The nightmare was just beginning. Amidst the terrified gazes of the crowd, Wu Tian made his move. The Great Obscuring Hand!

This was a Unique Skill Wu Tian had created after his return from the Immortal Emperor Realm. He had broken through the All Heavens and witnessed the tale of a group of Great Emperors in one of the many worlds. Of course, if it had been Wu Tian at his peak, he could have crushed the Earth with a single palm using the Great Obscuring Hand.

But the current Wu Tian could not do that. Even so, a gigantic hand over fifty meters long, condensed from a mixture of Spiritual Energy and air, materialized above the Diviner family’s guards, Immortal Seekers, and servants. Then, with a single slap, it smashed down.

BOOM!

The ground shook and all life trembled. The Great Obscuring Hand left a massive pit in the earth—over fifty meters long, twenty meters wide, and more than ten meters deep. Inside it were several human-shaped pancakes.

"What kind of Daoist Magic is this?" Liu Tianji and the others were stunned. They had thought they understood Wu Tian after learning he could use Formations, but now they realized just how little they knew. One should never claim to understand him! That’s an impossible feat. For example, this Great Obscuring Hand... its power is immense. It can’t be simple Daoist Magic; it must be an Immortal Technique. Could it really be an Immortal Technique?

As Liu Tianji and the others stared in shock, Wu Tian barked, "What are you all standing around for?"

Wu Tian’s sharp command jolted everyone back to their senses. Liu Tianji and the others hurriedly responded, "Yes, my lord!"

Then, they struck again. How could the Diviner family’s guards, Immortal Seekers, and servants possibly be a match for them? They were immediately routed and put on the defensive. It was only a matter of time before they were all killed by Liu Tianji’s group.

Meanwhile, Wu Tian quietly approached the Diviner. It was a one-sided slaughter. The Diviner possessed a superior Fire Spiritual Root, but it trembled the moment she encountered Wu Tian. Moreover, the Diviner family was famous for their divinations, not their combat strength; the Diviner herself was only at the Fifth Realm of Cultivation, Golden Core. How could she possibly be a match for Wu Tian? A single punch from Wu Tian sent the Diviner flying, spitting blood.

"Why? Please, just tell me why," the Diviner demanded, her voice filled with unwillingness. She claimed she didn’t know the reason for her family’s destruction and couldn’t die in peace without an answer.

Wu Tian chuckled. She wasn’t so persistent a moment ago. She’s only asking now because she knows she can’t win. A person like this deserves to die. If she had the power to defeat me, would she care why I came for the Diviner family? She would have simply killed me on the spot! Asking for a reason only when you’re about to lose... how pathetic!

Wu Tian walked up to the fallen Diviner and sneered, "Why? Two reasons. First, as I said before, your guards were rude."

"Just for that?" The Diviner’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her face, wrinkled like an old witch’s, was a mask of horror. "That’s a trivial matter!"

A trivial matter? Wu Tian chuckled. The one doing the insulting always thinks it’s a minor issue, but the one being insulted never sees it that way.

"Second," Wu Tian continued, "one of your servants was from the Ghost Valley school. I have a score to settle with them."

The Diviner was so shocked she was rendered speechless.

"Then... then it’s their fault, why... why kill me as well?" the Diviner struggled to ask.

"That’s Jianghu," Wu Tian said indifferently, then turned and walked away.

Liu Tianji and the others followed.

"Wait... I think I can still be saved!"

"You... come back! Come back! I can perform a divination for you!"

But Wu Tian and his men didn’t even turn their heads. Divination? Did they care about that? Liu Tianji and Yuan Beizheng could perform their own fortune-telling. They practiced the divinatory arts of the East and had always looked down on Western-style divination.

"You..."

With that final word, the old witch’s head slumped lifelessly to the side. A witch can divine the fate of others, but never her own.

The entire Diviner family was dead. Wufa and Wang Cai were taken away by Wu Tian.

"What? The Diviner family, one of the Four Great Families, was annihilated?"

"Who would be so audacious?"

"I heard that on the day of the Beast God Pot auction, the Thief family won the bid. But not long after they left, they were killed by a person in black who stole the pot. Its whereabouts are unknown now. That’s why Luo Qingyi booked a full day with the Diviner family to find it, but who would have thought the Diviner family would be wiped out before she could?"

"Lady Luo Qingyi must be furious."

"The Diviner family lived deep in the mountains. No one knows who destroyed them. By the time people from the Great Sect arrived, the bodies had already been eaten by beasts from the Underground World. Only a few bones were left."

"Even though the Diviner family was known for divination, their actual strength was not to be underestimated. So who could have possibly annihilated them?"

「The next day」

The news that the Diviner family had been annihilated spread to every corner of the Underground World. It sent shockwaves through the entire realm.

More shocking than the demise of the Diviner family itself was the speed at which they were wiped out. People were stunned by the sheer power of the mysterious force responsible, a power that the other factions of the Underground World could not afford to ignore.

The leader of the Diviners didn’t even have a chance to escape. Everyone who died at the scene was from the Diviner family; there were no outside casualties. What did this mean? The two facts combined meant the attackers’ strength far surpassed that of the Diviner family.

Among all the major powers—the One Sect, Two Alliances, Three Demonic Factions, Four Great Families, Five Sword Sects, and Six Schools—only the One Sect, Two Alliances, and Three Demonic Factions were capable of such a feat.

Furthermore, since only the remains of the Diviner family were found at the scene, the list of suspects could be narrowed down. Only the Great Sect and the Evil Alliance could have achieved this without suffering any losses. After all, the Righteous Alliance was gone. The Great Sect was an unlikely perpetrator, as their own Luo Qingyi had an appointment with the Diviner family.

This left only one logical culprit in everyone’s mind: the Evil Alliance.

The reasoning was simple. With the Righteous Alliance gone, the Evil Alliance surely intended to conquer the Underground World. They would start by eliminating the other powers one by one. Why target the Diviner family first? Because they could potentially scry the Evil Alliance’s future plans. It was a preemptive strike. With this line of thought, everyone became absolutely certain that the Evil Alliance was behind this sinister plot.

Wu Tian himself never expected that wild speculation would twist the event to such an extent.

Suddenly, the seemingly calm Underground World began to stir with undercurrents as the other major powers grew wary and began to take precautions against the Evil Alliance.

At that moment, in the darkest forest of the Underground World, an encampment of military tents stood beside the ominous Black Water. This was the headquarters of the Evil Alliance. They did not dwell in grand halls or palaces, only in simple tents pitched beside the Black Water River, where herds of jet-black steeds grazed. In the center of the camp, a long spear was planted in the ground, radiating an imposing and domineering aura.

Inside the largest tent, Xiang Lingtian, the Alliance Hierarch of the Evil Alliance, wore a grave expression. Before him stood two men: one was a young man, the Young Alliance Hierarch Xiang Feixie, and the other was a wise and cunning-looking elder named Fan Yisheng. The Evil Alliance was comprised of the descendants of the great Xiang Yu.

They had been secretly training their troops for years, plotting to conquer the Underground World, ascend to the surface, and unite the globe. But now, their plan had barely begun, and they were already falling under suspicion.

Xiang Lingtian snorted. "Could this really be the work of our people?" he asked in a low voice.