Theoretically, they shouldn't have any life-threatening danger. He had left many safeguards—even if they couldn't resist, they could escape.

Now Xiaoyao felt he needed to return immediately. It seemed their problems still weren't resolved. Of course, this also indicated they were currently still safe without any issues.

In fact, Xiaoyao sensed that even without him, they could resolve this matter...

"How do you know events are happening outside? Speaking of which, those girls of yours are truly amazing. I find them admirable—they've been like gods these past two years," Lang Tiexin said. The Carefree Sect also had people who collected outside intelligence, and what happened with Guxing and the others wasn't small—how could she not know?

"I can tell fortunes. I need to prepare, then return. Thank you all for your concern. This junior takes his leave," Xiaoyao smiled, then bid farewell and left.

"Then let's go back together. I still have some questions to discuss with you," Lang Tiexin said. What she had said earlier was just casual—she still needed to ask about specifics. This wasn't a convenient place to talk either.

Xiaoyao wanted to prepare to return, but he couldn't possibly leave today—it would have to be tomorrow at earliest. There was plenty of time to talk.

Though Guxing's side was still in a delicate situation, there wouldn't be any problems. Otherwise, Lang Tiexin would have said something already. This situation had been deadlocked for over two years—a little longer wouldn't matter.

...

Thus, Xiaoyao returned to the Wanderer Family and discussed various matters with Lang Tiexin and others—about Rakshasa Tower, about Carefree Sect orthodoxy. As a result, Xiaoyao very interestingly obtained a Carefree Sect identity—a very prestigious identity.

Though this identity wasn't that of Carefree Sect master, it still carried certain power and status, almost on equal footing with Lang Tiexin and others. Moreover, he had gained recognition from the entire Carefree Sect, making him somewhat more popular than Lang Tiexin.

This was because Xiaoyao had cultivated orthodox Carefree Sect martial arts. Xiaoyao had not only obtained the Divine Farmer's Art continuation from the Carefree Formula but also other things. When he accidentally displayed them, he gained this identity.

It was an accident. At that time, Xiaoyao was contemplating those things, then understood them and unconsciously manifested them. As a result, Lang Tiexin saw this.

Thus, he gained that identity, simply because he cultivated orthodox Carefree Sect martial arts. Because it was too rare—how many years had the Carefree Sect gone without an orthodox school appearing? Naturally, he was treated as a treasure.

Now Xiaoyao was the only orthodox school, the sect master of this school, though he was a lone commander.

Would this make people want to study it? Would people want to cultivate orthodox Carefree Sect things to gain status?

This actually had conditions—one needed to cultivate to Xiaoyao's level to possibly achieve this. The problem was, if someone could cultivate to Xiaoyao's level, regardless of what they practiced, they would already be a significant figure and wouldn't lack such status.

Most importantly, as mentioned before, no martial artist could endure such a long period of weakness. Only someone like Xiaoyao, who didn't aim for martial arts as his goal, could endure it.

However, this identity didn't seem to matter much to Xiaoyao himself. He had already left on horseback the next day.

Meanwhile...

Flowing Moon City, Prince Xiaoyao's Mansion!

The current Prince Xiaoyao's Mansion was heavily guarded, almost matching royal palace security, with experts everywhere and many supreme masters stationed there.

This was because here lived the most important figure in all of Flowing Stone Kingdom—without exception. Now even Luo Yunqing wasn't as important as her, because she determined Flowing Stone Kingdom's future fate and the outcome of the current crisis.

She wasn't Guxing, the most talented martial artist who broke through to God Level before age twenty-five. Nor was she the Young Miss and Nangong Suxin, the two most formidable female war gods. Instead, she was the previously inconspicuous Nangong Third Miss—at least relatively speaking, she wasn't very prominent.

However, in these two years, she had been the most crucial person—strategizing, controlling the entire situation, gradually pulling back from absolute disadvantage.

What kind of crisis was this? This was a comprehensive war. Flowing Stone Kingdom was at war with all neighboring countries.

This had originally been part of Guxing and the others' plan. If it were just these countries, even all of them, they wouldn't find it troublesome or fall into crisis. They had the ability to resolve it and could expand while doing so.

This could be said to be their desired outcome!

However, the problem was that these countries had external support—support that Flowing Stone Kingdom currently couldn't resist. If Flowing Stone Kingdom were given time to develop, it wouldn't be in such a passive position and would have fighting strength, at least in pure power comparison.

The appearance of this external support made Flowing Stone Kingdom very passive, almost facing catastrophic disaster. This shouldn't have been a problem—even if Flowing Stone Kingdom developed for decades more, this external support shouldn't appear, because to them, Flowing Stone Kingdom was just an ant, not worth their action.

But why did they appear?

The reason still lay with Xiaoyao, or rather, they used Xiaoyao as an excuse. Whether the purpose was truly for Xiaoyao was debatable.

The leader of this external support was the Fuyue Sect, using the excuse that Xiaoyao had colluded with the Demon Sect.

Although the Demon Sect was now in the Demon Domain without conflicts with outsiders and relations had eased considerably—there was even some interaction between both sides—this was all under the table. Once someone used this matter as an issue, it became very troublesome.

This was Xiaoyao's current situation. His circumstances could be said to be completely problem-free, but if used as an excuse by others, it became problematic.

The Fuyun Sect used this as an excuse, uniting various forces and neighboring countries with direct conflicts of interest with Flowing Stone Kingdom to jointly attack Flowing Stone Kingdom and the Luo family.

Initially, the Fuyun Sect only deployed a small portion of people, and the allied forces were much weaker than the Fuyun Sect. Even so, everyone felt it was sufficient—it could even be called using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Everyone thought Flowing Stone Kingdom would definitely be defeated, the Luo family might face a second catastrophic disaster and scatter again. Flowing Stone Kingdom was in absolute disadvantage.

Because of this, within Flowing Stone Kingdom and the Luo family, many people began fleeing when disaster struck. Some simply defected and joined the opposing camp.

This made Flowing Stone Kingdom's situation even worse. Fortunately, all military power was in the hands of the four women, so there wasn't much loss in military strength.

However, this military strength was truly inadequate against these opponents. Under normal circumstances, this was the difference between an ant and an elephant.

But events developed beyond everyone's expectations. Under Nangong Third Miss's operations, initially, Flowing Stone Kingdom decisively abandoned some territories they had gained, making people think they were surrendering.

In fact, this was just strategy—abandoning places of little value to preserve their core. Simply put, sacrificing the rook to save the king.

Next, Nangong Third Miss gradually set traps and chain strategies, achieving an absolute victory with minimal losses and maximum results.

But this couldn't make people feel the situation could be changed—it just went from absolute disadvantage to slightly better major disadvantage. The power comparison between both sides remained the same.

However, this was just the beginning. Everyone soon discovered this happened repeatedly, gradually pulling back the situation on the battlefield.

Moreover, she used this method to nurture war through war, quickly training a powerful army. This forced opponents to try other approaches, as gradually no one on the military front could match her.

This left the opposing group of military geniuses feeling powerless. Their confidence was repeatedly crushed—they could no longer face Nangong Third Miss.

They considered using expert strategies, but the problem was that Guxing, Nangong Suxin, and the Young Miss had grown terrifyingly strong. Their experts began suffering losses repeatedly.

At that time, unless they deployed God Level experts, but God Level figures had God Level pride—they wouldn't participate in such wars. They would kill people, but not in this manner.

Why not infiltrate and assassinate?

Such infiltration was almost impossible. This was Flowing Stone Kingdom's territory. Nangong Third Miss had perfected intelligence work. Though she couldn't prevent those experts from entering, she could discover them quickly—even God Level experts had only a few slip through.

Once discovered, they would be assassinated through various methods. Because of this, the Fuyun Sect lost quite a few experts. Unless they deployed God Level or higher experts, but deploying God Level experts wasn't so easy. Even if God Level experts were willing, the Fuyun Sect and others couldn't afford to lose face.

This was equivalent to admitting their failure—only able to suppress others through God Level experts. At the same time, the Luo family also had God Level experts, plus the advantage of waiting at ease for the fatigued enemy—they could resist equally.

This gave the Fuyun Sect more concerns. If God Level experts suffered losses, their losses would be severe, and they would be taken advantage of by forces watching them.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, no one would deploy God Level experts.

Below God Level, under normal circumstances, only one or two-tenths of experts would be needed to destroy Flowing Stone Kingdom. They had tried such deployment when events developed to a point they felt necessary.

However, that deployment also had one or two God Level experts as backup. This was also an action everyone thought would definitely destroy Flowing Stone Kingdom. But this action failed—failed miserably, losing most of their experts.

(End of Chapter)