The No.1 Undercover in the Immortal World-Chapter 697 - 205 Our Boss is an Insider Traitor

The story splits into two parts. Long Xiaoman, carrying Lin Yun’s letter, raced directly towards the East Sea. From Cloud Dream Marsh, she entered the Dragon River and sped off like a streak of red lightning.

At sunrise, Long Xiaoman at last saw the sun of Haizhou.

By that time, Haizhou had already been put on full alert. Yesterday, Yuan Zihe had battled with the Snow Maiden. The outcome remained undecided, but the Snow Maiden’s Grassland Warriors struggled to stand against the deep-sea behemoths brought forth by Yuan Zidan.

If it weren’t for Yuan Zidan’s deep-sea behemoths being unable to stray too far from the ocean, he wouldn’t have been forced to huddle within the confines of Haizhou’s boundaries.

Only by obtaining the Classic of Mountains and Seas would he be capable of expanding throughout the world.

Suddenly, the situation reached a stalemate.

In the early morning, after a whole night’s contemplation, Yuan Zidan finally decided to propose an alliance with the Snow Maiden against Lin Yun.

He had thought himself capable of contending for supremacy over the Central Plains, sweeping across the land. Little did he know that this generation’s Northern Spear King was also so formidable.

Yuan Zidan dared to suddenly start a war also because, during this period, while holding the Sea King’s Trident and meditating on the Heavenly Dao, he had a breakthrough, reaching a realm unprecedented by his predecessors.

Because of the breakthrough, he felt invincible once again.

As fate would have it, he encountered the Snow Maiden, who had also made a breakthrough.

This generation’s Northern Spear King lost his spear, and even in close combat, Yuan Zidan found himself utterly spent.

Yuan Zidan led the offense yet couldn’t break through the Snow Maiden’s defense.

Although the Snow Maiden attacked less often, when she did strike Yuan Zidan, the least he could expect was a severe injury.

The Snow Maiden could afford countless mistakes, but Yuan Zidan could not afford even a single one.

Battling at such a high intensity and on a daily basis, Yuan Zidan’s mentality also started to crack.

In fact, their conflict was somewhat fair, as they were both at the same cultivation level and were both lacking a Divine Artifact. Yuan Zidan, without the Classic of Mountains and Seas, could not utilize his beast-taming abilities. Similarly, the Snow Maiden, without Qiaobian, appeared somewhat weaker in offense.

The two forces were evenly matched, and to continue the fight seemed pointless. Better to seek peace.

Yuan Zidan sought out paper and ink and wrote, "The Northern Spear King respectfully initiates, since our conflict began, we have reached a prolonged impasse without a decisive outcome. Having stationed our troops for over a month, without gaining an inch of territory, it has only allowed the old citizens of the Central Plains to watch from a distance as the morale of our mighty armies gradually wanes.

Thus, there’s no benefit for you, nor gain for me, how unwise that would be.

As the ancients said, a gentleman seizes the opportunity, and the Enlightened understand their destiny—it’s also the strategy in war.

Since we bear no irreconcilable grudge against each other from the past, why then should we create inextinguishable enmity for the future?

With the Central Plains in such disarray, now is the time for us to set the stage for supremacy. Opportunities don’t come twice. Rather than continuing this conflict, let’s agree to cease hostilities, make the Dragon River our boundary, not interfere with each other, and collectively discuss the fate of the Central Plains.

The enemies in the Central Plains will surely lose courage at the news, and we will each achieve our goals. Wouldn’t that be perfect?"

After writing, Yuan Zidan rolled up the letter and sent someone to deliver it to the Snow Maiden.

There was actually a lot more he could have written. For instance, even if the Grassland People took Haizhou, it wouldn’t greatly affect him since he could retreat to the sea, cutting off any chance the Grassland People had to pursue.

Moreover, Haizhou wasn’t so easily conquered.

But considering the Snow Maiden was herself a leader, writing too much would seem unnecessarily verbose for himself.

He was a king, not a talker.

It was sufficient to express his stance. There was no need to write in a fawning manner, hoping the Snow Maiden was wise enough not to fight him anymore. Wouldn’t it be better for them to join forces against the Central Plains?

Yuan Zidan didn’t want to waste more time with the Snow Maiden; he simply wanted to march on the Central Plains to search for his sister, Yuan Zihe.

When declaring war on the Central Plains, Yuan Zidan had also considered whether demanding Lin Yun to return his sister would expose her if she were hiding, possibly leading to her capture.

But then he thought, considering how difficult it would be for Yuan Zihe to steal anything, she might end up trading her beauty instead.

If captured, based on his knowledge of her, Yuan Zidan believed she would rather die than betray him.

The Yuan Family placed honor above even life itself.

If an unidentified spy were caught, death was almost certain the only outcome.

But if she had an identity, Lin Yun might use her to threaten him.

It was precisely because of this consideration that Yuan Zidan boldly declared war; no matter the outcome, at minimum, it could save Yuan Zihe’s life.

However, now that the war had been ongoing for so long without word, if the Central Plains People had uncovered Yuan Zihe’s hidden identity, they would surely have sought negotiations.

Could it be that she had been killed directly?

Yuan Zidan’s heart grew increasingly anxious.

As if to confirm his fears, a subordinate suddenly reported that at the port, a white cloth with blood writing had been found, to be personally opened by Yuan Zidan.

Checking it, Yuan Zidan saw a message stating he should meet alone in three days to retrieve his complete sister; if he failed to appear, he would receive only pieces of her.

"Despicable!"

Yuan Zidan slammed the cloth onto the ground.

How dare they threaten him with his sister’s purity—this was not the act of a hero.

Glancing at the two characters signed at the bottom, Lin Yun, Yuan Zidan’s teeth itched with rage.

He certainly hadn’t forgotten the humiliation of losing the Classic of Mountains and Seas to Lin Yun.

Now that Lin Yun had captured his sister, it was utterly loathsome.

"Great King..."

The attendant saw Yuan Zidan’s anger and felt uneasy.

This was the pillar of the Yuan Family, the hope of Azure Dragon Island.

If he were to lose his composure, what would others do?

"It’s fine; we’ll wait for the Grassland People’s reply."

The meeting was set for three days later, giving him ample preparation time.

First, he would see what the Snow Maiden decided.

Snow Maiden received Yuan Zidan’s letter, her eyebrows deeply furrowed. She read for a long time before tossing it to her subordinate, Zhang Ling.

"Read."

Snow Maiden now had the air of a tyrannical queen. With her increased cultivation level, her face no longer bore the gentle smile of the past.

Now, a layer of frost always shrouded her face, and she spoke much less, naturally appearing somewhat cold-hearted.

Only then did Zhang Ling come to his senses.

It seemed that Lady Snow Maiden did not recognize the characters of the Central Plains, let alone the ancient script of the Central Plains.

Such ancient text from ten thousand years ago could only be recognized by erudite men like him. He read Yuan Zidan’s letter with clear enunciation, fearing Snow Maiden might not understand it, and then translated it for her in simpler terms.

The core of this letter was just two words: seeking peace.

Zhang Ling also felt that a ceasefire was the best choice. They had been frustrated at Ziyang City and were attacked by Yuan Zidan. In a fit of rage, they had come to fight Yuan Zidan, which Zhang Ling actually felt was very inappropriate.

The art of war strictly forbids raising troops in anger.

Without being prepared for war and without studying the enemy’s strength beforehand, to assemble the troops and full-out attack simply because of anger was very irrational!

But with Snow Maiden’s prestige dictating that they would fight Haizhou, everyone listened to her. Although Zhang Ling had advised against it, seeing little effect, he could only let it be.

Now, with the Haizhou army bogged down in Haizhou and morale indeed somewhat low, it just so happened that Yuan Zidan was also seeking peace. In Zhang Ling’s opinion, of course, they should agree to Yuan Zidan’s terms.

Not only would it change the stagnant battle situation, but they could also take advantage of the opportunity to wrangle some benefits from Yuan Zidan. Why not?

Of course, he also had an inkling that Snow Maiden would not agree.

There were insider traitors in our ranks, and the boss was the insider traitor. But no matter, I was too.

As expected, when he explained in detail Yuan Zidan’s intentions and the benefits of cooperating to capture the Central Plains, Snow Maiden rejected without hesitation.

"No way, he hit our people first, and now he wants to call it off? Not happening!"

Snow Maiden’s response was decisive and fierce, causing Zhang Ling, who had intended to argue, to silently close his mouth.

The other warriors didn’t have too many thoughts. To them, once you bite into an enemy, you bite to the death—such was the charm of the Grassland People in combat.

Snow Maiden’s reply was just what they had in mind.

Zhang Ling silently left the tent. He wrote a letter of reply to Yuan Zidan, conveying Snow Maiden’s stance. Recalling Snow Maiden’s past words and deeds, Zhang Ling felt somewhat gratified.

Snow Maiden had grown. She had learned to command her subordinates. One day, she would become a qualified king, reigning over all.

However, there was still one hurdle she had yet to overcome.

That was the Grand Shaman. Snow Maiden had left the mountain for half a year now, and the Grand Shaman had yet to summon her back, making Zhang Ling even more uneasy.

The Grand Shaman lurked in the dark, biding her time, and no one knew when she might act. If they failed to defend against her and she succeeded, the Zhang Family’s thousands of years of perseverance would lose all its meaning.

And the more the opposing side refrained from any action while he remained on constant guard, the more tense he felt.

"The key to breaking the deadlock might still lie with that man."

"A Yi Qiu!"

Lin Yun sneezed mightily, startling the birds foraging in the Cloud Dream Marsh Wetlands into flight.

Soon, Lin Yun sneezed again.

This time he really felt frozen through, but fortunately, it was not his time to die yet.

Though he was frozen stiff, now that the sun was out, he was gradually thawing. The Sun God Divine Power kept flowing into his body, making him feel his body warming up. The suppressed Sun God Divine Power finally began to rise.

The red and blue Qi spheres returned to a balanced state, and the red was increasing while the blue was gradually being suppressed.

Lin Yun thought that their battle would likely not stop anytime soon.

Draw in the energy, let them draw. It didn’t matter anymore.

After all, it was just alternating between cold and hot for a while—not a big issue.

But in this state, he couldn’t possibly fight Yuan Zidan.

With an unstable inner Qi, he couldn’t unleash even one-tenth of his combat strength.

If that was the case...

Then he had to resort to trickery.

He had not done so before because he was worried about the imminent outbreak at Shura Field, but some things just can’t be avoided and must be faced bravely.

However, his emaciated state from training was quite fitting for the occasion.

Every time Shura Field was about to erupt, his body would conveniently falter at just the right moment. Truly deserving of myself.

Lin Yun first took out a whistle and blew it.

Dongfang Hongyue immediately responded, "Lin Yun, where are you?"

"I’m in the Cloud Dream Marsh," Lin Yun said weakly.

There was three parts genuine discomfort in his voice and three parts acting skill.

With his current state, he could muster his spirits or indulge in his own dejection to appear even more despondent.

He opted for the latter.

A ruse of self-harm—shameful, but very effective.

"I’m coming to find you."

Dongfang Hongyue didn’t waste words and headed straight for the Cloud Dream Marsh. Given her speed, she could arrive in at most half an hour.

Lin Yun hastily got up and returned to the boat. Just as he was about to lie down properly, he saw Zhen Li lying helplessly on the ground like a salted fish, and Yuan Zihe, along with his Qiaobian, had all disappeared...