Chapter 822: The Mastermind

At first, everyone’s jaw dropped in response to what was happening. Nobody could believe what they were seeing: a powerful monster king submitting to someone else. It just didn’t make much sense.

“What a disgrace! Is the Flame Horse King trying to make us look like a joke?”

“That shameless bastard! What’s so scary about dying? He should never have begged for his life!”

“I wish I could kill that useless piece of trash now!”

Compared to the humans who found the situation exciting and even a little amusing, the monster kings were fully enraged.

There had always been high tension between the monster kings. They’d fought each other countless times in the past, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t of the same race.

The monster kings felt humiliated at the sight of the Flame Horse King licking Lu Xuan’s boot like an obedient dog.

What the Flame Horse King was doing might have just changed how people look at the monster kings from that day onwards. Instead of as terrifying monsters that could slaughter millions of people, the humans would now look at them as shameless creatures.

That thought sent shivers down the spines of every remaining monster king.

However, the Flame Horse King’s decision was not swayed by the judgmental looks of the other monster kings. The monster knew that talking big was easy, but things changed quickly when facing a life-and-death situation.

To make matters worse, the Flame Horse King wasn’t even supposed to take millions of innocent lives; the monster was only requested to help in the fight against Lu Xuan.

Since there was no responsibility for the monster to bear, the Flame Horse King did not see why he had to die.

Lu Xuan faintly smiled as he said, “Are you trying to beg for mercy?”

The Flame Horse King immediately nodded and said, “Yes! I wish to be your subordinate! Please spare my life! I had nothing to do with the massacre! The stupid wolf did all of that. I’m just here to help with the fight, not murder millions of people!”

The Flame Horse King gritted its teeth upon mentioning the Lightning-Winged Wolf King, who had put the former in such a dire situation. As a monster king feared by many, it had to throw away its pride and beg for its own life.

The monster wasn’t shameless. All it wanted was to live. There was nothing wrong with that.

Lu Xuan was starting to find the situation funny as he asked, “If you want to side with me and beg for your life, then tell me who’s the one behind this attack. Tell me who’s supporting that stupid wolf in the dark.”

Everything that he’d learned about the attack pointed towards a single fact: there was a mastermind behind it all. The Lightning-Winged Wolf King was nothing more than a chess piece.

Otherwise, the Lightning-Winged Wolf King would never have attacked Midton’s base city without any warning. The monster also made it clear that Lu Xuan was its target. None of this would’ve made sense unless someone had orchestrated everything from behind the scenes.

Terrified that Lu Xuan might not have the patience to wait for an answer, the Flame Horse King immediately replied, “It’s Gongsun Wuji! The mastermind is Gongsun Wuji! I heard from the Lightning-Winged Wolf King that Gongsun Wuji was the one who asked him to attack the city. That stupid wolf actually believed the man and came charging without thinking twice. Please, you have to trust us. We’re innocent!”

The Snow Fox King nodded in agreement. It had already recovered from the shock and realized that it wasn’t worth it to risk its own life for either Lightning-Winged Wolf King or Gongsun Wuji.

“It’s him again?” Lu Xuan was a little surprised as he recalled who the man was.

In Lu Xuan’s past life, the man who was known as Gongsun Wuji had once brought disaster to Earth. Lu Xuan never expected him to return.

Once again, the mastermind was one that Lu Xuan was familiar with in the past. While others might never have heard of him before, Lu Xuan knew everything about him.

Unlike Tang Wuye, who was part of a famous sect, Gongsun Wuji was a lone cultivator. To be more exact, he was the disciple of Xiaoyao Hou, one of the best lone cultivators there was.

As a noble from the Tempest Ocean Realm, Xiaoyao Hou was lucky enough to be taught by a cultivator from the ancient civilization at an early age. Once he completed his training, he started to defeat masters from different backgrounds until he became known as the best among his peers. Even the best of the Holy Land could barely win against him.

Even so, he was a straightforward person and had made many friends in his lifetime. One could say that he had acquaintances in every corner of the world and even had close ties with many monster kings.

As Xiaoyao Hou’s disciple, Gongsun Wuji had been standing above the rest ever since he started his training. Most people would’ve treated him with respect because of his master.

That only fueled Gongsun Wuji’s arrogance and ambition, to the point where he planned to destroy Earth because the sudden improvement of Earth’s cultivation world could pose a massive threat to him. During Lu Xuan’s past life, the two had fought a huge battle once because of that.

At that time, Gongsun Wuji’s level of cultivation was much stronger than Lu Xuan’s, which forced the latter to set up traps to defeat the former. Back then, Lu Xuan nearly died.

When Xiaoyao Hou learned of his disciple’s demise, he brought his wrath to Earth, forcing Lu Xuan to run and hide. Fortunately, Lu Xuan was able to break into the Consolidation Realm and defeat his pursuer instead.

That battle put him as the best among the best. Even the masters in the Tempest Ocean Realm were afraid of his power.

The more Lu Xuan thought about it, the more everything made sense. Gongsun Wuji must’ve felt how threatening the reincarnated person would be in the future as the Child of Destiny from Earth.

That was why he did everything he could to remove the threat.

As for why Gongsun Wuji was reluctant to do his own dirty work, Lu Xuan could think of two possibilities.

One was that Gongsun Wuji was one of the best cultivators yet, like how he was in Lu Xuan’s past life. At that time, the lone cultivator had already reached the pinnacle of the Three Flower Realm and was one step away from reaching the Consolidation Realm. The only problem was that it would’ve still taken him around ten years to reach that level in this incarnation.

The other reason was that Gongsun Wuji’s master, Xiaoyao Hou, was hiding in the Tempest Ocean Realm to achieve the Consolidation Realm.

Even though Xiaoyao Hou was a straightforward person with many friends, he was a sly fox who had gotten on many people’s bad sides.

He even tried to assassinate Lin Ziyi, the Sect Master of the Holy Nun Gate, once she was trying to advance to the next stage. Luckily, she managed to survive. Xiaoyao Hou had to flee instead.

With his plan ruined, the next thing he could do was hide so that Lin Ziyi could not find him.

Everyone knew that the master of the Holy Nun Gate was a woman that rarely left the sect, but it didn’t mean that she was kind by nature. She would definitely hunt Xiaoyao Hou down if she knew where he was.

Since Xiaoyao Hou was reluctant to show himself in public, there was no way his disciple would, either.

With limited options, Gongsun Wuji decided to use his connections and enlist others to help him take down Lu Xuan. He didn’t dare to show himself out in public yet.

It was true that Xiaoyao Hou had acquaintances all around the world, but Lin Ziyi had her own supporters as well, with some of them in the Three Flower Realm.

They would’ve all gone after Gongsun Wuji as soon as he surfaced.