Biritual's forces were distraught.

"Sect Master, what’s going on?"

Li Caiwei hadn't led her troops on the charge yet. Now, they didn't dare to step past the border of the sixth layer. "The situation has changed! We have to retreat!" she ordered.

"Nonahall ordered us to attack! We can't leave now!" Qin Fengyang argued.

"Go fuck yourself! Scram!" Li Caiwei rolled her eyes at him. When she left, the two hundred thousand tribulation elders, almost all of Biritual's army, left with her. Only around a thousand remained by Qin Fengyang's side.

"So... Solar Master, do we charge?" they asked.

"Charge your ass!" Qin Fengyang prepared to leave to report this to Nonahall.

"Qin Fengyang, if you dare make that report, I’ll exterminate every single one of you Qins," Li Caiwei said in a casual tone.

Qin Fengyang stood in place and didn't move from it.

......

To the south of Taiji Peak Lake, Di Zang, Po Suo, and Zi Xiao led four hundred thousand fighters from their sect in a charge into the sixth layer of the formation.

"Retreat!" Fang Taiqing's roar echoed throughout the battlefield. When they finally retreated to the seventh layer, the remaining layers of the formation finally started working again, which was a sign that the Tribulation Tower had been stabilized. The elites of Archaion began counterattacking, causing the battlefield to reach equilibrium once more. However, the two most terrifying ghoul kings had now come to Fang Taiqing.

"The Sterling House of Fang, one of the three slave houses...." The fabulously handsome Di Zang squinted as he looked at Fang Taiqing, his flowing dark hair fluttering in the wind. "You must be really curious who the turncoat in your sect is, right?"

"Well? Who is it?" Fang Taiqing said. Even though epic battles were occurring nearby, nothing disturbed the two. They were like an oasis of peace amidst a desert of carnage.

"I don't even need to tell you. Just look."

Fang Taiqing turned back and saw three third-origin tribulation elders from the Draconis House of Jian exiting the formation. "Weren't those three supposed to be inside the Tribulation Tower?"

Then, he saw all the third-origin tribulation elders from the Jian house gather together. Some of them ordered, "Everyone from the Draconis House of Jian, the Tribulation Tower has been infiltrated by the enemy! We need to go to their aid urgently!"

As it was an order by third-origin tribulation elders, it carried a lot of authority.

"Understood!" Most of the Jian house fighters immediately went to them.

"Qianyu, come with me!" said one of the third-origin tribulation elders.

"No." Beigong Qianyu waved him away.

"Qianyu, the house king is only giving you one chance!" the elder raged.

"One chance? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Very well, you missed your chance! You're a Beigong, after all!" That elder immediately turned to leave.

"Stop, don't tell me Jian Wuyi was the one who sabotaged the formation!" Her eyes immediately turned red and she found it hard to breathe, but everyone ignored her. The members of the Draconis house all retreated to follow the third-origin tribulation elder. Fang Taiqing saw everything, his expression shifting multiple times throughout.

"Do you see now? They're using protecting Tribulation Tower as an excuse to get everyone from their house to retreat and join up with the Tai'e House of Jian. Jian Wuyi truly is smart. What about you? I heard you're far more decisive than he is," Di Zang said.

"Are you insulting me or extending an invitation?" Fang Taiqing said.

"It's both admonishment and invitation."

"What about Biritual?"

"As long as you retreat, Li Caiwei will listen to our arrangements."

"Do you think I'm a newborn child? Listen up, you undying mummy, I'll make sure you lose at least three hundred thousand of your number before you pass through these four formation layers!" First, Di Zang had called them slaves, and then he demanded them to surrender. If that wasn't humiliation, nothing was.

Hearing Fang Taiqing's stern reaction, Di Zang smiled and applauded. "You guessed right. I don't really care much for you. If you want your Sterling House of Fang to perish right here and now, feel free. I have a gift prepared for you, so you’d better enjoy it."

Di Zang immediately vanished before his eyes and unleashed his full power as the first ghoul king on the tribulation elders of Archaion, easily dominating them. Though Fang Taiqing wanted to give chase, he suddenly felt a chill behind him. When he turned back, he saw an odd-eyed youth appear behind him.

"Jiang Wuxin!" What was with that fellow? How could a mere fifth-level samsaran give him such a strong feeling of terror? But when he saw the youth charging at him, he immediately understood that the pressure came from his physical body, rather than his cultivation. "How could his body be powerful to this degree?! He can't be human!"

Not even gods could possibly have such a powerful body. Little did Fang Taiqing know, Jiang Wuxin's body was a dense and compressed form of his actual monstrous body of five thousand meters in diameter! He watched as Jiang Wuxin made a simple charge and punched toward him. His fists immediately broke the sound barrier, closing the distance rapidly. Fang Taiqing used all the power he could muster to block it with his palm.

With a loud boom and a snap, Fang Taiqing cried out in pain as he was sent flying, his arm broken. Right after that, his four lifebound beasts unleashed their abilities, yet one of the phoenixes was almost immediately suppressed by a black figure. It cried out in agony; Jiang Wuxin had pulled out the phoenix's intestines from its body, immediately killing it.

Fang Taiqing finally understood that Nonahall didn't just have Jian Wuyi as a trump card. The bestial youth before him was a huge factor in the reason Nonahall decided to attack Taiji Peak Lake! Turning back, he saw that the tide of battle was turning after the ghoul kings had joined the fray. The death of one of his lifebound beasts felt like being pelted by freezing water.

He had no time to spare! As his thoughts went wild, he thought of the woman that raised him and the boy he had raised, and immediately stood up, using his house's 'special ability’.

"Hear me, those of the Sterling House of Fang! Follow me to go to the Tribulation Tower's aid!"

All the fighters on the battlefield except the Jians and Fangs were dumbstruck. They all knew what this meant: it was over for the Archaion Sect. Though they still stood a chance, once the eighty thousand Fangs left, the balance would tip and they would lose all hope. Nobody doubted the authority Fang Taiqing held in his house. Right after he made that announcement, all the tribulation elders of the Fang house went to him.

As those from the sect continued to fight, the Fangs turned traitor and escaped with Fang Taiqing leading them. The battlefield immediately fell silent. Even the flowing rivers of blood didn't seem as shocking anymore. Many wondered how a spineless coward like that could have been blessed with such amazing talent. How could the Sterling House of Fang have ever risen to prominence in the sect in the first place? They were proof of the claim that nurture hardly ever beat up nature.

After suffering more than two hundred thousand casualties and losing the fifty thousand Jians and eighty thousand Fangs, there was no longer a point for the remaining fighters to persist, especially not with the three ghoul kings in the picture. The only ones that remained were the two hundred thousand Xuanyuans and other fighters from the sect.

A time of chaos was like a mirror that reflected people's true nature. Those that remained were struggling against destiny itself to protect their homes and loved ones. Yet cruel and indifferent fate had stabbed them in the back twice over. Now, they all began wondering if they still had any trace of hope in this despairing predicament.

"Fang Taiqing, so now you finally accept your true nature? You're nothing but a mere dog... and a disloyal one at that. Pathetic."

Di Zang and Po Suo looked at each other and smiled.