"Hmm, there was one crucial detail I might have overlooked just now... The location of this item must be somewhere within the Three Great Sacred Lands! Since it's vital for trade dealings with the Phantom Mansion, it must be classified as top secret by those Three Sacred Lands. That place absolutely cannot permit outsiders, not even members of your Phantom Mansion. Or perhaps, it's precisely those within your Mansion they guard against the most! Therefore, you can only passively wait for the Three Sacred Lands to deliver it; you cannot enter to retrieve or seize it! Otherwise, your Ethereal Phantom Mansion could simply dispatch your own people. Given your relationship with the Three Sacred Lands..." why wouldn't they allow it? But now, it's your people doing the work, only providing you with the item, which indicates the Three Sacred Lands can provide it. But the exact location is the truly critical point!"

"So the most crucial part isn't the item, but the location!"

Jun Mo Xie's gaze was deep, like two pools of profound, unfathomable lakes.

"Correc...t!" Zhan Wufeng drew a deep breath, and those two short words felt strangely labored as they left his lips. He had been relaxed moments before, certain he held all the bargaining chips and could maintain the upper hand in negotiations no matter how things proceeded. But Jun Mo Xie, based only on a single statement he made, had deduced nearly the entire situation, and his mood was slowly turning heavy.

To ally with this nearly demonically wise Lord of Evil—was it a blessing or a curse? With such intellect, even if he failed in the conflict against the Three Sacred Lands, who among the Zhan family within the Phantom Mansion could truly control him? Wouldn't this be akin to raising a tiger?

"Since this item is so important to the Phantom Mansion, and this location is so highly valued by the Three Sacred Lands! If I am to obtain this item and cooperate with you, I would have to uproot the Three Sacred Lands entirely for it to be possible! In that case, our positions would fall into an inescapable, irreconcilable deadlock, wouldn't they?" Jun Mo Xie said heavily.

"Correct!" Zhan Wufeng nodded, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

It seemed that now, whenever he said "correct," he wouldn't be able to say anything else.

"And with the strength I currently possess, I already qualify to stand as an equal to the Three Sacred Lands. Although my peak power might still fall short, compared to any single one of the Three Sacred Lands under the Celestial Saint Palace, I can certainly be considered stronger, if not equal. At worst, a mutually destructive outcome is definitely possible," Jun Mo Xie continued slowly.

"But having that strength is one thing; actually tearing the mask off is another. Once a full-scale war erupts, it will inevitably lead to protracted conflict, entangled and endless, impossible to stop until one side is utterly annihilated! You Zhan family wouldn't have overlooked this point, would you?" Jun Mo Xie raised his eyelids slightly, his gaze shifting, two sharp beams of light shooting like lightning across Zhan Wufeng's face.

The overwhelming, dazzling majesty in that gaze actually forced Zhan Wufeng to involuntarily step back a pace!

"Yes! We have naturally made detailed considerations for this aspect. To show our sincerity... should the Evil Lord's Mansion truly go to war with the Three Sacred Lands, we will use the fighting strength of our Zhan family to assist you fully. I believe this measure alone is sufficient to demonstrate the sincerity of our cooperation," Zhan Wufeng stated resolutely after taking a deep breath.

"Full sincerity? When a massive war breaks out, my Evil Lord's Mansion allied with the Forest of Heavenly Punishment; if we commit to sacrifices regardless of cost, we could conceivably destroy any one of the Three Sacred Lands in the shortest possible time! We could even, riding the momentum, severely damage another! But... when we attack the third one, the Celestial Saint Palace will certainly intervene to stop us. The first and second, perhaps they wouldn't have time to react due to the suddenness of the event. But no matter how fast we move, even in the best-case scenario, we can only destroy two! Once the Celestial Saint Palace steps in, even exhausting all our strength, we would have no chance of victory!"

Jun Mo Xie’s expression turned cold.

"Yet, by then, it will be impossible for either side to cease hostilities! The ten-thousand-year foundation inherited by my Evil Lord's Mansion will have been ruined; no one will tolerate that! This hatred and enmity will be irreconcilable! Moreover... with so many of the younger generation destroyed by me, the people of the Celestial Saint Palace... even if they possess saintly magnanimity, they cannot accept such an outcome; only death can resolve this stalemate. Under their full assault, with the current power of my Evil Lord's Mansion, achieving even a mutually damaging outcome would be strenuous. The most likely result is that they would be heavily wounded, while my two factions, the Evil Lord’s Mansion and the Forest of Heavenly Punishment, would be completely wiped out!"

"Our Evil Lord's Mansion possesses far too few peak experts. Compared to those ancient monsters of the Celestial Saint Palace who have existed for millennia, there is an unbridgeable gap—this is the result of countless ages of accumulation!"

"I believe you must have envisioned this outcome... or perhaps, this was precisely a part of your overall design!" Jun Mo Xie observed Zhan Wufeng with a very "amusing" look.

"How... how could that be possible? I just solemnly stated that once war erupts, we will fully assist! We absolutely will not stand idly by; this is the foundation of our cooperation!" Zhan Wufeng retreated two steps hastily, arguing back.

"But I only believe that you absolutely would not intervene at the very beginning of the war."

Jun Mo Xie wiggled a finger and smiled lightly: "No need for lengthy explanations. I won't believe your defense even if you elaborate."

"Perhaps you truly wouldn't sit idly by and watch the tigers fight, but you would wait until the final stage of the war before truly emerging! With overwhelming force, you would decisively settle the universe! With a flip of your hand, you'd destroy the Forest of Heavenly Punishment and the Evil Lord’s Mansion, easily leveling the Three Sacred Lands! Perhaps even the incomplete Celestial Saint Palace! By then, there would no longer be any supreme power on the Xuan Xuan Continent capable of rivaling the Zhan family! Thus, the Zhan family would dominate the Xuan Xuan Continent!"

"Don't you dare say I am judging you with the narrow mind of a petty person, or I will think you are insulting my intelligence. And don't you dare say you have no such intention, because if you say that, I will think every generation of your Zhan family has been utterly idiotic!" Before Zhan Wufeng could retort, Jun Mo Xie cut him off again: "Since you have already achieved sole dominance over Xuan Xuan, being the sole respected one, then that mysterious substance would naturally fall into the hands of your Zhan family! At that time, your Zhan family could do whatever you pleased within the Phantom Mansion! This means that both spatial realms—the external one and the internal one—would fall under the control of your Zhan family! Therefore, your Zhan family wants to be the ultimate, greatest winner! If things truly proceeded according to your plan, you would have a high chance of success—at least 80%..."

Zhan Wufeng was completely stunned!

Because of this, even he hadn't considered it. The entire plan... even he only knew about the specific part Jun Mo Xie had just mentioned. As for how the subsequent steps would unfold, that was being planned by Zhan Lunhui, Zhan Wuyun, and a few others.

But judging by the development of the continental situation, if things were allowed to proceed exactly as the Zhan family envisioned, and they didn't adopt the solitary profit-taking method Jun Mo Xie just described, then the entire Zhan family would truly be a group of fools...

Such a massive benefit—who wouldn't want it? Not taking it would make one an idiot.

Moreover, Zhan Wufeng knew his own family and was intimately familiar with their established methods; they were perfectly capable of pulling off such a move.

"M-My Lord... Lord Zhan came this time with genuine sincerity to discuss cooperation with His Lordship! If His Lordship has doubts about the cooperative method we proposed, you are welcome to propose an alternative direction for cooperation. The Zhan family can cooperate as much as possible with the Evil Lord's Mansion faction! The current situation is clear: His Lordship and the Three Sacred Lands have long been irreconcilable, and within the Phantom Mansion, the faction led by the Miao family leans toward continuing trade with the Three Sacred Lands they have cooperated with for many years—at most remaining neutral. Only our Zhan family has the possibility of standing with the Evil Lord's Mansion..."

Zhan Wufeng mumbled, his previous arrogant and condescending posture completely gone. However, his willpower was resilient; facing this situation, he could still speak fluently.

"Hmm, what you said is indeed factual... If the Zhan family genuinely intends to cooperate..., let me ponder this carefully..." Jun Mo Xie lightly tapped his head with his finger, narrowing his eyes: "Oh, I understand. Your Zhan family cooperating with me might stem from genuine intent... but that genuine intent is likely limited only to me personally, not extended to the entire Evil Lord's Mansion! Is that right..."

Zhan Wufeng immediately felt a cold sweat break out on his back, forming a damp patch that clung unpleasantly to his clothes. A cold draft blew in from the window, sending a chilling sensation through him that was inexplicably uncomfortable.

"But why do you need to cooperate with me? Because... you need to deal with the Miao family," Jun Mo Xie looked up—only now did he deduce the Zhan family's true motive, extending and deriving it along his own train of thought.

"Pre... Preposterous! The affairs of our Phantom Mansion are internal matters; how could they be for the Lord to question..." Zhan Wufeng forced himself to remain calm: "Where did His Lordship derive such a statement from..."

"Is it truly preposterous? Is it truly not for me to question? I am very young, and not many years older than that genius with the Ethereal Constitution in the Phantom Mansion! Yet, my cultivation is at least ten thousand times his..."

The moment the words "Ethereal Constitution" were spoken, Zhan Wufeng's expression changed drastically in horror. He stared wide-eyed directly at Jun Mo Xie, as if looking at a monster!

Jun Mo Xie chuckled derisively: "The cultivation speed of someone with an Ethereal Constitution is rumored to be peerless, far exceeding normal human imagination. If the other families in the Phantom Mansion simply endured and waited until the genius with the Ethereal Constitution truly matured, they could easily seize control of the Phantom Mansion back from the Zhan family by then. Precisely because of this point, if the Zhan family were to formally make their move, and the other families saw that resistance was futile, or that rash confrontation would lead to mutual damage—or even utter ruin—they might choose compromise, yielding a complete Phantom Mansion to the Zhan family in the hope that one day they could reclaim a whole Mansion..."

"But with my assistance supporting the Zhan family, it would effectively suppress that genius possessing the Ethereal Constitution. I believe that no matter the time, he would never be able to rise up! This way, it severs all hope for the other seven families!" Jun Mo Xie frowned suddenly at this point and shook his head: "No, no. If that were truly the case, the other seven families are not short of astute individuals; they would likely strike back with all their might at that moment. Seven against one, the Zhan family would actually suffer more losses..."