All it had taken was a split second for the sudden display of violence by Fan Yao to seriously injure Zhao Ru and send her plummeting into the water. Outside the six color lake, with the exception of the Sacred Palace disciples, the Cangxuan Sect, Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace and the other factions were thoroughly shocked by this scene.

All of them had clearly not expected Fan Yao, who had just moments ago been trying to pull the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace over to his side, to suddenly stab them in the back...

The shock only lasted for a moment, before rage began to burn in the eyes of the many Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace disciples. Their chilling gazes turned towards the Sacred Palace disciples in unison.

“Despicable Sacred Palace!”

“Kill them to avenge senior sister Zhao Ru!”

The Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace disciples were clearly enraged by Fan Yao’s actions. They immediately swarmed out, sending a bombardment of Genesis Qi towards the Sacred Palace group.

The Sacred Palace disciples did not panic, as they swiftly got into position to defend against the attacks.

“What do we do?” Zhou Tai, Lu Yan and the others were still a little dumbstruck as they watched. They had previously been guarding against the Sacred Palace and Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace teaming up against them, only for the two groups to suddenly begin fighting.

Gu Hongyi thought for a bit, before she said, “We’ll help the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace to deal with the Sacred Palace.”

Since the equilibrium had already been broken by Fan Yao, they were naturally more than happy to side with the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace. This would at the very least put them in an advantageous spot.

Zhou Tai, Lu Yan and the others immediately nodded in acknowledgement.

“Senior and junior sisters of the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace, we’re coming to aid you!”

The Cangxuan Sect disciples dashed forward, boxing in the Sacred Palace disciples from another direction. Gu Hongyi had retained some level headedness, and thus did not direct the Cangxuan Sect disciples too close to the Hundred Flower Fairy Palace side. This would prevent them from being surrounded if the latter suddenly turned on them instead.

Although the chance of that happening was slim, it did not hurt to guard against every possibility.

Gu Hongyi had already experienced how humans were the greatest danger in the Mythic Utopia. The tamed conflicts in the sect were basically as pure and innocent as white lilies when compared to this place.

The flames of battle spread outside the six color lake as the three groups fought.

The other teams in the area quickly backed away upon seeing this, afraid they would be drawn into the conflict.

However, when the Sacred Palace side saw the Cangxuan Sect join the fight, one of the leaders suddenly looked towards the teams behind them and roared, “Anyone who stands with our Sacred Palace will get the Divine Establishing Treasures on the tree after this matter is resolved!”

This individual was rather quick-witted, and knew that they would surely be at a disadvantage with the Hundred Flowers Fairy Place and Cangxuan Sect joining hands. Hence, he attempted to lure the other factions into the battle. Although they would not play a decisive role, it would at least alleviate some of the pressure from the Sacred Palace.

His words immediately caused some of the teams to stir. The treasure tree in the lake was far too alluring after all.

However, due to what they had seen earlier from the Sacred Palace, some of the teams were still quite hesitant to take up his offer.

“I promise it in the name of our palace master!” The Sacred Palace leader fanned the flames even harder.

The other teams were finally no longer able to hold back this time. They quickly charged forward and began to enter the battlefield.

With the addition of these other factions, the area around the lake grew even more chaotic.

Although it was mayhem around the lake, the majority would cast their gazes towards the lake from time to time. They clearly understood that the true deciding factor was the battle between the chief disciples. The side that emerged the victor would greatly swing the momentum outside.

...

In contrast to the chaos outside, the atmosphere in the lake was eerily chilling and still.

Tang Xiaoyan’s chest heaved gently, the fury and frostiness interweaving in her eyes turning her beautiful goose egg shaped face rather dark and stormy. She was sweet and gentle by nature, and this was the first time since they met that Zhou Yuan had seen her so angry.

“Good, I’ve finally had a taste of the Sacred Palace methods today!” Tang Xiaoyan clenched her jaw as she sent Fan Yao a death stare.

Fan Yao remained expressionless as he indifferently said, “I repeatedly reached out to offer an alliance, but you just had to be so tactless. Since that was your choice, you shouldn’t blame me for what happened.”

At the very beginning, he had indeed wanted to ally with the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace to finish off the Cangxuan Sect first. However, he had not expected Tang Xiaoyan to be so guarded against him, and if things dragged on in this manner, the three groups would end up sharing the spoils equally.

This was obviously not something he could accept.

Hence, since the Hundred Flowers Fairy Palace was being so uncooperative, he could only find a chance to break the equilibrium...

However, there was one thing Fan Yao felt rather regretful about. He had originally intended to launch a sneak attack on Tang Xiaoyan. Zhao Ru was just a brainless woman with a big chest, and they had nothing to fear from her. As long as he could finish off Tang Xiaoyan, he was confident in stopping Zhao Ru from taking any action.

But Fan Yao had not anticipated that Tang Xiaoyan would be so cautious, and maintain a certain distance from him from start to end. This made it impossible for him to act, and ultimately left him no choice but to attack Zhao Ru, who was completely oblivious to his true intentions.

What could he do, when a woman was so gullibly trusting, he just had to do it...

The outcome was surprisingly good. Even if Zhao Ru had not been finished off, she was likely cripled, and was no longer of any threat towards them.

Now that it was two against three, Fan Yao had nothing to fear.

While such thoughts were swirling in his head, Tang Xiaoyan laughed icily and mockingly said, “Cooperate with you? Given your greedy nature, you’ll probably turn on us the moment the Cangxuan Sect is out of the picture, right?”

Fan Yao did not comment, but smiled and said, “Isn’t it rather meaningless to say such things now?”

Tang Xiaoyan icily stared at Fan Yao with eyes full of hatred. Soon after, the frostiness on her face receded as she turned towards Zhou Yuan. “Chief disciple Zhou Yuan and Jin Zhang, I believe we should work together in this situation, right?”

Zhou Yuan returned to his senses at this moment and nodded. “That’s exactly what I hoped for.”

It was naturally good to have one more chief disciple on their side.

Tang Xiaoyan’s figure moved backwards a little, and stood together with Zhou Yuan and Jin Zhang.

Zhou Yuan looked at Fan Yao and smiled faintly. “You’re quite the ruthless one, but doesn’t it seem as if you don’t have much of an advantage in this two versus three situation?”

Fan Yao’s sinister gaze turned towards Zhou Yuan. “Has a single woman given you so much confidence?”

A mocking angle rose from the corners of his mouth.

“Ah well, I guess it’s time to make you pitiful fellows give up…”

His hand patted the spatial bag at his waist, as a flash of red shot out. It appeared beside him, revealing itself to be a standing blood-red coffin.

The coffin was covered in ancient patterns that looked both strange and eerie.

Fan Yao gently patted the coffin, causing its cover to jerk and slowly slide away. Zhou Yuan’s eyes narrowed when the cover fell, while Jin Zhang’s expression changed drastically.

A deathly pale corpse silently stood inside the coffin, with numerous blood-red patterns decorating its lifeless body.

However, a strange and dangerous sensation spread from its body.

Of course, the thing that had made Jin Zhang’s expression change was that the corpse belonged to Ning Mo, whom Zhou Yuan had gravely injured previously!

Fan Yao softly chuckled.

“The secret technique of the Sacred Blood Hall, Blood Corpse Art…”

“Please give me your guidance.”