Indeed!
A major incident had occurred.
Whether it was Lan Feier, Shui Yunruo, or Huo Wu Chen Yue, they all understood what the deaths of these people signified.
Huo Dong was the Heir Apparent of the Jade Purity Sect, the number one sect of the Four Great Regions.
Tu Gao was the Heir Apparent of the Seven Stars Sect, Wang He was the successor of the Tiger Might Clan, Murong Xian was the successor of the Murong Clan, and so were Chang Tianrui, Bai Hanfei, Xu Jintong, and the others.
They were all destined to inherit great legacies in the future, each backed by numerous forces and entangled in various chains of interest.
Their sects had invested untold effort and resources into nurturing them.
The forces supporting them from behind had also invested heavily.
If anything were to happen to these individuals...
Not only would all the expended effort and consumed resources go to waste, but the critical issue would be the sects losing their future successors.
Needless to say, the sects would not allow such a thing to happen, nor would the various clans and factions, big and small, who had previously invested in these successors.
Yet now, it had happened.
And it wasn't just one successor who had died, but a full several dozen, all from notable sects, clans, and factions within the Four Great Regions.
Lan Feier and the other two could scarcely imagine what terrifying events would unfold in the Four Great Regions once the major sects learned of this.
The more they thought about it, the more terrified they became, so much so that they dared not continue thinking.
However, just because one didn't think about something didn't mean it wouldn't happen.
The news of this event spread at an incredibly exaggerated speed, immediately causing an uproar.
First, the Nine-Hua Alliance issued its highest-level wanted order, commanding all alliance disciples to spare no effort in hunting down Gu Qingfeng.
Immediately after, the major powerhouses of the Four Great Regions—the Jade Purity Sect, the Seven Stars Sect, the Tiger Might Clan, the Murong Clan, and others—also ordered their sect disciples to hunt down Gu Qingfeng.
Overnight, sects, clans, and factions, big and small, across the Four Great Regions were frantically searching for Gu Qingfeng.
The entire Four Great Regions descended into chaos.
Teams of menacing figures filled the streets and alleys, the skies and the earth, conducting a carpet search. They searched for an entire night, scouring the Four Great Regions back and forth seven or eight times, yet found no trace of Gu Qingfeng.
The next day.
The Ancestral Patriarchs of the major powerhouses, who had been in closed-door cultivation, emerged one after another.
Such as the twenty-four Great Virtue Elders of the Nine-Hua Alliance, each cultivating for thousands of years with unfathomable depths of cultivation, among them were even Daozuns who had achieved Nascent Soul.
And the nine Jade Purity Ancestral Patriarchs of the Jade Purity Sect, also ancient monsters who had cultivated for millennia, among whom were also Daozuns who had achieved Nascent Soul.
Besides them, the Daozun Ancestral Patriarchs of the Seven Stars Sect, Yuan Ying Sect, Purple Mountain Sect, Tiger Might Clan, and Murong Clan also emerged from seclusion. Even the Daozun Ancestral Patriarchs of Cloud Heart Hall, Little Immortal Valley, and the Huo Wu Clan, who had little connection to the incident, were affected and broke out of their closed-door cultivation.
They were the Grand Elders of the major powerhouses, also the Ancestral Patriarchs.
Since the Great Calamity, they had been in seclusion. Even when they occasionally emerged, they paid no heed to worldly affairs, especially those Daozuns who had achieved Nascent Soul. At that realm, they usually focused wholeheartedly on cultivation, rarely concerning themselves with secular matters.
Unless it was a catastrophic disaster, they seldom interfered in sect affairs.
However.
The eradication of a sect's successor, while not a catastrophic disaster, was absolutely no less than one for any sect.
After the Ancestral Patriarchs of the major sects emerged and learned of this, they immediately manifested their Nascent Souls to meticulously search the Four Great Regions.
A Nascent Soul could travel a thousand miles in an instant, making the search extremely fast. Moreover, the spiritual senses of these Ancestral Patriarchs were exceptionally powerful. By manifesting their Nascent Souls and expanding their spiritual senses, they could grasp every movement within a vast radius.
Thus, another two days passed.
Still, there was no trace of Gu Qingfeng.
He seemed to have evaporated from the mortal world. The major powerhouses searched house by house, even meticulously combing through various ancient cave abodes and secret realms, turning the Four Great Regions upside down, yet still found no sign of Gu Qingfeng.
No one knew where he had gone.
Everyone was searching frantically.
On this day, the sun set in the west, and dusk descended.
At the Nine-Hua Alliance.
In a garden filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers.
A peerlessly beautiful woman in white stood quietly among the blossoms, gazing at the dusk as the sun set in the west, lost in thought.
Her stunning face bore an extremely heavy expression, her willow-leaf eyebrows deeply furrowed as if troubled by many things she couldn't understand.
This woman was none other than Su Hua.
Upon learning that Gu Qingfeng had eradicated the Ten Little Hidden Dragons, the Thirty-Six Huage Young Masters, and others, Su Hua was also utterly shocked.
She hadn't expected Gu Qingfeng's audacity to be so great, acting without any regard for consequences. Eliminating so many Heir Apparents and successors was almost equivalent to making an enemy of all the cultivators in the Four Great Regions. No one would do such a thing, or more accurately, no one dared to, because doing so would offend far, far too many people.
In this world, no power existed in isolation; they were all interlinked, entangled with chains of interest, big and small. Long-established sects like the Jade Purity Sect had the support of major powers behind them. The Tiger Might Clan had branches spread across the world. And behind the Nine-Hua Alliance stood the Immortal Court.
Now that the Ten Little Hidden Dragons and the Thirty-Six Huage Young Masters were dead, the interests damaged weren't just those of the sects in the Four Great Regions, but also those of the major powers supporting them from behind. Once they pursued the matter, forget Daozuns, even Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals would have nowhere to hide, facing only death in the end.
For the past two days, Su Hua had also searched everywhere for Gu Qingfeng, searching continuously for two days, but similarly found nothing.
Of course.
Her purpose in searching for Gu Qingfeng wasn't to seek justice for those Heir Apparents.
She respected every life, but she wasn't a saint overflowing with indiscriminate kindness. Perhaps she sympathized with the deceased Heir Apparents, but that was all—just sympathy.
To this day, Su Hua still clearly remembered what Gu Qingfeng had said on the Taixuan Platform: he said to let those people hit him, hit him as they pleased, he wouldn't fight back, until they had their fill—but only that day. If they troubled him afterward, he would absolutely show no mercy.
Initially, Su Hua thought Gu Qingfeng didn't dare to stir up trouble.
Now it seemed, Gu Qingfeng wasn't afraid; he just didn't want to invite this trouble.
The tree may crave calm, but the wind will not cease.
If this trouble ignored his warning and troubled him again and again, he would act without hesitation.
He said as much, and he did as much.
And he did it cleanly and decisively, killing dozens of Little Hidden Dragons and Huage Young Masters in one breath.
Such ruthless, unwavering slaughter... Su Hua truly couldn't imagine what kind of person could be so decisive, so resolute, so cold-blooded and merciless.
"Miss, are you truly certain that the Taiji Golden Core Gu Qingfeng formed that day had dispersed?"
From not far away, Qian Shan, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up to ask.
This question, she had already asked many times.