I do have a deep relationship with Zhang Ruochen. Can you guess it?"
Liang Ji's voice suddenly turned cold. She slammed the bronze table and said sharply, "Foolish thing. Do you think I would be so easy to expose in front of you? Killing Zhang Ruochen—are you after the treasures on him? Sacrificing the greater good for a small gain. Utterly foolish."
Liang Kong quickly apologized, knowing that the other party was an Envoy of Kui Liang Huang, with immense backing.
Although they did not know the identities of the Four Great Liang Kings, they could roughly guess their cultivation levels—they were undoubtedly universe-level overlords.
Liang Gu's voice was steady, "Liang Ji is right. We cannot touch Zhang Ruochen for now. His value to us has not yet been fully realized."
"Is there a possibility of recruiting Zhang Ruochen into the Quantity Organization?" another Envoy asked.
Liang Gu said, "Absolutely no chance. You had better abandon that thought. Liang Ji, who do you think we should kill?"
"To stir up the hatred of the Heavenly Court, we must kill Xuan Yuan Lian. To stir up the hatred of Hell Realm, we must kill Xue Jue. I propose adding Chi Yao as well. This woman received Zhang Ruochen's teachings and has already cultivated the 'Thirty-Three Heavens' to the Twelfth Heaven. It is said that she has recently broken into the Great God level, making her a considerable threat."
Liang Ji continued, "If we don't kill Zhang Ruochen, we must first cut off his wings. We cannot let him grow too powerful and become uncontrollable."
Liang Gu said, "I have no objection to killing Xue Jue. He is the future spokesperson cultivated by the Lower Three Clans. Since the majority of the Lower Three Clans are living beings, they always have their own ideas in the war against the Heavenly Court. It is time to stir up their killing intent."
Liang Kong sneered, "To kill Xue Jue, we must slaughter the entire Blood Absolute Family, kill the Underworld King, and kill Xue Hou. Perhaps we can also use this opportunity to exploit Zhang Ruochen's hatred."
Liang Ji said, "If we want to use Zhang Ruochen, capturing Xue Hou alive would be more effective than killing her."