Starting with being handed over to the Imperial Concubine, building a family with a thousand-year hi

Upon hearing this, Su Mu's face instantly showed grief and regret. He sighed softly, looking as if a dear friend had passed away: "Fellow Daoist Qiao Lang has fallen? Alas, just last night I was reminiscing about the moments we spent together in the secret realm. In the blink of an eye, we are separated by death. It is truly heartbreaking."

Watching Su Mu's crocodile tears and feigned compassion, Harry, Luke, and the other two were so angry that their insides ached, their teeth itched, and their hearts were filled with resentment.

They knew perfectly well that Su Mu had orchestrated the whole thing, yet they dared not expose him. Instead, they had to suppress their anger and offer words of comfort and appeasement, which was truly incredibly frustrating.

Su Mu lamented Qiao Lang's death repeatedly, his acting skills superb, his face full of sorrow and regret. Harry, Luke, and the other two suppressed their anger and patiently offered words of comfort, finally managing to stop Su Mu's perfectly timed "sorrow."

After feigning mourning, Su Mu looked down at the courtyard. Although Mu Bo's attack had precisely targeted the four people's residence, and the area wasn't particularly vast, the immense power still blasted through dozens of feet into the ground. The entire area was completely destroyed, with the ground cracked and the spiritual veins disrupted, making it utterly uninhabitable.

Seeing this, Su Mu went along with it and immediately gave the order to find new accommodations for Harry Luke and the other two. Then, he turned and left with Mu Bo and the four peak Saint Realm puppets.

The Tianyuan Imperial City is vast and boundless, with countless palaces and courtyards, and it has no shortage of suitable places to live. If Su Mu wanted to, he could easily stage a surprise attack every night and change the three people's residences every day.

He just wanted to see how many Saint Realm cultivators the three major forces still had that could withstand such continuous losses and tests.

Soon, the eunuch led Harry Luke and his companions to the new, secluded courtyard. After all the palace servants had left, Harry Luke immediately raised his hands and formed hand seals, setting up layers of soundproof barriers to completely block outside detection. His long-suppressed anger erupted instantly.

"Damn it! Utterly hateful!" Harry Luke gritted his teeth and cursed, his eyes surging with malice. "It was clearly Su Mu who secretly instructed the puppet to kill and cruelly harm Fellow Daoist Qiao Lang. Just now, he even pretended to be sad and regretful. Crocodile tears, hypocritical and utterly shameless!"

Compared to Haliluk's outburst of rage, Zalzan remained calm, having already broken free from emotional constraints and accurately grasped the core of the strangeness of the whole matter.

"Don't just get angry; there's something strange about this whole thing."

Zalzan spoke in a deep voice, instantly drawing the attention of the enraged Haliluk and the silent late-stage Saint Realm Mohara, both of whom looked on with puzzlement in their eyes, awaiting his explanation.

"Think about it carefully," Zhalzan slowly laid out the points, analyzing clearly and logically. "If Su Mu truly wanted to wipe us all out, he wouldn't need to have the puppet conceal its appearance and aura and act in secret. Furthermore, after last night's commotion, only Qiao Lang, an early-stage Saint Realm cultivator, perished. With Su Mu's strength, if he wanted to silence us, none of the three of us would have survived. Isn't that strange?"

Harry Luke and Mohara exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement. Their anger subsided slightly, and they realized something was wrong.

"Based on my speculation," Zhalzan continued, his gaze deep, "during the days we were out of contact and trapped, the three forces must have secretly probed Su Mu and the Star Palace, angering him. Last night's actions were his clear retaliation. The only explanation for him killing Qiao Lang and sparing the three of us is that he doesn't want to completely break ties with our three major forces and become a life-or-death enemy for the time being. The fall of an early-stage Saint Realm cultivator is still within the scope of negotiation and won't completely eliminate any room for negotiation."

Harry Luke remained puzzled, frowning as he pressed, "But why did he take away Joran's body? Murder and leaving a body makes no sense."

Mohara, who was standing to the side, suddenly understood and hit the nail on the head: "This is a bargaining chip. Su Mu plans to return Qiao Lang's body to the three forces, and at the same time use the lives of the three of us late-stage Saint Realm cultivators as leverage to gain the upper hand in negotiations and use this to negotiate with the sect."

Zhalzan nodded emphatically, his tone extremely grave: "Right now, all we can do is pray passively. If Su Mu's negotiations with the three parties break down, the next one to fall will most likely be one of the three of us. Even worse, all three of us will be forever buried on Tianyuan Star, never to return."

……

Meanwhile, Su Mu had already returned to his palace and immediately instructed Mu Bo to take Qiao Lang's body to Tai Dou Star.

Mu Bo obeyed the order and rushed off, successfully delivering the body to Yu Sheng. Yu Sheng followed Su Mu's instructions without delay, personally taking Qiao Lang's remains to the Star God Temple and openly presenting the body to the temple, making Su Mu's attitude clear.

Although Ryan, the head of the Star God Temple, was not in the temple at the time, his subordinates immediately sent an urgent message to report the matter.

Upon learning of Qiao Lang's death and the return of his body, Ryan's expression changed drastically. He immediately contacted Zhan Bai and Asino and told them the whole story.

After hearing the whole story, Zhan Bai was not furious at all. Instead, a hint of joy flashed in his eyes, and he spoke very quickly: "This is now completely confirmed! Yu Sheng has long been colluding with Su Mu and working together in the same boat! We will immediately send people to capture Yu Sheng, use the Soul Searching Technique to forcibly dig out the secrets of Su Mu's secret realm and trump cards!"

Before Zhan Bai could finish speaking, he suddenly noticed that Ryan and Asno had solemn expressions and showed no unusual behavior, so he immediately stopped talking.

Ryan shook his head slightly, his tone serious, and directly rejected his suggestion: "This matter is not that simple; we must consider it carefully."

Asno wholeheartedly agreed, echoing in a deep voice: "Su Mu's actions are a blatant warning. With Harry Luke and the other two still under his control, if we continue to suppress the Star Palace and target Yu Sheng, the next to fall will not be the insignificant early-stage Saint Realm cultivator Qiao Lang, but three precious late-stage Saint Realm cultivators."

Zhan Bai remained unwilling to accept defeat, his obsession running deep: "As long as we can seize the secret realm's treasure and heaven-defying opportunity from Su Mu, even sacrificing Harry, Luke, and the others is not unacceptable!"

Ryan looked up at him, his eyes sharp, and asked a question that hit the nail on the head: "But if we capture Yu Sheng, and after searching his soul we find nothing, without getting any useful information, and we can't do anything to Su Mu, then wouldn't Harry, Luke, and the other two have died in vain? We'd lose more than we gain, a complete loss!"

All three knew perfectly well what was going on, but none of them had expected Su Mu to react so swiftly and think so meticulously. They had just made a secret attempt to probe, and Su Mu instantly saw through the source, launching a fierce counterattack and seizing their weakness.

The three major powers are well-established and powerful; they wouldn't care at all if a few early-stage Saint Realm cultivators were lost. But late-stage Saint Realm cultivators are a completely different story. Each one is a top-tier combatant cultivated with millions of years of resources and effort, making them extremely precious.

Currently, apart from the three top-tier powerhouses Ryan, Zhan Bai, and Asno, each of the three forces only has one peak Saint Realm expert and two late-stage Saint Realm experts remaining, making their reserves extremely scarce.

If they could exchange the lives of three late-stage Saint Realm cultivators for a secret realm treasure and absolute power to crush Su Mu, Ryan and Asno would certainly not hesitate to sacrifice their subordinates. However, the unknown risks were too great; sacrificing manpower for nothing would be a complete loss.