Over a hundred miles away from Wushan Prefecture, within a forest by the riverbank.

The Flying Bear King, Zhang Xuan, Zhang Xintai, and Xiao Qingying, along with a dozen skilled local rebels, were scouting the terrain around the area.

"Spit!" The Flying Bear King indignantly spat on the ground, "Damn it, my wounds haven't even healed, yet they insist on not keeping idle hands, forcing us into action. Isn't this just causing trouble?"

"They just don't trust us," Zhang Xuan replied calmly, "Which is understandable. After all, we came from afar, no one can vouch for us, validate our identity. If we were to harbor a few spies, it would surely impact them."

"Right now, the most crucial thing is to find out where Yanzi and the others are being held. We clearly arranged for them to take the official route, to travel with the merchant convoy, so how did they get captured halfway?" Zhang Xintai looked distressed, having been unable to eat or sleep well these past days, worried about his wife and children.

Upon their arrival in Xinhui City, after some inquiries, they discovered that not many people there recognized them.

Moreover, though the Righteous Alliance controlled the city, they were still short-handed, and had no time to deal with a mysterious outsider like Zhang Xintai.

No one knew where Yang Hongyan and her child were either.

After some deliberation, the four concluded that whoever was threatening them with their families was likely not from the local Righteous Alliance, at least not from Xinhui City.

On the other hand, unable to verify the background of the four, Xinhui City required them to prove themselves by performing deeds.

And how to perform deeds?

The best way, naturally, was to kill the Great Spirit's officials and cut off their ears as trophies.

The more they collected, the lighter their suspicions would be.

"Since Yanzi isn't in Xinhui City, after completing the mission, we will replenish supplies and leave the city, then return to Qingchuan by boat!" Zhang Xuan quickly suggested.

The problem now was that the Flying Bear King's injuries hadn't healed, and the group was only recently detoxified, extremely weak.

Additionally, they were restricted by Xinhui City due to a spy verification issue, unable to leave until proving themselves.

So they had to complete this task.

"Alright!" Zhang Xintai nodded heavily. He looked up at the riverside ahead, about to speak further.

Suddenly, the Flying Bear King gave a low warning.

"Watch out for arrows!"

The group promptly crouched down and rolled to dodge several arrows whizzing toward them.

In the woods, figures with veiled faces, wielding sharp blades, silently advanced toward the Flying Bear King and his group.

The Flying Bear King braced himself, being the first to charge ahead and strike.

At that moment, the disadvantages of not being a deity-level martial artist emerged; recovery from injuries was incredibly slow.

Such injuries as he had would take at least two months to fully recover from.

Yet, only a dozen days had passed.

At once, the Flying Bear King gave a loud shout, charging into the crowd.

And then he sensed something was wrong.

The opponents were exceedingly skilled at encircling and combining attacks, with everyone possessing graded martial arts levels.

They weren't ordinary grades either; there were seven or eight high-grade level six or above!

Moreover...their martial arts styles were very peculiar....

"How could there suddenly be so many experts in this place!? Could it be that they were lying in wait here all along?"

The Flying Bear King quickly found himself shifting from attack to defense, struggling to fend off the assault.

The bodily weakness from poison and injuries hadn't been completely healed. Now confronted with higher-grade experts specializing in encircling individuals like him.

He quickly turned his head to see Zhang Xuan and others, only to find them also ensnared in fierce combat.

Strangely, the opponents didn't seem in a hurry to defeat them, instead choosing to entangle silently.

'This is troubling....' A surge of bad premonition rose in the Flying Bear King's heart.

*

*

*

Songhe Temple.

Zhang Rongfang put down the intelligence letter, sighing lightly.

The letter was from a contact on the Great Capital's side.

Songhe Temple, Rebel Sect, and Thousand Stone Sect, these three groups formed his foundational network.

Preemptively, he had assigned personnel across the Great Capital, Upper Capital, Wushan Prefecture, Qingchuan, and Citong to relay basic intelligence.

After all, money was plentifully made in Citong.

Now this intelligence network, though simple, was somewhat useful.

The letter roughly reported the complex situation in the Great Capital's area.

The Western Sect Zhenyi withdrew, Yue Shi and Snow Rainbow Pavilion allied, deployed experts in all directions, hunting down the so-called Great Brightness Religious Alliance.

For common people, these conflicts might only seem like distant rumors.

But for Spirit People aristocrats or super-grade martial arts experts, this meant a seismic impact.

A Spirit General level expert, unseen for many years, finally reappeared and got involved.

Carefully setting the letter aside, leaving it at one side.

Zhang Rongfang sat at the main spot in the study, fingers inadvertently tapping the armrest.

Originally, he came this way just to visit his sister, unexpectedly encountering so much upon arrival.

The medicine for the Golden Toad Skill hadn't been found yet, and now so many variables emerged.

"My lord!" Suddenly, someone knocked on the door from outside.

"What is it?" Zhang Rongfang frowned; being disturbed while thinking was something he extremely disliked.

Everyone at Songhe Temple should know this.

Meaning, if reporting now, it must be something of extreme urgency.

"Someone outside delivered a letter, with a note that you must open it personally, and the envelope bears a bloody handprint." The Daoist replied solemnly.

"What about Qingsu?"

"Lord Qingsu led the team to eliminate a newly discovered Wishful Woman Secret Teaching spot. Not returned yet."

Zhang Rongfang stood up, opened the door.

Took from the Daoist outside a pale yellow letter.

As the Daoist said, the envelope indeed bore several bloody handprints.

On the front, it read: Zhang Ying Daoist to personally open.

It specified his name, even knowing he was now at Songhe Temple....

Such an approach...

Unconsciously reminded Zhang Rongfang of the mastermind who lured Master Zhang Xuan and others here previously.

He could feel, this black hand's strength and influence were anything but ordinary.

With Songhe Temple's intelligence network, they hadn't managed to find any clues within Wushan Prefecture.

This is enough to prove that the opponent's level is extremely high.

Holding his breath, Zhang Rongfang quickly tore open the letter and pulled out the piece of paper.

Only one sentence was written on the paper.

'Zhang Xuan and others are ambushed in Spearhead Forest, their lives are in danger!'

"Huh!?" Zhang Rongfang's expression slightly changed.

The tone of this letter is from a third-party perspective, which means someone discovered Zhang Xuan and others in distress and came to report it.

And this person also needs to know the relationship between him and Zhang Xuan and others.

He immediately crumpled the letter tightly and tore it to pieces.

Without further ado, Zhang Rongfang took out a new jet-black mask from the drawer and turned to leave the study.

With his current strength, who in Wushan Prefecture can stop him!?

If it's a trap, then he will smash it.

If it's true, then he will save them for real!

The fastest way to rescue now is for him to personally take action!

Leaving Songhe Temple, Zhang Rongfang put on the mask, changed his appearance, and headed directly towards Spearhead Forest.

He knew Spearhead Forest, having lived in Wushan Prefecture for a while before, he knew the approximate cities and famous places nearby.

Spearhead Forest was famous for its many spear-like bare brittle new bamboos.

Next to it was the Wujiang River branch, a humid environment where many used to make a living by collecting mushrooms.

Recently, with chaos on the rise, fewer people were going there.

At full speed, Zhang Rongfang's body technique had far surpassed his previous peak period.

He reached the level of a God-worshipping Grandmaster.

A hundred meters with just a breath. A toe push sent him gliding dozens of meters.

Given the many winding terrains, ordinary people couldn't walk straight, but Zhang Rongfang could leap up and fly from branch to branch.

It was essentially all in a straight line.

Soon, within ten minutes, Spearhead Forest appeared in his line of sight up ahead.

With dark vision unfolding, Zhang Rongfang immediately saw Zhang Xuan and the others, who were being surrounded and attacked in the forest, already battered and in grave danger.

The Flying Bear King was still desperately resisting and supporting, but he too was being surrounded and slaughtered layer by layer by masked blue-scarved knife fighters, unable to move.

Any attempt to break out was immediately blocked.

The coordination among the knife fighters was extremely seamless, and their footwork gave Zhang Rongfang a slight sense of familiarity.

He seemed to have seen it somewhere.

But at this moment, he couldn't afford to think too much.

Leaping from the branch.

Zhang Rongfang casually grabbed a vine and tied up his long hair in mid-air.

Landing, he pushed off with his toes.

Swoosh!

His figure suddenly charged into the battlefield.

There were thirty trained blue-scarved people.

Among the formation was a strong short-haired woman with wolf-like eyes, quickly turning to look in the direction.

"Who!?"

The woman saw Zhang Rongfang charging forward at an incredible speed, her pupils suddenly contracted.

"Elemental Killing Array!"

She pulled out a dagger, spun, and threw with all her might.

The dagger whistled, transforming into a silver arc in mid-air, stabbing straight towards Zhang Rongfang approaching head-on.

Clang!

Zhang Rongfang struck the dagger away, not caring about grabbing the blade.

Landing, he single-handedly grabbed the curved blades coming at him from three blue-scarved men.

His palm clenched.

The three blades simultaneously squeezed and shattered, falling to the ground.

"State your identities!"

He reached out, lightning-quickly grabbed a blue-scarved man, pulling him close.

Suddenly, his expression changed slightly, and he instantly threw the man out.

Pop pop pop pop!!

In an instant, the man's body erupted like a bomb, shooting out a mass of steel needles, filling the blank space two meters around him.

"Interesting." Zhang Rongfang looked at the short-haired female leader, kicked up a large piece of mud and rocks with his toe.

Then twisted his body, sweeping a kick.

Boom!!!

The air suddenly released a blast.

Masses of soil and rocks exploded like bullets, hitting all the blue-scarved people in the front direction.

On the spot, about a dozen blue-scarved people were knocked backward, weapons falling to the ground.

"Retreat!!"

The female leader rapidly backed off, shouting loudly.

She could never have expected such a master of this level to appear in such a place.

With speed and strength far beyond the grade limit, this suddenly emerging black-mask person is definitely a Super Grade master! And not an ordinary Super Grade!

They could try to surround and attack the severely injured Flying Bear King, but facing a fully capable Super Grade master, possibly stronger than Flying Bear King.

They must retreat.

Instantly, she and the remaining blue-scarved people all took out a black ball from their waist pouches, aiming to throw it towards Zhang Xuan and the others.

"Think you can run?" Zhang Rongfang stepped forward, causing a slight tremor on the ground.

Amidst the roar, he crossed dozens of meters, appearing beside the female leader. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Flame Emperor Talisman · Raging Shockwave!

Elbow lifting chin, followed by a spin kick.

With a muffled bang, the black ball left the female leader's hand, sweeping out with her, flying sideways.

The ball exploded mid-air, emitting a large mass of blue toxic powder.