Chapter 199: Is the Defeat Already Set? (Please Subscribe)

"Do not harbor any wishful thinking. Also, who said my goal was to stop Meng Changqing from stepping in there?"

Facing Fu Yong's probing and obvious enticement, the High Envoy only replied with this.

It seemed that only until this moment did he begin to reveal a sliver of his true intentions.

This caused Fu Yong's expression to change abruptly, turning as gloomy as water, making even Tang Yiping tremble, unexpectedly feeling a kind of inexplicable pressure from it.

"... I know what I must do."

Fu Yong only said this coldly and rigidly.

"It is best that you do."

The High Envoy nodded lightly, his attitude remaining composed, his gaze lingering in one direction.

"Let us go, they are over there."

He had already found the traces and knew where Meng Changqing had urgently relocated.

Thus, he gathered the remaining forces, consuming pills to recover while rushing toward the destination.

As for the inner court, before leaving, the High Envoy only glanced at it silently and did not bother with it for the time being, feeling that he did not yet need to concern himself with it.

Two flowers bloom, each representing a branch.

A little earlier, Meng Changqing had decisively responded to Du En, choosing to retreat with the thirty-some people he had left.

He had actually made multiple preparations; although most were known to Fu Yong, just in case, he had still secretly set up a final safe point beforehand.

Now that he had suffered a sudden betrayal, he immediately chose to activate it, using magic to trigger the pull from a distance, and amidst the chaos and the lingering shockwaves of the self-detonation, he completed a group spatial shift.

Du En had the experience of being pulled into the ruins before; at this moment, experiencing this spatial shift—which, although different, was essentially the same type—he felt no discomfort. Before he had even fully emerged, his hand had already reached for his healing pills.

When the scene before his eyes came into view, he was eating a pill and said, "At the very least, that guy Fu Yong didn't poison the pills; I can still eat them now, otherwise it would be quite troublesome."

The guards, whose emotions were originally wavering, heard these calm words and subconsciously wanted to refute something, but seeing his quick movements of consuming and refining the pill, they felt a strange warmth in their hearts, feeling as though they had been acknowledged.

The previous emotional reaction was based on their camaraderie with Fu Yong, and the latter was, in fact, the same.

Du En's actions silently expressed a kind of affirmation of Fu Yong, which was why their moods changed in such a way.

The sudden ups and downs seemed to have dissolved their shock, allowing them to quickly regain their composure.

And with Meng Changqing interrupted like this, his emotions were also quickly sorted out, and he explained the situation regarding the secret art of Emotion-Spirit Deposition.

"In other words, the Fu Yong from before and the Fu Yong from now are actually two different people?"

"You could say that, but... in short, Emotion-Spirit Deposition is not some omnipotent secret art. After all, the fake is ultimately fake. If you want to identify it, well, you can observe and distinguish it at a few bottlenecks in cultivation."

Meng Changqing appeared somewhat hesitant, as if struggling with something, but he still explained what needed to be said.

Golden Core stage, Nascent Soul stage...

Do these critical barriers not only stop the mediocre but also block the fake?

Du En was lost in thought.

"In short, now that the situation has developed to this point, with only us remaining, our combat power is unbalanced, and the arrangements in other places can be said to have failed. The defeat is already set, so, while they haven't caught up yet, we should talk about admitting defeat and retreating."

Regarding the fact that the defeat was already set, Meng Changqing seemed very unwilling.

He had been eyeing the Nancang Ruins for a long time; he did not want to let this opportunity go, and who knew if he could find what he wanted if he let it go this time and came back later.

If he admitted defeat and retreated, the High Envoy could do whatever he pleased over there and would very likely destroy everything.

Falling short of success for lack of a final effort...

The guards also appeared dejected.

Because admitting defeat meant that their previous sacrifices were meaningless.

This was, of course, a difficult thing to accept.

But to stubbornly continue would only lead to the total annihilation of the army, more sacrifices, and even less meaning.

Therefore, stopping the losses in time seemed very necessary!

Although Meng Changqing was actually very unwilling in his heart, he did not want his subordinates to die in vain, so he quickly made the decision to admit defeat and withdraw.

"Are there no more magic tools?"

Du En finished eating the recovery pill, the damage from the backlash already largely recovered, and asked this at this moment, clearly not wanting to admit defeat.

Meng Changqing, who was feeling melancholy, became even more depressed upon hearing this and said, "How was I supposed to know you had this trick? If I had known, I definitely would have shipped a boatload of magic tools to you. Those one thousand were already the stock I kept on me just in case."

His forces had five hundred people at their peak, a number sufficient to distribute two to each person, which was not a small amount.

At the same time, there were still various reserved resources in other strongholds that could have been used for supplies.

But with Fu Yong, who knew the situation there, jumping ship and betraying them, these were exposed. This place was also very far from the nearest stronghold, and the spatial shift would inevitably be interrupted by the High Envoy who had reacted, so there was no possibility of playing the time difference to recover them.

It really made him more depressed the more he thought about it!

"Looking at your expression, it wasn't just 'a cunning rabbit has three burrows' before?"

"Definitely not just three. Small and large strongholds, in these past two years, have long since blossomed everywhere. Now that I think about it, it would have been better if they hadn't..."

Who could have known!

Meng Changqing was in low spirits.

"My Lord! Since there is still a possibility of winning, then let us take the risk!"

"Right! Although Fu Yong knows those strongholds, they have also suffered heavy losses. It is only their high-end combat power that can suppress us, and they might still have cards to play. So, as long as we split up to recover the magic tools, there is still room for a turnaround!"

The guards excitedly interrupted Meng Changqing's words.

The current strength comparison between the two sides was that Meng Changqing was slightly better than the High Envoy, and Du En was many notches inferior to Tang Yiping, even if Tang Yiping was now severely injured, it was only barely leveled out.

But there was still Fu Yong, who was two notches higher than Du En, and compared to those armored soldiers, the other guards were clearly insufficient in number, a ratio of one to two or one to three.

In any case, the ones below could barely trade blows for a while, but the ones above—the battle between the High Envoy and Meng Changqing could not be finished in a short time, and Du En could not handle the siege of those two.

So by the time the people below were all wiped out, the defeat above would likely be destined, and with the armored soldiers closing in, everyone would be dead!

However, once Du En had enough magic tools again and could unleash firepower at will, he could offset this disadvantage in combat power!

Thus, the unwilling guards thought about taking the risk themselves, to...

"Nonsense!"

Meng Changqing rarely showed anger, sternly reprimanding them: "You know to split your forces to act, but do you think they don't know that too? As long as two or three of them come to block one of you, forget about recovering your magical artifacts; you won't even be able to recover yourselves!"

(End of this chapter)