Why did you provoke me?

Hou Yulin never expected that in the end, only he and the guard captain would be left to escape.

Jingchuan Hall.

Secretary Wu looked at the message sent by his collection team: the first battlefield has officially changed hands, along with a few blurry photos.

Secretary Wu zoomed in again and again, but still couldn't see it clearly.

He sent a message to all the collection teams, urging them to keep a low profile.

Nangong Tianshou also received this news. He frowned deeply. Was another upheaval about to occur? What exactly was the force behind this up to?

The battlefield has changed hands, and those four top families don't seem to have done anything earth-shattering.

After hesitating for a long time, he sent a message to Jing Ancheng, asking him to investigate the current situation of these four families.

The Jia family of Kyoto.

Jia Chengping was stunned when he saw the message in his hand. How could such a big thing have been accomplished so quietly?

When Jing Ancheng came in, Jia Chengping hadn't even reacted yet.

"What's wrong? What surprised you so much?"

Jia Chengping casually handed the message to Jing Ancheng, "Take a look. This first battlefield is your guild's home turf. Have you received any missions?"

"No, they just told us to keep a low profile and not get targeted by these lunatics."

"It's exactly what I was thinking." Jia Chengping squinted.

Jing Ancheng glanced at him but didn't say anything.

After a while, Jing Ancheng handed him a note, "Secretary Wu asked me to give this to your clan leader."

"What is it? Can I see it?"

"I delivered it to you, of course you can see it."

Jia Chengping opened the gates, and the fourth battlefield changed hands.

His eyes widened, and he moved the note back and forth in front of his eyes several times. He didn't ask if it was true; no one would joke about something like this.

"Brother Jing, wait for me a moment. I'm going to report to the clan leader. This time, something really bad has happened. It could be a big deal."

Jing Ancheng knew he was in a hurry. He didn't stop him, but instead reminded him, "This is still inside information; it hasn't been made public yet."

He had already relayed this message to the other guards of the Jing family. Although they belonged to different Bone Painters, the Jing family's goal was the same.

They protect these bone-painting masters only to allow them to grow as quickly as possible. The Jing family's divination master made a prophecy: if a powerful bone-painting master does not appear within ten years, this world will likely fall into an abyss.

He didn't quite understand why they weren't allowed to reveal even a hint of this matter. Only the direct descendants of the Jing family knew about it.

He wanted to return to Jingchuan and stay by Yu Meng's side, but Yu Meng did not respond to him. He asked Secretary Wu, who only said that Teacher Yu was in seclusion.

……

Secretary Wu and Nangong Tianshou sat down together again.

"Sir, what is your opinion on this matter?"

"I don't understand! There must be a purpose behind all this fuss, right? But I can't figure it out. Will there be good stuff appearing after the battlefield upgrades? Are they trying to seal off the battlefield by taking control of it beforehand?"

"Wasn't the recent turmoil an escalation of the conflict?"

Nangong Tianshou shook his head. "I'm the victim. Don't ask me."

The moment Secretary Wu spoke, she realized her mistake. "Look at my memory. What kind of information should we be paying attention to? Could you give me some direction?"

"Sigh, you're saying even the hidden families of the Fourth Battlefield had to back down, and the four top clans of the First Battlefield didn't last long either. At this level, what ideas could I possibly have?"

The two of them sat there, staring at each other.

……

In the fourth battlefield.

"Have you found out who created this fake forest?" The voice was calm and gentle, without a trace of hostility.

Opposite him stood a thin man with long hair, his bangs obscuring his left eye. He stood there, his expression indifferent. "The things inside are just a special ability of an alien, capable of trapping people in an illusion for a short time. The method of setting up the array is also very crude, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever."

"Such a rudimentary formation is certainly beneath your notice. Sir, can you identify which sect's technique this is?"

The man shook his head. "I only broke the formation; don't bother me with finding people."

"Sir, you should think this over carefully. Almost all the formations were passed down from you. There's no reason why you wouldn't recognize one of them."

"It's not my legacy, so I have no reason to lie."

A calm voice rang out, "Then use this alien to set up the same formation here. Pass down the order: whoever sets up this formation first will receive a reward, a big reward."

The long-haired man looked at him and said, "Over the years, very few people have come to understand these things, and my lineage is about to be cut off. You think you can find someone this way? It will be very difficult."

"Sir, you are too modest. Your young disciple is a promising talent. I heard he has already forged his own path."

"I don't have such a disciple; our master-disciple relationship has long been severed."

"Sir, there are countless paths to enlightenment, and you can't say that the path he's taken is wrong. Besides, I'm going to send this message to the mainland this time; perhaps you'll even encounter a genius who captures your heart then."

"I've taken care of things here. My health has always been poor, and I'm afraid I'm no longer able to teach disciples." The long-haired man turned to leave.

"Sir, you can't leave yet. The dense forest is very important to me. This one is fake, and the other one you said was 90% real, but it's worthless now. Whether someone took it or it was just a useless thing to begin with, you can't say for sure."

Now that the first battlefield is under my control, I would like to invite you, sir, to visit it. It is the first place where the dense forest was discovered. Would you be willing to accompany me?

"You can arrange it." The long-haired man didn't refuse, nor could he.

"Men, go to the first battlefield and have them clear the area. Bring in all the suspects from back then, and don't leave a single one out." The calm voice remained calm.

"Yes," several people in the shadows answered at the same time.

……

The information that Secretary Wu asked Jing Ancheng to investigate came quickly. At first, it was all about friction between the younger generation. As the saying goes, if you beat the younger generation, the older generation will come to your aid. Those who can stand up for the younger generation really dote on them, which leads to an unreasonable allocation of resources.

So some people took this opportunity to sow discord between two or three brothers.

The end result was brothers fighting amongst themselves. Then they all accused the head of the family of favoritism, and at this time, those with ulterior motives would offer them benefits.

Finally, the patriarch is either in danger or stripped of his power, the middle-level members scheme against each other, and the promising younger generation is hunted down.

From then on, the entire family was thrown into chaos, and external enemies took advantage of the situation to invade.

Secretary Wu looked at this long, elegant passage, which seemed like a short story in itself.

"Have the patriarchs of those four families all met with misfortune?"

"The Hou family fell into a coma because of his second son, and the first in line to the throne is missing. The Zhu family's patriarch died because his three sons fought each other and he was accidentally injured. The Jiang family is better off; the old man voluntarily abdicated and saved his life. As for the Chen family, all the grandchildren have been crippled, and only one girl is still alive, but she can't support the family, and their decline is only a matter of time."

Secretary Wu forwarded all this information to Nangong Tianshou. "Take a look. If you have any other questions, just ask them so I can have them investigate."

Nangong Tianshou frowned as he looked at it. "Our Zhou family uses the same tactic. Could it be the work of the same person?"

"This guy really has a lot of resources. One reclusive family, four, no, if you add the Zhou family, that makes five top-tier families. He's manipulating them all. What exactly is he planning to do?" Secretary Wu muttered under his breath, unsure whether to ask Nangong Tianshou or just tell him himself to find out what to do.