The golden immortal stood in the void as a faint smear of gold. There was nothing intimidating about him, but his image ignored the limitations of space and appeared in front of every cultivator. His voice reverberated in everyone’s ears.
Contempt curved Lu Tianling’s lips.
“When did the Origin Sect become so self righteous? If you really cared about the hundreds of millions in Darklake, why would you start this war?”
“I said,” the golden immortal’s tone remained calm. “If you present yourself for captivity, this war will end immediately.”
“In your dreams.” Situ Wenxian bounded to Lu Tianling’s side and stood shoulder to shoulder with the patriarch. “Darklake Empire prospers and declines with Our teacher. If you wish to take him away, you must destroy Darklake first.” Aura flooded out of his body as he stared down the golden immortal, not giving way in the slightest.
“Tribulation stage?” The golden immortal blinked, then smiled. “As expected from Lu Tianling’s disciple. The true cultivation of a third rank emperor is tribulation stage!”
“Tribulation stage!” gasped the bedraggled Wang Song on the ground. How was the emperor of a third rank cultivation empire a tribulation cultivator? It was an easy task for Darklake to vault to a seventh rank empire even without Lu Tianling!
“Damn it, how did they hoodwink the heavenly book? None of this was alluded to in our copy!” An extremely regretful Wang Song finally realized that Dark Orchid had been dragged into a fight between two unfathomable powers. The slightest misstep would irredeemably doom the Dark Orchid royal family.
“Sui Wuye seems to be in full favor of this struggle… He must want to use Darklake to cleanse Dark Orchid for him. What a vicious plan!” Wang Song inwardly cursed out Prince Sui’s ancestors.
Mounting a coup would be too much of a blow to Prince Sui’s reputation. But if an external force eliminated the royal family, then Sui Wuye would become the next emperor through widespread acclaim.
There was no sign of Sui Wuzhou to be seen when Wang Song scanned the battlefield. The man had disappeared long ago.
……
“You sound quite brave. It looks like Lu Tianling has brainwashed you rather successfully,” the golden immortal chuckled.
“Look at a golden immortal playing mind games in front of a tribulation ant,” Situ Wenxian roared with laughter. “If it wasn’t for teacher saving us twenty years back, Darklake Empire would have ceased to exist long ago.”
His words dispersed certain thoughts forming in the Dark City citizens. The battle of Tiger Suppression Pass twenty years ago had been incredibly gruesome. Lu Tianling’s strongest troop of the Vermilion Birds ended up entirely eliminated.
Judging from how mighty the Azure Dragons were on the battlefield, what did that make the Vermilion Birds of old?
What had happened at Tiger Suppression Pass? Had Tianlong Empire matched the current Darklake in strength?
“And how do you know that the affairs of two decades ago weren’t the result of Lu Tianling’s faults?” The golden immortal remained unmoved. He looked solely at a silver-haired man standing behind Lu Tianling and Situ Wenxian. He wouldn’t bother with saying all this to Lu Tianling if it wasn’t for that man.
The man’s spirit ripples were similar to the golden immortal’s, but there seemed to be a formidable strength biding its time in the man. If it erupted, even the golden immortal would have a difficult time of things.
“You know complete fuck-all!” To everyone’s stunned incomprehension, the majestic emperor burst out with profanity.
Tianlong Empire didn’t know the truth behind Tiger Suppression Pass, neither did the Darklake citizens. Only Lu Tianling, Situ Wenxian, the dead Vermilion Birds, and the million strong Tianlong army knew what had happened.
“Second uncle… what’s going on?” Lu Yun transmitted to Lu Xiaochi. He was also curious about that battle—it looked to be an ancient battlefield with countless carcasses buried five thousand kilometers beneath it.
“Are you curious why your second uncle was initial nascent soul at thirty years ago, but is still the same now?” Lu Xiaochi transmitted back.
Lu Yun rubbed his nose. His second uncle was nearly one hundred years old and had spent seventy years still as a nascent soul cultivator. He’d thought this was perfectly natural before he understood his grandfather’s background. It wasn’t uncommon for a nascent soul cultivator in a third rank empire to spend more than a hundred years on a minor cultivator breakthrough.
But Lu Tianling was a person who could train the Azure Dragons, White Tigers, Vermilion Birds, and Black Tortoises. He also had a secret army of the Hidden Dragons. Was it really possible that Lu Yun’s genius second uncle would be bottlenecked at nascent soul for nearly seventy years?
“I was soul separation before that battle,” Lu Xiaochi sighed. “I lost my cultivation after and nearly died. Your grandfather expended enormous effort to bring me back.”
“Ah…” Lu Yun paused.
“Tiger Suppression Pass is a terrifying place. It’s best you go there as little as possible.” Even at his strength, fear appeared in Lu Xiaochi’s eyes when he spoke of the landmark.
Lu Yun refrained from asking further. It would seem that there were certain reasons why Jade Ruins Realm was the weakest of the three thousand Great Xia worlds of cultivation.
……
The golden immortal glowered in the sky.
“In that case, let us go down together.” He waved at the army behind him—energy from ten thousand empyrean immortals burst out in unison.
“Teacher, it looks like we won’t be making it through this one,” Situ Wenxian chuckled ruefully at Lu Tianling.
“Ai…” the man sighed. “who would’ve thought that the Origin Sect’s vice leader, Yan Lengqiao, would be here in person. Surrender after I die. Darklake Empire is recorded in the heavenly book, so they won’t do anything to you.”
Lu Tianling summoned a terrifying ripple out of the halberd in his hand, but found the scene darkening in front of him. A figure in white and silver hair stood in front of him.
“Your opponent is me.” Terra Demon’s silver locks flowed wildly while his robes cracked loudly in the wind.
“You’ve finally stepped forward.” Wariness flared through Yan Lengqiao’s eyes, but he still approached Terra Demon. “Even if you block me, can you block the ten thousand empyrean immortals behind me?”
The battle formation they were assembled in exceeded high level battle formations by at least one hundred times. Not even an august immortal might have the courage to face this army.
“Leave them to me,” a cold voice sounded in their ears.
“Aren’t, aren’t you…” The golden immortal’s expression froze.
“The aether immortals are dead.” Mu Ge sent three rays of green immortal light, a storage ring, and three immortal souls without consciousness to Lu Yun’s hand.
“Thank you, that was an enormous undertaking.” The young man smiled with great relief and placed the items into the sword pagoda.
“Well? Do we fight?” Terra Demon smiled cruelly.
“We’ve gone to all this effort and stand right in front of the situation of our own making. How can we back down now?” Yan Lengqiao breathed out. “Stop hiding, all of you come out.”
Another sixty forms appeared in the air. They comprised of an aether immortal, three origin immortals, a dozen divine immortals, and several dozen lower rank immortals. These were most of the immortals that the Origin Sect had sent into the Jade Ruins Realm and would be a formidable force even in Great Xia. This would make anyone a premier faction beneath the titled kings and marquises.
The newcomers, the three august immortals who’d fought Lu Tianling, and all those hidden in the void gathered together and looked covetously at Lu Tianling. There would be others who preoccupied Terra Demon and Mu Ge for them. What they needed to do was destroy Dark City’s boundary and capture the remnants of the Lu bloodline.
“In that case, let us fight. Show me the capabilities of the Origin Sect of Great Xia.” Silver light danced over Terra Demon as he released his aura.
Yan Lengqiao quickly backed away. “You’re a mid golden immortal…”
Mu Ge likewise flared her arctic power and gave room for her aura to expand.
“Initial golden immortal… no wonder you killed Xu Chi and the others so easily,” Yan Lengqiao’s voice shook slightly. He hadn’t thought that the frosty young woman in a black dress was playing a pig to eat the tiger. She had the strength of a golden immortal, but pretended to be much weaker.
Yan Lengqiao had sent another two aether immortals to help Xu Chi after the two took their fight elsewhere. Who would’ve imagined that she’d kill all three of them!
Aether immortals were very precious to the origin sect!
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