"Leave?"

Zhou Huai pulled back his smile and looked at him expressionlessly.

He gave a cold laugh.

"If you leave empty-handed like this, and the task Mr. Duan gave you to receive your kin remains unfinished..."

"Do you think he will let you off easily?"

"Won't your end still be the same—death?"

Upon hearing these words, the Grand Elder and the dozen or so Ancient Awakened Ones who had luckily survived stopped in their tracks.

They looked at each other and lowered their heads one after another.

Mr. Duan had sent them to Great Xia to bring back the Ancient Awakened Ones captured by the Great Xia Military Department to the Dawnbreaker Guild, in order to expand their forces to counter the Heavenly Dao.

As it turned out, not only were they returning empty-handed, but they had also lost half of their elite combat strength.

With Mr. Duan's methods—disregarding everything and being cruel and ruthless—if he ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) knew they had fled the battle and knelt to beg for mercy...

What awaited them would be a Soul extraction ten thousand times more painful than death! Their end would not be a pleasant one!

To advance was death, to retreat was also death!

Just as all the members of the Dawnbreaker Guild lowered their heads, and some were even prepared to close their eyes and wait for death...

Zhou Huai suddenly changed his tone.

The coldness on his face faded, replaced by a smile.

"However, everyone, rest assured."

Zhou Huai patted the scales of the Demon Dragon beneath him.

"I said just now that not only will I not take action against you..."

"On the contrary, I can do you a big favor."

He paused, looked at the group of old monsters, and said word by word, "I can hand over all the Ancient Awakened Ones currently captured by Great Xia to you... completely intact."

"What?"

The Grand Elder raised his battered head, his sole remaining eye wide and round as he looked at Zhou Huai.

He even reached out with a charred finger to dig at his ear, thinking his hearing had been damaged by the thunderous sound earlier.

He wants to hand over all the captured Awakened Ones to us?

How is that possible?

Not just the Grand Elder, but even Zhao Qingcang and Lin Zhu, who had been hovering in the distance, gaped in shock upon hearing this.

The two looked at each other, both seeing the wide-eyed astonishment in the other's gaze.

"Those Ancient Awakened Ones were personally ordered to be captured by the Star Lord!" Lin Zhu lowered her voice.

"They were even sent to the underground Zero Prison immediately!" Zhao Qingcang grit his teeth. "These hard-won bargaining chips, and now they're all being given away?"

"Is he compromising with the Dawnbreaker Guild?"

"Absolutely impossible! A demi-god level Demon Dragon is enough to crush everything; he has no reason to fear these defeated foes. Then why?"

Zhao Qingcang frowned, calculating various possibilities in his mind, but he found his thinking simply couldn't keep up with Zhou Huai's strategy.

However, both Zhao Qingcang and Lin Zhu tacitly chose to remain silent.

The gale howled high in the sky, blowing charred debris off the Grand Elder's body in a rustling shower.

He swallowed hard, his heart pounding within his mangled chest.

The Grand Elder's one remaining eye widened, and a wheezing, airy sound came from his damaged throat: "Your... Your Excellency... are you... are you serious?"

Handing over all the Ancient Awakened Ones captured by Great Xia to them, completely intact?

Could such a windfall really exist in this world?

Zhou Huai looked down from above at the monster whose half-body had been turned to charcoal and smiled.

"What I say is, naturally, the truth."

His tone was flat. This casual sentence caused all the Dawnbreaker Guild experts present to kowtow repeatedly.

"Thank you, My Lord! Thank you for your mercy in sparing our lives!"

"My Lord is magnanimous! After we return, we will put in a good word for you before Mr. Duan!"

The dozen or so SS-rank and S-rank ancient experts who had survived kowtowed in the Void Realm one by one, thanking him repeatedly, fearing Zhou Huai might change his mind.

The Grand Elder's chest heaved, and the heart that had been in his throat finally settled.

He secretly grit his teeth and grinned—this young man possessed a demi-god level Abyssal Demon Dragon and was terrifyingly strong, but in the end, he still feared Mr. Duan's reputation!

As long as they could bring this batch of Awakened Ones back to the Dawnbreaker Guild to fill the void in their combat power, Mr. Duan would definitely not look too deeply into their crime of fleeing the battle! Furthermore, once Mr. Duan's World-Ending Plan was complete and the day the Heavenly Dao collapsed arrived, he would lead a grand army to trample this Great Xia territory once more and wash away today's humiliation!

Zhou Huai ignored these ants. He turned his head to look at the supreme commander of the Great Xia Military Department not far away.

"Marshal Zhao."

Zhou Huai's voice reached Zhao Qingcang's ears.

"Please go and bring all those people out."

Zhao Qingcang was startled.

He glanced at the people from the Dawnbreaker Guild, then at Zhou Huai, and frowned.

"Zhou Huai..." Zhao Qingcang hesitated to speak.

"Do you really want them to take everyone away?"

Zhou Huai understood Marshal Zhao's concerns.

Although they were the Ancient Remnant Clan, they were all occupying the bodies of Great Xia citizens.

Lately, the Great Xia Military Department had been researching how to drive these Ancient Awakened Ones out of their bodies.

Unfortunately, there had been no progress.

If these people were taken away, the original owners of their bodies might truly never return.

Zhou Huai emphasized once more.

"Marshal Zhao, bring the people out. I'll have a way."

Beside them, Lin Zhu tugged at Zhao Qingcang's hand.

She gave him a look of silent agreement.

Zhao Qingcang sighed.

"Alright then."

Having said that, Zhao Qingcang no longer hesitated. He stood at attention in mid-air, gave Zhou Huai a standard Great Xia military salute, then turned and transformed into a streak of light, heading straight for the Zero Command Center beneath the Imperial Capital.

Watching Zhao Qingcang's departing figure, the Grand Elder's heart finally settled completely. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Your Lordship's word is as good as gold!" The Grand Elder smiled flatteringly, the smile squeezed onto his battered face looking uglier than a ghost's. "As soon as the handover is complete, we will get out of Great Xia immediately and won't stay for a single second longer!"

Zhou Huai crossed his arms, his golden hair fluttering in the gale as he stood quietly atop the dragon's head, looking down at the scene below.

Time passed minute by minute.

About twenty minutes later.

On the ground in the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, a low engine rumble could be heard.

Before long, a dozen heavy armored military trucks, under the strict escort of a large number of elite Great Xia Military Department soldiers, slowly drove out from the gates of a secret base.

Zhou Huai lightly patted Demon Dragon Xiao Hei's horns. The massive Abyssal Demon Dragon let out a low snort, flapped its sky-blotting wings, and followed unhurriedly, finally hovering above an open space in the outskirts.

The convoy slowly drove from the edge of the city to the uninhabited outskirts.

The screech of brakes sounded, and the dozen military trucks stopped in a flat, open area.

Fully armed Great Xia soldiers quickly disembarked, carrying Heavy Magic-guided Rifles, and alertly set up a perimeter.

Zhao Qingcang stepped out of the first off-road vehicle. He looked up at the giant dragon hovering in mid-air, then turned to the members of the Dawnbreaker Guild and issued an order.

"Open the truck doors."

The heavy metal rear doors of the dozen trucks were pulled open by the soldiers simultaneously.

"Everyone, the people have been brought to you." Zhao Qingcang stepped back expressionlessly.