Chapter 217: Betrayal

"This... What is this?" Huang Shi's eyes widened with disbelief.

"A simple weapon," a smirk appeared on Lu Ming's face as he slashed with the sword.

Boom!

A blinding light emitted from the sword, covering the entire area in dazzling radiance as a soul-ringing sound resonated.

Lu Zhen looked up in the air and saw a blinding light right next to the sun. "Another sun?" he had a question mark on his face as he finally heard the soul-ringing sound.

His ears bled as Lu Zhen's eyes widened, his internal organs damaged just from the blast.

"What just happened?" he thought, looking up in the air again after fully recovering. "I should go up," Lu Zhen muttered as he used the ground as his momentum to launch himself in the air.

Only a first-stage martial artist could truly fly in the air without any support. The most Lu Zhen could do was jump high and manoeuvre himself in the air; he couldn't truly fly.

Lu Zhen made his body as light as a feather, slowly elevating himself in the air. Soon, he reached above the clouds where the blinding light originated and looked around.

Lu Ming had a smile on his face, a white sword in his hand, and two charred corpses on the ground, seemingly burned to a crisp.

Lu Zhen's eyes narrowed as he carefully examined the corpses. One of them looked very big, like a monster with three heads and eight hands, which he could barely discern. The other appeared to be a normal human male.

Before he could ask about the corpses, Lu Zhen turned his attention to Ancestor Lu, who was standing in thin air. However, before he could say anything, Lu Ming vomited blood, his complexion turning pale as if he were on his deathbed.

"Lu Zhen, support me down," Lu Ming said, extending his hand.

Although Lu Zhen was confused, he still followed Lu Ming's instructions. Gliding slowly towards him, he took Lu Ming's hand on his shoulder, changed his mass to normal, and let go of all his body control before swiftly descending.

When he was very close to the ground, his body mass turned light again, and he slowly floated in the air, making a gentle landing.

"Well, I don't want to betray you either, but..." Ancestor Hei pointed up in the sky. "It is the higher-ups' order."

"You are dead now either way. Even if I don't kill you, every force outside is trying to claim this place with their greedy eyes. Do you think the Lu family will be alive to rule this place when they are ransacked by all the forces?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Ming's eyes narrowed.

"I meant what I said—the information that the inheritance cave was found here was leaked."

Lu Zhen's expression turned cold when he heard this, and he had a contemplative look on his face.

"We were initially in seclusion because of the higher-ups' order not to interfere in the matters of Phoenix Town. However, the inheritance cave is way too important; you truly don't know the value of it. So, we have been given orders to capture the whole town before they arrive."

"So, you were an external force all along, huh..." Lu Ming said, and his expression turned calm as his complexion changed back to normal again.

"Eh," Ancestor Hei was stunned when he saw this. "Weren't you on your deathbed before?"

"Too bad your words encouraged me to recover," Lu Ming snickered, a friendly smile plastered on his face.

He moved his hand up, and all the Wood Qi that he had wasted in the sky returned to him. Some of the injuries in his body also healed with it.

"You guys truly underestimate me."

"This... this..." Ancestor Hei's expression turned into despair as he suddenly disappeared from his position.

"Where are you going, my friend?" Lu Ming's face once again turned to a businesslike smile as he also vanished from his position.

"Well, that was anticlimactic..." Lu Zhen mused to himself. "That old man's acting is quite good; he even fooled me when I was so close to him," he muttered with some bitterness as he looked at the Hei family army, who were nervous and sweating.

"I can milk them for levels." His eyes flashed with a ruthless glint as he erupted with killing intent looking at the people here with his greedy eyes.