Chapter 17: Arrogant Mask Group (Patreon)

After Gusttave married his five brides, he settled into a life of shameless, blissful happiness.

But…

Was that really how it went?

Not long after Gusttave's wedding, news arrived that sent his blood pressure through the roof.

Ten masked individuals had forced their way through Heaven's Gate and pushed on into Beyond the Circle.

Word had it that all of them were young lords and ladies from the old clans.

That wasn't the crux of the problem, of course — these days both the Way of Great Peace and the Yiqidao League valued talent and ability over birth.

The real problem was that these ten were all top-tier prodigies. Three of them had the potential to reach Demon Emperor-level strength.

The rest, given time to grow, were bound to become Greater Yao Kings or Quasi-Sovereigns.

And it wasn't just cultivation talent — at their young age, they'd already created signature techniques all their own.

Given the chance to grow properly, each of them was destined to become a towering figure in their own field.

Geniuses like these, banding together to head into a place as dangerous as Beyond the Circle — if they died, the future would suffer a devastating loss.

They were also living proof of what the Way of Great Peace's push for universal education had achieved: countless talents unearthed among the common people, swelling the reserve of promising youths.

If anything happened to them, the entire human race's future would suffer a real generational gap.

By rights, once Gusttave learned of the masked group's doings, he should have taken precautions.

But the world had long since strayed from its original course — the secrets of Beyond the Circle were now exposed to the public, and Gusttave had even sent troops to garrison the place.

Under these circumstances, the masked group had no business exploring Beyond the Circle on their own.

That was exactly why Gusttave hadn't guarded against this.

After all, the border was held by Wangquan Shouzhuo, and Beyond the Circle was garrisoned by both the army and Dongfang Guyue.

No matter how strong the masked group was, there was no way they could force their way through.

Besides, there was no reason for them to even try.

If they wanted to know the secrets of Beyond the Circle, all they had to do was enlist in the border army — why go to all this trouble?

Still, Gusttave didn't dwell on it. Right now wasn't the time to puzzle over why the masked group had gone Beyond the Circle — maybe they'd simply had a brain lapse; stranger things had happened.

What mattered now was getting them back as fast as possible, before they got themselves killed out there.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

When Wangquan Shouzhuo got the news, he nearly fainted from sheer rage.

"What did you say?! Baye and Zuiyue both went in?!"

The disciple who'd brought the message flinched at the roar, shrinking his neck, and nodded shakily. "Y-yes, Clan Head. It's not just the young master and young lady — eight other prodigies from the various clans went too. They all wore masks and forced their way through Heaven's Gate Pass during a gap in the border army's shift change—"

"Bang!"

Wangquan Shouzhuo slammed a palm onto the desk, and the ironwood table — an heirloom passed down for three hundred years — shattered into eight pieces on the spot.

"A gap in the shift change? Heaven's Gate Pass has two hundred thousand troops stationed there, and ten kids slipped right past under their noses?!" His voice climbed a full octave. "Does the border army have any face left at all?!"

The disciple was nearly in tears. "Among them — among them is the Li family's second young master, Li Quzhuo. You know his skill with mechanisms, Clan Head — he even dismantled the army's sealing formation."

Wangquan Shouzhuo took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Li Zizai, Li Quzhuo, Yang Yitan, Ji Wuji, Mu Shenqi…

He'd heard every one of these ten names before. Each was a top prospect nurtured under the Way of Great Peace's system these past years — back in the old days of the Yiqidao League, they'd have been the finest heirs of the great clans.

And now this pack of little brats had banded together to throw their lives away Beyond the Circle.

"Pass my order!" Wangquan Shouzhuo snatched up the Wangquan Sword and strode for the door. "First Army's Third and Fourth Divisions, into Beyond the Circle to search, now! Second Army, deploy every scout unit! Bring them back alive or dead — no, they must be found alive!"

He paused, a muscle twitching in his weathered face, then added, "Notify Dongfang Guyue. Have him send people too."

The disciple scrambled out as if fleeing for his life.

Wangquan Shouzhuo stood in the doorway, staring at the ashen sky over Beyond the Circle, the veins on his sword hand standing out.

"You little brats…"

[March 7th: Ten prodigies teaming up to court death — why does this plot feel so familiar?]

[Silver Wolf: Classic bratty-kids-ignore-warnings-and-storm-the-forbidden-zone, then the parents scramble to clean up the mess trope.]

[Hu Tao: Still, sneaking past two hundred thousand troops without anyone noticing is pretty impressive in its own right!]

[Dan Heng: A mechanist who can dismantle a military sealing formation is genuinely no ordinary talent.]

[Kaeya: The real question is — why go at all? The intel on Beyond the Circle isn't even a secret anymore. If they wanted to know, couldn't they just enlist?]

Beyond the Circle. Uncharted territory.

Mist churned over the wastelands of Beyond the Circle, the ashen sky hanging low and oppressive. A damp, chilling air seeped into everything, and every inch of ground radiated an eerie, suffocating warning: outsiders, stay away.

"Hey, boss, are we sure about this?" Li Quzhuo asked. "Didn't the secrets of Beyond the Circle already get exposed? Do we really need to risk our necks over it?"

Wangquan Baye said firmly, "The information about Beyond the Circle was released by the Way of Great Peace. How can we be certain what they revealed is even true? Only what we see with our own eyes is truly real."

But hidden in the shadows, Black Fox Empress Phantylia overheard and smiled. "Seeing it with your own eyes makes it real, does it? What a bunch of young fools who don't know the sky from the ground."

[Jing Yuan: Wait, who did you say the Black Fox Empress is?]

[Topaz: I recall there's a Lord Ravager named Huanlong too... don't tell me that's actually her in there…]

[Jade: Even a Lord Ravager got dragged into this so-called dungeon world?]

Black Fox Empress Phantylia didn't act directly. Instead, she sent a black fox avatar to trail quietly behind the group, waiting for the right moment to seize control of their minds and turn them against one another.

Before long, the black fox found the perfect target: Yang Yitan, the Threefold-Insight Sovereign of the group.

He possessed the Yang clan's Heavenly Eye, capable of reading an enemy's qi flow and anticipating their moves before they struck.

Once the fox controlled Yang Yitan, it would also learn the weaknesses of everyone else in the group — after that, wiping them all out would be no trouble at all.

[March 7th: Well, well! Classic villain move — take out the key piece first. Smooth operator!]

Yang Yitan, now under control. The group pressed steadily onward across the wastelands of Beyond the Circle, and no one noticed anything wrong with him.

Eroded by the black mist, Yang Yitan looked no different on the surface — quiet as ever, walking silently near the middle of the group. But behind those eyes, Huanlong had already planted her hidden seed.

In his vision, his companions' auras began to warp. Every trace of goodwill vanished from sight, while suspicion and hostility quietly swelled.

Mid-Autumn Reading Festival! Top up 100 and get 500 VIP coins free! Claim now (Event period: September 25 to September 27).

[Author's Note: Mid-Autumn Reading Festival — top up 100 and get 500 free VIP coins! Grab it now (event runs September 25–27).]