After settling everything, Li Gang started leaving.
As he reached the door, Jin Huang said something that made Li Gang's pupils shrink in shock.
Jin Huang said, "The realm of Rank 9 Emperor doesn't exist in any Cultivation World. It only exists in this Divine Spirit World!"
20th February, 16th year of Elemental Era
The tragedy of Crimson Grassland spread throughout the Northern Continent. The Wei Dynasty, with just 10,000 warriors, defeated the Shu Dynasty's 5 million troops. This caused a sensation everywhere.
Rumors spread that two Rank 8 warriors also died on the battlefield!
The cause of everything?
Li Gang was present in a secluded location of the Golden Crow Kingdom, in a small cabin. He had slept for 5 days and 5 nights.
He woke up and frowned.
Li Gang was squatting on the ground, with his right hand and head resting on the bed. He stood up slowly and forced himself onto the bed. His body was still immensely injured.
He immediately started calculating something.
"There is something wrong with how the battle went."
The most important question—why did the two Rank 8 warriors decide to deploy the entire 5 million troops?
According to Li Gang's initial calculations, it should have been 1 million. And the reason? Of course, spies.
He had shared his plan with Wei Han, the Demonic faction leader Mo Tiancheng, as well as Gu Zhen. At the same time, he had leaked a small part of his plan to the Shu Dynasty so that they would deploy more warriors.
But even with that, he had expected they would deploy at most 1 million warriors.
Sending 5 million seemed unreasonable, and the entire battle was way too smooth. When everything goes more smoothly than expected, one must question if something is wrong.
As Li Gang followed this line of thought, he suddenly considered a possibility. 'Could it have been orchestrated by those two as well?'
A Rank 8 warrior should already consider the worst-case scenario before taking action.
Both Huang and Lei should have considered the possibility of Li Gang retaining Rank 8 battle strength. This could be one reason why they decided to send so many warriors—to push him to his limits.
However, despite suffering such heavy losses, and seeing that Li Gang did not use Rank 8 battle strength, they gained the confidence to appear before him.
This had been his conclusion on the battlefield.
But now the question was—what if they had considered their own deaths as a possibility? Since that would be the true worst-case scenario for them, and Li Gang's Rank 8 battle strength was only the medium to make it happen.
Even in such a situation, if they still came to battle, it would mean they must have left a way out. For example—resurrection.
Resurrection is achievable through Soul-type Secret Techniques, but this method can only be prepared before the death of the warrior. This was why Li Gang hadn't thought of resurrecting his family back then.
At the same time, there was another point of doubt.
When he arrived at this cabin using Spatial Order, he found vitality pills in a space ring. However, before he could consume them, his vision turned hazy. He had no memory of what happened next until now, when he woke up.
It felt like he had fainted. He was in extreme pain with various internal injuries. It did make sense that he would faint, but back then, he believed he had enough strength to persevere until he healed himself with vitality pills. However, he fainted much earlier.
Li Gang's premonition only intensified, and he felt that something was wrong. He also wondered—what if he was overthinking?
He had no clue what his opponents were scheming. If they really had planned something, he could only wait and react. And that was the problem. A person on the deceiving end always holds an absolute advantage. If they plotted cleverly, he might even die.
There are no stupid people in the world—only active and inactive ones. Those who take action toward their goals are called geniuses, while those who wait for something to happen are called stupid. But in simpler terms, the former are active, while the latter are inactive.
The one who takes action first holds an advantage over the latter—of course, only when the latter is unaware of those actions.
Now that Li Gang had a premonition that someone might be scheming against him, how could he sit still?
The first thing that came to his mind was the involvement of an Emperor.
He recalled Jin Huang's words: "The realm of Rank 9 Emperor doesn't exist in any Cultivation World. It only exists in this Divine Spirit World!"
What did it mean?
Back then, Li Gang had come to two conclusions from that single sentence.
First—the Mind Reader is not the Emperor. He had initially thought the Mind Reader could be the Emperor residing beyond the Divine Spirit World, unable to interfere due to certain restrictions. However, when they protected him from information overload during his absorption of Lin Fan's memories, Li Gang concluded that they might have the ability to interfere—but chose not to. It could be because they were wary of someone—for example, the one who brought Li Gang here.
Now, Li Gang had a new inference. Emperors only exist in this Divine Spirit World, and they can interfere with his life directly. They can take action against him.
However, the Mind Reader exists beyond the Divine Spirit World and cannot interfere at all.
The second point—when Li Gang absorbed Lin Fan's past life memories, there was a lot of crucial information about Rank 9s—Emperors.
This created a contradiction. Why would Lin Fan have memories of the Emperor realm? The Emperor realm only exists in the Divine Spirit World, not outside it. Therefore, Lin Fan shouldn't have possessed such in-depth knowledge of Emperors.
He could be overthinking—but Li Gang had reason to believe he wasn't. He knew someone had filtered the memories to save him back then. If they could filter memories, they could also add some.
Li Gang realized that the one who interfered and saved him wasn't the Mind Reader—but an Emperor.
There are four Emperors he knows of—the Timeless Demon Emperor, Soul Emperor, Void Emperor, and Elemental Emperor.
Li Gang instantly realized it was the work of the Soul Emperor. The secret technique was of the "Soul" attribute. Of course, he also considered the possibility of another Emperor, but the chances for the Soul Emperor were the highest.
Since he could interfere with memories, he might also have the ability to erase them. But now another conflict arose.
The Soul Emperor had protected him back then—what was his goal? There are Emperors who want him dead, and those who want him alive. At the same time, he had given him crucial knowledge about the Emperor realm. Why?
After thinking everything through, Li Gang felt there was no reason for the Soul Emperor to erase his memories.
What could he gain from doing so? Conquering the Northern Continent? What value would that hold for him?
Take over his body? But why now? Could it only be possible when he is heavily injured? But he had also been just as injured during the Catastrophe.
In the end, there was no clear reason for the Soul Emperor to do this. So was it all just a coincidence?
Li Gang couldn't calm the premonition in his heart. He sped things up and began checking for all kinds of clues. First—the vitality pills. Their number was the same. Second—the Spatial Order. It was still with him.
As he thought this, he suddenly realized something while fiddling with the Spatial Order. He couldn't use it.
He was confident it should still have sufficient energy despite his previous use. At that very moment, a chill ran down his spine.
He suddenly realized—"I don't know how long I fainted!"
Normally, it wouldn't matter. But for Li Gang, this was a critical information gap. He now understood what the entire trap was about.
He quickly formed an inference based on his current situation. It wasn't necessarily accurate—and he knew that. But the important point was that countering this possibility would increase his chances of survival.
"Before I left, I must have been marked with a special inscription. I don't know what it is, but it put me to sleep while revealing my location. It should have been placed on the Spatial Order. My enemies aren't just those Rank 8 warriors—but also an Emperor!"
How did he reach this conclusion?
First—even he didn't know how to directly drain the energy of the Spatial Order. Yet someone had done so silently. He refused to believe no Emperor was involved.
Second—by removing its energy, he was trapped in this place. He was heavily injured and needed to recuperate. If they trapped him, they would surely come.
Third—the fact that he didn't know how long he had been unconscious meant that if someone was targeting him, they could find him at any moment.
Fourth—the Emperors were likely not directly involved. Otherwise, they would have already found him before he woke up. It was also possible they had already come, taken what they wanted, and left—but Li Gang didn't need to consider that possibility. Why? Because if that were true, he would already be safe. He only needed to consider possible dangers.
Fifth—they didn't mark him directly, but the Spatial Order. Li Gang was well-versed in formations and inscriptions. With his caution, he wouldn't have made such an obvious mistake. The inscription could only be placed on something even he couldn't see through. That thing was the Spatial Order.
Li Gang immediately stood up and resolutely threw the Spatial Order into the lake behind the cabin. He took the vitality pills and left without healing himself.
The Spatial Order was a powerful tool for escaping danger—but right now, it was the danger itself. He didn't have enough Spiritual Stones to recharge it anyway.
No matter how great a treasure is, it is never as important as one's own life.